The year is 452AD and just as Gildas wrote Britain has survived a notable storm. The heroic victories of Cadeyrn 'Battle Prince', the son of Vortigern, have allowed the Council of Britain (Concilium Britanniae) to retain its pre-eminent position in the island. But the tumults of decades of war have fractured the outer regions in to a number of competing realms that gnaw at Britain's edges, sapping her strength and undermining resistance to the Germanic barbarians that tear her eastern shores. Meanwhile, in the west, across the Cichican valley, the island of Hibernia is splintered between several powerful clans whose only unitary cause is a common desire to seize absolute power and claim the title of Ard Rí or "High King". And to the south, beyond the Sea of the Britons, the power of Rome is fading fast. Gaul is surrounded by swarming hordes of heathen barbarians that threaten to overwhelm her flawed defences. Whilst the armies of mighty Aëtius hold-out then the wan light of civilization will remain imperished; but all wise men rightly wonder just how long this situation can last.
