Runemarks is set in a universe of nine Worlds, not unlike
that of Norse legend. Five hundred years have passed since
Ragnarók, and the world has rebuilt itself anew. The old
gods are no longer revered. Their tales have been banned.
Magic has been outlawed, and a new religion – called the
Order – has taken its place.
The Order is a crusading religion. It works from an ancient
text – simply called The Good Book – and its ultimate
mission is to bring Perfect Order to all the Worlds. This
means an end to Chaos, to magic, to superstition, to false
belief, to dreams, to stories (except for the stories in the
Good Book) as well as to Faëries, goblins, dwarves, witches
- and of course any old gods who still happen to be around.
In a remote valley in the north of Inland (the “civilized”
part of the Middle Worlds), lives a girl called Maddy Smith.
She is the heroine of our tale, and she is nearly fourteen
years old. No-one in the village likes her much; she is
reputed to be imaginative, she tells stories, talks to
goblins and worse still, she has a ruinmark on her hand, a
sign associated with the Bad Old Days.
What the villagers don’t know is that Maddy has skills.
According to One-Eye, the secretive Outlander who is Maddy’s
only real friend, her ruinmark – or runemark, as he calls it
– is a sign of Chaos blood, magical powers and gods know
what else...
And now, as the Order moves further north, threatening all
the Worlds with conquest and Cleansing, Maddy must finally
learn the truth to some unanswered about herself, her
parentage, and her powers.
What lies under Red Horse Hill, that barrow of the Elder
Days? Why do the goblins gather there? Who is One-Eye, her
old friend, and what is he afraid of there? Most of all,
what is the Whisperer, that artifact of the Elder Age that
must be found – before someone else does?
One-Eye says that a war is coming; a war between the old and
the new. But will rune magic be enough to combat the
Examiners of the Order, and what is the source of their
secret weapon, a devastating power known only as The Word?
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