I don’t know, I would be pretty pissed if I was stuck in one spot, yet the very thing that made me more than just a pile of burning rocks also made me realize that I would never see anything but a pile of burning rocks, forever. Yet cruelly out of reach. It would turn anyone bitter.
yeah, but going “your existence is such a tease” and then getting mad that the person does not exist to please you is… the wrong kind of vibes, no matter how much “justified” bitterness you might develop.
To be fair, Kendal and Falst are also here to just 100% rob him, but he does not know that.
Also, if Rakhn weren’t a jerk he could probably get the enrichment he desires. I know his island is a bit off the beaten path, but I think with some good diplomacy and PR he could set it up as something of an entertainment mecca. As a volcano, he probably has access to some rare materials, so he could have competitions where anyone who manages to properly entertain him with something new gets a prize. But he’d apparently prefer to throw the lemons he’s got at people who show up rather than make some lemonade.
Some of it might also be a bit of blue/orange morality… Rakhn IS a volcano, after all, and for all he can incarnate in a mortal-like from, he’s still a very different kind of being. His thoughts and desires are not going to fit into the “normal” way of thinking, no matter how closely they can be translated.
Plus you’re tossing in elements of the genius loci and Tantalus mythos. It doesn’t necessarily make his attitude any more excusable, but it does provide more insight.
(And I will admit, in my own experience, writing characters who have to balance an alien nature and viewpoint with a human seeming can be tricky. I’m still trying to find that balance, and I’ve been working with the character in question for over five years)
Except books tend to be flamable. iirc, there’s no material that can be used as book pages that wouldn’t go up in flames the moment he tried to touch it.
Hey, Rakhn, there’s this person you might like to meet? Called “The Collector”? They’re batshit insane and you’ll LOVE their stories and what they can do! And they’d probably enjoy meeting you, too! So, uh, please be nice to Kendal and just wait a wee bit, when you see weird green dog-thingies, you’ll know she’s here! She is an explorer, in the further regions of experience. And she has such sights to show you.
(I’d say I cannot WAIT for Friday but I suspect there’s going to be a page that makes me hold my breath and then I’ll have to wait until Monday to be able to breathe again! …I love it when comics are this good.)
I bet Rakhn is going to try and stab Kendal with his own sword to bring out Vash. Not sure what’s going to happen to Falst other than those Ignans are probably going to fight the fire centipedes.
I’m thinking a combination of @the sinistral wanderer and @Rai626’s predictions.
Rakhn decides to stab Kendal himself with the sword, but just before he does so, Falst breaks off that fireseed shard and Rakhn stops, immediately taking notice. Kendal could use this to break free and get the sword back; maybe activate the starfire, saying something like “Nothing you’ve ever seen before? How about something you’ve never felt before?” before blasting him.
I’d suggest setting up a D&D campaign for him but considering how painful scheduling is even when one of your players isn’t a volcano god I doubt it would work very well
It worked! Sometimes it takes a while for comments to show if they need to be approved. You might also have a cached version of the page. To force it to supply the most recent version with all comments, you can tack on a question mark and a keysmash of random characters at the end of the URL. The question mark and keysmash are a URL parameter; it does functionally nothing in this case, but the web server sees it appended and believes it needs to customize the response somehow instead of just feeding back whatever is in the cache.
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And Falst uses is signature move: Massive vertical leap!
I do feel bad for Rakhn though, maybe he could try making friends with the Ignians?
Or possibly Caliban, though I think their chess games would be very explosive.
What hobbit would you all recommend Rakhn, I’m curious.
…I think I see how this could be resolved now. There are multiple legendary individuals in this party. All it takes is for one of them to wake up and show up to Rakhn. How unfortunate that Rakhn, snek and Tam “Blinded By The Light” Michael tag-teamed to put all of the legendary characters out of commission, and entirely unintentionally too.
Interesting. It seems that volcano god is angry because he’s resentful at being stuck in the volcano and unable to experience the world. Despite his divine power, he’s still in a cave. He blames mortals for supplying the belief that made him sapient, and thereby able to understand his predicament rather than being unthinking rock and lava. Furthermore, he’s reached the point where the glimpses of the outside world he gleans through mortals passing through are only serving as reminders of what he’ll never be able to go and see for himself.
And I think he might be thinking of stealing Kendal’s body so he can.
I’m so worried! How is Kendall going to survive a life-threatening wound without Alinua? Where is Alinua, anyways?! I want to see her hanging with the eldritch abomination (and mermaids??)
Genuinely I love this arc so much. These chapters have been my favourite of the entire comic!
A few months ago, back when are heroes were getting this quest from Caliban I commented that the idea of distracting Rakhn was reminding me of when Gandalf tried to garner shelter from Beorn, though I expected Rakhn to be less hospitable. My prediction was somewhat correct, what I failed to realise is just how hostile a volcano would be.
It’s really interesting just how discontented he is, I had this idea that he would view himself pridefully, I mean he’s a volcano a mountain of fire and stone that’s connected deep underground to the world beneath but can still change the sky and generate storms, anyone would be impressed by that, but all he sees is what people mythologise him to be which he knows he’s not he knows how he does everything he does because he’s done it so many times and it’s always the same cycle to him everyone else views him as a fickle and unpredictable danger but to him all that he does happens for specific reasons and a predictable cycle because he knows how he works, but he wants to be that impossible to predict danger that everyone sees him as because it’s the nature of a god to be what mortals believe them to be.
I’m not sure I’m interpreting this perfectly but it’s what’s brought to mind when I try to understand his motivations.
All that to say this is really well written and it made think a lot more than simply reminding me of the Hobbit.
I am thoroughly impressed with how you managed to condense this page into a couplet considering the complexity displayed by Rakhn here, and, on top of that, to make such a pleasing rhyming couplet. To be honest, your work always impresses me and I just wanted to voice my long-standing appreciation of your contribution to the comments section. Thank you.
I’ve got this image in my head of Rakhn trying to pick a fight with Tynan and vice versa some years ago, but Rakhn couldn’t do much aside from throw rocks at a cloud and Tynan would still be bound by oath not to make landfall, even if said land wants him to. Both are sad.
I finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy on my holiday and this is giving me vibes of the Battle of the Morannon and Frodo and Sam’s mission on Mt. Doom. Not just the volcano imagery, but of the two events, one appearing grand but is a mere distraction, and the other a stealthy mission of real importance. Sauron was made aware of the trick at the last minute, will the same happen here?
It’s really interesting seeing Rakhn’s envy of mortal freedom; their potential to escape from cycles of both the world and of themselves. He keeps trying to break from the cycle of the seasons and others, while realising that that he, himself, is also a cycle. I feel sorry for him, but his thirst to be entertained, even at the expense of others, lowers my sympathy a fair bit.
Maybe it’s for the best neither Erin nor Alinua are here; if Rakhn found out he could summon unknown primordial forces just by threatening their unconscious bodies, they’d be no stopping him.
Well, safe to say from panel 6 and from those tiny figures in the doorway of panel 7, that Falst has probably been seen, or at least the centipedes have and he will soon be too. Those critters may actually be a blessing in disguise; with them crawling the walls, the Ignans may be forced to deal with them first, giving Falst an opening to escape.
You could say that these bugs may, centi-impede them! (ba-dum-tsss) … … that- that was terrible, I’m sorry.
This has nothing to do with the current page, but it’s something I noticed. At the end of arc one, the alt text said “the futures so bright I got to wear shades”
This is a very nice message, until you look at the last time that wording was used. When tam was introduced in chapter seven, the alt said “this guys so bright I gotta wear shades.”
I don’t know if this is intentional, but it’s cool nonetheless
Rakhn’s resentment at being trapped as a cycle of fire and stone is certainly interesting, but I have no sympathy for him. He’s still a selfish jerk; this is merely an explanation for how he thinks. He is resentful of the novelty mortals have in their lives, and so he thinks he is entitled to their gifts. Like, gee, dude, you could try not to be such an asshole so some of those mortals actually want to be friends with you. Maybe novelty can be found in genuine, positive relationships with other people–for example, the sect of ignans that are as confined to the volcano as Rakhn is.
Cheering on Falst for pulling through with his twenty foot vertical leap, EXTREMELY concerned for Kendal (and still somewhat for Falst too)
…Falst, have you considered maybe just touching the Dainix-stone to the Fireseed? That might be more efficient.
Then again, that *could* also cause Problems. But I think that that would be happening either way, so it would just change the exact flavor of Problem you would be dealing with…
Rakhn lashing out reminds me of how orcas lash out in captivity due to lack of care and proper enrichment. It’s really interesting! He’s absolutely being an asshole about it and a smidge too aggressive but man is he interesting. And a bit understandable. This guy needs access to netflix
Considering that Rakhn’s got Kendal by the throat right now, and has Vash’s sword in one hand, I’m starting to think maybe Kendal shouldn’t have told Rakhn how to summon Vash. This could get bad…
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: me with the adhd if I’m being honest
Image source: denied
Bluesky text: it is wednesday my dudes
Tumblr text: looks like this argument’s getting HEATED
After throwing a tantrum over seasons volcano dude now also gives off major incel/nice guys vibes
Hey Falst you mind breaking off a bit more than needed?
I don’t know, I would be pretty pissed if I was stuck in one spot, yet the very thing that made me more than just a pile of burning rocks also made me realize that I would never see anything but a pile of burning rocks, forever. Yet cruelly out of reach. It would turn anyone bitter.
yeah, but going “your existence is such a tease” and then getting mad that the person does not exist to please you is… the wrong kind of vibes, no matter how much “justified” bitterness you might develop.
To be fair, Kendal and Falst are also here to just 100% rob him, but he does not know that.
Also, if Rakhn weren’t a jerk he could probably get the enrichment he desires. I know his island is a bit off the beaten path, but I think with some good diplomacy and PR he could set it up as something of an entertainment mecca. As a volcano, he probably has access to some rare materials, so he could have competitions where anyone who manages to properly entertain him with something new gets a prize. But he’d apparently prefer to throw the lemons he’s got at people who show up rather than make some lemonade.
Red has said that he wasn’t always like this – after Fire’s ‘awakening’, the island became a volcano, and his personality changed too.
Some of it might also be a bit of blue/orange morality… Rakhn IS a volcano, after all, and for all he can incarnate in a mortal-like from, he’s still a very different kind of being. His thoughts and desires are not going to fit into the “normal” way of thinking, no matter how closely they can be translated.
Plus you’re tossing in elements of the genius loci and Tantalus mythos. It doesn’t necessarily make his attitude any more excusable, but it does provide more insight.
(And I will admit, in my own experience, writing characters who have to balance an alien nature and viewpoint with a human seeming can be tricky. I’m still trying to find that balance, and I’ve been working with the character in question for over five years)
I agree, it’s very different for a being who by their nature is stuck as they are, than for a human who just won’t change.
real unfortunate they don’t have libraries in this volcano. this guy would go absolutely nuts for a public library
Except books tend to be flamable. iirc, there’s no material that can be used as book pages that wouldn’t go up in flames the moment he tried to touch it.
That shouldn’t be an insurmountable problem for a god who has a (presumably) literate priesthood.
He could get one of the Ignans to read to him. Tuck him in and tell him a bedtime story.
Well at least it won’t be self harm this time
Ah, so he wants some stories.
I wonder if he’s heard the tragedy of the wandering god…
Hey, Rakhn, there’s this person you might like to meet? Called “The Collector”? They’re batshit insane and you’ll LOVE their stories and what they can do! And they’d probably enjoy meeting you, too! So, uh, please be nice to Kendal and just wait a wee bit, when you see weird green dog-thingies, you’ll know she’s here! She is an explorer, in the further regions of experience. And she has such sights to show you.
(I’d say I cannot WAIT for Friday but I suspect there’s going to be a page that makes me hold my breath and then I’ll have to wait until Monday to be able to breathe again! …I love it when comics are this good.)
Aurora Question #48: Predictions for next panel? I’m guessing both our boys are going to be very hurt very shortly
I bet Rakhn is going to try and stab Kendal with his own sword to bring out Vash. Not sure what’s going to happen to Falst other than those Ignans are probably going to fight the fire centipedes.
Falst breaks off that piece of the fireseed and whatever that causes to happen, Rakhn is distracted enough to drop Kendal and go there instead.
Counting on that happening, honestly
Real I need my boys to be okay
I’m thinking a combination of @the sinistral wanderer and @Rai626’s predictions.
Rakhn decides to stab Kendal himself with the sword, but just before he does so, Falst breaks off that fireseed shard and Rakhn stops, immediately taking notice. Kendal could use this to break free and get the sword back; maybe activate the starfire, saying something like “Nothing you’ve ever seen before? How about something you’ve never felt before?” before blasting him.
oof. this god needs serious therapy.
… and *appropriate* enrichment 😐
I’d suggest setting up a D&D campaign for him but considering how painful scheduling is even when one of your players isn’t a volcano god I doubt it would work very well
oof. this god needs serious therapy.
… and *appropriate* enrichment 😐
(trying to post again i’m not sure if it worked the first time?)
It worked! Sometimes it takes a while for comments to show if they need to be approved. You might also have a cached version of the page. To force it to supply the most recent version with all comments, you can tack on a question mark and a keysmash of random characters at the end of the URL. The question mark and keysmash are a URL parameter; it does functionally nothing in this case, but the web server sees it appended and believes it needs to customize the response somehow instead of just feeding back whatever is in the cache.
Also, the page tells you if you’ve already posted a comment with the identical content, so trying again without any acknowledgement that it’s a second attempt is generally the better method.
oooh good to know, thanks! 😀
And Falst uses is signature move: Massive vertical leap!
I do feel bad for Rakhn though, maybe he could try making friends with the Ignians?
Or possibly Caliban, though I think their chess games would be very explosive.
What hobbit would you all recommend Rakhn, I’m curious.
Grilling. I fell like if he was a dad, he would do it. XD
GLASSBLOWING
I see this and raise you: Merry & Pippin?
…I think I see how this could be resolved now. There are multiple legendary individuals in this party. All it takes is for one of them to wake up and show up to Rakhn. How unfortunate that Rakhn, snek and Tam “Blinded By The Light” Michael tag-teamed to put all of the legendary characters out of commission, and entirely unintentionally too.
Maybe sculpting of some kind? He certainly has the materials for it with his control over lava
Interesting. It seems that volcano god is angry because he’s resentful at being stuck in the volcano and unable to experience the world. Despite his divine power, he’s still in a cave. He blames mortals for supplying the belief that made him sapient, and thereby able to understand his predicament rather than being unthinking rock and lava. Furthermore, he’s reached the point where the glimpses of the outside world he gleans through mortals passing through are only serving as reminders of what he’ll never be able to go and see for himself.
And I think he might be thinking of stealing Kendal’s body so he can.
Very good summary of how he’s feeling, but he can’t just steal Kendal’s body, that’s not how it works. He can’t “possess” Kendal
Here before comments refresh abd show lol.
I’m so worried! How is Kendall going to survive a life-threatening wound without Alinua? Where is Alinua, anyways?! I want to see her hanging with the eldritch abomination (and mermaids??)
Genuinely I love this arc so much. These chapters have been my favourite of the entire comic!
A few months ago, back when are heroes were getting this quest from Caliban I commented that the idea of distracting Rakhn was reminding me of when Gandalf tried to garner shelter from Beorn, though I expected Rakhn to be less hospitable. My prediction was somewhat correct, what I failed to realise is just how hostile a volcano would be.
It’s really interesting just how discontented he is, I had this idea that he would view himself pridefully, I mean he’s a volcano a mountain of fire and stone that’s connected deep underground to the world beneath but can still change the sky and generate storms, anyone would be impressed by that, but all he sees is what people mythologise him to be which he knows he’s not he knows how he does everything he does because he’s done it so many times and it’s always the same cycle to him everyone else views him as a fickle and unpredictable danger but to him all that he does happens for specific reasons and a predictable cycle because he knows how he works, but he wants to be that impossible to predict danger that everyone sees him as because it’s the nature of a god to be what mortals believe them to be.
I’m not sure I’m interpreting this perfectly but it’s what’s brought to mind when I try to understand his motivations.
All that to say this is really well written and it made think a lot more than simply reminding me of the Hobbit.
frankly tahraim should just have given rakhn a tumblr account like he did to tynan, that would probably solve most of his problems XD
Rakhn reviles his static existence
But blames mankind for his soul’s persistence
I am thoroughly impressed with how you managed to condense this page into a couplet considering the complexity displayed by Rakhn here, and, on top of that, to make such a pleasing rhyming couplet. To be honest, your work always impresses me and I just wanted to voice my long-standing appreciation of your contribution to the comments section. Thank you.
I’ve got this image in my head of Rakhn trying to pick a fight with Tynan and vice versa some years ago, but Rakhn couldn’t do much aside from throw rocks at a cloud and Tynan would still be bound by oath not to make landfall, even if said land wants him to. Both are sad.
I finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy on my holiday and this is giving me vibes of the Battle of the Morannon and Frodo and Sam’s mission on Mt. Doom. Not just the volcano imagery, but of the two events, one appearing grand but is a mere distraction, and the other a stealthy mission of real importance. Sauron was made aware of the trick at the last minute, will the same happen here?
It’s really interesting seeing Rakhn’s envy of mortal freedom; their potential to escape from cycles of both the world and of themselves. He keeps trying to break from the cycle of the seasons and others, while realising that that he, himself, is also a cycle. I feel sorry for him, but his thirst to be entertained, even at the expense of others, lowers my sympathy a fair bit.
Maybe it’s for the best neither Erin nor Alinua are here; if Rakhn found out he could summon unknown primordial forces just by threatening their unconscious bodies, they’d be no stopping him.
Well, safe to say from panel 6 and from those tiny figures in the doorway of panel 7, that Falst has probably been seen, or at least the centipedes have and he will soon be too. Those critters may actually be a blessing in disguise; with them crawling the walls, the Ignans may be forced to deal with them first, giving Falst an opening to escape.
You could say that these bugs may, centi-impede them! (ba-dum-tsss) … … that- that was terrible, I’m sorry.
This has nothing to do with the current page, but it’s something I noticed. At the end of arc one, the alt text said “the futures so bright I got to wear shades”
This is a very nice message, until you look at the last time that wording was used. When tam was introduced in chapter seven, the alt said “this guys so bright I gotta wear shades.”
I don’t know if this is intentional, but it’s cool nonetheless
Unintentional foreshadowing is the best kind of foreshadowing
Knowing Red I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that was intentional, but either way very cool find
Oh I hope stabing him with his sword doesn’t work
And if it does, at least he’s gonna get his ass kicked by Vash!
Rakhn’s resentment at being trapped as a cycle of fire and stone is certainly interesting, but I have no sympathy for him. He’s still a selfish jerk; this is merely an explanation for how he thinks. He is resentful of the novelty mortals have in their lives, and so he thinks he is entitled to their gifts. Like, gee, dude, you could try not to be such an asshole so some of those mortals actually want to be friends with you. Maybe novelty can be found in genuine, positive relationships with other people–for example, the sect of ignans that are as confined to the volcano as Rakhn is.
Cheering on Falst for pulling through with his twenty foot vertical leap, EXTREMELY concerned for Kendal (and still somewhat for Falst too)
Fierce exterior
Ultimately just lonely
Reckless behavior
ayyy he said the name of the chapter!!!
In love with the epic way Rakhn describes himself. “I am land broken and new made.” Fire. (Literally)
…Falst, have you considered maybe just touching the Dainix-stone to the Fireseed? That might be more efficient.
Then again, that *could* also cause Problems. But I think that that would be happening either way, so it would just change the exact flavor of Problem you would be dealing with…
“I FRICKIN LOVE YOU GUYS”
*punches mortal in the face*
“YOUR STORIES BRING MEANING TO MY LIFE”
*punches repeatedly*
Trying to convince your mom to buy you a new stim toy be like:
Given me some real wind waker vibes, with the oceanic islands, the fire centipedes, and Rakhn’s talking like Ganondorf
TL;DR: My existence is suffering, so I pass that suffering to you.
Rakhn lashing out reminds me of how orcas lash out in captivity due to lack of care and proper enrichment. It’s really interesting! He’s absolutely being an asshole about it and a smidge too aggressive but man is he interesting. And a bit understandable. This guy needs access to netflix
Ah yes, when you find something that vaguely relates to your hyperfixation.
In all seriousness, that’s really cool. I didn’t know that. And that’s a neat connection to draw.
Considering that Rakhn’s got Kendal by the throat right now, and has Vash’s sword in one hand, I’m starting to think maybe Kendal shouldn’t have told Rakhn how to summon Vash. This could get bad…
Welp Im officially the number one fan of Rakhan now. Suck a cool mindset for a vulcano god to have!
But also… Oh shir, oh fuck, oh shit, Alinua it would be a good time to ex machina that deus over there right about now.
I predict next page something is going to happen with Dainix and get Rakhn’s attention, he’ll do a cool distracted look over his shoulder
Ironic, he can enrich the soil, but not himself.
Welp I assume you’ve never had someone steal from you before. That new enough?
This is turning into a fun arc.
You won’t be denied? You were denied twice already. He said no, and then he said, “I said no.”
Your “but I really REALLY want it!” is not compelling.