Everyone in Benevale is healthy, happy and wealthy. At least relatively so. There are no beggars on the impeccably clean and brightly lit streets. No one goes hungry or without roof over their head. Everyone has an occupation and a loving family. Nothing is ever wrong in Benevale.
All this is possible, because the Benefactors have come centuries ago and driven out crime, poverty and anarchy and replaced it with order and control. The city’s inhabitants were happy that the Benefactors brought a better life for them, and they submitted to their rule willingly. They only have a small price to pay for a life in happiness and without worry: Freedom.
You are a one of the marked – known criminals that have somehow violated the strict laws of Benevale. It does not matter if you did these transgressions on purpose or by accident – you were found guilty and bear the mark of a criminal now. The city knows no prisons or other form of incarceration – you will go about your daily business as before, but more than ever under the scrutinous looks of your neighbours. If you found life in Benevale agreeable before, you now find it unbearable. The constant suspicion that was only latent before now rules your daily life and dealings with your fellow citizens.
So now, finally, you have met other marked and together you found strength in your misery. And you decided that you will no longer put up with your fate – you want your dignity back, you want that tiny bit of life you called your own back. Or better still, you finally want to march through the city gates and see the Outside World. Maybe it devours you – but that’s better to rot away here and wait for the Beggar to come for you. Or maybe – you dare not even whisper this thought to your newfound confidantes – maybe it is even possible to overturn the Benefactor’s rule and free all of Benevale? But that seems an impossible wish – and maybe even a selfish one? Would that not end the happiness of every other person in this city who depended on the Benefactors?