An epic fantasy in the tradition of The Lord of the Rings, the
Star
Path Saga begins with the novel Preamble
to the Stars. The tale follows the half-elf
Jessar on his journey of self-discovery in the mystical world of Talan.
It is a story of Magic, Prophecy, and Love.
Imagine if you will a world much like ours, one that endured an Age of Technology, but one wherein civilization destroyed itself through its own environmental negligence. Talan, the setting of Preamble to the Stars, is such a world. Ironically, only the impact of an asteroid the size of a small moon spared mankind, though it completely destroyed civilization and reshaped the world. To prevent the recurrence of the environmental disaster, the Creator invoked the Technology Laws, but there remained the task of restoring Talan.
For that task, the Creator relied upon Nature, an aspect of his Creation that he had imbued with the power to heal even the most grievous planetary wounds. So, over the ensuing millennia, Nature restored the lands under her charge, but in surprising ways. In places the new continent lazily rose from the ocean in gradual slopes, while in others, it leapt from the ocean in great cliffs. Young mountains that dwarfed even Everest crouched upon avaricious plains and among secretive forests. A spidery waterway, the great Veinous River, laced throughout all the lands. Vast, cancerous deserts swallowed huge portions of Talan, vying with thirsty inland seas.
Much of Talan we would find familiar, including most of the flora and fauna. But, perhaps in her anger at those who nearly destroyed her handiwork, Nature did not preserve Man as the only intelligent race. Rather the lands are peopled by Dwarves, Elves and even stranger races in addition to humans.
The most profound difference, however, between Talan and our own Earth is magic. This mystical force, the product of the meteor collision that destroyed civilization and reshaped the lands, stems from the element pneumium that comprised most of the meteor’s mass. Over the ages since the Time of Obliteration, the races have discovered how to bend this new tool of power to their will, shaping the disciplines of magic into the Skill. Thus, in a world where the Gods prohibited science-based technology, Skill and Steel reign supreme. Superstition, in the form of Prophecy, is the prime mover in such a world, and Fate is itself a venerated power.
Of all that the peoples of Talan have learned to achieve with magic, nothing is more powerful than Chronology, the magical discipline permitting its masters to view and, with the proper skill and power, alter time itself. Chronologists are able to employ the Creator’s star paths, manifestations of Prophecy visible to those with the Skill, and the River of Time, a pseudo-dimension displaying all the infinite variations of place/time, as tools to master both Prophecy and Fate.
Set amidst all the magic of Talan, Preamble to the Stars is the first book of the Star Path Saga. At the onset of the saga, Talan is at a great crossroads in history, a Nexus of Prophecy at the end of the Age of Dooms. It is the story of how Jessar, a recently freed slave, rises to become the master of both Skill and Steel. Finding himself embroiled in the Prophecy, Jessar learns that he must seal the Dooms pronounced at the start of the age. If Jessar succeeds, the Dooms will end. But if he fails, the Reign of Chaos will begin.
