In nineteenth-century Europe, a group of fallen nobles searched for a legend about an arcane art, passed down through their families for generations. The legend said that seven families each guarded one of seven divine artifacts. These artifacts could summon spirits with an ineffably mysterious connection to the families. The seven families had once sworn an oath to hold a ritual every fifteen years to bring the spirits into the world. Each family would draw on its knowledge and inheritance of the ancient art of black magic, the workings of its spells, and, most importantly, its ability to win. The losers would not survive, and their souls would be branded with a bloody cross.
