2.1.5
on February 2, 2024
at 3:00 am
Oh nooooo don’t show off the cool piece of magitech that would be so baaaaad
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
Oh nooooo don’t show off the cool piece of magitech that would be so baaaaad
am i the first one here?
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: today’s episode: “erin dies”
Image source: test
Happy Black History Month, everyone! Where are my fellow black Aurora fans at?
Yooo you’re black too?? I never knew!
Right here, lurking in lurkation. Happy Black History Month!
Tumblr text: Talking shop!
Twitter text: Adventure!
Also coming out of lurking to say hi!
Twitter text: Adventure!
Heck ya! Happy Black History Month!
right here!!
Now they have a seal
To mitigate corruption
Let’s test out the boat!
Alright everyone, place your bets.
Who in the party can or can’t swim?
Basically everyone.
I highly double Kendal, Alinua, Dainix and Falst have ever seen the ocean; Tess I would be very suprised, since she’s made of metal.
This is going to be painfully interesting to read.
Pretty sure Mr. Metalbones would sink. Tess probably too. Dainix might not be able to since he came from a desert, but I don’t think that’s likely
Tess sinks, Kendal sinks unless he ditches his sword, Erin is a good swimmer, Falst is a good swimmer but he doesn’t like it, Dainix and Alinua haven’t tried swimming before and both have trouble doing it. I wonder if Alinua’s magic works on sea life? She could maybe grow a platform from some coral or use a seed to make a boat shaped tree. Oh, and Tarren could probably manage but will struggle because of the injured leg.
iirc Kenny is denser than the average human and has metal in his bones.
Surely Tarren is demonstrating, on this very page, that they have superior methods of waterbound motion available to them than mere *swimming*. I don’t think it would be a huge issue.
Everyone but Kendal can swim :p
Dainix grew up in a desert.
I think people made of metal (Tess and Kendal) can’t swim because they’re simply too dense.
Erin either would’ve learned or felt he doesn’t need to, due to his Water Elemental powers.
Dainix is from the desert, so he’s probably never seen enough water in one place to swim in.
Kinda same with Alinua, but she’s more likely to have found a lake or pond in the forest.
Falst has been seen swimming. He dived into the river when Tess showed up asking about Erin.
Dainix has, however, seen enough water to drown in (which, admittedly, isn’t a lot), so there might even be some trauma associated with it
tbf only Tess’s skin is metal the rest of her is normal (buoyant) flesh and Kendal might be too dense to float but still able to manually trend water
Vash was landlocked, so Kendall definitely doesn’t know how to swim. Or at the very least, we’ll get to peek at a Vash memory as he tries to figure it out. Dainix lived in a desert and then a cage, and Falst is a cat, so they aren’t likely to be swimmers. And Tess and Alinua seem like the two that have the highest chance of swimming skill.
Ohhh… cats can swim great. They just don’t like it.
To be fair, worth noting that there’s a BIG difference between ocean swimming (especially open ocean swimming) and basically anywhere else swimming, those currents’ll getcha and realistically nobody in the group is having a good time.
That said I figure Tess and Kendal struggle the most because their metal parts likely make them less buoyant (Kendal especially is probably quite dense), whereas Falst, Erin, and Ali probably know how to swim but have never had to swim in the ocean before. They’re not having a good time, but they’re also not sinking right off the bat. For Dainix, it really depends on if he’s ever learned to swim before, and if he hasn’t he’s learning in basically the worst environment for it.
I find it interesting that a lot of people are predicting Falst can’t swim when he’s canonically hidden underwater to avoid having a conversation. I guess that technically doesn’t confirm he can *swim*, but to me it implies he can (though it makes that scene even funnier if he actually can’t)
Kendal – sink like a rock, he has bones of pure metal, he’ll sink like a rock, Vash probably never swam so he won’t have any memories to help either
Tess – this is hard, her skin is made of metal but her insides are flesh and stuff, she wouldn’t really sink, maybe she would sink faster, but not like a rock, she could probably float if she tried hard enough
Alinua – another hard one, maybe she would’ve come across a lake in her exile a taught herself, but who knows, good chance though
Falst – we see him hide from Tess underwater in Interstitial, so he could probably swim, but he’s a cat so he probably wouldn’t like it
Dainax – grew up in the desert so he probably has seen alot of water, Red has said he nearly drowned once so he seen enough water to drown, but he probably has some sort of fear of water
Erin – his parents probably had him taught to swim at a young age, he also has water magic and that could help
Adding Tarren in here since their coming on the trip – they have a bad leg so they will probably be bad at swimming, they have water magic though, so that could help
Could the boat make it? We hope so
Tarren is tattooed, and off they go!
Terren reveals their magic’s sealed
To prevent elemental corruption,
At Erin’s advice, for even in sleep,
They channeled too much disruption.
They cast now by way of runes,
Making the blue water cruise;
Invited on a test-drive Erin asks,
“What adventurer could refuse?”
they are so !!!!!111!!!!1!!
Oh now this is an interesting touch of lore. Suddenly Erin’s comment to his sister about not being able to feel the elements like he used to clicks. Did we know those tattoos were magic seals? It’s certainly an interesting why to mitigate corruption.
> Did we know those tattoos were magic seals?
afaik this is the first time this information is dropped in the comic.
Interestingly Erins tattoos don’t have sealing runes like Tarren’s does. But they’re larger, more intricate, and inhibit freehand casting.
One interesting thing is that Voidy has been shown casting with all elements without touching Erin’s tattoos. At first I assumed they just helped him control his magic or something and Voidy was being less cautious, but now it’s a lot more intriguing.
It was hinted at in the Glort fight when the slime guck covered Erin’s arm and rendered his magical capabilities moot, but we didn’t know specifics. This is a cool, more explicit tidbit to know about the tattoos, and I’m excited to learn more!
“Yeah, I’m just too badass cool a mage, I do awesome even when I sleep.”
Did everyone notice how much worldbuilding suddenly happened in this one page? GODS THIS COMIC IS AWESOME I love it so much.
tatoo thing explained! why am i still awake?
I should not have been awake, I have regrets. anyhoo the tatoos are sealing, meaning that the mage cannot cast without touching the tats, excluding voidy likely from some specific I’m unaware of. Erin’s are presumably from the soulshaper monks, Mabey Tarrens are too. they both have/had problems controlling their magic, likely from an incomplete connection, or maybe guessing from the greatest secret thing Tess mentioned, Erin’s status as elemental magus mayn’t be something he was born with and the monks completed/added connections the elements he didn’t have before and sealed those after so he could control elemental corruption from all directions. The goop flashback show someone being blown up, a casting attempt, then bandaged arms about where Erin’s tattoos are. fun.
I had to go back and double check this. It’s really hard to tell what’s going on in that segment, but I think you’re right.
You must have a good eye for catching that.
if Tarren only needs a tiny sealing tattoo to keep safe, how bad was Erin’s deal before he got the tattoos?!
Well, the prevailing theories center around Erin having malformed elemental channels which needed to be fixed up so he wouldn’t end up with chronic corruption symptoms and that’s why he went to the Soulshaper Monks. It was both so he could actually have control over his casting and get the sealing tats.
There’s also the fact that Tarren is, as best we can tell, exclusively a water mage, and thus only needs to have that one element sealed. Erin’s full-sleeve tats are actually six different sealing tattoos, one for each of the elements he, as the Elemental Magus, could channel (before meeting Voidy, of course).
Erin has far bigger tattoos in proportion to each element than Tarren does, so I’m kind of wondering if Erin had something even more extreme than just basic elemental corruption? maybe it’s just about interactions between elements, but it’s cool to speculate abt either way
It might simply be that larger tattoos look better. And there’s a good reason for this.
Tarren only has the one element to worry about, so they know that touching this sealing tattoo will only allow them to cast water magic. But Erin needs to be able to distinguish a fire tattoo from a lightning tattoo, for instance, and this would be much more difficult if they were all as small as Tarren’s tattoo with no artistic differences. Plus, there’s the fact that Erin’s tattoos integrate the Great Runes, which allows them to selectively seal and unseal different elements (I imagine), whereas Tarren’s seems to seal ALL magic, including those types that they cannot control anyway.
In conclusion, Erin’s tattoo’s are larger for aesthetics, because aesthetics are important.
*stumbles in a month late with coffee* Sorry, sorry! Just reread this and had a thought:
Erin certainly doesn’t mind that the large, visible tattoos indicate his status, but it could also be as simple as having larger tats means that it’s easier to activate them. We’ve seen a few situations where someone has restrained Erin’s motion, but all he needs is to get a finger on any part of the tattoo, and he can unlock the channel. It could just be for ease of access.
Speaking of, unlike Erin, I notice Tarren keeps their sealing tattoo covered with a tightly-bound wristlet or bandana or something — hiding it from view, but also making it harder to access, unlike Erin, who purposefully wears loose sleeves with cuffs or cloth bracers so he can easily get to his tattoos. Is it just because Tarren is newer to being sealed, or do they use (or try to use) their magic less frequently than Erin (who has never mentioned any concern with elemental corruption himself?)
So he’s a water mage.
*they’re*
Oh, right. Realized nobody posted it yet.
Tarren’s sealing tat has runes on it! It says:
[S?]EAL AWAY CLOSE
Thank you again @Mat!!
Anonymous Aurora Question #41: Do you think the metal ship conducts electricity? If yes, how will Tess deal with that?
punch it real hard
I asked the same question on the last page. Tess might want to avoid discharging for a bit. Or wear insulating boots.
Yes, but based on the previous page, most of the ship’s innards seem to be made of wood. Probably to keep it lightweight and on a budget.
I mean, she doesn’t discharge often, she tends to jump and punch the problem directly, so I don’t think conductivity will be the problem. I predict she’ll jump at a sea beast, and end up falling into the water, more likely.
I suppose that depends on what “argent” is. The Latin “argentum” is silver, but I’m assuming they didn’t actually build a ship out of silver. If the occurence of mineral is even sort of similar to what it is on earth, that would be ludicrously expensive. But if it is similar to silver in its physical properties, then the outer layer of this boat would definitely conduct electricity.
The inside (as @veggiesnake pointed out) seems to be wood, though. And unless wood is drastically different in the Auroraverse than it is in real life, it does not conduct electricity. So as long as Tess doesn’t see fit to punch the outside of the ship, everything hopefully will be okay.
But who am I kidding? Red constructed the ship like that for a reason. In argent (“silver”), not steel, which conducts electricity somewhat less. There is potential for drama here, so of course something’s gonna go wrong.
It would make sense if argent was an alloy of silver, since silver, gold, and platinum are all very unreactive metals and resist rust. Silver does ‘tarnish’, but it’s certainly more durable than standard iron or steel.
True, but silver, gold and platinum are all really soft metals. Not the kind you’d want to build a ship out of, necessarily. This could work if the material only provides an outer layer and is fastened on an inner hull of wood, so if Tarren built a normal boat and covered the surfaces with metal. Which judging from what we’ve seen so far seems to be what they’ve done, but then again no weight is lost like that. Especially since they’ve also added lacrimas to the ship, which seem to be quite heavy.
Where was I going with this?
I miss a few updates and I come back to the goddamn Evergiven.
Hey name pal, I’m Anonymous too. I’m the second Question perdon, after Question Master. 🙂
These two have to much cocky energy together it’s like holding up a mirror to a mirror. This will not end well!
I really hope Tarren becomes a reoccurring character. I love him
their pronouns are they/them!
TL;DR: I took your advice, now take mine for a spin!
Love Tarren, love the lore drop, love the way Erin and Tarren play off each other, love the facial expressions and the impending experimental jaunt in this page :3
Tarren: Have you even woken up in a lake of your own making? It really brings a new meaning to the word “waterbed”.
Where’s the upvote button? This is gold
Insert It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia title card music here.
Oooo! Great information here. So the tattoos Seal the channeling of the elements to prevent elemental corruption. With the tattoos, channeling freehand is stopped, but the elemental corruption is stopped as well.
This is starting to kill my theory of Erin being a DIY Elemental Magus. It sounds more like he had all the capacity to be the Elemental Magus, but couldn’t control it and was being crushed under severe elemental corruption. It also sounds like everyone knows what he did to get the elemental corruption under control, too. It’s a sacrifice, but in his case extremely necessary.
So what did Erin go through that his sister knows about, and does Asera know about Erin’s… something… with the Soul Shaper monks.
Stay tuned and find out!
Maybe the Soulshaper Monks just opened links to all of rhe elements which led to corruption which is why he needed the tattoos anyway. After all, it’s unlikely Tarren had to go all rhe way to helm for them, or they would have mentioned it. So, this might actually be unrelated, your theory stands.
Hot diggity! I shall cling to my theory as long as I possibly can.
Did anyone else notice the single drop of sweat on Erin’s cheek in the last panel? No? Just me? Wonder why he’s nervous. Hmmmmm…
I did not, but I have now.
I didnt till you mentioned it. I think hes worried about the voidy thing in general. But it could be something more specific. Maybe he was worried they would bring up te storm disappearing thing and hed have to come up with an explaination without revealing the voidy thing? (Tho as far as i can tell word about that detail hasnt traveled this far out yet)
Could be bc he’s an academic and is bringing, idk, THE WHOLE GANG who would probably be study subjects if they encountered less scrupulous researchers and may not want word getting out about basically any of what’s happened bc politics could make things REALLY HARD
Not gonna say I told you so, but I’ve been saying for chapters now that sealing tattoos exist and that that’s what Erin has and it has nothing to do with him possibly being a DIY magus, I like the theory but him having to touch his tattoos to do magic has nothing to do with it.
Unless the tattoos are meant to seal magical channels that have been crowbarred open to make a DIY Magus.
Are they a candidate to be an avatar? I got the sense free casting was not normal
Probably not, as far as we know all the other Primordials are still dead. If I understood it correctly, any mage that hasn’t been sealed (whatever that means) can cast freely, as “freely” here seems to mean “without drawing the magic out through tattoos”.
But if you refer to magic without runic circles, that is also normal and we’ve even seen Erin do it. If you look closely, Tarren’s not using a runic circle here either. The explanation Erin gave for using circles was that without them you risk losing concentration and might not get the finer results you’d like (“fixing a bone with liver tissue”). So, while casting on more advanced levels without circles is unusual, it’s quite okay for simple, “brute force” magic. If I understood correctly.
My apothecary said I cast in my sleep damn he’s so real for that [_100_]
How much of this is new Lore, and how much of this is pretty much old but I forgot?
most of it is new, we really had no idea that sealing tattoos were relatively common, or even the specifics of how they work/what they are before this page
This is the first time sealing is memtioned. There goes a bunch of tattoo theories but uts really cool!
I think Voidy has only used void magic when in control which would explain why they never touched erin’s tattoos. No void tattoo, bit i wonder if seals could be modified to block magic completely. Which could be a potential solution to our voidy problem.
Also our new friend (Im horrible with names lol) mentioned not being able to walk at all? So it makes me wonder if them using crutches is due to a side effect of some water corruption. I think I’ll look up some irl conditions that causes leg paralysis maybe i can find a condition that resembles water corruption? If that makes sense
Oh, we’ve seen voidy use all the elements. How else is he going to break free of his prison otherwise?
All of them except Stone.
Oh I must have missed that. Thanks guys!
Erin tattoo lore confirmed!
Man… Erin tattoos are way bigger then this sealing one. Wonder if that means anything. Or if they are even the same thing.