/lit/ - Literature

>>17659871
It's science fantasy epic split into two different storylines, one set in the past, and one the future, both revolving around a large city-state that is ruled by a philosopher-king. This city-state, which is filled with guilds sanctioned by the king to maintain his power, is not fighting a war that has been going on for a thousand years, but is also filled with conspiring noble clans who constantly move to outmanoeuvre one another in the 'senate'.

The 'past' storyline revolves around an assassin who fails a contract to kill the head of a treasonous clan, and as a result sustains an injury that will slowly kill him. He is released from his organization because of this injury, but fears dying as a failure, and so he illegally leaves his city to pursue the target he failed to get. What follows is his personal odyssey through the strange and unknown world beyond the walls of his home, as he both tries to navigate a war that no-one understand, and survive the assassins that have been sent to kill him.

The future storyline follows an ancient king brought out of stasis to find the world is now in the equivalent of a dark age, filled with superstition and rival nations fighting over the rotten remains of a city that is filled with artefacts and weapons they no longer understand. He tries to make sense of the new world, all the while coming to terms with the idea that he was not revived to re-conquer his kingdom and restore civilization, but because ancient threats are re-emerging at the edges of the world, and he is expected to sacrifice himself to stop them, and save a decrepit future he despises.