Talingarde used to be a liberal and pluralistic country about a hundred or so years ago--granted, the ruling family were committed worshippers of the Nine Hells, but that essentially meant that the laws were not primarily there to protect the people, they were there to protect the structure of society (LN, not LE approach). Even philosophically opposing religions were permitted, and in fact, the Great Cathedral in Gastenhall was built during the reign of these devil-worshippers as a church to the Lord of Light and the Sun.

Then a young firebrand joined the Knights of the Alerion. He quickly rose through the ranks, and within a few short years, had shifted the Knights' attitude towards other faiths from tolerance to one of rigid rejection. When the government ordered the Knights of the Alerion disbanded, they took to the battlefield instead; a freak squall prevented the royal army from capturing an important bridgehead, trapping them in a muddy field instead, and the King was killed in the ensuing battle. The young firebrand, now styling himself "The Victor," claimed the crown and proceeded to begin the transformation of Talingarde to a theocracy, the state church and only acceptable form of worship being Mitra, the Triune God of the Sun, The Cleansing Flame, and the Sword.

A hundred years later, worship of other deities has more or less ceased in Talingarde. The Church of Mitra has grown (even more) corrupt, to the point of most of its ordained priests and paladins no longer receiving any divine magic. In this environment, a group of heretics, blasphemers, murderers, slavers and other criminals find themselves catching the attention of the remnants of worshippers of the Lord of the Pit…