The Story:
Messiah was a prosperous farming community rooted in religious and cultural traditions. At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the community resisted modernization and as a result was forced into economic decline. Amidst this dark time, a traveling circus group came to town and promised to bring a little innocent laughter and joy back to the emotionally crippled community. A small group of clowns working for the circus saw an opportunity and began to loot the homes of citizens who came to see the evening shows. At first, no one considered that the crimes could be perpetrated by the new occupants of the city and citizens started to turn against one another as the crimes continued unexplained. The situation grew worse, and the clowns became more bold, and violent. As the death toll increased, the town seemed ready to tear itself apart, and the clowns were poised to take control. The Organization of the Clowns and Mimes was formed and began to extort money and land out of Messiah’s businesses and citizens in exchange for protection. Time seemed to have stopped for the city of Messiah, and as the outside world continued to develop economically and technologically, Messiah remained trapped in a pre-industrial state. Citizens who resisted the new order of clowns were sent to the gallows, and as the citizens cowered in fear, an even greater problem reared its head as a rebellious Long Prey prompted a civil war between the clowns and the mimes. The Messiahn War between the Mimes and the Clowns caused Messiah to be split into the North and South. In order to fortify the border, Bastard the Clown pushed all the circus freaks and any clowns that were unable to fight into the middle, and dubbed it the “huddud “(Arabic word for ‘border’). This civil war has been raging for years, and there seems to be no end in sight.