IGNPC: Give us just a brief outline of the starting point of the story?

Steve Fawkner: The story begins on the Sundered Isle. Long-time players of the Warlords series will know this as a very dangerous and desolate location -- the place where the Dark Elven mage Mordaine caused The Sundering many thousands of years ago. The veil between the Planes -- the barrier that holds back the Daemons -- is very thin on the Sundered Isle; so much so that the High Elves built a fortress, called the Tower of Mordanion, to watch over the island and to slay anything that escapes through the Veil and into the world.

Anyway, while traveling past the island in a ship, the player witnesses a huge storm. When he investigates, he find all the Elves at the Tower of Mordanion are dead. He also finds signs that something new and terrible has entered the lands of Etheria. After much searching, the only clue that he can find is the body of a dead snakelike creature -- one of the Ssrathi.