~Marquette and Surrounds~

Although billed as a 'city', with it's population of around 20,000, Marquette is little more than a small town. It is also the largest town for miles around. It's right on Lake Superior, and has a whole lot of forest surrounding it. It's got a low crime rate, everyone knows everyone, and generally speaking, it's a nice place to be. Or, it was, at one point. Then everything started to slowly spiral down out of control, and it's been scrambling to keep up ever since.

Players can find a map of the area here!

The Convergence and Communication
Nobody knows exactly what it is, or when it started, but there was a pre-existing power in the region, something that couldn't be actively seen, felt or experienced, but which was there - a supernatural convergence. It is what attracts supernatural types to the area albeit on an unconscious level. For years, it lay mostly dormant.

The convergence activated on the night of the Winter Solstice, suddenly and without warning. At sunrise on the last winter solstice, electronic communications with the outside world suddenly stopped working. Whilst there was no problems with communicating with people within Marquette city limits, nobody could reach those outside the town. Landlines, cell phones, internet connections, short wave radios and all other forms of communication ceased to connect with the outside world. And this change didn't go away, so anyone wanting to make a call, or surf the internet got used to the fact that they would have to drive outside of the city limits to do this. Since winter solstice, people have been working to get a local intranet up and running to allow for in-town computer-based communication. The system was already in place with NMU and the Peter White Library, and it's being expanded out so people have their own connections to it. So far it's been working well. Cell phones and landlines within the town work just fine - it was just communication with the outside world that became problematic.

And the situation got more problematic in February, to be exact, on Groundhog Day. This time, there were no changes to communications, but something weird happened to the area surrounding Marquette. Although it looks the same, people are becoming increasingly reluctant to wander out of the town once they're in it - this is because they can't be sure of where they'll end up. Once you reach around five miles out from the centre of town you fall into what the locals have taken to calling 'loops'. Whether driving, walking, swimming, etc, the path you're on will not always take you where the map says it will. It will eventually wind up with you back in Marquette. Sometimes it's on the same road you were on, sometimes you pop back in someplace else. Occasionally, people go missing and flat out don't return. It's a toss up, a gamble most people don't bother trying to take anymore. It's very rare that people make it out, but it has happened.

One of the only exceptions to the rule is that Marquette seems to recognize it's own, as it were. The longer one stays in Marquette the harder it will be to leave, but if you're just passing through and stop at a gas station before heading out again, you won't notice a difference. If you regularly visit Marquette, eventually it'll have the same hold on you as a resident, and you might as well start looking for housing.

CB Radios have made a huge comeback in Marquette. Most homes have them now, as well as vehicles. They've proven to be more reliable than a lot of other things, and it's mass communication--so if the person you're calling doesn't happen to be in or had their phone eaten by monsters, you'll still get through to someone. The emergency channel is 9.

Law Enforcement
With one of the highest concentration of police per citizen in the country, Marquette has a surprising number of officers. There's the city police and campus cops. There used to be the state police, but they were stationed in Negaunee, and since everything went wonky, they can't seem to get through. The police nowadays are volunteers. A lot of them dropped it when things went insane, but many stayed on, trying to keep the place safe. Even with the drop in numbers there are still a decent amount of police around, and they do most of their communication by CB radio.

Schooling and Education
Marquette is home to Gravaret Middle School, Marquette Senior High School and Northern Michigan University. These are the only schools in the area which even still make an effort to run classes. All other schools have closed down. but even at these places, schooling is fairly hit and miss.

Education is no longer compulsory for students of any age. teachers no longer really get paid for taking classes, but many of the teachers in the area give up their spare time when they can to teach. What they choose to teach can be hit and miss - some try and stick to a syllabus, others try and teach what they consider to be 'useful' - be that cooking, home maintenance, world history, advanced calculus, or how to accurately stake a vampire through the heart, and sixty six uses of holy water. Classes are generally open to whoever wants to attend - though teachers have all agreed amongst themselves that they will only open classes to students within the required age range (it, high school classes are only open to high school aged students, college classes are only open to college aged students).

Economy
While money is still good, the economy is starting to revert back to a barter structure. It's not fully there yet, but it's happening, and starting to get more common. Also, certain newer businesses are popping up, like professional hunters/fisherman setting up shop. Marquette is slowly converting itself to a self-sufficient structure, because no one ever knows when the seeming lockdown of everything else might close for good.

Healthcare
Marquette General Hospital remains open, though some of the services are on a much more part time basis. With the problems in the world, getting health insurance isn't something that really happens for people anymore, and the staff at the hospital do the best they can to keep things going.

The ambulance service is now run mostly on a voluntary basis, and there are a few voluntary ambulances that are run by people who have time to help out - so far, there are always a couple available and staffed.

One thing that has been happening lately, which really helps out, is that there's been a huge increase in people looking to get trained in first aid, and the levels of training are increasing - the hospital runs a course every day of the week for people so that as many people can come and learn as much as possible. Nobody knows how long the official structure of things can be kept going for, and it's all part of a general self-sufficiency drive in town.

There are also various healers setting up shop around town. Some of these are nothing more than cranks and quacks, selling 'herbal remedies' that do nothing for a high price, but others are genuine healers using a variety of technisques, from the ancient to the magical to help their patients.