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.