Well this confirms that Clair survived although she didn’t seem to be in that much danger, but if she’s on the Urban Elf Council and Hollister isn’t I’m not so optimistic about his survival.
One asks the baker, one receives the bread, one uses the bread to lure the starving children into the portal, and finally one gives the bread back to the baker. I may have left out some details. Maybe the ‘graphic’ ones?
Well, there’s a reason they say “former Sky Elves”. They’re the Sky Elves that decided to stay when the Archmage and the rest of their city decided to hike off to regions unknown. They’ll probably be Shit Elves within a few generations. (Of course, they’re elven generations, so that might take a while to fully set in.)
The state of humans is looking a little worrying. Sure, the backstory is that they’ve gained their wealth by screwing over everyone else, but if the victors are ungracious in victory there could be another rebellion in a decade or two.
The human seems to be fine. He’s dressed about as well the other assorted common folk, he is however looking fearfully at the non-humans. I think people are misinterpreting this scene, it’s not meant to indicate humans are oppressed, it’s meant to indicate lingering xenophobia.
That, and the city was recently conquered in an enormous battle — followed by an apocalyptic struggle between gods. Pretty reasonable to expect it to take a while to recover from all that.
It’s ambiguous. You have the avian and the gnoll happily walking in with their possessions, and the human walking out looking quite depressed with something wrapped up under his arm. Could be xenophobia. Could be just-got-kicked-out-of-home-with-whatever-he-could-carry. (Or, worse, that looks about the right shape to be a swaddled-up baby…)
I think the Shit Elves lost their magic because the humans settled on their land and passed laws that limited their abilities. That could happen to the former Sky Elves, but I think Clair wants her kin to use their powers responsibly which Jemmington probably doesn’t. Wonder why he ever bothered to join their group in the first place.
The human in frame 1 looks a bit like a down-at-the-heels E-merl unhappily carrying a… baby? Maybe that’s part of the kidnapping angle referenced in the last frame. Or maybe he’s just an unhappy human carrying bread. Either way its foreshadowing.
That not E-merl. He’d be tagged if it was. Its just some probably racist human who is unhappy about the new world order. Or perhaps he was poor and wretched before the battle and this is not too much of a change in his circumstances. Or maybe he’s just worried because he “borrowed” that bread. Which is definitely not a baby. You really shouldn’t swaddle over a baby’s breathing holes like that.
Or maybe he’s probably not racist, and just down on his luck because every Gastonian is now at the bottom of the totempole and he naturally fears violence against him by the victors.
Why the hell would you assume this character in particular is racist anyway… that’s just fucked up to assume..
Because most Gastonians have racial biases that have been a part of their culture for generations and which their government reinforced? It’s a pretty logical assumption.
Are you saying it’s a “fucked up” thing to assume because you think that implies he’s a hateful, soulless monster? Because it doesn’t. Most Gastonians are probably decent people with mistaken views, just like most people in the U.S. for most of its history.
Yeah, how could a human that’s part of a society where they were absolutely on top, exploited and oppressed their closest non human allies the Gnomes, nicknamed an entire subset of powerless elves as ‘shit elves’ and only barely allied with wood and sky elves out of convenience, not to mention driving their former allies the dwarves out of their ancestral homes, and nicknaming the nonhuman allied races that were sick of their shit ‘savage’, possibly have lingering racism or xenophobia towards said nonhuman races after being conquered?
Wait, why is it fucked up to assume that humans are on the bottom of the totem pole when they just lost a war that was based on the fact everyone hated humans? I mean, it’s not going to be as bad as it could have been with the old leadership of the rebellion, but, it’s not unreasonable. He’s probably scared he’s going to be robbed for one, they are carting out the loot from the city after all.
It is utterly unreasonable to assume that a coalition led by two humans, a troll whose entire ‘I’m leader now’ portfolio was ‘humans are not the enemy’, an elf that’s married to one of those humans, and several friends of same, all of whom grasp the fact that racism caused the war, would turn around and go ‘you know what, humans suck, let’s set up the next war by oppressing them’.
While, like I said, the change in leadership will help blunt the effects, both sides spent the time leading up to it hating each other due to their race, and the rank and file and normal civilians aren’t going to just totally change their perspectives in such a short period of time. As you can see, they aren’t treating this like a draw or truce, they are looting a conquered city. Hmm, I’ll be more clear, I don’t think the humans are “legally” on the bottom, I think that socially they are. They lost the war, and to the winners were not fans of them. And yes, the actual causes of the war were more complex, I was trying to simplify the perspective but maybe I went too far.
I’m not concerned about oversimplification. I’m concerned about why your mind went to “based on the fact that everyone hated humans” rather than “based on the fact that humans hated everyone,” painting Gastonia as a victim rather than an aggressor.
Can’t both be true? Gastonia was aggressive the Coalition was hardly benevolent. I would say war was inevitable, but if the leadership of the Rebellion had not changed everyone inside that city would be dead including any gnomes. It’s not unreasonable for the human in this picture to be afraid in anyway. Even if the outcome wasn’t as bad for him as it could have been.
I guess the human can be thankful he’s not an orc at least.
Honestly, I was wasn’t thinking about the start of the war, just how they felt by the end. Gastonia being the inciter of the war wouldn’t help things with feelings towards humans either way.
Yes those characters know all this, but random peasant on the street here doesn’t know any of this. What he knows is that his country lost the war and his city was conquered. He likely knows the wood elves turned on Gastonia (he likely has no idea why and that matters little now) Now being conquered hasn’t been as bad as it could have been. The fact that the new leadership assures him that he won’t be murdered isn’t as comforting as you might think. The common folk here have little reason to trust the victors, but as the losers they also have little choice. That’s just the face of someone trying to keep his head down.
I am also assuming he’s a teeny bit racist but the fact that I know nothing about him other than his nervous face here is the only thing I’m basing this assumption on, so I can assume lots of other things as well.
I was only thinking he’s nervous because, racist or not, he PROBABLY has never had the experience of living with and walking around so closely with all these other races, most of whom he was probably told his whole life were savage murderers who hated HIM as well, thanks to war propaganda and all that.
However, I still don’t know, just based on this, what race is at the bottom of the totem pole. From this, I can only infer that the poor are, no matter what race. Example being Jem’s tattered robes vs the goblin’s nice clothes and cart full of shiny goodies.
I always wondered what the relationship was between Clair and Hollister. And now I know! And knowing is… well, the battle’s over, so I guess it’s just useless knowledge now.
I was just thinking “wow, that first panel really does feel lively and bustling like a town waking up” (which props to you guys, I love that sort of thing) when I realized “oh, Goblily, Goblarry, and Jemington are in the background in panel 1. I comepletely missed that” so now more props to you? Take away my props? Here, just donate them to God, wherever they are in this page. Poor fellow must’ve gotten turned into bread again.
I love how Goblily and Larry are made to look obviously well-off while poor Jem’s got the tatty robes her came here with. It’s just good art-story-telling! (Also the cart full of shiny goodies really spells it out)
However, I’m having a hard time placing what exactly the goblins’ expressions are in the second to last panel. They don’t seem angry or sad. More like –> :I
I’m wondering if maybe this prohibition is actually part of a coverup. When Tectonicus was absorbed and presumably destroyed with HR all of his disciples lost their abilities granted by him, but what if a lot of the other magical abilities wielded by the other races disappeared too. Perhaps Clair wants to keep a lid on this to prevent her people from panicking.
I doubt it, he seems to be implying he was using it before the prohibition for less than savory ends, plus they would need to cast the block, and he would probably have noticed the rest of his magic not working.
Based on AD&D:
Cleric magic – Power comes from a god, spells are gained through prayer and granted based on obedience/service to said god, and can be taken away if the devotee displeases the god, loses their divine connection, or in this case, the god dies.
Wizard magic: Power is derived from ambient mana or an individual’s own magical energies, spells are formulaic and require appropriate rituals/gestures/words/etc. It’s like flipping a light switch: as long as you’ve got a power supply and the right circuitry, you’ll get the desired result.
Devotees of Graiya and Tectonics have/had the former, while sky elves have the latter. The fact that Jemmington’s still “got magic powers” at all means any fundamental change in mana flows or magical laws is unlikely, which is what it would take to cause any kind of wizard magic to stop working.
I am somewhat puzzled how one of the few people capable of casting instantaneous-mass-transport portals between arbitrary destinations could possibly end up poor enough to have to resort to stealing. Even if he only charges the same price as a courier would to move goods across town, the higher speed should let him make it up in volume. And there’s *got* to be people willing to pay extra to have their stuff moved in five minutes instead of five hours…
Smells to me like the more powerful casters are just wanting to keep the monopoly on fast transportation to themselves so they can jack up the prices…
I think that might be the first time I’ve seen God tagged in a webcomic.
An error, to be sure.
What if God was one of us?
With His clothes all torn and mussed?
Would He cast a port for us
To get our stolen goods home?
I can only assume the nervous looking human is God, as he’s the only clearly drawn character besides the Goblins and Jemmington.
Nah. It’s that troll’s but. That booty is truly divine.
… Butt. Don’t be a prude, autocorrect.
Mind you, Jemmington isn’t tagged.
Clicking the tag brings up a couple of times that Frigg’s wolf god was in the scene, but not all the times he showed up.
If that had been the Insanity Wolf he wouldn’t have dressed in such a weak visage. He’s all for enjoying the little fuck yous in life.
Looks like the heat’s going up in the melting pot, and it’s still not soup yet.
Well this confirms that Clair survived although she didn’t seem to be in that much danger, but if she’s on the Urban Elf Council and Hollister isn’t I’m not so optimistic about his survival.
I think it was pretty much spelled out that Hollister died when they blocked the ultimate engine shot from Taro the Lesser.
I think he wasn’t tagged in a comic his corpse was lying around – confirming he was dead and not unconscious.
How exactly does one borrow bread?
…actually nevermind, figured it out and I don’t need the graphic details/
I/O portals.
One asks the baker, one receives the bread, one uses the bread to lure the starving children into the portal, and finally one gives the bread back to the baker. I may have left out some details. Maybe the ‘graphic’ ones?
Looks like the humans and Sky Elves have seen better days.
Well, there’s a reason they say “former Sky Elves”. They’re the Sky Elves that decided to stay when the Archmage and the rest of their city decided to hike off to regions unknown. They’ll probably be Shit Elves within a few generations. (Of course, they’re elven generations, so that might take a while to fully set in.)
The state of humans is looking a little worrying. Sure, the backstory is that they’ve gained their wealth by screwing over everyone else, but if the victors are ungracious in victory there could be another rebellion in a decade or two.
The human seems to be fine. He’s dressed about as well the other assorted common folk, he is however looking fearfully at the non-humans. I think people are misinterpreting this scene, it’s not meant to indicate humans are oppressed, it’s meant to indicate lingering xenophobia.
That, and the city was recently conquered in an enormous battle — followed by an apocalyptic struggle between gods. Pretty reasonable to expect it to take a while to recover from all that.
It’s ambiguous. You have the avian and the gnoll happily walking in with their possessions, and the human walking out looking quite depressed with something wrapped up under his arm. Could be xenophobia. Could be just-got-kicked-out-of-home-with-whatever-he-could-carry. (Or, worse, that looks about the right shape to be a swaddled-up baby…)
I think the Shit Elves lost their magic because the humans settled on their land and passed laws that limited their abilities. That could happen to the former Sky Elves, but I think Clair wants her kin to use their powers responsibly which Jemmington probably doesn’t. Wonder why he ever bothered to join their group in the first place.
Honestly, I’m betting the ‘Urban Elves’ include the Shit Elves as well as the former Sky Elves. Because, honestly, they had a really shit name.
Heh, if you could power perfectly precise portals to purloin without paying…
Would you borrow a baker’s bread? Or borrow a banker’s “bread”?
Nice alliteration there.
An ability to assemble arcane apertures as an avenue of amoral advantages aids agendas advocating attempts to abolish aforementioned acts of abuse.
The human in frame 1 looks a bit like a down-at-the-heels E-merl unhappily carrying a… baby? Maybe that’s part of the kidnapping angle referenced in the last frame. Or maybe he’s just an unhappy human carrying bread. Either way its foreshadowing.
That not E-merl. He’d be tagged if it was. Its just some probably racist human who is unhappy about the new world order. Or perhaps he was poor and wretched before the battle and this is not too much of a change in his circumstances. Or maybe he’s just worried because he “borrowed” that bread. Which is definitely not a baby. You really shouldn’t swaddle over a baby’s breathing holes like that.
Or maybe he’s probably not racist, and just down on his luck because every Gastonian is now at the bottom of the totempole and he naturally fears violence against him by the victors.
Why the hell would you assume this character in particular is racist anyway… that’s just fucked up to assume..
Because most Gastonians have racial biases that have been a part of their culture for generations and which their government reinforced? It’s a pretty logical assumption.
Are you saying it’s a “fucked up” thing to assume because you think that implies he’s a hateful, soulless monster? Because it doesn’t. Most Gastonians are probably decent people with mistaken views, just like most people in the U.S. for most of its history.
Yeah, how could a human that’s part of a society where they were absolutely on top, exploited and oppressed their closest non human allies the Gnomes, nicknamed an entire subset of powerless elves as ‘shit elves’ and only barely allied with wood and sky elves out of convenience, not to mention driving their former allies the dwarves out of their ancestral homes, and nicknaming the nonhuman allied races that were sick of their shit ‘savage’, possibly have lingering racism or xenophobia towards said nonhuman races after being conquered?
No, it’s not fucked up to assume that ‘guy from a racist culture is racist because he’s giving other races a paranoid side-eye’.
What is fucked up to assume is ‘humans are now at the bottom of the totem pole’.
Wait, why is it fucked up to assume that humans are on the bottom of the totem pole when they just lost a war that was based on the fact everyone hated humans? I mean, it’s not going to be as bad as it could have been with the old leadership of the rebellion, but, it’s not unreasonable. He’s probably scared he’s going to be robbed for one, they are carting out the loot from the city after all.
It is utterly unreasonable to assume that a coalition led by two humans, a troll whose entire ‘I’m leader now’ portfolio was ‘humans are not the enemy’, an elf that’s married to one of those humans, and several friends of same, all of whom grasp the fact that racism caused the war, would turn around and go ‘you know what, humans suck, let’s set up the next war by oppressing them’.
Indeed. “Based on the fact that everyone hated humans” seems designed to position the blame for the war in entirely the wrong place.
While, like I said, the change in leadership will help blunt the effects, both sides spent the time leading up to it hating each other due to their race, and the rank and file and normal civilians aren’t going to just totally change their perspectives in such a short period of time. As you can see, they aren’t treating this like a draw or truce, they are looting a conquered city. Hmm, I’ll be more clear, I don’t think the humans are “legally” on the bottom, I think that socially they are. They lost the war, and to the winners were not fans of them. And yes, the actual causes of the war were more complex, I was trying to simplify the perspective but maybe I went too far.
I’m not concerned about oversimplification. I’m concerned about why your mind went to “based on the fact that everyone hated humans” rather than “based on the fact that humans hated everyone,” painting Gastonia as a victim rather than an aggressor.
Can’t both be true? Gastonia was aggressive the Coalition was hardly benevolent. I would say war was inevitable, but if the leadership of the Rebellion had not changed everyone inside that city would be dead including any gnomes. It’s not unreasonable for the human in this picture to be afraid in anyway. Even if the outcome wasn’t as bad for him as it could have been.
I guess the human can be thankful he’s not an orc at least.
Honestly, I was wasn’t thinking about the start of the war, just how they felt by the end. Gastonia being the inciter of the war wouldn’t help things with feelings towards humans either way.
Yes those characters know all this, but random peasant on the street here doesn’t know any of this. What he knows is that his country lost the war and his city was conquered. He likely knows the wood elves turned on Gastonia (he likely has no idea why and that matters little now) Now being conquered hasn’t been as bad as it could have been. The fact that the new leadership assures him that he won’t be murdered isn’t as comforting as you might think. The common folk here have little reason to trust the victors, but as the losers they also have little choice. That’s just the face of someone trying to keep his head down.
I am not sure that it is, as it appears to me to be, but …. who is the carthorse?
I am also assuming he’s a teeny bit racist but the fact that I know nothing about him other than his nervous face here is the only thing I’m basing this assumption on, so I can assume lots of other things as well.
I was only thinking he’s nervous because, racist or not, he PROBABLY has never had the experience of living with and walking around so closely with all these other races, most of whom he was probably told his whole life were savage murderers who hated HIM as well, thanks to war propaganda and all that.
However, I still don’t know, just based on this, what race is at the bottom of the totem pole. From this, I can only infer that the poor are, no matter what race. Example being Jem’s tattered robes vs the goblin’s nice clothes and cart full of shiny goodies.
I saw 2 cultist
Good spotting! Not that there’s much time for plot development, but they could be a fruitful source of fanfic!
Could just be people in Robes. I mean, Gravedust had robes like those, too.
I always wondered what the relationship was between Clair and Hollister. And now I know! And knowing is… well, the battle’s over, so I guess it’s just useless knowledge now.
I was just thinking “wow, that first panel really does feel lively and bustling like a town waking up” (which props to you guys, I love that sort of thing) when I realized “oh, Goblily, Goblarry, and Jemington are in the background in panel 1. I comepletely missed that” so now more props to you? Take away my props? Here, just donate them to God, wherever they are in this page. Poor fellow must’ve gotten turned into bread again.
I love how Goblily and Larry are made to look obviously well-off while poor Jem’s got the tatty robes her came here with. It’s just good art-story-telling! (Also the cart full of shiny goodies really spells it out)
However, I’m having a hard time placing what exactly the goblins’ expressions are in the second to last panel. They don’t seem angry or sad. More like –> :I
I’m wondering if maybe this prohibition is actually part of a coverup. When Tectonicus was absorbed and presumably destroyed with HR all of his disciples lost their abilities granted by him, but what if a lot of the other magical abilities wielded by the other races disappeared too. Perhaps Clair wants to keep a lid on this to prevent her people from panicking.
I doubt it, he seems to be implying he was using it before the prohibition for less than savory ends, plus they would need to cast the block, and he would probably have noticed the rest of his magic not working.
Based on AD&D:
Cleric magic – Power comes from a god, spells are gained through prayer and granted based on obedience/service to said god, and can be taken away if the devotee displeases the god, loses their divine connection, or in this case, the god dies.
Wizard magic: Power is derived from ambient mana or an individual’s own magical energies, spells are formulaic and require appropriate rituals/gestures/words/etc. It’s like flipping a light switch: as long as you’ve got a power supply and the right circuitry, you’ll get the desired result.
Devotees of Graiya and Tectonics have/had the former, while sky elves have the latter. The fact that Jemmington’s still “got magic powers” at all means any fundamental change in mana flows or magical laws is unlikely, which is what it would take to cause any kind of wizard magic to stop working.
I am somewhat puzzled how one of the few people capable of casting instantaneous-mass-transport portals between arbitrary destinations could possibly end up poor enough to have to resort to stealing. Even if he only charges the same price as a courier would to move goods across town, the higher speed should let him make it up in volume. And there’s *got* to be people willing to pay extra to have their stuff moved in five minutes instead of five hours…
Smells to me like the more powerful casters are just wanting to keep the monopoly on fast transportation to themselves so they can jack up the prices…