More than six centuries have passed since the Fall changed Ea. Humanity struggles to rebuild after that cataclysm and the Long Winter that followed. With the Hollow Throne empty, the Hundred Kingdoms remain embroiled in internecine warfare, as the Nobility covets the remnants of the Empire, while the Church grinds its teeth at the weakened Orders. With mankind far from the glory and might of its Old Dominion, the enigmatic Spires exert their power for the first time in eons. Shedding millennia of custom and practice, the merchant princes seek the wealth of the lesser races, in an effort to break the stranglehold of power the Directorate and the Sovereign House exert. As the vicious games of these elders spill into the mortal realm, misery and warfare spread like a disease from their domains...