The Chosen

From the front flap of the Tor first printing: "At the heart of the Three Lands, there is an earthly paradise hidden within the volcanic crater of Osrakum. Here the society of the Masters has evolved, men who rule with savage cruelty, beings who control the universe and whose plans (or whims) can bring either perfect pleasure or death. Young Carnelian has spent almost his entire life along with his father, who years ago rejected the savage cruelty of the Masters and entered into exile from the center of the World. But now a ship has come flying through the winter gales to shatter his quiet world. Three Masters disembark, and as they remove their masks of gold, Carnelian is awed by the light that seems to radiate from their skin. In formal conclave they beg Carnelian's father to return with them to Osrakum to oversee the election of a new God Emperor. And so Carnelian and his father will return home. Carnelian will leave all that he has ever known and loved, and along his perilous journey to the fabled lands of his parentage, he will be forced to learn bitter lessons in bloodshed and intrigue, the intricate weaving of power... and what perverse forms that power takes. Carnelian will see much of this new world... and find both love and treachery. And he will set in motion the concluding events in a story four thousand years old."