Food and shelter are very scarce in this land of reeds. You should keep moving, I reckon. Once the cloud-grass and the crags begin to thin, those are the sloping steppes. Try to stay to the north, if you can. Plenty of clear mountain streams. You’ll know the right way once you get out from under these snakeskin clouds. All copper miasma for as far as the eye can see. Fie! You must have come a long way, traveller. These are the border lands. Any further south and you risk falling prey to all...

My name is Krumatoa Amon. It has first been the honor, and then the shame, of my life, to be a Krismoy warrior of the Theobuls, privileged to earn foreknowledge of the place and time of my death, and I have sworn to know no fear until then. That, at the least, has not changed. I have hunted for prophets false and true, those who see things which were not meant to be known and overcome them and their guardians so they might receive the Theobuls’ justice. I’ve endured the terror and pain of...

This is just one of the tales in the book of the Great Balsamo. It was a long age ago, and in a place very far from here; the great city of Everwork. Now, you must learn that Everwork was a very different city from the ones known to you and I. Its streets were long and straight, and all fanned out from a great central hub. Its factories, foundries, homes and arcades each laid along one spoke each. Yes, from above, Everwork had the look of a big brass wheel, all wrapped In fog and steam. It’s...