Annotated 15-23
Love that last panel especially, as all the narrative threads “descend” into HR’s magicks. A great use of bird’s-eye-view when worm’s-eye-view would at first seem the more obvious choice.
I think this counts as a version of the general rule that if the reader is in on the plan, the plan will not go according to plan.
Technically we COULD tag Frigg, Syr’Nj, Gravedust, Byron, and I guess that’s Naror’Nj in panel 2, but they’re not really part of this scene. We could tag them as “The Five,” but I think that name and tag’s best reserved for the Earthlings in the tubes, who don’t really have another name in the story.
Fun fact: tagging HR is a little extra challenging, because his is the only character name that is entirely contained within two other character names: Shrev (the minor, not-named-in-story grunt who introduced us to elves before dying in Syr’Nj’s care) and Chrissie. The system also gives me a little trouble over the similar beginnings of “Frigg” and “Fr’Nj.”
Weird. I can’t see the comic.
Am I the only person who’s just seeing a black grey box here?
I also see a black grey box, more of a smokey charcoal really. Either something is wrong, or we two have achieved a very specific (and very boring) form of enlightenment, and now can see what normally stands unseen. I wish we could go back to the way things were, but I think it’s all black grey box’s from here on out. The only way to get past this is to continue on the journey, who knows what other boring sights await us, maybe there’s a box beyond this box, one which reveals even deeper truths.
Nope was just a website error, no deeper truths to report, move along.
Ditto.
Likewise.
Looks like HR’s spell had some unexpected side effects
Adds irony to the opening paragraph of the commentary.
http://guildedage.net/comic/chapter-15-page-23/ – a link to the original page, until the grey box disappears.
Glad y’all had fun with this morning’s hiccup. Fixed now!
How’s HR controlling “fate” here? He cannot override the free will of the player characters in either side of the conflict. Does he do it by manipulating the “NPCs”, and I’m assuming Harky himself is one?
No one expects players to actually determine the course of a morepig’s metaplot. If everything had gone according to plan, all the sepia-world players would have seen was, “The wood elf kingdom of B’ial Vezk has fallen to the ‘Savage Races’; their faction has a new mostly burned-out zone they can visit, and their border’s moved closer to Gastonia.”
He is writing the plans.
He obviously can override the free will of almost all of the characters, including the 5, but he can’t do it perfectly. Whenever the 5 or their empowered cohorts put their minds to it, the plot starts to slip.
And it seems that the more large-scale the planning is, the more effective it will be – in the general.
Not, as we shall see, in the specifics.
I thought it unusual that the Savage Races didn’t try to make an alliance with the Wood Elves given their human hating history, but I suppose Harky considered using Graiya’s Bough as the ultimate weapon was more important.
Possibly the savage race affinity with fire poses a natural obstacle for an alliance with the people of the forests.
They may have been considering allying with wood elves. But then H.R. magically coerced them into attacking instead.
Sepialings in the tubes, you must mean. What is this “Earth” of which you speak?
I’m trying to understand HR’s motive here. Why does he want to kill the four, render them “beyond resurrection”? I thought he was still trying to bring them back? Does he think that killing them might return them to their earthly bodies or something?
If memory serves, we later find out that the bodies of The Five are already dead. He was just keeping up the pretense of pulling them out for Carol’s sake.
Truth is, he’s far more concerned about becoming a virtual (and eventually a real) god of Arkerra. The Five are getting in his way.
If I read yesterday’s commentary correctly, it’s that without the five, HR can do ANYTHING in the version of Arkerra he made from magic. When they are there, they limit his potential moves since their actions change things. They arz the only link between the worlds, effectively.
Cheers,
Côté