Soaring towers, gleaming palaces, grand banquets, shining armor, gold flowing like water; dirty shacks, grimy canals, moldy bread, cold nights in dirty rags. Only in Ninuroth, capital city of the nation of Halvar in the world of Akuroth, can such things coexist normally. A city of both luxurious excess and crippling poverty, of haves and have-nots, Ninuroth is the oldest and largest continually inhabited city in the world -- it's also one of the most quietly conflicted.
Perched at the seaside mouth of the great river Ninur, the city is home to an aging and decrepit king and his young trophy wife, who become less concerned with the fate of the people day by day -- and who have no heir. The distant and exotic land of Teth has its own problems, and is trying to weasel its way into Halvar's good graces to share in its wealth. The Great Houses squabble and scheme amongst themselves for power in the shadow of the king's impending death. Rumors of rebellion are stirring from a loosely-governed barony in the North. Accusations of corruption and treason are shot between many. The neglected and downtrodden struggle to make their voices heard. The city's various factions jostle and deal with each other and outside powers to solidify their footing among the people, the poor of whom continue to starve and despair, forgotten and unmourned by their supposedly benevolent rulers.
It's all business as usual in the First City of Man. That is, until someone comes along to change it. Could it be you?