He wakes to a strange new world, transported at the moment of death by some unseen agency. The gunslinger, touched by the gods and doomed for the part he must play in their games, is caught up in the throes of a failed rebellion. Captured and imprisoned for 40 years, he emerges from his prison cell a new-made man; a creature of shadow and strife, driven by the whispers of dark forces, still wearing the shackles at his wrists-a potent reminder of his incarceration.

Volume 1 tracks emergence of The Shackled Man, a new kind of hero who rises to dominate the apocalyptic landscape of the world of dreams, pitting his strength against the race of demigods that rule these lands. Having escaped his captors, the gunslinger heads into the barren wastes to find solace, but what he finds instead is bloodshed and injustice.

Driven by an inner darkness he cannot define, the Shackled Man gathers new allies and sets his teeth against the godling menace.