Terra Ancestrale: Behind the illusion

There are no prophecies in the songs of Longbrinum. There are no swords meant to save the world, nor immaculate knights. There is only the plain, the mud, and the ruthless cost of every single choice. The world of men is caught in a lethal grip. From one side, to the north, looms the shadow of an impenetrable and seemingly invincible empire, ruled by an unknown entity of boundless power—a land of ice and blood that its devoted followers call by a single, terrifying name: the Crimson Kingdom. From the other, the forests and darkest recesses of the plain harbor the Maliosi, ancient and fae creatures banished to the edges of civilization for a chaotic, neutral nature utterly incomprehensible to the human mind. Few of their kind remain, yet they are still powerful enough to infest the woods and snatch anyone who dares violate their borders. In the middle, where survival is paid for an inch at a time, moves Liutbrand of the lineage of the noble Secco. An elite ranger, a deserter who chose banishment over complicity in a fratricidal war. When the echo of dark and inexplicable infant disappearances around the Misandingar forest brings the garrison to its knees, the only blade fit to hunt the horror hidden in the mist is his barda. But venturing into the woods means defying millennial pacts. And the line separating a savior from a monster is as thin as the edge of a short sword. Author's Note: Terre Ancestrali is neither a high fantasy saga nor a linear chronology of warring kingdoms. It is a series of raw, mature, and standalone Sword & Sorcery tales. Glimpses of mud, iron, and gray choices thrown wide across the northern barrens, to be read in whatever order you choose to face them. Welcome to the border where peace is merely the meanest of illusions.