The Chains of Fate

When tragedy strikes, the victims ask why. Then they look for someone to blame.
For the Kharar of Beasthaven, the child DarHel is that someone. Born with snow-white skin and blood-red eyes in the midst of the worst plague in history, DarHel is deemed cursed and cast out of his village. Hungry and alone, his only hope for survival is to seek sanctuary with the Pale Folk of the White Wood. But the Pale Folk are fickle gods, and there is more to their chimeric paradise than meets the eye.
Igor Enleyen knows nothing of gods or plagues, but finds his own curse in the shadow of his deranged father's tyrannical legacy. Unloved and unwanted in the town of his birth, he sets out to discover new lands...only to end up kidnapped by a cutthroat brigand. His usefulness exhausted once no ransom is offered, Igor is given up to the Pale Folk as tribute in exchange for divine favor.
After a chance meeting in the sylvan halls of the Pale, DarHel and Igor's lives are changed forever. Bestowed with a glimmer of the Pale Folk's divinity, these two exiles hold the power to shape the world in their image. But, burdened with the abuse of their peers and the trauma of their pasts, what kind of twisted world will they shape?
From the Author
The Chains of Fate is unlike any other grimdark novel out there. No, really! Yes, all of the hallmarks you know and love are here: bloody battles, dirty mouths, cynical protagonists, etc. But behind the bloodshed and brutality is a tale of spiritual yearning and the burden of faith. Psychedelic mysticism and the allure of the divine steer this decades-spanning narrative through themes and motifs most often associated with spiritual skepticism and New Age apologetics.
Does this long, strange trip measure up to its promise? Can The Chains of Fate evoke the esoteric musings of Lao-Tzu and the stark prose of Glen Cook all at once? As the author, I sincerely hope it can. As the reader, only you can decide.