Annotated 12-7
The ridiculously oversized illustration Ardaic uses here is easy to poke fun at, but it is an interesting product of Gastonian society, so flush that it can use half a tree’s worth of paper on one drawing if the attention of the government justifies it.
Once your extraordinary activities reach a certain level of significance, existing power structures take notice and categorize you as either an asset or a threat. Being an asset of the powerful has its problems, but it sure beats the alternative.
Phil finished the first draft of this page, then stuck in a note to me: “I call upon your powers of condensing to make Ardaic’s dialogue here not crush the page under its weight.”
Here you are roughly one quarter into a story called Guilded Age (by chapter count, anyway), and now you choose to introduce the word “guild” in the context of the story. And even afterwards there was only ever just the one guild, which doesn’t really justify an entire “age” being described as “guilded” (yes, disconnect between name and content is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, why do you ask?)
It’s just a pun on “Gilded Age,” isn’t it?
Oh, come on.
This webcomic started roughly when MMORPG became fully mainstream, with maybe a new WoW clone getting out every other week (OK, maybe not that many, but still, it was raining MMORPG). In-games, a common descriptor of associations of players was “Guild” (appropriate, given the medieval contest).
For the second part, a number of very successful video games used ‘Age’, either in their title or background description. So associating the two was just pop-culture awareness, with a side of self-depreciation.
Also, for us old geeks, adventurers guilds, thieves guilds, assassins guilds were an expected part of any medieval-fantasy.
So, OK, maybe it took the authors 12 chapters to do a proper title drop, but the intent/meaning was here from the start. That, or shamelessly riding on buzzwords (I don’t mind).
Especially after the first foray into sepia world, where it became clear that this is, indeed, a MMORPG.
(actually, didn’t HR already did a Title Drop himself?)
Chapter 6, Page 15, Frame 4. SYR’INJ: “Wait, is there…really such a thing as a Thieves’ Guild?”
It doesn’t seem that oversized to me. It’s a big room, and he’s gotta make sure they can all see it clearly.
Yes, among Gastonia’s opulent indulgences I don’t think “used large papers for presentations” ranks that highly. It’s basically just a larger than average painting that serves a more functional purpose.
Compare that to the dais, which is lined in…gems? Whatever the pokey bits are, I assume they are expensive and look, Ardaic isn’t even using the thing what a waste!
It looks like Minas Tirith, with an
ironarcane domeThe river on that map has two deltas? Magical.
Ha, good catch! I can only assume that Gastonia must be built at the high point of the land mass.
The rivers are clearly originating in the city and each runs to a separate body of water. The deltas are each on a sea. The map doesn’t shade the seas in, but its obvious we are looking at an isthmus.
This page stood out as a beautiful dovetailing of natural story moment and something that felt like we were watching a video game plot.
I’m always sad when I see an airship that wouldn’t actually fly…
Remember folks, Hydrogen gets you 68lbs per 1000 cubic feet at one atmosphere of pressure. That’s three 13ft diameter balloons or one 18ft diameter balloon just to lift an armored warrior like Frigg, not including a chair for her to sit on.
Assuming the balloons are two 40s, two 53s and a 35 (which makes for a huge hull), That gets you around seven and a half tons for hull, engines, fuel, and payload. Which is not all that much considering the weight of all that wood for a hull that size…
For comparison: the Hindenburg, which was mostly treated fabric, had only about the bottom 1/6th of its hull as its two passenger decks. The rest was lifting gas.
This is where the fantasy world explains away the limitations of actual physics by wriggling it’s fingers in your face and going: “MaaaAhaagic!”
Cheers,
Cote