A kid who can't do the one thing everyone else can suddenly matters more than anyone. Rygart doesn't pilot the Golem because he's special, he pilots it because he's broken in exactly the right way. The war doesn't care about his reasons; it just needs a weapon that works.

Rygart Arrow is an outcast on the continent of Cruzon, where people can put quartz to any use they choose. Branded an un-sorcerer, he cannot control quartz at all. He still befriends Hodr and Sigyn, the future king and queen of Krisna, and Zess, younger brother of the Athens Commonwealth's Secretary of War. Years later, as war brews between Krisna and Athens, Rygart visits the capital, Binonten, and learns that his lack of sorcery lets him pilot an ancient Golem, something quartz users cannot do. When Zess leads an Athenian strike on the capital, Rygart enters the fight with his new power, hoping to heal the rift between the two nations.