The world is ancient, built upon and beneath the ruins of past empires, legends and artifacts living past them–as well as terrible menaces. Shrouded in a dark age between the collapse of the last great power and the rise of the next, it endures. Minor kingdoms prosper: baronies, holdings, city-states, but the power of kings goes only as far as their riders. Settlements are points of light in the widespread darkness, havens, islands of civilization in the wilderness that covers the world.

Magic is everywhere–people believe in and accept the power that it provides. However, true masters are rare. Many people have access to a little, and it helps those living within the cities to maintain their communities. Surrounding the world is the ether or ethereal plane which divides it from the other planes and the great Astral Sea.