Jaques Smit is an author, game developer and professional leadership coach who started writing Tearing the Darkveil in 2009. Thanks to his career in the game development space, he has travelled the world working as a game designer, product manager and agile coach, getting the opportunity to live on four continents. This eclectic experience as a leader in many different contexts has made it possible to grow significantly over the years, especially after discovering coaching as a professional skill set. This new field allowed him to discover his vision to help create a world where everyone feels valuable, empowered and purposeful. Supporting executives and leaders through challenges is rewarding, and demanding, meaning Jaques needed a creative outlet to engage in to balance out his mind. That was when he returned to writing fantasy in the world of Ayrul, which he had continued to develop over the previous decade. Jaques wanted to create a setting that other people would like to play in and give aspiring dungeon masters something fun to build on. This is one of the reasons that he has remained close to traditional fantasy races in his story and tried to keep things grounded to what would be possible in a pen-and-paper roleplaying game. In terms of what makes the world special, Jaques focused on building a magic system that is more focused on craftsmanship and a philosophical orientation in the pursuit of balance, which was specifically embodied in the magpies’ code.