It was twenty years since the overthrow of the Mad Witch-King, and for twenty years, Asor has had time to rebuild itself under the watchful eye of the Astari. Those guildsmen who were put down upon the ascension of the mad king were now in a position to reassert themselves, and were now reconstructing the city into its previous government. Except this time, it was ever more stratified than before.

The Guilds were reconstructed and reformed, so that no man could go without registry in a guild. Where once the matriarchs and patriarchs were heads of a family, they now were the heads of whatever guild was convenient - a family of professionals, all vying for power of the city and working in a certain trade. This new professional nobility began lavish public works, to rebuild the city that had had many districts levelled from the years of calamity and stagnation.

It was, in many ways, a rebirth.

But the Ghost of the Witch-King still loomed large over the city, and the spectres he raised did too. Whispers from other nearby cities within the empire spoke of rebellion, things that some of the Guildsmen (who occasionally did business in these other cities) preferred not to speak about. Slave rebellion? Overthrowing the Emperor? It was not lost on the Asoriyans that the Emperor was a Man, and the last man who ruled in Asor brought them to the brink of destruction and poverty.

It was at this that Asor began to reestablish the abandoned city of Versae. What had happened there had been far worse than the city of Asor, and while some suspected that the Witch-King may be plotting his restoration there, it turned out that all that was in the forgotten city were ghosts and peasants.

Versae was rebuilt, a second jewel that was blinded next to Asor. And Asor watched with great interest as the sparks of Darga began to catch.