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TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:I'd imagine every plat squad has an adult heading it up, much like Duane and Jon do this one. So while Duane killed one caster down there, it's not a guarantee he killed a child (and I suspect the story will go out of its way to show that to the reader at some point, even if Duane himself never finds out.) Cope goes for some big asks from her audience but revealing her main character to be a child murderer is probably too far even for her. Child soldier murder is not the same thing as regular child murder. Like, if the kid has an AK and is shooting at you from a window I feel like blowing them away isn't really a sin, yaknow. Its just sad and horrible psychological warfare and would probably be a perfect catalyst for... I dunno, a signature seething loathing of a certain country.
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# ? Jun 17, 2019 18:35 |
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# ? May 10, 2024 04:25 |
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TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:I'd imagine every plat squad has an adult heading it up, much like Duane and Jon do this one. So while Duane killed one caster down there, it's not a guarantee he killed a child (and I suspect the story will go out of its way to show that to the reader at some point, even if Duane himself never finds out.) Cope goes for some big asks from her audience but revealing her main character to be a child murderer is probably too far even for her. Kinda seems like Duane was cool with zapping some kids though.
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# ? Jun 17, 2019 18:47 |
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Motherfucker posted:Child soldier murder is not the same thing as regular child murder. Like, if the kid has an AK and is shooting at you from a window I feel like blowing them away isn't really a sin, yaknow. Its just sad and horrible psychological warfare and would probably be a perfect catalyst for... I dunno, a signature seething loathing of a certain country. Maybe even a massive, character-defining compulsion to protect children out of a longing for atonement.
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# ? Jun 17, 2019 18:56 |
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I think we're gonna see a reaction to this situation from non-heat-of-the-moment Duane after the action sequence is done. But also, Duane's been consistently characterized as getting short-sighted and violent when confronted with people he hates - it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he didn't even consider it was a child squad up until the other Plat told him. In moments of extremity it's always someone else who holds him back through his worst impulses, and when nobody's around to do that he gets pretty lovely pretty quickly. Jon pretty accurately explained to the reader that Duane is so desperate to prove himself and win the approval of people who hate him that he's willing to do increasingly dangerous things in order to be acknowledged. Duane, unwilling to confront this accurate summation of his personality, tells Jon to piss off, and then proves him right three pages later. Also, the underground plat squad wasn't doing the warfare equivalent of sniping. They were overloading the khert so other spellcasting would become impossible, and then everything would resort to a no-pymary physical attack. Presumably the enemy thinks it has superior physical firepower in this instance, but nothing the underground rebel squad was doing posed a direct physical threat to Duane's squad. I'm not sure what would be the real-world equivalent to that, maybe radio jammers so you couldn't call in air support?
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# ? Jun 17, 2019 19:04 |
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TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:Also, the underground plat squad wasn't doing the warfare equivalent of sniping. They were overloading the khert so other spellcasting would become impossible, and then everything would resort to a no-pymary physical attack. Presumably the enemy thinks it has superior physical firepower in this instance, but nothing the underground rebel squad was doing posed a direct physical threat to Duane's squad. I'm not sure what would be the real-world equivalent to that, maybe radio jammers so you couldn't call in air support? Yeah but functionally they're still posing a mortal threat, therefore its still fine to pop those tots!
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# ? Jun 17, 2019 20:24 |
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TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:Also, the underground plat squad wasn't doing the warfare equivalent of sniping. They were overloading the khert so other spellcasting would become impossible, and then everything would resort to a no-pymary physical attack. Presumably the enemy thinks it has superior physical firepower in this instance, but nothing the underground rebel squad was doing posed a direct physical threat to Duane's squad. I'm not sure what would be the real-world equivalent to that, maybe radio jammers so you couldn't call in air support? at 100% overload the khert ceases to enforce physical laws within the affected region, which would be horrendously fatal that probably wasn't the aim if they're currently getting blitzed by spearmen tho
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# ? Jun 17, 2019 20:28 |
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Oxxidation posted:at 100% overload the khert ceases to enforce physical laws within the affected region, which would be horrendously fatal Well, some physical laws, to varying degrees, at random. It's still not great. Sette's khert fire in Ethelmik was a small-scale version of that. They didn't want it to be a large-scale version for sure but the first responders didn't, you know, explode. quote:Nah, not cancer. What happens is the khert is temporarily damaged when you exceed Mogul’s Number - permanently damaged in hot spots along the border - and it can’t instantiate the world properly. Material Aspects go all out of whack. Your whole body is made of Materials, of course, and when you go into those areas you run the risk of having your Aspects ripped out or altered, perhaps permanently. It’s a low risk though, since your soul is a good glue that keeps you together pretty well. Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Jun 17, 2019 |
# ? Jun 17, 2019 21:08 |
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Wait then what about those places with no khert at all.
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# ? Jun 18, 2019 17:49 |
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Kyte posted:Wait then what about those places with no khert at all. pretty sure thats just the ocean... which is why death at sea is considered the worst
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# ? Jun 18, 2019 18:40 |
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Kyte posted:Wait then what about those places with no khert at all. the khert is limited entirely to the kasslynian continent apparently, everywhere else is a Here Be Dragons to the continent's natives kasslynians literally drop dead from infection without the khert to sustain their bodies, to the point where vessels that sail especially far from land need some manner of khert infusion to keep their crews alive
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# ? Jun 18, 2019 19:57 |
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Right, that makes sense, because they've become dependent on it, but it begs the question about how does physical reality itself hold in place where there's no khert since apparently it's the khert that keeps the material aspects in place and such.
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# ? Jun 18, 2019 23:01 |
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i think the sea might have just been there first
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# ? Jun 18, 2019 23:26 |
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That could've gone better.
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# ? Jun 19, 2019 10:08 |
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In before the 'He's half the man he used to be' jokes. Wait. Oops.
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# ? Jun 19, 2019 10:43 |
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http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch14/ch14_58.html Should have heeded Duane's advice. Anyway that was a whole bunch of pages. http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch14/ch14_63.html Cat Mattress fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Jun 19, 2019 |
# ? Jun 19, 2019 12:55 |
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buttloada pages, everything's probably hosed (someone else got the link, good) edit: Okay that is not quite how I expected this to go! I guess that's what an area with damaged khert looks like, it gets a little confused about whether the ground is rocks or uh that also don't gently caress with spellmaster adelier rip Jon Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Jun 19, 2019 |
# ? Jun 19, 2019 15:37 |
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So the talk about the khert and dependence on it makes me wonder what happens to two-toes in areas where the khert is damaged. They don't have that 'soul' keeping them glued together, but they also don't have than inherent dependence on the khert. I imagine they could do quite well at sea.
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# ? Jun 19, 2019 17:50 |
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No, they do have a soul, it's just different from a human soul. The khert still holds their material aspects and wrights can cast spells on them, they're regular matter as far as the khert's concerned. They don't have the ability to get rited and command it the way humans do, and the way their soul is structured means their memories don't go into the khert forever, but they're not immune to its effects the way senet beasts and first materials are. As far as the khert's concerned humans are in a special class.
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# ? Jun 20, 2019 03:12 |
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TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:No, they do have a soul, it's just different from a human soul. The khert still holds their material aspects and wrights can cast spells on them, they're regular matter as far as the khert's concerned. They don't have the ability to get rited and command it the way humans do, and the way their soul is structured means their memories don't go into the khert forever, but they're not immune to its effects the way senet beasts and first materials are.
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# ? Jun 20, 2019 04:12 |
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Love it when "Did you die?" is a legitimate question you could ask about a story.
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# ? Jun 24, 2019 22:40 |
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Not-really-spoilery tumblrchat about Duane and the flashback:quote:Anonymous asked: You mentioned that this is the first time Duane's thought about this story since he died. He seems really shaken up describing Jon's death. Have the years and his own death changed the way he views Jon? Is he suddenly realizing that maybe Jon was right about his motives?
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# ? Jun 26, 2019 03:21 |
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That's good stuff. Character building should happen in every scene. Every writer knows this, but it is hard to pull off in practice and Cope did a good job of it here.
Skippy McPants fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Jun 26, 2019 |
# ? Jun 26, 2019 14:36 |
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New updates, and the Dhammakhert has a new, terrible use to add to it's growing list of atrocities.
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# ? Jul 15, 2019 13:24 |
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Not as atrocious, however, as spoiling the story!
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# ? Jul 15, 2019 14:09 |
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Speaking of spoilers, I've figured out what Roger and Sonorie are doing: I asked about the mechanics of the curse on Patreon and got the reply "the thing is... no one knows how the Etalarche curse works. This is why it is so rarely used and ultimately, as we'll see, so valuable. It suggests spellwork that's either been forgotten or that is so intrinsically a part of the Dammakhert's architecture that its very use is potentially exploitable by outsiders." Roger deliberately went back to Alderode specifically to get hit by the curse, which IS some form of intrinsic modification done by the dammakhert (but not elsewhere.) He then returns to Cresce and lets the Black Tongues flay his soul to reverse engineer the curse, with the intent of Cresce then using it on the heads of the Aldish state. Additionally, since it's so intrinsic to the dammakhert, this is the mechanism by which Sonorie intends to dissolve the castes completely, preventing new Aldish children from being born into each caste and wiping out the demographic underpinnings of Aldish society. That's her peaceful solution - the complete defeat of Alderode with nearly no violence. I think they needed Ruck to help with the soul mapping, and possibly bit off more than they could chew with him once he was fully up and around.
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# ? Jul 15, 2019 17:49 |
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Ash's tumblr posted:Secret message to BizzAnon: Pretty close, though you’ve not touched the domestic politics she’s also wrangling that said we'd already theorized and were fairly confident with part of your theory Goatse James Bond fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Jul 15, 2019 |
# ? Jul 15, 2019 19:21 |
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The domestic politics she's wrangling also depend really heavily on whether or not Bell was in open rebellion prior to becoming Ruck's afternoon snack or not. If Bell was openly rebellions before being Ruck Puppy Chow, then Ruck's just exacerbating what was already happening. If Ruck was the force that pushed Bell from dissatisfaction into actual treason, it's a very different circumstance. So far I haven't seen evidence in the text either way, so I'm not really sure if Sonorie's biggest domestic foe is Bell or Ruck. Sonorie is very unpopular, but a large portion of that seems to be because 1) she married Roger, 2) she pulled support for Roger's rebellion halfway through (because she had a better idea but the populace doesn't know it), 3) she refuses to heat up the war with Alderode despite doing so being a popular move among the Crescians and 4) she's transparently in bed with the Black Tongues. If she pulls off her plan as written, and properly controls the narrative afterward, she wins completely: Roger will be dead, or near enough as so not to matter, Alderode will be utterly destroyed, and Crescian lives won't be lost in a hot war. She's got a real problem on her hands with Ruck taking over the Black Tongues, but she is already planning on killing him as soon as he's no longer useful. The problem is that Bastion and Cutter have run off with Delicieu's research, meaning that the Black Tongues are not currently able to utilize the information they've gotten out of Roger to finish the plan. They need Delicieu's notes to fully contextualize their data, so Sonorie is stalled out with multiple dangers hanging over her head. If she pulls it off, she's an unquestioned legend, but there's a very, very good chance she dies, and because this Unsounded, something even worse happens with all the groundwork she's laid.
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# ? Jul 15, 2019 20:16 |
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If they dismantle the caste system, that on its own wouldn't end the immortal hellwar. They'd just be fighting a war against more normal humans. There's gotta be mass murder involved somewhere along the line.
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# ? Jul 15, 2019 21:34 |
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Eh, Alderode would probably go through a massive civil war of their own without the damakhert to keep the lower castes in line and the gerontocracy all dying of being like a zillion years old and suddenly normal again. I'm sure Cresce could back the pro-communism side that would eventually arise, even if it's on the down-low, and use the opportunity to prepare for any future war.
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# ? Jul 15, 2019 23:07 |
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i suspect the longlived caste members wouldnt die immediately. the changes the dammakhert makes happen early and are permanent, so theyd be okay individually. the castes would dwindle and die out because all their kids would be typical human souds, but that effect would take a few decades to really start showing up
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# ? Jul 16, 2019 04:08 |
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I don't think it would undo the changes that already exist, like a plat would stay a plat, but any future children would not be born into a caste. The caste system is absolutely fundamental to Aldish society, the end of it would create chaos, and Cresce might still have the ability to use the Etalarche curse on any leaders that subsequently arose. Also remember that the Aldish Gefendur and Ssaelit are perpetually at each other's throats anyway, to the point where one of the four Aldish leaders was ignoring Cresce in favor of literally exporting a contained plague to predominantly Gefendur areas. Aldish society is shredding itself already, ending the caste system for future generations would send it plunging over the edge. It wouldn't be an instantaneous victory but it would be a complete one. TheFuzzyLumpkin fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Jul 16, 2019 |
# ? Jul 16, 2019 15:17 |
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Suddenly it makes sense that Duane didn't see the silver weapon doing its dirty work in Alderode, just what looked like a good old fashioned rioting mob- what if Sonorie's little tools of destruction land in the hands of someone that decides to say, curse every non-foreigner or non-Soud in Alderode to be filled with murderous intent at each other? Or towards Soud... or Ssaelit... or heck, Gefendur! All out religious warfare! I mean as far as Cresce is concerned the end result would be the firey destruction of Alderode, so its not like it would be BAD for them, just uh totally not what Sonorie probably had in mind.
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# ? Jul 17, 2019 21:55 |
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Tar_Squid posted:Suddenly it makes sense that Duane didn't see the silver weapon doing its dirty work in Alderode, just what looked like a good old fashioned rioting mob- what if Sonorie's little tools of destruction land in the hands of someone that decides to say, curse every non-foreigner or non-Soud in Alderode to be filled with murderous intent at each other? Or towards Soud... or Ssaelit... or heck, Gefendur! All out religious warfare! He did see the silver weapon and what looked like Crescian constructs, though.
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# ? Jul 17, 2019 23:14 |
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okay turns out i was wrong about the funny faces in the rock being JUST the khert malfunctioning and twisting the rock into human shapes
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# ? Jul 20, 2019 02:24 |
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those are some stupendously dead children
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# ? Jul 20, 2019 02:41 |
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also one more reason for me to kinda like claggart: he is keeping his poo poo together extremely well at a time when it would be quite reasonable to lose it
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# ? Jul 20, 2019 06:51 |
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Yes, "fucky" is a technical term.
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# ? Jul 20, 2019 10:15 |
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christ this comic is something else
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# ? Jul 20, 2019 10:32 |
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ill say this for unsounded, it doesnt glamorize war
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# ? Jul 20, 2019 10:35 |
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# ? May 10, 2024 04:25 |
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It's interesting to see Duane's reaction, he's losing it in the moment and somehow was able to rationalize/repress so much of it later.
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# ? Jul 20, 2019 16:06 |