Tavalana. True Pain.

This is the world of the Ven.

The Ven are a proud and beautiful people. They cannot tell love and revenge apart, and name them both vrentae. Obsession. The sickness whose cause is the cure, wither that sickness is for Romance or Revenge.

When the world was younger but no longer new, they rose up great towers and shining cities. In the days before the Hyborean people had left their caves, in the years before Atlantis would shine like a beacon on the seas, the Ven filled the world with their revels and treacheries, their hot loves and ice cold hates. Their musics, and their Operas, and the endless sleeping kin.

Into this world come new Barons. Intent on claiming their place in the Great Game. They have faced Insults, perhaps suffered Injury. But none know what is to come. None have felt the touch of Tavalana. Of True Pain. Pain of losing everything. Of a favored lover bearing the knife. Of homes burnt and dreams ruined. Of losing everything. None yet donned the red and called their right for High Revenge. None yet.

None yet. Not yet.