THE FIRST HYTHARO

A thousand years has passed since the fall of the Hytharo Empire. All that remains of their people are the myths and legends of how they used their magic to call storms to the endless dunes of The Droughtlands.

When Spiric is uncovered among the ruins left by those-of-glass, he must hunt down his stolen memories as he comes to terms with his fate as a Hytharo a millennia beyond his time.

But as the fragments of Spiric’s memories grow bloodier and more desperate, he must determine whether carrying out his supposed fate will cause history to repeat, or if he can forge a new destiny, both for himself and the Droughtlands.

THE WORLD OF THE DROUGHTLANDS

Towers of glass and hyper-machined steel lie buried in the red dunes that sweep through The Droughtlands. They are the remains of an ancient civilisation known only to the surface dwellers as those-of-glass.

Contained within them are magics unlike any of the rune-based magics employed by those of The Droughtlands. It’s said to be the echoes of what wiped the ancient, advanced people out, yet even after countless eons, it still poses an incomprehensible threat to those that brave the tantalising depths.

Instead, a living is made among the sandstorms and scrap metal far away from these places, where the trade of mysterious objects obtained from the ruins is as valuable as it is taboo, often with disastrous consequences.

THE HYTHARO'S LAST SACRIFICE

The arid wastes of The Droughtlands, water is the most precious resource, but not to quench thirst. It is the key ingredient to craft the inks employed in various magics, yet it has been a thousand years since it last rained. It was the final, sacrificial act of the Hytharo people —those whose magic called storms— that sealed all water in the air for it to be breathed. Little is remembered about them, other than the hope they may return and with them, rain.

THE EXPANDED WORLD OF THE DROUGHTLANDS

Ruins within ruins. Worlds upon worlds.

This mantra muttered by those of The Droughtlands also rings true for the books that chart the sand-swept wastes. Each series is largely its own contained adventure, but they will also interweave with the other stories set in this world in hidden and unexpected ways.

Secrets and riddles lie stretched across periods of decades and centuries, both forwards and backwards, offering different perspectives depending on reading order.