From the Introduction:
The world is on fire. The light of the artist, the vision of the scholar and the pyre of the heretic burn with an intensity never before seen. This is the Renaissance, the battleground of the early Ascension War and the beginning of the modern world.
Blades clash and spells blaze forth as the Council of Nine Mystick Traditions gather to preserve the ways of magick. Against it, a united Order of Scholars, visionaries and monster-slayers struggles to illumine the world with Reason. In the shadows, antichrists and mad fanatics kindle the flames of hatred and feed them with souls. Magick has gone mad, and a terrible Scourge punishes those who pursue its Mysteries. Across the Earth, magi come together, and their adventures lay the foundations--or the graves--of the future.
This is, in many ways, the Age of High Magick...