Two hundred years ago, the Betrayer, Shiro Tagachi, transformed the lush continent of Cantha into a devastated landscape of stone forests and crystalline seas. Now, in a land torn asunder by war, who you fight is as important as who you serve. While Kurzicks and Luxons battle for ever-decreasing resources, a horrible plague threatens the very existence of an empire still reeling from the betrayal that nearly destroyed it two centuries earlier.