Flintlock fantasy, host-altering parasites, eldritch monstrosities, and multiple POVs in a savage, putrid world.When nightmarish, maligned creatures burst forth from underneath Salvarin, turning men into monsters, humanity signs a magically enforced truce protecting women. It holds for 127 years… until something breaks it.Professor James Anthem studies the cellular strands that birthed the maligned, but is forced into the war against the threat as it re-emerges at the Hyrnlak Archipelago. Longing to return home, Anthem soon learns the harshness of the march and the men who would rather see him fed to the things. His knowledge, however, won’t die so easily.June-Leckie, a soldier and a woman in a world where she should be sheltered, fights at Hyrnlak instead, leveraging her invincibility against the maligned. That is until June witnesses the truce break before her, seeing her women transformed into maligned. Intent on discovering the truth, she seeks an audience with the ageless human child upholding the truce and learns a disturbing truth.Meanwhile, Genebrict Stalt, a laborer, is close to maligning himself. When he starts hearing his dead sister’s voice, he chalks it up to madness. As he learns more, he discovers the truth of his sister’s past and her plans for him.With the maligned resurging, how will humanity survive? Book 1 (The Inciter Strand) available on Amazon. What to expect Updates: Book 1 updated daily. Books 2+ updated sporadically. Military: Characters are soldiers, fighters, commanders, or others drawn into the Salvarin-Maligned conflict. Horrific monsters: Think of John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) in a flintlock fantasy world. I try to hold nothing back in the descriptions. Varying chapter length: Most are about 2K - 4K+ words. Multiple POVs: Frequent switching between them, but their stories are all linked.