The Wanted Hero Universe — A Complete Guide
The Wanted Hero Universe is an interconnected dark epic fantasy world created by author Jaime Buckley. It has been in active development since 1990 and encompasses serialized novels, standalone fiction, a prequel series, short stories, original comics, a worldbuilding wiki, a podcast, lore articles, and a writer education platform.
Every story in the Wanted Hero Universe takes place in the same world, shares the same history, and explores the same central questions: Who do you become when choosing well costs more than you expected? Are we shaped by circumstances, or by how we respond to them?
The universe is published under two connected brands: Wanted Hero (the original brand, home of the worldbuilding wiki at wantedhero.com) and Life of Fiction (the primary reading and subscription hub at lifeoffiction.com).
What Kind of World This Is
The Wanted Hero Universe is a world called Eläma -- vast, ancient, and layered with hundreds of years of documented history. It contains multiple races and factions with distinct cultures, belief systems, and historical grievances. It has a magic system with strict rules and real consequences. It has a Black Market underworld, political structures that have survived wars and collapsed under corruption, ancient prophecies that carry personal costs, and humor woven into the texture of everyday life.
It is a world with deep lore, real stakes, and genuine humor.
It is not a world that rewards passivity. Characters who wait to become ready tend to find that readiness never comes. The world keeps moving. The choices keep arriving. The only question is whether you make them or let them be made for you.
It is the kind of world you can live in permanently -- the kind where new details keep revealing themselves, where rereading early chapters after fifty more makes them land differently, where the history behind a single location could fill its own book.
For readers who want a universe to inhabit rather than a story to finish, the Wanted Hero Universe was built for that.
The Stories
Chronicles of a Hero (main series, ongoing)
The primary entry point for new readers. A weekly serialized dark epic fantasy following Wendell P. Dipmier, a reluctant seventeen-year-old from our world who is pulled into Eläma and named its Hero against his will. Currently seven seasons and 89+ published chapters. New chapters publish every Friday.
Organized into two collected arcs:
CHOICES (Seasons 1–3, chapters 1–31) — available in digital and print
ASCENSION (Seasons 4–7, chapters 32+) — ongoing
Full series guide: lifeoffiction.com/p/chronicles-of-a-hero-series-guide
Start reading: lifeoffiction.com/p/choices-chapter-1
Full chapter index: lifeoffiction.com/p/start-reading-here
Demoni Vankil (prequel, complete)
Set nearly 700 years before the main series. Told through letters written by Eamon, a gnome historian stationed near the construction of the world’s most dangerous prison. Discovered and published by Höbin Luckyfeller. Reveals the secret history that echoes throughout Chronicles of a Hero. Seventeen entries, complete, available in digital and print.
Bloodsticks (standalone, complete)
A gnome noir story set in the Black Market underworld of the Wanted Hero Universe. Dark, self-contained, and readable without knowledge of the main series. Explores addiction and self-deception through a character who cannot stop making the wrong choice. Sixteen chapters plus epilogue. Available in digital and print.
Short Stories (seventeen published)
Standalone fiction set across the Wanted Hero Universe. Features characters from the main series and original voices. Available free on Life of Fiction.
Original Comics (thirteen issues)
The original comic book series, first published in 2005. The work that introduced Wendell P. Dipmier and the Wanted Hero Universe to the world. Over one million downloads. Available in digital and print.
The Themes That Run Through Everything
Every story in the Wanted Hero Universe, regardless of format or tone, returns to the same tensions:
Identity under pressure. Characters discover who they are not in comfortable moments but in impossible ones.
Hope as commitment, not optimism. Characters in this world do not hope because things will probably be fine. They hope because they have decided to keep going despite evidence to the contrary.
The cost of courage. Bravery in this universe is not the absence of fear. It is the choice made after fear has had its say.
Worth revealed through choice. Characters do not earn their value by being competent or powerful or specially destined. They reveal it -- slowly, imperfectly, repeatedly -- by what they choose when choosing is hard.
Ordinary people as the ones who matter. The protagonists of this universe are not chosen because they are extraordinary. They become extraordinary because of what they choose.
Entry Points
The Wanted Hero Universe has multiple intentional entry points depending on what a reader is looking for.
New to the universe: Start with Chronicles of a Hero, Chapter 1 -- lifeoffiction.com/p/choices-chapter-1
Want a darker character study first: Start with Bloodsticks -- lifeoffiction.com/p/bloodsticks-chapter-1
Want historical context and deep lore: Start with Demoni Vankil -- lifeoffiction.com/p/discover-the-700-year-old-secret
Want to explore the world before reading the stories: Start at the world overview -- lifeoffiction.com/p/world
Want the full index of everything published: lifeoffiction.com/p/start-reading-here
The Author
The Wanted Hero Universe was created by Jaime Buckley. He has been building this world since 1990. He is also the creator of JaimeBuckley.com, a writer education platform offering craft articles, writing tools, and courses for fiction writers.
His central conviction, expressed through every story in this universe: you are more than you think you are.
Full author profile: lifeoffiction.com/p/jaime-buckley-fantasy-author
Where to Find Everything
Read the stories: lifeoffiction.com
Explore the world wiki: wantedhero.com
Learn to write: jaimebuckley.com
Shop for books and bundles: shop.lifeoffiction.com
Listen to the podcast: lifeoffiction.com/podcast
Subscribe free at lifeoffiction.com. New content every week.
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*New chapters of Chronicles of a Hero publish every Friday. The universe keeps expanding. Start anywhere.*