The Central Plains of the Celestial Dragon Empire, a vast, sweeping expanse of usually tranquil emerald grasslands known historically as the Emperor's Anvil, had been transformed into a nightmarish, apocalyptic hellscape. For two and a half grueling, blood-soaked months, the sky above the plains had not seen the sun, choked by the perpetual, churning clouds of evaporated sea water and the suffocating, abrasive dust of the western deserts.
