Keeper Martin's Tale (Ruin Mist Chronicles, Book 1)

Indulge, slip away to Ruin Mist! Some authors are powerful storytellers. Some create wonderful worlds. Others create memorable characters. When you find an author that is capable of telling a powerful story that revolves around memorable characters in a deep, rich world, you really have something wonderful and wonderful is definitely what this book is about!

Mr. Stanek is the author of many previously published books, including many bestsellers. Currently he lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and children. He is proud to have served in the Persian Gulf War as a combat crewmember on an electronic warfare aircraft. During the war, he flew numerous combat and combat support missions, logging over two hundred combat flight hours. His distinguished accomplishments during the Persian Gulf War earned him nine medals, including the United States of America's highest flying honor, the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross. His career total was 29 medals in only 11 years of military service.

Overwhelmingly, readers agree that Robert's books are among the best they've ever read. His books have very vocal supporters who aren't afraid to voice their opinion and they frequently do so in online communities and lists. Strong reader support has led to strong sales, quickly making him one of the best-selling authors in the US.

Enter Ruin Mist

Ruin Mist Chronicles is a completed fantasy series of four books:
Keeper Martin's Tale, Book 1
Kingdom Alliance, Book 2
Fields of Honor, Book 3
Mark of the Dragon, Book 4

Officially, Ruin Mist is the name used for the fictional universe of Robert Stanek. The name "Ruin Mist" is the common language translation of an ancient elvish word, which means "the lost ages" or "the ruins of time."

The history of Ruin Mist is divided into four ages:
The First Age: the Age of Titans
The Second Age: the Age of Men, Elves, and Dwarves
The Third Age: the Age of Men and Elves
The Fourth Age: the Age of Men

Ruin Mist has three distinct realms of existence:
Over-Earth - the home of dragons and titans. But don't forget about the eagle lords. Those three are the great races of Ruin Mist's past.
Under-Earth - an otherworldly realm that has blood-red skies, and no sun or moon.
Mid-Earth - the home of elves and men.

During the early ages of Ruin Mist, travel between the realms was accomplished using the Gates of Uver. Uver is one of the great elven kings of old and the founder of Greye in Under-Earth. In all, there are believed to be seven gates fashioned by the Uver from a magic substance once mined from the deepest, darkest reaches of the Samguinne.

Each gate is fashioned for a different purpose and a different kind of traveler. Two gates are recorded in the histories of men. The gate in the Borderlands, fashioned for men, is opened with the following words of power: "Eh tera mir dolzh formus tan!" The only other known gate is located in the Twin Sonnets. Both gates are masked from the world by a veil of illusion.

History of the Ages

In an age long since lost to myth and memory, a race of supreme giants, known as titans, ruled over all the lands of Ruin Mist from their homes on Over-Earth. Without question, titans were the masters of the gates. They moved freely between realms and across lands.

Darkness came to mark the end of age of the titans as surely as there was ever light at the beginning. During this time of darkness, known as the Great Purge, it was the greatest of all titans, Ky'el, who gave the lesser races (men, elves, and dwarves) their freedom--at a great cost to himself and his people. Before the Great Purge, the lesser races were slaves to the greater races (dragons, titans, and eagle lords).

By the end of the purge, the only known gate to Over-Earth was sealed for all time ushering in a new beginning. A new age. An age of men, elves, and dwarves. Over the millennia, knowledge of Over-Earth's existence faded from the memory of the living, even that of the long-lived elves and dwarves until there came a time when most believed it was a place of myth and that it never truly existed.

After countless wars waged against themselves and the other races, men, elves, and dwarves settled in to an uneasy peace within their divided lands. In time, like titans before them, dwarves became folk of myth and legend, leaving only absence like a darkness where once there had been great presence and a light.

The age of men and elves had arrived, its arrival marked by the coming of the Great War. Some would call this war: Dnyarr's war after the elven king who started it. Others would call it the War of the Thousand Year Siege. Those that fought and died would call it the War of Ten Million Tears. Victory for men above all others brought little joy though it did usher in a new age. The age of men.

After the Great War that divided the peoples, the kingdoms of men plunged into a Dark Age that lasted 500 hundred years. To heal the lands and restore the light, the great kings decreed that magic and all that is magical, be it creature, man or device, shall be cleansed to dust. Creatures born of magic were hunted to extinction. The cleansing raged for so long that no human could recall a time without it and it is in this time that the Dark Lord Sathar returned from the dark beyond.

The one hope of the peoples of Ruin Mist was Queen Mother, the elf queen of old. She saw a way out of everlasting darkness, a path that required the union of the divided peoples. Yet the Elves of the West did not share her vision. They thought her mad and answered her call for help with a call to arms. Now for the first time in recorded history, the armies of the West are marching toward the sacred city of the East and an unholy war where elf must fight elf is inevitable.

Though despair abounds and evil seeks to reign, there is hope. Queen Mother sees hope through a union of the divided peoples: an alliance of men and elves to fight against the forces of darkness. But between men and elves, there is no love and little trust. Only truth and faith can guide their destinies.

Some fear this age to be Ruin Mist's last. For if men succumb to darkness there will be no beginning and darkness will surely rule forever. It is in this time at the twilight of the age of men that those long lost have returned to thwart the darkness. They are the fallen sons of ages past and present. They are the keepers, the watchers, and the guardians. They are those who hold the key to Ruin Mist's future.