Situated over a unfathomable abyss, the city of Deepgate rests upon a complex arrangement of chains and ropes. According to legend, the god Ulcis forged the first chains himself and helped to raise the city. He also provided the battle-archons, angelic beings possessed of incredible speed and strength and whose eyes change color to indicate their emotional state, to defend the city against the Heshette nomads who dwell in the seemingly endless desert that surrounds Deepgate in all directions.

Three thousand years past saw Deepgate as a beautiful and prosperous city, a center of industry and culture. Now it’s a crumbling, soot blackened, pollution choked slum overseen by the ineffectual Church of Ulcis and its senior official, Presbyter Sypes. The glory of the battle-archons is long gone and nearly forgotten. A reminder of their time can be found in the sad form of Dill, the temple-archon. The last of his kind, Dill is no warrior. He was never taught how to fly or wield weapons. He exists now merely as a figurehead of a waning way of life, only allowed out of his rooms to take part in church ceremonies, purely as a formality.

His lack of any real experience or responsibility doesn’t stop Dill from dreaming of a better time and wanting more out of life. He still sincerely hopes that one day he’ll be given the chance to prove himself and follow in the footsteps of his highly respected and revered father, Gaine. When Presbyter Sypes assigns Rachel Hael, a member of the Spine, an elite corps of assassins that now protects the city in place of the battle-archons, as his new caretaker, Dill sees his opportunity to finally learn how to fight.

But even Rachel, while friendly to Dill, seems too preoccupied to teach him very much. Each month, during the night of the new moon, known as Scar Night, when the city is plunged into total darkness, something comes out to feed, something that has plagued the city as far back as the time of the original archons, and Dill finds out that Rachel is part of the team which is charged with hunting down this creature. Dill soon learns that his quest for respectability and to be taken seriously are the least of his worries as he eventually finds himself thrust into a face-to-face encounter with the creature. But it’s from here that he begins to learn about the true history of Deepgate and of the Church and the faith in which he has so readily wanted to take a more active role.

There are lies within lies going back to the time of Deepgate’s founding. Legend tells that, after Ulcis finished raising the city, he descended into the abyss to his kingdom of Deep, to sit upon his throne and gather the souls of the faithful to him. But Presbyter Sypes has found out what really waits down there in the depths and comes to understand his own complicity in its creation.

Originally a computer programmer, Alan Campbell worked on games for the Nintendo 64 and Playstation game systems. He also had a hand in creating the hugely successful Grand Theft Auto series. Eventually though, a deep and abiding love of literature led him to change jobs and become a full time writer. And this, in turn, has led him to produce a truly unique work of Fantasy. By offering Deepgate as a metaphor for life, Campbell is able to address serious topics such as the damage that can be wrought by unquestioning loyalty and blind faith. Scar Night is the first book in what will become a series known as the Deepgate Codex. Currently, Campbell is working on the second volume of the story. To learn more about his work, visit
his website.