The sin war:The veiled prophet

But there still stood the Cathedral of Light, and in the vacuum left wherever the Triune had once preached,

there came the missionaries of the Prophet. Never did they confront the edyrem, but ever were they there

afterward to help rebuild and give relief.

Focused on his growing powers and certain that the Cathedral could not stand against the righteousness of

his cause, Uldyssian blinded himself to what he considered such menial efforts. Having fought zealots and

demons, he did not understand the subtle works of the angel, Inarius, who was known to the masses as the

handsome, youthful leader of the sect. Even the dragon Trag'Oul and Inarius's own estranged son, the

nephalem, Rathma, were ignorant of the angel's aid to their struggle against the Triune.

But if that was their sin, then so was it also Inarius's, for he failed to realize that others had taken notice of

the struggle for the soul of the world called Sanctuary...others who might desire to take for themselves the

prize, or choose instead to destroy everything.

And no one, not even the veiled Prophet or Uldyssian himself yet understood just what the son of Diomedes

was gradually becoming....

From the Books of Kalan

Twelfth Tome, First Leaf

One

The man in the middle of the pentagram shrieked as Zorun Tzin deftly used his magic to peel away another

area of skin. The patch, a tidy three inches by three, methodically rolled back without hesitation. It left in its

wake a bleeding gap that revealed the muscle and sinew underneath. Streaks of blood flowed from the gap

down the naked figure's body to add to that already decorating the floor.

The gaunt, bearded mage was not at all bothered by the splatters on the stones. They would be gathered later

for other uses having nothing to do with the dark-skinned Kehjani's current interest. The Council of Clans had

managed to cease their feuds long enough to implore him to discover what he could about the fanatics pouring

across the land, fanatics with powers unbelievable.

That these - edyrem, they called themselves - had brought down the mighty Temple of the Triune was not

the point. The mage clans were more than happy to be rid of the powerful sect, which had been the first to

wrest influence away from the spellcasters. Indeed, that had been in great part the cause of the first feuds, as

clans had struggled to seize from one another what stature remained.

No, what disturbed the clans so much that they had been able to agree to something at last was the simple fact

that the edyrem were nothing more than untrained peasants for the most part. They were farmers, laborers,

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and the like, and yet their leader promised them abilities that the mages had painstakingly toiled for most of

their lifetimes. Not only that, but the use so far of those powers revealed a recklessness that endangered so