Guilded Age

The original version of this page used a little more wordplay, working off “Harold/Herald” and “HR/Human Resources” and the fact that HR had named himself in front of Ulak before. But Flo felt we should have a less articulate HR-monster, and she was probably right.

I mentioned earlier that my headcanon was that most of Cyberia survived HR’s presence, but the liner notes for this script indicate that it did not. I’ll let you decide for yourself what you choose to believe on that one.

I do think maybe we should’ve put this sequence in the next chapter rather than this one, just for the sake of a more consistent timeline. Between E-Merl meeting Best and the end of Chapter 48, the War on Iwatania takes a decisive turn, involving at least several major battles, before the capital city is conquered. Between this scene and the end of Chapter 48, HR “infects” the Cultists as seen here…and then they too attack the capital city. It seems like even with all that our heroes are doing to tip the scales, the War on Iwatania should still take some time to resolve. A few weeks at least, a few months maybe. So are HR and his purplezerkers just kind of…hanging out, until then?

But nobody’s expecting a strict chronology out of us at this point, and this chapter is mostly about assembling all the chess pieces on the board for the climactic fight to end all fights. We’d need to at least nod to HR’s plans somehow here for it to feel complete.

FB: When we first met him, Ulak really thought he was ready to go the way of all Cultists, but it’s all fun and games until everyone loses to the Eye.