Written by Stacia Stark, We Who Will Die (2025) is a romantasy novel that follows Arvelle Dacien, a former gladiatorial champion who is forced back into the arena by a powerful vampire who holds the cure for her younger brother’s deadly illness. To save her brother, Arvelle must compete in a series of deadly trials to join the emperor’s elite guard, with the ultimate goal of assassinating the emperor himself. The novel, which is the first installment in the Sunder series, explores The Moral Compromises of Survival as Arvelle navigates a brutal world and struggles with The Enduring Weight of Unresolved Grief and The Corrupting Influence of Power within this vampiric empire.

Stark is a best-selling author known for her popular romantasy books, including the Kingdom of Lies series, which was nominated twice for the Goodreads Choice Awards. The world of We Who Will Die is heavily inspired by the gladiatorial games, stark social hierarchies, and political intrigue of ancient Rome, which Stark researched extensively. This historical framework is blended with fantasy elements, including magically talented humans, warring gods, and mythical creatures.

This guide refers to the 2025 first hardcover edition published by Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, illness, death, death by suicide, animal death, physical abuse, emotional abuse, addiction, substance use, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Arvelle Dacien, a former champion of the gladiatorial competition known as the Sands, now works as a bodyguard so that she can support her two younger brothers, Gerith and Evren, and buy the life-saving lung tonics that keep Evren’s debilitating sickness at bay. Her family has lived in poverty ever since her uncle stole the prize money that she won six years ago in the Sands. The narrative later reveals that during that competition, Arvelle’s best friend, Kassia, was killed, devastating both Arvelle and Kassia’s father, Leon. Now, Arvelle struggles to make a basic living in a realm where a vampiric emperor and his elite govern with cruelty, supported by factions of “sigilmarked” humans who have magical abilities of varying degrees. Those with bronze “sigils” on their foreheads have lesser power than those with silver or gold sigils. As a sigilmarked human matures, their sigil—and their power—grows. Although Arvelle has a gold sigil, her power has never grown, and her talents have not manifested; she assumes that they never will.

After fending off a threat to her client Gaius, Arvelle discovers that all the apothecaries have been bought out of the lung tonics that Evren so desperately needs. She is then confronted by a powerful vampire, Bran, who reveals that he bought up all the medicine. He tells Arvelle that he will give her the tonics and send Evren to be cured by healers in the northern territory of Nesonias—but only if Arvelle competes in the Sundering (the trials for the emperor’s elite Praesidium Guard) and then assassinates Emperor Vallius Corvus. Arvelle initially refuses Bran’s offer, but when Evren later suffers a near-fatal attack, she accepts the deal in order to save his life. Bran shackles her with a magical bond that prevents her from betraying him; he then threatens to kill her brothers if she flees. With only hours before her departure, Arvelle contacts the grieving Leon, the “guardant” (trainer) who once drilled both her and Kassia in preparation for the Sands. Despite their years of estrangement, Arvelle manipulates Leon into accompanying her to the ludus (the training school beneath the arena).

Arvelle and Leon travel to the capital while her brothers are taken north by another vampire, Elva. The sight of the arena triggers painful memories of Kassia’s death, and she must come to terms with the fact that she is now a “gladian” (gladiator). At the ludus, Arvelle befriends a fellow gladian named Maeva Virnia, but she is immediately targeted by two other competitors, Baldric and Hester Volker. As cousins of the woman who killed Kassia and who died in the same bout, the Volkers are now seeking revenge for their kinswoman’s death.

Arvelle also has a hostile first encounter with the Primus—the armored, anonymous leader of the emperor’s elite guard, the imperius. Her life as a gladian begins with a brutal display of power when the emperor’s sadistic eldest son, the vampire Rorrik Corvus, publicly executes a gladian whom he accuses of being a spy.

As the harsh and unforgiving Leon begins Arvelle’s training, she is injured when Hester uses magic to make her fall from a rope. Troubled by an old ankle injury, she is ashamed to realize just how out of shape she is compared to the other gladians. Later, while trying to find the healers, Arvelle stumbles upon a network of secret corridors and meets Jorah, the steward of these secret places. His directions lead her through a hidden garden, where she catches a glimpse of Rorrik with a captive wyvern; Rorrik catches sight of her just before she flees, and she fears repercussions from the adventure.

At a social event for gladians to attract powerful sponsors, Arvelle meets the emperor and receives support from a kind sigilkeeper from her old neighborhood, Tiberius Cotta. The event is disrupted by the discovery of a murdered gladian whose heart is missing; this is the latest victim in a rash of similar murders that have gone unchecked in the realm.

Just before Arvelle’s first challenge, the Primus forces her to train with the imperius and finally reveals his identity. He is the vampire Tiernon, her childhood love who vanished six years ago—just when Arvelle lost Kassia in the Sands. Devastated by her memories, Arvelle flashes back to the series of tragedies that shook her world after Tiernon’s disappearance, including Kassia’s death, the mine explosion that caused Evren’s illness, her uncle’s theft of her Sands winnings, and her mother’s “glister” addiction and eventual suicide.

In her first challenge, a one-on-one fight with a gladian named Maximus, Arvelle defeats her opponent but spares his life, severely re-injuring her weakened ankle in the process. She is inwardly grateful to Tiberius, who sponsored her alongside Maeva and provided her with battle gear that helped her survive the bout. Tiernon takes her to the imperius healers and gives her his blood, which helps the new injury heal instantly. (However, the old injury remains, and her weakened ankle is still a liability in combat.) For the second challenge, Arvelle is forced to work alongside the vengeful Baldric to fight a captive griffon named Antigrus. He is just one of the many “maginari,” or magical creatures, who are imprisoned beneath the arena. In desperation, he “mindpaths” with her (communicating via a telepathic link) and asks her to give him a merciful death. She grants the griffon’s request, enraging Baldric, who attacks and breaks her ankle entirely. Rorrik intervenes to spare her life, and Tiernon again heals her. He finally explains his disappearance six years ago, telling her that the emperor discovered their relationship, tortured him, and threatened to kill Arvelle if he ever returned to her. He and Arvelle reconcile and become lovers again.

The third challenge is a chaotic naval battle. Arvelle is attacked by kelpies but frees one, which then helps her save an injured enemy combatant, Calena. Her team emerges victorious. That evening, at the Sundering Ball, Rorrik reveals his awareness of her mission to kill his father and astonishes her by offering to help, claiming that he has been disinherited. He tricks her, leading her to a guest chamber where she assassinates a man whom she believes to be the emperor.

She escapes the palace with Leon’s help, only to learn that the emperor is still alive; under the influence of Rorrik’s illusion, she unknowingly killed Tiberius. Tiernon then reveals that he is the emperor’s younger son and Rorrik’s brother. Leon, seeking to help her heal, gives Arvelle a letter that Kassia wrote before her death. After reading the letter, Arvelle is so overcome by painful memories of her past that she pushes Maeva away, ending their friendship when the woman tries to help her open up emotionally.

In order to pursue her goal of assassinating the emperor, Arvelle seeks a place in the imperius, so she wins a spot in a card game, inadvertently taking the position from Maeva. Later, Jorah grants her request for access to the ludus library, and she is shocked to learn that her latent magical power is now growing and allows her to absorb the powers of those she kills. In a confrontation with Rorrik and Tiernon, she realizes that she now possesses Antigrus’s shielding ability and Tiberius’s water magic.

Tensions in the ludus escalate when the emperor executes a guard by “turning” him into a vampire: a fatal process for any sigilmarked human. A protest at the Circus turns into a massacre by the city wardens, and when the venue is then attacked by vampire rebels, Arvelle instinctively manifests Antigrus’s shield, saving the imperius from an aether bomb. When a rebel escapes, a loyal imperium named Lucius takes the blame for the failure, and the emperor orders Tiernon to execute him. However, Rorrik intervenes and kills Lucius himself in order to spare his brother the trauma of obeying this order.

Leon is attacked by the mysterious person who has been murdering gladians; he survives but remains in critical condition. Arvelle investigates and learns from the captive maginari that the killer is Albion, a guardant who, along with the late Tiberius, was sacrificing people to free the god Mortuus, believing that the god of ruin would resurrect their dead loved ones. Arvelle confronts and kills Albion in the library. Tiernon, meanwhile, rescues Arvelle’s brothers and brings them to his quarters.

The Novice Presentation is interrupted by a full-scale rebel attack on the arena. Amid the chaos, Arvelle and Maeva free the maginari. Arvelle has a clear shot at the emperor but refrains to avoid killing Neris, a fellow imperium who is protecting him. Bran confronts Arvelle, revealing that he, who is secretly the emperor’s son born outside of marriage, has orchestrated the entire plot to frame Tiernon and Rorrik; his ultimate goal is to seize the throne. Rorrik arrives on his wyvern and kills Bran, breaking the bond that enslaved her. Arvelle then saves Rorrik by killing an attacking rebel, inadvertently absorbing the man’s power to read divine languages. Rorrik reveals that Mortuus is breaking free of his prison. He, Tiernon, and Arvelle form a deal: She will help them translate an ancient book to stop Mortuus, they will train her to control her powers, and then she and her family will finally be granted their freedom.