Long ago, **Flavor Town** was once a thriving member of the **Chef Guild’s** **Food Network**, an alliance of kingdoms, duchies, city-states, and artisanal farmer’s markets. These communities traded freely between each other, exchanging ingredients and cuisines, thriving in their plentiful and delicious bounty.

Flavor Town, in particular, held a special role in the Network. The barren lands surrounding the town could not support livestock, its rocky soil only suited for the hardiest of plants. But deep below, a vast **Salt Mine** provided and endless supply of a rare and vital seasoning. In the arid plains, **wizened and twisted plants** grow on the banks of Flavor Town’s rivers, their withered fruits bearing delicious flavors - Cinnamon trees with sun-dried leaves give off magnificent fragrance, shriveled peppers burst with burning spice, hidden saffron gardens tended by ancient monks. Cumin, nutmeg, anise, tumeric, black pepper - these lands that cannot support so much as a chicken bear tastes found nowhere else. No place has as much flavor, and so the tiny spice trading post was soon christened Flavor Town, and through trade, it prospered, becoming a wealthy desert metropolis.

Then came Fieri. From the distant sin empire of **Vegas**, the great dragon descended on Flavor Town, killing its benevolent mayor and seizing control of its treasures. The dragon imposed tariffs on the spices of Flavor Town, and barred entry to its borders; chefs from other kingdoms were purged in a bloody coup as **Fieri’s Autocracy** was born.

The Food Network was devastated; for so long, they had enjoyed the bounty of Flavor Town, and the people of Flavor Town had in turn enjoyed the bounties of more verdant places. The food of the Network became bland, and soon the bonds between former allies soured as each tried to hoard whatever spices it had left. **The Spice Wars** had begun.