Heroes Chronicles: Warlords of the Wasteland

Long before Erathia was founded, the Wizards of Bracaduun enslaved the barbarian people of those lands. Young Tarnum studies the forbidden history of his people from the last surviving bards and rises as Barbarian King, uniting the clans to break the Wizards' rule. The war begins as righteous rebellion—but after the death of Yalla, the woman he loved, and the murder of a bard by Wizard agents, Tarnum's crusade curdles into a personal bloodbath. He enslaves the people of the Mudlands, burns villages of perceived traitors, and unwittingly causes a sister's death. When his advisors urge retreat, he poisons them—including his oldest friend Hardac—then blames the Wizards and drives his army to take Steelhorn fortress. Victory is his, but the cost is his soul: history remembers him as the Barbarian Tyrant. Years later, his campaign against the young kingdom of Erathia fails; first king Rion Gryphonheart defeats him. In death, Tarnum discovers Paradise is closed to him. The Ancestors curse him to wander the world eternally until he atones for the tremendous wrongs he committed—setting the stage for his long road to redemption across the Heroes Chronicles series.