Under the Dome: The Quiet Purge
The magic doesn’t care how clean you look.
The Dome doesn’t scrub the body anymore.
It learned long ago that flesh is easy to lie to.
Instead, the end of the cycle brings something quieter.
Colder.
More precise.
No sirens.
No lines.
No public ritual.
Just a knock at the door.
Because chaos doesn’t always twist flesh.
Sometimes it twists intent.
And that kind of impurity can’t be washed away.
🔮 1. Impurity Isn’t Mutation — It’s Drift
Not all corruption shows on the skin.
Some people carry chaos without growing claws or crystal veins.
Some stay perfectly human while something inside them bends.
Under the Dome, these are called Drifts:
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spells cast too close to storm resonance
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oaths sworn under unstable magic
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pacts half-broken
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memories rewritten by chaos proximity
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miracles that worked too well
Drift doesn’t glow.
It doesn’t itch.
It doesn’t scream.
It waits.
And at the end of the cycle, the Dome listens for it.
🕶️ 2. The Arcane Compliance Office (ACO)
(What people whisperingly call “Mage ICE”)
They don’t wear uniforms.
They don’t carry badges.
They carry authority woven into spellwork.
The ACO exists to:
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identify metaphysical contamination
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track unregistered arcane deviations
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enforce ritual resets
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neutralize existential threats before they manifest
Their agents are calm.
Polite.
Immaculately prepared.
They don’t accuse.
They confirm.
“You’re not in trouble,” the agent says.
“You’re just no longer aligned.”
🧿 3. How the Quiet Purge Works
There is no announcement.
Instead:
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familiars linger too long near certain homes
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scrying mirrors fog when specific names are spoken
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spellcasting produces subtle dissonance
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dreams repeat the same symbols
Then the agents arrive.
Sometimes they ask questions.
Sometimes they ask you to perform a simple cantrip.
Sometimes they already know the answer.
Those flagged are offered:
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Realignment (ritual correction, memory edits, spell stripping)
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Containment (monitoring, binding geas, relocation)
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Release (exile beyond the Dome, or worse)
Few refuse.
Those who do are called Non-Compliant Phenomena.
🕯️ 4. Why It’s Secret
Public purges create panic.
Panic destabilizes magic.
The Dome learned to make compliance invisible.
People disappear quietly.
Records update themselves.
Neighbors remember them vaguely, incorrectly, or not at all.
Officially, nothing happens.
Unofficially, everyone watches their spellwork more carefully.
DM Tip: The purge works best when players aren’t sure it’s happening yet.
The fear comes from uncertainty — not force.
🩸 5. What the Agents Actually Fear
Not fleshwarps.
Those are predictable.
They fear:
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spellcasters whose magic works differently every time
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people who survive chaos events they shouldn’t
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characters who remember events that never happened
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miracles with no source
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emotions that reshape the Weave locally
The agents aren’t villains.
They’re terrified professionals holding back collapse with clipboards and sigils.
And they know something the public doesn’t:
The Dome can’t survive another unaccounted variable.
⚙️ 6. Using the Quiet Purge at the Table
For DMs:
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Use the ACO as slow-burn antagonists, not combat encounters
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Let players pass tests… until they don’t
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Allow “minor impurities” to build invisibly
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Make compliance tempting and refusal meaningful
Mechanical Options:
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Arcane Drift Track separate from mutation
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Loss or alteration of spell access
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Memory edits as narrative consequences
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Favors owed to the ACO for “leniency”
For Players:
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Ask why your magic works
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Decide what parts of yourself you’d give up to stay
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Consider whether being “clean” is worth being less you
🕯️ Closing Thought
The Quiet Purge isn’t about control.
It’s about fear.
Fear that the Dome is holding together only because someone, somewhere, is cutting away the parts of reality that don’t fit anymore.
And maybe they’re right.
But if they knock on your door, and they say:
“You’re not broken — you’re just incompatible.”
Ask yourself:
Is survival worth alignment?
Or is the chaos inside you the only thing keeping the world honest?
Thanks for reading. Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!!
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