Dance of the Embers

Opening

Dance of the Embers - Opening

Ember City. Don't let the name fool you. It's cold here.

Not colder than the hearts of those who run it.

It began in 1883. A man with wide, dewy eyes looked upon a desolate field with a dream, a dream revolving around a metropolis, a city bigger than any other. A hub, sought by those who wanted somewhere to stay that could be untouched by harm and evil. Ember City was supposed to be a place of absolute peace, and safety, a place where you could come and forget everything. The employment rates would be amazing, the food pristine, the City Officials good hearted... Lies.

Today, December 4th, 1943. Those who have shaped this city are scum, untrustworthy cons who would just as soon rob you of the safety and warm meals that they have promised you. The corruption began with a little extra police brutality, beating a man too much for stealing a loaf of bread from a street vendor, breaking another's hand for parking illegally. By now, they have gotten a little more creative. They wrongly evict people from their homes and leave them on the street, they detain citizens for so much as seeming like they are up to no good. They have started secretly torturing kids as young as Seventeen for being "born into a generation of conspirators." They aren't wrong about that.

The best way to fight fire, as they say, is with more fire.

I'm Curtis Mulligan, leader of the Purple Rose Society. We are a commonwealth of thieves, cons, smugglers, hit men, enforcers. We operate in silence, completing jobs and contracts out of sight, hiding ourselves right under the noses of the corrupted so called "benefactors". Within the Purple Rose Society is a secret cell. A small group of the especially gifted individuals. We call ourselves The Dance of the Embers. To be one of us, you have to be unmatched in a certain talent, or completely irregular, things like unnatural strength or speed, heightened senses of hearing and smell, something that makes you border on inhuman.

Two months ago, a rivalling organisation raided our Mansion. We could have taken them if it weren't for a Witch Doctor. Don't ask me what that is, even I am not sure. All I know is that they are bad news, extremely rare bad news. I can say that they are not always malevolent, but this one happened to be beyond evil. Decklan and Merrin were nearly captured, and Marionette was hurt bad. They cursed me, and I can't get more than a single hour of sleep a night. The biggest loss was that of out leader, Winfred. He was captured, and thus presumed executed. Now, we lay low, rebuilding the mansion, and tending to the now sick and wounded.

This is the story of how the decimated Purple Rose Society was mended, and how the Dancing Embers were recommissioned.

Some call us murderers, some call us heroes. What we do stands on a higher level than a crusade for revenge, what we do is outside of the law.

What we do is advocate Justice.

And in Ember City, that means lighting fires.