From the verdant frontier of the Bossonian Marches, across the shining cities of the western kingdoms to the sheer cliffs of the Kothian Escarpment holding back the eastern desert, this age is dominated by descendants of the Hybori people. Thus is it known as the Hyborian Age, an era of proud civilisations threatened on all sides by more ancient peoples with more savage natures.

This opposition is reflected in the border nations of Argos and Shem, lying down the coast of the Western Ocean. The Kingdom of Argos takes after the Hyborian civilisations, with many of its people worshipping the compassionate sun-god Mitra and putting great stock in philosophy and the beautification of their cities. Shem is an older land worshipping bloodier gods, in a state of constant warfare among its nomadic desert tribes and crumbling city-states.

These lands are not at war at the moment, but between them lies much bitterness and past conflict. The Argossians look on their bloodthirsty desert neighbours with contempt, and the Shemites regard the rich cities of Argos with envious eyes. Both nations also remember well the crushing yoke of the ancient Stygian empire that once dominated their southern part of the continent, and neither would suffer such conquest of their lands again.

The player characters are divided into groups from Argos and Shem who have sailed to a coastal forest that lies between their two lands, a land said to inhabited only by a race of savages called the Zanabel. Each party has anchored their ship in a different bay and are making their way inland, and are not aware of the other group's presence in the forest.