Safehold

6 primary works • 11 total works

By Heresies Distressed

by David Weber

Published 7 July 2009

The Kingdom of Charis and the Kingdom of Chisholm have joined together, pledged to stand against the tyranny of a corrupt Church. The youthful Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm has wed King Cayleb of Charis, forging a single dynasty, a single empire, dedicated to the defense of human freedom. Crowned Empress of that empire, Sharleyan has found in Cayleb's arms the love she never dared hope for in a 'marriage of state'. In Cayleb's cause, his defiance of the ruthless Group of Four who govern mother Church, she has found the task to which she can commit her mind and her courage. It is a cause for which she was born. Yet there are things Sharleyan still does not know. Secrets Cayleb has not been permitted to share, even with her. Secrets like the true story of humanity on Safehold. Like the intricate web of lies, deception, and fabricated 'religion' which have chained humanity for almost a thousand years. Like the existence of the genocidal alien Gbaba, waiting to complete mankind's destruction should humans ever attract their attention once more.
Like the existence of a young woman, Nimue Alban, nine hundred years dead, whose heart, mind, and memories live on within the android body of the warrior-monk she knows as Merlin. And so Empress Sharleyan faces the the great challenge of her life unaware of all that task truly entails...or of how the secrets the man who loves her cannot share may threaten all they have achieved between them...and her own life.

Midst Toil and Tribulation

by David Weber

Published 18 September 2012

After centuries of stasis, the island kingdom of Charis began to defy the Church of God Awaiting. Now, after Charis' declaration of independence, the Republic of Siddermark is sliding into chaos. Vicar Clyntahn of the Church of God Awaiting has engineered a rebellion against the Lord Protector - bringing civil war at harvest time. King Cayleb of Charis, his queen Sharleyan, and Merlin Athrawes must stave off wholesale starvation in Siddermark while at the same time shipping in enough land combat units to fend off the "volunteers" from the Church's Temple Lands. And while Vicar Clyntahn is hailed in the Church for his boldness, some remember how dependent Church power is on money from Siddermark...and who wonder what will happen if Siddermark starves.

Like a Mighty Army

by David Weber

Published 4 February 2014

For centuries, the world of Safehold, last redoubt of the human race, lay under the unchallenged rule of the Church of God Awaiting. The Church permitted nothing new - no new inventions, no new understandings of the world. What no one knew was that the Church was an elaborate fraud - a high-tech system established by a rebel faction of Safehold's founders, meant to keep humanity hidden from the powerful alien race that had destroyed old Earth. Then awoke Merlyn Athrawes, cybernetic avatar of a warrior a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which Earth was lost. Monk, warrior, counsellor to princes and kings, Merlyn has one purpose: to restart the history of the too-long-hidden human race. And now the fight is thoroughly underway. The island empire of Charis has declared its independence from the Church, and with Merlyn's help has vaulted forward into a new age of steam-powered efficiency. Fending off the wounded Church, Charis has drawn more and more of the countries of Safehold to the cause of independence and self-determination. But at a heavy cost in bloodshed and loss-a cost felt by nobody more keenly that Merlyn Athrawes. The wounded Church is regrouping.
Its armies and resources are vast. The fight for humanity's future isn't over, and won't be over soon...

Hell's Foundations Quiver

by David Weber

Published 13 October 2015

Centuries ago, the human race fought its first great war against an alien race and lost. A tiny population of human beings fled to distant Safehold. Centuries later, their descendants have forgotten their history. For them, life has been an eternal Middle Ages, ruled by the Church of God Awaiting, whose secret purpose is to prevent the re-emergence of industrial civilization. But not all of Safehold's founders were on board with this plan. Those dissidents left behind their own secret legacies. One of those is Merlyn Athrawes, cybernetic avatar of one of Earth's long dead defenders, now reawakened after a thousand years to restart human progress and reclaim our place in the universe. Merlyn has intervened in the small Safeholdian realm of Charis, seeding it with ideas and innovations and helping it to rise to challenge the hegemony of the Church. It's been a long and bloody fight, but aided by a stream of inventions, breech-loading rifles, signal rockets, Claymore mines, new approaches to manufacturing and supply, Charis and its few allies seem to have finally gained the upper hand. Now major realms have begun to consider switching sides.
To all these ends, Merlyn Athrawes has been everywhere, under multiple disguises and wielding hidden powers. The secret of who and what he is has been closely held. But a new player has arrived, one who knows many secrets including Merlyn's own.

At the Sign of Triumph

by David Weber

Published 8 November 2016

The Church of God Awaiting controls the planet Safehold through luddite doctrine, deception and intimidation. Their reach is massive. Their rule is violent and merciless. And Charis, a single island realm, should have buckled under the sheer weight of the Church's expansive army. Should have. Charis is small, it will fight to the death to defend humanity's reintegration with technology. With the aide of Merlin Athrawes, the cybernetic avatar of a woman dead over a thousand years, Charis proves a formidable rebellion does not lie in numbers. Pushed to the brink of defeat, the Church desperately tries to maintain control, willingly embracing technology that jeopardizes the foundation of their religion. Safehold is poised for the final battle between freedom and subjugation.

Through Fiery Trials

by David Weber

Published 8 January 2019

Those on the side of progressing humanity through advanced technology have finally triumphed over their oppressors.The unholy war between the small but mighty island realm of Charis and the radical, luddite Church of God's Awaiting has finally come to an end. However, even though a provisional veil of peace has fallen over human colonies, many secrets of Safehold's past still remain unearthed.

With new alliances forged and old regimes fractured, Merlin - the cybernetic avatar of Earth's last survivor and immortal beacon to humanity - and the colonies of Safehold have many adventures ahead in the continuation of David Weber's New York Times bestselling Safehold series.

How Firm a Foundation

by David Weber

Published 13 September 2011

The Charisian Empire, born in war, has always known it must fight for its very survival. What most of its subjects don't know even now, however, is how much more it's fighting for. Emperor Cayleb, Empress Sharleyan, Merlin Athrawes, and their innermost circle of most trusted advisers do know. And they know if they lose it will be far worse than their own deaths and the destruction of all they know and love. For five years, Charis has survived all the Church of God Awaiting and the corrupt men who control it have thrown at the island empire. The price has been high and paid in blood. Despite its chain of hard-fought naval victories, Charis is still on the defensive. It can hold its own at sea, but if it is to survive, it must defeat the Church upon its own ground. Yet how does it invade the mainland and take the war to a foe whose population outnumbers its own fifteen to one? How does it prevent that massive opponent from rebuilding its fleets and attacking yet again? Charis has no answer to those questions, but needs to find one...quickly.

Safehold Boxed Set 1

by David Weber

Published 26 August 2014

A Mighty Fortress: A Safehold Novel 4

by David Weber

Published 13 April 2010

Young Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he's won the most crushing naval victories in human history. He's smashed a hostile alliance of no less than five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm. Cayleb and Sharleyan have created the Charisian Empire, the greatest naval power in the history of Safehold, and they've turned Charis into a place of refuge for all who treasure freedom.Their success may prove short-lived. The Church of God Awaiting, which controls most of Safehold, has decreed their destruction. Mother Church's entire purpose is to prevent the very things to which Charis is committed. Since the first attempt to crush the heretics failed, the Church has no choice but to adopt some of the hated Charisian innovations for themselves. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.But there are still matters about which the Church knows nothing, including Cayleb and Sharleyan's adviser, friend, and guardian-the mystic warrior-monk named Merlin Athrawes. Merlin knows all about battles against impossible odds, because he is in fact the cybernetic avatar of a young woman named Nimue Alban, who died a thousand years before. As Nimue, Merlin saw the entire Terran Federation go down in fire and slaughter at the hands of a foe it could not defeat. He knows that Safehold is the last human planet in existence, and that the stasis the Church was created to enforce will be the human race's death sentence if it is allowed to stand.The juggernaut is rumbling down on Charis, but Merlin Athrawes and a handful of extraordinary human beings stand in its path. The Church is about to discover just how potent the power of human freedom truly is.

Off Armageddon Reef

by David Weber

Published 9 January 2007

With humankind reduced to a single colony on the world of Safehold, the human rulers of the planet, in an effort to preserve the remnants of their industrial civilization, build a religion designed to hide the colony by keeping its society medieval.

By Schism Rent Asunder

by David Weber

Published 22 July 2008

In the nine centuries since the creation of the world, the Church of God Awaiting has grown all-powerful as the keeper of men's souls. It rules the planet of Safehold with the imprimatur of God Himself . . . and with an iron fist.

Lately, the island kingdom of Charis has rejected the Church's authority. Charis has repelled the Church's first attack and is preparing to strike back. Yet not all those who support the Church are corrupt, and the Church stands ready to use the faith and belief of those blameless souls for its own cynical ends. The gauntlet has been cast down, and full-scale religious war - the ugliest war of all - looms over Safehold.

To prevail, King Cayleb of Charis has one ally with resources not even he can imagine: the mysterious warrior monk called Merlin, who holds the secret knowledge Charis may need to survive. Merlin is Cayleb's adviser, protector, and friend . . . and, secretly, also the cybernetic avatar of a young woman named Nimue Alban, who died before the day of creation itself. Who was born on a murdered world called 'Earth'.