[quote=FateWeaver]
My general idea for preventing spoilers as far as location goes was an incursion into a foreign and previously unknown land, or set this in a time before the settling of Calderon Valley. 
[/quote]

Is it possible to have both happen? 

 
[quote=FateWeaver]
It's entirely likely that everyone will be playing a Cursor, or someone otherwise useful to a Cursor mission.
[/quote]

Hmmm. Would that mean that we are all good or all bad? Like our characters are all on a single side with a single goal?

 

[quote=FateWeaver]
At the moment, I'm favoring the new land idea. None of the PCs would have the advantage of local furies, and it would be somewhat of a gritty, survival oriented experience. Perhaps this is even a land devoid of furies, leaving the PCs with only their own to use in a hostile environment.
[/quote]

With an area like that I wonder what would inhabit it. The most challenging scenario for a new explorer of such a land-might be for example: 
player vs. a foreign race and/or culture and/or lifestyle and/or language + hostile environment.

A few plot ideas: Someone has found a way to absorb furies. How they have done this is unknown. They have increased powers, but this as well they have kept in secret. What is known is that an army is taking over or destroying land. The destroyed land happens when the residents of the land resist being taken over. Why land is being taken over is fairly obvious-because of the greedy idea of 'world domination'. One thing is for sure, the land is dying without the environment's furies to help protect it, or perhaps even nourish it. If nothing is changed then everyone and everything could become extinct.

Another plot idea: 
 There is a council of for example six major powers of the world. There is eight major powers in total and for some reason two of the eight choose to deal with their own affairs independently of any of the others. Everything seems swell and there is not much conflict between the eight major powers until something new came along. Nobody knew anything about it, but then all of a sudden people and other things died. Each of the major powers of the council had a different idea about how to solve this situation. It seemed that none of them could change their minds to agree with another major power. As they discussed the solution though, this new threat grew and grew and grew. Now it is much stronger and if nothing is done then this threat will likely be the only major power in the world.