"Who cares? Give him what he wants. Better a predictable fool than someone unstable. It matters not, you know; this is not between me and the Human, or me and any of them. The pawns always fulfill their roles: brief heroics, dying, accolades, bitter defeat. Over the years, they interchange places with amusing regularity. Victory over only one is all that matters—I now despise his very existence—he and I…that is all that has ever mattered….”
A mysterious stranger—calling himself the "Selector"—approaches two best friends, one a second-born prince and the other a pauper, with an improbable if not laughable offer: to become the next co-kings of the distant land of Artesia. After some persuasion, they overcome their families' objections and return with him only to find their new kingdom in ruin. They learn over time of the recent history and true nature of its citizens, the outcasts from the traditional fantasy characters:
- Instead of the Elves who amass in a forest, Artesia has mysterious Sprites
- Vicious Fairies routinely torment visitors to their marsh, including their flightless relatives, the Brownies
- Horsemen with the bodies of donkeys are subject to ridicule from their thoroughbred-like Centaur cousins
- So too are the Satyrs, who are born with large feet instead of the hooves of the Fauns, and the Rollies, rejected by the Dwarfs
- Giants live nearby, but Artesia has Cyclopes who are generally subject to genocide
- Humans reside only in Artesia, rejected outright by most of the other races
In this first installment of books that are serial in nature, bigotry, murder, betrayal, and conflicting social structures contend with the ideals of honor and brotherhood in the great social experiment of Artesia, a kingdom founded by the still present Sorcerer Myrddin.
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