Merlin Township

Merlin Township is a setting created by a few people on /tg/, which spawned from a horror thread that proceeded to be taken up by cute, horror-like supernatural happenstances. The current incarnation of Merlin Township has diverged a bit, going from being about horror-like happenings to a generally weird yet pleasant town located at the heart of Lethe County in Somewhere, USA. Threads featuring Merlin Township can be found here and here. This page is to detail the setting, including stories, fluff, and possible rules.

Town Founders and Historical Personages

Seven founders were responsible for establishing Merlin Township along the Lethe River, in Lethe County, and are memorialized with statues in front of the Town Hall. These seven are:

• Abner Allegro Callahan, giant and possibly a descendant of Paul Bunyan. Stories about him are contradictory, at best.
• Skadi Gilling Callahan, Jotun and wife of Abner Allegro Callahan. At least seven feet tall, and an accomplished hunter, swimmer and fighter who helped feed the fledgling town.
• Odelia McKay, navigator possessing a preternatural amount of knowledge and strange machines, likely a time traveller. Some report seeing Odelia walk around the town in the present day.
• Marcellus Roland "M.R." Hendricks, who created the Merlin Town Charter and many of the public institutions, and whose vast collection of journals chronicled the early history of Merlin Township, including the devastating Reality Storm of 19Something
• Vassia Gorista, a Greek wise woman who, along with her seven daughters, founded toe precursor to Merlin's Bluebell Coven.
• Lord Archibald Darling, an Englishman whose life was uneventful, who managed to make the town a welcoming place for the undead long after his own death. Passed on to the afterlife some time before the 20th century. Darling Street was dedicated to him after his passing.
• The Unknown Founder, whose life and deeds were destroyed in the Reality Storm of 19Something. Where his statue would be, there is an empty pedestal and a blank plaque.

Along with the founders, there were at least a few inhabitants that inhabited Merlin Township long before any human being stood foot in Lethe County.

• The Old Man, an enigmatic creature living at the bottom of Lake Morgan. It's generally reclusive, has only surfaced a few times in the history of the town, and seems to want nothing but solitude and a lack of crazy kids dumping things in his yard.
• Aunt Snarky, a 40' long Sarcosuchus that has apparently lived from 119 million years ago to the present age with no problems whatsoever. She speaks fluent English, German, Norwegian, and several American Indian languages.

Notable Residents and Local Celebrities

• Kipp Ashby, disembodied voice and host of 77.7 Merlin Radio, residing in the abandoned-yet-operational Merlin Radio Station. Wise, folksy and always in-the-know, Kipp is beloved by the entire town, and is the closest thing Merlin has to a local celebrity. In addition to all this, he is also an accomplished piemaker.
• The Callahan Girls, a group of several hundred girls who make up the entirety of the staff at Callahan's Corner Market. Despite claiming to be unrelated, they are all identical, brown-haired, freckled young women who constantly complete each other's sentences. Seen by many as Merlin's "girls next-door," the Callahans have been the subject of many stories of young-love over the years.
• The Five Living Buddhas are a group of enlightened men and women that are scattered around Merlin Township. Only one, the man living on top of the water tower and trading enlightenment for a cheap meal, has been confirmed. The rest are purely speculation.
• Horace Griswold, a man in a sharp suit with a glimmering, iridescent pyramid for a head who is the president of the Merlin Township chamber of Commerce. He takes his job protecting the interests of the town's small business owners very seriously, but when not at work is a devoted family man, an avid bowler, and an incorrigible punster.
• The Merlin Township Party Planning Committee, or MTPPC, a shadowy not-so-secret society of crimson-cloaked figures who flit about at the edges of your perception and meet in their lair deep below Town Hall to plan local parades, celebrations and parties.
• Miss X'ltari, a local high school student that wears a space suit everywhere she goes and claims to be an alien. Miss X'ltari's extraterrestrial status is generally accepted as fact by her teachers, peers and the Township a large, and the girl is permitted lead her school's Astronomy Club and ride on her own "Martian-American Pride" float in the Independence Day Parade.
• Madeline Trant, a local high school student who, after an unexplained incident, joined the ranks of Merlin Township's many aquatically-aligned residents. Taking everything in stroke, Madeline now works as an intern for the town's Parks and Recreation Department at Lake Morgan Park, teaching swim classes and lakeside safety to park visitors.

Notable Locations

Merlin Township is separated into three districts. Old Town contain all of the older homes and prominent public institutions, such as Merlin Town Library. New Town is the more commercial district of Merlin Township, and contains more modern housing. The Lake Morgan Area is mostly undeveloped countryside, but there are a few man-made structures out there.

• Old Town

• New Town

• Lake Morgan Area