0.5. The Aegis and the Oasis
After consulting the oracle at Siwa during his conquest of Egypt, Alexander the Great crosses the western desert with Hephaestion and a small company. Their journey is interrupted by forces from Nubia and by evidence that sacred objects remembered in different religious traditions may be real…
1. The Ark and the Empire
After Julius Caesar’s assassination, Rome fractures between Octavian, Mark Antony and the surviving defenders of the Republic. Antony’s alliance with Cleopatra draws the struggle towards Egypt, while Caesarion and Cleopatra’s other children become living claims to political legitimacy. Behind the civil wars, Juba of Numidia searches…
2. The Spear and the Storm
Following the fall of Alexandria and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, their children are carried to Rome as captives. Cleopatra Selene survives and is married to Juba of Numidia, an alliance intended to bind two royal heirs to Augustus’s new imperial order. When Augustus campaigns…
3. The Ring and the Ruin
The Ark of the Covenant has been removed from Egypt to Petra, but the guardians who protect it are pursued by enemies who already possess other Shards. Juba II and Cleopatra Selene confront the consequences of powers released during the earlier struggle, while Tiberius, heir to…