Love and Hate in the Time of Tumult

It is seven and a half centuries since the Scarlet Empress seized control of the Sword of Creation and drove back the Raksha armies of Balor, saving Creation from the ravages of the Fair Folk. Now the Solar Exalts of legend have returned, the unquiet dead are on the march and she has gone missing. The stability imposed by the Realm under her command is failing and civil war threatens to tear apart her empire.   Meanwhile, in the far north new powers rise. On the frozen shore of the White Sea the Haslanti League have risen to prominence. Intrepid explorers, brave warriors, skilled craftsmen and respected merchants, they have become the dominant power in the North. Their ability to construct air boats have opened previously uninhabitable wasteland and made trade and conquest possible across vast distances.   Matched against the Haslanti League is the warlord known as the Bull of the North. Having drawn Second Breath as a Bronze Tiger of the Unconquered Sun, this once minor tribal chief has forged a neigh unstoppable army from the Icewalker Tribes. Now he controls an empire stretching from the Saltspire League on the banks of the River of Tears, to the borders of Halta in the far east. For the last seven years he has been off to the East battling the Linowan and their imperial allies, but now rumors have begun to swirl that he turns his gaze west towards the riches of the Haslanti League and the shining jewel of the North that is the Holy City of Whitewall.