Rome, the greatest empire the world has ever known, limitless in breadth and power, magnificent in its glory! But something evil, ancient and unknowable gnaws at the heart of the empire. Dark gods, trapped for centuries in thrice-warded tombs, have been disturbed by Roman plunderers. A secret war is fought daily between those who would harness this strange power for themselves, and those who fear it signals the very end of the empire.
Across the sea, roused from eternal slumber by a world awash with war, by omens and pagan slaughter, a Great Old One waits for the way to be opened. A cosmic terror that man was not meant to know. Those who know its name tremble, and only the very brave-or very foolish-incant it for their own ends.
They whisper it in darkness; they cry it from atop blasted hills; they scream it to the raging oceans. "Cthulhu..."

Mark Latham is a writer, editor and games designer from Staffordshire, UK. After graduating with an MA in English literature from the University of Sheffield, Mark went on to become the editor of White Dwarf magazine, and then the managing editor of Games Workshop's games development team, before finally becoming a full-time author of novels, short stories and games. A keen amateur historian, Mark is fascinated by the nineteenth century, leading to the production of the popular tabletop games Legends of the Old West, Trafalgar and Waterloo for Warhammer Historical.