For two hundred years, the Silver Duke ruled York. Now, the Silver Duke is dead. Long live the Silver Duke!

Avery is the new Duke of York, a single man in possession of a good fortune. Like his illustrious great-great-grandfather, Avery is tall, handsome, silver-skinned, and has certain unnatural powers most unlike ordinary industrial necromancy or the other conventional (if less practical) forms of wizardry.

Though, York being a particularly backwards duchy within the realm of the increasingly-inattentive Emperor Ivar the Fleshless, it has shockingly little necroindustrial development – and its only wizard collegium does not count a single archmage among its ranks. The old Silver Duke had little tolerance for wizards and little interest in issuing peasant-hunting licenses to promote regular harvests of the duchy's human resources.

Will Avery betray his ancestor's memory? Can an underdeveloped York with little industry stand its ground against its neighbors? And, as a single man in possession of a good fortune, will he marry? These are all matters of grave political importance.

Conventional wisdom prescribes conventional wizardry and conventional marriage.

Cover art by A. A. Medina | Fabled Beast Design.