Young Matis homines from Karavia manage to escape from the Holy City occupied by the Empire. Imagining themselves triumphant upon their return among their own people, they soon become disillusioned by the opprobrium that their appearance and ideas bring them. They become fugitives and form a group of Matis rebel warriors: the Hamazans. These homines find in this new way of life a way to emancipate themselves from the patriarchal straitjacket that governs the Matis Kingdom.