Description
[Wattys 2022 Shortlist] The Elven battlemage Gynefra Caul-Marrel has fought many foes over her two centuries. Humans have proven the most obstinate, yet they have forgotten the lessons that led to the War of the Great Coalition. That short-lived race has now spread into the shattered former battlefields of that conflict, building villages atop barrows of ancient dead, toiling away in mines better left abandoned. When a plague spreads through their lands, she is dispatched by the Watchful Tower to investigate. The horrors are much worse than she'd imagined. An unholy alliance has formed in the depths below, which threatens to tear apart the fragile order that's existed since the War of the Great Coalition. It's not enough to simply fight-the Great Evil they face requires a unified defense from every realm. Yet even saving human refugees isn't enough to dampen the paranoia of the Inquisition. The grievances between Elves and humanity have been built over millennia and seem impossible to mend. Yet if they cannot succeed, kingdom by kingdom will fall, until the mortal world is swept clean. Under Gynefra's leadership, a new War of the Great Coalition must be waged-yet this time united in struggle against the Twisted One, who threatens to devour their realms.
Prelude: Human Lands
