Sparhawk is a member of the Pandion Knights, one of the four militant branches of a great church. In the Domes of Fire, Sparhawk is contacted by emissaries of the far eastern nations requesting that he come to their rescue and stop a rash of insurrections threatening to tear their empire apart.

Sparhawk is somewhat special, you see, for he is a man born without a destiny. As such he is a threat to all the gods, for his actions throughout time are unforeseen, and unknown to them that are used to knowing all things. He is the means by which all gods may be brought low.

Sparhawk and his retinue of friends make their way across the continent, unravelling a series of mysteries involving figures of the far past, returning to the present to cause mischief and local anarchy. As the story progresses and the march gets closer to the Tamul empire, Sparhawk learns that these strange events are all related and centered upon the destruction of the eastern nation. As his advance continues he is faced with long dead civilizations, springing from the bands of time to halt his progress at each turn.

Now, having made it to the alien environ of the eastern empire, he and his friends seek to defend the Emperor from the unknown threat. It is when he most believes that he has defeated the threat that he learns, that he has just begun to unravel the true mystery. This as an enemy from the past, long thought to be a weak underling, emerges as a much greater threat, or so he would make it appear.

I love this series. It has a great deal of knight based information and perspective. Duals, threats, the usual throwing oneself headlong into a battle astride a horse with a long pointy lance. Sieges of towers with burning pitch naptha and moats. Great fun for my crusade enthusiastic mind.

It also depicts a great realist diversity of peoples. The Elenes who believe in one god and seek to convert the others. The Styrics (who practice magic) are looked down upon as vagrants and persecuted, the Tamuli are beaurocratic imperialists that dont believe in gods, and many more. It has great interaction and depiction of class structures and racial disharmony.