From the introduction:
As the Dragon Empire expanded its reach, it invaded the island of Skagos, home to a culture of wood elves who called themselves the ‘Sea Singers’. After years of war and skirmishes, the Dragon Empire claimed the southern half of the island and the port city of Spearhead. The last Bard King of united Skagos was executed by the Emperor’s general; the sign of his rule, a fiddle, was stripped of its strings and displayed as a sign that the Sea Singers had been defeated by the Empire.
The northern part of the island remained fiercely independent, while the elves in the southern part of the island became acculturated in the Dragon Empire’s ways. However, there was still a secret underground resistance amongst the Sea Singers to oust the Dragon Empire from Skagos and re-unify the island under the rule of an Elven Bard king.
Centuries later, Skagos remains a backwater in the Dragon Empire, often a place where disgraced nobles are sent to be “out of the way.” The current Governor on the island is the half-elf Childeric IV, the Emperor’s second cousin, who was sent to govern Skagos after he embarrassed his family with a drunken rampage in Axis. He is desperate to return home. However, Skagos is suffering misfortune and Childeric is concerned that if he cannot save his settlement, then he might be abandoned by his own family forever.