The deep differences between the colonists added to their troubles. One group were devout followers of Islam, migrating in hopes of restoring the laws of the Prophet. Others were hard-headed settlers desperate for a better life away from their overcrowded home worlds. A significant few came for adventure and a freedom denied them in a highly regulated society.

Now, some thousand years later, the original generations of colonists have died out, and some of their ideals died with them. Among the followers of Islam a new prophet rose up, and in the grand tradition of Mohammed he preached jihad and conquest. But here and there a few individuals, like Ammadin, a shaman trained in the magic of the nomadic Tribes, realize that the only thing that will save their people is learning the truth about themselves.