Things We Almost Did, But Didn’t – Part One
All right, welcome to the post-story bonus features! Up first we’ve got… THINGS WE ALMOST DID, BUT DIDN’T!
DID YOU KNOW… That although Frigg, Byron, Gravedust, Best and even Bandit were basically conceived altogether in one piece into who they are today, that Syr’Nj almost didn’t exist??
It’s no secret to those that know me personally, but my contempt for elves is extremely fucking high. Which I think is kind of the point, because in most fantasy fiction they’re always positioned to be King Dickbags on Shit Mountain. But even moreso, my contempt for all things “Wood Elf” was the highest among all of my elven contempt, partially BECAUSE of how they’ve been historically in the primary source material Guilded Age is inspired by (Malfurion bores me straight into the Emerald Fucking Dream).
To that end, the Wood Elves of Guilded Age were, at the onset, going to be almost entirely a punchline as a race in this fiction. And the Druids were going to be these comically useless, moony-eyed dopes that, while they had heals, were otherwise laughably incompetent in society and stuck out like a sore fish (think Starfire cranked up to 11,000). And so, the Elf that preceded Syr’Nj as a concept was going to be the group’s gag character, even over Frigg (if such a thing were even possible).
However, I shied away from going this hard on the group’s healer as well as Wood Elves on a whole because I ultimately felt like it’s a dead horse that would’ve been beaten to smithereens all too soon, and severely limited the potential in such a character and nation in the overall story.
As I was originally conceiving of the party makeup for this story from kind of a top-down “game mechanics” sort of way, specifically deciding what classes would be in Kingdoms of Arkerra altogether, the Field Medic was one that my eyes kept wandering back to. Literally the entire concept behind the Field Medic on its inception was “What would a Healer be like if they didn’t have a mana bar?” because honestly: Since when is a healer not mana-based?
Anyway, once the class of Field Medic was chosen, a science and tech-based hero who used potions and tools to heal instead of magick and mana, I decided it would be deeply interesting if I stuck with the Wood Elf for this class, and Syr’Nj as we know her today immediately sprang forth from my noggin like so many Titans of yore. I knew then that it was a far, FAR better idea, and that this whole direction I almost took an entire race in this fiction was the wrong way to go.
This Field Medic concept also borrowed heavily from another character that was almost in the main party that got the axe early on. Yes, the party was almost SIX (seven depending on how you’re counting) deep! Who was this mysterious non-member? Find out Wednesday~
Someone more comedic than Frigg? That sounds near impossible.
Wow, that would have been really terrible. Even if it weren’t laden with Unfortunate Implications….
^ This. Very relieved you didn’t go this route.
Looks like one of Bjork’s outfits.
Bj’rk
Hela would dig it.
Hela’nj?
Definitely glad you did things the way you did.
YAY BONUS CONTENT!
So X+ Wood Elf+ Healer= Syr’nj
Solve for X.
X = Goblaurence?
Here I thought I would get one of those cool gravatars, and instead I got my ye olde WordPress image.
Maybe if I use another email-adress?
Much cooler.
got the axe? one character that could have been two?
I’m calling a pair of enchanted/cursed talking axes on this one.
I think you’re misreading
The core party in the comic as it stands is five, or six if you count both Payet Best and Bandit Keynes. If there was one more member it would go to six…or seven if you count both Payet and Bandit. If there were two more members then it would be either seven or eight.
“To that end, the Wood Elves of Guilded Age were, at the onset, going to be almost entirely a punchline as a race in this fiction.”
Wood elves are the OG shit elves.
I’m glad you didn’t go that route, but I can see why you wanted to!
At least this way, you could make wood elves something you DO like. It’s your story, after all. :)
That is usually the better answer when dealing with established fictional tropes one dislikes. Understand why you, dont like a thing, and correct or subvert it. Which is why this run has been so good from the start, great subversions and conversios to make something unique but still grounded in the genre.
Honestly, I’m mostly just surprised you intended the “Kingdoms of Arkerra” twist from the start. Though I didn’t hate it, it always came off as rather inorganic. I assumed at the time it was something you came up with and inserted after finding your bearings as a writer, as opposed to planned.
OMG she looks like a strung out nature junkie. I love it! Thanks for the exposition.
Thank you for this background information. You made the right choice!
Pallas Athena was NOT one of the Titans, but whatevs.
I think you made the right choice. I can’t imagine what direction the story would of gone had the intelligent leader Syr’Nj been replaced by strung-out gag Syr’Nj.
I was ready to habitually open this page and then cry when I remembered the story was over, but I’m so happy we’re getting some DVD extras. Thanks again for this wonderful ride.
‘KoA game mechanics’ is a neat way to have generated stuff. Internal consistency is a big thing.
How come we never got another ‘this is a game-moment’-type strips like early chapter 3?
In my observation, the true King Dickbags on Shit Mountain are invariably humans. Which, of course, was an actual plot element in Guilded Age–as was the comparably arrogant perspective of some woodelves (like Syn’nj’s father).
I agree with the sentiment on Malfurion and honestly the Night Elves in general. I mean in the basic game it was painfully obvious that the new High Druid, whose lore made it obvious he was openly racist to any non-Night Elf and who just so happened to take control after Malfurion fell asleep in the Emerald Nightmare, was going to be a bad guy.
Boring.
That’s chilling.
I always did like the ambiguous position Syr’Nj occupies between nature magic and Science. And although you could have had Miss Dewy Antlers there eventually sober up, I think she would still have been far less interesting.
Huh, until now I’ve never thought of Syr’nj as the “healer” of the group, even though I guess she does do the healing, because when I think “healer” I think “cleric”, and when I think “cleric” I think Gravedust — even though Gravy doesn’t do healing. Interesting.
Also mind-blowing is the idea of Syr’nj not existing, considering she gradually became the leader of the group, and thus in my mind the “primary” protagonist — although again, Gravy sort of fills that slot as the outsider, the POV character and the sometime narrator.
BTW, who is the “I” in the caption here: Phil or T?
Me, in this case.
A good seventy percent of elves in fantasy fiction can go fuck themselves. Fortunately those in Guilded Age seem to be of the thirty percent. Except for Caneghem.
Caneghem was pretty all right, actually. He struck a decent balance between his jerkass people and those who were more like Clair. Can’t really blame the guy for being sick of a war that had him constantly changing sides and stuck with allies he disliked for long periods of time. Especially when he only allied with Gastonia for trade purposes in the first place.
I can’t help but feel there was a serious missed opportunity to provide some Three Stooges type physical comedy centered around that hat.
Syr’Nj: “Untag me, please.” ^_^
Did any of the hippie-dippy strung-out Syr’ng manifest in that sequence when Byron’s medication was having trippy side effects? Or was that thoroughly unrelated in your minds?
So you did Byll’Bb instead? Seems like he summarized that joke, without it becoming a dead horse.