Guilded Age

Iver’s not even close to sympathizing with Gobligno’s petty bellyaching (recall how he reacted when Harky smacked Gobligno down), but he’s much too much of a classical politician to make enemies when he doesn’t have to. His dig at Harky in panel 1, alluding to the speech here, is risky enough for him. He might need the Don’s support later, depending on when and how he sees fit to make a move against Harky. So it’s “Perhaps, perhaps” instead of “Get over it, crybaby.”

We asked John for a lot of new-character sketches before this chapter began, and we could’ve focused entirely on the Champions, but Phil quickly realized that while we already had a very serviceable character to act as champion of the gnolls, we needed a gnoll equivalent to Harky’s other councilors, each of whom we’d developed organically without stopping to think about the empty seat we were creating.  Actually, if I know Phil, he’d probably been worried about that empty seat for a while before this.

My original take on her, based on Phil’s notes, was pretty different. I had her as a “speak softly and carry a big stick” type, and had her insisting not only on the gnolls’ participation, but also the land sharks’. In contrast to crime boss Gobligno and dictator-in-populist’s-clothing Iver, I thought it’d be interesting to have someone challenge Harky from the other end, someone whose ideals were a bit too democratic for Harky’s brand of wartime leadership. I was actually right about that, but that challenge won’t come until much later, and from a different character.