In an ancient temple, dedicated to a true but secretive god, the cabal met. The last of the powerful priests of the last living god, they were powerful in the world but they had received a strange commandment.
"He has grown...bored. Our current entertainments do not suffice." The first of the eight said. He sat in a tall backed chair and wore the mask of the Jackal. The other cabalists knew him to be one of the richest men in the world, and secret controller of the stock markets of thirty different countries.
"I blame Crow." The second said. She wore the mask of a wolf, and the others knew of her fame and celebrity. "He should never have tried to get him to watch those damn cartoons." The others grunt agreement, pointedly turning to look at the one in the mask of a Crow.
The internet had been an accident and when it had come time to recruit someone, they found someone they thought could control the new phenomena. They had been wrong. Crow was responsible for bitcoin, social media, and a number of other things the older cabalists considered irritating. The last time their god had gotten bored Crow had idly suggested he should just "Nut up and watch some anime."
It had disturbed the cabal when their god had laughed and watched "some anime". Or rather all of it. And now, rather than asking them, it's servants to entertain it, it had made a disturbing request. One which would begin in less than an hour.
"A card game though, really? Not a good old fashioned war?" The alligator-masked cabalist said. "We did that pandemic and I thought that spiced things up. Now he wants to channel his power into some perverted card game?"
Jackal nodded. "And is requiring us to play. Stripping us of our old power and just giving us "better decks"."
Crow shifted slightly, ignored by the others. He was thinking about how the people would react. The ones who had already started finding their way to the websites and posts he had made at their gods behest. These "Distortion Wars" were only beginning, and they meant a chance to overturn these old cultists and build something better...
Across the world, people are reading the rules of the Distortion Wars. A new "reality building card game". By taking an oath to uphold "The Turning Of The Wheel" people can become "Magi" or "Mediums". This is described as only one of the paradigms by which the game can be played. The others are secrets, hidden along with rare cards at the most interesting places in the world. Magi gain the power to play cards. Shifts are used to change mediums, who battle on behalf of magi. There are also Stratagems, which allow for understanding and movement of Mediums and Magi. Strikes are direct attacks, and Snares interfere with cards your opposing Magi plays. Playing cards drains your energy, based on its power. There is no set number just "your energy" whatever that means.
Only those who take an oath to play can be directly effected by the cards, but Mediums can still use their shifted bodies to effect ordinary people. Cards can only change hands as the result of the stakes of a card battle or a willing trade. Killing a player turns any cards in their possession inert. Mediums can possess but not use cards. Grand tournaments are planned as well as some side competitions for "aesthetics" and "athletics".
You are not sure you understand what this all means, but you will soon. Very soon a deckbox will be delivered to you, with the oath and cards attached. This is your story. You are...