The demons and psionics, humans with telepathy and other mental abilities, have the initial advantage during the First Terran War. The traditional humans can barely maintain their ranks. The tide starts to change when humans possessing elemental magic, sorcery, and advanced fighting techniques join the fray. The humans acquire and solidify their advantage when several scores of psionics turn against their brethren and demon allies.

The demons retreat before their species confront extinction. Their psionic cohorts have been exiled to the island west of Pangaea. The victorious humans offer the psionic defectors sanctuary on Pangaea. The adept mentalists refuse and sail south, pledging to live their lives isolated from humans, demons, and psionics alike.

The Psionians, as the western island's inhabitants have designated themselves, forged a new society from the ashes of their defeat. They created a new psionic power source using leyaEURline energies not frequently siphoned by sorcerers and other mystics. The Psionians developed subdesignations so that each citizen of their new island home, Psionia, could broaden their individual identities and contribute to the greater community.

Seventy-five years later, as the Psionians thrive in their new existence independent of nonpsionic humans, Ultimus discovers his father and PsiaEUR Lord Maximilius, in a coma. As Cratius, the Master Panacean, tends to Maximilius's cerebral wounds, Ultimus ventures outside the PsiaEUR Citadel in search of answers.

The next day, Ultrina announces to the Psionians that Ultimus had been attacked hours earlier. She added that the body could not be found and the remaining evidence allows for only one conclusion. Sorcerers had assaulted their PsiaEUR Lord and perhaps terminated her brother's existence. The Psionians, out of grief, rage, and anger, agree that Ultrina should lead their people—and that a retaliatory strike against Pangaea should be her first act.