The White Horde - Shadowlands, #1

An epic fantasy, Sword-and-Sandals tale of an alternate and ancient Middle East, filled with action, intrigue, and a dash of romance. The old gods were dying. A legendary war between the gods and the Daemo Princes had left Terra so devastated that the world had radiated magic for thousands of years. Yet now, Terra was finally shaking off the effects of that conflict and the gods, finding the mana they needed to survive was drying up, were becoming desperate.
The Empire of Old Etrusca was dying, shattered into pieces from a vicious civil war as barbarian hordes ravaged their borders, with only the newly forged Eastern Empire holding fast. They needed time to rebuild, but the Sasnayam empire on their eastern flank was gathering strength and would soon unleash war. So in desperation, the emperor decided that a champion of the arena would be changed by forbidden magic into a Reaver Knight, to entice the White Horde into attacking the Sasnayam's eastern satrapies and buy the empire the time it needed.
Their plan was a long gamble, likely doomed to failure, and would certainly cause the deaths of everyone involved. That it might succeed beyond all expectations and become their worst nightmare, never even crossed their minds.