About Us
What is Rune Academy?
First described as a unique, interactive learning experiment, Rune Academy has now officially graduated to a full-blown world-building project. Spearheaded by K. Forte, current efforts aim to rebuild and transform all aspects of the previous adventure from the ground up on an entirely new virtual platform with a new mission and end goal.
Hours of content, initially geared toward niche groups of curious souls seeking knowledge of ancient Norse and Slavic pagan mythology and practices, are now being reprocessed and reappropriated for all fantasy-loving audiences, regardless of their spiritual path or desire to learn. R.A’s highly researched foundation text is based on historical sources, first compiled to fill a large gap of information about ancient Eastern-European-style practices missing from the English-speaking side of the internet. Since the R.A project’s first iteration did not allow for the full scope of creativity and interactive experiences K. Forte hoped to offer audiences, the web-based presentation of the project was entirely scrapped in favor of a more complex and contained framework—an interactive and fully explorable virtual world. Everything is now refocused on telling a rich story and creating a memorable experience rather than simply existing as a neutral, passive reference.
K. Forte’s main goal for Rune Academy now is to create an immersive experience an audience can fall into, get lost in, and fall in love with. With a pivot in overall direction, Rune Academy is stepping away from its strictly teaching angle and fully embracing its fun, interactive, storytelling side.
You can keep tabs on this project’s current progress in the site’s Roadmaps section. Don’t be a stranger and visit back often!
How We Came To Be
Around the economic collapse of 2008, K. Forte traveled back to her homeland in Eastern Europe after a prolonged absence of nearly a decade, visiting countless cultural and historical sights for the first and last time (due to political tensions) since emigrating. The trip opened her eyes to her ancient ancestral history and the rare mythology overlooked by her home culture in the West, planting countless seeds of inspiration…
The most significant moment of these travels was studying the lore of the ancient runes with her aunt and mentor, Svietlana, memories she’d forever try to replicate. They inspired K. Forte to create a hub for interactive mystical learning. On June 25th, 2017, she took the first definitive step and initiated a lifelong creative endeavor by registering the “Rune.Academy” domain.
Subsequently, on October 13th, 2017, the first version of the site was finally made live. Rune Academy’s initial primary focus was to be a hub for interactive mystical learning. (You can look at what the first version of the site used to look like for yourself here.)
Since then, the site and project have undergone massive changes in direction (read about the significant pivot here), experienced extreme growth, and gained laser-focused insight into what Rune Academy can someday become. As of today, the Rune Academy world-building art project and Rune.Academy sites are still growing, and resources are constantly aggregated, whether systemic or in the form of thoroughly appreciated helping hands.
However, as it stands, the Rune Academy team is still just a small group of friends who share a common interest and who hope to bring to the world a bit of beauty and magic -as much as they can in the small free bits of time that they all collectively have to spare.
To show the utmost transparency to all who visit our site, meticulously recorded updates and roadmaps sections exist to help keep you informed of any changes made to the project. On that note, please be patient when awaiting new updates. Most operations run on a spare-time-only basis, as Rune Academy is a passion project more than anything else.
Please donate freely, openly, and generously, as all donations help us grow and pay for the costs of running and developing everything. Your help is endlessly and incredibly appreciated. And please, don’t be a stranger. Check back often to see how we’ve grown and expanded. We’d love to have you experience all of the magic with us!
A Thank You To All Of Our Wonderful Volunteers!
Rune Academy Virtual Project Creation Cumulative Credits
Research and Story-Writing
Research, Information Allocation, and Organization
K. Forte
Tamara
Maxim K.
Yana K.
Darya E.
World Content Writing
K. Forte
Maxim K.
Yana K.
Quest Design and Story Writing
K. Forte
Visuals and Design
Concept Art: Character, Object, and World
K. Forte
2D Visuals and Graphic Design
K. Forte
Nicole B.
3D Visuals and CAD Modeling
K. Forte
Environmental and Level Design
K. Forte
Programming and Development
Basic Structural Programming (Details to be Added Soon)
K. Forte
Sound and Audio
Music
K. Forte
Voice Recording and Narration
K. Forte
Tamara
Maxim K.
Yana K.
Jo-Ann R.
Environmental Sound Design
K. Forte
In Loving Memory
Svietlana
Svietlana was a daughter, sister and twin, aunt, artist, and great inspiration for this site. Her knowledge of the way things were in ages long past would spark an endless thirst to learn and remember. Her compassion would warm even the coldest of hearts. Her legacy lives on in our hearts,
Aleh
Aleh was an endlessly talented illustrator, author, friend, and a great inspiration for this site. His powerful mind could create elaborate worlds and write them down for all his readers to enjoy. His mesmerizing illustrations were more beautiful than any dream. He is greatly missed.
Valerie
Valerie was a wonderful mother, artist, teacher, and creative thinker. She went to the greatest of lengths for her family and would stop at nothing to ensure everyone was well taken care of and fairly treated. She would fight the hardest battles for us and we are eternally grateful for her.
Midnight
Midnight was the kindest and gentlest cat in the world. She loved looking out of the window and warming herself in the rays of the sun. She'd bring that lovely warmth throughout our home and into our hearts. May she eternally bathe in rays of warm light and sleep on the softest of pillows.
Charlie
Charlie was the sweetest cat and a good boy. He gave the best cuddles and was a very diligent work-from-home supervisor. We wish we had more time with him, but he left us purring and surrounded by those he loved. May he always find himself purring amongst loved ones.