As stories of creation and destruction go we often find that the characters involved are massive, almost mythical forces that hold the balance of existence within their hands. This is not one of those stories.

Our tale involves much more insidious forces; ourselves.

As with many other tales you will find in our own tale that the conclusion could have been found in the beginning. In fact, there were those over the course of time who believed they knew what would eventually transpire. As fate would have it these visionaries were often persecuted, ignored, mocked or otherwise pushed to the fringes of society. Our fair city, the place of dreams where we lay our scene, is a deceptively cold and cruel place. This too is a fact often glazed over and pushed to the edge. It is amazing the lies we will tell ourselves.

The eight great noble families had all opened their gates. Some believed that this would bring about a renaissance. They were fools. Regardless of their warrior, scholar, or mystical codes the eight families grew once more into corrupt bodies. Rulers would spend more and more time away from their people. Without leadership or direction beliefs quickly lost their meaning. Younger members of each family were now expected to take on more and more responsibility without ever having received formal education into their noble line. As is always the case, the complications and strife which originated within the families spread out into the very fabric of the city.

There was more then one attempt at revolution. It even came to pass that rogues and miscreants from the cities lowest quarters made their path into the ranks of the families. In some instances these vagabonds were quickly weeded out. In other cases there are documented cases of some families not being so lucky. Their apathy had grown so great that even when they knew they had wolves amongst them they moved not to have said beasts culled. As repayment for their folly one family nearly lost all of their holdings. A contingency of their questionable members began to trade away the collected valuables of their home as payment to some of the youth of the city. Payment due because in their boredom and apathy the rogues of the house had decided to incite brawls, blood feuds, and all manner of violence using the innocents of the city as their pawns.