The City of Angels, Angelis, was once the greatest city in all the land, envy of every nation. For among its countless virtues it once held a great cloistered academy of magic and art, the jewel of the entire nation, exceeding all on the world for their study of radiance, mechanics, and community. Somehow, this academy survived dozens of wars and natural disasters as if it were protected and valued by the gods themselves.
But skill brought wealth, and wealth, pride. And pride, entitlement. Then sloth, then poverty. And poverty brought fear, and fear, violence. Wallowing in unrepentant vulgarity, stunning wealth inequality, and enormous pride, this eventually led to them ignoring the council of their gods, and they fell swiftly into devastation and despair. The gods abandoned their once chosen city, even the great academy is now only a myth, lost to time. Now it is only known as the Lost Academy of Angelfall.
A thousand years later the exact location is no longer known; if it ever existed at all. Thousands have searched, but the entire area seems cursed – magically resistant to any sentient incursion. Strange entities walk the land; men made of tar and fire, sphinx made of stone, endless labyrinthine swamps, half bear/owl monsters, and far fouler things.
But some say that the gods left clues, hints, the mildest intimations of what might be hidden in the lost academy. The kind of hints that only those who were truly worthy, who could truly appreciate what was to be found there, could alone piece together to recover the mysteries, and avoid the unbearable sins, of the Lost Academy.
- from the publisher's blurb