1.12.12
on April 21, 2021
at 3:00 am
wasn’t expecting to be able to work in my deep and abiding love of Sparsely-Furnished Hotel Rooms into this fantasy comic tbh
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
wasn’t expecting to be able to work in my deep and abiding love of Sparsely-Furnished Hotel Rooms into this fantasy comic tbh
She seems shocked that the mountain is a prison, though to be honest, so would I if I grew up in the wilderness
To be honest, carving out a mountain just to use as a prison does seem like an unintuitive choice. Like, you put all that effort, you would think it would be a temple or palace or something grand. Having a prison be a preferred choice seems like a skewed priorities.
One possibility is that it was originally some other such facility. Having worked in an underground mine, I can say with some confidence that if you were to add lockable doors in the right places and furnishings for guard posts and the like, a mine could be remodeled into a prison with very little effort.
Not one that comes close to meeting modern standards for safety of the prisoners held therein, of course. But history shows that there are plenty of civilizations who consider imprisonment to be an effective means of executing people without all the pomp and circumstance of a public beheading.
Also you could have the prisoners dig that mine in the first place. Using slaves in mines was very common in ancient times and the security you need would be similar.
It sounds like they just wanted a very secure prison to me. Honestly, it mostly just makes me wonder what kind of prisoners their keeping there.
*They’re
Prison break! Prison break!
Yeah, that kinda sounds like something they would end up doing…
“How do they feed everyone?”
Like they did in every ancient city state:
✨W i t h S l a v e r y ✨
But…magic! Oh god I hope it’s not magic slavery
Mindless golems and fertility magic are much more efficient than human labor. No need for sleep, no need for food, and no need to keep a place to store them.
It could be like Vash’s sentinels; a fraction of the City God’s soul could control a fleet of golem constructs used for farming.
OMG OMG OMG EXCITED ALINUA IS SO CUTE!!! Kendal’s being a sourpuss cause Vash does not like Zuurith, and NOOOOO ALINUA’S FACE AT THE LAST PANEL!
To be fair, city rivalries tend to manifest themselves as war which would not be helpful to anyone under the circumstances and tends to give people bad associations with the other side.
Why do I have a sinking feeling that at least one of the party members is gonna end up in this prison?
10 dollars on it being falst 🙁
10 denarii on Kendal.
If not being arrested for being an opinionated Himbo too far away from his diplomatic immunity (and too polite to wreck fools for arresting him) then he will enter to spring the 5th party member on some principle. Erin will have to either promise to “hunt down the criminal” or never be allowed to show his face in Zuurith again.
The 5th panel makes me think of simplified, low-LOD stuff, like when you look at a distant part of a city in an open-world game.
The point is, I would totally play a full-length open-world RPG set in the Aurora universe.
that sounds amazing
Wonder if we’ll get to meet Zuurith.
Well those clouds on the horizon certainly look promising…
Guess who’s back (back back)
Back again (gain gain)
Tynan’s back (back back)
Tell a friend (friend friend)
*points sword at Zuurith’s neck* “No really. Tell a friend.”
Personally, I love rain! So peaceful and serene…yet there is a hint of violence in it…sometimes.
Like when it randomly turns to hail? IN APRIL?
What’s that, Mr. Chekhov? You’re going to hang that enourmous prision in the city who’s god didn’t get along with the very heroic god Vash on the wall over there? Well, okay… but I don’t think it’ll EVER come up again!
Because protagonists NEVER get in trouble!
What’s that, Mr. Chekhov? You’re going to hang that enourmous prision on the city who’s god didn’t get along with Vash on the wall over there? Well, okay… but I don’t think it’ll EVER come up again!
Falst is hanging back there and like, “What are the benefits of this civilization again?”
Well firstly going off of Erin’s statement earlier someone is definitely gonna end up in prison, and secondly the fact that Kendal knows about it makes me think that the people in that prison may be the reason they “didn’t get along.”
Mildly off-topic, but since the start of this comic, I simply cannot get it out of my head that “Vash” sounds like the French word for “Cow”… as a native speaker, the struggle is real
Civilisation at last, but just how “civil” is it?
So they are in Zuurith, at least they’ve gotten into the city without incident and not rounded up straight to the prison. I wonder if Zuurith will incarnate and meet Kendal, for personal or professional reasons.
Hmm, the buildings with their white walls and red roofs look a little like those shots of Florence Blue uses; a tidy, ornate city to contrast the ugly, starkness of the prison mountain.
I really like Alinua’s reaction to her first big city, I bet she never thought she’d ever see one this close. Her reclusive lifestyle also explains her naivety as to how certain cities run, both on a practical and a societal level.
I predict an exposition page on Friday, either all Kendal or primarily Kendal with Erin joining in at times, with Alinua and Falst growing increasingly uncomfortable.
If Zuurith can see Kendal the same way Gleicann can, then I imagine he’d be found very quickly. However, I don’t think the lawbringer will incarnate for personal reasons; he must uphold a professional appearance, you see.
Coming this Friday: Kendal spills some tea about authoritarianism.
The last two panels seem like a meme template.
they really do
“Did they carve an entire neighborhood out of a MOUNTAIN? What would they even PUT in there?!”
“Er-”
“The straights.”
I should not be laughing at this.
But I am.
“What would they even PUT in there?!”
“Er-”
“The horny.”
That’s it. The prison of Zuurith is horny jail.
Zuurith: Supreme Kinkshamer and Chief Enforcer of No-Nut November
They are going to end up in that prison aren’t they?
TL;DR: Elf and mage: Oh wow the city is awesome!
Sword guy: *ominous foreshadowing*
By the way, what happened to What doing TL;DR? I’m just wondering, of course
I think they just… disappeared
Yeah, don’t know. I’m not the same person (I only found this webcomic after they stopped) but I saw an open slot and decided to try it out. And hey, people liked it so I kept going.
You can just all the wonder get kicked out of her at the mention of a prsion in a mountain.
Panel 3, bringing you your routine reminder that Kendal is really, really tall, and Erin is not.
Why is nobody talking about the sustainable agricultural practices? Those are hard to achieve!
See? Is Zuurith really THAT bad?
The answer is yes. Yes it is.
there is no war in ba sing se
(Tynan rumbling ominously in the bottom-left corner panel)
Oh no, just seeing how Erin was uncomfortable with the topic and kendal is grumpy I have a bad feeling about this prison
Alinua: ✨?✨
Kendal: “the prison”
Alinua: ?_?
A mountain as a prison? Where have I heard that one before?
Couldn’t be Journey to the West. Nope. JK
Love both Aurora and the JttW videos.
Kendal, grumbling internally: “Vash had better sustainable agricultural practices than Zuurith…”
The Collector, somehow intruding: “I mean clearly they weren’t THAT sustainable.”
today’s memes:
last 2 panels
tynans back
I wouldn’t say slavery exactly, but more like population of non free agricultural laborers bound to the land or the person that owns the land or the work they do on the land. Including but not limited to, peasants, serfs, freeholders, debt laborers, indentured servants, slaves, corvees, day laborers. sharecroppers, penal laborer, prisoners of war, bond labor, etc. Terms and conditions may apply.
So, Erin being blindly confident was already a red flag.
But Kendal being sternly cautious?
Yeah… shit’s gonna go down hill…
Prison? What a waste of a mountain.
Also, getting serious Blue vibes from Erin on this page.
Now I want a dub of this strip with Blue as Erin and Red as Kendal and Alinua.
Now I’m curious where Falst is.
>sees all those dark clouds on the horizon
oh no
Why am I concerned about whispered “sustainable agricultural practice” what are these practices?! EXPLAIN YOURSELF ERIN
I mean, he’s smiling as he says it, so I can’t imagine it being too morbid. But tbh my immediate thought was: using dead prisoners as fertiliser?
Wow that is dark, I just thought having the prisoners be the ones farming or something.
…Although, maybe that doesn’t make too much sense if they’re kept under the mountain.
I just came back on the page and saw this, now my concern which was gone came back in full force
Wait will we meet Caliban’s champion thingy here?? Because those clouds in the distance have to be Tynan..
Ooooh they can have a cool prison break together I’m calling it
“sustainable agriculture practices”
So murder?
Hey now! This isn’t Praes.
Mt. Prison reminds me of the Spaghetti Bowls in my hometown of Las Vegas; not generally that pretty, extremely unglamorous use, loudly and often complained about, but a necessity and ultimately an under appreciated architectural wonder. Las Vegas had a growth spurt 1-2 generations faster than any city planner could possibly keep up with, so somebody figured out how to stack and loop a dozen or so highways on top of each other. People make choices, some of those choices hurt people, some of those hurtful choices require that someone be separated from the situation for others’ safety, and it doesn’t look like Zurrith has a lot of extra space so someone figured out how to carve a large building out of a mountain, which is still impressive. Disclaimer: As someone who’s wrapping up an in depth study of applied behavioral analysis, punishment in general and separation/restrain in particular should only be used as a last resort given clear and equitably applied expectations; doing otherwise is unethical, doesn’t always address the reason an individual did something, and there’s better ways of managing behavior anyway, I’m just acknowledging that there are times that last resort is necessary and when it is you need some place (preferably safe and calming, and so far that doesn’t seem to be a guarantee) for people to go if that’s the case.
thats a dedicated post right there
ok so going over what we know: Vash and Zuurith has a history of tension between them, Zuurith has a big imposing prison carved into the mountainside for everyone to see almost contantly, and there is definitely someone the floof squad is going to encounter inside said prison that is supposedly Caliban’s ‘champion’ (meaning likely ingan) and Caliban is trying to help them in collaboration with Tahraim (so there is likely going to be more to this whole thing that just a ‘prison break’). and of course let’s not forget the looming spectre of Tynan over the horizon coming their way.
this… this one is going to be a doozy. and i’m both excited out of my mind and dreading whatever is going to happen to them all.
Alright, ominous mountain-prison that our protagonists will somehow end up breaking into or out of, along with Tynan’s clouds forming on the horizon and readying themselves to bring the thunder, alright, sounds fun.
But let us get to the real question that, no doubt, dozens of fanfiction writers and readers are asking themselves right now:
Are there enough beds for everyone and if not, who has to share one?
NO NO NO. WE ARE NOT GOING THERE, NOT THIS EARLY IN THE COMIC.
I’m going to refer you to this page: https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-12-11/ which you may recognise as the page LITERALLY JUST BEFORE THIS ONE, where Erin says, and I quote: “Four beds”
Calling it now. Collector comes to Zuurith to get Zuurith’s soul ( or for some other reason) and “heals” the mountain the prison’s carved into causing the prison to collapse in on it self.
She said herself Zuurith is inconveniently located for god-snatching. Plus, his domain spans the entire city, not just the prison.
Is the mountain a wound? A skin tumour, maybe? Either way, the prison is only a part of Zuurith, so if the Collector ‘healed’ it, killing hundreds, maybe thousands, it would only free up a part of Zuurith’s essence into his incarnation, but not enough to snatch his soul.
I love Alinua in this entire page
I hadn’t noticed before now that Erin is significantly shorter than Kendal but I am quite pleased.
Oh
Uhhh is Erin’s hair getting darker?
Alt text: jk it’s just the local costco
That makes me think of Sarah Z’s fantasy Costco mug.
I’m loving Erin’s little small-text admissions. I’ve been thinking about multiple different ways to voice-act them.
Alt text: jk it’s just the local costco