THE OURANIAN CHRONICLES
Book One: Masks of God by Arnold Hermann
Publisher: Sky Lords Media (Dec. 12, 2025)
Hardcover ⋄ 512 pages
ISBN 978-1-967123-001
List Price $37.00 | Price may vary by retailer
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THE SERIES
Sky Lords Media’s debut publication, the Ouranian Chronicles series by Arnold Hermann, is a speculative saga of Memory, Conscience, and Soul. It comprises four volumes: Masks of God (releasing 12/12/2025), Soul Engineer, Brotherhood of Shadows, and Palace of Regret.
Spanning millennia of human history and imagination, the OC is a work of visionary fiction merging myth, philosophy, and future science into a single unfolding meditation on consciousness. It asks timeless questions like:
«Can humanity
approach reality
without a mediating veil—
be it mask or soul, ritual
or data?»
«Is there a True Self behind these veils?
Or are the veils all we ever had, and all we will ever have?»
At its heart stands Kayin, a philosopher-witness reborn through the ages—from prehistoric sanctuaries to a far-future refuge beneath the Earth, who is condemned to remember 13,000 years of human history. Part "freak” and part redeemer, Kayin is tasked with locating a mysterious Hiding Land whose inhabitants have lost all contact with
their voice of conscience. In order to coax the Silent Ones to speak, Kayin risks the ultimate sacrifice: losing his own Sense of Self (and thereby the memory of a long-lost love) in order to safeguard the memory of the world and, along with it, the very future existence of humankind.
His companions—Y’lira, the gentle gardener of the Ideal; Setenay, the warrior who becomes his conscience; and Aušrinė, the red-haired chronicler of time—embody love, courage, and remembrance, the three forces through which humankind redeems itself.
Across three movements so far—Book One: Masks of God, Book Two: Soul Engineer, and Book Three: Brotherhood of Shadows—the series traces the long arc from myth to machinery, from faith to fabrication, from exile to empathy. Each volume transforms history into a mirror: the ancient world dreaming of gods, the modern world building them, and the future world learning to forgive its creators.
«The world's sins cannot serve as stepping stones to the Garden of Eden.»
A myth for the age of intelligence and simulation, the Ouranian Chronicles—in their totality—are a hymn to remembrance, a critique of every shortcut to salvation, and a love letter to consciousness itself.
«The world's sins
cannot serve as stepping stones
to the Garden of Eden.»
BOOK ONE: MASKS OF GOD
launches 12/12/2025
head, and his immortal bond with a red-haired girl destined to become his pupil, his savior, and his chronicler.
Sweeping and visionary, Masks of God explores memory, soul, identity, and the hidden architecture of time. It bridges The Name of the Rose and Game of Thrones, yet ventures into new territory—where history, myth, and science fiction meet. A historical epic and a metaphysical mystery in equal measure, it invites readers to ask:
«What if salvation lies not in faith, but in remembering who we were before the world forgot?»
Part gnostic revelation, part shamanic odyssey, part cosmic parable, Masks of God is an initiation through time, transforming history into vision—where salvation begins in the act of remembering.
bond with a red-haired girl destined to become his pupil, his savior, and his chronicler.
«What if salvation
lies not in faith,
but in remembering
who we were before
the world forgot?»
THE AUTHOR
Arnold Hermann is a philosopher, investigative researcher, and writer of academic works on Ancient Greek philosophy, epistemology, ontology, dialectic, self, consciousness, memory, and identity. His published works include To Think Like God: Pythagoras and Parmenides. The Origins of Philosophy; the award-winning Illustrated To Think Like God; and Plato’s Parmenides: Text, Translation & Introductory Essay. He also co-edited Presocratics and Plato: Festschrift at Delphi in Honor of Charles Kahn. Papers and presentations, including the most recent essay, “Soul engineering and God building—Way Stations to an Atheist Theocracy” (2025), are available on academia.edu.
Arnold’s current focus is on the Philosophy of Quantum Physics, non-biological reasoning (Artificial and Organoid Intelligence), Personhood (biological/non-biological), and the Philosophy of the Future (the study of the future as a philosophical discipline).
He is the founder of the HYELE Institute for Comparative Ceremonial Studies, which has hosted and co-sponsored philosophical conferences all over the world. Its mission is to foster interdisciplinary discussion and the sharing of ideas.
His research journeys have taken him from sacred caves in Thrace to Hopi mesas in Arizona, Göbekli Tepe temples of Anatolia, Arctic expanses of Sápmi Land, and the Maya ruins of Calakmul, Tikal, and Copán—experiences that continue to inform his philosophical and literary work.
For the past thirteen years, Arnold has devoted himself principally to the literary medium, guided by Albert Camus’ insight that “fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” The Ouranian Chronicles, the result of more than a decade of sustained work, comprise three completed volumes, beginning with Masks of God. Forthcoming publications in the series include Soul Engineer, Brotherhood of Shadows, and Palace of Regret.
For more about the author visit arnoldhermann.com
For more on the series visit ocuniverse.com
«... A prophecy about why the simulation we live in may not be computer based.»
Blog
Explore the author's blog as it covers themes explored in the Ouranian Chronicles.
books
Previous academic and philosophical publications by the author that cover a range of topics
photography
From ancient, to abstract, with much in-between. Check out author's photography here:
ARNOLD HERMANN'S
RECOMMENDED READS
The book recommendations offered here comprise works by some 85 authors who have had the greatest influence on the creation of the Ouranian Chronicles. The author encourages everyone to read ALL books by the writers mentioned, perhaps taking the listed ones as a starting point.
The Science Fiction/Fantasy and Literary Fiction works are listed in order of their importance and prominence in the author's mind, e.g., Jack Vance is at the top since the author read each of his books at least five times—The Dying Earth series perhaps ten times.
Another example is Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers, which he also read six or seven times—about the unwitting reincarnation of King Arthur in the body of a drunken Irish mercenary, Patrick Duffy, on the eve of the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 (the latter being suggestive of the kinds of global “Days Undone” events that occur in the Ouranian Chronicles).
The Non-Fiction/Philosophical works are listed alphabetically.
