After discovering a plot by the court to create a weapon of ultimate destruction, a low-ranking gunpowder artisan is dragged into a political maelstrom. He grows from a fugitive fighting to save his own skin into a revolutionary who destroys the conspiracy and drives change in the world.
Setting: The Great Black Dynasty is a fictional dynasty built on gunpowder technology. In its early days, it conquered its neighbors with the power of gunpowder. Now, however, corruption is spreading within its ranks, and its incompetent emperor rules over a court that tightly controls gunpowder and uses it to maintain its power. Private citizens are forbidden from possessing gunpowder, on pain of death. The dynasty appears prosperous on the surface, but turmoil stirs beneath, and resistance groups operate in secret.
