Here is a synopsis for Starbane, the sequel to the Oron Amular trilogy.
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Truly, this is the weapon that came from the stars…and to the stars we must return it, or die trying. This is our doom, to banish forever the threat of Starbane.
Carea
Forty-two years have passed since Mage-Lord Kulothiel’s great tournament at Oron Amular. He sought to prepare the Free Peoples of Astrom for the coming war, but now his plans are in tatters: his warnings forgotten, his champions scattered. The grand alliance he tried to build never came to pass – the Free Peoples of Astrom are as divided as ever, lulled into lethargy by decades of a false peace. Yet that peace is about to shatter: with the forces of evil on the move again, Kulothiel’s scattered champions must rise to the challenge or Astrom will be plunged into irrevocable darkness. Starbane, a relic of the ancient world, will either be the means of their deliverance or the death-knell of doom: which it will be depends on the choices of a burdened king, a beleaguered lord and a broken wizard.
The ice of the northern mountains fracture under the feet of a vast army, and as winter tightens its grip, the evil sorcerer Kurundar is about to launch his long-dreaded invasion. Rising from the ashes of defeat with renewed strength and terrifying new weapons, there is none to challenge him, for the Silver Empire has been broken, and the League of Wizardry is no more. Twice before Kurundar has sought to conquer Astrom, and twice he has been defeated at great cost. Yet now he wields more power than ever, and the world has never been so close to the brink of complete darkness.
Sundered, leaderless, ignorant, the nations of Astrom are totally unprepared for the storm that is about to break. Kulothiel tried to warn them. That was why he hosted his tournament, and why he equipped its winners with prizes of power unimaginable. Yet those prize-winners did not embrace Kulothiel’s vision and failed to unite. Now Kulothiel is dead, and there is no one to guide the Free Peoples.
Even the three chosen ones, hand-picked by Kulothiel for vital missions, have wandered from their calling. King Curillian, Lord Theonar and Roujeark the wizard were each given a sacred task that no one else could perform, and they alone have full knowledge of Kulothiel’s plans. To them a secret hope was revealed, a glimpse of a world forever free of the threat of Kurundar. Though faced by terrible dangers and daunting challenges, together they had a chance to defeat Kurundar and end the menace that has plagued Astrom for more than three thousand years. But when the tides of the world tore them apart, it seemed like that chance was lost forever.
Curillian and Roujeark were estranged and Theonar was banished to a life of exile. Curillian returned to Mariston a changed armist, burdened by sorrow and regret. As old age stole up on him, he began to doubt whether he could live up to the calling placed on him by Kulothiel. Bereft of allies and mourning the death of his mentor, Roujeark tried and failed to perform his task, only to be defeated. Oppressed by fear and the weight of his failure, he fled into the deserts of the south, seeking to escape the looming demands of his destiny. Theonar too could see no clear way to accomplishing his mission. He returned from exile to rekindle hope in the land of Aranar, but in doing so he found himself confronted with competing demands: the guardianship of Starbane and the knowledge that he alone can unite the clans of Aranar before the storm of Kurundar overtakes them.
Can these heroes return to their calling and reunite before it is too late? Can they muster the Free Peoples before the tides of war overwhelm Astrom? And can they return Starbane to its rightful keeper before it is claimed by the evil that pursues it? The shards of doom are in their hands: and in the quest of Starbane the fate of Astrom hangs by a celestial thread.
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