Nickolas J. Spradlin

This series tells the story of two families reaching for high station in First Century Judea. In their quest for power and influence, they are bitterly opposed by the most determined resistance fighters, who seek the ouster of the Roman Empire from Judaea. One family, the Nildarpas, are Romans. The family’s youngest male member, Tuscan, is charged by the Roman emperor with the task of gathering information to keep the Empire ahead of its enemies in Judea and the surrounding regions. The esteemed title granted to him is that of Chief Information Gatherer (CIG), and with this title he will oversee the newly established Information Gathering Department (IGD) that is headquartered in Jerusalem. The second family, a group of mercenaries known as the Shadows, become as brothers to each other and eventually into a special operations unit for the Roman Information Gathering Department. What the Shadows don’t know is that their services to the CIG have begun at as the start of Judea’s Messianic Age, where Messiah after Messiah deifies himself, each believing he can end Rome’s occupation and usher in the theocratic rule of old. This story focuses on a new clandestine agency placed in Judea to help keep Rome one step ahead those they occupy during the expansion of their empire. Such a task leaves the CIG and the Shadows immeasurably challenged by the various religious factions of Judea and other mysterious and violent elements of resistance from its surrounding regions. Shadows is a novel about the proud and arrogant Roman Empire and the citizens of the territory they have conquered and who seek to vanquish them from their land. It is told from the perspective of the Romans and their Shadow Warriors as well as those who seek the end of Roman rule where it does not belong.