. “Captain–!” Selach starts, surprised, as Valia lunges forward and pushes off the mermaid’s chest. She quickly swims toward the Wyrm and Alinua, spear in hand. She halts as she reaches them, staring. “Y-you…” Valia starts, voice shaky. “Are you… Can you really be–?”
. “I told you,” Alinua interrupts, cracking open her eyes. “I said I wasn’t sure.” She looks up at the goddess who’s holding her. “She couldn’t get all of you, could she? Your domain is so much larger than Vash. Larger than anyone knows. She could rip your soul to pieces, but she couldn’t contain you.”
. “Yes,” the Wyrm says with a quick smile. “You allowed me to gather my remnants and cast off the dead meat that clouded my mind. Though I have never been quite so small,” she adds.
And the explanation we’ve been waiting for, all tied up nicely!
I guess next page Ali gets a reward and/or is sent back to the surface for the squad to reunite next chapter.
The Collector’s hair might be long, but it’s not nearly as majestically voluminous as any of the floof squad. I think saying the. Northern Wyrm has the most hair is a pretty safe statement.
So it was the place, not the people, that determined the continued life of the Northern Wyrm. The Wyrm’s territory varied, and went so deep, and also was mixed in with the currents that flowed out of the north.
Likewise, while Vash citizens might’ve been visiting relatives in, oh, Asera, Vash’s domain and soul was tied up in the city itself. Or is it? Why didn’t Vash’s domain extend out to the farms of Vash that were being harried by The Collector’s creatures? Kendal’s his own soul… but could he be an aspect of Vash that was bound up in more than just the city? Vash-esque mission creep that went beyond just the city?
Different kinds of gods, the Northern Wyrm is a Nature god like gleicann while vash is a city god like zuurith, só where their souls are and How they manifest is different
I feel like it follows more emotional, cultural logic than literal logic. Gods kind of are what people think they are. If you came home and the city of Vash had literally been erased from the surface of the earth, people wouldn’t say you *are* a citizen of Vash, they would say you *were* from Vash before it was destroyed. The farms are geographically near where Vash was, but there’s no market there to sell your harvest, no city walls to retreat to in times of crisis. In the practical day to day, you wouldn’t think or talk of them as “farms belonging to Vash”, you would think of them as “farms near [next closest city] or farms in the middle of nowhere” Charitably, “the farms next to the ruins of Vash.” You certainly wouldn’t call them Vash.
In contrast, the collector could do whatever she wanted to the Wym’s manifestation and the ritual sites associated with her, maybe even do crazy high powered stuff to the local water currents, but at the end of the day, an enormous, globe-encircling ocean current that drives entire ecosystems is still an enormous, globe-encircling ocean current that drives whole ecosystems.
I mean, I think the point of long-term harrying the city with chimeras *was* to get all the residents of the outlying farms to retreat to the safety of the city walls. That’s what the city walls are there for. So I imagine there were few or no people who would consider themselves citizens of Vash who survived the destruction of the city… which was the whole point!
This is true, but Red has confirmed that there were survivors who weren’t in the city when it was destroyed. One of Vash’s emissaries was away at the time, so he’s still alive. Maybe a handfull of others who were traveling at the time, but not enough to keep Vash’s domain strong enough to stop the Collector from taking him.
I think the point was to sever enough of the things that Vash was tied to that she could kidnap him — he’s also tied to Kendal, that’s the whole reason he could escape for a bit. Yes, there are people of Vash here and there, but i imagine that it would need to be quite a few in the same place to equal Vash’s connection to kendal
Oh–if the Collector had left too many of the citizens of Vash alive, they could’ve just… moved, rebuilt, and said “okay, this valley is Vash now” and plinnnnng! Vash would appear with a full base of strength to draw from (though he might’ve changed form a bit, the way Gleicann did). With the remnants of Vash scattered, there aren’t enough to rebuild, so instead they imagine themselves as refugees from Vash, and the city of Vash therefore is no more. A city god is a place built by people so the god is rooted in the people. Something like the Northern Wyrm is rooted in the natural processes of the world, which is why The Collector didn’t even bother killing the Selkrai and merpeople: they might worship (if that’s the right word, honor perhaps) the Northern Wyrm, but the Wyrm’s function and location is affected by them.
If I don’t say it now I won’t get to say it ever.
I’m kinda surprised no one bemoaned that we haven’t seen the rest of the Floof Squad this whole chapter. Maybe people got used to it after about a year of the party being split in the first place.
I’m also surprised at how quickly the Northern Wyrm recovered. Perhaps they are just really really grateful to Alinua/still numb after everything idk
As to the wyrms fast recovery, it could be due to the fact that her soul wasn’t damaged much, just her vessel. Sort of like if you were wearing a finger puppet and it suddenly went out of control and started attacking people — you might recover quote quickly if someone took it off. And besides, gods dont exactly work or think quite like mortals do.
I just can’t get over how beautifully drawn this new Wyrm incarnation is. I’m so happy it’s ended this well, and that Alinua is more or less okay and conscious and speaking with the Wyrm, too.
She’s not really the Northern Wyrm anymore. She’s more like … the Northern Mermaid? Lol.
I wonder if this change makes her more people-focused than ocean-focused? Her old incarnation seemed to embody more of the currents themselves, being a non-humanoid incarnation. I’m not even sure if she could speak (it seems like she spoke through the deep speakers rather than directly through her incarnation). What will happen to the parts of her domain that were encapsulated by the pieces of her soul she couldn’t recover?
Okay, this is an enormously well-done comic… but the way Alinua is so calm and trusting of the Wyrm after she got eaten. That. Was. Adorable!! The 6th panel reminded me of a child being carried by their parent, just happy and tired. ❤️💔😭
I have questions regarding the technicalities of this. I know her domain is physically bigger, but is she actually more powerful?
(yes I am a powerscaler) (I’m very sorry)
On the previous page, Alinua’s left arm was obscured around the elbow down for several panels, and I was really hoping she wasn’t about to gain a significant character trait while losing 3-4 pounds. Glad pink floof has retained all her extremeties
I feel like the line on her chin is just some sort of ridge or something. But that still doesn’t answer the real question, which is, why did Red draw it there?
anyone else noticing that Alinua’s eyes used to just have green irises, but now her sclera are green as well? probably implies that when she freed the Wyrm, something happened to her re: her connection to Life that’s on par with whatever turned the Collector’s sclera green. interesting to note!
My friend and i just read this whole thing, and she said she super relates to Dainix and Falst. given their backstories, I THINK I SHOULD BE WORRIED. also, this is the coolest thing i have ever laid eyes on
A lot of people are saying that this is about kendal being out of the Wyrms domain/reach because hes, and like that could just be that, but also idk I feel that red wouldn’t do that to us. Also because we still don’t know what the thing on page 2.2.19 was about. Like maybe in the following chapters the gang is will reunite and fight the colector together? BUT THATS JUST A THEOR-
O.O
That’s it. That’s the comment
For mobile readers.
Alt-text: also having arms is really weird. I’m not complaining it’s just a choice you know
Image source: small
tumblr text: a little q&a
. “Captain–!” Selach starts, surprised, as Valia lunges forward and pushes off the mermaid’s chest. She quickly swims toward the Wyrm and Alinua, spear in hand. She halts as she reaches them, staring. “Y-you…” Valia starts, voice shaky. “Are you… Can you really be–?”
. “I told you,” Alinua interrupts, cracking open her eyes. “I said I wasn’t sure.” She looks up at the goddess who’s holding her. “She couldn’t get all of you, could she? Your domain is so much larger than Vash. Larger than anyone knows. She could rip your soul to pieces, but she couldn’t contain you.”
. “Yes,” the Wyrm says with a quick smile. “You allowed me to gather my remnants and cast off the dead meat that clouded my mind. Though I have never been quite so small,” she adds.
Bluesky text: just a little clarity
And the explanation we’ve been waiting for, all tied up nicely!
I guess next page Ali gets a reward and/or is sent back to the surface for the squad to reunite next chapter.
Hopefully with the shipwreck so they can get the LS Deathtrap up and running again.
(And hopefully get the Bag of Holding back as well.)
I don’t know if that ship’s ever gonna sail again, and not just because Red definitely isn’t in any sort of hurry to draw more of it
ALT TEXT
also having arms is really weird. I’m not complaining, it’s just a choice y’know
Awwwww! This hit me hard in the feels! Why am I crying? It’s just so beautiful and I love Alinua’s smile in panel 5 so much.
When you come face to face with your goddess: the comic panel!
Shock! Awe! Emotional release! Religious revelation!
This may be just a webcomic, but I have never seen such high quality art in my life. These characters are gorgeous.
Kind godly embrace
Confrontation in new form
Soothing waves again
Reminds me of reading SSSS. Ah, the memories!
The Northern Wyrm has so much hair! As long as Alinua’s entire body!
I’m tempted to say: The Most Hair, but Collector has crazy long hair too
The Collector’s hair might be long, but it’s not nearly as majestically voluminous as any of the floof squad. I think saying the. Northern Wyrm has the most hair is a pretty safe statement.
Wow! What a great place to finally be all caught up! So excited to wait for the new pages to come out now! What a journey so far!
So Alinua shares Red’s asthetics sensibilities
Yup, this is my chibi form=).
So it was the place, not the people, that determined the continued life of the Northern Wyrm. The Wyrm’s territory varied, and went so deep, and also was mixed in with the currents that flowed out of the north.
Likewise, while Vash citizens might’ve been visiting relatives in, oh, Asera, Vash’s domain and soul was tied up in the city itself. Or is it? Why didn’t Vash’s domain extend out to the farms of Vash that were being harried by The Collector’s creatures? Kendal’s his own soul… but could he be an aspect of Vash that was bound up in more than just the city? Vash-esque mission creep that went beyond just the city?
Different kinds of gods, the Northern Wyrm is a Nature god like gleicann while vash is a city god like zuurith, só where their souls are and How they manifest is different
I feel like it follows more emotional, cultural logic than literal logic. Gods kind of are what people think they are. If you came home and the city of Vash had literally been erased from the surface of the earth, people wouldn’t say you *are* a citizen of Vash, they would say you *were* from Vash before it was destroyed. The farms are geographically near where Vash was, but there’s no market there to sell your harvest, no city walls to retreat to in times of crisis. In the practical day to day, you wouldn’t think or talk of them as “farms belonging to Vash”, you would think of them as “farms near [next closest city] or farms in the middle of nowhere” Charitably, “the farms next to the ruins of Vash.” You certainly wouldn’t call them Vash.
In contrast, the collector could do whatever she wanted to the Wym’s manifestation and the ritual sites associated with her, maybe even do crazy high powered stuff to the local water currents, but at the end of the day, an enormous, globe-encircling ocean current that drives entire ecosystems is still an enormous, globe-encircling ocean current that drives whole ecosystems.
I mean, I think the point of long-term harrying the city with chimeras *was* to get all the residents of the outlying farms to retreat to the safety of the city walls. That’s what the city walls are there for. So I imagine there were few or no people who would consider themselves citizens of Vash who survived the destruction of the city… which was the whole point!
This is true, but Red has confirmed that there were survivors who weren’t in the city when it was destroyed. One of Vash’s emissaries was away at the time, so he’s still alive. Maybe a handfull of others who were traveling at the time, but not enough to keep Vash’s domain strong enough to stop the Collector from taking him.
I think the point was to sever enough of the things that Vash was tied to that she could kidnap him — he’s also tied to Kendal, that’s the whole reason he could escape for a bit. Yes, there are people of Vash here and there, but i imagine that it would need to be quite a few in the same place to equal Vash’s connection to kendal
Oh–if the Collector had left too many of the citizens of Vash alive, they could’ve just… moved, rebuilt, and said “okay, this valley is Vash now” and plinnnnng! Vash would appear with a full base of strength to draw from (though he might’ve changed form a bit, the way Gleicann did). With the remnants of Vash scattered, there aren’t enough to rebuild, so instead they imagine themselves as refugees from Vash, and the city of Vash therefore is no more. A city god is a place built by people so the god is rooted in the people. Something like the Northern Wyrm is rooted in the natural processes of the world, which is why The Collector didn’t even bother killing the Selkrai and merpeople: they might worship (if that’s the right word, honor perhaps) the Northern Wyrm, but the Wyrm’s function and location is affected by them.
*not affected. Not. (Le sigh.)
If I don’t say it now I won’t get to say it ever.
I’m kinda surprised no one bemoaned that we haven’t seen the rest of the Floof Squad this whole chapter. Maybe people got used to it after about a year of the party being split in the first place.
I’m also surprised at how quickly the Northern Wyrm recovered. Perhaps they are just really really grateful to Alinua/still numb after everything idk
As to the wyrms fast recovery, it could be due to the fact that her soul wasn’t damaged much, just her vessel. Sort of like if you were wearing a finger puppet and it suddenly went out of control and started attacking people — you might recover quote quickly if someone took it off. And besides, gods dont exactly work or think quite like mortals do.
Ooh that shot of the captain swimming towards the Northern Wyrm is just so beautiful.
Oh my god. The Collector had way more victims than we thought. Holy crap. I wonder who else she got???
Aww, it feels nice when something beautiful happens. This may open the door to maybe fix some of the collector’s other damage.
Goddess pretty. Goddess gender.
I just can’t get over how beautifully drawn this new Wyrm incarnation is. I’m so happy it’s ended this well, and that Alinua is more or less okay and conscious and speaking with the Wyrm, too.
I love the wyrm person’s design, they seem so chill.
She’s not really the Northern Wyrm anymore. She’s more like … the Northern Mermaid? Lol.
I wonder if this change makes her more people-focused than ocean-focused? Her old incarnation seemed to embody more of the currents themselves, being a non-humanoid incarnation. I’m not even sure if she could speak (it seems like she spoke through the deep speakers rather than directly through her incarnation). What will happen to the parts of her domain that were encapsulated by the pieces of her soul she couldn’t recover?
The Northern Wyrmmaid, because she does still have the snake lower body instead of a fishtail.
The Northern Wyrmmaid
so it is the Wyrm herself. and here I was, heavily leaning on my bet of “godling”
Well… I suppose this is what happens when you try to grab a fistful of water. Makes sense it’s going to slip right through your fingers.
Okay, this is an enormously well-done comic… but the way Alinua is so calm and trusting of the Wyrm after she got eaten. That. Was. Adorable!! The 6th panel reminded me of a child being carried by their parent, just happy and tired. ❤️💔😭
I have questions regarding the technicalities of this. I know her domain is physically bigger, but is she actually more powerful?
(yes I am a powerscaler) (I’m very sorry)
On the previous page, Alinua’s left arm was obscured around the elbow down for several panels, and I was really hoping she wasn’t about to gain a significant character trait while losing 3-4 pounds. Glad pink floof has retained all her extremeties
The benefit of being this small (and having arms) is you can do so much fun stuff with your subjects.
oh thank heavens
and that actually makes so much sense
I feel like the line on her chin is just some sort of ridge or something. But that still doesn’t answer the real question, which is, why did Red draw it there?
Probably a remnant of the damage the collector did to her? Since the split mouth is kind of a trademark of her creations.
Alinua is my favorite character!!
anyone else noticing that Alinua’s eyes used to just have green irises, but now her sclera are green as well? probably implies that when she freed the Wyrm, something happened to her re: her connection to Life that’s on par with whatever turned the Collector’s sclera green. interesting to note!
That already happened at the start of the chapter, probably just a part of her underwater adaptations. The real Sekrai also have colored sclera
“Honey, I shrunk the gods avatar.”
Second modified avatar. Let’s see if he can give Alinua and Kendal the rundown on how Kendals body works?
She’s so pretty!!! o-o I love her freckles! <3
My friend and i just read this whole thing, and she said she super relates to Dainix and Falst. given their backstories, I THINK I SHOULD BE WORRIED. also, this is the coolest thing i have ever laid eyes on
A lot of people are saying that this is about kendal being out of the Wyrms domain/reach because hes, and like that could just be that, but also idk I feel that red wouldn’t do that to us. Also because we still don’t know what the thing on page 2.2.19 was about. Like maybe in the following chapters the gang is will reunite and fight the colector together? BUT THATS JUST A THEOR-
might i add- lovely artwork- i didn’t realize there’s no TEARS until my second look- but you can feel the tears even if they aren’t there!
never before has a god served such a lethal face card
Chin line a scar from when it was divided into 2 pieces?