From publisher blurb: The universe has died and been reborn many times. Our universe is not the first Universal Iteration to exist, and when it finally collapses, it will not be the last draft of the Universe to exist. When the old universe was destroyed and recreated, almost everything was wiped away: men, angels, demons, even gods. Only a few shards of the former reality exist. Some archmages claim that Ioun Stones are crystals of sand and dust from the former reality; adventurers and naturalists have long suspected that mimics, xorn and other creatures that should not exist are remnants of the last Universal Iteration. So are the Relyc Hammers. These strange weapons are uncounted trillions of years old, artifacts of impossible power that briefly bond with and transfigure a wielder from the current Universal Iteration, before vanishing again, as suddenly as they appeared.