Where have all the adventures gone? There are no more quests. No more dragons to slay. No more world to explore. No more Godly artifacts to uncover. Gareth Emberneed, a trained Fire Mage, is in a world without a need for his skills. All the treasures have been long plundered, all the realm has been explored and all the dragons have been either slain or held in zoos. With the threat of monsters long gone, and with every citizen within the city of Tearlines having all their needs met with their monthly stipends, everyone was free to explore their lives however they pleased. But, how free were they really? In the haze of the city's celebrating revellers and the atmosphere of apathy, Gareth feels a deeper desire to explore, and find something more to this life. He remembers tales of a time long past, where adventurers would venture into the unknown with nothing but the packs on their back and the swords at their side. But those stories are a relic of the past and have now been swirled aside and into the mists of myth.
Unable to find purpose, and unwilling to accept a life of directionless existence, Gareth embarks on a hike into the wilderness with his partner, Faren Horatio of Deepthorne, in search of anything that could be considered adventurous. It is after a chance encounter with a Chimera - a beast of legend, and a creature last seen many cycles ago - that the pair finds themselves propelled into a realm of myth, prophecy, beasts and denizens of the underground, pushing them into a secret world they were never meant to see.
The Chimera's Omen is the debut novel from Andrew Hunt, and is about finding purpose when the world tells you that there is nothing worth achieving. With this trek, Gareth and Faren will see the reality behind their romantic perceptions of the plane on which they live and the fantastical nature of their ideals. Joined by Marathiel the ranger Forest-kin, Penrose the priestess of Renamusses, and the cursed warrior-turned-farmer going only by the name Wrong, the party will learn of their place in the world, about each other, and discover the thin and brittle veneer of peace that is layered over their lives and the entire world.