For 2,000 years Thevin has been sealed away from the savageries of the outside world, protected by the sorcery of a god-in-flesh known as the Gyre. Magic has been perfected and condensed into a sacred metal known as chromox; magisters control the elements, govern the weather, and construct great cities where the wealthy play at games of power. Outside the cities dwell the nithings, rural growers of food and tenders of animals, who work the land in exchange for the Gyre's blessing. It is a world of conflicting violence and complacency: Merchant-lords stage lavish battles to settle disputes, while commoner and mage alike serve on the Great Barrier, defending Thevin from the tides of mindless Aks that breed in the desert beyond the Ilark Mountains. Born to a laird-lord of the Rolling Lands and trained as a magister from childhood, Kelrob Kael-Pellin's life has been one of sheltered study. Chosen to train in the mind-warping Mentatis Discipline, his studies have veered from the teachings of his Masters, and he travels north in frustrated disgrace. On Sowen Night, in the midst of strange revels, he meets Jacobson, a drunken sell-sword intent on his own death. When a possessed mask begins to steal the bodies of the living, the pair are forced into an unlikely companionship; together with Nuir, a woman of the desert-dwelling Jeneni, they embark on a strange anti-quest to defeat the Mask of Tamrel. Should they fail, the songs of the Old Races will rob all reason from humanity...