The Twelvelms Conspiracy is a new fantasy mystery story from the award-winning creator behind audio dramas Spirit Box Radio, Not Quite Dead, and Clockwork Bird.

Nestled in the hills and trees of the north of England is a tiny town, invisible to passing hikers and planes flying overhead. Twelvelms is part of a secret world just out of sight of the one we all live in; a dangerous magical world full of curses and spells beyond our imagination, and hidden histories which loop and twist like the knotted roots of ancient trees. This is the world of the mages, people who can use magic to perform wondrous acts of power and majesty, and for hundreds of years, they’ve lived in secret on the fringes of our society.

Twelvelms is a university town, sprung up around an ancient institution which for over a millennium has moulded the minds of the future of magedom. Three new scholars of Twelvelms University will face the trials and tribulations of young adulthood and navigate the murky waters of campus life. But there is more to Twelvelms’ hallowed halls than prestige and learning. It’s the centre of a rotten conspiracy which runs deep into the roots of magical society, and there’s only a matter time before the decay will spread into everything they know.

We’re raising money to cover production costs! As a central part of the story is about connecting with and valuing the natural world, we’ll also be donating some of what we raise towards planting wildflowers and trees to offset the carbon costs of the project.

The world of Twelvelms  (pronounced like twelve elms ) is layered and expansive, drawing on the rich history and mythology of the UK, and it puts an audio drama spin on the familiar magical school setting. The show's many characters come from a diverse range of backgrounds. The show is also packed with LGBTQ+ characters and is created by someone from this community.

In exchange for your support, there’s a range of magical rewards on offer, from a guide for new Twelvelms scholars, access to a specially crafted 12-month journaling RPG, and Welcome Boxes full of treats and extras. 

Every donation will go a massive way towards making The Twelvelms Conspiracy the best show that it can possibly be.

The show begins on a sunny afternoon in mid-September, the kind of day that feels like summer is giving a last hurrah, but the leaves are already starting to fall. Three young mages - Quinn, Reilly, and Felix - are building a fort together like they did as children. It's a big day for the trio; it's their last together before Reilly and Felix leave Quinn's home to spend the Autumn Equinox with their families, and this Equinox is a significant one for all of them. At sunset, they'll be blessed as full mages and considered to be true adults.

Although they've dreamed of this milestone for years, they're also nervous. Becoming full mages also means they'll be going to Twelvelms University, miles from everything they've ever known. They'll still be together, but things will never be the same again, for better or worse.

Each of the trio brings their own worries to Twelvelms, too. For Quinn, it's the next step on a path she's been walking all her life, one which will eventually see her replace her grandmother as leader of her coven. It's the first time she's spent away from home, and Reilly and Felix are her only friends. She loves them dearly, but neither of them chose to spend time with her; they were sent to live at her ancestral home when they were thirteen as wards of the coven, and they're friends because it's her job as heir to look out for them.

Reilly was sent to live with Quinn because she's only a half-mage; her mother is an unmage who doesn't perform magic, and her parents live together just outside of Belfast, miles from any other mages. When Reilly showed a lot of promise and talent as a mage, the leader of Coven Derwen offered her a place to live where she could practice without fear of exposing the magical community, but Reilly misses her parents deeply and is surrounded people who find it so surprising she's so talented with magic given she only has one magical parent. This has left her feeling nervous and inadequate, and like she has something to prove. She loves Quinn and Felix dearly but often feels out of step with them because she didn't have a wholly magical childhood.

And Felix? Felix isn't nervous, really, because he stopped caring about things like this a long time ago. He's good at magic without trying; why would he be phased by going to a fancy school? He gets to stay with his closest friends, that's the only reason he's going. Felix' older brother is also a scholar at Twelvelms, though, and that's going to make his time at school... challenging. Felix' relationship with his family is complicated because he abandoned his coven and chose Quinn and Reilly's Coven Derwen instead. To other Derwen mages Felix is someone special who was called to the coven against all odds, but to his family, he's a traitor, and his betrayal cuts more keenly for some very specific reasons which Felix absolutely doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about.

Things start going south before they even set foot on Twelvelms' grounds; a boy who is supposed to be part of their cohort goes missing, and is replaced by a stranger who not a single other mage has heard of. the new boy is a Happener; a mage born to unmage parents whose magic is so powerful that it bursts out of them without intent. Happeners are rare; it's even rarer for there to be a Happener nobody has heard of. It all just feels a little... off.

There are rumours that the boy who has disappeared was taken by the Spicers. a group of mages who may have once terrorised the Alliance of Seven-Once-Twelve that keeps all mages safe.

The Spicers, if they even existed at all, were last active hundreds of years ago, during the last time a Coven was eradicated and the Alliance of Eight-Once-Twelve became the Alliance of Seven-Once-Twelve that it is today. Twelvelms University of Hermetics has always been central to the Alliance, so perhaps if the Spicers were to return to wreak havoc across all magedom, its ancient halls are where they would begin. Are the Spicers gathering strength to attack the Alliance from within? Or are they just bedtime stories meant to scare little magelings into doing as they're told? Or could it be that neither of these things is true?

At it’s core, The Twelvelms Conspiracy is a story about resisting the urge to be compliant, unpacking histories of privilege and oppression, and facing the future with hope and determination to right the wrongs of the past. It’s deeply concerned with the weight placed on younger generations to fix the mistakes of their elders and how it runs parallel with a pressure to simply continue as we are. It’s written in response to a world filled with institutions which have failed us, and where everyday we’re asked to shoulder the burdens of terrible mistakes made years ago by people with more money and power than we could ever dream of.

As so much of the story and world of The Twelvelms Conspiracy revolves around nature and connecting with the natural world, we want to offset the carbon cost of making the show as much as possible! For every £2000 donated, we’ll be sponsoring the creation of a new pond, cluster of bluebells, or the planting of a young tree to foster local wildlife in the UK. The carbon cost for running an audio drama is quite low by our calculations, and these contributions should mean the show’s first season runs at net zero! We’ve chosen to make our carbon offsetting contributions to Yorkshire-based company Make It Wild. Extensive research went into making this call, and they were chosen for their clear communication and accountability.

In addition, any physical items offered as rewards are set at a higher price to ensure we can choose the most eco-friendly options for printing and paper.

The Twelvelms Conspiracy was lovingly created by me, Eira Major, the writer behind award-winning audio drama Spirit Box Radio. I grew up in North Wales surrounded by sheep and other small mammals and started writing as an escape into better company. Forever found with my nose in a book, childhood-defining favourites included The Hobbit, His Dark Materials and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Over the years, I developed a deep love for all forms of storytelling, from poetry to blockbuster films, and have written a huge volume of work. I’m bringing the full breadth of my experience to this project.

The majority of the behind the scenes work on the show will fall to me, from writing and producing to creating music and running social media. I have experience with managing these things alone from my work on Spirit Box Radio and my other shows.

The world of Twelvelms is written to be expansive and immersive and will use a variety storytelling techniques to supplement the main story, including the Twelvelms Experience, a journaling-style lite RPG, which you can take part in by supporting this crowdfunder at £15 or more, and a website which is already jam-packed with lore and worldbuilding. These extra elements only supplement the main story, though, and you won’t be lost if all you want to do is listen to the episodes as they release.

There are many reasons why crowdfunding is the best option for this project. Audio drama is still an emerging space; it’s difficult for large sponsors to understand the value of projects like this, and there are as yet no reliable ways to get funding for large-scale productions such as this one.

There are a lot of audio dramas out there, many of them trying, as I am, to raise the funds which will make it possible to pay cast members and behind-the-scenes collaborators a fair wage for their incredible talent and efforts. The world of Twelvelms is already the result of years of careful planning and world-building, and the show simply can’t happen without the support of incredible people like you.

Season One is only the beginning of the Twelvelms Conspiracy; the full story will take between three and five seasons to finish. This crowdfund is intended to get the show into full production, and go most of the way to covering the costs of making it. As a full-time creator, making shows is my main source of income. I make a little from advertising on my existing shows and I’m supported by wonderful people on Patreon to keep making both Spirit Box Radio and Not Quite Dead, but it’s not enough for me to cover my bills. It takes a huge amount of time and effort to plan, write and produce any audio drama, particularly shows of this scale and scope, and without crowdfunding it wouldn’t be possible.

If you’d like to support the show but you don’t have the funds to spare, or you’d like to help us out as well as donating, we’d be extremely grateful! Getting as many eyes on this campaign as we can is crucial to helping it succeed. You can help us succeed by:

• Sharing this link to the campaign: https://igg.me/at/twelvelms
• Sharing our social media posts from the @hangingsloths and @twelvelms twitter and tumblr accounts
• Sharing our trailer on your show
• Posting about the show using our press kit, here: https://shorturl.at/bzUW7

(Some people may have been looking for 'The Twelve Elms Conspiracy' or 'The Twelve Arms Conspiracy': you're in the right place!)