The Island nation of Athlan, once ruled by the legendary Council of Four, the Priest, the Warrior, the Poet and the Scientor, each marked with symbols etched into their skin by forces unknown, continues to self-destruct on a physical plane, as well as a moral one. Of the Four, only the Warrior, Kon-r Sighur, has survived and Athlanean society is tearing itself apart, as certain death stalks all of them. The stellar Angeals, Cath and Dorchada, power brokers of the competing Celestial Travelers, have unleashed their players, willing and unwilling, on the dangerous gameboard called Athlan, under the blood-red skies of the tortured planet. The fight for control of the earth is heating up. Implacable foes advance across the burning face of the doomed Island, and all converge, by design or by chance, on the last bastion of hope-The Ban Castlean—The White Castle of the Gardai.