The real ones... and the Oblivion War, from the Backup Short?
I've had a lot of fun with them... and I'm curious. I suppose, given the subject matter, we should spoiler lock any mention of them?
I had a thought- namely... why is it called the Nevernever? I came up with an ancient children's rhyme warning about the dangers of the fae... particularly mentioning how they come when called- but so will it. Never call their names, and Never Never speak it's name.
There are ancient stories about places in the world where the veil is so thin a person can accidentally wander into the Nevernever.
The Nevernever used to have another name, but it was one of the first casualties of the Oblivion War- ancient rituals separated it from our world, creating the veil, but saying its name- particularly in the right ritual- will weaken or potentially even tear the veil down completely.
Mavra turned out to have come across the rhyme and some clues to the name, and was tearing holes in the veil all over Seattle- that they were scrambling to seal up.
Her goal was to figure out the name and tear the veil down completely- releasing all that magical potential energy and gobbling it up to become a demi-god. (that is sooo like her, no? My story predated Dead Beat by about 18 months in-game, pre-Summer Knight, too). Our Wizard of course was already interested in finding whatever was causing the rips- to stop it, but also to study it, possibly publish, as per Council standards.
So the Venatori Umbrorum Soldier in the group was approached by a Venatori who recruited (read: ordered) him to snatch up and/or destroy the name before the Wizard could recover it... without telling her. The Venator never really filled him in on any details, just convinced him it was critical beyond anything he had ever done or could imagine... and he had a Seal of Augustine- an invented way I had for Venator to move among the V.U. and take charge uncontested... only 100 were made by Saint Augustine to give them authority within the order. He never gave his name, even- just got called the Augustinian by the entire V.U. cell.
It led to a lot of fun in play as he had to work with and against a fellow player without her knowledge. He eventually managed to recover it, and ended up getting recruited into the Venator... they stopped Mavra (but took a serious beating doing it, and she got away)... one of my most epic stories, too- since I managed to work every player's subplots into it while I was at it...