End of the 8th century. The King of the Franks, Charlemagne, dreaming of the title of Emperor of the West, wages a long and brutal war against the pagan Saxons. The Polabian Slavs, neighboring the Saxons, are also drawn into the bloody confrontation, overwhelmed by their own inter-tribal discord. The Slavs also involve their neighbors in these feuds: thus the princes of the Obodrites, ready to exchange their fatherly gods for Christ for the sake of victory over the enemy, turn to the king of the Franks. Their longtime rivals, the Velet-Lutichs, are looking for help in the lands of the ferocious Normans.