After years of wandering, Liu Bei and his sworn brothers had nowhere to call home.

They had been loyal to every lord they served, and every lord had betrayed them. They had defended cities that fell. They had won battles that changed nothing.

"Perhaps," Liu Bei said one evening, gazing at the sunset, "I am not meant to rule. Perhaps the Han dynasty is beyond saving."

"Brother!" Zhang Fei roared. "I did not swear an oath in a peach garden to hear you speak of surrender!"

But it was Liu Biao, Governor of Jing Province, who extended a hand. "Come south," he wrote. "Jing Province needs men of honor."

The brothers arrived to find a land of divided loyalties. Liu Biao was old and weak, his court split between factions that eyed each other like wolves over a carcass.

It was here, in this court of intrigue, that Liu Bei would meet the aging Zhuge Liang — and through him, glimpse the path that would one day make him King.