That peace shatters when a Roman legion under General Marcus Caelius arrives. Caelius is not a brute like Commodus; he is a visionary, and a monster of charm. He has discovered that the volcanic soil beneath the new, expanded Colosseum—the "Flavian Furnace"—contains endless geothermal vents. He plans to use the arena not just for games, but as a forge of totalitarian spectacle: burning political enemies alive for public entertainment, then using the redirected heat to power war machines.