Once upon a time, there was a god.

In their wisdom and providence this god, nameless before all, created a world. This world was full of light and love, beauty and majesty. All was perfect, and yet the god was bored. So the god left. 
The absence of this god became a void, a hungry void that needed to be filled. Creatures of the world became drawn to this void, it asked them to supply energy, magic, worship.

Across the continent of Asmery, far past the Witchlight Fields, through the Stalking Woods, and across the raging river Isely, there sinks a city. Built foolishly into the marshlands and wet waters, the city Vorovni lies in wait, like a serpent, patient in the mud.

Clerics of the true God Luminus wipe muck from their bright tunics and often smash in the heads of heretical non-believers. They are a sort of people who convert first, ask questions later. Conversion is often done at the edge of swordpoint, as regrettable as they may find it. Blood is harder to wash from their tunics than the stain of the city.

The city Vorovni is ruled by a high council of faction members, people who control portions of the city equal to that of dukes and lords. The High Cardinal of Luminus presides over the denizens’ sins. The Merchants are represented by their separate council, sending a representative to each meeting. The city ruler, Mayor Highwater of Vorovni, puppets a small force of lackluster guards, controlling taxes and holding the job of denying repair jobs that Vorovni desperately needs.

Several more members run the city behind the curtains. Some running private militias, some the captains of monster hunting clans. Some are more mysterious, Witches, ogres, magical beasts who control the territory through sheer respect, or fear.

Merchants controlling large amounts of property and land, forcing the impoverished into deeper levels of debt. The people are often hungry, and more often desperate. Awaiting the desperate people are leagues of dentists to extract valuable teeth, warlocks that extract fresh spell components, and backalley clerics that pay a fortune for bootleg healing magic.

The High Church of Luminus controls healing magic with an iron fist, and those caught practicing that power without registration from the church are persecuted, often swiftly, often brutally.

Like a single lily growing from a murky pond, so too does kindness persist in a bleak world. Adventurers share gold and riches to the poor. Small lords rule kindly over their lands and treat their farmers with respect. Witches and Warlocks protect the denizens of their forests and fight to keep nature wild. As you join this world you have a choice: become part of the pain & of the trouble, or uproot the darkness and fight to make the world a better one.