The Vanguard Chronicles
DESCENDANT is the first book in The Vanguard Chronicles trilogy. It is a saga of identity, betrayal and loss, played out over ancient feuds and political machination. With a gritty, morally grey and uncompromising approach, it's very much in the dark fantasy camp. I'll warn you now - it deals with issues of genetic manipulation and unbridled ambition via physical and psychological abuse, and gets to the heart of who or what a person really is. For those reasons and more it's not for the faint-hearted; just because it's fantasy doesn't mean it has to be unrealistic.
DESCENDANT follows the story of the brilliant yet dark Vanguard Acastus who, on discovery of his plan to usurp his majikal order, narrowly escapes his own destruction and that of his ill-fated followers when he flees to hide in a forbidden land. Years of secret scheming and physical mutation leads to his surreptitious return to his home of Kasmadorn, his goal to artificially create an heir whose superior abilities will help him defeat the Magus Transcendent, The Vanguard's leader, and reshape the order into what he feels they should be. The atrocities he creates betray his presence and he is forced back into exile, not realising his goal has been achieved. The Magus, however, does recognise his success in the unusually gifted infant Jax. Brought into The Vanguard fold, the Magus orders his life to be one of misery to flush Acastus out and end his threat forever. But, twenty years pass, Jax matures as he endures, and the plan looks to have failed until the dreadful evidence of Acastus’s ‘work’ once again alerts the Magus to his return. They assign Jax to investigate, dangling him as bait in the hope of ending his threat once and for all...
The Vanguard Chronicles will follow the lives of several characters introduced in Descendant but, in the style of George R R Martin, I'd not get too attached to your favourite characters because I can't guarantee they'll make it to the final book. If you want an idea of how I visualise the characters and the world, please go to The Vanguard Chronicles menu and visit the various pages I've put together. Fully disclosure, they've been partially created with AI, there's a lot of traditional scratch-built Photoshop techniques employed along with the use of Adobe's Firefly system to put it all together.
When released, you will be able to order a digital or print-on-demand copy of DESCENDANT by clicking here.