Annotated 2-18
We asked for a variety of reactions in panel 2, and I like how Erica made some of the humans protective of each other. “I won’t let you hurt my family, stranger!” They may be united in seemingly impenetrable racism against this newcomer, but they’re not all bad.
One of Phil’s first ideas for Guilded Age was that humans and dwarves should not be buddy-buddy, as they generally have been in many other fantasy works since the days of Tolkien (as you may recall, it was the elves who had friction with the dwarves back in LoTR). This paid off in spades throughout the story (there is no other relation between races that underscores the series’ themes more directly) but it also meant that Gravedust would be slow to trust the human members of his party. He wouldn’t trust non-human criminals either, and probably would want little to do with a narcissist. So it was pretty much inevitable whom he was going to bond with first.
The Savage Races, Gravy? Tsktsk. You’d think you’d be more sensitive than that.
He has accessed the source code. That is the name of their shared property.
“He wouldn’t trust non-human criminals either, and probably would want little to do with a narcissist. So it was pretty much inevitable whom he was going to bond with first.”
That would lead me to believe Syr’Nj would be first, but disregarding the very first intro page where they of them were a bit… “out of character”, so to speak, I’d say his first bud was Byron if you ask me!
Also I’ve seen this page a number of times I just can’t not see a damn fez on Gravedust on the last panel at first glance.
Out of curiosities sake, why did you guys choose to use the term “savasi” as opposed to “dwarves?” Especially since the other classic races are still referenced by their standard fantasy names (ex. “elves”, “gnomes”, “trolls”, etc.)
Ah, but “dwarf” means “short”, and it would be kind of weird if they called *themselves* “the short people”. Whereas “elf”, “gnome” and “troll” have no such separate meaning.
True! Well, “troll” does these days, but we kind of leaned into that one.
“Savasi” was Phil’s idea, and it’s more a tribal name than a racial one. Just as the gnolls are the only “Fuzzy Peoples” left, there are no dwarves who identify with a tribe other than the Savasi… that we know of.
Is there a reason to think dwarfism is not a genetic possibility for these “races” (surely more properly species, right?)?
“gnome” seems to have been derived from Greek for “earth dweller”. Historically kobolds, gnomes, and goblins were considered to be the same thing (which is easy to understand if nobody actually ever saw any).
“elf” goes back further, so its history is more difficult to determine, but seems likely to be connected to the word for “white” or “pale”, which fits with them having originally been thought of as mostly spirits.
“troll” as a noun seems to have been derived from the Old Norse general term for magical creatures. Where that word came from we don’t really know.
So yes, most names do have meanings beyond just being a random collection of sounds. “Savasi” is Hindi for “The strong one”. If, instead, it were intended to be of more European origin like the other race/tribe names, then it would probably mean something similar to “knowers” (Or else “the shoes” but let’s not go there…)
Huh. The Gnome King (of Oz) makes sense now.