"Darkness. Sunset of Darkness" by Sergey Tarmashev, summary Automatic translate

This book is the fourth novel in the "Darkness" series, published in 2014. The magical world of Parn is engulfed in a brutal and bloody war: human kingdoms are falling one after another under the onslaught of endless desert hordes of k’Zird, led by khans and necromancer minions. The author describes in detail the harsh reality, where the survival of civilization depends directly on a military alliance between proud human wizards and straightforward, honest clans of steel-clad orcs.

The Tragedy of the Human Kingdoms

The story begins with a tragedy in the kingdom of Mergia. Count Raynor and a tiny handful of surviving soldiers desperately defend their ancestral castle from countless k’Zird tumens. The Sandmen use a hfat-khut fury potion, raining down clouds of arrows and catapults on the defenders. The human mages’ strength is depleted, and the remnants of the garrison retreat to the citadel. Raynor is wounded in the shoulder. The men escape through a secret underground passage into the Count’s Forest. The yellow mage Pelong collapses the tunnel’s vaults behind them. In the forest, enemy scouts overtake the fugitives, and a massacre ensues. Suddenly, the powerful orc shaman Trerg appears. He opens a dimensional portal, from which emerge green-skinned giants in black armor. The orcs destroy the k’Zird, and the rescued Mergians are transported to Avlia.

Meanwhile, Princess Ailani, blessed with the rare gift of the White Mage, is on the Vakri Archipelago. She is healing the gravely wounded seafaring merchants of the Maara clan, who suffered an attack. The raiding clans have formed an alliance with the K’Zird and are now destroying the trading islands. Ailani negotiates regular food deliveries to Redonia. A squadron of Vakri merchant ships sets sail for the capital, Arzanna. En route, they are attacked by a massive pirate fleet. Ailani’s nature abhors violence; she suffers, feeling the fading of thousands of lives. At a critical moment, Trerg appears. The shaman halts the bloodshed with the threat of annihilation and raises a gigantic wave. The pirates retreat in terror.

In Arzanna, Ailani faces internal problems. The city is overrun with refugees who refuse to contribute to the defense. The townspeople hate these exiles. The princess shows mercy and forces the commander-in-chief, Viscount Vaydin, to distribute food to all the starving. This action enrages the working citizens, leading to clashes and bloody pogroms. The exiles hide in the port warehouses. Ailani, using her authority, leads them beyond the fortress walls to a separate camp. Later, enemy spies scatter powder containing the deadly Swamp Plague bacteria in the warehouses. The princess successfully neutralizes the infection with healing magical currents.

Soon, the exiles betray Arzanna: they kill the guards and open the gates to Count Narlung’s army. A night battle erupts. Ailani supports the defenders with powerful energy from the watchtower, but, unable to bear the suffering of others, begins to heal the enemies as well. The sheer number of deaths overwhelms the White Mage’s consciousness, and she falls into a deep coma. Narlung loses its siege engines and retreats.

The action shifts to Avlia. Trerg brings Ailani to treat Viscount Raynor, the count’s son, who is in a magical lethargy. The girl easily awakens the youth. Trerg tells King Domelung how orcish avalanches destroyed three million sandmen at Rakanna and the Ardennes. The shaman then travels to devastated Nimia. The country has been burned, and the surviving people are being enslaved en masse. Trerg attacks the convoy and frees the legless azure mage Volath. From him, the shaman learns of the surviving people trapped in the Bleak Bastion.

Trerg moves to a lonely mountain. Nimian Prince Siegfried and the mage Ethervad hold the line there against endless waves of k’Zird. Sandmen dig tunnels beneath the tower’s foundations. Orcs appear seconds before the walls collapse. The greenskin warriors push back the enemies, and Trerg invites those rescued to join the Alliance.

Naval battles and betrayal

The story of the young Sabian sorceress Tiari unfolds simultaneously. During Lagrianna’s fall, she suffers terrible burns to her face. The girl uses illusions and veils to disguise herself as a K’Zird Ukhtan. Tiari, along with the wounded battlemage Rangval, finds herself in a column of slaves. The sorceress drags the mage on a drag, enduring the blows of a whip. They make their way through the lands of Galtania and encounter a strange scene: local peasants are peacefully working in the fields under the watchful eye of desert invaders.

After learning the news from a local, they uncover a horrifying truth. The High Mage of Galtania, Emanor, murdered the young king and betrayed the human race. Emanor agreed to submit to the khans in exchange for sole control over the remnants of humanity. Galtania is used as a gigantic transit camp for slaves bound for the dwarven mines or to feed the necromancers. The mother of a sick child betrays Tiari to the K’Zird overseers, hoping to earn a sip of water. Rangval burns the bonds with combat pulsars. The fugitives seize horses and hide in a village, where Tiari casts illusions of a K’Zird patrol on them.

Making their way past enemy tumens, the squad reaches the port city of Santinna. The city is ablaze, besieged by millions of sandmen. The last Galtanian defenders have taken refuge near Ethervad’s Tower on a high cliff. Tiari and Rangval climb a narrow path overlooking the abyss. The battlemage throws down the k’Zirds advancing ahead with powerful gusts of wind. The heroes enter the tower. An exhausted Ethervad and General Daralong barely fend off the attacks. At a critical moment, a portal opens in the tower, and Trerg appears with a squad of orcs. The shaman seizes control of the tower, unleashing lightning rains, walls of fire, and an unnatural icy blast on the sandmen, instantly freezing the blood of their heat-loving enemies. Trerg transports Santinna’s defenders to Vakri Island.

Meanwhile, the Vakri assemble a gigantic combined fleet. Hundreds of ships, including a massive floating manufactory of the Liara clan, set out to sea to engage the pirates. Trerg and the orc warriors hide in the holds, preparing a trap. The pirates attack, relying on their superior numbers and the k’Zird boarding parties. Ailani, on the ship, again attempts to heal the enemies, but her mind rejects reality and she loses consciousness. Trerg, realizing his plan has failed, destroys the pirate fleet with devastating weather blasts.

Soon, elves approach the ships in a celestial chariot. Diplomat Elehikar and an iron golem descend to the deck. The elves demand that Ailani be given over for treatment in Elsiriol. The orcs recognize the cunning deception: the Children of the Gods want to gain control of the only living White Mage. Trerg threatens to knock down the golems with combat spells, destroys two elven machines, and drives away the ambassadors. The shaman sits down next to the girl, mentally penetrates her consciousness, and with love brings the princess back to life.

Rebirth of the Alliance

The book’s climax takes place in Sabia. The K’Zird have surrounded the extinct volcano Lan-Parit. The last Sabian mages and skilled rapier wielders have taken refuge on the mountain slopes. Sandmen tumens continually climb up the mountains of corpses. Trerg, along with chieftains Grong and Kryrd, observes the battle through the eyes of a clawwing. The shaman opens a colossal portal. A million orc giants clad in black armor enter the battlefield. Greenskin horse avalanches crush the enemy camp and encircle the K’Zird army in a steel vice.

Trerg carves a grotto into the volcano’s slope. The shaman unleashes oceans of liquid rock and gigantic fiery tornadoes upon the desert invaders. The orcs crush the disoriented sandmen with their hrardars. The Sabian sorcerers, including the azure mage Vilar, are stunned by the might of Rugodar and joyfully accept Trerg’s offer to join the Alliance. The book ends with the jubilant roar of the orcs, intoxicated by the epic battle and ready to continue saving the world.