7: Year of Reborn Strife
Kaer Maga stands as a testament to the forgotten people who built it. The dense, walled districts have fittingly become home to a host of people who have been or wish to be forgotten by the world. Seen at once as a criminal haven and a grand experiment in self-governance, Kaer Maga remains strange even to those who live and die within its diverse sections—and perhaps even stranger to those who are reborn here.
Between the disparate groups and powers within Kaer Maga, a strange balance exists; a somewhat anarchical understanding between its residents that one’s business remains one's own. This principle of personal freedom and privacy lies at the fragile heart of Kaer Maga. Its lifeblood pulses with merchants of exotic goods, troll fortune-tellers gazing into their own viscera, and corpulent bloatmages replete with lymph-balancing leeches.
Here, even traditions that would typically stand in violent opposition to each other must respect the city’s creed. Priests of Urgathoa, goddess of gluttony and undeath, produce undead servants, and reanimated pack animals labor for those who can afford them. Meanwhile, Pharasmin clerics fulfill their sacred duties to protect the cycle of souls by conducting burial ceremonies and maintaining a crypt that serves the wealthiest members of the city.
A constant thread has begun to weave its way through these seemingly disparate peoples: something strange is happening in Kaer Maga, beyond the oddities of each passing day. The residents of the City of Strangers do noteasily give up their secrets, especially to outsiders. But when that disturbance threatens to upend the careful balance of the city, who will follow this thread and sever it from its source?
