Pandorus is in flames.

In the Centre of the World, two great powers clash. The gargantuan magical might of the Estian Consortium is sorely tested against its biggest adversary yet, the Republic of Zorne, enigmatic aristocrats who harbour a bloody secret. Routine raids are starting to be conducted on cities and states of both countries.

The King of Tassel, Supreme Leader of the Consortium sits, corrupt and fat, on the throne. Many appeal but none are answered. Thousands die on the battlefield and resentment is breeding. A lone, unsatisfied group of mages decide that enough is enough.

Meanwhile, Zorne is fighting harder than before, with even the lowliest grunt under the terrible, spellbinding thrall of the Undead Archon Lamiar, though none know of his twilight nature. Under the city, deep in the bowels of the earth, terrible things are carried out in the name of knowledge, and screams pierce the thick blackness of the dungeons.

Caught in the crossfire is a boy, born of both sides but wanted by neither. A failed experiment, a reject to be disposed of, he walks in the twilight of blood-drinkers, not fully dead, but not fully alive either. He has become so much less, but so much more, changed by the anvil of pain and suffering. He is destined for greatness, to turn the tides of history, but first he must slake the burning thirst for revenge devouring him from the inside.

And Pandorus continues to burn.