Taking the role of a young mage named Artemian, the player is dispatched to follow a mysterious teacher into a remote desert after the death of a Prince's son. Accompanied by a small crew of bodyguards led by the warrior Yano, Artemian heads for a remote desert. It's clear something is amiss when he comes across a village besieged by zombies. Helping the inhabitants fend them off launches a succession of events that will reveal dark truths about Artemian’s world and the empire that dominates it. Mayhem promises that the telling of this tale will not follow the usual straightforward storylines of the genre, but will instead confront the player with a complex plot full of twists and deception.

Starting a new game opens a bird's eye view of the landscape, the characters standing, ready for orders. Unlike most modern RPGs, however, the gameplay is turn-based. This means that orders are handed to characters and acted upon sequentially, with only a certain amount of actions being possible before the initiative shifts to the enemy. At the beginning of each turn, every entity has a set number of action points that are depleted with every stride, spell or stroke of the blade.