From the introduction: The Great City walks above the world, rising from the back of a mountain-sized spider-creature, epitome of the art of the entomosynitheist.1 Its aristocratic youth revel in stately pavanes and sprightly galliards while around them proceeds the work of the city. Wealthy families sponsor the experimental endeavors of learned scholar-breeders in return for cadres of newer and better servile insects: hardier servants, fiercer warriors, more beautiful and elaborate ornamentals. Diligent and perspicacious merchants rent or buy the servile insects for their labor, or use them to produce raw materials: exotic silks, medicinal venoms of great potency, carapace-carvings both light and strong.