2.2.12
on June 28, 2024
at 3:00 am
“as you know bob” is OUT, “what do you mean I haven’t exposited this information before” is IN
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
“as you know bob” is OUT, “what do you mean I haven’t exposited this information before” is IN
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: you should get a refund, they don’t look anything like seals
Image source: trust
Tumblr text: and they have 4.8 stars on yelp so we have good reason to trust their customer service
Twittee Text: I’m sure that’s as far as the explanation goes
Twitter text: I’m sure that’s as far as the explanation goes
Twitter text: I’m sure that’s as far as the explanation goes
“I am well aware that there are people in the world who know things I don’t!”
“But I’ve never seen you act like it before!” Alinua says. “Humility is a big step!”
“No it is not!” Erin cries. “I am entirely cognizant of my limits!”
“Wow, he’s loud today,” Falst mutters from below deck, reading one of Erin’s spell books.
“Listen!” Erin snaps, snatching Alinua’s arm away from him. “This isn’t desperation or humility or anything amateur. This is experience! I know we can trust the Monks because I have successfully trusted them before!”
“Careful,” Tess cautions from the top of the mast.
“You have?” Alinua asks in surprise. “Why?”
Erin stares at her blankly for a moment, thinking, before dropping her arm and saying, “I’m sure I’ve mentioned it. They’re the ones who gave me my Sealing tattoos.”
“Wait, what?!”
“Those tattoos have Seals in them?” Dainix asks.
“Of course!” Erin responds. “With elemental links like mine, it’s the sensible thing to do!
“My soul channels are unusually high-capacity. In terms of raw energy, any one of my elemental links can draw in more power at once than most mages can manage. And I’ve got six of them. That’s an awful lot of strain to put on one soul.”
Please, let there be at least one mage with actual seal tattoos
“Careful” is concerning.
yeah I wonder what that’s about
There’s some Noodle Incident about how Erin got sent to get those tattoos from the monks. All we know is that he doesn’t want anyone to know about it. IIRC, it’s something about how he was discovered.
Erin explains he’s trusted the Soulshaper
Monastery’s monks before:
They gave him the sealing tattoos on his arms
That manage his power raw.
I really am wondering what is Falst looking for in those books…
I’m 95% sure Erin is bending the truth here, if not lying outright, because I don’t see why Tess talked about it like some dark secret unless there’s a terrible cost to Sealing oneself aside from not being able to cast freehanded
I suppose they’re going to find out that terrible cost on Helm in the worst moment possible, because that would make for a more interesting story
Yes, what he said here is not exactly “greatest secret” level (1.19.13)
There’s also Tess alluding to probably that (though It might be some other part of Erin’s backstory) in 1.15.6
He might have gotten the tattos from the monks.
But that’s not his secret.
I agree, there’s far more to this that Erin’s not saying. I like the theorizing in some of the commentary further down.
100% agree. You can see him close off and force out the “I know more than you” persona to deflect between panels 5 and 6. There was definitely some bigger reasons that he knew then. It’s too suspicious.
Yeah, that expression in panel 5 is definitely more “crap I should not have said that” than “wait, did I mention this before?”
Didn’t the comments theorise earlier (when Erin got hit by the fast-track-trauma-backstory-slime-antitherapist) that Erin wasn’t born like this – he became an Elemental Magnus through the Soulshaper Monks? That would explain both the “Careful” and why the monks gave him his sealing tattoos.
Btw, I have my own little theory, in which Erin was specifically made to be an Elemental Magnus who could channel WITHOUT sealants, but it backfired so he got emergency sealants? If the process damaged his soul channels (also maybe why they are unusually open) it would explain why the dragon can even attempt possessing him without exploding his body with the sheer power. Or not, if it doesn’t work like that. Anyone have any thoughts?
You can’t just become a mage unless a primordial or something burns a hole in your soul
I’ve never liked the idea Erin wasm’t born with his powers
My personal theory is that he was born as “only” a lightning mage naturally, because of Tess’s line about just sensing the storm and feeling it being wrong, like when they were kids. The soulshaper monks opened his channels to the other elements, making him the elemental magus.
But we HAVE seen that soul channels (which decide whether a person can cast or not) can be affected by physical, spiritual, or medical practices. Dainix’ transition theoretically sealed his soul channels for Fire, making him one of few Ignans who can’t cast, and Tess was Chosen by the Sky, opening her soul to Lightning. Not to mention Falst and whatever’s going on with the Paladins’ magic.
I don’t think the transition had anything to do with his casting. For Fire’s sake, Caliban’s gender is “on fire”, Dainix can’t be the only trans ignan
those situations involved two dead and one live primordial or maybe in dainix’s case an accidental side effect of his transition
Sorry if i’m not being clear with what I mean
@NoName:
There was a scene where Dainix and Erin were talking. Dainix said that loosing the ability to channel is a known side effect of his transition method. I can’t find it, but I know it happened.
Perhaps Erin was like Vanyel–he had the potential to be the magus but his channels were closed, then something happened to force them open, and the sealing tattoos were the only way to keep his powers from running wild.
Late reply, I know, but I forgot to post. Side note, highly recommend the Valdemar books if you can find them.
so the tatoos weren’t only for looking cool, they had functionalty too.
That … beat panel of hesitation sure looks like the internationally recognized fiction sign for “I’m about to do a deception”.
I’m betting on a “what I’m about to say is not technically false, but it’s not the real reason” variation.
I mean, if Erin was gonna do a deception, he wouldn’t do a FULL deception. Why, if he did that, he’d have no way to excuse himself when his Traumatic Backstory Secret inevitably gets out.
If you are talking about the 3 dots above Erin’s head in panel 5, I have seem it used to denote anger, disgruntlement. surprise and “I had better think of something to say fast!”. I believe it can be used in many different ways then just deception. But that could just be me.
“Humility, good gods no, this is hubris related to my previous excellent experiences regarding the monks. You can listen to my review on the Erin Speaks podcast where I detail all my travels in an easy to understand medium. I love listening to them on my off-time to remember my previous achievements!”
-Erin, Arch-Mage, Master Elementalist, Wealthy Philanthropist and all around excellent guy
pretty neat that the monastery has an onsite tattoo artist though, the gang can all get matching friendship tattoos
“This isn’t desperation or humility or anything amateur”
Dying from the implication Erin considers humility to be amateurish. He is not beating the hubris allegations. He is proud even when displaying humility
Wait. Are those buffering dots above Erin’s head in panel 5?
I just knew Falst was going to fill the role of snarky cabin boy on this voyage; I wonder if he’ll also fill the role of hyper-competent cabin boy saving his hapless leader Captain Pugwash style. For the moment anyway he seems content to study the books. I was thinking before that he was considering other options of maintaining the ship if something happens to Erin. But now I’m thinking he maybe just wanted an excuse to go below deck so he no longer feels exposed.
Yeah, @Biel from last page made the right point; while we and several other characters have seen plenty of instances of Erin humility, Alinua has not. He admitted his ignorance of Kendal’s nature to him, apologised to Theia on his second archive trip, confided to Tess about his failures numerous times, but rarely, if ever, done the same with Alinua there to witness it. Maybe this exposition from Erin might change that and change her perception of him for the better.
Erin said his family had dealings with them, but not him specifically, nor tying it to his tattoos; we, the audience, made that connection, but the gang haven’t had much time or inclination to ruminate on Erin’s past. High capacity links to all elements needing sealing AND channeling runes for casting certainly explains the size of his tattoos compared to Tarren. I’m almost amazed that Erin isn’t suffering from some kind of elemental corruption given all he’s said.
Prediction for next week: More exposition from Erin about himself and/or the monks, carefully leaving certain important details out.
Tess’s comment in panel 3, her previous talk of Erin’s biggest secret, his comment here about his unusual soul channels; Erin theorists will be eating good. Time to add mine:
From a tumblr extra lore post I’m struggling to find, the previous elemental magus mostly geared towards stone magic and only dabbled in the others. Seems awfully convenient that Erin, a born noble, is not only an elemental magus, but ALSO has high-capacity channels for each element too.
I don’t think the soulshaper monks made Erin an elemental magus; it sounds like Erin was born with these links. I’m thinking Galen had, through means unknown, tried to turn his son into a magus, and it backfired, causing him those health troubles Tess alluded too and needing her as a near indestructible “play mate” for him. Galen was forced to take his son to the monks, who Erin described as “reliable and discrete”, to clean up the mess he made.
I’m also wondering whether that hand-based trauma Erin has that the Glort revealed was due to the monks trying to help him, or whether that was part of what I’m theorising Galen to be doing to him.
Being born with the links is a prerequisite for being a mage. There is no way a mortal can form a soul channel where there wasn’t anything prior. (At least, not without a primordial’s direct intervention, see VD).
On a side note, I’m surprised people still think you could just become a mage in Aurora (see instances of speculations that Erin’s mage status was artificially induced) when you have to be born with the soul channels. I genuinely thought this was common knowledge even earlier on.
*There’s no way that’s publicly known.
Asera is the forefront of science worldwide.
They could have found something in their experiments and chosen to keep it quiet out of a desire to hoard the knowledge or for some other reason.
Oh I did know that, I was thinking Galen might have started his manipulation of Erin’s soul at a very young age while Erin’s mind and soul were more malleable and suggest-able. Maybe even while Erin was still in the womb?
This is mostly a rough theory; I’m not sure how Galen, the monks, or anyone else would go about doing this. We’ll need to wait for more concrete information, which we may not even get until they reach the monastery.
EXACTY. I figured he was born the elemental magus, but either the links were malformed, or the unfettered energy was too strong. Either way he couldn’t control it, and he was a danger to others and himself. They hope he’ll learn, or grow into it, but then he seriously hurts someone, maybe multiple someones, and that’s what Galens trying to cover up.
I wonder if being born an elemental magus is actually more common than we think, but not many kids actually learn to control their power before being corrupted and dying. Only those born to families who are educated enough to recognize the symptoms and wealthy enough to seek rapid treatment survive to adulthood to master their abilities.
“I genuinely thought this was common knowledge…”
I mean, it’s also “common knowledge” that Ferin have no innate magic ability, and Falst breaks that rule. We don’t know if the people in-universe are *right* about how the world works (barring Word of God, of course).
Falst wasn’t born with it, i’m pretty sure his dad gave him his piece of the lady before he left
Well both dragons don’t appear to need a born link or an Elemental Magnus – the lady seems to just pick people she likes/from a family she has appointed while Voidy just took the first spunky hubristic mage that managed to set him free – unless setting him free counted as making a soul channel somehow. Anyone have any thoughts?
VD needed an elemental magus, that was his whole plan with the pedestal. While he could once simply possess any mortal (see: Prologue), exerting influence after LD’s intervention required him to forge a soul channel which he did when Erin made contact with the broken pedestal inscribed with his great rune (essentially truename.rar), thus setting off the trap.
To my memory, the Paladins do some initiation rite, which effectively opens the initiate’s link to the Light. LD is 100% involved in this. Falst may have accidentally done something similar, but right now we have no clue.
As for Tess, Stormbreakers are an anomaly and a consequence of the First Invocation of Lightning’s truename. I’m inclined to file them under “Primordial Intervention”.
THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT THE BUFFERING DOTS, THIS PAGE JUST GOT BETTER
The last couple of pages have been slowly building a Chekov’s armory for the inevitable challenges the Floof Squad will face
The last couple!?
Darn Erin and Tess, do you have to be so secretive about your potentially traumatic backstory?
Side note, what’s falst writing?
Forgot to mention, I didn’t realize nobody knew what his tattoos were actually for, do people always tap on their arm or is it just sealed people and they didn’t notice in battle? If people always tap on their arm why do some people not get sealed?
It’s just Erin and Tarren that have done the arm tapping before casting.
There are two types of runic tattoos we’ve seen in the comic so far; one for sealing, and one for channeling.
The sealing variety is there to help stop any strain on a person’s soul, and by extension body and mind, from improper or uncontrolled casting at the expense of the user needing to touch the tattoos to use magic. Tarren got theirs because they were channeling water magic even in their sleep, leaving the door open to further elemental corruption.
The channeling variety is there to help mages better cast their spells by having a big old truename rune on their body to drawn in the magic and focus it. This expedites and ease the process they draw magic into themselves for casting (see the Magic page in Extra Lore above). Shrike has one on her hand to make the best user of her powers.
As for Erin, I’d wager (from the sheer size and complexity) that his tattoos do both. Looking at his tattoos in full (tumblr link below), I hypothesise the great runes in the circles are for casting, and the patterns around them are for sealing.
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/628351925752070144/hey-red-im-trying-to-make-a-erin-ruunaser-cosplay
There are two types of runic tattoos we’ve seen in the comic so far; one for sealing, and one for channeling.
The sealing variety is there to help stop any strain on a person’s soul, and by extension body and mind, from improper or uncontrolled casting at the expense of the user needing to touch the tattoos to use magic. Tarren got theirs because they were channeling water magic even in their sleep, leaving the door open to further elemental corruption.
The channeling variety is there to help mages better cast their spells by having a big old truename rune on their body to drawn in the magic and focus it. This expedites and ease the process they draw magic into themselves for casting (see the Magic page in Extra Lore above). Shrike has one on her hand to make the best user of her powers.
As for Erin, I’d wager (from the sheer size and complexity) that his tattoos do both. Looking at his tattoos in full (tumblr link below), I hypothesise the great runes in the circles are for casting, and the patterns around them are for sealing.
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/628351925752070144/hey-red-im-trying-to-make-a-erin-ruunaser-cosplay
Also I’m guessing this is about this unintrodiced “Al” character
I assumed “Al” was Tess’s nickname for Galen.
I don’t think Galen would have called Tess if he thought Erin was missing. My guess is that Erin has a sibling who inherited their father’s name, and Tess calls them ‘Al’ to differentiate. Red mentioned on Tumblr that Erin has ‘siblingS’, and he definitely give me baby-of-the-family energy.
I’m not sure, I think he’s just called Al, or Al is short for a longer name.
As for his relation to Erin, I’m thinking either an older Ruunaser sibling, or (my personal theory) the Ruunaser family retainer ala Batman’s Alfred.
I bet falst is copying down more rune stuff for lacrima carving so he’s not useless in the next magic fight. Either he’s transcribing them into his own book for study or just taking notes so he remembers them.
I think it’s mentioned somewhere that, if you have a Great Rune Tattoo, it can help you channel magic more effectively if you activate it by tapping it…but leaving it on all the time invites elemental corruption, so it’s best to only activate it while using it. So, I think you can do it without being sealed, but being sealed just makes it necessary.
Erin clearly has something (or gone through something) that he isn’t telling the rest of the squad. Tess probably knows more than what Erin is letting on about. Why would she tell him to be careful if he’s just talking about sealing tattoos that (I presume) most other mages have? I agree with some of the theorizing in one of the above comments: Erin had something happen to him or caused something dangerous, which prompted his family to buy Tess as a playmate/bodyguard. Also, Erin probably began training or using his magic when he was young; Tess tells him to feel the storm in Zuurith “like when we were kids”.
I don’t really know, but I’m excited to find out what it is that Erin is hiding.
oh that “careful” was GOLDEN, tess immediately seeing where the conversation’s headed and that erin’s revealed a bit too much about himself
cant wait for the other shoe to drop when we find out that that’s obviously how he became an elemental magus
Agreed- perfectly timed warning with just the right balance between casual and cautionary 🙂
Oohohoho.
I do think Erin is utilizing a partial truth here. As stated before, he almost certainly was born with his links, because it’s impossible to just. Make someone a mage, so I doubt that him being a fake is his dark secret. However, I’m not so sure that my original theory (Erin had severely malformed links and needed the sealing tats for his health). But we’ve seen Tarren with their own sealing tat and it doesn’t seem that scandalous. Maybe it’s just because Erin is so high-profile? Or perhaps what someone above said is semi-right. Galen tried to artificially expan Erin’s casting capacity and it didn’t go well. This is really weird information.
I think the second half of the last comic and the first half of this one is just Erin talking directly to the audience. like “Yes please I know I’m Hubris McGee but I’m not unreasonable!” or alternatively RED talking directly to the audience like “please stop raggin on my boy I know he’s really silly something but he’s complex!”
I’m seeing a lot of comments voicing the same opinion here, and I agree. Tess’ little “Careful.” makes me think that there’s more to this that Erin isn’t telling the others… I bet it has something to do with his father.
Huh. Lot going on on this page.
For starters, as others have said, it is a good reminder that what we the readers have seen, Alinua largely has not. We’ve seen Erin’s frustration with himself when he realizes he’s getting in his own way, his regret when he miscalculates and his panic when he struggles to figure out what to do, but Alinua hasn’t been privy to any of it, really. Even Falst has seen more of that side of Erin than she has.
You can see the moment he realizes he’s about to put his foot in it and adjusts what he’s about to say. (The ‘recalculating’ dots just kill me, by the by). He’s only telling half the story, which makes sense, as we know Erin has no poker face. It’s easier to tell a half-truth than a lie.
But it just doesn’t make sense that he’d travel ALL the way to Helm for the Sealing tats. Tarren said “before I left [Asera]”, they had taken Erin’s advice and been Sealed. This implies that there are folks at the academy who can do this, and I’d imagine it doesn’t matter how ridiculous your soul-channels are, the method is the same. The monks probably did give Erin his tattoos, but that’s not why he went there. There’s be no need to travel that far for something that could be done at home.
I do think, as many of us have theorized, that Erin had complications with his soul channels, and their being capable of drawing in a lot of raw energy fits. I’ll bet being able to naturally draw that much power means you contract a lot of elemental corruption, and that would be reason enough to get Sealed. I had assumed ‘my family has dealt with [the monks] before’ from way back meant Galen sent his son to them (and at a younger age) because of the dangerous effects Erin’s abilities had both on him and possibly those around him…but here Erin makes it sound like it was his choice to go there. Mind you, this could just be because soul-shaping can only be performed by the soul themselves, so he would have had to trust the monks’ guidance.
Whatever secrets he’s keeping, I think it’s very tightly tied to how he views himself and how he wants others to see him. I also think that whatever it is forced him to address some sort of error he made, with disastrous consequences, that required him to seek outside help. Something he wanted to ensure couldn’t happen again. Sealing is only part of that equation.
But if as Tess said, they’re going to find out ‘for sure’ if they make it to the monastery, why hide it now? Why not tell them on your terms before you’re forced to, whatever it is?
Red says she doesn’t time cliffhangers to Fridays, but she has to know the board and string theorists will be working overtime this weekend on this! XD
I just thought of an unlikely but really screwed-up reason Erin could have gone to the monks: his father Galen is actually the one who had him sealed. Either Galen had him sealed permanently (either in response to a scandal or to punish Erin somehow) or Galen managed to figure out how to seal Erin in a way that Galen was the one deciding when and how Erin used magic. Therefore, Erin went to the monks to regain control of his own magic
Erin theorists having a field day with this one boys
To me, Falst comment on Erin’s loudness is Red’s way to show how touchy and defensive Erin is about Alinua’s statements to the audience while not going overboard with text. I think it provides a subtle sub-context for a visual medium like comicbook art. At least that’s my take on why Falst’s snarkyness serves the story here so cleverly. Yes it could just be my headcannon just going wild.
Interesting ideas here! I just assumed Erin transitioned. Dainix said something about soul channels getting sealed if you transitioned, so Erin might well have had to secretly visit the monks to do it without losing his access to magic. Or something. Hah I’m sure I’m wrong.
TL;DR: Justifying my *incredible humility and willingness to receive help*
Does anyone else remember when Tess was asking Erin if he was willing to give up his biggest secret, witch had something to do with the soul shaper monks? That boi bluffing hard.
random but: hello patroclus 🙂
IDK, I think he might be trying to give away just enough information to keep the others happy, and thinking that they got it all. But, yeah, it’s interesting and touchning that Tess both knows and respects this. I love how Red makes characters that look stereotypical at first glance, but end up having plenty of interesting layers!
A few nights ago I had a dream the collector found Kendal and they just chatted. She wanted him to come find her, as like a test for him, and then she would experiment on him when he got there
Red just dropped a video about train fights and why they are such a trope. While she highlighted the special plot details of a story taking place on a train, compared to other modes of transportation, some of the points could apply to the current ocean journey by ship. It will be interested if that video is foreshadowing.
https://youtu.be/6tGQowUxF6c?si=Q7SGQRXPabxbH6Tp
THANK YOU! I had already forgotten where I was planning to go after reading today’s comic!
Soooo, if the tattoos are seals – what happens if they get damaged/slashed/destroyed?
He probably can’t use the elements if the Seals are destroyed? In the Dainix x Voidy fight, Dainix burns Erin’s arm and we then see Voidy healing it… although that’s right after, so we don’t see if he could wield the element or not…. I guess it was probably just to get rid of the pain/weakness of it being hurt.
Okay now I’m revising my opinion after writing that and saying that if the Seals are destroyed, he could probably just freewield the elements. I doubt the Monks, or Erin himself, would want his elements to be inaccessible until he reaches the Monks again if the Seals were destroyed.
The Ellipsis of Buffering over Erin’s head lol
Oh, his tattoos are seals for each element he can reach? Interesting. Was VD aware of this when he possessed Erin, and that’s why he has the Void rune on his chest? Was that just a happy accident? I’m also very curious as to what would happen if Erin’s Void connection DOESN’T have a seal. Just because he touched the rune to manipulate Void, doesn’t mean explicitly that his connection is sealed by the rune. It could just mean that he’s so used to sealed casting that he used it to firm up his mental reach for the element.
I don’t think VD even noticed the seals in the tats, because he can somehow bypass/override them anyway. I don’t think the Void brand is sealed like Erin’s other channels. Him touching it to cast feels more like force of habit and a way to focus.
Not gonna lie, I always assumed he went to the monks so they would give him the ability to channel all six elements and then he could become the Archmage.
Really like the use of wind here to make everyone’s hair flair out so it’s maximum flowy and fluffy.
I love Tess.
(I think I missed writing that this week.)
Also, “Humility is a big step!” is my personal biggest takeaway from this. Oh, Alinua <3
The monks are trustworthy, is Erin’s position
Whilst giving some questionable exposition
This is such a cool detail!