The Mask of Tamrel - The first in an epic fantasy tetralogy coming in March to reading tablets near you

'The Mask of Tamrel' is a story of a decadent country under constant siege from without. A vicious, speechless race known as Aks batter themselves against the magical barriers protecting the land of Thevin, and have done so for over two-thousand years. The Barrier is maintained by the Isdori, a multi-faceted order of magic-users (magisters) who wield rings of chromox, a luminous azure metal that allows the wearer to command the elements. Chromox is the key to magic, and the secrets of its forging are known to only one being - a god-in-flesh known as the Gyre Itself. Behind the Gyre's shielding magic two-thousand years of stagnation have produced a world of harsh class divides - rival city states and guild-lords stage opulent wars to settle their disputes, drawing their soldiers from the rural classes, or nithings, who live subsistence realities in sharp contrast to the civilized trappings of the city-states. Our heroes (if such they could be termed) are a young magister and outcast prodigy named Kelrob Kael-Pellin and a disillusioned ex-mercenary and drunkard named Jacobson. They meet in a ramshackle inn at the edge of the Umberwood, a dense forest where some vestiges of disorder still linger, and forge the first links of a friendship that will ultimately remake the whole of their world. A haunted mask that possesses unwilling hosts is the third player in the triumvirate - Tamrel, bard of old, sower of destruction and rebirth, whose songs drive men mad with freedom. 'The Mask of Tamrel' is the first in a series of books called The Magistricide, or The Killing of the Teacher. The second book, 'In the House of Madame Heretia,' is almost complete and should be following 'Mask' in about four months - so the path goes onward, and I tread it with joy. Look here for further updates and the official release date, coming soon!