There is a saying within the Outlands: "To tame a vicious beast requires first to be tamed." Crown Prince Wolfram Achilles Volkmar knows this better than any other. To succeed against death is what it means to be an Outlander, even at the cost of all humanity. Outlanders are no different from the monsters they slay; they merely occupy the highest tier of the food chain.

But their lifestyle hangs on the end of a thread. People are dying, from both starvation and illness, and Wolfram is tired of standing around waiting for the tension to snap. He has an opportunity to help his people, but it means traveling cross continent to marry the princess of an enemy nation.