Description

[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

In the Empire of Arcadia, loyalty is a currency, ambition a blade, and obedience a mask.

Hundreds of years ago, a blind messiah unified humanity. His descendants rule still, worshipped as divine, their Empire spanning stars. But empires rot from within.

The story followsVyncent, a masked admiral of common blood whose loyalty seems absolute and whose methods are monstrous. He ends wars in silence and shadow — and his latest victory has left nobles awed, frightened… and circling like vultures.

On the imperial capital of Arcadia, as the fleets return, the court awakens.Adrial del Valtieri, master manipulator, begins assembling a hidden bloc of powerful lords.Crassian von Draeven, a war hero given command of the Empire’s largest invasion force, finds himself increasingly isolated. AndSeverin Dain, the Emperor’s unseen hand, walks the ballrooms and back alleys alike, hunting the truth behind Adrial’s quiet rebellion.

The Imperium teeters between war and stagnation, loyalty and rot. But beneath the politics, something ancient stirs — something long-banished — and all the masks in the Empire may soon fall.

Community Reviews(1)

TotallyBadGamerRoyal Road

★★★★★ 5.0

This is an absolute top notch story. If you've ever read Tolkien or Brandon Sanderson, When this story talks about its lore, it's background, it's worldbuilding, you will feel the same feeling of incredible depth that every master of epic fantasy works so hard to build.
It's not all original, but it doesn't need to be. It doesn't bother reinventing the wheel, but it DOES serve you the equivalent of a luxury sports car. And the original elements of the story in no way fall behind. I know for a fact he cannot have as much experience as any of the greats, because I'm his friend in real life and he's my age, but he seems set to write something of equal grandeur.
The author is a master of conciseness and subtlety, which may throw you off. You absolutely have to pay attention to every single word, because this story moves faster in a sentence than some do in a page. And yet with such a fast pace the author manages to still make the story feel so dense you will feel you have read the contents of an entire small novella in the span of a few chapters. Reading between the lines and connecting them to previous ones is a must, because the story does not slow down to explain itself to you, it lets you find out for yourself.
Whether the author wants to show you a down-to-earth human perspective, or a grander one on the scale of cities, battles, or even entire historical events, he always hooks you in just the same. The plot is amazingly gripping, and you will either never see an event coming, or the author will foreshadow it in a way that you will expect the plot development and STILL have your socks blown off. It's enjoyable, it's exciting, and it WILL force you to think.
The characters are definitely the best part of this novel. The author is amazing with character introductions - You'll know more about a character than you do about yourself by the time you've even registered that the number of named characters has grown by 1, and it doesn't take the author a wall of text long