Hello everybody.

In recent weeks, I have been asked many questions in regards to Harvest Wars and decided to take a moment and write an Afterword in order to give you some answers about the books and the world of Ruuin in general.

The Harvest Wars is intended as a series encompassing several volumes. I am not quite sure how many there will be in the end, but I am guessing about ten. You have just read the first volume in the series, Awakening. The second part, Crusade, is partially available on Wattpad as well. So I strongly recommend that you give it a try.

(FYI: In case you are reading this an Saturday the 16th of January, you may be very lucky, because I am having an Amazon Weekend sale on all my titles and you can get the Kindle version of Crusade (currently Amazon exclusive) for as little as $ 0.99 per copy. An external link is provided at the main page of the story.)

Tales of Ruuin, which you can also find on Wattpad, is an anthology set a decade before the happenings of Harvest Wars and details how Craven formed his band of Mercenaries, the Skulltakers.

Another set of stories, this time about the Thirteen, is also in the works. As is a Pen & Paper Roleplay version...

As you can see, I am quite fond of this project. =)

When I started working on my first Ruuin story in 2008 years ago, I had very little knowledge of what kind of world it would play in. I, just like a normal reader, merely followed my characters around, and it was through them that I came to understand Ruuin.

On the outside, the world itself may feel very familiar to you, comfortable even... All of you who have read or watched Lord of the Rings, played some fantasy Roleplay Game, or have read books with a medieval setting should feel at home. Ruuin hosts warriors and sorcerers, heroes and villains, monsters and maidens, just like many other stories you may have enjoyed—but there are differences.

As I followed my characters along their paths and shared their perils, they, little by little, showed me that Ruuin had quite a history—a long and dark history. A history that is all but forgotten, even though there are traces of it everywhere, that linger in the dark like a terrible sickness, ready to break out...

The Risings (of the Dead) are tied to that past. Nobody knows why, but the dead never sleep easy in this world and may rise without a warning. This has changed society in many different ways. In Ruuin, the curse of the undead is regarded as just another natural disaster, brother to storm, earthquake, flood or plague. It can happen at any time, at any place and in any number...

In this world, graveyards are built like prisons, and a mage can walk down a street, his enslaved Zombie servant in tow, and most people would not even raise an eyebrow (though they may wrinkle their nose at its smell...).

It is a world, in which exterminating the dead is as common as the job of a rat-catcher (and often held in a similar low regard), and in which the living prey on the dead as much as they do in turn.

It is also a world of magic and technology, even though the common people of this age have a hard time telling them apart...

Magic is the essence of life and life the essence of magic, and those who are blessed—or cursed—to manipulate it can use it to shape reality to their whims.

Much easier to use, and infinitely more rare, is the technology of the Forgotten Ages; waiting deep below the earth in ancient vaults, extra-dimensional pockets in reality, or derelict fortresses created by the former rulers of Ruuin.

The brave or the foolhardy may seek or stumble upon these catches of lost knowledge and power, sealed away by magic like some insect in amber; they are shards of the past and its forgotten secrets.

It is a world were a paladin, encased in plate armor, armed with magical weapons and blessed by the powers of his god, may find himself cooked in his suit by an archaic flamethrower unearthed by some lucky fool. Where alchemists and mages change life itself, the one with mystical powers, the other with strange drugs, ancient viruses, or peculiar devices that can rewrite the code of a living being.

It is a world were old and hidden secrets long to be rediscovered but are guarded by even older horrors that wait patiently for those who try... A world of darkness, of surprises, of mysteries and magic, and strange oddities.

It is the familiar mixed with the extreme, the fun with the fantastic.

It is my world.

And I hope you make it your own.

Marco Baier

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Update!

If you want to know more about Tales of Ruuin, my writing process, or tips in general, check out this Wattpad Interview from 2022

https://www.wattpad.com/1217895709-homie-talks-book-of-the-month-june%27-22-the-harvest

(I'll also add a link at the bottom).