Yeah, but if I recall correctly those mouths were like made from the skulls of previous victims, while it seems like here it just *created* a mouth of its own which i find to be really freaky….
Truly, a riddle for the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAges, Question Master. I will have to contemplate it carefully before I can give an answer!
Truly, a riddle for the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAges, Question Master. I will have to contemplate this carefully before I give an answer!
In episode I’ve lost count of “find the tragic backstory” it seems Erin’s trauma involves mostly hands, some of which have arms with tattoos, so probably his. One thing I did notice was someone wearing what appears to be a collar. If that’s Tess, Erin’s dad may be even more of a tool than we thought.
Ok, just noticed the bottom panel, so we’ve got him messing with the pedestal at the heart of the storm, someone with bracers standing behind someone else with long hair, and what appears to be someone’s arms trying to pull somthing up, interestingly, if those markings on the arm on the right are tattoos, then that would imply this is erin from before he had finished his training. Also it looks like there is someone kneeling in the corner next to the creatures eyes.
Anyone got any ideas?
YES. I think his trauma was he was forced into painful training to become the Elemental Magnus after his potential was discovered. That’s why there are pictures of hands – his hands – in bandages. His tattoos are where he channels his power through, so all of them there at once were probably problematic when he was training – maybe he went through some painful elemental corruption? He also is afraid of abandonment (Tess leaving) and angry at himself for fixing the rune stone (in the storm, freeing Void Dragon). Yet despite all this, he bottles it up using his drive to distract himself. WOW, he has just become my favourite character ALL over again! Anyone got any other thoughts?
Aw man, my comment got eaten by the site. :/ #glorted
First things first, yes, the collared girl is Tess. Reminder, Galen bought her as Erin’s playmate when he was 6 or so.
I agree on the “painful training” with the monks. However, I’m of the mind that Erin was born with malformed channels which both made him very sickly (due to him being prone to elemental corruption) and made it very hard for him to use magic for the same reason. He probably inadvertently hurt himself and others on a fairly regular basis because of this. In the first panel, we also see him reading books, which I interpret as his time studying at the Academy. Any college or university student can relate.
In the bottom trauma panel, I think the hands clasping Erin’s are his mom’s. Back when the early sketch page still existed, there was a drawing of a woman with a sleeve tat on her left arm titled “mage_mom”. The fan discord has it archived for posterity, but it is widely believed to depict Mrs Ruunaser. The bit above that, I think, is Galen and Erin out together, probably out on some diplomatic trip. Erin used to have long hair back in the day, per Tess’ flashback in 1-20-3.
I don’t think the person with long hair being lead away in the 6th panel is Erin since these images are from the 1st person perspective of Erin. My guess is that is the mysterious Al, whose call is what set Tess looking for Erin.
My own personal pet theory, which I don’t know is true but I think is intriguing, is that Al is Erin’s brother who may have also had the abilities to become an elemental magus, but couldn’t take the training and became very hurt because of it, possibly due to a accident on Erin’s part. This is why Al had to send Tess to find Erin because he can’t travel himself. This is also why being the elemental magus, and having extraordinary magical power is so important to Erin because the process of getting it cost his brother his health.
That’s been my budding theory too. If Erin’s family went to the Soulshaper Monks in order to ‘create’ an Elemental Magus, the chances that it’s been attempted before (with potentially disastrous results) are not low. If Al is Erin’s older brother, then it’s likely that his parents put him through the process first before replacing him with Erin when things went wrong. I am so ready for these parents to be terrible.
The bottom panel seems to correspond with more recent events–there’s the pedestal, of course, and the clasped hands are ringing a bell but I can’t place it at the moment, unless it’s when the cave rescue went slightly sideways and Falst did…Whatever that was. And I”d almost swear that the long-haired figure was Kendal–remember the nightmare Walter showed Erin, with the book on the pedestal and Kendal chained before it? Not to mention both that Kendalvhelped him beat back Walter the first time, and if Erin hadn’t wanted to look at the Archive, Zuurith wouldn’t have gotten his hands on Kendal, which indirectly lead to the Tynan debacle. He probably feels some guilt given Kendal’s fate is still unknown.
And quite honestly, the placement of the stars around said figure’s head is rather suspicious…
Glort: I have no real body you say? THEN WHAT DO YOU CALL THIS?!
Good news: that electro-flare ought to clue Kendal and Tess as to where they are so they can help. Bad news: the glort has Erin’s arms pinned, meaning he can’t touch his tattoos and call on magic, Erin isn’t closing his eyes, and the rest of the gang are in a debatable position to help him. Plus Erin’s managed to piss off the slime so much, it’s formed a visible face with a talking mouth, just to communicate how hangry it is.
Looking at the trauma flashback collage, I see a lot of imagery of hands, presumably Erins, either casting magic or in bandages. Injury from casting magic when his powers could have been more volatile? Maybe some of the bandages are from when he got the tattoos? If so why would they be traumatic? Then again, I remember conversations from 1-17-34 theorising how those tattoos stayed after his skin got burnt; maybe the process behind them was painful/magical/deep in the flesh?
The two flashbacks I’m most drawn to however are the ones below his casting hand in panel 1 and to the centre left of panel 6. The former I believe to be young Tess, before her spark being introduced to Erin; you can even see a collar on her. For the later, I’m wondering if that’s someone different; someone of Erin’s younger age being taken away by an adult. If I am to hypothesise, I’d say thats an old friend of Erin he had to be separated from because of his volatile magic.
Curious to see what VD might end up doing to defend Erin from getting eaten.
Also, this is the first time the Crawler-goo of horrors has actually said anything. Did all the plants give it enough sustenance to pull itself together just enough for that or did something else change?
Long time lurker here!
Anyway, in regards to the lots of hands in bandages, it reminds me of a theory I had a while back.
When Tess first hears Erin being referred to as the Elemental Magnus, she seemed slightly confused.
I wonder if Erin’s dad took him to the soul monks when he was younger, not due to complications with magic, but in order to *open* his soul to all six elements- maybe Erin wasn’t born to have a connection to all the elements, his dad is just a power hungry jerk who thought if his son was next Magnus, he’d get even more influence. Maybe this is why he always has to touch his tattoos in order to channel magic- I cant think of any other time a character with magic does this.
Sorry that its slightly rambley, and I might be completely wrong.
I’ve had this theory too!! It feels like Erin’s magic is almost artificial in a way that we don’t see in the motions of others and the tattoos are DEFINITELY strange.
Cool theory, but I like even better the idea that Erin had access to every element, but in some way that was unstable and painful to access. Instead of accepting that his son won’t be a useful elemental magus, Erin’s dad had his son sent off to the monks to stabilize it so he can be useful somehow.
Tess refers to him as “the Aseran elemental mage” in 1-13-18, before anyone else refers to him as such, so she already knew that. The confusion was around the party expecting him to have been powerful as a kid in 1-15-6.
I’ve been on this theory for a while, I fully think he’s an artificially created Elemental Magus, but I never noticed that he has to use his tattoos to use his magic, when no one else seems to need such a focus!
I love the comment section on these because something absolutely wild could happen and at least three propel will be like “ah, just as I expected” and helpfully explain the whole thing.
I swear, if Red posted an entirely black page, six of you would be like “oh yeah and in panel six Alinua says “shut up, you arrogant fool,” which ties together with her character arc in simply the most meaningful way. Very well done.”
Yeah, it’s really hard for me to discern busy, jagged white lines from other busy, jagged white lines. Especially when they’re so subtly different. And it’s also like, “Is this a scene with recognizable features, or is it just a landscape image?” like those buildings around 8:00 in Panel 1.
Anonymous Aurora Question #29: 1: How much do you agree with Question Masters statement? 2: Are we getting VDs help, or is he just gonna stand by and watch as his vessel gets in trouble x 3000?
I’m more of an EEEEEEEEE! person but it’s definitely scary. Speaking of being wrong, I am pretty sure Jeff got smarter because its not sucking on Alinua’s magic as much as sucking up Primordial Life’s essence. As to what Voidy will do if Erin asks for help that depends on what Erin is willing to compromise for its help. After all Jeff can’t touch Voidy really, Voidy is invulnerable to Jeff’s power since Voidy IS the power it draws on to eat. I can see Voidy telling Erin if he is unwilling to make a deal Voidy/Walter will just let Jeff eat Erin and it will just wait for the next Elemental Magus to show up, its got plenty of patience since it will NOT wither away. If Erin gets desperate enough he might make a deal with the Devil, which I can see Voidy/Walter serving as in this story. But I have an active imagination so I’m told.
1. 100% agree
2. I think if VD steps in to help, it’ll be only after Erin falls unconscious, since Erin told him to stay down and VD is playing a long game with Erin’s hubris. If VD does end up helping, he’ll probably rub it in later. (“Ha. You told me to stay down and look what happened!”)
But I think Kendal and Tess will get there first. I HOPE they get there first. We shall see…
1: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
2: I’m fairly certain that Tess and Floofy will show up before he needs to, but if they don’t, he’ll probably figure it out himself.
1: More subtle, but similar in concept.
2: I agree that it’s more likely to be the other characters that do the actual rescuing. I wonder if we have in expository conversations with VD though.
The glort seems to be gaining physical shape, now it has a (sort-of) defined head and arms, and the eyes have pupils, which I don’t think they had before. Maybe from absorbing more elements?
It had bones before, it just keeps them somewhere inside of it, usually. Falst yanked a skull out of it earlier, and if I recall early on in the encounter you could spot arm bones peeking out of its substance
No, it already had bones. Falst pulled a whole skull out of it at one point, and we’ve been seeing disturbing little arm-bones under the slime for a while now.
In fact, I’m not sure if it still has bones anymore since it capillary-actioned to the surface through Alinua’s root system. Did the liquid Glort flow into the plant matter and leave the bones behind? It’s definitely taken on a new shape and I can’t imagine how it would have brought any skulls with it.
Going by Mistwraith logic it would have to find itself a new skeleton since it wouldn’t be able to take the old one with it–that may explain the horrifying head, now that I think about it. It’s piecing one together out of tree chunks, and that may not be a material that lasts long against its substance.
Could it be that Erin’s trauma is mostly linked to “shit I have done and wish I hadn’t done” with a side of “times I have been powerless to help or protect those I care for” ?
If Tess was badly treated before her free will manifested, and Erin tried to protect her and failed…?
ohh that inference at the end is very spicy and seems like quite the set up. Imagine if Tess and Kendal fight this and the glort gives her trauma visions of whatever happened to her when she was little. metal cast normally spark as a part of puberty and if they don’t it’s usually because “something bad that happened to them before.” I think if it does attack her with the trauma vision, then we might just see her early childhood from before she met Erin, or even her re- experiencing the lack of free will, but without the ability to overwrite it. think like a passenger in your own body.
oh! cool! i hate it!
the only thing i can really see in erin’s Trauma Blast is a lot of hands, which i’m sure is gonna be a verrry interesting story to tell. in the meantime NOPE NOPE NOPE ABSOLUTELY NOT NO SIREE. KENDAL, TESS, YOU TWO BETTER GET OVER HERE AND BLAST THIS THING SO WE DON’T HAVE TO KEEP LOOKING AT IT!
Usually I struggle to parse the trauma panels–my brain just struggles to make sense of the lines for some reason–but this time I got it and am seeing what everyone else is seeing:
– Lots of hands
– Young Tess with a collar (presumably when she was first bought by Erin’s father?)
– Bandaged hands (medical procedure?)
– What looks like hands performing a magical procedure on a hand (Monks?)
– Books (intensive and stressful studying?)
– A disapproving frown (one of the parents?)
And in the bottom panel:
– Someone with long hair turned away (looks like… Kendal? wait but why–hm. Maybe someone else?)
– Tess on the windowsill (when she got Sparked)
– The pedestal (I didn’t see this at first!)
– Hands grabbing onto a hand
– Did I mention hands
Hands can do so many wonderful and horrible things…
Maybe I’m getting better at parsing the trauma lines with practice. Or maybe I just need to slow down and take the time to do it properly.
That last panel is well done nightmare fuel. Very cool. Much terrifying.
I’m pretty sure that long-haired person is Erin. We saw in Tess’ heart-to-heart with Alinua that he used to have much longer hair. Plus, she did say that “the haircut looks great”, implying that this is a fairly recent change.
I think it’s his dirtbag dad instead since these are his memories and there’s no what he could see the back of his own head. We saw Galen (I think that’s his name) in 1.7.3 and he looks like the long-haired figure.
@Squirrel I totally missed the montage in panel one in my first read through. I don’t know if it was my bad eyesight or slow thinking brain, maybe both! Or it could be I am getting more senile in my dotage (shake walking cane in futility)(and smile because its funny)
For context, it has now been exactly a year and one day of real-time since Alinua was desperately trying to heal Kendal after he passed out post-Vashing. This really is the longest night.
It has been exactly two years since Erin exited the Archive and started chasing a magic bird across the city. Which, if you will recall, was yesterday afternoon.
There once was a hangry glort
Which no kind of magic could thwart.
‘Cause it couldn’t get Snickers
It devours and bickers
With food sources of any sort.
My personal theory was that it was some sort of incomplete homunculus that was abandoned. I feel like if it were just a weird crawler it wouldn’t be in a whole locked room that closes behind you and has a full lacrima array. It also doesn’t really seem to consume things the way that normally works: it more absorbed itself into the plants as opposed to just eating them and getting bigger — even the bones were just kinda coated in it as opposed to digested. Plus, “Really weird cave crawler” doesn’t really check out with the psychic eyes, whereas “we tried to stick soul/light energy into this thing and it didn’t work like we wanted it too” might, given the paladins’ telepathy.
It definitely contradicts what Erin said last page though, so I’m open to alternative theories! ^^
Erin doesn’t seem to react quite as strongly to the trauma gaze. He freezes and looks scared, but Dainix had a full-body spasm like he’d been struck by lightning, and Falst went nearly catatonic. Also, neither of them were willing to risk a second dose, but Erin closed his eyes and then opened them again, and he’s still staring at it. Maybe after dealing with the Void Dragon, the glort isn’t quite as traumatizing for him. Like, once you’ve semi-tamed the tiger, you’re not going to have a fear of housecats, no matter how sharp their claws are.
It could also have something to do with the fact that they are different characters with different reactions to something frightening. Dainix could have more of a fight reflex, and Erin could be more of a freezer. I think the reason Falst went catatonic is because he was in horrible shape, what with the VERY broken arm and trying to die and all that. But, the difference could also be because of Walter and his effect on Erin. Who knows?
There’s also the fact that the trauma images in the sixth panel are faded out compared to the images in the first panel. There’s nothing in the background behind the trauma images that really needs to be seen, so my guess is that the faded images mean the effect is becoming less intense after the first blast. Whether that’s true for everyone is yet to be seen, of course. Could be VD, could be natural, or could be that Erin has more experience working through emotional trauma than the others.
Definitely Tess in the collar; definitely the black dragon pedestal, and… lots of hands. Every artist’s trauma point. Was this moment worse on Erin or Red? /j. Thanks to everyone theorizing based on other knowledge. Anyone know what the first panel top left one is? I can’t see it clearly.
The book is in the same position/orientation as the blank glowing book Erin was parsing through in the dream when he was trying to get into the paladin Archives… it’s probably just a metaphor for studying, but that dream did have a rather hard effect on his psyche that night, so who knows? Could represent his general discomfort w the Zurrith situation?
I think that dream was a self-contained vision of guilt about sacrificing Kendal for knowledge. But it’s interesting that, for someone who seems to love books so much, he clearly has a lot of trauma about them.
Anyway, those two images in the top left (it looks like two to me) are really hard to make out. But it looks to me like one of Erin’s arms WITHOUT tattoos is releasing streams of magical energy, perhaps in the form of lightning? Perhaps he needs to touch his tattoos before casting so that he can control it? He IS always telling Alinua about how important runic circles are, and he’s only used magic once without one.
The second one, just above that, looks like someone else is casting a fireball or something? I can’t really make it out, but it looks like another person’s arm and shoulder (complete with a very sharp-looking cape) is outreached towards a torrent of flames. A teacher of some sort?
Oh no, I’ve changed my mind! It is just one image of BOTH of Erin’s arms, pre-tattoos, casting lightning bolts seemingly without control. I’m guessing this is the reason he needed to go to the Soulshaper Monks in the first place, other than his parents, whom I am convinced have nefarious intentions.
everyone say thank you glort for the forbidden backstory crumbs. i stared at this page for far too long. first panel, clockwise from bottom left:
– open book, hand holding it on the left, stack of books on the right
– bookshelf next to ajar door
– someone’s hands casting life (left) and lightning (right)? probably erin’s because the sleeves are visible at the bottom. no tattoos, notably. also what looks like someone else’s hand above that, pressing down on something (i’m pretty sure that’s in the same image)
– someone’s hands, probably erin’s, probably doing lightning magic. possible fingers visible at the top
– unidentifiable person. fire behind them? missing their left arm? burns?
– erin’s right hand casting fire magic
– erin’s arm laid out on some sort of surface (sleeve visible again), someone else’s hand with a needle working on a half-completed tattoo. inkwell visible on the right. there seems to be something else on the left so it might be two people working on the tattoo at once. bandaged hand bracing erin’s arm, could be his other hand
– young tess wearing a collar, galen’s arm gesturing towards her. there’s lines on her arms and face which probably indicate metal highlights
– someone’s arms and someone else wrapping bandages around them (the hand holding the end of the bandage is visible on the right, and what looks like fingers steadying on the left)
sixth panel, clockwise from bottom left:
– i couldn’t parse this one at all. probably erin’s mom
– i was thinking that was younger long-haired erin because i forgot that al existed but the al theory makes a lot of sense. person on the right is definitely galen though; he’s got the same sleeves as in the tess image
– yeah. this seems to be the only void-dragon-related image on either of these pages, which is interesting to consider from an in-universe viewpoint
– someone’s hands (i would guess galen’s) on erin’s shoulders
– post-spark tess on a windowsill. interestingly we see tess leave in her flashback in 1-20-3 and the window doesn’t have a curtain there. idk what else it could be though
she was! imo on this page it doesn’t like the fabric is attached to her shoulders the way the cloak is, and is instead hung from something next to the window. there’s a lot going on in this image, though, so i could be wrong. it’s also possible that it’s a cloak hanging by the window and she puts it on before she goes. she could have been waiting on the windowsill to speak to erin before she left (that’s pure speculation though)
Would like to note that 1st panel top right you can see some sort of runic circle surrounding the operation, probably some part of the procedure for the tattoos, given the needle, hand, and pot of ink nearby.
Maybe it’s for drawing energy to the area or healing the patient as it goes? The ink also seems to have runes on the jar, so maybe the ink functions like a lacrima or has bits of lacrima in it, but draws energy from the body instead of the surroundings to deal with problems of energy build up? (hence why Erin has to touch the tattoos to cast?). That’s entirely wild guesswork, but in either case, that’s ammo for a later theory.
It’s also worth noting that Erin doesn’t have the tattoos when we see younger-him bidding Tess off in 1.20.3, so any of these flashbacks where we see them on his arms must be after Tess left, so he must’ve been reasonably old when he got them (Tess looks much older in the flashback panel than how we see her in panel 1)
I truly adore how this entire arc has been members of the team going up against the Adaptive Slime and getting wrecked, and then a SECOND member of the team behind them going: ‘Don’t worry. I’ve got this’ and flipping on their one-liner aviator shades and then going in and getting wrecked too.
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: psychic torture slime should eat a snickers!
Image source: hungry
Tumblr text: it’s gonna munch! it’s gonna crunch!
The glort didn’t get enough halloween candy to fill it’s stomach.
Its gonna munch, its gonna crunch!
Aurora Question #102: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Indeed,
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- wait, when did it grow TEETH? 😰 -stakes just went through the roof
IT HAS A MOUTH NOW?!?!?!?!
Pretty sure it had several mouths before
Aaaaa
Yeah, but if I recall correctly those mouths were like made from the skulls of previous victims, while it seems like here it just *created* a mouth of its own which i find to be really freaky….
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Eeeeeeek! Nononononononoooooo sir. No thank you!
AAAAAaaaaaaAAAAAAAaaaaaaaHHHHHHHHhhhhhhHHHHHHHhhhhhh
Happy Halloween we got a creepy monster with DISTINCT FEATURES
YEEP
Truly, a riddle for the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAges, Question Master. I will have to contemplate it carefully before I can give an answer!
Truly, a riddle for the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAges, Question Master. I will have to contemplate this carefully before I give an answer!
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
…. yikes. Welp, now what?
I wonder… is he seeing whatever led him to visit the monks in the first place?
My take has always been that his father brought him to he monks as a child to *make* him into the Elemental Magus.
That’s my theory, yup, yup.
Probaply. Among other things.
My current theory is that he couldn’t control his magic and kept hurting people and destroying stuff.
Okay what the fuck that’s uh nightmare fuel
In episode I’ve lost count of “find the tragic backstory” it seems Erin’s trauma involves mostly hands, some of which have arms with tattoos, so probably his. One thing I did notice was someone wearing what appears to be a collar. If that’s Tess, Erin’s dad may be even more of a tool than we thought.
Ok, just noticed the bottom panel, so we’ve got him messing with the pedestal at the heart of the storm, someone with bracers standing behind someone else with long hair, and what appears to be someone’s arms trying to pull somthing up, interestingly, if those markings on the arm on the right are tattoos, then that would imply this is erin from before he had finished his training. Also it looks like there is someone kneeling in the corner next to the creatures eyes.
Anyone got any ideas?
Between Goh’s face and arm is an image of Tess leaving after gaining her power and free will
YES. I think his trauma was he was forced into painful training to become the Elemental Magnus after his potential was discovered. That’s why there are pictures of hands – his hands – in bandages. His tattoos are where he channels his power through, so all of them there at once were probably problematic when he was training – maybe he went through some painful elemental corruption? He also is afraid of abandonment (Tess leaving) and angry at himself for fixing the rune stone (in the storm, freeing Void Dragon). Yet despite all this, he bottles it up using his drive to distract himself. WOW, he has just become my favourite character ALL over again! Anyone got any other thoughts?
Or perhaps he was trying to hide them, that was my first thought anyway…
Aw man, my comment got eaten by the site. :/ #glorted
First things first, yes, the collared girl is Tess. Reminder, Galen bought her as Erin’s playmate when he was 6 or so.
I agree on the “painful training” with the monks. However, I’m of the mind that Erin was born with malformed channels which both made him very sickly (due to him being prone to elemental corruption) and made it very hard for him to use magic for the same reason. He probably inadvertently hurt himself and others on a fairly regular basis because of this. In the first panel, we also see him reading books, which I interpret as his time studying at the Academy. Any college or university student can relate.
In the bottom trauma panel, I think the hands clasping Erin’s are his mom’s. Back when the early sketch page still existed, there was a drawing of a woman with a sleeve tat on her left arm titled “mage_mom”. The fan discord has it archived for posterity, but it is widely believed to depict Mrs Ruunaser. The bit above that, I think, is Galen and Erin out together, probably out on some diplomatic trip. Erin used to have long hair back in the day, per Tess’ flashback in 1-20-3.
I thought that was Erin and his father too, but every other trauma seems to be from Erin’s point of view. Perhaps it’s Al?
Ah Jinx, sorry Veggiesnake. I began writing my comment before yours was loaded.
No problem. Storng minds think alike.
STORNG minds, STORNG minds think alike
I don’t think the person with long hair being lead away in the 6th panel is Erin since these images are from the 1st person perspective of Erin. My guess is that is the mysterious Al, whose call is what set Tess looking for Erin.
My own personal pet theory, which I don’t know is true but I think is intriguing, is that Al is Erin’s brother who may have also had the abilities to become an elemental magus, but couldn’t take the training and became very hurt because of it, possibly due to a accident on Erin’s part. This is why Al had to send Tess to find Erin because he can’t travel himself. This is also why being the elemental magus, and having extraordinary magical power is so important to Erin because the process of getting it cost his brother his health.
That’s been my budding theory too. If Erin’s family went to the Soulshaper Monks in order to ‘create’ an Elemental Magus, the chances that it’s been attempted before (with potentially disastrous results) are not low. If Al is Erin’s older brother, then it’s likely that his parents put him through the process first before replacing him with Erin when things went wrong. I am so ready for these parents to be terrible.
I thought Al was short for Galen?
There is literally no way that a) Tess calls Erin’s dad by his first name OR b) Erin’s dad uses a nickname. I will not take questions XD
Wait, a fan discord?? How do I get in? >w>
The bottom panel seems to correspond with more recent events–there’s the pedestal, of course, and the clasped hands are ringing a bell but I can’t place it at the moment, unless it’s when the cave rescue went slightly sideways and Falst did…Whatever that was. And I”d almost swear that the long-haired figure was Kendal–remember the nightmare Walter showed Erin, with the book on the pedestal and Kendal chained before it? Not to mention both that Kendalvhelped him beat back Walter the first time, and if Erin hadn’t wanted to look at the Archive, Zuurith wouldn’t have gotten his hands on Kendal, which indirectly lead to the Tynan debacle. He probably feels some guilt given Kendal’s fate is still unknown.
And quite honestly, the placement of the stars around said figure’s head is rather suspicious…
If something happens to Erin I’ll cry
Glort: I have no real body you say? THEN WHAT DO YOU CALL THIS?!
Good news: that electro-flare ought to clue Kendal and Tess as to where they are so they can help. Bad news: the glort has Erin’s arms pinned, meaning he can’t touch his tattoos and call on magic, Erin isn’t closing his eyes, and the rest of the gang are in a debatable position to help him. Plus Erin’s managed to piss off the slime so much, it’s formed a visible face with a talking mouth, just to communicate how hangry it is.
Looking at the trauma flashback collage, I see a lot of imagery of hands, presumably Erins, either casting magic or in bandages. Injury from casting magic when his powers could have been more volatile? Maybe some of the bandages are from when he got the tattoos? If so why would they be traumatic? Then again, I remember conversations from 1-17-34 theorising how those tattoos stayed after his skin got burnt; maybe the process behind them was painful/magical/deep in the flesh?
The two flashbacks I’m most drawn to however are the ones below his casting hand in panel 1 and to the centre left of panel 6. The former I believe to be young Tess, before her spark being introduced to Erin; you can even see a collar on her. For the later, I’m wondering if that’s someone different; someone of Erin’s younger age being taken away by an adult. If I am to hypothesise, I’d say thats an old friend of Erin he had to be separated from because of his volatile magic.
Turns out, Erin’s trauma is: hands
Curious to see what VD might end up doing to defend Erin from getting eaten.
Also, this is the first time the Crawler-goo of horrors has actually said anything. Did all the plants give it enough sustenance to pull itself together just enough for that or did something else change?
I think Erin made it angry by burning it and almost winning.
HOLY-
Oh wait, it still has teeth.
That’s nice.
Long time lurker here!
Anyway, in regards to the lots of hands in bandages, it reminds me of a theory I had a while back.
When Tess first hears Erin being referred to as the Elemental Magnus, she seemed slightly confused.
I wonder if Erin’s dad took him to the soul monks when he was younger, not due to complications with magic, but in order to *open* his soul to all six elements- maybe Erin wasn’t born to have a connection to all the elements, his dad is just a power hungry jerk who thought if his son was next Magnus, he’d get even more influence. Maybe this is why he always has to touch his tattoos in order to channel magic- I cant think of any other time a character with magic does this.
Sorry that its slightly rambley, and I might be completely wrong.
Sometimes it’s more fun when I am wrong.
I’ve had this theory too!! It feels like Erin’s magic is almost artificial in a way that we don’t see in the motions of others and the tattoos are DEFINITELY strange.
Cool theory, but I like even better the idea that Erin had access to every element, but in some way that was unstable and painful to access. Instead of accepting that his son won’t be a useful elemental magus, Erin’s dad had his son sent off to the monks to stabilize it so he can be useful somehow.
Tess refers to him as “the Aseran elemental mage” in 1-13-18, before anyone else refers to him as such, so she already knew that. The confusion was around the party expecting him to have been powerful as a kid in 1-15-6.
Ohhhh, I like that theory even better than mine.
And yeah, I think I just misunderstood Tess’ reaction, thanks for pointing that out.
I’ve been on this theory for a while, I fully think he’s an artificially created Elemental Magus, but I never noticed that he has to use his tattoos to use his magic, when no one else seems to need such a focus!
Sssshhhiiiii-
This is worse than I thought.
Amazing. And absolutely HORRIFYING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHH now to try and look at all the fractured memory things.
I love the comment section on these because something absolutely wild could happen and at least three propel will be like “ah, just as I expected” and helpfully explain the whole thing.
I swear, if Red posted an entirely black page, six of you would be like “oh yeah and in panel six Alinua says “shut up, you arrogant fool,” which ties together with her character arc in simply the most meaningful way. Very well done.”
i am GAGGED
OH MAN, YEAH.
I took a peek at the trauma moments, & then immediately came to the comments to find the right answers XD
Yeah, it’s really hard for me to discern busy, jagged white lines from other busy, jagged white lines. Especially when they’re so subtly different. And it’s also like, “Is this a scene with recognizable features, or is it just a landscape image?” like those buildings around 8:00 in Panel 1.
Anonymous Aurora Question #29: 1: How much do you agree with Question Masters statement? 2: Are we getting VDs help, or is he just gonna stand by and watch as his vessel gets in trouble x 3000?
1-one hundred percent
2-I’m not sure what the void dragon can actually do against a creation of it’s own power except make the Glort more hungry
I’m more of an EEEEEEEEE! person but it’s definitely scary. Speaking of being wrong, I am pretty sure Jeff got smarter because its not sucking on Alinua’s magic as much as sucking up Primordial Life’s essence. As to what Voidy will do if Erin asks for help that depends on what Erin is willing to compromise for its help. After all Jeff can’t touch Voidy really, Voidy is invulnerable to Jeff’s power since Voidy IS the power it draws on to eat. I can see Voidy telling Erin if he is unwilling to make a deal Voidy/Walter will just let Jeff eat Erin and it will just wait for the next Elemental Magus to show up, its got plenty of patience since it will NOT wither away. If Erin gets desperate enough he might make a deal with the Devil, which I can see Voidy/Walter serving as in this story. But I have an active imagination so I’m told.
1. 100% agree
2. I think if VD steps in to help, it’ll be only after Erin falls unconscious, since Erin told him to stay down and VD is playing a long game with Erin’s hubris. If VD does end up helping, he’ll probably rub it in later. (“Ha. You told me to stay down and look what happened!”)
But I think Kendal and Tess will get there first. I HOPE they get there first. We shall see…
1: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
2: I’m fairly certain that Tess and Floofy will show up before he needs to, but if they don’t, he’ll probably figure it out himself.
Wait, so Question Guy 1 Just answered Question Guy 2s Question… I am honored. And, again, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa + Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (thanks, Aulde)
Questionception?
My pleasure to be entertaining to you! (chuckle and bow in gratitude)
1: More subtle, but similar in concept.
2: I agree that it’s more likely to be the other characters that do the actual rescuing. I wonder if we have in expository conversations with VD though.
is he… casting without touching his tattoos in that first panel?
I think thats the fire and lightning mix that he prepared last page
The glort seems to be gaining physical shape, now it has a (sort-of) defined head and arms, and the eyes have pupils, which I don’t think they had before. Maybe from absorbing more elements?
absorbing the life elemental in the form of trunks and roots from ailuna gave it bones
It had bones before, it just keeps them somewhere inside of it, usually. Falst yanked a skull out of it earlier, and if I recall early on in the encounter you could spot arm bones peeking out of its substance
No, it already had bones. Falst pulled a whole skull out of it at one point, and we’ve been seeing disturbing little arm-bones under the slime for a while now.
In fact, I’m not sure if it still has bones anymore since it capillary-actioned to the surface through Alinua’s root system. Did the liquid Glort flow into the plant matter and leave the bones behind? It’s definitely taken on a new shape and I can’t imagine how it would have brought any skulls with it.
Going by Mistwraith logic it would have to find itself a new skeleton since it wouldn’t be able to take the old one with it–that may explain the horrifying head, now that I think about it. It’s piecing one together out of tree chunks, and that may not be a material that lasts long against its substance.
Oh, that’s just wrong
Could it be that Erin’s trauma is mostly linked to “shit I have done and wish I hadn’t done” with a side of “times I have been powerless to help or protect those I care for” ?
If Tess was badly treated before her free will manifested, and Erin tried to protect her and failed…?
ohh that inference at the end is very spicy and seems like quite the set up. Imagine if Tess and Kendal fight this and the glort gives her trauma visions of whatever happened to her when she was little. metal cast normally spark as a part of puberty and if they don’t it’s usually because “something bad that happened to them before.” I think if it does attack her with the trauma vision, then we might just see her early childhood from before she met Erin, or even her re- experiencing the lack of free will, but without the ability to overwrite it. think like a passenger in your own body.
oh, hey!
Maybe that misfired fire-lightning mix is a helpful flare for Kendal and Tess!
oh! cool! i hate it!
the only thing i can really see in erin’s Trauma Blast is a lot of hands, which i’m sure is gonna be a verrry interesting story to tell. in the meantime NOPE NOPE NOPE ABSOLUTELY NOT NO SIREE. KENDAL, TESS, YOU TWO BETTER GET OVER HERE AND BLAST THIS THING SO WE DON’T HAVE TO KEEP LOOKING AT IT!
ITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETHITHASTEETH
Usually I struggle to parse the trauma panels–my brain just struggles to make sense of the lines for some reason–but this time I got it and am seeing what everyone else is seeing:
– Lots of hands
– Young Tess with a collar (presumably when she was first bought by Erin’s father?)
– Bandaged hands (medical procedure?)
– What looks like hands performing a magical procedure on a hand (Monks?)
– Books (intensive and stressful studying?)
– A disapproving frown (one of the parents?)
And in the bottom panel:
– Someone with long hair turned away (looks like… Kendal? wait but why–hm. Maybe someone else?)
– Tess on the windowsill (when she got Sparked)
– The pedestal (I didn’t see this at first!)
– Hands grabbing onto a hand
– Did I mention hands
Hands can do so many wonderful and horrible things…
Maybe I’m getting better at parsing the trauma lines with practice. Or maybe I just need to slow down and take the time to do it properly.
That last panel is well done nightmare fuel. Very cool. Much terrifying.
I’m pretty sure that long-haired person is Erin. We saw in Tess’ heart-to-heart with Alinua that he used to have much longer hair. Plus, she did say that “the haircut looks great”, implying that this is a fairly recent change.
I think it’s his dirtbag dad instead since these are his memories and there’s no what he could see the back of his own head. We saw Galen (I think that’s his name) in 1.7.3 and he looks like the long-haired figure.
Perhaps it’s this mysterious Al.
I take back what I said about it looking like Erin’s dad. I think it’s someone else from Erin’s backstory we haven’t seen yet.
@Squirrel I totally missed the montage in panel one in my first read through. I don’t know if it was my bad eyesight or slow thinking brain, maybe both! Or it could be I am getting more senile in my dotage (shake walking cane in futility)(and smile because its funny)
For context, it has now been exactly a year and one day of real-time since Alinua was desperately trying to heal Kendal after he passed out post-Vashing. This really is the longest night.
It has been exactly two years since Erin exited the Archive and started chasing a magic bird across the city. Which, if you will recall, was yesterday afternoon.
If this were a tv show, I’d be screaming at the screen: “Any time now, Kendall!”
Just…oof
Back story theory!!!
I think erin is the elemental magus however his power was limited or weak so he was sent to the monks.
If light magic governs the mind, I bet Glort was originally a paladin.
BIG yikes! We really need some backup here!
Oh good, it has a face.
Yo that last panel is so terrifying!! Love the character design for the glort!!!
Oh good, it has a face.
They are doomed.
The trauma hits, so things go south
Even more so when the monster opens its mouth
That was quite dramatic @Ongoing! Almost Shakespearian! (Nod in pleasure and appreciation!)
well, this is all fascinating. lots of hands, some other stuff, and plenty of erin suffering.
there’s a person in the first panel who’s missing an arm that i think might be the al person tess mentioned.
There once was a hangry glort
Which no kind of magic could thwart.
‘Cause it couldn’t get Snickers
It devours and bickers
With food sources of any sort.
I wonder who or what the glort was before? any theories?
My personal theory was that it was some sort of incomplete homunculus that was abandoned. I feel like if it were just a weird crawler it wouldn’t be in a whole locked room that closes behind you and has a full lacrima array. It also doesn’t really seem to consume things the way that normally works: it more absorbed itself into the plants as opposed to just eating them and getting bigger — even the bones were just kinda coated in it as opposed to digested. Plus, “Really weird cave crawler” doesn’t really check out with the psychic eyes, whereas “we tried to stick soul/light energy into this thing and it didn’t work like we wanted it too” might, given the paladins’ telepathy.
It definitely contradicts what Erin said last page though, so I’m open to alternative theories! ^^
I’m thinking whatever occultish experiment was going on in the room with the lacrimas ate whoever was doing it.
Has more of a mind than you thought, eh?
IT HAS A FACE WTF RED THIS PAGE IS SO GOOD???????
Erin doesn’t seem to react quite as strongly to the trauma gaze. He freezes and looks scared, but Dainix had a full-body spasm like he’d been struck by lightning, and Falst went nearly catatonic. Also, neither of them were willing to risk a second dose, but Erin closed his eyes and then opened them again, and he’s still staring at it. Maybe after dealing with the Void Dragon, the glort isn’t quite as traumatizing for him. Like, once you’ve semi-tamed the tiger, you’re not going to have a fear of housecats, no matter how sharp their claws are.
It could also have something to do with the fact that they are different characters with different reactions to something frightening. Dainix could have more of a fight reflex, and Erin could be more of a freezer. I think the reason Falst went catatonic is because he was in horrible shape, what with the VERY broken arm and trying to die and all that. But, the difference could also be because of Walter and his effect on Erin. Who knows?
There’s also the fact that the trauma images in the sixth panel are faded out compared to the images in the first panel. There’s nothing in the background behind the trauma images that really needs to be seen, so my guess is that the faded images mean the effect is becoming less intense after the first blast. Whether that’s true for everyone is yet to be seen, of course. Could be VD, could be natural, or could be that Erin has more experience working through emotional trauma than the others.
TL;DR: Underestimating the hangry slime?
Well, that last panel was absolutely TERRIFYING.
Definitely Tess in the collar; definitely the black dragon pedestal, and… lots of hands. Every artist’s trauma point. Was this moment worse on Erin or Red? /j. Thanks to everyone theorizing based on other knowledge. Anyone know what the first panel top left one is? I can’t see it clearly.
The book is in the same position/orientation as the blank glowing book Erin was parsing through in the dream when he was trying to get into the paladin Archives… it’s probably just a metaphor for studying, but that dream did have a rather hard effect on his psyche that night, so who knows? Could represent his general discomfort w the Zurrith situation?
I think that dream was a self-contained vision of guilt about sacrificing Kendal for knowledge. But it’s interesting that, for someone who seems to love books so much, he clearly has a lot of trauma about them.
Anyway, those two images in the top left (it looks like two to me) are really hard to make out. But it looks to me like one of Erin’s arms WITHOUT tattoos is releasing streams of magical energy, perhaps in the form of lightning? Perhaps he needs to touch his tattoos before casting so that he can control it? He IS always telling Alinua about how important runic circles are, and he’s only used magic once without one.
The second one, just above that, looks like someone else is casting a fireball or something? I can’t really make it out, but it looks like another person’s arm and shoulder (complete with a very sharp-looking cape) is outreached towards a torrent of flames. A teacher of some sort?
Oh no, I’ve changed my mind! It is just one image of BOTH of Erin’s arms, pre-tattoos, casting lightning bolts seemingly without control. I’m guessing this is the reason he needed to go to the Soulshaper Monks in the first place, other than his parents, whom I am convinced have nefarious intentions.
Well Mr. Sicktats Mchubris how’s flying too close to the sun going?!?!
WHY IS IT TALKING NOW AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
everyone say thank you glort for the forbidden backstory crumbs. i stared at this page for far too long. first panel, clockwise from bottom left:
– open book, hand holding it on the left, stack of books on the right
– bookshelf next to ajar door
– someone’s hands casting life (left) and lightning (right)? probably erin’s because the sleeves are visible at the bottom. no tattoos, notably. also what looks like someone else’s hand above that, pressing down on something (i’m pretty sure that’s in the same image)
– someone’s hands, probably erin’s, probably doing lightning magic. possible fingers visible at the top
– unidentifiable person. fire behind them? missing their left arm? burns?
– erin’s right hand casting fire magic
– erin’s arm laid out on some sort of surface (sleeve visible again), someone else’s hand with a needle working on a half-completed tattoo. inkwell visible on the right. there seems to be something else on the left so it might be two people working on the tattoo at once. bandaged hand bracing erin’s arm, could be his other hand
– young tess wearing a collar, galen’s arm gesturing towards her. there’s lines on her arms and face which probably indicate metal highlights
– someone’s arms and someone else wrapping bandages around them (the hand holding the end of the bandage is visible on the right, and what looks like fingers steadying on the left)
sixth panel, clockwise from bottom left:
– i couldn’t parse this one at all. probably erin’s mom
– i was thinking that was younger long-haired erin because i forgot that al existed but the al theory makes a lot of sense. person on the right is definitely galen though; he’s got the same sleeves as in the tess image
– yeah. this seems to be the only void-dragon-related image on either of these pages, which is interesting to consider from an in-universe viewpoint
– someone’s hands (i would guess galen’s) on erin’s shoulders
– post-spark tess on a windowsill. interestingly we see tess leave in her flashback in 1-20-3 and the window doesn’t have a curtain there. idk what else it could be though
Thank you glort! (and thank you ginger!)
Also, wasn’t Tess wearing a cloak in that earlier panel that you mentioned? Could that be what you saw as a curtain?
she was! imo on this page it doesn’t like the fabric is attached to her shoulders the way the cloak is, and is instead hung from something next to the window. there’s a lot going on in this image, though, so i could be wrong. it’s also possible that it’s a cloak hanging by the window and she puts it on before she goes. she could have been waiting on the windowsill to speak to erin before she left (that’s pure speculation though)
Ginger, thank you so much for interpreting the drawings! That must’ve been so difficult – you are a legend 🙂
Would like to note that 1st panel top right you can see some sort of runic circle surrounding the operation, probably some part of the procedure for the tattoos, given the needle, hand, and pot of ink nearby.
Maybe it’s for drawing energy to the area or healing the patient as it goes? The ink also seems to have runes on the jar, so maybe the ink functions like a lacrima or has bits of lacrima in it, but draws energy from the body instead of the surroundings to deal with problems of energy build up? (hence why Erin has to touch the tattoos to cast?). That’s entirely wild guesswork, but in either case, that’s ammo for a later theory.
It’s also worth noting that Erin doesn’t have the tattoos when we see younger-him bidding Tess off in 1.20.3, so any of these flashbacks where we see them on his arms must be after Tess left, so he must’ve been reasonably old when he got them (Tess looks much older in the flashback panel than how we see her in panel 1)
It might be a safeguard against Erin activating the Great Runes as they’re tattooed onto him. That would be pretty bad.
What would happen if you pointed a mirror at this thing?
I truly adore how this entire arc has been members of the team going up against the Adaptive Slime and getting wrecked, and then a SECOND member of the team behind them going: ‘Don’t worry. I’ve got this’ and flipping on their one-liner aviator shades and then going in and getting wrecked too.
Welp… I’m not sleeping anytime soon.