Richard Scott Bakker, known as R. Scott Bakker, is a Canadian fantasy author born on February 2, 1967. He spent his early years on a tobacco farm in the Simcoe area. Bakker is renowned for his expansive series informally known as The Second Apocalypse, a project he began developing during his college years in the 1980s.

The series was initially conceived as a trilogy, including the first two books titled The Prince of Nothing and The Aspect-Emperor. However, as Bakker commenced writing the series in the early 2000s, he realized the need to divide each of the three novels into its own sub-series to accommodate all the characters, themes, and ideas he wanted to explore. Hence, the series evolved into two trilogies, with the potential for a third.