Behold, Coppercastle.
A mountainous fortress, extending thousands of miles into the sky and into the earth. Dim radiance exudes from the metal and stone comprising its outer walls, offering it holy protection against the eternal darkness that envelops the whole of the earth – the Outlands, whose black hills overflow with the abominable Dreaded Ones, and who seek the Castles' destruction.
Coppercastle is one of the last nine Castles that remain in all the world, and is the final bulwark for the millions and millions of souls that inhabit it.
It is, as well, their home.
Some of them were born here, and others came to it, whether from another Castle, or even, as the rumors go, from elsewhere in the Outlands.
It has been just over two months since a member of Coppercastle's Abbey, a minotaur by the name of Mendicant Rudolph, disseminated an alarming manifesto about Coppercastle's future, broadcasting it to every intranet-linked device. In it, he claimed that at current projections of energy consumption, the Heart of Coppercastle would run out of what was once believed to be its limitless magical energy. Without that energy, Coppercastle's impenetrable holy light would fade, leaving it defenseless, and open to siege by the Dreaded Ones – spelling the complete and total overwhelming of all life within, with fates far worse than death in store.
Curiously, the manifesto concluded with a strange legend from the Time Long Forgotten, about an age long since past, an age when mortals lived outside of the Castles, protected by the light of two great Lamps, called "The Moon" and "The Sun." This strange turn offered a glimmer of hope to what was otherwise a warning of total collapse.
Within a few hours of the manifesto's publication, Mendicant Rudolph was arrested and brought in for questioning by direct order of the Copper Family, the royals who lead Coppercastle, and a further order came directing all subjects to erase Rudolph's "screed" and forget every one of its claims. But, it was far too late; fear was already spreading through the Castles. Authorities among the Sages and Nobles busied themselves with attempting to quell the worries before they could escalate into full-blown panic. It took a month of such efforts, but eventually, things quieted down.
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