Three years after being named the Chin emperor Aaron Turner is busy building a new capital city and hiring archeologists, two endeavors he could happily pursue for the next several years. Unfortunately, his divided empire is close to war, assassins are trying to kill him, entire nations want his head, and a Talented prophet has declared a multinational religious crusade against him. Offsetting these threats are Aaron's ill prepared army, inferior weapons, questionable generalship, and the insight of Delmac, a Clan savage who has wanted Aaron dead for nearly twenty years.

What his enemies don't know is that Aaron Turner really is The One God's Chosen, called Bringer, known as Death, and he is righteously pissed off.