Background

For too long, the people of the world believed their lives were small and contained. A massive plateau that jutted into the clouds with over a hundred strata to break beyond the surface of the surrounding earth. A lake surrounded the plateau, acting as a natural barrier, but beyond the lake was an actual magic barrier that disallowed entry or exit. Just beyond the barrier, a black miasma blotted everything out. Only vague shapes of the land were able to be seen like shadows of another world.

They grew to understand their world as “Bastion” and believed everything outside of it was a myth. After ten-thousand years, the history of the outside world was lost. Only a select few were even aware Bastion wasn’t all there was to the world, and they were often ridiculed for their beliefs.

Among scholars and historians alike, the popular belief was that Bastion was made in a last ditch effort to stop the world from complete extinction. It served as an ark to rebuild the world when -- if -- the Miasma ever cleared.

The Clearing
One day, the Miasma was noticeably thinner. Every day for a week, it became thinner and thinner. After two weeks, it was completely clear. And no one had an explanation for it.

Though forced in relatively close proximity, the people in Bastion are quite the diverse folk. Politics, regimes, wars, and battles between warring factions mar their long history. It’s a surprise they haven’t managed to all kill each other. Though many grudges are still harbored between factions, they managed to, at least publicly, put aside their differences in an effort to tackle the challenges of a world cleared of the Miasma.

This quickly spiralled into a mess of bureaucracy with almost every different government and organization within the Federacy needing to approve of an operation. To skirt this issue, many factions employ Guild Houses and adventurers to take care of their specific needs.

But perhaps the greatest boon is the freedom for explorers to go out (relatively) unsupervised, allowing critical details to be brought back into Bastion without a worry. These explorers often didn’t emulate the perfect ideal of their faction, but were more often than not trained from hodgepodge of different styles, masters, and some intuitive thinking.

The most reknowned of these mercenary operations is AXE: The Alliance of eXploration and Expansion, well known for its ability to skip through bureaucratic hurdles... at least for now.

For a little more meta-depth information check out this link.