Abyssium, the mysterious, toxic blue rock mined from the deepest caverns of the Scyllan Sea, can sustain life, power astonishing and impossible machines, and turn men to depraved monsters, hopelessly dependent upon the resource to survive. Duke Julian of Tyr, one of the three tenuously peaceful nations in the Abyssium zone, has become so addicted to the Abyss that he has fallen deeply into debt to Jila, Queen of Varuna, a country rich in the resource and plagued with its own troubles. When Jila refuses to dissolve the rapacious Duke's debt to her nation, she falls victim to an assassination...

Dreary, desolate Spectra City is infested with thieves, criminals, low-lives and gruesome creatures in black cloaks that roam the poor districts and snatch people from the streets. Corrupt city officials deny rumors of chanters, citizens who possess strange, inexplicable, and dangerous powers that lay waste to the city and battle each other in the streets. The Creeds and Mobleys, Spectra City's wealthiest and most powerful families, control the city's officials and command the police forces. Only Chant, an underground organization of chanters, and their leader, tenacious Assistant District...

After a great war that destroyed the nation, the government has fallen, and the cities are run by corrupt false monarchies. The Kings and Queens control the law, and the powerless, terrified citizens are being snatched from the streets in droves, accused of treason and imprisoned or worse. The children of the accused must band together just to survive. In Razor City, only the rebel Uprising is willing to stand up to King Scarlet, but their efforts are crushed at every turn by disloyal bounty hunters, bloodthirsty outlaws, Scarlet's ruthless, vigilant nobles and his cruel son, Dante. Petra...

Dreary, foggy, fishy-smelling Port Enshus is host to the 305th Annual Aquatic Life Acquisition Simplification Exposition featuring the infamous inventor, Dr Nimrod Crowley. Expressly forbidden from concussing any gulpy townspeople, assisting any villainous scientists, blowing anything up--even just a shanty or two--or having any fun whatsoever, lovable, precocious and clinically insane young scientist Agnes Crowley is bored out of her skull. To alleviate her boredom, she visits the local pug where the fishy dregs regale her with tales of twisted ghosts and deadly monsters lurking about the...