After succumbing to the temptations of a beautiful temptress, Strommand Greattrix finds himself heir to a kingdom of rubble and ash. In his anguish, he takes a vow of abstinence until he is able to overthrow the Damionites, who have slain his kin and conquered his homeland, and set his uncle--the last survivor of the Greattrix line beside himself--upon the throne.Hurled from the decks of a great sky ship, Greattrix draws himself from the sands of Carparath, where only rats and bloodthirsty bandits keep a man's company, and sets on a hopeless quest for justice ... and vengeance!