The original story for the beginning set of characters (new players will almost assuredly not ascribe to this):

Your character:
You are 20 to 25 years old.
You are male.
You have lived in Cornelia your entire life, rarely venturing outside of it.
Your parents were lost when you were a child.
You are supplied a house and a monthly allowance of 1gp from the throne.
You are friends with princess Sara and have been since a child.
You are able to venture into the palace grounds, even though you are not a noble.
You have known your three best friends since childhood, and they are in your same situation.
It is known that all of your parents left 15 years ago and have never returned.
You do not know where they went, nor why.
Your only information is from the king himself: that they went on business for the throne, and are unfortunately unlikely to ever return.

THE STORY THUS FAR

You have heard that Cornelia is a "large" kingdom, as far as they come. There are roughly 5,000 inhabitants inside of the city walls, and quite a few farmsteads just outside. You are well-acquainted with the interior of the city and all of the outer palace grounds as well as much of the palace interior. You have only been outside of the city walls a mere couple dozen times, and never overnight.

Princess Sara is a beautiful girl of age 23 that you all have known for as long as you can remember. You spent most of your late childhood on palace grounds before being provided your own house at age 17. It is most definitely non-lavish, but lies in the area of the city between the noble's estates and the craftsmen and soldier's homes. Most hard-working farmers only make a few gold pieces a year. The well-trained and proud palace guards make only 5gp a month. As such, your allowance is more than enough to secure your finances, although some of you may have a profession with which to occupy your time or to make more money. It is common for people of your age to be finishing their apprenticeship.

Earlier last year, entry and exit to the city has required official permission, which you do not have. You are not especially concerned as there has never been reason to leave. With your relations with the throne, you feel that if you ever did choose to leave, you would be granted an audience. The reason: protection. Monster activity has achieved a new level of aggression. Imps, or Goblins as they are sometimes called, now wonder freely around the forest in the lands of Cornelia, despite the daily guard patrols and occasional small skirmishes. While Imps are nasty and vile creatures by human standards, they are rarely prone to open aggression without a reason.

Some of you may only have had one parent which left, the other dying in childbirth or is otherwise lost before you can remember them. Some of you may have had both your mother and father leave. This is left to you, and is not important. Losing parents in this dangerous world is a sad but common occurrence, though you may have been sheltered from this fact.

Recently, Cornelia has been seeing an influx of visitors. Armored men and women wearing unfamiliar clothing can be seen around town, hurriedly moving towards the palace, merchants returning from trips early or making extended stays, and other small oddities are apparent.

On this morning, Darksday in the third week of year 842, you awake as normal. You prepare for the day as you always do. On your way out of the door, you see that you have mail. Opening your mailbox, you discover you've received a letter with the royal seal.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:55, Tue 20 Nov 2012.