The ocean of sand covered many kilometres of area, the entire zone once a vibrant and lush area that once supported many magical creatures and religions. Change always comes when one least expects it as this whole area became drained, destroyed and dead.

Vibrant springs turned to dried, cracked beds of water. The many temples abandoned as the wors.h.i.+p of any other religion became heretical, these bastions of religion abandoned as they slowly sank below the desert sands. Some to never be seen again while the others become bastions of survival to those lucky enough to find one.

During 989 A.E period, the first criminals got sentenced to the vortex, the church quickly coming up with a system to keep criminals working and productive inside the prison that used to be for reform rather than profit. They would issue the pardon system that allowed people who showed faith and repented against the crimes they had committed, they would be granted a pardon out of the vortex.

Sadly within a few months, the system became corrupted like the entire empire it was founded on, the pardon's only given out if someone with enough coin was able to pay for the blessing of the church, even then it was still rare for someone to get one of the pardons.

Inside the vortex traders could charge substantial fees when taking across simple items, with a special pa.s.s from the church these traders could go through the divine gates that blocked the exit for all those who had committed the sins from leaving. Anyone with this pa.s.s could enter and exit which caused many merchants to become even more productive and wealthy.

The price of a loaf of bread and a jar of water customarily cost only half a coin of gold, in the vortex, the same meal and food became five to ten times the same price, some even desperate enough to pay a higher fee. When one could not afford such a cost, they were just left for the desert to swallow them whole, if lucky they could be used as bait for the desert creatures so that the others could then eat the meat from that creature.

Senoa was the largest city of the vortex, founded in the year 990 on one of the ancient temples that existed in the area. It was the foundation the church built for operational service in the Vortex, which expanded to taking donations for freedom at a later date.

The city was broken down into two sides. The east side was known as 'Purity' by the church, anyone living inside this area was considered clean of all sin and free to enter or exit the vortex, you had to have a pardon or visitors pa.s.s that was magically bound to one's soul.

The Eastside was built originally inside the old temples and church that existed while the original temples religion is now unable to be told as the alteration and modification has turned them all into religious sites of Saleh the Mistress of Dusk.

All the old temples, churches and other miscellaneous buildings currently built on top of a ma.s.sive rock formation, which stood isolated from the rest of the land. A large trench was surrounding all sides which were eroded due to many years of water going through the area, which now had also dried up due to the change in magical energy now present.

To connect the east side with the rest of the world was a ma.s.sive bridge which was constructed a very long time ago, records that had survived only shown the smallest fragments of knowledge that would even suggest the briefest hints of its origin.

This bridge connected to the west side which was known to the church as 'Unforgiven' Anyone living in this area was someone who was Unforgiven in the eyes of the church and the G.o.ddess that was rightful to this world.

Unlike the clean and beautiful east, the west was dirty, dreadful and deadly. One wrong step could end one's life in a backend alley with no hope of rescue. While the guards did patrol this area, everyone was chosen by the church, ruled by the church and in all retrospect were also freemen and women.

The residence of the west and east had very different lives, while the members of the east partied, drank and overindulged in life. The west members sc.r.a.pped, fought and tried to survive for the basic life necessities, some lifelines were available to those who were willing to work.

The bridge that connected both sides had a small entrance in the middle, inside lead down into the catacombs, many people buried inside and eventually it would reach the bottom of the gulf, the large basin below the bridge as well as a few other temples and buildings are long forgotten.

The one downside to the location the temple had built was the ma.s.sive death energy that resided inside the catacombs; undead started to rise after the settlement came into existence. In response, an adventurers agency was established, due to the bonus and money offered by the church to remove the undead scourge which was hated even more than the unforgiven themselves.

To the church, it was a great system which involved either the unforgiven sc.u.m dying or the undead sc.u.m dying, either way, they won out, and it only costs small amounts of gold which they would get back in through taxes, supplies and other necessities required to live.

While this was an excellent chance for people to earn money via fighting, the unlucky ma.s.ses remained outside the city; ma.s.sive slum city's encircled the city as you required a fee to enter into the city, those without the charge suffered outside the city to rampant crime, corruption and gangs.

Senoa, also know as the two face city was one of the worst places in the entire vortex, survival came at a cost and barely anyone managed to gain a valid method of freedom from this city, only those at the top earning more power and money.

Inside the city, a group of four adventurers began to prepare for another delve into the catacombs, each of them ready to sacrifice life and limb for a pocket full of coin to survive another day.