1.13.32
on August 25, 2021
at 3:00 am
I once got so engrossed reading The Hobbit that I took the book into the bath with me and accidentally dipped a full corner into the water, which is why the junior archivist would be fully justified in killing me on sight
Continuity detail! Erin is wearing the same cloak here as tiny messenger Erin, meaning he put in the cloak before he started recording. Also, in the first panel you can see the two dragons and the twins with an ancient between them. Also, could someone tell me if there’s any alt text? Can’t read it on mobile
the alt text is “try telling her you’re a main character”
She explains her job.
The ball is in his court now.
Can he convince her?
Since there’s a habit of dunking on Christians monks here for some reason, I would like to remind everyone that this is exactly what they did for centuries in their monasteries! It was one of their duties and we probably would a lost a lot more books if it wasn’t for them! It was the opposite of cultural erasure.
If only they (or rather their missionaries) had kept that up for other cultures’ books. I genuinely want to know that that world would be like…
To Indigo Toxin: “try telling her you’re a main character” is what the alt text says.
… Out of the goodness of your heart?
I really like those hands grabbing at the fraying book in panel 4; their black shapes resemble void energy, almost as if V.D. himself was aiding in the decay of the Paladin archives.
I’m actually with Erin on this one, yes to preserving knowledge but squirrelling away said knowledge for the few instead of the many is a waste. I bet there’s a ton of historical and personal accounts, some barely related to the Paladin’s activities, that historians would find very useful.
Now this is a pickle. She needs a good explanation or reason for allowing Erin through, but what to say? Buttering her up isn’t going to work with someone like her, I doubt strengthening ties between the Paladins and Asera will be enough or even wanted and revealing the truth about Erin’s nasty passenger is out of the question, at least to me.
It says “Try telling her you’re a main character.”
“Well I’m presently harboring the literal embodiment of entropy and consumption so I definitely think you should let me into your repository filled with oh so many fragile fragile documents! By the way this entity is also probably anathema to that maybe-fraud-maybe-god you all worship, so it absolutely belongs in one of your sanctums.”
Archivist lady: Why should I do that?
Erin: The very fate of the WORLD is in my hands… or my chest more accurately.
Indigo Toxin, you can read the alt text on mobile by pressing and holding the image
@Indigo Toxin and everybody else using a mobile screen, try long clicking the comic for the alt text.
So, there is a range of ways this can go down… At one end you have lots of tack and some good persuasion/deception rolls, and at the other end you have Erin pulling a superman and ripping his shirt open. That second one sounds fun, but would cause way too many problems unfortunately.
“Calm down. It’s not that dramatic.” agagsgahshsh I love the archivist so much XD
How did Erin not know all this already? This isn’t special, his university should operate the same way.
Okay, maybe they’ve magicked their books so they don’t have to?
Beware Erin, this one driveth a hard bargain. Chooseth thy next words wisely
By the way, is the text in the uppermost right filler or actual dialect we can translate using a cipher
This should be interesting.
My top three ideas for how Erin is going to play this are:
1 bribery, Erin comes from a powerful family presumably with various connections. While I don’t think that it would work Erin might.
2 academy research. The paladins can’t like the fact that large portions of society think that they just made up their god. If Erin plays it like he has a good chance of convincing people of the white dragons legitimacy it could go a long why to cultivating the paladins favor.
3 half the truth, if he tells enough of the story of what he found at the centre of the storm (leaving out the whole possession thing) while adding a few details that point to the void dragon being behind it, the i think the paladins will want to compare notes and see what they can learn.
I dont even need to do anything rough. Keep one long enough and pages magically start comong loose, novels or textbooks, no discrimination .
@ThengaMudiyan
It’s a cipher, and it can be deciphered.
I can’t do the full translation right now, but the gist of it is a recounting of a fight between the Paladins and some beast of flame that supposedly resisted the Void Dragon’s attempt at possession. Said beast later saved the Paladins for unknown reasons.
@LayeringYellow, nope, that doesn’t work. If you click on the page of the comic itself, it takes you to the next comic(if it’s the most recent release it takes you to the same comic), so if you long press it just brings up a preview of the next page.
@PersonMcPerson what type of phone are you using? I’m normally on an android and if I press and hold it’ll show me a list of options (copy link and such) and shows the alt text at the top, but if it’s too long it cuts off. I think this one’s text is short enough to show on mine
“I’ve recently discovered that the Dark Dragon you fight is real. I’m seeking information on how to combat it.
@Mat OK now THAT is cool. If the Dainix-is-a-demon theory is right, then he is going to be a very valuable ally…
I don’t know why, but I feel like these Archives need an orangutan to help preserve the books. Strangest feeling.
AceFandomDumbass:
If the text is too long, you can actually tap it to reveal all of it.
The Lolest:
Not all Christians were about sneaky cultural and mythological preservation. Some definitely were, like Snorri Sturrullson (probably misspelled that) with The Prose Edda and the author of The Book of Invasions, but by the time Europeans started invading Africa and the Americas en masse, the attitude towards non-Christian religions was largely “kill it and be done with it,” i.e. cultural genocide.
Evil Tree:
I agree. I’m certain the paladins aren’t the only ones that know to employ due care when reading fragile records, and historians of all people would know that the most. Perhaps keeping the most delicate items in a locked storage room, with someone escorting interested parties inside, could be a better way to handle this.
@The Lolest
Oh I have no problem with the monks. As for the missionaries and and general “no other gods” Christian culture of the time that tried to erase religious culture before it was written down, forced the monks to work with a fraction of the original material, and christianize what was left so that we’re stuck with heavily altered secondary sources as our only sources of a mythology…
(I know you were trying your best, monk who wrote the book of invasions.)
I don’t want to get into a debate under a webcomic, but I was talking about the kind of gift scribes and copyists gave us, I wasn’t trying to deny what any type of conquistador did; the people who care about culture are not the same ones murdering for profit, regardless of what banner they used (or still use today) to justify themselves. If we blend everyone together, then no one is without fault.
Looking back at Aurora, seeing that those described by Erin as some “nonsensical cult” (page 1.12.15) are the same ones who cared about preserving and protecting knowledge should really make us reflect…
If we recognize where the good is, maybe we can learn to grow and do better…
Indigo Toxin The alt text is “try telling her you’re a main character
Maybe not a PERSONAL bribe, but I think Erin would like to gift the archive some magical tool to make copying more delicate works easier and less destructive.
I’m suddenly nervous that the void dragon is going to take control once Erin goes into the archives and destroy everything.
@Mat
Very interesting. Thanks for posting what it meant. Where can I go to learn how to translate this myself?
To Indigo Toxin:
There doesn’t seem to be a way to view the alt text on mobile. I’m trying to go through and post it for all the pages, but it’s going to probably take a while, and I won’t be necessarily able to post on the new pages right away.
This feels like National Treasures
@AceFandomDumbass I use an iPhone, it might be something with Apple phones
According to my nan, my great-granddad once took a book with a red cover to read in the bath. He fell asleep and dropped it, and when he woke up the colour had run so much that he thought that he’d been stabbed.
Today’s Alt Text:
try telling her you’re a main character
Try saying the magic word… “I know where the Void Dragon is.”
my first comment!
@NB_knight I think you’re on to something and that’s scaring me
maybe the glowy paladin guy will come?
@Red Carnation/@NB_knight
Maybe he knows and won’t ask? “I wouldn’t trust myself in there, I won’t ask you to. I’ll just give you a list of what I’d like to know.”
@Stark9865 just hold your finger on it as though you wanted to open the image in a new tab.
Alt text: Try telling her you’re a main character
Does the Paladin order have an epidemic of hand cramps from all the copying? Can Erin convince her to let him in? Will he reveal his true purpose or will he offer to teach her a secret crokinole strategy?
Tune in This Week to Find Out!
Prediction time: I’m guessing Voidy’s gonna make an appearance sometime in the near future, possibly at a very inconvenient time such as when Erin’s looking through the archives.
For us people on Mobile, not all browsers have good feature sets. Sadly most of the Default browsers do not do a good job showing ‘alt-text’ (press & hold). So far only Brave Mobile has consistently retained alt-texts (in title tag) for me on Android.
Technically the alt-text HTML tags aren’t being used for the authorial snark. It’s in the title tag (where it should be, as alt-text is for a description of the image). Which is probably throwing the mobile browsers. If you go looking for an extension, make sure it surfaces the TITLE tag.
If you aren’t sure if you’re getting “TITLE” text, XKCD would be the place to check your browser against. If it works there, assume other sites are doing funky HTML that’s throwing off basic mobile browsers.
“try telling her you’re a main character
TL;DR: Books are fragile, don’t read them unless I let you.
Do libraries exist in this world??
“becuse im possesed by you Sat*n” is not the best answer
There is atl text on this one, it says “Try telling her you’re a main character,” which I’m sure is a great plan.
for indigo posin, the alt text can be found via holding down on the comic as you would to copy the image.
I have done some research and found a way to decipher the text for myself! Below is what I got: (Text in brackets is my conjecture, and c and x do not have symbols)
The dark one seized hold of a grea[t]
[b]east but seemed to struggle with it a[nd]
Before it kould sweep down to atakk
eksploded into a roiling inferno a v(?)
We do not know why the possession fai[led]
But the beast of flame saved us th?
Anyone else who wants to learn can go here. It’s pretty impressive how they figured it out.
Thanks for telling me about the alt text. I tried long tapping the page but it didn’t work (I’m on apple).
there is rarely a truly evil character even the void dragon is partly good
good writing the keeper is doing their job they are not evil
Now Red is being relatable as heck. Have a nice day, btw
Seriously?! You liked the hobbit?!
This feels inspired by the Magnus archives