Sestrena

The death of King Roshan pulls the human empire of Shekarna into all out war with its neighbor, the ancient civilzation of Mul'aran. The adopted prince, Santhan, must regain his father's body, prevent the secession of Vastra to the south and contend with flaring racial tension left over from before humans even reached the continent. Without the investiture of the Ember, the instituion of monarchy would crumble, shattering Shekarna into disparate states and costing Santhan his life in the process. The last spark of divine right dims on the warfront and without it, Shekarna is doomed.   Meanwhile, Mul'aran continues to pay a steep price for their beliefs. After welcoming humans to their shores, the Muls believed they had finally found the missing piece to return their people to the way they were before the Sundering. The invaders cut a swath across their lands and up into the mountains, even turning on each other over the centuries. They occupied the coast and contiue to push at the border. Now the Muls must face a terrible choice: Do they risk the lives of their people on and beyond the border or wake the God-Kings to end this shameful war?   The Sazanek empire has seen better days. Once powerful, this island nation was the bastion of human civilization. Their nobility carried divinity in their veins and they believed that legacy would last forever. Their fervor pushed them to conquer the mainland to the east, converting the native tribes to the Esvek faith or displacing them into the forests.   The survivors, with nowhere to go, took refuge in the sacred cities and intermingled with the Qes, the people they found there. Their descendants, the Vatakhen or blue-bloods as they've come be called, fought back with the magic that now suffused their blood. They ended the noble Sazani bloodlines, established a strong but bureaucratic rule and shipped as many Esveks across the sea to die in new mining and agricultural colonies. As debtors and criminals under the law, it didn't take long for those Sazani to rebel and with Shekarna as their new enemy, the Vatakhen cut their losses to avoid being overextended in an expensive war.   The Sazanek empire never really recovered. Indebted to the Qes, the Vatakhen trade Sazani children for the right to exist as an independent power in the region. They've built up some military presence on the seas, but the constant strain of keeping the peace within their borders prevents any more attempts at colonization. With limited natural resources and the fall of loyalist Vastra, the Vatakhen must rely on their ancestral home to survive.