The Final Battle is Here. When Arthur found a magic sword in a pawnshop, he never thought it would make him into the Builder of Legend and thrust him into the forefront of the fight with the Darkness. Now, on a mission only he can complete, Arthur and his girls will have to hold the lines against the Darkness’s final assault while defeating the four horsemen, freeing God from captivity, and of course, confronting the Empress. Sure, the odds might be stacked against him, but if there’s anyone who can do it, it’s the penniless orphan turned King of Heaven and Hell.
Enter the Darkness. Kill Everyone. Save the World. When Arthur Curie learns of a chink in the Darkness's armor, he knows it's his chance to turn the tide in a millennia old conflict. There's just one problem. To take that chance, he'll have to risk his entire army, side with a former enemy, and defeat forces of Darkness far greater than he's ever faced before. But you know what they say, no guts, no glory, right?
Arthur never expected to wind up in Hell. At least, not because he found an ancient sword in a pawnshop. To make matters worse, Hell isn't as he thought. It's a desolate wasteland under siege by an all-consuming void known as the Darkness. Now, he's trapped with no way home, a ragtag army of women, and a sword whose only power is to modify the abilities of those around him. Not exactly winning odds. Worse, if the Darkness isn't stopped, not only will it devour Hell, but Earth will be next on the menu.
For the first time in millenia, the all-consuming Darkness has been pushed back. Thanks to Arthur and his ragtag army of women, there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel. Or there would have been if Mammon, Princess of Greed hadn’t awakened. Powerful enough to level a town with the blink of an eye and ally to no one, Mammon has one goal and one goal only. To own everything in Hell, starting with Arthur and his friends. And if he can’t stop her from taking over while fending off attacks from Hell’s ruling class, well, let’s just say that his chance to stop the Darkness will slip from slim to none.
On March 13, 1697, Spanish troops from Yucatán attacked and occupied Nojpeten, the capital of the Maya people known as Itzas, the inhabitants of the last unconquered native New World kingdom. This political and ritual center--located on a small island in a lake in the tropical forests of northern Guatemala--was densely covered with temples, royal palaces, and thatched houses, and its capture represented a decisive moment in the final chapter of the Spanish conquest of the Mayas. The capture of Nojpeten climaxed more than two years of preparation by the Spaniards, after efforts by the military forces and Franciscan missionaries to negotiate a peaceful surrender with the Itzas had been rejected by the Itza ruling council and its ruler Ajaw Kan Ek. The conquest, far from being final, initiated years of continued struggle between Yucatecan and Guatemalan Spaniards and native Maya groups for control over the surrounding forests. Despite protracted resistance from the native inhabitants, thousands of them were forced to move into mission towns, though in 1704 the Mayas staged an abortive and bloody rebellion that threatened to recapture Nojpeten from the Spaniards. The first complete account of the conquest of the Itzas to appear since 1701, this book details the layers of political intrigue and action that characterized every aspect of the conquest and its aftermath. The author critically reexamines the extensive documentation left by the Spaniards, presenting much new information on Maya political and social organization and Spanish military and diplomatic strategy. This is not only one of the most detailed studies of any Spanish conquest in the Americas but also one of the most comprehensive reconstructions of an independent Maya kingdom in the history of Maya studies. In presenting the story of the Itzas, the author also reveals much about neighboring lowland Maya groups with whom the Itzas interacted, often violently.
A global communications network, social media, and cheap personal communications devices are bait for an elaborate Sacorsti trap, the post-Industrial tribe on Sarun-Caltease walks straight into. The Lady Myra vin Zonulasse is part of a team of commandos charged with ensuring the trap closes. As a very wise man once said; "Politics ruins everything", and the mission to prepare the Calteasean people for Sacorsti colonization and subjugation is no exception. The Sacorst fleet, however, remains prepared for any eventuality. Its most talented and aggressive Battle Phalanx commander is ready, willing, and able to kick the Calteaseans into line if it comes to it. It does. Holding 56 Heads-of-State prisoner on a lush tropical estate, Myra and her team must hold out long enough for reinforcements to fight their way through to them. More challenges arise when the armed forces of the Calteasean nations prove tougher than anyone thought. As so often happens in great events, random chance changes everything.
The Roman Empire has been a source of inspiration and a model for imitation for Western empires practically since the moment Rome fell. Yet, as Julia Hell shows in The Conquest of Ruins, what has had the strongest grip on aspiring imperial imaginations isn’t that empire’s glory but its fall—and the haunting monuments left in its wake. Hell examines centuries of European empire-building—from Charles V in the sixteenth century and Napoleon’s campaigns of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries to the atrocities of Mussolini and the Third Reich in the 1930s and ’40s—and sees a similar fascination with recreating the Roman past in the contemporary image. In every case—particularly that of the Nazi regime—the ruins of Rome seem to represent a mystery to be solved: how could an empire so powerful be brought so low? Hell argues that this fascination with the ruins of greatness expresses a need on the part of would-be conquerors to find something to ward off a similar demise for their particular empire.
