EXPLORE THE WORK OF

RAI JAEGER

OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS BOOK SERIES

A fantasy book series with a deep lore, a hidden past filled with long forgotten magic and culture, a history taken. come join our heroes as they unknowingly begin to unravel all of which was so delicately sewn in the tapestry of fate.

The first book has finally finished with editing, and currently in the process of finding a publisher !

A teaser is available for purchase at my booth! come and stop by for a visit at any of my upcoming events!

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Cover illustration is done by Cliff Cramp. Be sure to check out this renowned Star Wars illustrator when you get the chance by clicking on the button below!

Cliff cramp

Arturias “Artur” Sigurdsson lives a quiet, sheltered life in the village of Trivaden, content with the simple joys and the love of his parents, Ygrayne and Thelric. But when Thelric vanishes on a routine trip into Falkhearth–the major city of the Fjälland region–everything begins to unravel. His father’s absence stirs unsettling questions, and a chance encounter with a sharp-tongued, captivating outsider named Lovisa unravels a world condemned to grief and oppression.

Ygrayne grapples with her increasingly inquisitive son and her need to protect him, confiding in her friend Urda–a woman of Keltaes descent–and an enigmatic Schiva, a nomadic, philanthropic brotherhood sworn to serve all of Skana while renouncing worldly pleasures. Unbeknownst to them, an age-old power struggle is rekindling, tied to a prophecy whispered in hushed tongues.

Skana was once a land of vibrant culture, magic, and divine reverence. But only two centuries ago, the Valeriaan Empire reclaimed power–an ancient clan whose ire is unmatched and whose pride compels them to proclaim the throne of the Allfather is and always was rightfully theirs. In the wake of the war, Skana was stripped of her entire identity, her history, and the magic that once existed in both belief and mystery.

When the Valeriaans lay siege to Falkhearth to crush a suspected rebel stronghold, and purge Trivaden of alleged sympathizers, Artur and Ygrayne’s lives are shattered. With Thelric perishing and their home cast to ravenous flames, they flee to Ygrayne’s distant childhood home of Sarek, where her aging parents, Rikulf and Sigrida, welcome them with open arms.

In Sarek, both mother and son adjust to their new life while rebuilding from ashy ruins. They grapple with a life without a husband and father, forever changed by the horrors they witnessed. Ygrayne must reconcile her grief and question whether her life’s path was ever in her control or if those unseen forces had woven it long ago in her stead. In the Schiva, she finds unexpected companionship forged by their shared experiences in the siege, threatening to upend everything she thought she knew of loyalty and love.

Meanwhile, Artur grapples with guilt, loss, and the frequent torment of a strange power awakening both around him and within him, unknowingly pushing him to confront truths far beyond his comprehension. The whispers of prophecy speak of a liberator who will come to free Skana from Valeriaan tyranny. But to become who Skana needs him to be, Artur must first believe it himself–something much more terrifying than any adversary in armor.

Will he accept who he is meant to be, or will he choose the simple, ordinary life he has always wanted?

Of Light and Darkness is an epic fantasy about grief, resilience, healing, and rediscovering identity–following one boy’s journey from tragedy to liberation, and his plight to reclaim a future for himself and all of Skana.

SYNOPSIS

EXCERPT FROM ‘OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS’

"...Skana burned, so fiercely that olden tales speak of how neither moon nor the sun appeared on their respective horizons for many a day. They refused to lay eyes upon the bloodshed awaiting their unblinking gazes. Hardly anyone could blame the deities, the representatives of all that was good and natural, of peace and serenity. The skies remained a sickly black and the clouds a dirtied brown. Ash continued to fall akin to rain on the living folk, the scorched bodies of those they once called family and friends, and the dwellings they had called home.

Skana herself was weeping beside her folk. She could hardly avert her gaze from the butchery that transpired, for she had seen all as she has always seen all. She was witness to man’s greatest moments as she was to his pitfalls, both folks’ capacity for sacrifice and the folly in their character. She had seen many a war, many an empire fall at the hand of another poised to take its place, but this – this was a devastation of catastrophic proportions never previously achieved. Skana was distraught as she felt the pain and despair of the folk just coming to know the true meaning of the word, as she also felt every bit of anger consuming the Valeriaans, the sentiments and passions that drove them to enact such a sin without hesitation, without remorse. It was in those coming days that she too finally wept – tears which extinguished the remaining flames cast about the land looking for more to feed upon in such barrenness. It was her tears which brought an end to it all at last. And though the land burned no more, what her tears could not heal was the unseen toll upon her folk and the repercussions it would have for an already uncertain future. There was no remedy, even given all her great might, that could ever heal such a wound.

The folk called the tragedy Mordúnn – the Black Dawn – to memorialize the sorrow of Skana. To remember the time they wept in solidarity with one another. It was the end of a world they once knew, and the beginning of one that would not let them forget the victors’ capacity for ire.

That was over two hundred years ago, and the Valeriaans are as much in power now as they were then. Their despotic reign is the bane of all prosperity and contentment of the commonfolk, who live in fear of the Empire all too quick to punish and all too obliged to be unforgiving. The commonfolk live in a world with a past torn away from them and a future long faded from sight, a world in which most knowledge and skills are forbidden to them, the promise of prosperity left only to those who laid claim to the spoils of war. But that does not stop them from longing. It is all they have left. While the many can only hope there will come an end to the Valeriaans, others have taken to their courage and raised a blade in a stoic defiance.

It was on the day proceeding the fall of Heímdäll, as the commonfolk gazed upon the ruins they once called home with both heaviness in their hearts and an indignation thought to be possessed only by the Valeriaans, that a glimmer of hope appeared. It was a call, a beckoning to action – to take up arms ever so defiantly in opposition of the newly formed Empire. They called themselves the Oathbound, for they did make an oath to resist the Valeriaan reign just as they had in olden times. As they always would, no matter what the future held.

But oaths were a disregarded concept left behind in the ages in which men gave their lives to the most sacred of promises, to uphold the word they so valiantly pledged. The Valeriaans sneered at this concept, at a notion they confidently deemed archaic and foolish.

What was used as an expression to deride the folk of a region thought to be of an uncivilized and barbaric nature, now was proclaimed loudly upon the tongues who adopted what would become a title, a legacy. For Heímdäll. For the folk who were denigrated because of the circumstances they were born into. For the folk who had taken up arms against the Valeriaans in olden times. For the homeland which birthed the defiance. A rebellion was formed of unlikely heroes, the hearts amongst the commonfolk that responded to the call.

The two adversaries have stood at odds with one another for over two hundred years, and the Oathbound remain the last hope of the commonfolk of Skana. Though they may not outwardly display support due in part to the grave consequences, it has not stopped the commoners from furtively yearning in the shadows, behind closed doors, in the company of trusted parties, for the victory that had been lost to them all those years ago…”