Toph and Matty for best blind children in western weeb media
What do Crescian and Aldish nationalists see as the end-goal of their war? I imagine Alds want to spread the dammakhert as far south as possible and maybe abolish the monarchy and Crescians want to destroy the dammakhert and Ssaelism.
It’s varied over the centuries, but you have listed the major angles that have driven them both in the past.
At present, Cresce is ostensibly in a defensive position, claiming that Alderode struck first and is occupying one of their bordertowns. Alderode claims that it is merely retaliating for Cresce sending spies and militants (surveyors) over the border, and that it will take a piece of Cresce into itself to send a message.
The Aldish deep state has other reasons for its international aggression however, just as Cresce probably is hiding something itself. This’ll all come out in the next few chapters.
if you want the rewards of finding a new favorite song then you have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of listening to unfamiliar music
Does cresce have any sub-nationalities and ethnicitys, or did the state convince people they're all the same?
–The three main groups are the Jarlans, Northern Crescians, and the Kusmen in the south. Their differences are minor in the modern era, enduring only in traditional songs and some of the stories surrounding the Victori. Our Captain Toma is from the Sava family who are part of an agrarian folk called the Klipou. They get teased for being rural and slow on the uptake, but are a very upstanding and honest people.
If Unsounded was prose I would play up these subgroups much more heavily. The Sonories are North Crescian, as was the legendary Crescia, while General Bell’s people are Jarlans. When Crescia was consolidating her power and uniting the country, the Jarlan river people were her fiercest critics, so much so that Crescia was afraid if she went through with her ultimate goal of dissolving the monarchy that the Jarlan leadership would seize control upon her death and run Cresce into the ground. Peace came a few generations later when Crescia’s descendants made a pact with the Jarlans, establishing the capital and the royal palace on a massive man-made lake along their holy river’s course.
This stuff is all ancient history now but some weirdos like Bell hang on to it, and a few old school Crescians doggedly perpetuate stereotypes. It’s not a driving motivation for Bell, but it adds a little texture to his distaste for Queen Sonorie.
idk if i have posted this on here yet, but i made it back in 2022 when i spent spring equinox up in Scotland and saw the land wake up and bloom. once again been on my travels this equinox but I haven’t had time to draw yet so happy spring fellow northerners the sun is back
Genuine praise and applause here, you've achieved something unprecedented to me as a reader: I feel shaken and uncertain about a protagonist I once liked, but also still completely invested in their story.
Right now (I've just read 18-80 to 84) I feel you've struck a great balance of surprise (at Duane) and trust (in your story). Perhaps because no single choice of Duane's felt out-of-character, as they slowly added up? I honestly can't predict how I'll feel about him and his flaws by the end of Unsounded, but for once, I'm enjoying that unease! Because of the care you've taken in building your characters so far, I at least still have faith in *you* to reach a satisfying ending.
Oh this should be a question, hmm. Were you at all tempted to foreshadow Duane's recent/future choices more obviously (by character or plot), softening a bit of the impact for a smoother story? Because again, I'm glad you didn't – perfectly threaded needle to keep me captivated.
So glad you're having a good time!
I hope Duane's current state is pretty well telegraphed, though I know it can be hard to remember past instances when the webcomic delivery spaces everything out. He's repeatedly shown himself to be hypocritical and selective in regards to kids. The army story ended with him continuing to train babies in the killing arts and accepting a false narrative that he had never let one of them die. This led right into him turning a blind eye to the Litriya twins for the sake of helping the Aldish invaders get to the construct facility. He felt AWFUL about this - we saw it - and tried to make up for it, but even that very action was already going against what was said in the black water: God is not attainable by transaction. Duane was trying to erase that debt to Litriya. It doesn't work that way! Like Claggart said, you got to acknowledge your mistakes and keep moving.
Duane started to. He truly did, when he spoke to Lori and the Peaceguard, then moved to go defend the shrine. But then Mikaila was there in the sky and all development was cut short in tandem with his poor rotten head.
What did he see when he and Toma and Elka approached Port Morstorben's ravaged gate? Not all the dead bodies. Not a vision of Sara asking him to help defend her people. Instead Duane saw Lemuel and Leysa and Mikaila. The eels have always known exactly how to steer Duane towards his worst self, and they use his best self to do it. They use his blind love for his family, his loyalty towards his homeland, and his faith in God. These can all be fantastic attributes or they can make a monster.
So yeah, I feel like the foreshadowing is there pretty thick. What makes it still compelling, I hope, is Duane's selfishness and reluctance to change are so often counterbalanced by his earnest desire to make things better and to help the people around him as individuals, in the moment. There's not an ounce of real malice in the man, but when Duane stews, he often talks himself into making the wrong choice. When he acts with all the compulsion of a big-hearted protector, he tends towards selfless compassion.
Curious if this could work mechanically- could the shield be altered to only allow first silver in? This would better keep the civvies out once the bubble went down and maybe weaken the silver by causing it to shed some flesh. I think Duane did something similar way back in ch. 9 with Boo’s first brass, too.
Nay. Darkest says in the first panel that the hub can't analyze the First Silver. It's grown too massive and is rendering the khert unstable. At this point the best the hub can do is what it's been doing, and that's a complete but computationally simple Contour blockade.
Foooortunately, while the Queen's camp is ignorant to their presence, we should not ourselves forget that Duane Adelier and his Peaceguard keepers are not very far off. And they ain't no slumps.
Vliegeng air raid is on its way too though... wouldn't it be funny if...
Everyone's gonna die! D:
Hello! This is a tumblr blog. I do stuff. Actually I don't really do stuff, I just reblog things. Yup. That's about it. Banner art is by @painter-marx, icon is by @rifuye
157 posts