Ok, since there seemed to be some interest in me doing this, I'll give it a try.  Never done one of these before.  I mean I've read RPGs, but never for any reason other then to play them, and certainly never as a summary for others.

Not sure how often I'll update, but I'll try to get through the books.

So we will start off with

Providence A Hero's Prologue
The Hero can be Poet, Prophet, King or Priest or what you will, according to the kind of world he finds himself born into. --Thomas Carlyle
We begin with that quote and an introduction explaining what a role playing game is, and that it is possible to play a game where the characters are heroes, and fun can be had in a world of optimism, and not everything needs to be dark and depressing.  The setting is a world of magic and mystery, full of super-heroic fantasy.
If you have read an RPG, you know how these introductions go.  Then we get to the opening short story
The Burden of Responsibility.
Prologue
The story is told from the point of view of the Regent Caiylus.  She is the head of the Alliance of Kings.  Each city state has a king and they all look to her.  She is worried about the announcement she plans to make tomorrow, and is worried about how others will react.  She is a member of Troupial Eagle, a proud warrior race of the people of this land.  They were all sent here after a great war 2000 years prior on the world Yas'Wail against the creature Elothorin and its avatars.  Fighting along side them were their gods, who died, revealing they were simply more powerful mortals. This resulted in the death of religion.
While she is fretting over her decision, she is absentmindedly playing with her crown, when in walks King Raldowin, a former warrior uncomfortable with the mantle of a King, and a friend.
They exchange barbs about the proper behavior of a noble, he about playing with the symbol of her office, and she for entering a lady's chamber uninvited.  He reassures her that the alliance backs her decision, and more importantly HE believes in her.
Act 1
Cut to the Stage of Kings, a marble balcony hanging off of a spire holding the city-state Cliff-Spider. Around here are the other members of the Alliance of Kings, and down, below the balcony are tens of thousands of the peoples of their nations.  
She announces that 2000 years prior their mothers and fathers fought in a war they believed was right, along side their gods.  Their gods were killed, and they were defeated, and exiled to this jungle cavern.  Where they came as prisoners, they fought and freed themselves from the cruel yoke of the Wardens, and forged new empires, and are once more the children of their own destiny.
However, there is a vast rip in the world, spilling forth (I'm quoting a lot of the descriptions here so don't blame me for the purple prose), vast waters that are filling the cavern. One city-state has already fallen to the waters.  Another wound fills the air with volcanic fire and smoke, threatening to collapse one of the great spires holding up the roof of the world.
Monsters they can fight, this is a threat too great for them to face, so they must, with a heavy heart, find a way home to Yas'Wail.  This is not something that the Alliance can do alone, all of them shall have to work together, and so she has sent for the Guilds.
This gets the populous excited because most respect and fear the guilds for their powers.  Where the Nobles of the Alliance tend to be born into power, membership in the Guilds is open to any and all who have abilities that can be put to use in that guild.
One by one each of the Guild leaders steps forward and pledges to serve the Regent in the journey home. (the guild leaders and the function of each guild in society is described as well, but I'll save that for later)
After each leader has sworn their pledge, the Regent announces that they know the location of 3 of the gates they came through even if they can't be opened. That the secrets of the gates must be answered, this will require them going to areas that have yet to be explored.  She now calls on the leaders to agree to assist the citizens in this task.  Everyone (except the leader of the chirurgions immediately agrees).
Act 2
The Regent retires to the Regent's Hall, a place set aside for the Regent that exists in every City-state, because as one who is set as head of the alliance, she has citizenship in all city states equally.  It is here she receives people who pledge to assist, who are not members of the guilds. The 2 of note, so important they are mentioned by name, are a member if the D'Shau Monks, and one of the Slaywinds.  The 2 are the heads of their religious orders.
The D'Shau monks are makers of crystal weapons, that are as strong as metal, and the Slaywinds are archer-palidins who assist any who are in need.
As representatives both groups agree to pledge to assist the search for the secrets of the gates.  However, the alliance has one more thing to ask of the Slaywinds, they control a city near one of the known gates, and the alliance asks that the Slaywinds allow the incursion into their lands when the gates are finally opened. The head of the order seems surprised, but not insulted, that this even needs to be asked, and agrees without hesitation.
Epilogue
The Regent prepares to rest for the evening, when she senses a presence in her chambers, Warden Elarian.  Where all the other Wardens of the city states had allowed their prisoners to go free, and assume something approaching a normal life, only he had stayed true to the task assigned to him.  With him are Ravagers (no idea what they are, but their name is capitalized so it must be important).
She tells him to call off the Ravagers, or she will turn them to ash.  He assures her that he is just there to talk.  Normally he would like to fight her, but he has more important things to do.  He knows of the plan to return to their homeworld, and is all in favor of it.  He would like nothing more then to see them all beaten and banished here like their ancestors.  But he knows they will need help, his help.  He has agents that can counter the magics of the antagonistic Lost Tribes, and in exchange he wants the knowledge to open the Gate that lies in his possession.  He tells her to either agree to his demands or he will simply let their enemies kill those he has prisoner, while he escapes with the rest of the people fleeing through the gates.
She, reluctantly, agrees and after his magical sending vanishes from her chambers she tells herself that she will find a way to end his threat.