Another line I’ve been sitting on for several years now…
Digger
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Digger by Ursula Vernon is powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS Feed
Another line I’ve been sitting on for several years now…
Digger by Ursula Vernon is powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS Feed
Exposition incoming!
If we’re lucky, Neither Jhalim himself nor a DIRECT, PERSONAL, Ancestor were Helix’s original employer.
We’re not that lucky.
Options:
1. Jhalim’s turned traitor, and is trying to release the god even though he knows better.
2. The god had itself imprisoned for some bizarre reason, and hired helix to do so.
3. a third party, with very good knowledge and reason, had the god imprisoned.
I’m betting on #1
Quick notice
‘Free -him-?’
That cuts down the amount of Gods to – well – gods, not godesses. Another score for the ‘He-is’ camp, I suppose
Personally, That line sounds like the god had himself chained up.
maybe he chained himself because he doesn’t want to be influenced from the Demon again…
It can’t be Jhalim, unless Jhalim is secretly over a thousand years old. (I guess that’d explain why he’s so cranky, but.)
So to me it seems more like Helix isn’t responding to who says it should be done as much as why they say it should be done, and the person who commissioned it is someone who knows better than to free the god (probably the god himself).
Great, so either He-Is is masochistic or someone was a careless jailkeeper. Perhaps things really do get messy when you serve too many gods.
Getting caught up is so bitter-sweet.
But yeah, Haven’s right. No way Jhalim’s over a thousand years old. And sorry Wuse, but Helix’s reaction doesn’t lead me to believe that it was the god that had himself chained up, although I did have that same thought.
So, I’m sorry Krenn, but #3 seems the most likely. Possibly She-is-fiercer, or maybe another god, but since wombats are hesitant to work /with/ gods that seems unlikely to me. Maybe it was one of the veiled though. Not an ancestor, but being of the same order would make sense. Or maybe the hyenas, and there were a few that didn’t agree with having him chained, and that’s why there were some as his servants. Maybe….
Also, when did Murai drop the order? “The head of my order – former order”
And now I wait….
“didn’t do too badly” must be high praise coming from a wombat. I am horrible at speculation, so I will refrain from doing so other than to say I can’t wait for the exposition.
If Helix can get his descendants made divinely pry-proof as part of the payment, presumably Jhalm easily could have been granted agelessness for some task on behalf of one divinity or another. Gods do things like that; Tithonus the Greek myth was merely example of an absent-minded request. Heck, it may even be a standard job perk for head of the Veiled.
And it would certainly explain why Jhalm seemed to be so reflexively irritated by Digger: his last experience with a Wombat was probably not the happiest in his career, nor go as simply and smoothly as he’d hoped at the outset.
Although that does send roaminig through my mind the question of how Helix was hired. Job listing in a newspaper? “Wanted: expert metalsmith for fantastic project. Suitable applicant may name their own price…”?
I doubt that Helix means Jhalm personally. I think he’s referring to the Veiled as being the ones who commissioned the god’s imprisonment. Jhalm also fought against the dark servants when they came out of the hole, which… might mean nothing.
What would the slugs say?
@ Argent: “Gots any beer?”
Can I get a “dun dun dunnnnnnnnn”?
…annnnd cue PLOT TWIST! (Though I can’t picture Ursula doing a hula dance like MissMab.)
And it’s Jhalm, not Jhalim…
What an update for a Thursday, you’ll have us guessing all weekend. my bet is on He-is chaining himself up to prevent Sweet-grass Voice from doing any more mischief with him, on another note, does Grim Eyes know which god this is? or just that it has hyenas working for it.
Oh snap….
I don’t think Jhalim will turn out to be a villain. He’s not nefarious, he’s not in it for power or domination, he doesn’t want to end the world or kill the gods or anything. Jhalim is just as wicked as he needs to be while being precisely what he says he is: a maniac zealot. Plus, that makes it a thousand times more complicated than it would otherwise be. He’s bad, violent, scary, and intolerant… but maybe he’s also sometimes right!
A God was heavily involved in the binding; remember the note on the shackles, “Never sign a work-for-hire contract *with a God*”. The only Gods we’ve been introduced to clearly so far are Ganesh (who knows nothing about it), the Black Mother (who I believe was only created recently), She-Is-Fiercer and He-Is. Only She-Is-Fiercer and He-Is seem to be plausible suspects. She-Is-Fiercer’s motive seems pretty easy, and He-Is could have done it to avoid Sweetgrass Demon’s influence and allow himself to at last die from his guilt. I think it has to be one of them.
Digger’s first line for next week (predicted, and not by a clairvoyant, so take with mass quantities of salt): *blink blink* *a sigh and an expression of deep resignation, with a touch of disapproval just out of habit* “Please tell me you mean the Veiled in general, and you’re not saying that Jhalm is a thousand years old.”
my question is – is the being who had the god chained also involved in keeping him alive? somehow, if he-is had himself chained, i can’t see him also wanting to be kept alive in such a horrific fashion. i suppose she-is might be that vindictive…or maybe guilty (you know, feeling bad for having him chained and not wanting him to die like that – and maybe not forseeing what keeping him alive would be like). or is it something that happened to he-is through the intervention of a third party or parties? like maybe some hyena males who worshiped he-is for standing up to female domination…
also, i wish we could have heard the debate among the veiled about what to do about this undead god…
I think the imprisoned god is the male hyena god he-is
1) In the Indian Pantheon there are lots of gods. Jhalm is definitely not serving Ganesh. In fact he shot down one of Ganesh’s flying rats. So who could he be serving? Well after checking All Janes Divinities 2009 it’s probably Ratri or the god who drove Jhalm insane. Kali? Unlikely. Not bloodthirsty enough and he might have broken several of Kali’s laws I think.
2) Jhalm probably is an immortal as abb3w says most likely, but we can’t rule out that Jhalm might be a title or a common name like “John” or given to people born under these omens.
3) And the god who drove Murai insane was changed. Jhalm might be wanting to free the god and then change him. Being chained up and in agony for a long time may cause some sanity loss…
Y’kow, until I read down here, I never considered the possibility that Helix was referring to anyone other than the Veiled, as his past employer.
I doubt Jhalim has been around that long. He’s too short sighted to pull off immortality.
He’s supposed to be a servant of all the gods, including the laughing god, but he doesn’t really understand Ganesh well enough to be of any service, so they butt heads.
He pawns it off as serving the other gods, because he thinks they really do back his simple minded position. “He will not knowingly defy the will of Heaven.”
Is it not common for mythologies to involve primdoral dieities who were slain by the present pantheon? Prehaps there is someting of this involved.
Oh my… I have read the whole of this in the last 24 hours… and now I was very perplexed when I didn’t have a next button anymore. I love the whole of this. This is not a comic, this is a dramatic comedy that just happens to be done in a comic fashion, at least this is how I explained it to my friend. Thank you!
I thought it was pretty darned clear from that line that Helix means that the order of the veiled is the group that imprisoned He-Is. Very likely, He-Is was trying to destroy She-Is-Fiercer, and any that would stand in his way.
No Wolf, it is not clear. Jhalm may be a name, a title, a position, immortal, or something else. Although you may be right.
Yeah, the Veiled being the ones to imprison the god was the impression I got, too.
Well, THERE’s a helluva revelation…
If the Veiled serve many gods, can’t He-Is be one of those gods they serve? Or She-Is-Fiercer for that matter? Maybe each individual within the Veiled have one they serve more?
KNO3: When was Jhalm driven insane?
I interpreted Helix as meaning the Veiled, the dead god, or Ganesh in conjunction with the dead god. I am hoping and expecting that Jhalm is not up to any mischief, just severely misguided (quite probably by Sweetgrass Voice).
@Snuffle: I think that if it was info from a clairvoyant, given the ones in this story, salt would be most unwelcome.
It’s kinda fun to read all this speculation well after the fact.