2.1.25
on March 20, 2024
at 3:00 am
kendal has had two dreams in his life and neither of them were any fun so far
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
kendal has had two dreams in his life and neither of them were any fun so far
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: or maybe I’m the first fantasy author in history to give a character a dream that means absolutely nothing
Image source: gone
Tumblr text: speaking of The Boy
Twitter text: More musings
tumblr text: speaking of The Boy
Twitter Text: More musings
Actually I remember reading a story where the protagonists had dreams that meant nothing. Well, at first they were significant dreams but the character was too dense to get them, then they progressively became more and more unhinged (mixing in scenes from various other famous stories’ prophetic dreams, like Paul’s dreams from Dune except parodied) and ended up completely incoherent.
But of course, this was all played for laugh. I’ll admit that outside of parodies like this, I haven’t seen a red herring dream that I can recall.
Iâve actually been planning a story which has a scene where one mc has a weird dream based on the crazy day he just had, and has a quiet laugh about it with the other mc. It means nothing but bonding for the two mcs, and a little comedic relief đ
I look forward to reading any book that isnât completely filled with inferences – I like a little irrelevance from time to time.
. âWow,â Alinua says softly. She glances at Kendal. âThat soundsâŠâ
. âImpossible,â Kendal says, staring out at the ocean. âThe people of Vash should be all but gone. I heard their voices in the ruin, but those were just echoes. A mortal soul canât linger without a body to hold it together. By now, only the fraying tethers that bound their souls to Vash should be left.â His hand tightens on the fence chain, the metal creaking. âTheyâre gone. I know they are. Theyâve been gone my whole life. Only Vash can give them oblivion.
. âBut in my dream, once I pulled them out of the water⊠they became coherent. Whole again.â
. âDo you think it was more than a dream?â Alinua asks.
. âI have no idea what summoning Vash into my body might have done to me. Maybe his memories of his people bled into my dreams. Maybe my imagination found the only faces that could relieve my guilt. ButâŠâ Kendal looks at Alinua. âYes. I do.â
Kendal really isn’t getting sold on the idea of sleep is he?
Awwww, poor Kendal. I hope he’s right because his dream was a HUGE kick in the feels.
I wonder if the at chain is still in one piece…
(There is a very subtle creak in the fourth panel, right where Kendal is gripping the chain)
Damn, would be a shame… if it broke, he fell forward and we speedrun the drowning experiment
such a shame
…it would be a shame if dainix runs up from behind and pushes him in as well
are you ok spider? These don’t feel like good thoughts.
iâm good, donât you worry about me
Inside of you there are two dreams
alinua dude check if hes breathing
Well, he’s talking right now.
Ha
Alinua and Kendal on the clifftop discuss
His dream of the people of Vash.
He feels he heard their souls, but those
Should be gone as wind-blown ash.
In memories only the Vashi should linger on
So what was the dream of a chapter bygone?
Also your poem makes my wonder: How do you lot pronounce “Vash”? Has the illustrious creator given an official version? I always assumed the a rings like u in “fun”, but that might just be me.
I pronounced the a as in the British version of tomato. Which I now realize makes it sound like the French word for cow
I pronounce it like itâs written in the ballad: rhymes with âashâ. Iâm pretty sure there was an official stance given on this at some point but I forgot what it was.
As in, you have it rhyme with “rush”? I’m curious why you do it like that.
Word of Red says it rhymes with “crash”.
I thought that was a haiku for a second, but that third line is 10 syllables, so definitely not đ lol
My non-native English speaker background showing. In all the languages I know aside from English, a is usually pronounced like that. So in a word that isnât English, my Swedish or German pronunciation will take over. But if Red says it rhymes with rash, then so be it.
I love how since we’ve learnt Kendal doesn’t breathe, everyone’s been just waiting for him to end up in the water.
I love these two. They have such a healthy and well written relationship. I’m glad they get to therapize their character development comas together.
Gosh the art just looks SO much cleaner… Every frame looks polished, every face looks sharp and discernible, the backgrounds the lighting everything!!! I love your progress Red it’s genuinely so inspiring đ
I always find it kind of disturbing when a fantasy series doesnât have a proper afterlife system. Like âWEEEE, dragons, gods, elves and the ever-present reminder that life is fleeting and that death is truly the end.â Yâknow, my all my favorites. Like, the primordials (dragons included) are the highest tier of immortality in this universe and even theyâre not invulnerable. (Primordials can be revived but they can still die and stay dead)
âOnly Vash can give them oblivion.â Wait, so is there nothing after death in this universe? No afterlife or anything?
âŠthatâs disconcerting.
With already having gods and soul stuff, actual afterlife may have been a bit too big a bite to chew, or was just something that red didn’t want incorporated into her fantasy.
You familiar with the Earthsea cycle? Really great fantasy. But one of the concepts of it is that the afterlife should not be attained, that true immortality is found through the eternal cycle of souls returning to the earth from whence they came. I propose that oblivion here means something similar. Just returning your soul to be reborn or something.
Red has said on either Tumbr or Discord that when people die their souls unravels and becomes a part of the ambient soul energy so yeah, no afterlife
Yikes, thatâs a less than reassuring fate to meet. But thanks for the confirmation.
(I get that some people would be more comfortable with it than others, just⊠not me, fam)
Can we give my boy a peaceful nap?
it’s kinda cool how Kendal refers to summoning Vash into “His” body. He’s starting to see himself as his own person!!
I thought Kendal’s dream was quite wonderful art/literature. The Universe may not care about humans in general but you should respect your art. I am sure Indigo and Yellow can show you a long list of your fans who hope you don’t disrespect or dismiss your own art and work. Thwap me about the head and shoulders if you must but trust your friends when they tell you you are greatly respected and admired by many many people!
Oof. “They’ve been gone my whole life”, that hits the feels. He has so much of Vash’s knowledge, but it must be like hearing a story. Somehow that’s so…sad.
This page is so beautiful; the shading on Alinua in panel 7 is really gorgeous! And IS Kendal wearing one of Erin’s shirts? Because it really looks like one of Erin’s shirts, draping sleeves and all.
Kendal and his friend discuss the strange dream he had
Mysterious ghosts helped him feel a whole lot less sad
They stuck around somehow, they are still hanging on
They needed Vash to bring them to oblivion
I wanted to say something on the end of act 1 but i forgot, so i’ll just say here that I really, really enjoy this series and I’m excited to see what else it has in store
Anonymous Aurora Question #50: What would the Aurora age of retirement be?
oh, god, concidering the differing races in Aurora, I think each one would have a different one depending on their lifespan, but if we’re talking about regular ol’ humans than I think a few years older than what is in our world. Concidering they have, ya know.
La Magique.
I think it would depend on the city or community’s priorities, and those of the local god. Those seem to take precedence, in the Aurora world, over things that are usually regulated by nation-states IRL. So it probably varies widely, unless there’s a sort of common-law tradition that’s culture-wide.
It depends on the local economy and personal wealth, seeing as how this is a pre-globalised world. Basically, a person retires whenever they can afford to AND want to, and that depends on their profession, class, etc, much like in real life. But this is only the case for a particular type of society (retirement, as an ‘after-working-life’, is an incredibly capitalist concept) and the world of Aurora is far more accommodating to more varied societal structures than we see in real life (due to each settlement having it’s own god and government).
For example, an Aseran retirement is likely very different to an Ignan one; from what we saw of Dainix’s backstory, Ignan elders become spiritual leaders of their communities, so it’s unlikely that ‘retirement’ even exists as we understand it in a Western sense. Elders might continue contributing in different roles, like education and logistics instead of labour and expeditions. Meanwhile, the Ruunasers’ affluence implies a significant class system in Asera, with a younger working class shouldering the burden of the economy while older or richer individuals retire in the traditional sense.
I get the idea that there isnât set jobs and pensions in this world, so itâs probably as soon as you have enough money to sustain yourself or as soon as you come to terms with living in the jungle with the chimeras đ
“They’ve been gone my whole life”
-Has only been sentient for like a month
He said âmy bodyâ :,)
Wait, he did! I totally missed that! AAAAAA THE CHARACTER GROWTH IS REAL
I wonder if those souls are not bound to the ruins of the city, but reside within Kendal himself. They literally live on through him.
TL;DR: Swordman the prophet???
Theory:
This (the souls of the people of Vash still existing) could be part of the Collector’s mechanisms keeping Vash contained. Vash said (after his fight with Tynan) that the Collector was keeping him at the apex of his power. This could be it. The Collector is preserving Vash by preserving the souls of his people (his domain), and by containing his domain, she’s containing Vash.
From this, we can go further to when the party eventually frees Vash. When the things containing Vash go away, his people (his domain) would likely fade, or start to. Vash’s soul would start unraveling, similar to a mortal soul when they die, because Vash wouldn’t have a domain anymore.
But that would be a sad ending.
Remember Gleicann? He turned more scary because people thought he was scary. So, let’s apply this to Vash. Vash is currently known for being a city god, obviously, and he’s also known as a hero (Tynan), and lots of people have heard the news that Vash is “dead”. So if we combine those, we get a city God of dead heros. (All of you talking about afterlives get your wish!) Maybe Vash would have his own pocket dimension, too, like Tahraim.
Hm. Supposedly, mortal souls can’t exist without a body, and gods’ bodies can’t exist without their soul. But we’ve seen conclusive evidence of the latter, admittedly with a few changes from Alinua, and both Kendal and the ancient Sentinel, as well as Erin’s difficulty in lifting the earth from the ruins due to accumulation of soul energy, prove that bodies can develop souls over time through continued use of the same form.
Maybe mortal souls CAN exist without a body, just as bodies can persist without a soul and souls (or something like it) can form in previously soulless bodies. I mean, supposedly, a god IS the thing they represent, seeing as Gleicann’s form was not a conscious decision and instead reflected changes in the attitudes people held towards his domain. Thus, it’s kind of weird that Vash still exists when his city no longer exists. We don’t yet know the full nature of what exactly a god is, but suppose a god is simply a soul whose body is the domain itself. Then Vash losing his city is comparable to a person dying. Their body is destroyed, and hypothetically, their soul should unravel. But the continued existence of Vash suggests that EITHER a soul can exist without a body OR that the people of Vash aren’t truly gone, and the integrity of their souls is maintained by Kendal’s memory of them and their shared connection to Vash.
Tbh, idk where I’m going with this. But the characters’ present understanding of how souls and bodies work is demonstrably incomplete, and we’re still missing answers on things like how the Sentinel was able to move on its own and why Kendal exists and what Vash is now that his city is gone and how real Kendal’s dream was and if it was real, how the ghosts of Vash were able to maintain coherence in his mindscape.
…Thought. Maybe the souls of Vash (the city) were preserved in Vash (the god). And when possessing Kendal Vash passed what’s left of his people on to him. Not really based on anything, just a thought. But those souls are definitely going to come back and be relevant again and I’m curious about what it all means.
Would be an interesting twist if there is a way to save them all after all.