The First: Magnificent Tension — Barbara Kesel

The First is a race of godlike beings that believe they formed themselves in a passion of creation. Their past lost in a fog of myth, their present is a comfortable routine â€" until a new power emerges that could topple their preeminence. Faced with its first true threat, their society begins to fall apart, and soon the mystery of the Sigil-Bearers threatens to plunge The First into civil war. The First is a story of beautiful, powerful beings with feet of clay. Larger than life, they're portrayed with an over-the-top vigor and vitality. Like The Real World set on Mount Olympus, The First boils over with intrigues great and small and with the fate of the universe hanging in the balance. This volume sees the personality politics of The First come to full flower. The gods of the CrossGen universe are in the process of being deposed from that self-proclaimed role because of the creation of the Sigil-Bearers. Anxiety over these powerful new arrivals has ruptured the fault lines in the social structure of the First, causing Ingra, Leader of House Sinister, to make a bold move to launch her planned takeover of House Dexter. Seahn has collected together the unhappy second-born, ready to demand that they be given equal status to the First. Persha, Ingra's daughter, sneaks over to House Dexter to meet Pyrem, her father and Leader of that House. And Gannish the Truthseeker learns a frightening truth about the reality of the First.