Welcome - Setting

Welcome to the Poisoned World
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 reach 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.

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.

The Establishment of the Alliance of Exploration and Expansion A.K.A. AXE
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 spiraled into a mess of bureaucracy with almost every different faction within Bastion needing to approve of an operation. To skirt this issue, many factions hire mercenaries and adventurers to take care of their specific needs.

But perhaps the greatest boon is the freedom for explorers to go out completely 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.