Southcape - Introduction

Icy winds blast barren fields with killing hail. Malnourished men, women and children huddle together from the cold in hidden homes constructed of materials recovered from the abandoned husks of once glorious estates. From only a short distance away, any sign of habitation disappear in the battered and cracked landscape.

And it is a good thing the homes are mostly invisible, for flesh merchants in search of human loot fight the biting winds, urging their unwilling charges on with threats and lashes.

The once prosperous kingdom of Southcape withers under the crushing imperial boot of the Ivory Dynasty. The gold tribute is paid by the old noble houses which once horded their riches. And the blood tribute is paid by the commoners with their labor and lives.

Yet, no relief is forthcoming as the Ivory Kings demand ever more from their appointed lords, who demand more from their sheriffs, and in turn their tax collectors. Individuals selected and promoted for their ability to extract taxes from the broken, impoverish peoples.

Somewhere in a hidden hovel, an emaciated heart-sick woman, morning her stolen child surrenders to the relentless chill of the winter winds. She will not be discovered until the spring.

Those with a little food and still enough strength, having seen their neighbors perish or stolen into slavery finally make the terrible decision to abandon their ancestral lands and slip away into the unforgiving night.

Traveling in small groups to avoid attention. They form collectively an immense, yet hidden migration. A migration punctuated by famine and pestilence. Many succumb to exhaustion and hunger. Others to natural and super-natural predators roaming the long nights. The great migration strips the land of the capable, leaving only those too infirm, too old, too young, or too poor to travel.

In the secret prayers of commoners and nobles alike, they whisper entreaties to the three heavens, the five hells, to the lost lands of magic, and even the shadow lands. Relief must come. Another year without rain, without magic, without peace, and all will perish.

Even under the tyranny of the the now vanquished vampire kings of the Ruby Dynasty, the people did not suffered as they do now. Where have warriors, the heroes, the adventurers, the champions of age past gone? Who will save the people?