. âOh gods!â the Paladin cries. âI canâtâ What IS that?!â
. âFinally,â Tess says with a bright grin. She twists around and hauls herself up by the ropes around the dragon, planting her feet on its flank. âNice meeting you, thanks for the ride!â
. âWHAT?!â
. âYOW!â the dragon screeches as Tess leaps off its side in a crack of lightning, shoving it sideways with the force and reaching out toward the vine colossus. She grabs one of the thick vines that make up the trunk, then streaks along it in a trail of lightning, skidding down the base in a matter of seconds.
I have NO idea what to call this Alinua Plant okay, I’m not even gonna try the last page for a while
I’m currently reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, it’s my first read. The version I got is SO pretty <3
No, no, no Tess! This is Aurora; you have to say your “Finally”‘s with FEELING.
Garnering the approval of Tess, not a chimera in sight, and with intricate, healthy green life swirls that foster growth and healling in all things, except Red’s drawing hand. Yep, I think this is definitely Alinua doing this; just the person Tess needs to get her off the island, and give her some long overdue heals.
I’m not so sure. I expected us to switch straight to Alinua. The fact that we haven’t seen Alinua yet, and Tess feels SO comfortable and confident that it’s her friend, and the fact that Erin and Dainix are still under the sea and the Northern Wyrm Crew have only just now reached them gives me pause.
I was expecting Alinua to go save Erin and fleshshape him (with consent) so that he doesn’t imminently drown or freeze to death. If she’s here instead, I don’t know how he can continue. And since we know there’s an entrance into the Singing Caves on the island that’s trying to retrieve Kendal, I’m suddenly not confident that this is Alinua. I know that it still feels early for The Collector, but I think we might get a small glimpse of her right her, failing to retrieve Kendal, and returning to the Caves to plan an assault against the Snowfast, which I think will happen anyway if Kendal is taken.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but this page feels like the moment before the other shoe drops.
The idea of it not being Alinua but the Collecter herself would be very scary, but!
The reason the bigass plant exists is to presumably catch Kendal before the dragon gets too far. For alinua this makes sense since she has no way of flying, so reaching really far with a vine is the only thing she can do. But the Collector has been said to be able to create flying chimeras (in Windscrest the bird lass says she got attacked by a flying chimera that she sent after her) so i think it would be more likely for her to just make an army of critters to catch up to the dragon.
And to explain why Alinua isn’t with erin- let’s be real even if she knows eren’s there, if she had to pick between making sure he’s okay and saving the most important person in her life she’d pick Kendall in a heartbeat.
Also i don’t think she would fleshshape erin just because of her not being fully cool with that even if it was consensual
Yeah I know what you mean, but I’m still hopeful.
Regarding Erin, they actually don’t need fleshshaping to save him. When Selach first encountered Alinua, she tried giving her what looked to be a wind-lacrima powered breathing aid (page 2-5-4). Admittedly Selach doesn’t have her satchel on her when meeting Erin, but if Caturus is here too, there’s a good chance other merfolk are as well who may have one.
Still, the Collector did start on their trail at the end of Chapter 1, and Kendal did get that ominous “She’s Coming” warning way back in chapter 2 that hasn’t been followed up. Not to mention the mass deployment of Paladins and dragons; even if Helm is sparsely populated, that’s bound to have caught some people’s attention, maybe hers too.
There’s no mistake that the Collector will be showing up soon, but how soon and in what way is up in the air.
alinua doesnt know how to fleshshape herself consciously i dont think she is doing it to erin especially when there is a safer selach approved air mask alternative, she isnt really needed to help erin especially with the northern wyrm back and caturus there
this being the collector has several issues like how would she know wich dragon has kendal, how does she know they were in rakhn in the first place (everyone thought the floof squad was going to helm, no one expected to stop by rakhn) and why cant she follow them in a flying chimera wich we know she has
Welp, you asked for it. To get the obvious out of the way, Falst & Dainix are Very Gay; Tess is aroace because sheâs so clearly based on Red, the author, whoâs aroace; and Alinua is, as far as Iâve heard, proclaimed by Word of Red to be pansexual.
I donât want Kendal to be straight but I also donât want to necessarily eliminate the possibility of romance between him and Alinua, so Kendal is bi and asexual.
Does âand orientationsâ mean âgender orientation?â if it does, maybe Erin is transmasc and/or a closeted enby but heâs *definitely* a messy bisexual, which is very Gothic of him.
Tarren also strikes me as aromantic maybe? I dunno.
All the Mermaids read kinda feminine nonbinary as a species I think but from what Iâve heard, barely think about it, but in any case I imagine that Selach is attracted more to feminine persons and may be referred to as a Lesbian, if they give a dang.
Caturus is an old-fashioned âeffeteâ or âinvertâ & probably attracts people of all genders like a magnet.
I donât know what Captain Valia is but I doubt sheâs given herself the time to figure that out herself.
I think Rakhn is straight? The way he talks about the First Crucible implies he was attracted to her at least. While describing a mythological battle with her. Weirdo.
Lord Stefan was in an idyllic, homespun, & PASSIONATE relationship with another older man with facial hair; a deep-feeling man, a man who always saw the good in people before anything else, a man who encouraged both Stefan and his organization to be the best, most diplomatic, most scholarly versions of themselves. The two of them habitually made each other breakfast, knew exactly how the other liked his coffee, and nearly always reached reasonable, mutually beneficial, *human* decisions when in each otherâs company. The length of their marriage marked a time of profound progress within the Paladins, wherein they even began to Talk To Other Peoples, and their love was marked by great jolliness, grand conversation, and occasionally, vast quantities of mead.
This was all before the Incident.
I donât know what couldâve happened. Certainly Stefan wouldnât tell you, and good luck finding another Paladin who is both reliable and willing to exposit. But whatâs clear is that a few years after losing his husband, Stefan had gone from a warm, understanding and diplomatic Renaissance man to a cold, kiniving, cynical old fool who cared only for his own. I do not know how to spell kniving.
Shameless fanfiction out of the way, Loquor Suressa is agender, aroace, & extremely over it with most othersâ cantankerous waspishness in regards to sexuality & gender roles.
Tam is yet another messy Byronic bisexual.
The Septrenn who healed Tam is straight or at least acts that way and is definitely NOT normal about it, like in a creepy way.
Argist is attracted to people who know how to make a good teatime. I donât think any particular labels really work for gods (or Primordials, for that matter).
Tynan, however, canât be anything but gay. But like, the same way Ghirahim from Zelda Skyward Sword is. Creepy.
This isnât an orientation of any kind but I donât know where else to mention it, Primordial Life looks at all of her creatures and finds them cute. All of them.
Tahraim is attracted to glowy things like jewelry and fire đ
Zuurithâs deceased Arenamaster guy is the worst kind of straight!
Erinâs mom divorced her awful husband and became a polyamorous lesbian or something liberatory like that idk weâll find out.
Shrikeâs literally but not figuratively bull-headed friend whose name I canât remember is straight, but heâs normal.
Shrike herself is a lesbian, but unfortunately she has attachment patterns best described as predatory.
One of these insufficiently therapized Aurorans has to be transfem so Iâm gonna say that June the Archivist (whose real name I have, again, forgotten) is a young trans woman and also a lesbian andâoh, oh gods oh no sheâs with Shrike! Panic! PANIC!
Lady Huracan is/was feminine nonbinary and polyamorous.
Doctor Jolon is *also* the worst kind of straight.
Walter is attracted to power, and
FINALLY, the Light Dragon whose embarrassing fandom name I have forgotten is very, very faintly attracted to cute Dragons. Obviously the age & power gap makes any actual relationship in that sense unworkable.
âŠoh waitâŠthe Collector. Whatever Collie is, it must both be not-straight, and absolutely horrifying.
I would go through the Faces from Previous Arcs page to remember some of these charactersâ names, but I donât want to lose this extremely long comment.
It’s spelled “conniving”. You can remember it easily due to starting with “con”, a word for tricking or scheming, which lines up nicely with the actual definition. That said, I don’t actually know the etymology behind the word, so I have no idea if it’s related.
I do hope that your mention of not knowing how to spell the word was intended to convey an acceptance of a correction, and that I’m not overstepping here. I certainly don’t intend to imply that I am in any way upset about you not knowing how to spell it, and if that’s how this came across, I sincerely apologise.
(Don’t mind my ‘s’ instead of ‘z’ at the end of “apologise”, that’s just my Canadian/British spelling.)
The Oxford English Dictionary endorses the use of “z” instead of “s” in such words, but no need to apologize. Americans should apologize for not knowing how to spell “colour”.
While this is a good question, Red has actually very recently confirmed/updated everyone’s official sexualities!
For those curious:
Kendal: Aroace
Alinua: Alinua is pansexual and aromantic, specifically veiwing intimacy as a fun activity, without a care for emotional bond. awesome as there is basically no allo-aro rep in existense so i really hope Red finds a way for this to come up in-story
Erin: Pan but so easily distracted and bad at romance that it doesn’t come up in his life much.
Falst: Pan also. Bad at romance also, big time pine-from-a-distance-guy (damn really?”
Dainix: Gay and a big romantic
Tess: to directly quote the post; “women hot. everything is a competition and sometimes losing is more fun.” incredible. 10/10 no notes
Tess “Knows no fear” Ruunaser, everybody.
The joy and relief in her face <3 The "YOW! from the dragon+rider! The Life-tree-surfing! And that fantastic green tree hand just reeeaching out. Alinuaaa!
TESS GODSDAMMIT YOU COULD ELECTROCUTE HER YOU DONâT NEED LIGHTNING TO DO TARZAN TREE SURFING
Ahem.
Comedically exaggerated initial reactions aside, I think Aliâs hypothetical theme music has raised in tempo and appropriated rapid drum beatsâŠwhich can mean two things: 1) that Alinua has now grown very comfortable with using these gobsmackingly huge spells at important moments, like Kendal getting kidnapped (AAGH), & 2) the hastiness with which she mustâve; decided to go to the surface; physically traveled all the way to the surface; scrambled back into a terrestrial body, and; made a Big Tree rivaling the one she used to *break a mountain* back in Zuurithâwell, I hate to sound like Treebeard, but none of that sounds especiallyâŠwise. Was there time to be wise? Probably not, but the last thing I expect is that everybodyâs favorite purple Elf girl is coming outta this one unscathedâŠgood thing her licensed therapist is on the way (Tess, itâs Tess, Iâm talking about Tess TESS! ALINUA! ALINUA INTERACTING WITH TESS! EEEK!).
You’re *assuming* her body is currently in a terrestrial state. It doesn’t seem like she could do that consciously and quickly, although the colossus is on the island, so I really don’t know.
Did anyone else notice that the “Gods!” exclamation is really interesting for a Paladin to use? Does that mean that the Paladins aknowledge other gods as the light dragon? Do they also see the dark dragon as a god, even though heÂŽs their nemesis?
I think that, whatever the answer might be, this just means that the Paladins and their cult arenÂŽt entirely comparable to Abrahamic religions in our world, at least not in the way I thought they were.
The gods do have physical presence in this world. And the majority of people believe in the gods over the light dragon. In christianity (the only abrahamic religion Iâm familiar with), itâs bad to âtake godâs name in vainâ, which is usually interpreted as âdonât swearâ. So it might be that in the paladin religion, swearing in the name of the light dragon is bad, and with the culture of everyone around them swearing to the gods instead, the paladins got culture osmosis-ed to do the same.
We’ve met like ten other gods in the span of this quest alone? Aurora is a world full of gods.
In terms of Abrahamic religions, while there are strong similarities (long-lasting religion, sacred book, good vs evil conflict) it’s not a 1-to-1 match. The paladins don’t believe their Lady is the only god out there, or even supreme; she’s just Their God. The people of Vash worship Vash. The people of Zurrith worship Zurrith. The Lady’s domain is the whole earth, so the paladins are everywhere; and they are only zealots as much as they believe that their Lady’s nemesis Sucks and Needs To Die- a thing most of the rest of the world simply isn’t doing right now.
Heck yeah!! Tess is making good use of Alinua’s giant grabby hand. My guess is Alinua is at the base, fueling it, and she and Tess’ll be able to very quickly debrief each other.
The one thing that’s giving me pause here is, I’ve gotten the impression that it’s only been a few minutes since Kendal was captured, which lines up with when Ali finished freeing the Northern Wyrm. So HOW ON EARTH did she make it up from the deep ocean, on to the island and halfway up the erupting volcano that fast?? Also, why bother going halfway up the erupting volcano instead of using the first trees she has access to near the shore?
I guess Tess’ Lightning Jump uses relatively little energy, given that she blew a giant hole in the ground, knocked out a platoon of soldiers, and then continues jumping around like it’s no big deal. And I’m okay with that.
Frightened paladin yells âOh gods! I canâtââ
In confusion at the magical plant
âNice meeting you,â says Tess. âThanks for the ride!
As she pushes off from the reptileâs side.
Leaps lightning from dragon who yelps out âYOW!â
Latches on to vines of the glowing bough
Yellow energy crackling, Tess slides down
Hell yeah đ
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: ROLLIN AROUND AT THE SPEED OF SOUND-
Image source: finally
GOT PLACES TO GO, GOTTA FOLLOW MY RAINBOW
Someone’s remembering her friend’s Saros playthrough, huh :~J.
Tumblr text: no need to make new friends with old ones like these
Bluesky text: got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow
. âOh gods!â the Paladin cries. âI canâtâ What IS that?!â
. âFinally,â Tess says with a bright grin. She twists around and hauls herself up by the ropes around the dragon, planting her feet on its flank. âNice meeting you, thanks for the ride!â
. âWHAT?!â
. âYOW!â the dragon screeches as Tess leaps off its side in a crack of lightning, shoving it sideways with the force and reaching out toward the vine colossus. She grabs one of the thick vines that make up the trunk, then streaks along it in a trail of lightning, skidding down the base in a matter of seconds.
I have NO idea what to call this Alinua Plant okay, I’m not even gonna try the last page for a while
I’m currently reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson, it’s my first read. The version I got is SO pretty <3
It’s like some sort of green hill zone
broke: stairs
woke: this
I’d suggest a 3-tier scale:
Broke: Stairs
Woke: Escalators
Bespoke: This.
Somewhere off to the left of everything else: Elevator
âFinallyâ is right!
im so fucking excited đđđđđ we’re so close
I canât wait to see Alinua again!
No snacks, no movies, i’m out of here!
Aw, yeah! This is happening!
Random paladin, you need to go back home! I have a suspicion you left the OVEN OOONNnnnnn!
Can Tess surf? Only for a little bit. Unless it’s plant-surfing, apparently.
This cant be healthy activities for someone with a concussion…
Excellent. Tess had no questions about who this was. Love how her face relaxed.
no food or movies?
Ope, Tess isn’t going to the snowfast after all! I hope for her that Alinua’s not at the hand-part of the tree…
No, no, no Tess! This is Aurora; you have to say your “Finally”‘s with FEELING.
Garnering the approval of Tess, not a chimera in sight, and with intricate, healthy green life swirls that foster growth and healling in all things, except Red’s drawing hand. Yep, I think this is definitely Alinua doing this; just the person Tess needs to get her off the island, and give her some long overdue heals.
I’m not so sure. I expected us to switch straight to Alinua. The fact that we haven’t seen Alinua yet, and Tess feels SO comfortable and confident that it’s her friend, and the fact that Erin and Dainix are still under the sea and the Northern Wyrm Crew have only just now reached them gives me pause.
I was expecting Alinua to go save Erin and fleshshape him (with consent) so that he doesn’t imminently drown or freeze to death. If she’s here instead, I don’t know how he can continue. And since we know there’s an entrance into the Singing Caves on the island that’s trying to retrieve Kendal, I’m suddenly not confident that this is Alinua. I know that it still feels early for The Collector, but I think we might get a small glimpse of her right her, failing to retrieve Kendal, and returning to the Caves to plan an assault against the Snowfast, which I think will happen anyway if Kendal is taken.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but this page feels like the moment before the other shoe drops.
The idea of it not being Alinua but the Collecter herself would be very scary, but!
The reason the bigass plant exists is to presumably catch Kendal before the dragon gets too far. For alinua this makes sense since she has no way of flying, so reaching really far with a vine is the only thing she can do. But the Collector has been said to be able to create flying chimeras (in Windscrest the bird lass says she got attacked by a flying chimera that she sent after her) so i think it would be more likely for her to just make an army of critters to catch up to the dragon.
And to explain why Alinua isn’t with erin- let’s be real even if she knows eren’s there, if she had to pick between making sure he’s okay and saving the most important person in her life she’d pick Kendall in a heartbeat.
Also i don’t think she would fleshshape erin just because of her not being fully cool with that even if it was consensual
Yeah I know what you mean, but I’m still hopeful.
Regarding Erin, they actually don’t need fleshshaping to save him. When Selach first encountered Alinua, she tried giving her what looked to be a wind-lacrima powered breathing aid (page 2-5-4). Admittedly Selach doesn’t have her satchel on her when meeting Erin, but if Caturus is here too, there’s a good chance other merfolk are as well who may have one.
Still, the Collector did start on their trail at the end of Chapter 1, and Kendal did get that ominous “She’s Coming” warning way back in chapter 2 that hasn’t been followed up. Not to mention the mass deployment of Paladins and dragons; even if Helm is sparsely populated, that’s bound to have caught some people’s attention, maybe hers too.
There’s no mistake that the Collector will be showing up soon, but how soon and in what way is up in the air.
alinua doesnt know how to fleshshape herself consciously i dont think she is doing it to erin especially when there is a safer selach approved air mask alternative, she isnt really needed to help erin especially with the northern wyrm back and caturus there
this being the collector has several issues like how would she know wich dragon has kendal, how does she know they were in rakhn in the first place (everyone thought the floof squad was going to helm, no one expected to stop by rakhn) and why cant she follow them in a flying chimera wich we know she has
Aurora Question #69: haha nice. What are your head canons on various characters sexualities and orientations?
Aurora Question #69.5: How many “finally”s have we gotten so far? This one’s a genuine question I’m curious.
3 “Finally.”s so far! Life on 1.3.28, VD on 1.6.5, LD on 2.2.33! Images linked at my username.
You’re forgetting the Light Dragon/Champion Tam on 2.2.33. This must be the fourth.
Welp, you asked for it. To get the obvious out of the way, Falst & Dainix are Very Gay; Tess is aroace because sheâs so clearly based on Red, the author, whoâs aroace; and Alinua is, as far as Iâve heard, proclaimed by Word of Red to be pansexual.
I donât want Kendal to be straight but I also donât want to necessarily eliminate the possibility of romance between him and Alinua, so Kendal is bi and asexual.
Does âand orientationsâ mean âgender orientation?â if it does, maybe Erin is transmasc and/or a closeted enby but heâs *definitely* a messy bisexual, which is very Gothic of him.
Tarren also strikes me as aromantic maybe? I dunno.
All the Mermaids read kinda feminine nonbinary as a species I think but from what Iâve heard, barely think about it, but in any case I imagine that Selach is attracted more to feminine persons and may be referred to as a Lesbian, if they give a dang.
Caturus is an old-fashioned âeffeteâ or âinvertâ & probably attracts people of all genders like a magnet.
I donât know what Captain Valia is but I doubt sheâs given herself the time to figure that out herself.
I think Rakhn is straight? The way he talks about the First Crucible implies he was attracted to her at least. While describing a mythological battle with her. Weirdo.
Lord Stefan was in an idyllic, homespun, & PASSIONATE relationship with another older man with facial hair; a deep-feeling man, a man who always saw the good in people before anything else, a man who encouraged both Stefan and his organization to be the best, most diplomatic, most scholarly versions of themselves. The two of them habitually made each other breakfast, knew exactly how the other liked his coffee, and nearly always reached reasonable, mutually beneficial, *human* decisions when in each otherâs company. The length of their marriage marked a time of profound progress within the Paladins, wherein they even began to Talk To Other Peoples, and their love was marked by great jolliness, grand conversation, and occasionally, vast quantities of mead.
This was all before the Incident.
I donât know what couldâve happened. Certainly Stefan wouldnât tell you, and good luck finding another Paladin who is both reliable and willing to exposit. But whatâs clear is that a few years after losing his husband, Stefan had gone from a warm, understanding and diplomatic Renaissance man to a cold, kiniving, cynical old fool who cared only for his own. I do not know how to spell kniving.
Shameless fanfiction out of the way, Loquor Suressa is agender, aroace, & extremely over it with most othersâ cantankerous waspishness in regards to sexuality & gender roles.
Tam is yet another messy Byronic bisexual.
The Septrenn who healed Tam is straight or at least acts that way and is definitely NOT normal about it, like in a creepy way.
Argist is attracted to people who know how to make a good teatime. I donât think any particular labels really work for gods (or Primordials, for that matter).
Tynan, however, canât be anything but gay. But like, the same way Ghirahim from Zelda Skyward Sword is. Creepy.
This isnât an orientation of any kind but I donât know where else to mention it, Primordial Life looks at all of her creatures and finds them cute. All of them.
Tahraim is attracted to glowy things like jewelry and fire đ
Zuurithâs deceased Arenamaster guy is the worst kind of straight!
Erinâs mom divorced her awful husband and became a polyamorous lesbian or something liberatory like that idk weâll find out.
Shrikeâs literally but not figuratively bull-headed friend whose name I canât remember is straight, but heâs normal.
Shrike herself is a lesbian, but unfortunately she has attachment patterns best described as predatory.
One of these insufficiently therapized Aurorans has to be transfem so Iâm gonna say that June the Archivist (whose real name I have, again, forgotten) is a young trans woman and also a lesbian andâoh, oh gods oh no sheâs with Shrike! Panic! PANIC!
Lady Huracan is/was feminine nonbinary and polyamorous.
Doctor Jolon is *also* the worst kind of straight.
Walter is attracted to power, and
FINALLY, the Light Dragon whose embarrassing fandom name I have forgotten is very, very faintly attracted to cute Dragons. Obviously the age & power gap makes any actual relationship in that sense unworkable.
âŠoh waitâŠthe Collector. Whatever Collie is, it must both be not-straight, and absolutely horrifying.
I would go through the Faces from Previous Arcs page to remember some of these charactersâ names, but I donât want to lose this extremely long comment.
It’s spelled “conniving”. You can remember it easily due to starting with “con”, a word for tricking or scheming, which lines up nicely with the actual definition. That said, I don’t actually know the etymology behind the word, so I have no idea if it’s related.
I do hope that your mention of not knowing how to spell the word was intended to convey an acceptance of a correction, and that I’m not overstepping here. I certainly don’t intend to imply that I am in any way upset about you not knowing how to spell it, and if that’s how this came across, I sincerely apologise.
(Don’t mind my ‘s’ instead of ‘z’ at the end of “apologise”, that’s just my Canadian/British spelling.)
The Oxford English Dictionary endorses the use of “z” instead of “s” in such words, but no need to apologize. Americans should apologize for not knowing how to spell “colour”.
While this is a good question, Red has actually very recently confirmed/updated everyone’s official sexualities!
For those curious:
Kendal: Aroace
Alinua: Alinua is pansexual and aromantic, specifically veiwing intimacy as a fun activity, without a care for emotional bond. awesome as there is basically no allo-aro rep in existense so i really hope Red finds a way for this to come up in-story
Erin: Pan but so easily distracted and bad at romance that it doesn’t come up in his life much.
Falst: Pan also. Bad at romance also, big time pine-from-a-distance-guy (damn really?”
Dainix: Gay and a big romantic
Tess: to directly quote the post; “women hot. everything is a competition and sometimes losing is more fun.” incredible. 10/10 no notes
Tess “Knows no fear” Ruunaser, everybody.
The joy and relief in her face <3 The "YOW! from the dragon+rider! The Life-tree-surfing! And that fantastic green tree hand just reeeaching out. Alinuaaa!
Ride the lightning!
Alinua, Tess, the queens you are!
Tess looks like your ride is here
Very fun plant slide u got there
It’s fun until the volcano explodes. Shouldn’t Tess be running AWAY from fiery doom?
oh my golly me, it’s a perfect multi-story slide, made out of plants, no less
TESS GODSDAMMIT YOU COULD ELECTROCUTE HER YOU DONâT NEED LIGHTNING TO DO TARZAN TREE SURFING
Ahem.
Comedically exaggerated initial reactions aside, I think Aliâs hypothetical theme music has raised in tempo and appropriated rapid drum beatsâŠwhich can mean two things: 1) that Alinua has now grown very comfortable with using these gobsmackingly huge spells at important moments, like Kendal getting kidnapped (AAGH), & 2) the hastiness with which she mustâve; decided to go to the surface; physically traveled all the way to the surface; scrambled back into a terrestrial body, and; made a Big Tree rivaling the one she used to *break a mountain* back in Zuurithâwell, I hate to sound like Treebeard, but none of that sounds especiallyâŠwise. Was there time to be wise? Probably not, but the last thing I expect is that everybodyâs favorite purple Elf girl is coming outta this one unscathedâŠgood thing her licensed therapist is on the way (Tess, itâs Tess, Iâm talking about Tess TESS! ALINUA! ALINUA INTERACTING WITH TESS! EEEK!).
You’re *assuming* her body is currently in a terrestrial state. It doesn’t seem like she could do that consciously and quickly, although the colossus is on the island, so I really don’t know.
Did anyone else notice that the “Gods!” exclamation is really interesting for a Paladin to use? Does that mean that the Paladins aknowledge other gods as the light dragon? Do they also see the dark dragon as a god, even though heÂŽs their nemesis?
I think that, whatever the answer might be, this just means that the Paladins and their cult arenÂŽt entirely comparable to Abrahamic religions in our world, at least not in the way I thought they were.
The gods do have physical presence in this world. And the majority of people believe in the gods over the light dragon. In christianity (the only abrahamic religion Iâm familiar with), itâs bad to âtake godâs name in vainâ, which is usually interpreted as âdonât swearâ. So it might be that in the paladin religion, swearing in the name of the light dragon is bad, and with the culture of everyone around them swearing to the gods instead, the paladins got culture osmosis-ed to do the same.
We’ve met like ten other gods in the span of this quest alone? Aurora is a world full of gods.
In terms of Abrahamic religions, while there are strong similarities (long-lasting religion, sacred book, good vs evil conflict) it’s not a 1-to-1 match. The paladins don’t believe their Lady is the only god out there, or even supreme; she’s just Their God. The people of Vash worship Vash. The people of Zurrith worship Zurrith. The Lady’s domain is the whole earth, so the paladins are everywhere; and they are only zealots as much as they believe that their Lady’s nemesis Sucks and Needs To Die- a thing most of the rest of the world simply isn’t doing right now.
Tess has joined the âFinallyâ gang hell yea!!! I donât really hv much to say about this page, I canât wait for Friday
Since Tess just zapped the tree, I wonder what are the odds that Ali’s hair is going to be static when she emerges.
Surprised nobody has commented on panel 3. From the looks of it, Alinua was unable to reach Kendal.
Heck yeah!! Tess is making good use of Alinua’s giant grabby hand. My guess is Alinua is at the base, fueling it, and she and Tess’ll be able to very quickly debrief each other.
Tess: Oh sweet thatâs my friend! [jumps facefirst into the giant glowing eldritch tree]
Alinua return and Tess “finally” is a very good birthday gift, I’m so excited for Friday!!
For Tess, all of existence is an amusement park ride.
I love how often Tess gets to be the voice of the audience.
How did I forget about the page coming out today.
Anyway, woo Tess!
-Signed The Vessel Of A Glowing God
(aka The Princess)
The one thing that’s giving me pause here is, I’ve gotten the impression that it’s only been a few minutes since Kendal was captured, which lines up with when Ali finished freeing the Northern Wyrm. So HOW ON EARTH did she make it up from the deep ocean, on to the island and halfway up the erupting volcano that fast?? Also, why bother going halfway up the erupting volcano instead of using the first trees she has access to near the shore?
Someone who knows what’s happening!
I guess Tess’ Lightning Jump uses relatively little energy, given that she blew a giant hole in the ground, knocked out a platoon of soldiers, and then continues jumping around like it’s no big deal. And I’m okay with that.
Frightened paladin yells âOh gods! I canâtââ
In confusion at the magical plant
âNice meeting you,â says Tess. âThanks for the ride!
As she pushes off from the reptileâs side.
Leaps lightning from dragon who yelps out âYOW!â
Latches on to vines of the glowing bough
Yellow energy crackling, Tess slides down
23/10.
This is simply too good.
Guys- stop scaring me đ, I REALLY donât want it to be the Collector
No food or movies? I’m outta here!