Highlords of Phaer (Paperback) | Released: 22 Aug 2016

Eidolan is a harsh land, the only thing more deadly than its unforgiving environment being the humans who find the strength to survive within it. A thousand years ago, the sorcerers helped the mundane people of Eidolan cast out the Necrophages who plagued Phaer, the nation's greatest city and center of magic. However, the people's freedom was short-lived. After little more than a century, the sorcerers decided that the lowborn were incapable of governing themselves. Crime and debauchery ran rampant, at least in the highborns' minds, and so "liberated" the city states from the burden of rulership. The most powerful sorcerers of the time named themselves highlords and crowned the greatest among them as emperor of a consolidated empire. The sorcerers, once the saviors of Eidolan, have reigned over their empire with an iron hand since overthrowing the "lowborn" hierarchy after deeming them unworthy to rule. To this day, the highlords enforce their reign from the Necrophages' former home of Phaer, crushing any resistance that arises and enforcing their laws with a brutal hand. The Necrophages, those few who survived, fled across the sea to a distant continent, thought uninhabited and even more deadly than their homeland. To keep the Necrophages from ever returning and to prevent anyone from seeking them out, the highlords erected a barrier, a swirling tempest of unimaginable power that stretched across the horizon. The highlords chose to further purge the Necrophages from the world by eradicating any word of their ever having existed, erasing their history, and silencing anyone who even thought to name them. However, that far land, named Noirbedoj by the surviving Necrophages, was not as desolate as once thought. It was, in fact, populated by a primitive but strong people called the Ulec. The Ulec provided a prime source of power for the Necrophages' necromantic arts. The banished people not only survived, they thrived and were treated as gods by the Ulec. The Necrophages grew stronger, just waiting for the Great Tempest to wain so they could return to Eidolan and exact their revenge. In present day Velaroth, Jareen Velarius, descendant of the great city's former ruler and its namesake, was born into slavery and was content with his station in life. He had a wife and son and lived well compared to most. He was the personal attendant to Velaroth's Overlord's son, Auberon Victore. Auberon was a rising star amongst the highborn. He was intelligent, powerful in sorcery, and gifted with an inquisitive mind that drove him to create grand inventions that he hoped would change the world and one day be elevated to the status of highlord. His latest creation, a powder of fiery and explosive volatility, promised to do precisely that-if only he could find a practical use for it. Jareen, of like mind, aided his master in his alchemic endeavors, working fervently for nothing more than Auberon's praise. But when Highlord Nahuza Dreth orders his family killed after Jareen's brother-in-law launches a failed assassination attempt, Jareen finds new purpose. Not just in his life, but for Auberon's precious powder. With it, he will lead a rebellion to topple the most powerful empire in the history of the world.