At the beginning of the story he witnesses the destruction of the small hamlet he and is mother are living in by a Void - a vortex of energy which destroys everything it touches. He is the only survivor and when he leaves the town he encounters Armadiel, a Seeker from Baddalaur who protects him from a roving gang of Madra Alta. Not before Caeled loses his hand to one of the werewolves. The main antagonists in the story are the Duet - twin brother and sister who rule one of the nations and have plans for the conquest of the rest. They practise a perverted sex magic and have been creating and controlling the Voids in order to destroy whoever or whatever they want.
Nothing is glossed over to look pretty, the reader gets to see all the horrible details of battle.
And, this is a rather depraved world. Caeled himself is a well developed character, growing from a curious boy to a well trained Scholar and warrior. However, this is not a one character story. Even the characters who are only glimpsed briefly glow with life. Thankfully, Llywelyn and Scott have not fallen into the common fantasy trap of making the female characters either insipid or dependent - they are all very believable.