Ruined Gods

At the heart of every legend lies a truth. Twisted and reshaped by the currents of time. For twenty years, strategos Dexios has led the phalanx of Thena against its enemies, pulled from one battleground to another in a relentless cycle of war and bloodshed. Now, finally, he has found the courage to leave that life behind. To relinquish his officer's sword and return to the verdant slopes of his vineyard with his wife and son. Peace, however, is fragile and capricious. When Thena's northern allies bring word of an enormous tauran horde gathering on their borders, Dexios has no choice but to answer the call to arms one last time. As humans and tauros collide, another evil wakes. Whispered rumours of a clawed creature that stalks the shadowy streets. Of violent murders committed in the name of deities long thought vanquished. To speak their names is heresy. They are the Exiled. The Banished. The Ruined Gods.

As above, so below. Panacea was a lie. An elaborate scheme instigated by Zeus, greatest of the Ruined Gods. Among its many victims was the former strategos Dexios, tricked into murdering Zeus's brother, Hades, as the city of Thena fell to an unstoppable tauran herd. With the death of Hades, the barrier between realms has been shattered. The lifeless shades of Tartarus are no longer bound to the Underworld, but free to return to their decaying bodies and walk the lands of Tyrris once more. Only one can stop this. Makar, son of Hades, reluctant heir to his father's legacy. Accompanied by the disgraced priestess Graycea and the sophistes Elena, he must find a way to traverse the mists of Tartarus and reclaim his birthright. A long, arduous path awaits. For deep in the fiery pits of the Underworld, someone is releasing the shades of the damned. Decrepit, pitiful shadows, their tortured minds broken by an eternity of torture. Yet, despite the madness, a single, overwhelming desire remains. Vengeance.