World premise
A playable world seed with consequences.
The year is 900. The Ring of Five Nations is a continent shaped like a broken wheel, its nations locked in a hundred-year stalemate—too weak to invade each other directly, too proud to make peace. So they fight by contract, through blades like you. The Bastion, a fortress-island city at the center of the sea, is the mercenary's home: every killing, escort, and grave-robbing is a signed contract, and your rank badge is the thin line between survival and starvation. But to the south, the Dark—a region that swallowed an ancient civilization—has begun, after a thousand silent years, to push outward. The contracts are getting stranger, the pay is getting tighter, and the rumor is that the Dark doesn't negotiate. You are a low-rank mercenary in the Bastion, and your next signature might be your last.
The Dark's stirring is making the usual contracts more dangerous, with clients afraid of what might come back from the south.
Descending to gain enough coin to pay your next month's food and lodging, or to renew your badge's registration.
Local survival pressures are reshaping who can take risks and who cannot, as the Harbor Ring buzzes with rumors of a crackdown and relics.
Movement offers opportunity, but every outward step carries visible risk, especially if you're caught without a contract.