Hrathen: The Tireless Conqueror. Hrathen comes to the city of Kae as a herald of the legions of the Holy Jaddeth. As a gyorn, a head priest of the Shu-Dereth religion, it is Hrathen's anointed task to convert the city's noblemen to Shu-Dereth, therefore avoiding the inevitable bloodshed that is associated with a revolution. No other takes this holy duty more seriously than Hrathen himself. He swears an oath to himself and to Jaddeth that he will convert the people of Arelon, he will not allow them to be slaughtered in a needless battle for dominance.

But Hrathen is a man haunted. Haunted by the ghosts of the past, of his failure to prevent a bloody revolution in the once peaceful nation of Duladel. Haunted by his own questions of faith, and what it means to truly serve his lord, Jaddeth. Haunted by his time spent at Dahkor monastery, and the brutal torture he suffered at the hands of its monks. But Hrathen vows to overcome these demons, he vows to be the unwilling Kae's savior. Through the dust and ash of all they love, Hrathen will drag them, screaming, to the light of Shu-Dereth.

The sands of time flow constantly as Hrathen locks wills with Sarene and her unyielding group of followers, and as each grain falls through the glass, Hrathen can hear softly, but ever so clearly, the baying of the dogs of war and the howls of the beasts of Dahkor Monastery.