Our story opens in the royal city of Val Royeaux, the streets of which have now been flooded with refugees of the most recent blight. Like several other major cities, droves of survivors of the blight have been redirected here in their desperate search for aid. The Empress presently allows those who are unable to stay anywhere else to sleep the streets, and has left the job of keeping them organized and under control to her city guard, as she has been more than kept busy attending meetings regarding the coming war. The area surrounding the royal palace is flooded with people begging for aid, though none of the have been allowed to come near the steps. The Grand Cathedral is much the same, with the sick and injured filling it like a wartime hospital, the chanter's board covered in notices asking for whatever help people can give. Those who didn't lose everything before making it here are staying in the few local inns that will take them, the ones meant for wealthy people have expressly barred refugees from entering, although few could have afforded it anyway. The sound of crying children and the poor begging for assistance are now constant throughout nearly all of the city, and it is among these crowds that you now find yourself, for one reason or another.