(Also working title, subject to change.)<br/><div align="center"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br/>America: The Great Depression</span></strong></div><div align="center"><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body"> (http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/images/migrantmother.jpg)<br/><br/>(http://exit78.com/wp-content/uploads//2009/08/eyes_of_the_great_depression-034.jpg)<br/><br/>(http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/images/sm_train.jpg)</div></div></div><br/>The early 1930's saw millions of American's out of work. Times were hard and people were in need of any work they could come by. This surplus of willing, desperate workers flooded through the country, seeking any employment they could find, often not evening earning enough to feed their families. The hardest hit among these were the farmers, especially after the start of the drought in 1934. Droves of people migrated west, searching for hope and stability. They lived out of cars and tents, burying their dead on the roadside, camping where they could. Often they were driven out of towns, as desperation makes men into enemies as often as it does friends.<br/><br/>It is among these desperate souls that Dr. Herman Burns sought workers for his project. Disgraced and shunned in his field for being a quack and monster for conducting experiments with no regard to morals or law, the doctor had turned his attention to his second passion, archeology, in search of a way to be free of the constraints his contemporaries placed on him. Enamored with the civilizations of old and their unflinching acceptance of the fact that some people had to be sacrificed for progress to be made he was ecstatic to find a ruin of an unknown civilization within the United States, practically in his own backyard. He noticed early on in the excavation that workers seemed to disappear, at first he thought it was them just running off to get drunk, but the trend continued and none returned. He knew they couldn't afford to pass up the work, so he set out to find out just what was going on.<br/><br/>After studying several more groups, all of whom also disappeared, he realized what was happening. The ruin was moving them somewhere else. Which was beneficial in that it prevented him from needing to pay out their wages. He simply would wait until all the workers had disappeared, and then get a new batch. He was often tempted to see what lie on the other side of the ruin, but couldn't risk depriving the world of his genius.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><div align="center"><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">Or'Kyscha</span></strong></div><br/>On the other side of that strange ruin lies the empire of Or'Kyscha, a wealthy and wide spread kingdom that had flourished under the stern but just rule of the Empress Naadrine IV, who just days before announcing her heir fell ill and has not awoken. Now her daughters vie for power, and it widely regarded that they are responsible for what happened to the Empress, if only the Hands of Justice knew which of the three committed the act, or perhaps they put aside there differences for a fleeting moment and were all three responsible.<br/><br/>The Blood Princesses no longer even try to hide their life long feud and hunger for power now that their mother is out of the picture for all intents and purposes. Their struggle for power is saved from growing to outright fighting in the streets only by the fact that the high generals still control the military, and those generals remain loyal to the Empress, even as she wastes away in illness. While they are most actively engaged in political maneuvering and the occasional assassination, their fight has trickled down through various followers and interests, effecting people on a day to day basis. Almost all the craftsman's guilds are in the pocket of one of the Princesses and so inflict the strife of court upon the common man. Even the street gangs and certain mercenary groups have become embroiled in the conflict. With each day remaining neutral grows into more of a struggle.<br/><br/>The Empire awaits apprehensively for news of the Empress's passing, knowing that the minute life leaves her body the three Princesses will turn the kingdom over in blood until only one of them remains.