"The Empire that rules the north of Hafardine's single great continent is brutal and corrupt. Its armies have turned its neighbors into subjects, its economy rests on the backs of slaves, and its aristocrats plunder the provinces in the pretense of governing them." "West of the Empire are islands whose every resident is a pirate or a slave. Across the isthmus to the south are barbaric tribes living in squalor and mutual warfare, united only in their hatred of cities and the folk who live in them." If the Empire falls, it will take with it the last glimmer of civilization on Hafardine in the thousand years since the collapse of interstellar communication - and the Empire will fall under the weight of its own greed and vices unless the two men on Hafardine who can read the signs manage to reshape the future.