2.4.22
on April 7, 2025
at 3:00 am
ok yes it was a bad and self-destructive act of hubris BUT it looks really pretty so I think it was worth it
Aurora
A fantasy webcomic. Updates M-W-F.
ok yes it was a bad and self-destructive act of hubris BUT it looks really pretty so I think it was worth it
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: if you can’t create your own storm of magic storebought is fine
Image source: fault
tumblr text: if hubris…… why shiny?
HELP I MISREAD THAT AS SKINNY-
Bluesky Text: happy monday I got you tragic backstory
Tumblr Text: if hubris…… why shiny?
. “Besides, if I’d taken you with me, those monks wouldn’t’ve had the chance to mess you up so bad.”
. “…The chance to…” Erin mumbles, confused.
. “Your channels can’t close!” Tess shouts, whirling to face him. “Even the Dragon couldn’t make you stop! With Tarren it’s a trickle, but with you — without those seals, can you control it at ALL?”
. “It wasn’t the monks’ fault,” Erin says.
. “Oh, sure,” Tess says, crossing her arms. “I know this mood. Just like everything else in the universe, it was all your fault, right?”
. “YES,” Erin snaps, pushing himself up on one elbow. “Yes, it was my fault. Of course it was my fault! Because the end was in sight, and I rushed for it blindly!
. “The process was working. I could feel the channels opening, but it was slow. Sindahlans, then sefs, then days, they said. The soul needed time to heal in its new configuration. They left me inches away from my power and told me to wait.
. “The soul is subject to the mind, and my mind is my strongest weapon. I proved that when I broke through on my own.
. “And because the monks got through the maelstrom in minutes and laid down the seal in seconds, it only took me three sindahlans to regain the use of my arms. Thanks to the monks, all my impatience cost me was precise control. This time…” Erin lays back, staring at the ceiling of the cave. “This time, everyone paid the price.”
That seventh panel with the rainbow storm is SO FREAKING AMAZING!!! Also long-hair Erin looks so cool
Damn, the community nickname SickTatts McHubris is starting to make even more sense than before
SickTats McHubris is Red’s nickname for him. She calls he that in the comment to page 1.5.21 (When the dargon retreats the first time), so it makes perfect sense, that it is *very* fitting for Erin
Truly an Icarus moment of epic proportions.
A timeline note for those curious: the Soulshaper therapy took place after Tess left. Erin was in his late teens at the time, anywhere from 15-18.
Laid out with regret
He’s always blaming himself
Hating his hubris
And another one
This time for panel seven
It is beautiful
Aurora at last
Power at my fingertips
Pay an awful price
Usurper!
Also, nice work.
Erin, listen to your sister. She’s clearly a more competent adult.
Tragic backstory? In *MY* fantasy webcomic? More likely than you think…
Pore Hawkeye.
monks: be careful, your soul needs time to heal
baby erin getting out the metaphysical power washer: this monastery is so fucking boring
erin’s enough of a nerd though he’d probably never call a monastery boring
Wait, is fake magus theory back on the menu…?
I don’t think so ? “New configuration” could mean “opened soul channels that weren’t there”, but it could also mean “healed malformed soul channels”, which would gel much more with several earlier established facts and foreshadowing, especially regarding the Dragon, who is behind the concept of the Elemental Magus and seems to have had access to quite a few of Erin’s memories. If Erin was an artificial Elemental Magus, I don’t think the Dragon would miss the chance to mock him about it.
Also, if all it took was the help of a few Monks and the money and status of an Aseran emissary and slave-owner, there would be a LOT more Elemental Magi.
Yes, true, with everything else we’ve heard so far in the comic, malformed but existing channels are much more likely.
Probably so badly malformed he effectively couldn’t use the magic at all, or perhaps would “overchannel” constantly from tiny amounts of magic.
“All that power and you still found a way to push too far” sounds like he had a tendency to push too far, overchannel and faint before, just that it now takes a lot more to get there…
LOOKS LIKE THE “FAKE MAGUS” THEORY IS BACK ON THE MENU BOYS!
This is the sort of thing that causes prodigies to have short life expediencies.
*expectancies
Spotted the cellphone!
To be fair, the newer models are way more prone to activating autocorrect even when there is no issue. I wonder if it has anything to do with the current trend of shoving an AI into the circuits of every device that could theoretically support one, wanted or not?
Siblings?
Adopted, she was originally a slave owned by the Ruunaser family
+hes got at least 1 other
siblings!
I absolutely love how in a world of quick healing magic solving the narrative problem of long recovery times, there are still very real and dangerous consequences to trying to rush recovery.
a sindahlan is about equivalent to 28 days, so three months of recovery. I think that, while possibly shortened, it’s still a long time to recover
Long haired Erin reveal!?
He’s previously appeared on 1.20.3 and 1.22.53.
We got a glimpse of him back when Tess was telling Alinua about finding her home, full reveal here: https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/700283490271428608/do-you-have-any-sketches-of-long-haired-princely
Oh, hey, Erin used to rock the Fluff Squad hairstyle.
RUUNASER BACKSTORY
Tess: … So you made a huge mistake and created a wild maelstrom of magic, then years later made another huge mistake in stopping a different wild maelstrom of magic-
Erin: YES I AM FULLY AWARE OF THE IRONY!
As far as Tess knew at the start of this page, a bunch of faceless monks messed up her brother so badly he can’t perform the simplest of magical control without artificial help. She’s so ticked she isn’t even entertaining Erin’s “it’s all my fault” reflex. But it’s her reaction next page, after learning that this predicament was genuinely Erin’s fault, is what interests me the most.
Well, this tells us a bit about the methods of the monks Erin went through, or at least the healing afterwards. From those bandaged arms and talk of Auroran months worth of healing, I can certainly see where all that hand imagery from the Glort vision came from.
I’m with @Karadaga in that it was probably malformed soul channels that the monks were healing for Erin, but that hardly constitutes a “big secret” that Tess alluded to, or all the work he’s been through to get this position.
My working theory is that Erin was born a magus, but several of his soul channels were malformed to the point that it would have been easier and safer if the monks just sealed them completely. But Erin wanted the power, seeing it as his way of truly becoming free and self-reliant so went through the gruelling process of opening them, but fumbled it at the last minute, as shown here, necessitating the tattoos.
I wonder if it was entirely Erin’s idea though. Clearly he was younger and needed his parent’s permission to travel to the monk’s. I wonder if he was partly pressured into doing this long and painful procedure by his father so that he could have an Elemental magus in the family as a status symbol.
Also possible, and it may not have even been explicit pressure. Maybe Galen made plenty of comments on how great being an Elemental Magus would be, or subtly guilt tripped Erin about his lack of control over his magic, that Erin himself began to think this was the path he wanted. Maybe Tess was part of that plan too, as a tool for emotional manipulation.
Even if this is wrong, I highly doubt Galen would discourage Erin from pursuing this path.
I’m skeptical of your last point, that it might have been easier to close Erin’s soul-channels, but he wanted the power. Way back in 1.8.3, Erin seemed to suggest that the Monks closing soul-channels was something he at least wasn’t personally familiar with. But granted, it would be EXTREMELY in-character.
Brilliant as always, but i’m looking at the bandages on teen Erin’s arms, and all I can think is “fresh tattoos.” I think they were always part of the process.
True. Maybe he was due to have smaller/simpler tattoos like Tarren’s, but his act forced them to apply more?
Man, Red really has me guessing when it come to Erin’s backstory; no theory I come up with is without holes or doubts. I guess that just makes the eventual reveal all the more exciting.
Wow, that’s rough, bud. Do you want to talk about it, no? Well, ok, just stay repressed and don’t talk to your sister about it.
Does anyone else notice the amount of parallels between Falst and Erin. Both decided to go on this reckless mission because they wanted to prove themselves useful. Both are very intelligent. Both seem to have daddy issues. Both are the most flawed members of the party. While there are major differences, those differences aren’t just different, there especially opposite. Erin has all magic, Falst has all the muscles
Now that is an astute observation. Maybe if Erin had a nice talk alone in the woods with Kendal, he would change his outlook on life, too.
*shaking at speeds so fast i become just a fangirl-shaped blur* i have an essay you might like to read. a few essays actually
in short: ITS ABT THE INSECURITIES!!!! ITS ABT THE PROTECTIVENESS!! ITS ABOUT COVERING BOTH WITH A THICK COATING OF DEFLECTION TO THE POINT THAT YOU CAN EVEN FOOL YOURSELF!!!!
tho he doesnt really clock it himself, falst is very intelligent (erin does notice this and trusts him cuz of it (about as much as a guy like erin can trust)). both are very self reliant, leading to self isolation. this is despite being fundamentally caring and protective people. they have similar abandonment issues, a solid understanding of their own usefulness yet little compassion towards themselves, and inshallah void/light magic parallels too.
… i have a lot more to say but ill cap it off here: theres a reason they butt heads the most out of all the gang!! they too damn similar!!
tess also compares them on 1-15-2 and 1-15-6.
Thanks for long-haired Erin. Time to fuel my (trans) headcannons :))
Probably just ment to be gender-nonconforming but that fine 🙂
I think that Red said somewhere that, in this part of the world of Aurora, long hair is a gender-neutral status symbol? So that’s probably what it is. Head canons are great though! 😀
Red mentioned on Tumblr once that having long hair is a status symbol in Asera became it shows you don’t have to do manual labor.
Here’s a direct link to the post.
https://comicaurora.tumblr.com/post/700297246060724224/it-hasnt-really-come-up-in-story-but-long
Is that a reason he might have chopped it off?
I think he might have been copying Tess 🙂
Along with possible practical reasons, Red soft-confirmed that it was to imitate Tess’s hair
https://www.tumblr.com/comicaurora/700331969649721344/did-erin-cut-his-hair-to-make-it-look-like-tesss?source=share
Would he experience any chronic pain from that?
Victorian suffering extraordinaire.
FEELING LIKE THAT TYLER THE CREATOR TWEET RN WHERES THE DAMN IMAGE
OK I LINKED IT TO MY NAME
ERIN BACKSTORYY IFADBKJLVBSHFKDSKZVJBIH 😭😭😭😭😭‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
Erin’s two moods, Blame Self and Touch Stove
I would like you to know that I laughed out loud. Thank you.
OH MY GOD RUUNASER LORE THIS IS THE BEST MONDAY EVERRR
GODDAMN THAT HAIR, I remember when I had hair that long, jealous…
More long hair Erin. Nice.
Long-haired Erin looks amazing! He also looks a little like the theoretical 7th Samurai of this Six Man Band that we can see in Red’s Trope Taks. Assuming that all acolytes of the Soulshaper Monks adhere to a similar dress code, could we be adopting a new member of the Floof Squad when we finally arrive at the Monastery?
Red just calling out all us self-blaming folks
So we have learned that Erin’s channels were originally closed, and that it was with the monk’s work that they opened, but because Erin was impatient his new channels were torn way too far open and made them impossible to close without seals. My theory is that Erin was not born as a mage, but his father experimented on him to create an elemental magus for political gain. I am still not sure how Al fits into this, maybe another test subject gone wrong, or maybe the actual elemental magus, who experienced too much elemental corruption to function, so the family felt the need to replace him with Erin?
I believe Red has previously stressed that it is just not possible to alter a person’s natural soul channels, and therefore not possible to ‘make’ a mage in this way. It’s possible that Erin’s soul channels were malformed, but they were still there.
TL;DR: Damn, my Hubris!!!!
after this Incredibly Heavy Conversation is over I’m feeling a hard cut to alinua, maybe having a confrontation with our filler villains for this arc? (Shrike and our Junior Archiveist friend, perhaps)
Crossing my fingers The Collector was using the kraken as a submarine and Ali wakes up inside that thing.
Alinua – Collector interaction is definitely something I’m looking forward to
Kraken submarine is the best thing I’ve heard of this week
I don’t think Shrike and Theia could have already caught up to them. That boat was reaaally fast, and they, like the collector, don’t actually know where they were going.
based on what’s said here, I don’t think erin had malformed channels. we know for sure he had lightning magic when he was a child based on the experiment with in zurrith. maybe his channels not being to close is why he said it’s not that simple anymore. but anyways, I like to think that he was able to channel 2 or 3 elements on his own and the monks just had to open the other channels because he said he could feel the channles opening instead of reforming. I like to think he had life, lightning and fire on his own. mostly because of the amount of control he is able to exhibit in healing the others and that he usually draws upon fire when fighting. though that might be because it’s easier to fight with fire and that it looks cool.
Anyone else getting deja vu?
“I brought them here. I knew the dangers, and I promised I could keep them safe. I failed, Tess. Every step of the way. All the power in the world, and I still cant protect anyone”
He had long hair!
“I proved that when I broke through on my own.”
Interesting. It would seem that outside assistance was usually needed to finish the procedure, which is likely why the monks took no precautions against this happening. The irony of chieving something unthought of, yet it just ending up hurting you.
*achieving
He sure is making a trend of that, huh?
doing the impossible but only getting pain and regret in return? in my Erin “journey into the maelstrom only to get possessed” Ruunaser? it’s more likely than you think
Yes, dear, but there is a slight difference between “I screwed up and now I can’t cast magic properly” and “The boat trip was a bad idea, but to be fair, foreseeing the Paladin, Dainix’s powers going haywire, and a *sea monster* would have been a tall order for anyone.” But go off, I guess.
That panel of Erin unleashing his magic is *so* pretty. Also, return of the legendary long-haired Erin!
Princely Erin brought his own misery
Breaking through his channel, set the magic free
So some things were in fact solely Erin’s fault in the past, and what he learned from that is that he should keep making himself the single point of failure so nobody could ever by at fault again but him.
HubrisMacGee maybe, more like greedy bastard who keeps monopolizing all the blame.
I love that seventh panel, the colors scratch an itch in my tiny gremlin brain.
I want to braid Erin’s hair