1.18.20
on September 9, 2022
at 3:00 am
finally I can stop drawing this incredibly time-consuming but very dope fire aura
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
finally I can stop drawing this incredibly time-consuming but very dope fire aura
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: went back to his old body and all the furniture was rearranged
Image source: again
Kendal’s gonna do it again, isn’t he. Also, Vash seems like a good guy.
Vash bonking Kendall on the head with a stick “WHAT. WERE. YOU. THINKING? NOT. AGAIN. “
nice to know vash cares about his former vessel’s wellbeing i guess?? (but maybe not for exactly sentimental reasons) as well as acknowledging the gang.
however i get the feeling that someone’s gonna be real pretentious about the existence of Real Life Cells in this whimsical fantasy webcomic at some point
Believe me, I’ve been trying but I’m not even sure how half of these cells work anymore
-me in biology class
nice to know vash cares about his former vessel’s wellbeing i guess?? (but maybe not for exactly sentimental reasons) as well as acknowledging the gang.
however i get the feeling that someone’s gonna be real pretentious about the existence of Real Life Cells in this whimsical fantasy webcomic at some point
(also apologies if this is a double comment. it’s being funky)
Translation: no, this isn’t going to be like dragon ball, don’t call on this powerup again
Vash: Someone please get my son some therapy, I’m not an absent father by choice and he’s been self-harming while i’m gone
Vash: also you, fellow children? you chill, tell him i love him
Vash: PEACE!! *dissapears*
So true lol
One of the benefits of moving to a country in east Asia is seeing these shortly after they go up in the afternoon. One of the disadvantages is not getting to wake up to a new page. Thanks for an amazing update as ever, Red.
nice to know vash cares about his former vessel’s wellbeing i guess?? (but maybe not for exactly sentimental reasons) as well as acknowledging the gang.
however i get the feeling that someone’s gonna be real pretentious about the existence of Real Life Cells in this whimsical fantasy webcomic at some point
(also apologies if this is like a 2nd or 3rd duplicate comment)
oh god it was a triple duplicate comment. apologies for unintentional spam. yeezys christ
Look all I’m saying is that Vash is def’s the kind of Dad that absently yells out ‘nice’ whenever the kid says they’re going to do some stupid stuff thinking that they’re kidding, and then when the kid knocks themselves out or breaks a leg he goes full panic mode and superspeeds to the hospital breaking every speed limit and spending the weekend going over the house for the 3rd time that week to try and make sure that it’s toddler proofed because obviously the last time didn’t work
To be fair, Red, he didn’t need to keep the aura after Tynan was dead…
Otoh, it’s a nice visual way of indicating that Vash is now really gone, so I see why it was kept around.
Alinua: Kendal, Vash said no stabbing yourself, okay?
Kendal: But… But… But…
After what Alinua has done, Vash doesn’t
Know what half the cells do anymore.
Having channeled the starfire, and already injured,
Vash leaves in Alinua’s hands his health so poor.
“Thank you all for keeping him safe,” Vash adds.
“He’s lucky to have found friends like you.
And please, tell him… don’t ever do this again.”
With that, the body flares with coruscating blue.
I didn’t really feel like they needed Vash in the fight, but some interesting things are coming out of it. Overall, I like where this is going/has gone. Vash definitely feels like a much heavier hitter here than back in good old chapter one, which I think is why him having enough power to save the day feels out of left field- other than manifesting his body, I don’t think chapter 1 Vash did anything Kendal really couldn’t.
I don’t mean to sound critical, just thinking about my response to it.
Alternative scene. The gang has brought Kendal home drunk at 3am.
Dad Vash: Thank you all for keeping him safe. He’s lucky to have found friends like you. And please tell him, next time he goes clubbing with you… Don’t ever do this again!
Interesting to see that Kendal had indeed been chimaeric corrupted, but I guess due to the body being so extremely sturdy and metal infused, it may have even made him stronger, rather than corrupted
Finally, at long, long last, the fight scene is over and we get to have a denouement.
How Vash was able to extend so much of his essence out of his prison without the Collector being none the wiser is beyond me, hopefully we get some kind of explanation about that in the future. I’d also very much like to have an explanation as to why Tahraim couldn’t create a prison for Zuurith while he was also making a prison for Tynan, considering how equally monstrous both gods are. But honestly at this point I just want the party to get off this continent and resume being wandering heroes and having low-to-moderate stakes adventures.
This arc was draining and unhappy to go through –for the protagonists, for the bystanders, for the audience– and even with all the dangling plot threads and unanswered moral challenges, I’m relieved that we get to move past it.
Damn it Red! Crying again …
The art is beautiful – but VASH! OMG! Vash is just so … nice.
I get the feeling that second to last panel will not age well.
Alinua’s anger has quickly dissolved; she looks sad now, maybe even guilty. Does she blame her past wild magic for Vash and Kendal’s current predicament? But then again, could Kendal have survived without said magic re-arranging his body?
Nice to know Vash appreciates Kendal’s companions, no matter who they are or what Erdrich-being is piggy-backing on them. He has shown most focus on Alinua, probably due to her saving and altering Kendal and how she’s linked to the Life-Collector drama. Or maybe he’s scouting for new citizens if he ever gets out and re-established a city; her powers for agriculture and forestry would be very useful for a theoretical New Vash.
Prediction for next week: Alinua applies the heals to Kendal immediately, maybe she or Erin also tend to Falst’s arm. Tess looked intrigued at Alinua’s “lost control” comment and may want to follow that up. And Dainix, after seeing Kendal is safe and tended to, will begin to flame-down.
So we get a one-shot machinae, and don’t do it again. Plus a Heavy PriceTM to prevent it from becoming a go-to. If Vash has to pay an additional Heavy PriceTM (say, The Collector noticed something and things got worse for him, then Kendal really won’t do it again).
@OG Ryan — Tahraim didn’t makes a prison for Vash. He turned The Collector down.
A lot of people missed the point that Tahraim said, “Um, no” to The Collector’s request. His reasoning was just waaay neutral.
@OG Ryan — oh, I just re-read your comment. Oooh, Zuurith, not The Collector’s prison housing Vash. (My excuse is that it’s six am and I’ve had little sleep!)
i think the difference is one of degree. Tynan is a storm wreaking only death and destruction, an existential threat to all cities in his path.
Zuurith… is more mixed. His city has successful trade, certain libraries have been secure there, it is, erm, stable, and some people do well. It’s just … ehhh… life’s not so great under his rule due to his system of “justice.” He’s kind of like Emperor Huangdi, the first Qin emperor. Life sucks there but at least China’s unified? Stable?
At the very least, Zuurith is not planning to sweep down on every city can and level them. Zuurith isn’t a danger to every citizen, and he’s largely only a danger to certain members of his own people.
Huh.
I’ll admit, this page makes me curious about how much control gods have over their bodies….and what exactly Alinua did to change Kendal enough so that Vash can’t control his body.
On another note, Vash seems like a good person. At first glance he might seem callous and uncaring, but he’s been proven to have a good heart many times.
Hah! I knew Vash was one of the good guys! My heroic view of him has been vindicated!
There once was a god named Vash
Who made everyone else look like trash–
But not by design!
He’s just so divine!
There’s no need for him to be bashed.
Is Kendal going to get a new outift since his shirt got destroyed?
Okay, they’ve now collected living embodiments of Life, Fire, the Void-dragon dude’s power in our mega-wizard who isn’t quite as arrogant as he used to be thankfully, plus they got the Lightning race step-sis… They just need Water and Stone. But that doesn’t explain which power Kendal covers, since he’s not exactly Water or Stone, ya know?
(i sweartagod Red, if you chirpily pronounce, “–The Power of Friendship!” I outta…!!!)
papa vash knew it was necessary but goddamn kendal please for the love of your dad dont sacrifice yourself again
Vash dad is best dad
“When Kendal comes back tell him that he’s grounded. No more stabbing for him”
Kendal, you are in for a concerned reckoning next page, buddy. Brace yourself.
@icarusancalion
Zuurith is a f@scist dictator. He runs a forced labor economy and kills people for sport. I’ve said this before and I will say it again: His authoritarian atrocities are responsible for destroying just as many lives as Tynan’s chaos, and there is No Moral Difference between the two. If you have the capacity to imprison Tynan, then you have an Obligation to imprison Zuurith as well. Let him be hoisted by his own petard and languish for eternity in the ruins of his own prison, if you want to add some sweet dramatic irony. But do not equivocate the magnitude of his crimes with some squishy centrist triangulation.
Vash: Don’t do this again
Kendal with a self-sacrificing streak a mile wide: You got it boss
@OG Ryan I guess the reason is partly Zuurith, like him or not, is integral to this city and his people like Vash was to his own, and partly because Big Z can change his ways, however unlikely it is.
With the prison destroyed, the city in ruins and the city saved by his arch-rival, this is a perfect opportunity to rebuild better and brighter, something Tahraim would approve of. Zuurith’s society and how the world perceives it is going to change after all this, it might not change for the better, but there’s a chance it will. He previously tried to amp Zuurith up while he was still re-incarnating, maybe he sees all these events as fires to temper a new, better Zuurith.
Tynan however had centuries to change himself while out at sea, but choose not to. He wasn’t going to stop here and would probably continue to harass our protags whenever he got the chance; removing Tynan keeps the world safe and allows also allows Kendal and co to do their job without his interference. How much Tahraim knew of the Collector’s motives back when she first approached him is debatable, but now he knows what she’s in the business of, what Kendal is tasked to do, and a fair idea of the other protag’s issues, keeping Tynan off their backs, not Zuurith who’s limited to his city, is a good deed indeed.
I see your points but consider this. Tynan suffered a humiliating defeat and choose not to evolve, stagnated back to his old ways, and even after all this would probably not learn his lesson. Zuurith has now suffered a humiliating defeat, but it’s unclear what he’ll do about it; if he doesn’t change, maybe a soul-stealing knife is called for, but sealing him now means that the chance for Zuurith to evolve and develop would be wasted.
@OG Ryan it’s entirely possible that Zuurith cannot even be imprisoned. Vash’s deific domain (both city and people) were completely crushed before the Collector could take his soul. Tynan’s clouds had been scattered and the fear he fed on dissipated by the shock of his second defeat before Tahraim absorbed him. Compare and contrast Zuurith, where the damage was largely to the structure of the city and a large part of the city’s population still exists. It’s hard to even say whether Zuurith’s deific domain is weakened enough for imprisoning him to be possible. He’s a god of both the city and the people, after all.
Also, as far as I can tell, Tahraim is a largely amoral being. He imprisons Tynan not because Tynan has done bad things and he feels a moral obligation to do so, but because Tynan has been conveniently defeated and left there for him to imprison. If Zuurith had been as thoroughly destroyed by the storm as Vash was in the opening, Tahraim might have gone for him instead, but he likely feels no obligation to pit himself against another god out of any moral concern. If Tynan and Zuurith were both in front of him, he would probably stab the one he would find more interesting to study.
Oof. Time to be rushed to the imaginary fantasy hospital for epic fire aura exhaustion AND a stab wound. Let’s hope our boy is ok.
@icarusancalion Tynan isn’t planning on leveling every city. That’d be silly.
He’s a fear god; if people have nothing left to lose, they have no more reason to fear him.
If he’s smart, he’ll only plan to level a few cities, and just inflict some heavy damage on the others
I mean, he’s probably gonna do it again. You don’t just introduce a superpowered second form for the protagonist (one that gives him a direct connection to another important character, no less) and use it as a one-time deus ex machinations. That would essentially be like using the Super Saiyan form the one time on Namek and then never pulling it out again.
I do wonder under what circumstances it’ll happen again, though, particularly given the… activation method.
@OG Ryan: Well, for one thing, doing that would require you to kill his entire city. Gods can only be soul-sucked when their domains are destroyed, and Zuurith is the god of the people, not the buildings.
What did I just say about not equivocating Zuurith’s crimes with squishy centrist triangulation? The aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd protests were a great opportunity for the myriad US police departments to “change and evolve” –to reform, even– and instead they’re habitually murdering just as many POC as they were before, lying and cheating to convict as much as before, and enabling anti-queer racial supremacists as much as before. More-so, even.
Giving a “let this be a lesson to you” warning with absolutely no enforcement mechanism behind it to a fash leader or institution is worth less than the air used to breath it. Monsters like Zuurith will only stop if they are killed or permanently imprisoned. They had an opportunity to let Tahraim create a prison for Zuurith and wasted it, so now Zuurith has nothing physically stopping him from re-establishing his forced labor economy and the gladiatorial death matches. Which, again, is just as morally evil as Tynan’s villainy and yet for some reason is treated differently.
I’m begging y’all to ask yourselves why the chaotic destruction of life is punished more harshly than the orderly destruction of life.
Kendal is the only one of the people he loves who sees himself as a tool, isn’t he?
@Ladyofthemasque You forgot Wind.
Well, he kicked ass while he could. So long, Vash, and good luck.
Evil Tree:
In regards to weighing the evils of Tynan and Zuurith: you mention that Tynan had many centuries exiled at sea to change his ways, but chose not to, and went right back to mass murder as soon as he got an opportunity. I will add that Zuurith could also have changed at any point over those same centuries, but chose not to, continuing his mass slavery and rampant bigotry with zero qualms beyond “bloodsport is tacky”. I agree with OG Ryan in this debate; why is evil order like Zuurith, so often seen as a better alternative to evil chaos like Tynan? It’s because evil order ties their atrocities up in nice little bows hoping none will be the wiser, despite (in this situation at least) ruining a similar number of lives, never repenting and trying to change for the better, and deserving just as much to be stopped forcefully.
(I apologize if I seemed antagonistic there, I’m not trying to start or worsen a fight; I understand that this is a spicy debate, and I was not trying to put down any commenter.)
I know I commented something like this a couple days ago, but I love all of the comments calling Vash Kendal’s dad, and I’ll spice it up by adding that Vash is probably the type of dad to wear a baseball cap backwards “because his son is doing that too” and “it makes him cool.”
Rock on vash-dad you will be missed
Something Vash and Kendall have in common is that they’re really really hard to dislike— even if you wanted to!
okay ive started reading this after rwd finale because i needed more red content in actual fantasy and its amazing how have i caught up already nooooooooo
TL;DR: Please make him stop with the self-sacrifice nonsense!
OG Ryan – correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like you’re upset because Zuurith did something wrong (which I think most of us agree with, he did many things wrong) and you want him to be punished for it, and other people are responding to you with discussion about character motivation and in-story reasons why the punishment you want did not happen in the comic. That isn’t excusing Zuurith’s behavior, that’s talking past each other.
If I may weigh in, I don’t really care about Zuurith getting punished like a human because he’s… not a human? He doesn’t think the same way. He’s not an authoritarian leader, he’s the personification of an authoritarian philosophy and government. Plus, even if you could soul knife him without killing and leveling the entirety of his domain, he HAS a government, and we saw at least one member of the government cajole him into doing something worse than what he would have done on his own, so the city of Zuurith may very well get worse if he was imprisoned and then the city was left alone. If he stays alive and he DOES reform or change, however, he does have the power to change things in a very major and hands-on way.
(Plus, bad or not, he is the god of a city that just got destroyed and evacuated and are in a very unstable place right now. I don’t know if destroying/imprisoning their god and fucking off would actually do more help than harm at this stage)
Tess just casually being super observant of what everyone is saying.
Very lively discussions, poetry and one computer glitch- my sympathies Sig!
I think the morals discussion are missing the world building that Red has done here. Not that I disagree with those opinions! I am happy to find myself in agreement (mostly).
My opinion is that a story is only good as the drama it generates in general (but there are exceptions {in life there are exceptions everywhere.})
I have faith in Red storytelling abilities. I am sure she can come up with revelations on Kendal’s changes too. I am willing Red the chance to reveal answers in her own story.
Wait… Red… You just did a Deus Ex Machina special on YouTube…
I see what you did here…
To add to the spicy debate on fascism: I don’t get where the claim that Zuzu destroyed as many lives as Tynan comes from. Unless he’s existed for over 1000 years or so, Tynan wiping out one sizeable city may just be more death than that prison caused over its lifetime. And Tynan has supposedly wiped countless cities off the face of the planet. What’s the math here to make them even vaguely comparable?
Zuurith is definitely evil, corrupt and needs to loose something concrete personally, but I think equating him to Tynan is a stretch.
Tynan spreads fear because it makes him powerful but also because he enjoys people fearing him. He destroys cities and probably only leaves survivors because they tell other people about him. He’s evil because he wants others to suffer.
Zuurith punishes people way too harshly for breaking laws. He wants order and control mainly because he thinks it is the best state of affairs. His evil is not caring that his methods bring suffering.
He’s not less evil because he’s orderly, he’s less evil because causing suffering isn’t his end goal. Airstrip One Zuurith ain’t.
@TheUnknownGame No worries, these are all good points.
What I was getting at was that, before Vash defeating Tynan or the events of this chapter, neither Tynan or Zuurith had an incentive to change their ways. After Vash beat Tynan, showing that all tyrants will fall eventually and giving the fear-monger a taste of his own medicine, Tynan could have spent at least some of those years at sea in introspection that might have lead to self-change for the better. But he didn’t.
Zuurith here has a massive amount of infrastructure damaged, a reputation to rebuild amongst his own people, and the (perceived) threat of Vash coming back and putting him straight. He could carry on as normal, or he could, however unlikely, take practical and reformative steps to improve things.
However, all of this is moot due to @Stark9865 point that, as it’s been shown in Vash, Ilia’s exposition, and now here, in order to capture a god, you must destroy their domain. Even if Tahraim wanted to capture Zuurith and teach him a lesson, he’d have to not only destroy the city but the majority of his citizens too. I know we’ve all been having debates on where Tahraim falls on the alignment chart, but I think we can rule out him willingly committing genocide to prove a point.
Vash is a good dad to his kid Kendal. “Good job. Don’t do it again”
RIP the fire dispersal plan I guess, would’ve been nice to see Tynan defeated in a new and clever way
…Oh, I’m caught up.
Oh, dear.
going into a fantasy webcomic comment section where a bunch of neon colored superhumans fight gods and deciding to make this about the george floyd protests is certainly a choice LOL. zuurith is not a person. he is the in-universe anthropomorphized concept of a city. you cannot get rid of him without committing mass genocide brother. all you can hope for is change
Evil Tree:
Ah. I forgot about that moot point. However, there is an easy workaround; find a form of retribution that will hurt Zuurith while minimizing collateral damage, such as someone making good on Vash’s threat to interfere with Zuurith’s control and protect those who are victimized by his system. That would hurt him where it matters to him; his ego and power, which is as important to him as fearmongering was to Tynan.
Interesting thing I noticed: As Vash gets pushed out of Kendal, you can see the stab wound affecting him more and more: Last page it looks to be opening a bit and by the end it’s glowing, and during this page, it’s leaking either starfire or essence, and by the end Vash is putting pressure on it as if it’s hurting a LOT.
Also! Theory time, because I am not qualified to enter moral debates! Since Vash noted that he’s “not even sure how half these cells work anymore”, I’m wondering if that has to do with Kendal’s ability to survive without any Void in him. If cells canonically exist, perhaps Alinua ended up adding the fantasy equivalent of mitochondria (perhaps by repurposing the starmetal?), the specialized cells making up things like our salivary glands, and/or the structures within our digestive system that do things like help absorb nutrients, and these are what are allowing him to absorb and repurpose what he’s eating without the use of void. Since Vash didn’t invest in a whole digestive system that he didn’t need, all of these new structures, organelles, and specialized cells might be what’s confusing the hell out of him.
Add this to the fact that the stab wound Alinua was trying to heal was right in the gut area, and my theory goes that her weird haywire life magic basically just went “WOW. This is dysfunctional” and changed everything in the area, so when Vash came back and tried to heal the new stab wound, there’s all sorts of digestive system infrastructure that wasn’t there before and that he had no idea what to do with.
(Sorry if this is a bit of a wall of text!)
@OG Ryan even if Tahraim wanted to for any reason, it’s been established that to be able to use soul crystal knifes to take the soul of a god like as Vash or Zuurith, you would have to destroy their domain which for a city god like Vash meant destroying his city and genociding his people which Tahraim doesn’t have the power to do to Zuurith and would ultimately defeat the whole purpose
Vash: “Don’t ever do that again.”
Kendal: “how bout I do ~a n y w a y~”
Next time the party is in trouble: “Kendal, remember what Vash told you? It doesn’t look like you’re remembering…”
This seems like a situation where devaluing the Super Saiyan could have actual narrative utility! If Kendal can master something that Vash explicitly couldn’t, it would be clear proof that Kendal isn’t just an inferior version of Vash, like he seems to have considered himself.
Oh thank goodness, Vash actually thought of the whole “what if he just tries to do this again every time there’s an emergency” issue and is telling him to quit that dang line of thought RIGHT NOW. I mean, as others are pointing out, this doesn’t exactly GUARANTEE that Kendall won’t just do it again like an idiot, but considering the sheer amount of loyalty he has towards Vash it should at least discourage him a lot.
Also @LilacSpiral thank you for pointing out how the stab wound has been getting more and more visible since the middle of last page, I totally wouldn’t have noticed that otherwise!!!
Kendal’s definitely gonna collapse and pass out in the next page, I can feel it in my bones, bet it all on black
i feel like people are debating over the morals of tahraim not imprisoning zuurith are missing. alllot. of points idk. like. i thought tahraim operated on a very different set of morals? and so he wouldnt see the need in putting the guy in god jail? idk sorry for the spicy opinion im just really confused
Kendall’s baaaack.
he needs him
@TheUnknownGame In the span of the last few chapters: Zuurith has been one shotted by an invading storm god; his citizens abandon the city, including an attempt by at least one in an emissary position (the Arenamaster); had his prized prison torn open; a sizable chunk of the city leveled; had to be saved in the end by his sworn rival, who one-shotted the storm god that one-shot him; and that last one in particular was done with most of the citizenry watching from the mountain. Big Z’s ego has already been demolished and, once news of this spreads across the lands, his power and prestige across the continent could falter. But yeah, having someone to slap down Zuurith more locally would help a lot; maybe the Paladins might take advantage and exert a more moral influence on the city?
Another thing I want to point out is that sealing Tynan is the best move to help our heroes. I don’t know how much Tahraim knows about our gang’s missions (or the Collector’s true intentions when she originally asked for that knife), but I think he knows that they’re very important. The last thing they need is a vengeful storm god, who can track Kendal, re-gathering his powers and going after them again later. Sealing Big T away means he can’t interfere with the gang and, after V.D. showing himself in front of a paladin, they’ll probably need all the breathing space they can get.
goodbye Vash, thank you for your big Atlantis The Lost Empire energy. o7
I caught up literally yesterday and I’m excited to keep reading. Ah, Kendal my fictional weakness…… it’s been really a delight to read and look at, and the hover text makes me laugh SO OFTEN… I am seriously impressed, Red, that you’ve made so much of your comic and at such a high quality.
It is a very dope fire aura
@Serif I really like your comments. Vash is definitely a good person, a good dad to his One Faithful Remaining Follower. Not sure what would happen to Vash if Kendall also died. Tahraim must have his own reasons for capturing Tynan. Tahraim’s motivations so far seem to be, help people develop into better people, stronger characters, more knowledgeable and able people. He’s a facilitator of growth, not in the same way the elemental Life is; he’s a catalyst. And I’m not really sure what looks like success, to him, except that he’s all, fulfill your destiny! (whatever that is). In that sense, he’s also a parent, mentor, spur, fly in the ointment. I hadn’t previously thought much about Hephaestos who forged Zeus’s lightning bolts; this take on that character is fascinating. We saw in the beginning how humans came to be, with Voidy and the Light Dragon both present; I think we’re going to meet the Light Dragon’s vessel. Kendal’s original mission, self-imposed, was to free Vash; does Vash want that if it means Kendal’s death? I don’t see how gods form in this universe; do they come into being slowly by being imagined so? Do they die out if all their followers are gone, or do their ghosts remain as long as stories are told of them? I guess I mean, if you told people about Vash, would he gain something from the mention? We hear about trade but we haven’t seen any of the traders who were supposed to deliver or pick up at Vash’s city. Do they contribute to Vash’s continued existence?
If anyone doesn’t know, there’s a new chapter cover in the archive. “Petrichor”, the nice smell of the first rain.
Late return — to find the discussion spiced up! Yes, it’s true that unless someone plans to commit genocide, there isn’t any way to separate Zuurith from his city.
A few things. First, we can weigh gods in terms of damage. Tynan is more destructive. It’s not a moral argument — it’s a quantitative one. It’s in his epithets: more people die, more people starve, because of the damage he does.
If we want to do a moral argument … I’m not sure how moral gods can be when their form is determined by the beliefs of their people.
The god is a reflection of the people.
Gleicann went from being a pan flute-playing little idyllic forest sprite, to a massive and terrifying being … because the nearby village started to fear his forest. Tynan is a reflection of people’s fears, which feeds him.
We can assume that the people of Vash loved their own freedom and independence, and believed in service — so they got a free-wheeling, independent god who served his people.
Zuurith (the god) reflects his people, too. We can assume the majority of people in Zuurith are fearful, rigid, law and order types — so they got an authoritarian god who enforces law and order, and who rules rather than serves his people. Because law and order types often imagine one set of laws for themselves and a different set of laws for others, the system is going to not only harsh, but corrupt, with numerous loopholes.
So to change Zuurith (the god), the people of Zuurith would have to change. There’s a good chance, because research on law and order attitudes shows they’re driven by fear… uh. After a scare like this, Zuurith (the city and god) could very well get worse.
But here’s hoping Zuurith’s failure, and freedom coming from an act of rebellion to the social order — ?Alinua’s tearing open the prison? — will change the people enough to change Zuurith (the god). It’s not about redeeming him. Zuurith will become what his people believe. He doesn’t have the same kind of soul or individuality as a human being.
Oh. That means the qualities of Vash (the god) are now dependent on Kendal, his sole remaining focal point and citizen. And perhaps on Alinua, since she lived in Vash’s forests. These cities wdon’t wbecome what they are because the god makes them that way. The god reflects the people. So no one can’t fix (the god) Zuurith without fixing (the city) Zuurith and the attitudes of the people of Zuurith. The god reflects the people.
@icarusancalion it’s definitely an interesting question of how much free will the gods have beyond what people think of them, Gleicann being an interesting test case. His *appearance* became more fearsome due to shifting beliefs, but nothing in his actions suggested that it translated into an actual personality change. So was it because there wasn’t enough time to affect him, or was it because there’s only so far human belief can nudge a god in a direction contrary to the god’s desires? I do agree that Zuurith wouldn’t be… well, *Zuurith*, without the people of the city. But is that purely due to their beliefs and desires, or is it because the implicit support of the general population is necessary for fascism to function?
And re: Vash, I will point out that technically the *souls* of the city’s people are still… around…
Lol I was going to say something along the lines of, “Kendal you have to listen to Alinua now, dad said so”, but it seems that many other commentators have already beaten me to this. I love that this was a general consensus (or at least the Vash is doin’ the good dad stuff).
Stark9865:
That might be one of my favorite chapter covers yet. All six protagonists finally together on the same cover, stylized in a sort of kintsugi color style, their unique marks, injuries, and in some cases, perhaps souls, appearing as the golden glue that holds them together.
A few interesting things: 1) Kendal is covered in golden cracks, signifying just how frequently he throws himself into peril.
2) Alinua has gold streaming down her cheeks like tears, signifying the emotional damage she keeps suffering, including seeing her closest friend stab himself right in front of her. (Someone get this lady – really, this whole group – some therapy.)
And 3) Falst has a huge patch of gold on his right arm, and I don’t think it’s just from any recent injuries. He’s got something deep going on that we’re not privy to yet, and that combined with his “f*ck parents” comment in chapter 11, as well as the flashback dream he had in chapter 15 (if I remember correctly) which had the message “Find your way if you are truly my son” under a brown sky, has me wondering more and more if he suffered physical and emotional abuse from one or more of his parents.
Can’t wait for him to do it again
@Hermit Thrush — re. the souls of the city of Vash… sadly true.
Regarding how much a god is shaped by those who believe in him (or her)… well, if we are to trust Erin’s scholarship, just by believing in a god for long enough, people can create the very god they imagine. That was his initial opinion of the Paladins (we know the Light Dragon is real, but he made this point). But it sounded like time is an important factor. Jokes aside, Zuurith probably isn’t turning into a laid back hippie (“peace out, man”) complete with headband and bell bottoms anytime soon. Gleicann changed his form fairly quickly, and was able to act accordingly.
So basically, he’s not the same
And he should never do this again
First time commenting–this arc freaking SLAPPED! Amazing art, amazing boss(es) fight, such a good arc. Can’t wait to keep reading and eventually get caught up.
Vash is such a good dad, all proud of his boy and also like “NEVER DO THAT AGIN YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH” <3