Glen Cook 
Empire Unacquainted with Defeat 

The Dread Empire, a gritty world of larger-than-life plots, nation-shattering conflict, maddening magic, strange creatures, and raw, flawed heroes, all shown through the filter of Cooks inimitable war-correspondent prose. The Dread Empire, spanning from the highest peaks of the Dragons Teeth to the endless desert lands of Hammad al Nakir, from besieged Kavelin to mighty Shinshan, the Empire Unacquainted with Defeat, with its fearless, masked soldiers, known as the Demon Guard