Brave New World • Prologue

## Brave New World

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*The year is 4E 776.*
*The world is in a golden age of industry, trade, and for the most part, relative peace. It is a time of great upheaval and progress, where merchant princes rule alongside noble aristocracy, and rich and poor alike dream of a future rife with possibility.*
*Recent discoveries of amberglass powder and dellian cores have pushed the world into a new era of enlightenment. Sky ships soar across vast oceans to new lands. Arcanists in dusty libraries unlock the secrets to new magical heights. Great nations thrive on open trade, cultural freedom and the import of exotic new goods to fill the homes of the wealthiest, while those less fortunate congregate to the larger cities in the hopes of finding better luck amidst the crowded streets and alleyways of this brave new world. In light of the economic boom, powerful organisations - both criminal, legitimate, or both - have risen to power, wielding considerable influence in the shaping of the modern world, and on the oceanscape the danger of corsairs preying on the unwary is rampant, as those desperate for an escape from poverty turn to piracy as a means to an end.*
*In the continent of Maíandir, divided by towering mountain ranges and a myriad of political powers, the Commonwealth of Elven Nations is flourishing. Expansive footholds on the western coast of Almeras have brought a new swathe of wealth and opulence, while research agreements with the Guild Union of Zandaran have put the Commonwealth at the forefront of scientific discovery; expanding trade, merchantry, and military might to every corner of the known world. Though the worst of the glut has begun to subside, many from abroad still flock to the region in an effort to share in the spoils, and a brave few look to the far east, where the dream of fortune awaits.*
*To the southeast, the remnants of the Vigil Protectorate play a complicated game of whispers and intrigue. Rumours grow of a revolutionary sect within the Edraxian church; and secret councils speak of war in hushed terms, struggling to maintain their influence and wealth in this turbulent political landscape; paying not enough attention to a growing unrest within their own borders, as the discrepancy between the wealthy and the poor continues to grow.*
*To the north, rumours of military clashes on the borders with Urskaya have left many common folk on edge, wondering when the military tide of the U.L.S.S will come crashing down again. While in the Celcaras, the dwarf lords of Baradôr and Dûrandur remain steadfast in their high mountain homes, warring against each other as they have for centuries, and all the while telling grim tales of a cold wind beginning to blow from the distant north...*
*Our tale, however, begins much smaller. Here in the northern reaches of the Marble Vale, tucked away past the tangled forest of the Lustrewood, on the grey rainy shores just east of the Ardari mountains, lies the small port town of Stillwater.*
*Built amidst sprawling marshland and the maze of lazy rivers that feed into the Sloughbrine at the northern edge of the Adrean Coast, Stillwater is a dreary place of ramshackle houses, wooden walkways sinking into the mud, borderline uncomfortable humidity and warmth, unfriendly wildlife, and unfriendlier people.*
*Once a fiercely contested trade stop with access to the Vastenean Ocean, its importance has long since diminished, and now it sits at the edges of civilization away from the attention of most, little more than a cheap port for ships passing by to wealthier places, and a quiet haven for those on the shadier walks of life. Nothing much happens here, and nobody much wants it to. Fishermen tend to their boats, sailors drink and whore away their wages, farmers toil away at sparse fields, housewives gossip in dismal alleyways, the occasional mercenary comes and goes, and very little ever changes...*
*It is here, on the 12th of Waehn, towards the end of a cold winter, that a handful of intertwining destinies begin to intersect.*
*This is their story.*

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