Lania Rosfara never wanted the Sun Throne. A soldier's soldier, born in the mining dust of Sanhathos and forged by a decade of war, she was meant to be the rebellion's sword—not its crown. No longer the rebellion’s weapon, the People’s Defender, the Lioness of Sol now sits chained to a throne and tasked with leading the empire, whether she likes it or not. 

She doesn't like it.

Surrounded by enemies wearing the faces of allies, a War Council that views her as an obstacle, and a shadowy intelligence organization that has been pulling the empire's strings for a generation, Lania is learning that running an empire is a different kind of war. One with no clean victories and no honorable deaths. 

And then the Septids come. 

An alien threat of extinction-level scale is moving through the outer systems, and Lania is the only thing standing between humanity and annihilation—if her own people don't destroy her first. 

Humanity Defined is the first book in a trilogy about power, grief, and what it costs to fight for something worth saving.