Unsounded

The Lion of the North!

Other urls found in this thread:

casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php/Vliegeng
casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php/First_Materials
ashleycope.deviantart.com/art/The-Back-of-the-Plague-1-5-97312318
unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/154567614385/what-inspired-you-to-make-unsounded-about-duane
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

What's with all the Honkies

Ashley if you come around, someone requested you stop making Duane and Sette suffer in another thread.

Seems like making the lenses of that helmet pymary-proof would be one of the most important things you would invest in.

What are those Alderode dragons, anyway? Do they capture and tame them or make them with Pymary?

They are like a giant reptilian cows that they train for war. iirc they're herbivores.

Duane was born to suffer.

casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php/Vliegeng
I was close, they like grass but will eat meat and fish and whales

if she doesn't want to suffer she should stop biting her tail

They're called Vliegeng!

They're aldish war-mounts and iirc, those are domestic ones.
They eat mostly bamboo-like plants on the coast, but also hunt whales.

Awesome.

Sette is for ___

daughtering

roguery
and will drop this comic if that ever changes

...

>The King in the North!

wait, why were they hopping off of her BEFORE bathing? if I was a flea on her skin I wouldn't wanna leave for anything

...

pymary-proof anything is rather pricey.

Damn I don't have that image Lemuel pretending to feed Duane's daughter to his

Post a better father. Protip you can't.

...

So this shit is going down while duane and sette enjoy a peaceful boatride.
I can dig it.

I like fantasy warfare that's actually crazy and fantastical instead of just medieval style combat.

what a brat

Anyone else /rereading/ here?

>was planning to whore out his daughter if she ever hit puberty
>good father
Pick one.

Maybe later, I've reread it so much though

She said she had to step up to be the boss or lay down and be a whore. She would only have ended up as the ladder if she gave up her current ambitions.

This x1000. Instant respect points for not being lazy and following through on your worldbuilding.

I'm gonna do a big re-read next week. The comic is so dense I want to take another look at everything.

And yet that giant construct is made of nothing but those pymary-proof materials.

Also, spell-slicers are implied to not be all that rare.

The guy's armor is pymary-proof. But it depends on the First Material, right? Swords and armor are usually going to be durable First Materials that are relatively numerous and which are to some extent naturally preserved. But First Glass? Rarer than the righteous, I'd bet. Now maybe you could do something clever and have First Material goggles with a spell of transparency on them, and I don't think that's too complex pymary, but I don't know how effective it'd be for war either.

And let's go even further: maybe that's what that guy's goggles ARE, but the need to join up the transparent First Material with the regular armor leaves a gap that you can exploit to get spellwork straight into the eyes.

>doesn't care about his daughter
>Nary-a-Care
woah...

Re-reading chapter 7 and paying more attention was quite reveailing.

I'm 100% certain Dwayne's brother was involved in his death. Can't believe I missed it the first time.

That's been a pretty popular theory since it happened. A lot of people thought he dug wifey too.

I find it hard to believe someone made that request - ninety percent of you motherfuckers read the comic for their suffering!

I read all of unsounded up to and past chapter 7 in my first reading. I was kind of late to the party, so missed the discussions along the way.

However, on re-read it's so obvious that Ashley was dropping clues. Maybe not even clues. She basically illustrated it.

Lemuel was "on patrol" that night. The patrol wasn't around to help Duane, because they were the ones attacking him. Lemuel even dropped hints as to why when he sparred with Duane earlier.

I want to re-read more now to see what esle I missed.

Yeah... "someone requested in another thread".

Objection! Hearsay!

It was brought up semi-regularly in the update threads whenever it became relevant to the comic or the discussion.
It's more telling, by the way, that Lemuel was there when Duane woke up and took care of him.

Also, sorry about the question on Duane's eyes on your tumblr, I just realized that Lemuel's the one who got him those as I was writing the post I'm replying to, and you had already answered it before I managed to submit another ask.

Anyway, I'm gonna ask here as a test.

Ashley has stated on tumblr that churning out 3 comic pages a week basically eats up all her waking time
>I’m in a bit of a pickle with it, to be frank. It takes me literally every waking hour per week to do three comic pages. If I falter, the buffer slips. I feel guilty even going out for a sandwich these days ‘cause it cuts into my work time.
>I don’t know how I’m going to do a Kickstarter and third book D: The comic art’s gotten so complex I don’t have extra time anymore.

How would user feel about reducing the update page to at least 5 pages every 2 weeks, or 2 pages a week, to give Ashley some time to do things other than drawing? I don't want her to get exhausted with the comic and for its quality to drop, or for her health or lifestyle to become worse.

With this I assume there'd be less need for big breaks to build the buffer back up as well, unless Ashley just needs some time to rewind, as she'd have more time to catch back up if she falls behind, or if her buffer gets too far ahead she could just dump more pages at once.
It gives her a lot more flexibility.

I'd be perfectly fine with 2 pages a week desu, I'd hate for Ashley to get burned out.

I do not at all mind Unsounded taking up all my time. It essentially has for years. It's my job and my passion, and I have that creepy Asian work obsession going on. But when it comes time for additional workload like Kickstarter and a print book, I feel at a bit of a loss. There is no extra time in my schedule for it.

If I have to cut back posting in some manner, it will be for the sake of the next print book, not for any other reason. If I'm not making art, what the hell else would I be doing?

Well, just in case LameAshley do actually be she and she's reading this...

I have no problem if she changes the update schedule. She gives us free comics. What fricking right would I have to complain?

I like her and what she's doing. The reason I don't turn off my patreon subscription when she is on a break even when she says we should is the same reason I wouldn't whinge if she needed to slow updates while she worked on book 3, or for any other reason frankly.

> If I'm not making art, what the hell else would I be doing?
Stealing the first born of unsuspecting couples?

And you see? I'm so fucking slow I didn't get the hints about Lemuel, and Ashley replies while I'm still two finger typing. :P

It's 1am and I'm going to bed to dream of being a slightly quicker cat...

I wouldn't mind just 2 pages a week at all!
Especially if that means she has more time for herself.

Don't swear, mom

I'd be fine with two, ueah. I actually tuned out for a bit in the brothel arc so I had some catching up to do but the comic has been so good recently I wouldn't mind an extra gap. And we'd still get sequences, so

hey ashley i really like your comic and i've read it over more than 3 times probably but i still have no fucking idea what's going on thanks

I can help give a summary, if you'd like!!
-Obnoxious fan

Was that little red vial Sette carried around to control Duane ever explained? I wondered if it was Mikaila's blood.

Gonna use possible author presence + synchronistic chat to run out a crack theory of mine:

>the human soul is something like a first material

Pls confirm/deny. I can show working.

>Humans or their souls
>First material
>Pymary proof or senet beasts

casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php/First_Materials

>implications
user I don't mind talking out what I myself called a crack theory, but that shit isn't even what I said.

The thing that throws me on it is that Timofey was able to be given a personality plucked from the khert.

Timofey wasnt GIVEN a personality plucked from the khert. He IS a personality constructed of fragments of memories meticulously plucked from the Khert to create what is essentially an AI.

Ashley will never confirm/deny anything that has to deal with future plot, and you bet your ass the nature of the soul has to deal with future plot.

I think even using the phrase "First Material" to describe something so obviously immaterial(to a degree) and nonphysical as the Soul is a big mistake that you can very easily mislead yourself with.

How is my statement a disagreement with that? I know that, he's a composite. His personality is composed of things plucked from the khert, which is exactly the thing that throws me.

Dial it down m8.

Timofey himself is evidence that first materials can be insubstantial and it's obvious that a soul has a physical root (it's represented in a physical body).

Timofey is essentially a pymaric version of Cleverbot.

Why does that throw you? Memories are distinct from the soul. Timofey is all memories and no soul, that's why Bastion disparages him so. He's just a super-advanced AI, not a person.

>Timofey himself is evidence that first materials can be insubstantial
First of all, no, secondly, I'm not aware of anything not physical having been descibed as First Material so far.
>a soul has a physical root (it's represented in a physical body)
Don't make such misguided statements about the soul when even in-universe they don't know much about it, and the theories that they do have specifically say that the soul is not bound to a body or anything. Being represented by something physical in no way implies that its roots are physical.

Unsounded is one of those comics that expect you to read all the wiki, formspring, twitter and whatnot to understand what's going on. Casuals not welcome.

I did none of that and understand it pretty well, Duane just vomits exposition nonstop.

Sure, but it's a more resource-driven transaction. The stuff in Timofey came from somewhere and is stored in Timofey, it can't be replicated freely.

OK, so: just going by Ssaelit and Gefendur belief, what happens when you die in Unsounded? Where do you go?

I feel that's untrue, any and everything you need to understand the story is presented in the webcomic itself. The extra material from the places you mentioned merely gives theorizers more material to work with to make better guesses about the more abstract and conceptual aspects of the story. Even then most are far from substantiated.

Both believe that you have some immortal soul that is constantly reincarnated. When you die, your memories slough off into the Khert and your soul gets sent into a new body with a new life to make new memories. Ssaelits believe that you'll do this until your soul is perfected and once that happens you'll meet with Ssael in the Khert. Gefendur have a very similar belief but with the obvious lack of Ssael.

>Both believe that you have some immortal soul that is constantly reincarnated. When you die, your memories slough off into the Khert and your soul gets sent into a new body with a new life to make new memories. Ssaelits believe that you'll do this until your soul is perfected and once that happens you'll meet with Ssael in the Khert. Gefendur have a very similar belief but with the obvious lack of Ssael.
This is pretty much all you need to justify a physical link to the soul, through the khert. The khert links everything, physical and non-physical, so it's a means of connection to everything.

I guess it's to do with the extent to which memories are divested from the soul. This idea originally came about when I was thinking about how plods might work, and why Duane is a special sort of undead.

What do you mean by a physical link? Between the soul and what?

Anything, but most obviously the body it's currently linked to. Physically humans plainly aren't anything like senet beasts or first materials.

Spellwrights use memories from the Khert to give their constructs AI. Plods have the plod collars which house the spell programming. Any memories in the plod collars are solely to aid in the menial labor and direction taking.

Duane meanwhile is special because he has all of his memories, that normally fly apart at death, and his soul binding them all together, for without the soul binding the memories you couldn't really have a person as the belief goes. Now, Rahm didn't believe Bastion when he told him this but why what we've seen Duane do in the Khert this seems to be the case.

I'm not convinced the plods are so innocent as that.

And that 'soul binds his memories' is basically exactly what I mean by the comparison with senet beasts and first materials.

Duane suffering is the point of this comic

Further, our suffering at Duane's suffering is the fuel for our delightful Ms. Cope.

I don't suffer so much as get off.

Did Ashley do any comics prior to Unsounded?

Unsounded started as a comic called Tanners IIRC. I don't know if it was ever put online. Both of them came from a really in-depth roleplaying group she was part of.

She does work on other comics and book covers occasionally, and once did some concept stuff for a metroidvania. And IIRC was/is big into the Vagrant Story fandom.

She did some about her OCs pre-unsounded.

ashleycope.deviantart.com/art/The-Back-of-the-Plague-1-5-97312318

I want to read her other stuff, where can I find them?

yeeessss

I'm still curious about her career though. You don't just decide one day that you're going to make comics out of your roleplaying sessions and bust out something with fantastic art and story. I would know, I've been trying for seven years ;_;

She went to Ringling and did some work designing novelty mugs and bobbleheads for a while before she decided to do the comic IIRC. And you totally do do that if you're a very competent artist and have been building on your hyper-detailed RP world and characters for years and years. It's probably the only thing you really *want* to do.

Hey Ashley could you elaborate on the whole ocean= hell idea that exists in the comic, I'm thinking of taking part in the fanfic contest but I need some background lore to help.

Tanners was a book that she was going to write, but the plot just wasn't working out in her mind, and when she roleplayed with some of the characters from the Tanners idea (Sette and Duane) she realized that they're perfect protagonists and rewrote the plot and some of the world, afaik.
See: unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/154567614385/what-inspired-you-to-make-unsounded-about-duane

If Lemuel was the assassin wouldn't he done something horrible painfully to the guy that stabbed Mikaila?

The khert emanates from the Kasslynian continent, fading as you move further away from the soil of Kasslyne. This means that the ocean has no khert once you're far enough from shore/the ocean bed. Kasslynians (and I use this term to include both Gefendur and Ssaelit) understand that the khert is the engine of reincarnation. The khert is eternity. So if you die and are rejected by the khert, where do you go? Where there is no khert. The ocean. Which is already a black, cold, smothering, lonely, terrifying place and the perfect setting for a culture's concept of Hell.

This is what people believe. Is it literal truth? Who cares, literal truth is boring.

The Ssaelit take the idea of the ocean as Hell very seriously though. They don't eat seafood, they don't swim in the ocean, they do not tend to become sailors or fishers or to serve in the navy. The Gefendur are more chill, and have faith in the Twin Gods to protect the truly faithful from oceanic peril.

Ah, ok. She went to school for art, so she's had formal training; in a sense her life has been building towards Unsounded (in retrospect). I'll still have to keep grinding, myself

Interesting. I'll guess I'll have to lurk around her tumblr. I'm curious as to what other story ideas she's got cooking on her creative backburner.

So for user, it'd probably be better to set your fanfic as someone talking about the ocean, or a story, or a dream, instead of literally in Hell, since it'd have less chance of going horribly against canon.

That is metal as hell.

Unsounded is pretty damn metal when it isnt busy being girly

So both religions believe in reincarnation right? It's just the end result being different, Ssaelits eventually get to chill with Ssael while Gefendurs eventually get to chill with the gods. Though I expect there is a ton of small nuance that any theologian in Kasslyne would smack me for making such a simple comparison.

This fight was fucking awesome. Duane literally using his religion, and his devotion to it, to break Rahm's net was so fucking cool.

Sounds good to me.

True with Ssaelism, but Gefendur dogma is a little different. Getting to chill with the gods is super, super rare and not the result of the perfection of your soul, but rather the result of eventually living one perfectly awesome life. If you are some badass paladin who dedicates his life to charity to please Yerta and then kills a bunch of heathens to please Riv and then makes a bunch of money to please Tirna and also are a total wright badass and scholar to please Baelar, you may in that instance earn the approval of the gods, and be spared from the reincarnation cycle upon your death to dwell in the Outside with them. This has happened only a few hundred times in all of history. The Gefendur church keeps a list of these individuals, called Victori or Vaosa, and people pray to them like Catholic saints.

So in contrast to Ssaelism, which puts the power to escape reincarnation in the human's hands, Gefendur leaves all power and judgement up to the gods.

Still the best fucking magnet I ever bought.

>Vaosa
Haven't we seen this word in the comic already? I seem to recall Duane using it.
Do the Ssaelites also refer to people who escaped reincarnation as Vaosa?

Awesome, thanks for answering.

If I may pester you more, what are the Gefendur thoughts on reincarnation? Ssael has the end goal of escaping it but do the Gefendur just see it as a part of the worlds the gods made or does it have some reason behind it, in universe what would Gefendur theologians say the point of reincarnation is?