Within the Land of Erde, a child is born. His name is Vandor Leshing. Weary of the wickedness, his grandfather (aforetime known as the Bladesman, former Auctoritas of the Sealed in Kirche of Signum) moved his family to Nesal long before the days of his grandson, having faced the servants of Darkness many times as one who served King Salvare. Will Vandor face the loss of his love, while his friend embraces the dark sorcery, as turmoil within the city and signs throughout Erde seem to point toward the prophecies of the coming Ekleipsis? Rubicund, the Dragon, has surfaced with the pale Piradad, and has come to give life unto the fallen wicked one. Jagare, son of the late Galtare, grandson of the betrayer Judarius, has recovered from his deadly wound and prepares his army of Gottlos and Ubils to contend against all of Erde. All must take the mark and bow in allegiance or face death. No soul is safe from the arm of Darkness as it stretches forth even unto the secret city of the dwarfs. Their only hope is to endure until the Daegsteorra. Witnesses have declared the imminent return of King Salvare, lending encouragement to many of the souls in hiding. Groups disperse in search and rescue of those who were left behind, pleading to all who will come, as the battle rages on against the forces of Darkness. The army of Rubicund surfaces to destroy the inhabitants of Erde. If Jagare rises to power in Signum, while his army secures a perimeter of evil, is there any hope for King Salvare and his people at the time of the Andeis? What shall be the fate of the souls of the Land of Erde?

In the Winter of 2019 Peter Ridgeway set out to walk 179 kilometres across the Cumberland Plain, the region of rural land west of Sydney. Carrying his food and water and camping under the stars, he crossed one of the least-known landscapes in Australia, all within view of its largest city. This book recounts a unique journey across a landscape few Australians will ever see. In this open country the familiar forests of Sydney's sandstone are replaced by a fertile world of open woodlands, native grasslands and wetlands, home to some of the Nation's most unique and endangered wildlife. The traditional land of the Darug, Gundungurra, and Dharawal peoples, and the birthplace of the first Australian colony, it is a landscape which also holds the key to our entwined and conflicted origins. What was once a limitless tract of woodland is now being engulfed by the city to it's east in the largest construction project ever undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere - the elimination of an ecosystem and a community. This book provides an immersion in the history, wildlife, and culture of one of Australia's most rapidly vanishing landscapes, and reveals how the destruction of 'the West' is erasing not only itself, but something central to the identity of all Australians.