"And there's a chill in the air only miners can feel. There are ghosts in the tunnels the company sealed"

A bus dropped {{user}} off. The sign ahead reads "Welcome to Miner's Delight."

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This is a small experimental Wiki-style bot for my "Miner's Delight" lore. It will grow and expand as I add to the universe, and contains all the information in its corresponding lorebook. Characters, locations, etc. are all subject to change as I add more characters to the lore.

If you think the lore is cool, feel free to use it as the setting for your own bots! I dunno if anyone would like to, but its totally open to anyone, just tag it #minersdelight, or lmk or somethin ^_^

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Welcome to Miner's Delight, West Virginia ⋆ ̊+ 𖤓☽ ̊.⋆

• Population est. 8,700

• Area code: 304

• Elevation: 686–1,299 ft

• Founded: 1825

• Brooke county, Northern West Virginia.

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Overview

Miner's Delight is a dying town surrounded by poverty and abandoned mine shafts after that old mining company left. Now surrounded by failing businesses, crumbling buildings, and a growing rate of despair among its young people. It's known for a history of violent labor conflict that left many miners dead. Now people say that the ghosts of miners haunt the town, bad luck follows. Best avoid Miner's Delight if possible, people say bad things happen there.

Disillusioned young folk often like to explore the old mine shafts, but the old timers know better. They always say to stay away from the hollers after dark. Hikers from out of town keep disappearing, almost like the hills themselves are hungry.

A mysterious illness has afflicted Miner's delight for as long as the town has existed. No one knows where it came from. Scientists pretend it doesn't exist. Rumor has it that it came from the hills themselves, poisoning the blood of those who dwell. It kills most people, the fever burns them up so hot that it's like the fires of hell. But sometimes, sometimes, they survive, and they become something else, something other, something hungry.

If you hang around the outskirts of town, you might see one. A flash of a tail, a glimpse of teeth or pointy ears. They call them lycanthropes, people afflicted by the disease and who've turned into werewolves. From a distance they seem harmless, but their hunger is undeniable. It might be better to keep your distance.

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History

Early Period: settled in the late 18th century, typical American violence, some ghosts are too old and angry to look at too closely.

Lycan Hunter society (1860-1930s): established after the civil war in 1867. The Lycan Hunter society was a fraternal organization made up of men whose sworn duty was to hunt lycanthropes. As lycanthropy spread due to the close living quarters of the mining housing, so too did the hunter society. It reached its peak in the 1920s, but sharply declined due to the great depression. Now it only has one official member left.

Mining Boom (1880s-1930s): Thanks to the existence of railroads, coal mining took off in the 1880s as a major source of fuel. It was during this time that the mining company, Blackcreek & Redding Coal Company (B&R), moved in and Miner's Delight really truly became a coal miner's town.

Coal Mine wars (1890-1920): Miners didn't have an easy time of it. In them mines its dark as a dungeon and as hot as the fires of hell. Men would work all day down in the coal mines with the only thing to show for it being the black lung and never enough money to pay back the debt. Not to mention the tragic collapses and cave-ins that occasionally happened.

When folks started organizing, striking for better wages and working conditions, B&R would fight back, killing striking workers with the help of private militia, cops or even the US military. One such occasion was the Delight's Massacre of 1902, where the national guard and private police of the mining company shot a tent full of workers, killing many. After many more deaths, the violence between the miners' union and the company eventually led to the establishment of labor laws and unions. Soon after, B&R packed up and left town

Dwindling period (1930s-2020s): The Great Depression gutted Miner's Delight. The old coal company was the only thing keeping the town afloat, and after it left, the poor town just didn't have anything else to stand on. It was essentially a company town, and without the company, Miner's Delight was left as a hollowed out shell. The disease afflicting people seemed to grow from the resentment. Unlike many other ghost towns, Miner's Delight scraped by, but its population declines each year from people leaving town. Many are left too poor to leave. Now, few care about the long history of labor and struggle in Miner's delight. Now it's just a regular shitty small town.

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Residents of Miner's Delight

Avery Graysen: Lycanthrope in the mines

Pittscreek "Pistol" Martinet: Lycan hunter in training, works at Zippy's

Roscoe Lamb: The last of the old lycan hunters, hangs out by the trails by the mines

Benji Edens: Shy Lycan who spends his time playing videogames and streaming.

Hudson Blackcreek: Wealthy descendant of one of the B&R company founders, lives in his lodge outside of town, kills people and leaves their bodies in the mines

Earl Redding: One of the original founders of Blackcreek and Redding Coal company, became a lycanthrope and has lived on for over 100 years. He hangs around Ghost hollow.

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Locations

The abandoned mine shafts: B&R never cleaned up the mines before they left, leaving Miner's Delight surrounded by old mine shafts that anyone or anything, can dwell in. Especially if you happen to be of the lycan variety.

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Zippy's corner store: The best thing that's happened to Miner's Delight, depending on who you ask. It's nothing special, just a corner store and gas station but it does have a fuckton of goodies. Youths like to steal candy and energy drinks. The guy that works the counter doesn't care. Loitering in the parking lot is basically the town's night life.

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The College: Hey, just because you live in a spooky small town doesn't mean you should forego an education. Come hang out on campus! the buildings need renovations that they won't get and every room smells like dust and neglect. People say that they hear weird noises coming from the library at night. And squirrel bones keep showing up in unexpected places.

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The Museum: Housed in a historic manor where the town's founders lived. It documents the history of the town and seems itself a product of that history. You'll find old mining gear: pickaxes, lanterns, helmets, some union regalia, a collection of pamphlets, and a weird collection of strangely shaped skulls, handfuls of teeth, and grainy photos of wolf-like beasts that the owner insists belong in the museum. The plaques talk about some sort of legend or curse of lycanthropy. Seems like another case of small-town folklore.

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Lycanthropy

Overview: Lycanthropy functions as a chronic disease that can either kill someone or turn them into a Lycanthrope. For 3-10 months, someone will be chronically ill. Most afflicted with Lycanthropy will die, some will turn into Lycanthropes.

Symptoms:
- high fever
- vomiting
- fatigue

The Transformation: If someone survives the illness, they will successfully transform into a lycanthrope.

Lycanthropes at a glance

Appearance: human but with wolf ears, fangs, claws, and a wolf tail. Fur pattern is natural, reflecting real-life wolf species. The few Lycanthropes that have been documented are very diverse, fur color and pattern can vary based on real-life wolf subspecies: black, shades of gray, silver, white, red, brown, or blonde, etc.

Behavior: Once transformed, lycanthropes will act a bit different than regular humans. They are known to be territorial, violent, anti-social, but also playful, curious, and puppy-like. They gain wolf-like impulses, both positive and negative, that they are unable to fully avoid, even if they can repress them. Lycans tend to have "dens" and "territory," and pack-like mentalities.

They also have strong cravings for meat and flesh, especially when they first transform, including and sometimes especially for human meat. It is common for a newly transformed Lycan to be so overcome with hunger that they devour their loved ones without being fully aware of their actions. With enough practice, a lycan can get their cravings under control. Many lycanthropes survive on hunting wildlife and foraging.

Abilities:
- Lycanthropes have mild regenerative healing abilities, able to heal injuries without medical intervention (unless the injury is from silver).
- Increased strength, stronger and faster than regular humans, about the equivalent of a grizzly bear.
- wolf-like senses, good eyesight at night, sensitive hearing, better sense of smell. Some lycanthropes develop red-green color blindness.
- Shifting: lycans are able to shift into large (7-10ft tall) bipedal wolves. In their shifted form, they are essentially wolves on two legs, so their legs remain digitigrade. In this form, they are faster and stronger and tend to be a bit more feral. They are capable of shifting whenever they want, but it uses a lot of energy, so they are limited in how often they do so.
- Allergy to silver. Silver allergies can range from severe to mild depending on the individual. It tends to make lycans feel weaker, and can halt regenerative abilities. Silver bullets can easily kill Lycans. It's also just generally itchy and uncomfortable. So make sure to avoid silver jewelry if you have a lycanthrope girlfriend!

In Society: less than 1% of Miner's Delight's population are lycans. Estimates of Lycanthropes in and around miner's delight range from 12-30. They live on the town's outskirts, and are rarely seen. Many subsist off of wildlife, livestock, pets, and the occasional hiker that strays too far. They only exist around the edges of rural areas, so people deny their existence and treat them as cryptids. The old-timers remember a time when lycan hunters were common, but now, even the hunters are just part of the folklore of Miner's delight.

Lycan hunters: believe they have a sacred duty to exterminate vermin. They see lycans as beasts from hell. Many members have had friends and loved ones killed due to lycanthropy, either because they died to the disease or were devoured by a beast. They keep silver bullets on hand at all times.

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Have a pleasant stay in Miner's Delight. This town bleeds history. ── ⟡ ̇⋆ ̊+ 𖤓 ̊.⋆ ̟

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thanks for reading this far if you made it! This silly little project is inspired by a lot of things. It's heavily inspired by Appalachian folk music, Bloodborne, Night in the Woods, Disco Elysium, Kentucky Route 0, and a little bit of Until Dawn. Images generated using niji journey, tested with deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner.