Imperium never ends. It transforms.
The Marian Empire, a military theocracy sustained by hierarchy, doctrine, and the careful management of truth, has endured for centuries. Vast and unassailable, its history is written as scripture and its future is guarded by advanced technology.
But now, at the empire’s edge, the old gnostic certitudes of the Gospel of Truth are in doubt, and the immemory of the Alpha Heresy is surfacing once more. Marcus, the governor of Caledon, condemns a provincial thane, and the sparks of rebellion ignite.
In the contested territory by the Nile, a routine hunt for smugglers uncovers a conspiracy that reaches into the empire’s most sacred institutions.
And imprisoned within the decaying halls of the Holy See, a young man holds a book that dares to remember an empire suppressed from history.
As forbidden ideas spread, the Marian Imperium begins to fracture. Theology becomes politics. Memory becomes treason. As an empire that has survived two thousand years faces its final reckoning, seven souls must decide if they value truth above tradition.
Sic semper tyrannis: tyranny undoes itself.
Heresy Alpha is a richly textured work of alternate history that blends politics, speculative theology, and military science. It will appeal to readers drawn to the erudite, atmospheric reimaginings of empire found in the works of James Islington, Ada Palmer, and Arkady Martine.
