Summary:

The book takes place nine hundred years after an event in which the Render army, while waging war against the Cruciform Realm (a state governed by a religion similar to Christianity), suffer a grievous loos, a number of their own turn, for reasons unknown against the rest of the army. Due to one of these traitors being a uniquely talented Soulborn the Render army is decimated. In this skirmish the young Kaszak, secretly a Soulborn himself, intervenes to save his farther. There was a magical eruption and the north was blasted into a waste land. The traitor Renders, now calling themselves the Angels, muster what is left of the human civilization they were trying to destroy only days before and march them south to establish a new country. Meanwhile Kaszak, injured by the vast amount of magic he had used became comatose and under the care of his father; Jelki. During the next nine hundred years the new Cruciform steadily grows in size and power, invading and conquering the nearby Empire of the Sun. Ten years before the book begins a renegade mage tries to use the long forgotten art of necromancy to raise an arm and invade the Cruciform. His invasion is thrown back and the magical disturbance his power creates is enough to jolt Kaszak from his coma. The story begins with Jelki and Kaszak in the forest which they have made their home.

The story then introduces the various rebels, on one hand there is Kaszak and Jelki who are joined by the twins Rosa and Benjen Shadestun, the children of a disgruntled grate family, the strange girl Rebecca, the ex-naval officer Mulsiber and the last of an old race called the Vash'near who is named Thex. These few individuals plan a campaign against the Angels. Later in their travels they encounter two ex-prostitutes (Dusk and Crystal) and the guard (Ashton) who used to work at their pleasure house, these three individuals continue on their journey for a while before linking back up with the group.

Meanwhile another rebel acts, the sociopath Marneth, a pyromancer and master swords-man he has tried to use blood magic, and while this gives his substantial power it slowly consumes him.