The BLOODLINES setting is a primarily urban setting -- in fact, it primarily takes place in one large metropolis named Cassant. Cassant is primarily a city-state; it has lands, farms and such around it, but it is not an entire kingdom in and of itself. However, it is a very large metropolis, with literally hundreds of thousands of people in the city itself or the surrounding area. Cassant itself is a very cosmopolitan city, welcoming races from all over as full citizens. Many of its neighbors are much more restricted in their policies towards outsiders, and some are openly bellicose towards Cassant. However, Cassant's importance as a trading center, it's protected location as a natural harbor surrounded by mountains and it's large population and well-trained army have kept hostilities to a minimum over the last several generations. Cassant's history is fairly straightforward -- it was long ago a mere orc fishing village, and as humans came into the area, they went through a relatively unprecedented era of peaceful trading and coexistence. Today, Cassant still recognizes both human and orc populations as crucial to its make-up. For the most part, the same laws apply to both human and orc, and where they don't, it is generally the way both humans and orcs would want it. The original orcs of the Cassant area were of a dark green skin-color, although now many orcs from other areas have significant populations, and the orcish population is considerably mixed, so many orcs have an almost brownish complexion. Humans are also fairly mixed, having come from many surrounding areas, often because they are treated more fairly in Cassant than in their native land. Many are tallish with pale freckled skin and blond, red or brown hair, although almost any physical form in the scope of the world can be found here and not seem out of place.

Cassant is ruled by a Council. It has a king, but he is elected by the Council from amongst the eligible heirs, which would typically number in the dozens of individuals at any given succession, and his power is simply to be the head of the Council and to have two votes to break any ties. Including the king (or queen, as the case may be) there are twelve members of the Council. There is one Council member of each demihuman race, the esonir, the charissan, the jannarin and the valennim, four human Council members and four orc Council members. These Council members are nominated by the current Council members and elected by the citizens, which number about 15% or so of the inhabitants of Cassant.

Because of the nature in which the Council is chosen, there are nearly constant complaints of corruption amongst its members. The one body that is seen as above corruption is the Inquisition -- through their leader, the Arch-Judicar, they report directly to the King himself and the council has no authority over them. However, their role has been reduced over the years, in part because of the unscrupulous use of Inquisitors by tyrant kings in the past -- they are primarily concerned with the investigation of supernatural crimes and threats against the kingdom. In the past, they were used as a sort of secret police to rout all sorts of dissidents, and they were even a formidable para-military army at one point.

Of course, Cassant isn't where all the action is; it is partly the relationship of Cassant as a relatively smallish trading power nestled amongst large superpower nation-states that gives Cassant much of its feel -- the neutral stop in an ongoing cold war makes Cassant a frequent berth (and even clandestine battleground) for spies, dissidents, disaffected ex-patriots and worse. The setting is particularly designed around the kind of game I like to play -- one in which violence can explode at any time, punctuating a tense and terse game of intrigue, deception and mounting suspense.