The great seer Ageus Mortaan foretold the coming of the Age of Darkness, the rise to power of the forces of evil, and the extermination of the civilized races: humans, elves, and dwarves. For Nick Mirrin, a farm boy from the rural kingdom of Meuribar, this prophecy had never been more than a fairytale--until the minions of darkness attacked his family and destroyed his home... and until the preconditions foretold by Mortaan began to coalesce. Nick's grandfather, on the other hand, had always believed. He had dedicated his life to the study of the Prophecy. But he's gone now. With nothing more than a few scraps from his grandfather's journal and a group of friends he thinks he can trust, Nick sets out to complete his grandfather's ultimate endeavor: to prevent the fulfillment of Mortaan's prophecy. The problem: Ageus Mortaan is never wrong.