Two worlds have been thrown out or balance, their Great Spirits broken, their vast landmasses uninhabitable. Endlessly they stagnate in the searing light of endless day or the chilling dark of endless night. The survivors dwell cities, whose great defenders guard against the encroachment of the imbalanced world that surrounds them, creating safe havens in an inhospitable world.

For a thousand years, generations of Preservers had watched over and defended the twelve cities of the Azertaxad, unified in their hope that one day, the final Preserver would come. With the hopes of an entire nation laid on her shoulders and guided by the voice of the World-Tree, Minnow Tenna-Koa must make the difficult and arduous journey across the Sheer White Desert to find the last hope of her people, buried under the husk of an ancient civilization.

The cold and the dark that surrounds the twelve Lucidian Cities had been staved off by the Sentinels for a thousand long years, the only illumination in the endless dark being the world of light beyond the sky. Yet they still hoped for the day when the final seed would awaken, and the final Sentinel would be called to restore the light. Yet when it did so, it fell to the lowliest of subjects, a young man of the nomadic, disreputable Mystet. Now burdened with the expectations of many who despise him, Owl Putare nevertheless holds his head high as he journeys across the Dead Black Forest to find the hidden glen of light where their salvation may be found.