Thus it is here, to the few whom illuminate themselves to the details of a fictitious world created by naught the imaginings of two likened minds soaked in modern mythology and driven to the corner of the internet for reasons only explainable as "ignorance" and "budgeting concerns".

First, it is to be said that this world is not dissimilar from our own. A quick glance reveals a great parallel between the fantastic and corporeal. Verily, it is up to personal opinion to the degree of this tangential direction, but there is little to perverse this idea. That is, of course, deriding the inclusion of what can be viewed as some sort of gestalt-literary inclusion of the unknown and misunderstood, to both audience and inhabitants of the aforementioned creation, within the world, much to the chagrin of realists for its very inclusion, and to fantasists for its rarity. "Magic" is such an incongruous word, but it may suffice for explaining the forces that drive the more extraordinary contraptions and mechanisms that exist.

The histories of the peoples involved in the world are best said to be "checkered." Gothic stories abound in a setting where there is little "good" or "evil" beyond "law" and "chaos" is concerned. Perception is reality to the inhabitants of this world, and perception is easily lost. Once again, I create a paradigm unlike our world, wherein knights once rode upon horseback before technological revolution rendered their efforts vain, and repeating firearms now dominate the known world. That is to say, to the common man's known world. There may yet be far corners of this world left untouched by progress, where technology is shunned as wicked wizardry, leaving in its place terrifying superstition and ignorance.

Upon the grinding stone of progress, there is a rift between mysticism and science, similar to ours today. Many feel that technology is the object of a new "religion", and such that society is, there is room in a person's life (or soul) for only one religion, regardless of the acceptable pantheon's size. Democratic systems are riddled with issues of faith, and wars are started as much for strategic resources and economic security as for abstract concepts such as "gods" and "divinity". Thus it is fitting now to speak of the known world's greatest violator of such an unspoken conflict, the House of Jerod.

Jerod was once a man, to say a Rat, who walked the southern shores of the Old Continent. The details of his life, and indeed his physical existance are the subject of division and squabble, but one thing is for certain, he taught that might makes right, and proved it. Within his lifetime in the days before history, he conquered most of the Old World, and remained its ruler by sheer will for decades. Upon his murder, his children (by then numbering in the hundreds) descended into petty wars over the territories, eventually extinguishing the empire abroad as the oppressed people rose in coup after coup. The only territory not to fall was the House itself, but only because it was the rats themselves' home, and there were none to take it from them but themselves. Such a pattern would repeat itself throughout history. While the times and names changed, the places remain the same. Leaders of Corinth gamble not on if there will be another Great Scourge, but when.

The nomenclature of date, A.W., refers to a year wherein the planet had no summer to speak of. Winter stretched through the entire planting and harvesting seasons for unknown reasons. "Modern" scientists claim it was the result of an asteroid strike on the distant side of the planet, plunging the world into a nuclear winter, while shamans and mystic clerics claim it was the punishment of the gods for allowing their societies to slip into hedonism and neglect of their divinely-manufactured duties.

Thus herein are the very basics, but important to understand. Of course, I purposefully misspeak as to create a dramatic point: we, the original authors, still need the help of others. We are looking for creative original stories to fill this world with the wonder of discovery and thrill of epic conflict. Whether a tale of ill-fortuned adventurers hacking and slashing their way out of an ancient ruin with sword, shield, and bow, or a blood duel between master snipers in the Lupinian Independance War, or even the revelation to the Old World of a brand new nation with its own sordid past and origin would be welcome. We want Corinth to be an "open" project, with lots of room for everyone to tell their stories. For more on what to expect, reference this site: http://www.kheper.net/topics/scifi/grading.html and expect the "realism level" to be "very hard".

So, seriously. No winged wolves with magical powers of fire.