The world of Vargo is one much like our own, except for one thing: Magic. Magic has always existed, and populates the world in many ways. Thousands of years ago, a brilliant scientist who's name has remained lost to the ages found a way to combine magical energy with nuclear fission, with disastrous consequences. Records of the event have been lost to the sands of time, with the only survivors being forced deep underground, where they built the dark city of Refuge.

What a city! Though the survivors were severely diminished in technological advancement, their resourcefulness allowed them to hew a living from the rock, building a city and underground farmland in the belly of a hollow mountain, its ceiling coated in the warm glow of a massive sunstone. Under its rays the few survivors became many until, generations later, the city thrived, and pulsed with life. Farmers, smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, all living in harmony, yet all living in fear of the one thing that could end their lives as they knew it.

Magic.

Magic of all kinds was forbidden, whether benevolent or not, and the mere ability to use magic was grounds for punishment: death, by exile. As far as the city was concerned, the world above was a radioactive wasteland, in which none could survive for more than a few minutes. And yet, even with this undercurrent of fear, life was good, and simple.

Of course, this age of prosperity ended five hundred years ago, thanks to an event that terrified the citizens and reduced life to a haze of fear and despair: The sunstone went out. Their world went dark, save for the pitiful light of candles and torches. For five years, they lived in darkness and panic, before miners discovered a new sunstone vein, albeit far from the city. This discovery ushered in an era of corruption, where only the rich could afford a stone, and thus farm to produce food. Starvation reduced the city of millions to a few thousand, with corrupt officials who would reward any crime, no matter how serious or trivial, with banishment to the surface.

And it is here where your story begins. A group of criminals, outcasts, and forbidden magic wielders, forced to leave the only home they ever knew in favor of a grisly death, or so they thought. Unbeknownst to them, a grand adventure awaits, for those with the will to survive....