The Colonnade, a free city held aloft by gargantuan pillars and crowned with a spire of diamonds, is the jewel of Ghur, obsessed with purity in a realm of bestial savagery. But now, it faces annihilation at the hands of an unstoppable beastherd. In a desperate gamble, Councillor Atella Reigehren requests the aid of a being anathema to the Colonnade. She seeks Lauka Vai, the Mother of Nightmares, and her dynasty of monsters, the Avengorii. The crucible of war has thrown these factions together, but can they put their differences aside to face this common foe, or will the clash of purity and monstrosity be their undoing?