In a long-planned, perfectly executed coup, the Academies of Eloesus overthrow the Imperial government and transport a foreign army to the Empire's shores, intending to remake the nation according to their utopian vision. As cities fall and the nation slips toward certain annihilation, the lone voice of Imperium calls out for a renewed rise of an empire, and a deluge of traitors' blood.

The fifth and final novel of the Imperial Chronicles series, which began in Unconquered Son.