<P><B>Tumanbay:</B><br><B>Once the most magnificent city on earth -</B><br><B>now the dark heart of an empire which lies in ruins.</B><br><br>Occupied by the fanatical forces of the mysterious cult of Maya,<br>corpses hang from the gallows, and citizens are flogged for next to nothing.<br><br>Barakat, leader of the Inquisition, leads the purge.<br>Gregor, former spymaster to the Sultan, lives in fear.<br>Madu, heir to the throne, is opiated and installed as a puppet ruler.<br>And Qulan, the great general, rots in prison.<br><br>But the history of Tumanbay shows that those who can rise to power can just as easily fall.<br>And there are whispers of rebellion, of a reckoning - as well as rumblings of plague on the horizon...</P>