THE GAME BEGINS

Nestled on the western edge of the Great Western Sea lies the city of Arlith, the oldest city in the world. It hardly looks ancient at a first glance, being a bustling metropolis filled with traders from far-off Tehley and nearby Raeland. It's not even uncommon to meet merchants who've traveled to the mysterious Silent Lands of the south, and some ships even claim to have dared the Great Current to reach the Empire of Barven far to the East. But if one knows what to look for, and peers past bright paintwork and lush vines, they will start to see the signs of age. This simple shop has a wall of finely-carved marble, and that wealthy has pillars that might have graced some ancient temple. Bits and fragments of an ancient city have been built into the new, just as bits and fragments of many cultures have blended into the city's culture. Books have been filled with the little points of interest about the city, but any local will tell you that the most interesting thing in town is the Wall.

The Wall is the largest intact piece of the original city, and might once have been part of its defenses. Now, though, it's been swallowed up by encroaching neighborhoods, and one side of the great edifice serves as the back wall for an entire street of shops. The other side, however, is covered with layer upon layer of paper and parchment. Public notices, flyers announcing services, job offerings, resume postings, all plastered on top of one another to double the thickness of the Wall... it's said that an archaeologist once tried to catalogue the layers on one square yard of the Wall, only to go mad when he arrived one morning to find that the area he'd cleared was covered by new flyers. One section of the Wall is particularly interesting to visiting adventurers, however. The section nearest the Military Quarter is covered with requests for monsters to be slain and princesses to be rescued... or simply thieves to be taken for a bounty. This is where many quests have begun, and a few have ended.