Synopsis: The Reach

In the first year of the reign of King Brian the Mace, a plague swept through the Kingdom of Dara. Fever and madness depopulated whole swaths of the nation, and the subordinate duchies less touched by the disease have become restive, eager to test the King's ever-weakening authority. In response, the Mace turns to the High Church, and with this union is born the Hospitallers, an order of sworn servants of the church, dedicated to controlling the spread of the disease, by salve or by sword. Following the King's own demise, the order is renamed the Order of the Hospitallers of St Brian, and becomes the force holding the kingdom together against disease and dissent alike.

Far to the north of all this grand politicking, the plague has reached the hamlet of Helnsdale, and directly into the life of its newest victim, Galen. The surgeons of the Hospitallers are not far behind, and if Galen wishes to survive their attentions, he will have to go beyond the March walls and into the Reach, the wild lands past the grasp of human control.