I'm around, just working slowly. Lots of stuff going on, and I apparently have something happening over the next two weeks. Looks like I chose a terrible time to start this. Gonna look over more of the character sheets tonight though, and hopefully have stuff ready for you guys (while giving some important info to a friend of mine who joined this RP) and I can possibly drop in later?

As for the characters knowing each other and starting situations, it's required for the villains to all be together (as a group, I mean. They can physically start in other places) because they're building their dungeon. I can think of a number of scenarios for the villains, possibly some of them are on a mission to recruit some group of 'evil' creatures or trying to acquire more resources for their dungeon or otherwise working on villainous things

I meant for the groups to be both be together, but I could see multiple groups of heroes working separately, but still aware of each other.

One thing to keep in mind is that your parents all knew each other. I'm not sure if I made it totally clear, but they all knew each other at least by reputation and they fought together in this big epic battle, and that sort of brings the separate sides together.