Rune Seeker Series - Afterwords |
Well, here we are. The runes have been sought, the Raze have been razed, and the Everfail has succeeded.
My journey with Rune Seeker has been an interesting one; this fine tale would never have existed were it not for one wonderful writer named Carter J. Thompson.
I met Carter years ago through my publisher: we got to talking and he came to me with a wonderful idea for a story called The City That Chases the Sun.
It was a concept for a fine tale about a young man trying to find his place in the world on a flying island that fled the rain.
I have to admit I fell so in love with the idea that I asked if we could do it together. Aaaand through working together, that story would become Rune Seeker! So began a years-long partnership that I have so far thoroughly enjoyed.
As far as co-writes go, I think Carter and I are a good match. We write very similarly already and we don't tend to quibble about points that stop the story from flowing. When one of us falters, the other one picks up the slack and we go forth together.
I cannot thank Carter enough for supporting me after I fell ill once I finished Mark of the Fool.
Truly, my life is greatly improved by my friendship with him.
For any of you looking to do a co-write yourselves, I would suggest finding someone that you get along well with, that writes similarly to you, and that can support you through thick and thin as you support them.
But enough glazing. Let's talk Rune Seeker.
I cannot speak for Carter, but Rune Seeker has been an incredibly different journey for me, one that has necessitated a lot of growth. It's the first hard litRPG I have ever written and it's a darker story than my usual. It also went to power scales higher than my usual fare, and we co-wrote the sorta fights that would be right at home in a shounen. It's also my first co-write.
A lot of firsts, which meant a lot of learning was done through the course of this story, which I think has improved the story from beginning to end.
It also improved me as a writer and as a man.
I will say that, much like I mentioned at the end of Mark of the Fool, I learned that you must take care of yourself. I ran myself ragged doing these two stories and my health has been recovering ever since.
Don't do that.
I will also say that it is always good to do a little experimenting when you are writing. Mark of the Fool was my experiment in trying to write a slice-of-life story, which I had never done before.
Oaths, Blood, and Coin is an experiment to marry old Sword and Sorcery writing with modern progression fantasy.
Rune Seeker is my first attempt at a co-write, as well as my first hard litRPG married with a fantasy narrative and a little bit of dark horror undertones. And some science fiction themes to boot!
But it still has some of my old habits in there, which Carter naturally has as well. Like references. Did you catch all the references? No shade if you didn't. There were some that Carter made that even I didn't catch. Like the Voltron reference, which Carter put in; he gave me so much shit about when I missed it.
Hell even the name “Hiral” is something of an Easter egg. Carter pronounces it “Hero-l”. That's right. The name of the main character is literally “Hero”, hahaha.
That said, I insist on pronouncing it “HiRAHL”, which is something we still disagree about to this day. Of course if you ask Carter he'll just say “our disagreement is that J.M. insists on being WRONG” but every relationship has its fights.
Each new experience has taught me something different, and each series has a new lesson that I hope benefits its readers.
Rune Seeker is no exception. What I think I would like people to walk away with is something that I have had to learn myself in the past year and a half of my illness:
You are not broken. There are times when life will bring you down. When you will feel like everyone else is racing ahead of you, flying upwards into the sun, while you remain on the earth, like a bird with shattered wings.
That's how Hiral felt at the start of all this. But Hiral never gave up: when one plan didn't work, he tried something else and then something else, and then something else.
And then one day…a golem ripped him into three pieces.
But surprise!
That turned out to be exactly what he and the world needed! And that was only the beginning! Hiral, Seena, Yanily, Seeyela, Nivian, and the rest of their companions went through some hard times in this story. Pain. Loss.
But they got through, didn't they?
And while I hope that a golem doesn't rip you in half in real life, may you learn from their example, and realize that you can get through life's troubled times, too.
When the rain passes, there will always be the sun.
If you liked Rune Seeker, be on the lookout for a compilation based on the series.
Those who pre-ordered the hardcover of Rune Seeker from Barnes and Noble will already have received it: Tales from Rune Seeker. This is a compilation of all the stories that appeared on Royal Road, between books, as well as some new stuff.
In particular, I would love for you to lay eyes on a story in there called Chord of Darkness. If ever you wanted to see a character from Rune Seeker cross over with a character from Mark of the Fool, then that would be your chance.
As for me, now that Rune Seeker is done, I will be working on Oaths, Blood, and Coin, and I Am Become Death. As I heal, I hope to redevelop my old speed, and you can be on the lookout for more stories from me in the future.
Those that reach the end of Chord of Darkness will find an interesting peek into a setting that I haven't touched yet in my universe, but that you can expect to read about in the future.
For now, thank you for reading our story. Carter and I will always be grateful to you from the bottom of our hearts.
Without you, none of this would be possible.
Now go forth and chase the sun, my friends.
Go forth and chase the sun!
- J. M. Clarke
Well, I guess it’s my (Carter’s) turn, eh? If you’ve read Rune Seeker—and at this point, I really hope you did, and aren’t just skipping to the afterword—you probably know how much I like 80’s cartoon references. So, let’s get this started off with one more as I ruminate on the last (/checks notes) five years of working on what became Rune Seeker.
Knowing is half the battle.
You may’ve heard how the idea of RS came from the lyric of a song. If you didn’t, well, the single line in the song goes ‘… the city where the sun don’t sleep’. That got me to thinking about what it would take for a city to always be under the sun. I’d previously done a story where the darkness was a big part of the tale (go read my Against the Night series, if you’re curious about that), so it just made sense to do one about sunlight instead. That brought me to the idea of flying islands, and the working title of the book JM mentioned: The City That Chases the Sun.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
A title the publisher… didn’t agree with. Boo. Hiss.
I kid. In retrospect, it was the right choice for us to change that, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Way back in those days, the rough draft / outline of what I saw TCTCTS (that’s a horrible acronym) to be was very different than how it turned out.
Yes, Fallen Reach’s residents were still powered by sunlight, but I’d considered making Hiral moonlight powered. Fallen Reach wasn’t a failed project, but instead an ark stolen by the people who’d built it when the end of the world came in the distant past. The first three books of Rune Seeker were ‘planned’ (and I use this very loosely here) to all happen in the first book, with the entire series only being a trilogy.
Yeah, somehow I planned to squeeze eight books—around 1.8 million words—worth of content into three books. Clearly, I needed help. I probably still do, but that’s a different kind of help.
There was also something else just… missing. At the time, I’d done Against the Night with Aethon, as well as a couple projects for Yonder (Spark of War, and Tempest Born), and I was talking to the folks there about this new project. They asked if I’d be interested in doing a co-author project, and I said… maybe.
Now, let me back it up a bit. Another ‘in case you didn’t realize it’—I’m a huge Mark of the Fool fan. I was also in the Discord with JM, and the guy was always just cool about stuff. So, when Aethon asked me about the co-author thing, after a couple days, I said, ‘Sure, if it’s JM Clarke.’ There are a lot of authors I read from Aethon. A lot I respect for the work they’ve done. The number I’d be interested in working with is a lot shorter. Not because they are bad people or anything, but because of how easily I could see our writing styles meshing.
JM mentioned it above, but writing voice / style is very important (in my opinion) in a co-author project. Reading Fool, I could see where I would do the same things. Humor, story beats, plot seeding, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m as talented a writer as he is, just that we think the same way. A lot. Same-braining, we call it.
Long story short, JM said ‘Meh, sure, I’ll show this pleb a thing or two’, and Rune Seeker was officially underway! With some big changes of course, as things got hashed out. Obviously, it became a LitRPG, and as soon as we landed on that, there was something else we wanted to do with it.
The origin of the eponymous ‘system’.
I’ve read a lot of sys-apoc series, and most of the time, the system is just there. We wanted to go back a bit, while also dropping a bit of a social commentary at the same time. Hence where the name of the PIMP came from. If you thought it was just a funny name, I’m sorry to disappoint you! No, we named it that way, specifically, because of how systems normally interact with their ‘users’. Think about it for a minute, and I’m sure you’ll see it too.
I think this brings us to somewhere in 2022 or 2023, and it’s been a ride since then. JM has been amazing to work with, both as a co-author and a friend. He’s been supportive through the ups and downs of the series, an absolute idea factory, a true professional (despite struggling with his own health through all this), and—maybe most importantly—generous with some awesome characters for cameos. Getting to play in his sandbox a bit with people like (/cough) ‘The Archwizard’ was so much fun. I was actually really nervous when I asked him if we could use the source material for the ‘Shameless Reference’ chapter, but things snowballed wonderfully from there.
In case you didn’t know, we did this entire co-write virtually, and only got to meet in person for the first time in 2026 at Emerald City Comic Con. It was like we’d known each other for years! Which, technically, we had, but don’t hassle me with your silly ‘details’. Anyway, it was great to sit down and reminisce about Rune Seeker.
I mentioned the ups and downs of the series earlier, and I’m going to talk about that for a second. There are people who love the series (thank you), and people who… really don’t. We went all-in on the anime-style action, and there is a lot of it. The tutorial system alienated more than a few readers, and book 2 seemed to be a major drop off point for a lot more.
I understand all that, and see why it wouldn’t be for those folks. But, if I could do it again, would I really change anything? Maybe less italics in a few books. Other than that? No, I don’t think I would. We had a vision for the series, and we were consistent with it, from beginning to end. The detailed action (like it or not) let us do some wild scenes and (as Jim Butcher talks about a lot) moments of awesome.
The harrowing battle with Infested Picoli in book 1, and final encounter with Ur’Thul in book 2 that almost cost Nivian his life. Actually, it kind of did. Yanily’s return at the end of book 3 to stop Fitch from killing Seena (and his sacrifice before that). Hiral’s arena fight in the same book, after his return to Fallen Reach. Oh, and when he cut the tower off the island with the sword. That had been planned for so long.
Hiral’s battle with Unnamed-Seena at the end of book 4, where he had to ‘kill her’. In book 5, the Archwizard battle and Nivian’s first display of his Aspect when Politet tried to kill Hiral. Book 6, of course, had the climactic battle with Vorinal, and the epic advanced evolution. Book 7 had another evolution (to S-Rank!!), while book 8 gave us the different POVs.
Those chapters where we got to see things from other’s perspectives are some of my favorites in the entire series. We purposely didn’t do other POV stuff (other than one epilogue at the end of book 2, to make sure readers knew we didn’t forget about the Infested) just so these chapters would have the impact we wanted. Yanily’s and Loan’s, especially, I was really proud of.
But, that also reminds me that Rune Seeker wasn’t just an action romp. These characters have lived in my head for years, and I’m genuinely going to miss them. They may not miss me so much, considering what I helped put them through, despite how they grew during the series. There is some stuff there I’m proud of as well.
Yanily’s evolution from a ‘class idiot’ to a complex character with enough layers to make an onion jealous. Seena and Hiral ‘getting a dog’, and what it represents. Li’l Ur coming to terms with what he’d become. The broken relationship between mother and son (Sera and Hiral), but the healthy one with his sisters and overly huggy father. Nivian, and the rock he always was. Wule’s apology to Hiral for suggesting they casually murder him after they’d first jumped down to the surface. Seeyela gradually going from distrusting Hiral to being one of his biggest supporters and protectors. Seena’s confident growth into a capable party leader (and a bit of a pyromaniac).
Then there’s Hiral, and his journey from the Everfail to the savior of… well… everything. He went through a lot, but he didn’t give up. There’s an expression I like (for once not from an 80’s cartoon): If you’re going through hell, keep going. That summed Hiral up. Who he was, and what he did. He kept going, and I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere.
The other side characters had their own journeys as well. Ilrolik’s final choice made sense for her. Igwanda put somebody else before her bow. Laseen finally accepted who she was, instead of what she’d become (but kept her cackle). Romin stepped out of the shadow of his hero, then stepped up to be his own man, with a Rune-o partner. Caleon moved past her trauma, while Nat and Milly found their determination to make their mark on the world. Bash, well, he just kept smashing. Pick something you love, then get as good as you can at it, you know?
I could go on for pages, but I won’t bore you (more). All this is to say there were moments in the story that surprised me as they happened, even though I was writing them. I cheered, I laughed, and I cried. Yanily’s ‘I love you guys. You know that, right?’ will always get me.
Maybe it’s silly, but I do hope people felt something reading the series. There were dark undercurrents to the books, and even darker moments, but I like to think they made the brighter ones all that much more potent.
Ah, looking at all this, I’ve rambled on too long, so I’ll wrap up soon here. I guess I was just delaying writing the final words of Hiral’s story. Still, I like to think that though it may be the end of his story, it’s not necessarily the end of the story.
As JM mentioned, I hope you check out the Chord of Darkness short in the ‘Tales From Rune Seeker’ collected shorts. If you ever wondered what happened to Yan during his absence in book 3, this is where you find out. It’s also pretty epic. As for the rest of the shorts in there, if you haven’t guessed, they take place after the final events of Rune Seeker. Surprise!
On that note, don’t be shocked if you see ripples of what happened in this series leaking out into other places. The Urn of Ur’Thul and Ilrolik are both unaccounted for. The Raze and their Endless, not to mention the Enemy, are still out there somewhere. Then there’s the PIMP expansion, and what it could mean.
I’m sure you’ll be joining me following JM and his ongoing stories (Oaths, Blood, and Coin and I Am Become Death) as well as whatever else he comes up with. He’s too talented not to read his work.
As for what I’m working on, Spark of War is all done (though if you haven’t read about where the Wings of Anella come from, you should go check it out), and you can keep your eyes open for As Below, So Above (if you’re not already reading it). Eagle-eyed Rune Seeker readers will definitely spot some… echoes. I’ve already got my next project planned for when the 5 books of ABSA are finished, and those same eagle-eyed readers should have fun with that one too.
To be clear, none of it is required reading, so much as fun callbacks and an evolution of the universe. Will we have an Avengers moment? Who knows! Though (spoiler), JM and I did talk about doing another joint project down the road at some point.
And, with that, we’ll (finally) bring this to a close. Thank you to our cover artist (Antti Hakosaari) for some absolutely insane / amazing covers. Thank you to our editors (James and Kalene) for putting up with our horrible font choices / inconsistencies in book 1 that persisted through the rest of the series. Thank you to our narrator, Ralph Lister, for bringing Rune Seeker to life, and for not throwing something at us when he got to the musical chapter.
Thank you Aethon, for connecting me with JM in the first place, and bringing the series to the wider public. Thank you, JM, for being a great author / person to work with. Thank you to my wife for just generally putting up with me. Most importantly, thank you readers, for taking time out of your busy lives to go on this ride with us. I really do hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
That just leaves one last thing to say…
Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – Saw It Through to the End
You have read the Rune Seeker series and the lengthy afterwords. Seriously, who needed to read that much extra stuff? Just hand over the loot!
Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.