SILENT MOBIUS ZETA

BACKGROUND AND WORLD DATA

A short history of the Silent Möbius universe:

As it stands, the future world of Silent Möbius isn't a pretty one. In the introduction to the series, Asamiya mentions terrible overcrowding and pollution. Tokyo itself is a forest of skyscrapers, many of which are more than 100 stories in height. At street level, there are many crowded, dirty and junk strewn back alleys - where criminals, the homeless and wandering Lucifer Folk lurk - preying on the weak and defenseless. Then there are the deadly acidic rains, which can quickly overpower and kill anyone foolish enough to go outside unprotected.

For the most part, the history of the Silent Möbius universe follows our own. There are a few major differences, the most important of which is that magic works and is accepted somewhat openly. As for the current situation faced by the AMP in Silent Möbius - in which Tokyo is under attack by strange, supernatural monsters - that can be summed up as follows:

In 1999 Gigelf Liqueur, aided by the Magician's Guild and the Maverlick Corporation, set into motion a plan to open a gate between Earth and the world of Nemesis. The intent was to exchange Earth's polluted air and water with clean air and water from Nemesis. To aid in this endeavor, a huge cyclotron was built under Tokyo. Unfortunately for all involved, Ganossa Maximilian - Gigelf's old apprentice - sabotaged the plan, opening the gate early and perverting the gate for his own means. Following this event, Gigelf and the Magician's Guild battled an invasion of Lucifer Folk (the name for the inhabitants of Nemesis) for a number of years. Gigelf was killed in 2006 and it would seem that the rest of the Guild met similar fates over the next few years.

In 2023, Rally Cheyenne, daughter of Guild member Lufa Cheyenne, started the Attacked Mystification Police. Of mixed heritage (her father was from Nemesis), Rally felt partially responsible for the growing attacks on innocent humans by marauding creatures from Nemesis. She started the organization with a mere three officers (Kiddy Phenil, Lebia Maverlick and Nami Yamigumo). Over the next few years, she added Katsumi Liqueur and Yuki Saiko to the team.

Further Notes on the History of Silent Möbius:

  1. Tokyo is a mess. It rains all the time, as the weather seems to be greatly disturbed. It also seems to be dark all the time, or - at least - overcast. Parts of Tokyo are also in ruins (such as the Shinjuku district or the Tokyo Dome). These ruins are either the result of an earthquake (triggered by the opening of the gate to Nemesis?) or by the Lucifer Hawks themselves.
  2. Japan is divided up into separate city-states. Tokyo is a state all to itself, as would be Osaka and other major cities.
  3. Entities (aka Lucifer Folk or Lucifer Hawks) are extra-dimensional beings with supernatural powers that come from a planet (or plane) called "Nemesis".
  4. Entities have visited Earth before - far in the past - and mated with humans to produce crossbreeds with great supernatural powers. The ability for humans (such as Katsumi Liqueur) to use magic seems is a result of these encounters.
  5. At some point in the distant past, the gates between Earth and Nemesis were sealed, preventing Entities from gaining access to this world.
  6. There are some continuity errors in the series, mainly dealing with when certain events happened. For example, Katsumi Liqueur has this to say about the opening of the gate to Nemesis:
    "I finally found out what my father did. It was because of my father that these beings began to come to this world, and turned it into a world filled with terrors. My father, the grand wizard, Gigelf Liqueur. summoned those beings to this world. What I don't understand is why that act is a "crime" to the beings, and what is the "mistake" they made 29 years ago..."

    At the time Katsumi said the above statement it was the year 2026, so the "mistake" mentioned took place in 1997. But, since this "mistake" is Gigelf's opening of the gate between Earth and Nemesis in 1999, 1997 is two years to early. It is also interesting to note that Ganossa beat Gigelf to the punch, yet the Lucifer Folk blame Gigelf die to Ganossa's manipulation of events. Rally Cheyenne also comments that the birth of her and her sister Rosa, the result of a mating between a human (Lufa Cheyenne) and a Lucifer Folk, was another "mistake", but she and her sister had already been born by 1997. In fact, based on comments made by Rally in Side 10, where she states that she last saw Ganossa 30 years ago (at which point she was 8 years old), we can place her birthdate as 1992, since Side 10 takes place in 2030.

    As a side note, the tone of the Lucifer Folk changes somewhat over time. Instead of blaming Gigelf (and wanting to kill Katsumi) the Lucifer Folk call her the 'key' and want to use her to fully open the gate.

  7. Magic works in the world of Silent Möbius. Katsumi, Nami, Lum Cheng and Mana are all spell casters of some form or another. Rally and Rosa have innate supernatural (or paranormal) powers, while Rosa is shown casting more 'traditional' spells in later issues of Silent Möbius. Certain scenes from both Silent Möbius: the Move I & II show a whole cabal of sorcerers casting protective warding spells over an infant Katsumi Liqueur. Then there is Ganossa, who first arrives in Side 2 in the company of two other magicians (one of who may be Rosa). He is a devastatingly powerful sorcerer and demonstrates this very effectively in later issues of Silent Möbius and in Mobius Klein. Mobius Klein itself introduces a large number of sorcerers from around the world, as well as mentioning a 'magician's conference' that was televised in 1992.

WORLD DATA

The World in General
Asamiya doesn't deal much with events outside of Tokyo. We know that Kiddy is Australian and Lebia was born in Los Angeles, but we never see any sort of flashback describing what life is like there. At the end of Side 8, Rally sends Kiddy and Nami away to Hong Kong where we see what looks like a Taoist shield on the side of a mountain of buildings. Still, one can make a few educated guesses on what life is like

Along with all the magic and monsters, Silent Möbius is also a cyberpunk setting. Asamiya doesn't stress this to a great degree, although such things a Lebia's netrunning abilities and the occasional rogue replicant appear from time to time. While we see people with cybernetic augmentation, it doesn't seem to be as widespread as in most other cyberpunk settings (such as Tony Takazaki's AD Police). It should also be pointed out that comments made by Ann ie the Yelper weapon and Rally Cheyenne indicate that Tokyo is a 'city-state', and that Japan is broken up into a number of independent metropolises.

Scam lysinger has this to say about the Silent Möbius universe:

Tokyo in 2026
Tokyo is company run by big businesses. There is no freedom. There seem to be no armies in the world by the time Silent Möbius comes about. I see his Tokyo as being very real in many respects due to the environmental damage Japan has done to itself in the name of profit. Currently 20% of all wildlife is endangered in Japan. By Silent Möbius time, real plants and animals are rare. I see no cats or dogs, only rats. Magic is widely known to exist. There seem to be various political shakeups in Asian. Hong Kong wasn't flying a Chinese or British flag in volume 8. It looked like a South Korean flag [Actually, this is the Taoist shield mentioned above - michael]. The mountain of buildings looked really really cool and I've got no idea how it got there. The other thing I saw was a lack of children. Heck, I saw that when I was in Japan too, but not like this manga. The totalitarian nature of modern Japanese government is illustrated in the building of the cyclotron in Mobius Klein.

Acidic Rain: It seems to rain a lot in Tokyo... a whole lot. Usually, the rain is normal water, but if the pollution index reaches a certain point, then the rain fall will be 'acidic' and be capable of killing the unprotected. These rains probably occur during the summer months, when thermal atmospheric layers trap large amounts of air-borne pollutants above the city of Tokyo.

The rain is best expressed as an NND attack that can do BODY. A person caught in the rain without protective clothing will take 1d6 Stun per Phase until they pass out, at which point they will take 1d6 Stun and Body until death occurs. The defenses against the rain include: Not needing to breath or self-contained breathing and proper protective clothing. Persons caught in the rain will start to fill dizzy and ill after prolonged exposure. GMs may request INT or DEX rolls to be made before the character in question can take proper action.

Lucifer Folk: Lucifer Folk and Entities are two names used to describe a wide variety of extra-dimensional creatures from the planet (or dimension) of Nemesis. They are also called 'youma', a Japanese word meaning undead or underworld creatures. In general, most Lucifer Folk are creatures of great size but low intelligence. The come in three types: low, middle and upper 'rank' Lucifer Folk. The primary difference between the three is their intellectual prowess and supernatural powers. The book The Art of Silent Möbius the Movie I has this to say about low level Lucifer Folk:

Among the invaders visiting from Nemesis, the most popular are these lower level youma. There is a great variety of kinds of low level youma, but their intelligence being nearly nonexistent, they are largely divided into types that function through instinct and types that receive instructions from upper level youma.

Higher level Lucifer Folk are capable of such actions is independent thought, human speech, shapeshifting and a whole host of other powers. There is a separate file listing powers for Lucifer Folk available on the Silent Möbius Zeta main page.

The most powerful form of Lucifer Folk is called a 'rusifua houku', or by the more familiar term of "Lucifer Hawk". Lucifer Hawks are creatures of enormous power, capable holding off the combined might of the entire AMP department. Game Masters should use such creatures only rarely and with great care.

As a side note, characters in the Silent Möbius manga call nearly anything from Nemesis a Lucifer Hawk. It seems that the terminology changed as the manga progressed since this word isn't used in the earlier volumes.

Restricted areas in Tokyo: Due to attacks by Lucifer Folk in the past (as well as possible natural disasters) certain portions of Tokyo are considered off limits to civilians and are guarded by both technological and magical warding devices. One of these is mentioned in Side 1, the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. These areas are easily recognizable by fact that they are abandoned and due to the extensive damage to the surrounding buildings. Restricted areas are known haunts for free-roaming low-level Lucifer Folk. Trespass into the area falls immediately into the jurisdiction of the AMP, and is punishable by summary imprisonment.

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