Jewel City had been wrapped in controversy and underground dealings as long as it had been standing, which was about five hundred years give or take a decade. The city itself was divided into four quarters, all revolving around a central district called the Citadel, where the wealthiest of wealthy lived. The four quarters were the Garden Quarter (for residency), the Artisans Quarter (for trade), the Commerce Quarter (for business), and the Burned Quarter.

The Burned Quarter was all but forgotten by the people of Jewel City, mostly because only beggars, thieves and other vermin live in amongst its charred, skeletal buildings and torched roads, but also because no-one is exactly sure what started the fire that gave the Burned Quarter its name. Ten years ago – according to news reports, police reports and eyewitness accounts – a huge fire suddenly caught in the home of one of Jewel City’s most renowned dancers, taking not only his life but the life of his teenage daughter with it. Many people claimed that just before the fire was extinguished they saw two great figures taking off into the sky, but through counselling they soon forgot that.

The fire’s unknown origins marked the start of the suppression of the Arcane, with many prominent figures stamping down on the possibility that something not of this world could create something so dangerous, instead shifting the blame to arson. Police reports soon became filled with the lies of the government, pointing the finger at anyone and everyone who would’ve had a grudge against the dancer. Some even pointed the finger of blame at the dancer himself, but after half a dozen riots and a bomb threat in the Citadel they were soon rehashed to another target. The first year of the Suppression, as it became known, was not the most peaceful of years, but compared to later years it could well have been.