For the first time in recorded history, the ferocious city-states of the
Macht now acknowledge a single man as their overlord. Corvus, the
strange and brilliant boy-general, is now High King, having united his
people in a fearsome, bloody series of battles and sieges. He is not yet
thirty years old.
A generation ago, ten thousand of the Macht marched into the heart of
the ancient Asurian Empire, and then fought their way back out again,
passing into legend. It has been the enduring myth of Corvus' life, for
his father was one of those who undertook that march, and his most
trusted general, Rictus, was leader of those ten thousand. But he
intends to do more.
The preparations will take years, but when they are complete, Corvus
will lead an invasion the like of which the world of Kuf has never seen.
Under him, the Macht will undertake nothing less than the overthrow of
the entire Asurian Empire.