Spring4Lilliez
The year is 1729, and the long-shadowed peace of the North is beginning to fray. For twenty years, a fragile tranquility has held across the Highlands, bought with the iron resolve of the Norsemen and the herbal wisdom of the Healers. But the era of the giants is ending. As the funeral pyre of Ragnar the Iron-Wolf-the legendary patriarch of the Iron Hills-burns down to cold white ash, the ancient protection he provided crumbles with it.
The North is waking, but it is waking hungry.
Standing at the center of the storm are three cousins, the first generation of a truly United North:
Alaric Torrentson: Heir to the Granite Fortress, son of Torrent and Gracelynn. He carries his father's heavy steel and a map of the ancient veins of the earth-a map whose true purpose remains a mystery even to him.
Evander MacAlpin: Son of Finley and Elara, a child of the coast who carries a cryptic secret whispered by a dying man on a salt-sprayed beach.
Svea Lachlansdottir: Daughter of Lachlan McKinnon and a high-ranking Viking shield-maiden. She leads the Stone-Shields, a warrior sect of the McKinnon clan whose instincts are as sharp as the bearded axes they wield.
The threat is twofold. From the frozen reaches, Jarl Ulfgar leads a gold-hungry host to reclaim the iron-veined mountains. But in the shadows, the London Mineral Syndicate has arrived with hissing machines of brass and soot, seeking the "Silver Rot." Ragnar's final words reveal a terrifying truth: the Seven Springs, the lifeblood of the North, are failing. To save their home, the New Guardians must decide what they are willing to sacrifice to keep the North from falling into eternal darkness.