Comments on: Annotated 18-27

By: T

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 12:07:11 +0000

That’s gonna be a “no,” I’m afraid: the economics never really justified it. We contemplated a POD deal, but anything that would come close to a reasonable retail price wouldn’t look as good as the volumes we put out. And both Phil and I have too much creative focus elsewhere, these days.

By: tlhonmey

tlhonmey — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 22:06:35 +0000

Are you guys ever going to print the last of the story? As someone who was giving the print versions as gifts, not being able to complete the set kind of rankles.

By: Lirazel

Lirazel — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 04:03:40 +0000

It’s also a thing in Sepiaworld, where HR uses a limb (though not his own) to project his power into Arkerra.

By: Keiranhalcyon31

Keiranhalcyon31 — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 02:42:32 +0000

According to the exposition in http://guildedage.net/comic/annotated-17-20/, Graiya was not always a goddess. She created the Bough from her… bough, originally for her mortal self to wield, in some sort of Tolkien-esque process in which shunting part of your spirit (or body, apparently) into an artifact amplifies its power. She likely never considered that it might one day become a McGuffin.

Later, we learned that this practice became an initiation rite for wood elven archdruids.

By: Lurklen

Lurklen — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 21:24:04 +0000

Well sure, that’s what it’s doing. But why does it exist at all? This is one of those situations where the fact that this world is both a designed one, and an emergent one raises questions. If this world were purely designed (which it is because it’s fiction, but within the fiction it may not be, you know what I mean) then the Bough is there because the writer/designer wanted it there, so the wood elves would have something worth taking, and also to explain their life style (also for that phat loot for epic raids). But if it’s an emergent world, where things happen because of the flow of action and reaction over time, then there must be some reason that the Bough is powering the wood elf civilization, and is also in the form of a convenient to wield staff.

The simple fact that Fr’n realizes her sister is actually using the staff, means there must be some kind of precedence for it. Also it’s a staff, an item meant to be wielded right? It provides direct connection to a Goddess’s power, that seems like something that would come up at some point in history. My point is either in the world Graya just put it there but was like “Don’t touch this.” and yet made into an item that could be carried around with ease (as averse to a big orb, or a crystal, or a giant flower or something), which makes little sense. Or she put it there for emergencies, and the Wood Elves were so caught up in the benefits they became negligent of actually checking in with the Goddess every once in a while, which seems like it’s most likely purpose, though making everything super green is nice benefit. Or HR just stuck it there and didn’t think about it too much.

If it’s either of the first two options, then there must have been some inciting incident to cause Graya to make the staff and give it to the wood elves. I just wonder what that is.