[2][3] During an encounter with a Celtic force, a Roman legion is magically transported to another world when the two opposing leaders' swords touch.
With steadfast loyalty to the Emperor and a certain bull-headedness, Marcus manages to safely navigate the particularly dangerous political landscape and advance the place of himself and his men.
At a party to celebrate the arrival of the Romans held by the Emperor Mavrikios, Marcus, slightly inebriated, slips on the floor and bumps into the emissary of Yezd, Avshar.
Avshar leads the enemy army of Yezd nomad warriors against Mavrikios' Videssos soldiers and mercenary forces.
Only the quick actions of Gaius Philippus, the sub-commander of the legion and the aid of a clever ally Laon Pakhymer kept them from falling to the nomad forces.
Mavrikios, seeing his grand army destroyed, leads a charge of his personal bodyguards directly at Avshar, hoping that he can at least take the life of this one great enemy.
Thorisin sends a force, including the Legionaries, to the west to put down the rebelling mercenaries while he deals with threats to the east.
As he is bringing the leaders of the rebellion back to Thorisin in Videssos the City, he is betrayed by his wife, who frees her brother and the rest of the prisoners.
After successfully defeating the heretic, Marcus flees the city in front of an advancing barbarian army (his own Legion coming to rescue him.)
The map shown of the known world in the time of the various Videssos stories is based on Mediterranean region, flipped east to west.
The class of yeoman farmers, who provided much of the best recruits for the military, is dwindling, analogously to what happened at several stages of Byzantine history.