Ex Quattuor, Unus — From Four, One

Novus ImperiumA Dystopian Trilogy by Scoonie Baker

Obedience is survival.

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// The Trilogy

The Books

Three books. One empire. Nothing stays hidden.

Book cover for The Ascendants: Children of the Empire, a dystopian dark academia novel by Scoonie Baker featuring dramatic imagery of the empire

The Ascendants: Children of the Empire

Book One · The Novus Imperium Trilogy

The Northlands Service Academy forges its youngest citizens into instruments of the Empire.

For three years, Avis Thalyn has done everything required to survive it.

Disciplined. Loyal. Invisible.

She follows every rule. Passes every test. Buries every question she was never meant to ask. Her father's warnings were simple: keep your head down, suppress what you feel, trust no one with what you know.

She has been a perfect student of silence.

But when the Calibration Trials begin, the Empire starts watching — and Avis can no longer hide what sets her apart.

The careful architecture of her life begins to fracture. Long-buried truths about her family and the Empire itself start to surface. What she is may be more dangerous than disobedience. It may be something the Empire was built to destroy.

Her Deca, ten cadets forged by three years of shared survival, are the only ones she might trust. But in a world where obedience is sacred and doubt is treason, trust is its own kind of risk.

In the Empire, being different isn't just dangerous.

It's erasure.

The Ascendants: Children of the Empire is Book One of The Novus Imperium Trilogy, a dystopian saga of power, identity, and the cost of becoming what the Empire demands.

II
Book Two
Title forthcoming
The Novus Imperium Trilogy

Book Two

Book Two · The Novus Imperium Trilogy

Coming Spring 2027
III
Book Three
Title forthcoming
The Novus Imperium Trilogy

Book Three

Book Three · The Novus Imperium Trilogy

Coming Winter 2027

// The Empire Chooses Who You Become

Characters of Novus Imperium

Explore the factions. Click any character to learn their story.

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Vigil Deca
Ten cadets. Four years. Loyal to the Empire and to each other.
Avis Thalyn character portrait
Avis Thalyn
She survives by being invisible — until the Empire sees her.
Third-Year Disciple
Sorcha Vale character portrait
Sorcha Vale
She doesn't fear the Empire — she refuses to bend to it.
Third-Year Disciple
Axel Hansen character portrait
Axel Hansen
He was built to defend the Empire. Not to doubt it.
Third-Year Disciple
Reeva Reyes character portrait
Reeva Reyes
She mistakes power for belonging.
Third-Year Disciple
Keller Doss character portrait
Keller Doss
The sharpest wit in the room. Always.
Third-Year Disciple
Claire Brightwell character portrait
Claire Brightwell
Precision is its own kind of compassion.
Third-Year Disciple
Beckett Halestrom character portrait
Beckett Halestrom
Remembers everything. Worries about all of it.
Third-Year Disciple
Pike Arden character portrait
Pike Arden
He doesn't rise. He endures.
Third-Year Disciple
Linus Hale character portrait
Linus Hale
Every room is a stage. He's never not performing.
Third-Year Disciple
Tate Brannan character portrait
Tate Brannan
Knows everyone. Trusted by everyone. Underestimated by everyone.
Third-Year Disciple
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Other Decas
Cadets from across the Academy — and the lineages that walk among them.
Lux Veynar character portrait
Lux Veynar
Cruelty made theatrical.
Third-Year DiscipleBlood of the State
Lucian Veynar character portrait
Lucian Veynar
Mercy is inefficient. He wastes nothing.
Third-Year DiscipleBlood of the State
Rowan Mercer character portrait
Rowan Mercer
Forbidden in all the ways that matter.
Third-Year DiscipleFerrum Deca
Maren Sorrel character portrait
Maren Sorrel
Turns propaganda into weapons framed by art.
Third-Year DiscipleCorvus Deca
Persius Jones character portrait
Persius Jones
His threat to the Empire hides behind a smile.
Third-Year DiscipleCorvus Deca
♛
Sovereign Order
The dynasty that rules Novus Imperium. Their word is law. Their lineage is sacred.
Cassian Dravus character portrait
Cassian Dravus
He inherited an Empire and will hold it at all costs.
Sovereign Primarch
Livia Dravus character portrait
Livia Dravus
Her eyes don't observe. They record.
Mater Imperium
Aurelius Dravus character portrait
Aurelius Dravus
He is everything the Empire pretends to be.
Heir
Silas Dravus character portrait
Silas Dravus
Where others enforce power, he measures its cost.
2nd in Line
Severus Dravus character portrait
Severus Dravus
To be noticed by him is to be chosen or destroyed.
3rd in Line
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Legacy of the Empire
The figures whose history, choices, and bloodlines shape the present.
Provost Lorne character portrait
Provost Lorne
She watches Avis the way someone watches a promise they intend to keep.
AcademySecond in Command
Arch-Prefect Cain character portrait
Arch-Prefect Cain
Compassion is the first step toward disorder.
AcademyDoctrinal Overseer
Corvin Thalyn character portrait
Corvin Thalyn
A father's love disguised as distance.
Senior ScholariAvis's Father
High Cleric Rhys character portrait
High Cleric Rhys
It does not reward loyalty. It rewards surrender.
AcademySenior Ritual Examiner
Professor Merritt character portrait
Professor Merritt
If something makes no sense, assume it benefits someone.
AcademyCivic Administration
Quade Renar character portrait
Quade Renar
He has never chosen wrong. He is waiting for the day he has to.
Adjutant of the Clerisy
— Classified Transmission —

The Empire is watching.

But not everyone who watches believes.

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Ex Quattuor, Unus

// The World

Novus Imperium

Year 2399 — Post-collapse North America

Built on the ruins of a continent shattered by climate catastrophe, seismic collapse, and political greed, Novus Imperium rules what remains.

Four Confederations kneel to a single Sovereign Primarch in the capital of Novus Roma, raised on the bones of old Washington, D.C.

Obedience is virtue.

Dissent is treason.

Surveillance begins at birth.

The chosen children are sent to the Academies of Allegiance — part military institution, part indoctrination machine — where they are stripped, shaped, and reforged into instruments of the state.

But beneath the doctrine.

Beneath the pageantry.

Beneath the illusion of control —

Something older than the Empire is waking. And it does not intend to serve.

The Northlands
Water · Endurance
The Southlands
Fire · Strength
The Westlands
Air · Wisdom
The Midlands
Earth · Order

// Orders & Lineages

The Orders of Novus Imperium

Every citizen serves. Every order has its place. The hierarchy is sacred.

Ex Quattuor Unus - Emblem of Novus Imperium featuring the four flames representing the Confederations
Sovereign Order emblem
Sovereign Order
Power is inherited
The Royal Family. Supreme authority over all of Novus Imperium. They claim divine right through the Covenant of the Four Flames. Their word is law. Their lineage is sacred. Their power is not questioned. Only obeyed.
Blood of the State emblem
Blood of the State
Power is preserved
The Empire's chosen lineage. Not royal — but powerful enough that it doesn't matter. Families who survived the collapse with power intact, and were rewarded for it. They do not rule. They do not serve. They are protected. They move above consequence and beneath the Sovereign — untouchable, visible, and everywhere. Wealth is their inheritance. Access is their birthright. They are the proof that the system works. And the reason it never changes.
Templar Order emblem
Templar Order
Power is enforced
The Empire's military arm. Seven divisions — from the infantry of the Sword of the State to the aerial hunters of the Iron Wings, from the feared Crimson Lances to the classified unit operating within the Eye of the State. They do not debate power. They enforce it — by blade and by blood.
The Clerisy emblem
The Clerisy
Power is believed
Doctrine made flesh. Faith and propaganda fused into a single instrument — part religion, part imperial cult. They do not believe what they preach. They believe in what it produces. Loyalty is not divinely inspired. It is engineered.
Scholari Order emblem
Scholari Order
Power is understood
The Empire's keepers of knowledge. They are the scientists and innovators — from machines to medicine. Every invention and every system that shapes understanding comes through them. Knowledge is their currency. Silence is its cost. And what they are building may one day decide who truly holds power.
Civic Order emblem
Civic Order
Power is administered
The machinery of the Empire. Administrators, logisticians, and bureaucrats who control water, energy, food, and census. The Grain Guilds move unseen beneath them. Whoever controls the supply… controls the Empire. They just haven't said it out loud.
Voice of the State emblem
Voice of the State
Power is seen
The Empire's narrative. Propaganda, art, and media — fully controlled. Every story told. Every image shown. Every memory curated. They do not reflect reality. They define it. What people see… becomes what people believe.
Order of Stone and Seed emblem
Order of Stone & Seed
Power is sustained
The foundation of everything. Laborers, farmers, builders — the lowest tier. They feed the Empire. They maintain it. They are told they are essential. They are also expendable. And the system is already learning how to replace them.

// The Author

About the Author

Scoonie Baker, author of The Novus Imperium Trilogy dystopian dark academia series

Scoonie Baker

Scoonie Baker is a storyteller drawn to the architecture of worlds — how power is built, how it is maintained, and how it fractures. A lifelong student of history, particularly the rise and fall of ancient Rome, Scoonie is fascinated by the rituals, hierarchies, and political theater that defined empires. That fascination pulses through every page, shaping stories where legacy, loyalty, and control are not just themes but forces that govern entire societies.

In Scoonie's work, the past is never past. Roman echoes — ceremony, conquest, spectacle — are woven into future landscapes, creating worlds that feel at once mythic and inevitable. The result is fiction built on a central belief: that history does not repeat itself, but it does remember.

Her debut dystopian series explores a society where identity is assigned, loyalty is enforced, and power is inherited — but never secure. Through characters navigating rigid systems of control, Baker examines questions of autonomy, surveillance, class, and resistance with sharp, disciplined prose and immersive world-building that places readers directly inside the machinery of an empire that feels disturbingly real.

She is, at her core, a builder of worlds — and a quiet architect of the questions that will outlast them.

// The Forge

Merchandise

Wear your allegiance.

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The Forge Is Heating

Official Novus Imperium Trilogy merchandise is in development. Confederation insignia, Academy gear, and artifacts from the world of Novus Imperium — coming soon.

Apparel
Prints
Insignia
Collectibles

// Get In Touch

Contact

For media inquiries, interview requests, event bookings, or collaboration opportunities:

[email protected]