Decadence,gloom,dreary ancient rites in ruined cities performed by degenerate priests in a rotting world.Clark Ashton Smith,Catherine C. Moore and Henry Kuttner,Jack Vance whit his Diyng Earth series have tried this particular genre.But Skaith is the refinement of it. And it adds a very necessary hope of salvation,and interesting story and personae.Not to mention a not so cryptic critic of communism and a prefiguration of the usefulness of supernational organisms,like Onu.