The Will of the Many (2023) is the first book in the Hierarchy trilogy, a high fantasy series from bestselling Australian author James Islington. Islington’s first fantasy series, the Licanius trilogy (2014-2019), received both critical and commercial success. The Will of the Many has received similar early praise, lauded for its intricate world-building, complex and engaging characters, and tense political intrigue.

The novel is set in a fantasy world inspired by the Roman Republic. It follows Vis Telimus, the last surviving prince of a kingdom conquered by the Catenan Republic who lives as an orphan to hide from the regime. When he is suddenly adopted by a senator to be used as a pawn, Vis finds himself entangled in several competing conspiracies, and must navigate a prestigious school for senators’ children to survive. What follows is an intense, tightly woven plot with a large cast of characters and a narrative that combines fast-paced action with philosophical examinations of Resistance and Complicity, Greed and the Corruptibility of Governance, and The Power of Friendship and Loyalty.

This study guide refers to the 2023 hardcover edition from Saga Press. Citations are for page numbers in this edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss suicide.

Plot Summary

The novel is divided into three major parts, each part focusing chronologically on a stage in Vis’s progress from orphan to Academy graduate.

During the day, Vis works in the prisons, where he monitors Sappers that drain inmates of their Will to be used by the wealthy. At night, he earns extra money in illegal fighting to escape the abusive orphanage where he is regularly beaten for his refusal to voluntarily cede his Will. One day, a stranger arrives to question a prison inmate, speaking in a dead language.

When Vis returns to the orphanage, the stranger appears again to adopt him, revealing his identity as Senator Ulciscor Telimus. Ulciscor makes a deal with Vis, offering him the protection of the Telimus name if Vis enters the Catenan Academy and uncovers the reason for Ulciscor’s brother Caeror’s death. Vis accepts. At the Academy, he trains with Lanistia, a woman who was friends with Caeror and lost her eyes in the mysterious incident that killed him.

Vis conceals his real identity: Diago, the last prince of Suus, an island kingdom conquered by the Republic three years ago. A third political power, a resistance group called the Anguis, who seek to dismantle the Republic, try to recruit Vis under threat of revealing his identity.

Vis attends a local festival with Aequa, a fellow student. There, Vis meets the Anguis leader Estevan, a former citizen of Suus. Estevan uses a mysterious weapon to murder thousands of people at the festival. Though Vis hates the Catenans, he is horrified by the senseless violence and confronts Estevan. Estevan tells Vis that he must choose a side. Then he dies by suicide, making it look as if Vis has killed him; Vis is now a target for the Anguis and a hero among the Catenans.

At the Academy, Vis meets the charming school Principalis (principal), Veridius Julii, whom Ulciscor blames for Caeror’s death. Vis also makes friends: Callidus, a brilliant boy from a prestigious family in Class Seven; Eidhin, a student from the country of Cymr who hates the Republic; and Emissa, a senator’s daughter in Class Three.

Meanwhile, Ulciscor demands that Vis investigate ruins on the island Solivagus, where the Academy is located, for evidence of Caeror’s death. Ulciscor believes Veridius is searching for ancient weapons in the ruins to help Religion (one of three ruling powers) wrest control from Military (another ruling power). While exploring one ruin, Vis discovers a building filled with the writings of a dead language and corpses with their eyes removed, just like Lanistia’s have been.

At a second site, Vis finds a chamber with a Labyrinth exactly the same as one used to train students at the Academy, where haunting figures warn him that the deadly Labyrinth is the only path to “the gate to Obiteum and Luceum” (358). The figures demonstrate the deadliness of the Labyrinth by triggering the appearance of wraiths made of obsidian that destroy them.

Away from the Academy, Vis meets with Ulciscor, who demands that Vis run the deadly Labyrinth. If he fails, Ulciscor will send him to the Sappers. Vis also discovers that Ulciscor’s wife, Relucia, is a member of the Anguis. Relucia and the Anguis demand that Vis graduate top of his class, after which he will be given a position in the government and be the Anguis’s inside man.

During vacation, Emissa, Indol, and Belli invite Vis to train with them at Indol’s father’s summer residence. To Vis’s horror, the residence is on Suus. There, Vis discovers that leaders within Military are secretly funding the Anguis and helped plan the festival attack to incite fear and take more control.

At the Academy, the end-of-year contest, the Iudicium, begins. Competing students choose two lower-level students as support. Vis recruits Callidus and Aequa for his team. While the contest is ongoing, Vis sneaks to the ruins, where he runs the Labyrinth and finds Belli’s dead body on the path. He enters a chamber claiming to be the gate and then collapses. When he wakes, he is surrounded by strange figures. One figure bites him on the arm. Strange cuts appear on his arm, spelling out words of warning that help him escape.

When he returns to his teammates, they realize that the safety teams meant to monitor the competition have been murdered and replaced by infiltrating Anguis. They split up to warn the others. Vis runs into one Anguis member who realizes that Vis has run the Labyrinth and lets him escape.

Vis tries to warn Emissa, but when she sees Vis’s bite wound, she stabs him. He survives, but on the way back to the Academy, he finds Callidus gravely injured. Callidus dies as Vis carries him back. At the Academy, the surviving students stand with Veridius. Vis vows vengeance on Veridius for Callidus’s death and then falls unconscious.

Vis wakes to find his arm has been amputated. Veridius knows that Vis has passed the Labyrinth in the ruins. He says Emissa thought he was tainted and beyond saving. He then insists that Vis does not understand what is at stake and demands that Vis request a position in Religion. Vis refuses, requesting instead to be placed in Governance (the third ruling power), where he can work with Callidus’s father.

In the Epilogue, a second Vis awakes in the chamber in the ruins and a stranger welcomes him to Luceum. Then a third Vis awakes in the same chamber, where Caeror welcomes him to Obiteum and says they must work together to survive an even larger threat.