When I first started reading this, Ganesh-statue had a deep, Americanized voice in my mind, possibly Morgan Freeman (would make sense, I suppose). Now, it’s definitely, definitely Stephen Fry. 😀
psychic grapes, broadcasting updated weather reports to anyone coming in range of their little brains, always accurate, always telling you the weather right there right then.
“If anything, it is odd that we are not hip-deep in such magical echos of the past.”
When i was a child i used to wander why you didn’t see more dead animals lying around (i was a strange child: i still am) . One day my father explained that the reason we are not hip-deep in dead animals is everything has some sort of value as an energy source because its above absolute zero, and so if you try hard enough it can be used a fuel.. or food. He explained why some things are not used a fuel, such as rocks, because the energy it would take HUMANS to exploit them would be VASTLY more than they would gain. He then explained about rock-digesting bacteria from deep caves in the world. Leave something, anything around long enough, and no mater how low the returns in terms of energy, something will evolve to eat it. Hence why even the really undigestible bits of dead animals such as sheep’s wool or feather will eventually get eaten by moths, well, actually their young. And if it did not the world would be chocked in old feathers. Oh, carrion beetles and flies (or their young) take the easier to eat bits, but no mater how undigestable, the reason we are not hip-deep in stuff is given enough time, something will evolve to eat anything. And from such humble creatures, born in dead sheep or birds mostly, is the world kept clear for new life.
Well said, BR. I could probably add a bit about inorganic factors, erosion, Chaos Theory and entropy, but it would be unnecessary and beside the point. Or rather, it wouldn’t contribute significantly to the point.
Besides, every once in a while I have to try NOT to sound like Dr. Ian Malcolm …
so, to recap… sweet grass is the ghost of a famine elemental (I assume) from a different plane of existence, which was worshiped as a god, until it was killed by a hedgehog and the ghost of a bird forty thousand years ago. It then corrupted he-is who is latter exiled for his actions, and is now chained up underground by dwarfs and wombats that were commissioned to do so by a god. (as read on the shackles) He -is is being kept alive by cold servants who feed off his blood and wear masks that look like sweet grass, but are actually descendants of those who followed he-is into exile…. and now we have Digger the wombat, and shadow child who came from a dead bird. Hmmmmmmm. interesting. so i guess that makes shadow child a ghost?
@BunnyRock As a child you wondered about dead animals, as an adult you study dead civilizations, a good progress if i do say so myself, but this is of course coming from someone who is fearlessly proud of the fact he is going to spend the rest of his live studying things that have been dead for mlillions of years.
Hey out of curiosity how are the girls in archaeology? Cause I’ve been given to understand that pretty girl paleontologists have yet to be spotted, I was wondering if this was just an field thing or if it’s some genetic relation between the beauty genes and the gene responsible for an attraction to things that have been that for a really long time.
So given that they aren’t “Hi-deep in magic echoes from the past” it’s safe to assume that much like the natural system you described, there are some creatures in their world that feed on old magic and possibly old gods (and poops science, the inner comedian makes me add). Boy I would hate to run into that can actually eat an old god.
Ok, one question, if the hyenas have been there guarding the body since the beginning, where the heck were they when the dwarfs and the wombats imprisoned him?
Now i want a farming videogame in which you have to learn to be careful not to crop in parts of the ground which are rotten with magic or your vegetables would grow to attack you. Unless of course you’re already experienced enough to fight the Vampirized Squashes and use them as fertilizer of the best quality. Best Harvest Moon ever.
I see that I have yet again arrived after another (in this case, Wuse) has voiced my observation.
Interesting point, anon, that Shadowchild eats something that isn’t eaten by any other species (as far as we know), and since shadows actually exist (based on Shadowchild’s interactions with the shadows on hearts and physical matter, although I don’t trust my memory of it interactong with anything but the swords, which were special, and the environment [including Digger’s pickaxe] which could have been Shadowchild reacting), they can’t simply dissipate once the physical anchor of a human body has decomposed. Maybe Shadowilk are sort of elemental, personifications of something that doesn’t exist in a way that can be percieved by humans?
Yes, Lica! Rune Field: A Theopunk Harvest Moon!
I wonder if dead gods (not necessarily /that/ that dead god) have anything to do with the vampire squash, or if they are just normal around there, or have “living” supernatural entities or forces as a cause?
@Flewellyn: I just got that reference. And I have no excuse: when I tell people about this comic and they say “Ursula who?” that’s what I use. LOL WUT?
@anon: well… yes. We have a land that should be, but is not, riddled by magical echoes, or shadows if you will, of past deeds. We have a creature that eats shadows. Give nature a niche and no matter how bizarre, it will be filled. I expect that fact this particular part of the ecosystem is magical/divine wouldn’t even make a difference.
@Shadw21: Possible, but not likely. The dead bird’s ghost was there 40,000 years ago; given how inquisitive Shadowchild is, I doubt he would remain as naive as he seems to be for that long a time.
Hmm. The Fermi Paradox of Past Divinity: in an universe in which the supernatural doesn’t decay spontaneously, where are all the old gods?
Unless it’s a similar set-up to Pratchett’s Discworld, in which the total amount of ‘supernatural reality’ is fixed or determined by the population, and the amount of belief in a particular entity determines how ‘real’ it is? So Ganesh’s presence is fairly secure, with the support of his acolytes; the Dead One is anchored by the Masked Ones’ belief and (if hypotheses are correct) the Hyenas’ belief in What Was He-Is; presumably the general belief in demons is enough to anchor the Shadowchild (if it truly is a novice demon).
They should try planting squash there.
Aw, Visi beat me to it! “My point, Burrower, is not horticultural” is perhaps the best line I’ve heard in the history of lines.
The last panel with the statue is well done. I do wonder though… It was killed by a burrowing animal and something that was once a bird…. Hmmmmm…….
Wow, deep insight Wuse! I always manage to just barely forget the shadowchild right before it crops up again, which means it must be due soon.
Ganesh’s statue’s logic astounds me.
Hmmm… indeed. And “shade” or “shadow” is sometimes used to mean “ghost.”
LOVE the everyday acceptance of utter bizarreness in this country.
“It’s lettuce or nothing, I fear.” Priceless.
When I first started reading this, Ganesh-statue had a deep, Americanized voice in my mind, possibly Morgan Freeman (would make sense, I suppose). Now, it’s definitely, definitely Stephen Fry. 😀
“It’s lettuce or nothing, I fear.”
Definitely.
I will not risk eggplant.
The very fact that that makes sense is wonderful.
I imagine any pear trees planted there would bear fruit with large, toothsome mouths…
I WANT FIGHTING TOMATOES!! In a little coliseum. Too cool.
ANd my thoughts exactly Wuse.
psychic grapes, broadcasting updated weather reports to anyone coming in range of their little brains, always accurate, always telling you the weather right there right then.
Anna, now he sounds like Stephen Fry to me, too.
Thank you.
Wow Wuse, I had never thought of that connection. What a wonderful thought for me to contemplate for a while.
Dear God, that makes so much sense it’s scary.
“If anything, it is odd that we are not hip-deep in such magical echos of the past.”
When i was a child i used to wander why you didn’t see more dead animals lying around (i was a strange child: i still am) . One day my father explained that the reason we are not hip-deep in dead animals is everything has some sort of value as an energy source because its above absolute zero, and so if you try hard enough it can be used a fuel.. or food. He explained why some things are not used a fuel, such as rocks, because the energy it would take HUMANS to exploit them would be VASTLY more than they would gain. He then explained about rock-digesting bacteria from deep caves in the world. Leave something, anything around long enough, and no mater how low the returns in terms of energy, something will evolve to eat it. Hence why even the really undigestible bits of dead animals such as sheep’s wool or feather will eventually get eaten by moths, well, actually their young. And if it did not the world would be chocked in old feathers. Oh, carrion beetles and flies (or their young) take the easier to eat bits, but no mater how undigestable, the reason we are not hip-deep in stuff is given enough time, something will evolve to eat anything. And from such humble creatures, born in dead sheep or birds mostly, is the world kept clear for new life.
Well said, BR. I could probably add a bit about inorganic factors, erosion, Chaos Theory and entropy, but it would be unnecessary and beside the point. Or rather, it wouldn’t contribute significantly to the point.
Besides, every once in a while I have to try NOT to sound like Dr. Ian Malcolm …
😉
Wait a sec BunnyRock…. are you talking about the shadowchild?
so, to recap… sweet grass is the ghost of a famine elemental (I assume) from a different plane of existence, which was worshiped as a god, until it was killed by a hedgehog and the ghost of a bird forty thousand years ago. It then corrupted he-is who is latter exiled for his actions, and is now chained up underground by dwarfs and wombats that were commissioned to do so by a god. (as read on the shackles) He -is is being kept alive by cold servants who feed off his blood and wear masks that look like sweet grass, but are actually descendants of those who followed he-is into exile…. and now we have Digger the wombat, and shadow child who came from a dead bird. Hmmmmmmm. interesting. so i guess that makes shadow child a ghost?
Ursula’s next project=Digger prequel with hedgehog
I just keep bookmarking page after page. So much wonderful stuff to revisit…
when I finally finish the archives, I’m setting up the RSS feed for my livejournal, and asking Ursula if I might make LJ icons… *happy sigh*
but yes, hip-deep in magical echoes of the past… mmm.
@BunnyRock As a child you wondered about dead animals, as an adult you study dead civilizations, a good progress if i do say so myself, but this is of course coming from someone who is fearlessly proud of the fact he is going to spend the rest of his live studying things that have been dead for mlillions of years.
Hey out of curiosity how are the girls in archaeology? Cause I’ve been given to understand that pretty girl paleontologists have yet to be spotted, I was wondering if this was just an field thing or if it’s some genetic relation between the beauty genes and the gene responsible for an attraction to things that have been that for a really long time.
So given that they aren’t “Hi-deep in magic echoes from the past” it’s safe to assume that much like the natural system you described, there are some creatures in their world that feed on old magic and possibly old gods (and poops science, the inner comedian makes me add). Boy I would hate to run into that can actually eat an old god.
Ok, one question, if the hyenas have been there guarding the body since the beginning, where the heck were they when the dwarfs and the wombats imprisoned him?
Now i want a farming videogame in which you have to learn to be careful not to crop in parts of the ground which are rotten with magic or your vegetables would grow to attack you. Unless of course you’re already experienced enough to fight the Vampirized Squashes and use them as fertilizer of the best quality. Best Harvest Moon ever.
There’s just too much to say about this page and the writing t get into. Most pages are awesome, this transcended that to “Epic”
Wuse – I hadn’t got the connection until I read your comment, but yeah…..very interesting
Dammit Jim, I’m a statue, not a gardener!
I see that I have yet again arrived after another (in this case, Wuse) has voiced my observation.
Interesting point, anon, that Shadowchild eats something that isn’t eaten by any other species (as far as we know), and since shadows actually exist (based on Shadowchild’s interactions with the shadows on hearts and physical matter, although I don’t trust my memory of it interactong with anything but the swords, which were special, and the environment [including Digger’s pickaxe] which could have been Shadowchild reacting), they can’t simply dissipate once the physical anchor of a human body has decomposed. Maybe Shadowilk are sort of elemental, personifications of something that doesn’t exist in a way that can be percieved by humans?
Yes, Lica! Rune Field: A Theopunk Harvest Moon!
I wonder if dead gods (not necessarily /that/ that dead god) have anything to do with the vampire squash, or if they are just normal around there, or have “living” supernatural entities or forces as a cause?
@Flewellyn: I just got that reference. And I have no excuse: when I tell people about this comic and they say “Ursula who?” that’s what I use. LOL WUT?
@anon: well… yes. We have a land that should be, but is not, riddled by magical echoes, or shadows if you will, of past deeds. We have a creature that eats shadows. Give nature a niche and no matter how bizarre, it will be filled. I expect that fact this particular part of the ecosystem is magical/divine wouldn’t even make a difference.
Could the ghost of the dead bird be the ghost of the bird that raised/birthed Shadowchild?
@Shadw21: Possible, but not likely. The dead bird’s ghost was there 40,000 years ago; given how inquisitive Shadowchild is, I doubt he would remain as naive as he seems to be for that long a time.
Hmm. The Fermi Paradox of Past Divinity: in an universe in which the supernatural doesn’t decay spontaneously, where are all the old gods?
Unless it’s a similar set-up to Pratchett’s Discworld, in which the total amount of ‘supernatural reality’ is fixed or determined by the population, and the amount of belief in a particular entity determines how ‘real’ it is? So Ganesh’s presence is fairly secure, with the support of his acolytes; the Dead One is anchored by the Masked Ones’ belief and (if hypotheses are correct) the Hyenas’ belief in What Was He-Is; presumably the general belief in demons is enough to anchor the Shadowchild (if it truly is a novice demon).
Is anyone else reminded of Jack Vance, the Dying Earth?
Oh and also: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes