Page 1545…
EDIT: I thought today was THURSDAY…ack.
I wanted to let you all know that my buddy Hans has a new book out!
Please click on the image above and check out his book. It’s available on the Kindle and in physical book form through Amazon!
Hi all!
So… if anyone doesn’t get it yet… the Wraiths can travel from Shadow to Shadow. As long as they can see where they are going.
By setting up the ambush…they were able to locate (finally) where Seraphopolis was.
They could then drop down into the shadows on the pirate ship and emerge within the shadows of the bottom of Seraphopolis.
From there…it’s just a matter of popping in and out of shadows until you’re topside.
If I need to go back and add more explanation within the comic…please let me know.
I think there were similar creatures in Ninja Scroll (the movie) I saw years ago. They could go in and out of shadows.
Anyways. Let me know.
Scott
Hmm… So they infiltrated Seraphopolis by submerging themselves into the shadows of Seraphopolian soldiers? That’s how I understood it. :/
Travelling from shadow to shadow… sounds a little like Myrddraal from WoT to me
It sounds kinda like the shadowdancer class in DnD. Basically, if they could see a shadow in Seraphopolis while standing in a shadow on the ship, they could ‘teleport’ to that other shadow.
Hmm, I wonder if it’s only shadows from direct sources, like the sun or a torch, or if reflected light like the moon would also hinder their travel…
Thanks for the explanation. Otherwise, I would’ve had no idea how to connect the dots.
Hmmmm…..then how did they travel to the real world to attack Merlin? How did they see the shadows in the real world from dreamland? Is there something they have that allowed them to see into the real world wherever they desired?
I agree… I think a page in between this and the last where this is spelled out for Alex (and us readers) would be great…
better yet, have Alex ask the question how they were able to get there, then explain it.
Not Myrdraal…Blood Knives, the Seanchan assassins.
Maybe they could use a pool portal: they only need to see across it to a shadow, and then can travel there.
Perhaps Alex could ask about it after the story like we are now, then have it explained to him. That would prevent the need for inserting a page earlier in the story. Also, when Alex brought Felicity to the looking-pool with Niviene, it was explained afterwards how he made it through the sea serpents, so there is a precedent for such explanations.
My only question/confusion was this: Why didn’t Nicodemus know what the bracelet/amulet was for if he found Nastajia’s parents using it…and then gave it to the wraiths for them to locate the tablet in Seraphopolis? (my assumption about Nic not knowing what the amulet was for is based on his comments beginning on this page)
I felt like it was very obvious how the wraiths got into Seraphopolis…I just didn’t understand why they didn’t do this sooner because it wasn’t immediately apparent to me that the wraiths didn’t know the location of the city.
yes, this needs to be explained. Perhaps not now, at this point, or maybe just the phrase added, “from shadow to shadow they moved: their stepping stones,” or something like that.
Truthfully, the sentences threw me off a little bit. “The wraiths swarmed our city. Rising up from the very ground. The eleven amulet guiding them to the last tablet of Arthur Pendragon.”
They’re fragmentary sentences (the first sentence was fine, but the next two became fragmentary due to the tense). If you want to keep the same wording (and they’re great – however, there would have to be slight changes), it would’ve read better as: “The wraiths swarmed our city, rising from the very ground, with the eleven amulet guiding them to the last tablet of Arthur Pendragon.”
If you still want three separate sentences for the narrative boxes, how about something like: “The wraiths swarmed our city. They rose from the very ground. The eleven amulet guided them to the last tablet of Arthur Pendragon.”
Sorry I had to put that in. I’ve absolutely loved your story ever since I first discovered it in 2008, and have faithfully followed it ever since (even if silently). I’m eagerly awaiting more! 😀
So THAT’S what they wear under those cloaks. BTW, there are many different kinds of “shadow-travelers” in fiction, such as : the Shadowkhan from Jackie Chan Adventures; the Shadowjumpers from Todd Dezago’s Tellos series; and several others. FYI, Jackie Chan Adventures is a cartoon show, Tellos is a comic series mostly collected in graphic novel format.
Talitha, you’re right. Using the past tense for the first sentence logically sets up following sentences for past-tense usage as well. Going from past tense to present tense is not a good thing to do in literature, as it tends to get rather confusing.
“The traveling only in shadows” bit is quite clear to me. What isn’t clear is that such travel is restricted to line of sight, or that the trap was for the purpose of *finding* Seraphopolis. Both things could be clarified with only minor re-wording of the previous pages.
For me at least the issue is two-fold. First is the fact that I didn’t know the wraiths can travel from shadow to shadow. You may have mentioned it somewhere and I forgot (highly likely). Second is, now that I know that, the first pane shows them simply rising from the ground at night. Since there is ambient light around (otherwise we wouldn’t see anything) it doesn’t look like they are using shadows. This makes it look like they can essentially “blink” or do line-of-sight teleport or something like that.
One way to fix it is to add to the first frame some shadows for the wraiths too come out of and adding something like “The Wraiths swarmed our city, travelling through the shadows..”
Of course you could always have Alex just ask “How did they do that?” since that is completely something he would do, and address it in a future page.
It would appear either Nic was lying… or the Wraiths knew what the amulet did, but didn’t bother telling Nic. Remember, their true loyalty is to Abaddon; they served Nic only because HE served the Ruler of the Nightmare Realm. And if Abaddon didn’t want Nic to know certain things, the Wraiths certainly wouldn’t spill the bans.
If you remember, they weren’t there in full form, just as shadows themselves. That may be a different ability.
Thank you all. Wonderful suggestions!
Lots to consider.
You know Julie? You’re totally right.
I probably should get rid of the amulet, then. Have it based SOLELY on what the tablet in Astoria revealed?
I don’t know if you need to even add a whole ‘nother page. You could just have an additional text box that states something like, “The wraiths could travel ‘twixt any shadows,” or “The wraiths could travel from any shadow to any other shadow they could see.”
Right around where it mentions Nicodemus was wise to plan the invasion for nightfall would be about perfect, I think.
Much like the baddies from Kingdom Hearts.
I agree that “tranporting themselves from shadow to shadow” should be included.
And the past tense to present tense is fine as long as it’s one sentence and not fragemented into multiple.
I understood it that Nastajia’s parents were at this time being flown around (for who knows how long) by the pirates for the wraiths to spring their trap. And that this trap was laid after Nic found out what the amulet was for (in the strip to which you alluded).
To explain her parent’s wherabouts between capture by Nic, and rescue by guardians, they’ve been held captive in the Nightmare Realm.
This trap was sprung only recently, around the time Nic went around destroying the tablets.
I think that they needed the amulet to be able to get a general location as to where Seraphopolis was located in order to be “caught.”
Since you asked, this doesn’t make any sense to me. If the wraiths didn’t know where Seraphopolis was, how could they arrange an ambush to occur at nightfall near it? Why are the wraiths popping out of the ground if it’s nighttime and they can go anywhere? How are there any shadows in unlighted areas at night? How could the guardians have known the intended destination of the pirate ship before they attacked it? What was the point of the ruse? (The wraiths already had the prisoners and the amulet, so nothing seemed to change.)
And, yes, the amulet seemed like a bad idea, not only because of what Julie said, but because it seems like it would be too important for Nicodemus to give it to the wraiths, who don’t seem entirely trustworthy.
If you want to do an ambush, it might be better to have the pirates try to attack Seraphopolis, but be spotted by overconfident guardians who are surprised by the wraiths, which leaves the defenses wide open. I don’t know how you can work Nastajia’s parents into it, though.
I guess that could work…but for some reason I was under the impression that this “story” pre-dated all of the adventures Alex has had since returning to Dreamland.
*is now confused trying to make a viable timeline in her head* I’ll just rely on Scott to clarify what happened when. 🙂 Otherwise I may hurt myself.
Except he was saying that the purpose of the “ambush” was so that the baddies could learn the location of Seraphopolis…which was always essentially hidden or incapable of being located by anyone, including the flying pirates (remember…you can’t fly to Seraphopolis…not even in a pirate ship…the “close” appearance of the city from the ship in yesterday’s page was supposed to be a magnified lens effect per a comment from Scott).
Hi, Julie,
OK, but how did the ambush accomplish that? And what was the point of the amulet then? Just to help them once they were inside Seraphopolis? If so, it seemed that they got it out too soon. And if the pirate ship couldn’t fly to Seraphopolis, how did it get within range of the guardians? And if you couldn’t fly to Seraphopolis from where the guardians were, how were the guardians going to get back? It seems silly to have the guardians jumping from rock to rock to go home or to respond to an attack.
It was pretty dark in that treasure room at night. Perhaps Nicodemus thought it was simply a magical illumination device and did not consider further investigation? It does seem to be the only source of light in the room…
If the Guardians occasionally intervene like this, I would assume that the Nightmare Realm would have a basic, approximate idea of where Seraphopolis is, based on the fact that pirate ships sailing through a certain area are occasionally attacked. (Evidently, since the Guardians are for the most part isolationist, the Nightmare Realm does not consider it worth while to invade their city.) This would be how they knew to set the ambush there.
As for how the Guardians knew the destination, I would encourage you to track down the Dreamland map from somewhere: if you leave Dreamland going northeast, there are only two locations before the map runs out: Seraphopolis and the Nightmare Realm. Plus, the Guardians have had centuries of monitoring pirate traffic to know this trend.
Regarding the ruse: I would assume this was to take out the Guardian scouts, creating a hole in their defenses, and allow the wraiths to move closer to Seraphopolis than the Guardians would have allowed; close enough to use their shadow-jumping. You wondered why not just have the pirates attack Seraphopolis as a distraction: valid point. It was one of several options available, and I guess they just chose the ambush.
The issue of the amulet will be difficult to reconcile. As per Julie’s links, it’s clear Nicodemus did not know it’s function, despite seeing it in use. However, this could be rectified by having a line in the next few pages, something along the lines of “The wraiths’ understanding of elven magic surpassed even Nicodemus’. They found the tablet, and fled with it, along with their captives, back to the Nightmare Realm. The Lord Abaddon returned the amulet to Nicodemus as a sign of continued support for his kingship, though he never explained the magical abilities it possessed.” (If that’s what happens, of course 🙂 )
I know Julie has been addressing this, but I thought it might be useful to have multiple people weighing in. Hope that helped! Sorry for the wall of text!
While I’m at it, the other thing that seemed off is that the guardians were patrolling somewhere where they could see the pirate ship. If they could see the pirate ship, couldn’t they be seen as well? Wouldn’t that have been enough to give away the approximate location of Seraphopolis? Or did they just slaughter anyone who came close enough and might have seen them? That would seem to be a bit harsh.
Did I miss something that would have explained that the guardians were especially attuned to the leaders of Dreamworld and sensed Nastajia’s parents? There was something about “acting as their namesake as ‘guardians,'” but I couldn’t figure out how that tied in. They certainly didn’t help the pirates guard the prisoners and from the elfs’ point of view they acted as rescuers, not guardians (The elf guardians didn’t rescue the king and queen so the namesake part wouldn’t come into that.) So did that mean that elf guardians had the ability to sense where the elf king and queen were located and the Seraphopolis guardians inherited that ability because of the common name “guardian”? That’s the only way I can think of to explain why the Seraphopolis soldiers became involved. 😕
Scott, thanks for putting the link up for Hans’s book. We truly appreciate it.
I’m loving reading about how the wraiths get around and that they travel from shadow to shadow. I didn’t pick up on that earlier if you touched on it. It certainly makes sense to me. The wraiths look like they are some sort of bird-like creature. Will we ever see what’s under their hoods?
Wait, what? Why would Seraphopolis have an Arthurian tablet? Weren’t they segregated from everyone before the Arthurian age?
I thought Nastajia’s parents were investigating a pre-Arthurian element in Seraphopolis.
This definitely needs more explanation. I think you need to rework the text in the previous page, 1544. My suggestion: combine the text in 1544:1 and 1544:2 into 1544:1.
Then add what you just wrote as narrative text in 1544:2:
“The Wraiths can travel from Shadow to Shadow, as long as they can see their target. They hid on board the pirate ship on its journey back to Seraphopolis, and as soon as they could see the city, they jumped into it.”
Love the wraiths’ armor,reminds me of those actions figures they had during the 1980s! 🙂
Reminds me of Bengie from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust… but then, he also killed people by stabbing their shadows.
The last shot reminds me of the ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings 😛 (Especially cause the amulet looks like a ring at that angle)
The last panel, I am so tempted to pop in a caption, “Look, sir! Droids!”
Wishing I could go back and erase these comments. Just reread pages and found I had skipped over the part that King and Queen were spotted by the guardians a FEW DAYS AFTER being captured by Nic, which totally invalidates my theory of the wraiths’ trip to Seraphopolis after Nic had regained the amulet from Alex and gang.
And Kudos to Julie for getting it right.:)
Re-write suggestion for the first panel:
“Rising from the shadows, the wraiths appeared filling the streets without warning.”
-OR-
“Rising from the shadows, the wraiths appeared and filled the streets without warning.”
(“Without” and “With no” are word flavor choice… However “[…] the wraiths appeared filled the streets […]” is a grammatical error.)
oh yes, molto bene!
As Prince Demitri said, “the wraiths appeared filled the streets…” needs to be changed. 🙂
Just a quick note, the first bubble should read “Rising from the shadows, the wraiths appeared AND filled the streets with no warning.” Awesome work with everything else, as always. 🙂
Though if it’s the first choice, it needs another comma. “Rising from the shadows, the wraiths appeared, filling the streets without warning.”