Beneath No Banner

In Veltharion, power is everything--a chain binding the world, passed from emperors to kings, from kings to lords. Those born without it are nothing. Meant to kneel. Meant to obey. Auren was one of them, until the day his father was executed for defying a lord. Branded a traitor’s son and cast from his village, he flees into the wilds, where forgotten truths stir beneath the surface. There are whispers of another path, one that does not bend to kings or chains. But those who seek power outside the Chain are hunted, and the deeper Auren digs, the more dangerous the truth becomes. Because some chains are not meant to be broken and those who try risk losing more than their lives.
This work is originally written by me and is also available on Royal Road under the same name