[Rurik]

Here is an idea I'll through out for as a starting point for a shared world. It is actually based on an idea I've been planning on for a bit - first for MRQ, then having decided that that system wasn't quite right I've been keeping it on a back burner waiting for BRP. It is based on a city with a mix of cultures and a nearby ruin fouled with evil, and was already had gate openers - though in the original setting they only opened one gate - as the setting was originally titled "The City on the Edge of Hell" I'll let you guess which one.

There is more to it than just this summary - I've developed some of the cults and have some notes on nearby cultures, and actually have some good ideas for human cultures that sprang from the human only/fantasy races discussion. Gates could easily exist to ther parts of the world as well.

So without further ado here is the pitch:

The city commonly known as Portal has stood on the banks of the River Jule for as long as any of today's people can remember. It had been ruled since before known history by the ancient and now dead race called the Akershule, and they called it Asherayne.

The Akershule were powerful sorcerers, and knew ways of opening gates to other worlds. Some say that they were never of this world, and came to the world from one of the gates, but know one knows for sure. Though they built great structures and knew great magic, they never expanded their control over the primitive peoples around them, ruling only over their city and the surrounding lands that supported it. They traded with the barbarian cultures around them in times of peace, and were brutally efficient at defending their lands in times of war. And always the markets of Asherayne were filled with wonders from beyond the gates.

Then, many hundreds of years ago, they opened a gate to somewhere they should not have. Hordes of demons poured through and overran the part of the city west of the River Jule, besieged the rest of the city, and spread out to the surrounding lands. For over a decade they besieged Asherayne but could not overrun it's fortifications. Eventually, the surrounding peoples united against the evil that the Akershule had unleashed, and drove it back and lifted the siege. The Akershule let the barbarian armies into their city and united they attacked across the remaining bridges into the west city and drove the demons back into their gate, and the Akershule cast magics to try and seal the gate.

Once the enemy from beyond was defeated the barbarian armies inside the city walls turned on the Akershule and attacked them, killing as many of them as they could and driving the rest out to their keeps in the mountains north of the city. There the surviving Akershule, their civilization all but destroyed, entombed themselves in mountain catacombs and committed suicide. They left inscriptions on their tombs promising to return to right the wrongs of the past - though no one knows if they mean the wrongs committed upon them by the young races or the wrongs they committed by them upon the world by unleashing hell.

Today, the city is called Portal by most, and the east city is ruled by the descendents of those who conquered it. It's population represents all nearby cultures, though the natives themselves are mainly an urbanized people, a mixed breed of all the surrounding peoples. The gates still stand, and though cults have arisen around these mysterious portals, no one truly understands their working. The West city is still abandoned and haunted by evil things, a great ruin where the demon gate still stands. Hellish things seep through it still to haunt the west city and surrounding lands, though the ancient magics have held back the hordes of demons - so far.

Any feedback, thoughts, or cool ideas?