3431 Our World A New Era
on January 25, 2021
Chapter: Our World
Characters: Cadugan, Charles Hunter, Eddy the Mage, Eldwig Steward, Feddick DeKyle, Flannet Hunter, Glon Smitharm/Bloodhand, Hogga the Hobgoblin, Louis Steward the Younger, Lucas Greyfort, Philippa Steward, Princess Gaggia Shadowtalker, Princess Glonda Bloodhand, Princess Ibkis Rockjaw, Princess Shaija of the Red Orcs, Randal the Amazing Seamster, Ranna Goddess of Chaos and Cruelty
Oh wow, ten years? O.O
Ten years of peace – that’s not bad!
(they grow up so fast… )
t!
I hope magic doesn’t completely vanish from the world. Even on earth for all the science and technology, there’s still a little magic greasing the wheels.
step toward the future, Shadowrun ….
I can totally picture Turg in a Caper story.
t!
> Even on earth for all the science and technology, there’s still a little magic greasing the wheels.
Absolutely!
t!
Seems that no creatures had serious problems with lack of magic, while mages were seriously affected. Weird.
However, based on the few strips from future, magic really didn’t completely disappeared, although it seems it stopped being relevant …
We haven’t really seen magic creatures yet, have we?
I mean, we saw them immediately after the Battle, but this is ten years later, we will have to wait and see just how creatures that *are*, or *relied* on, magic coped
Early in the previous arc we saw some arciologits sifting through the remains of the black mountian
I like to take a Clarke view of magic, that it is science which is so far beyond understanding that it seems miraculous.
The other view of magic is that it is "cheat codes" for the world, granting the practitioner access to things beyond the laws of nature and physics as defined. And if this view is taken, then perhaps it’s best that the world relies less on gaudy spells, and more on the subtle magic of how things really work.
In any case, I am looking forward to this new era, an age of court intrigue and musketeers and Charles and Louis. There are so many new stories here I am positively giddy!
Thanks, Rich!
Reminded me of Dominion 4 game.
At least the mechanic where each timeline would bring different units, technology, and even factions as magic grew less but technology more advance (magic-heavy early age will have units with bronze weapons in contast to magic-light late age adopting steel weapons universally).
Ever played TORG?
t!
Yes, some of the best fun I’ve had
YAFGC: TNG?
Renaissance? Regency? Trying to remember what that style Charles is sporting in the last few panels, specially the tied back hair
> YAFGC: TNG?
Only literally, like Infinity, Inc.
t!
Charles’s outfit definitely has an 18th century influence.
Randal the Amazing has quite a fitting name for a magician without magic.
"A million gp to whoever can demonstrate paranormal powers in a rigorous test. Eddy, Naomi, Lewstrom, and their direct apprentices are ineligible, and it would be seriously uncool of them to turn me into a frog."
He may not have been an amazing magician, but now he is an amazing seamster!
Also: Randall the Amazing, Rich? What do his friends call him?
t!
The Amazing Randy?
Does he expose fake magicians?
He did. It was his claim to fame.
Only if the seams don’t hold. Oopsie!
> Does he expose fake magicians?
Meanwhile the real ones were shaking their heads sadly at his lack of imagination, thinking, "I have nothing to prove to you."
t!
I’m sad the boys were split up, I wonder when and hwo they’ll meet again.
Hopefully not on the opposite sides of a war, with Louis having been convinced by daddy dearest, that his best friend was a bad guy all along.
And here we go…on another splendid adventure.
I can’t wait. <3
Says one of the main reasons for the pronoun in the title!
t!
Nice jump into 17th century styled clothing in a couple places. Also, Runtherd is showing a few similarities to Richard II of England. Not the seclusion, but the paranoia and the forming of his personal guard.
Overall, a nice sum up.
That was it! 17th century styles, knew I recognized it 😀
While my designs aren’t 100% historically accurate (deliberately since this isn’t the Earth), the research I did for them was early 18th Century (that being the 1700’s). The previous YAFGC era was more medieval – mid 1500’s/early 1600’s. Mainly fantastical Tudor with picked and chosen touches of fantastical Elizabethan.
the 17th century would also be an appropriate age to mine, with the Thirty Years War, the English Civil War, the age of Cardinal Richelieu, and the Boucaniers in the West Indies raiding the Spanish Main.
It would also fit if you decide to introduce firearms, Rich, with matchlock rifles making musketeers an elite force, next to the more dangerous grenadiers—the best being gnomes trained by a certain land shark hunter!
Yes, especially if the previous paucity of firearms was due to the prevalence of magic-users. By the time technology has advanced enough for plate armour to be common, firearms should too but what we've seen previously is them being solely a feature of naval vessels, I'm pretty sure we've never seen *any* cannon on land.
Oooo, big time jump! All those kids are getting up to adventuring age now! It will be interesting to see where various relationships went, and what new kids have appeared on the scene. I am glad they got a period of peace, with no big serious world events, to recover from the god-war. The bit about Runtherd is… somewhat disturbing. Particularly for the future of the kingdom if he never produces an heir. It will be interesting to see how his brother’s child is turning out. Perhaps there will be hope there. I can’t wait to see how Eric the Short is doing. So many great stories to come! Thank you for giving them that time of peace. 😀
Wait, his brother got married and had a kid? Can you recall what page that was mentioned on?
What, you actually forgot Lady Vivay and the whole The Players arc?
… Yes?
Oh wait, you mean how she was going to off Runt and have her spawn placed on the throne as a short-lived puppet, and she would rule alone after her hubby died mysteriously on the same day her son died?
Yup, that’s it.
I actually like it, the idea of moving beyond good and evil, of how the heroes of the past can eventually become that which they fought against.
My favourite example is how Alexander Dumas made the movers and shakers in The Three Musketeers neither good nor evil, but shifting in alliances. Richelieu went from being the villain to being D’Artagnan’s patron not by changing himself, but because D’Artagnan himself matured.
Absolutely.
And whatever his machinations against the Queen, ultimately they were the result of him putting the Country first.
t!
Bring on the future! 🙂
Poor Runtherd…he should have learned two lessons:
– He is a failed king, the history will say that he faked his taking by the enemy but knows the true, and fear the people know it too and decided to dethrone him (Or, as the magic vanish he know that was Fang who took the axe, not him).
– The Evil never rest, It may need centuries but always return, better be ready.
Given he’s a usurper, it’s entirely justified that he fail.
Long live King Fang!!
Yeah, naturally Eddy would waste what little magic was left just to light a candle *that was within arms’ length*
And *very* impressive sword skills: slicing two apples in half with a rapier (or is it an epee?), a sword that has no edge to it
Rapiers have edges. Epees do not
It’s a rapier. An epee is a kind of rapier used in sport fencing with no edge and a blunted point.
As someone who practiced sport fencing (Foil, Epee and Sabre) for 5 years, and then became a team captain and taught "historical" rapier style fencing in the SCA for another 5 years, I assure you that a ‘slash’ with a non-sport rapier is a perfectly viable wounding hit.
In my collection, my sport swords are all basically thick wires with rubber blunts or buttons on the ends (We were called ‘wire-weinies’ in recreation groups), but my SCA schlager has a diamond-shaped cross-section with a potential sharp blade along both sides.
Here’s a quote from an article about historic, antique rapier swords (I have emphasized the bits about the blades edges):
"How do real rapiers handle?
In my experience researching authentic pieces I was especially stunned at how fantastically well-balanced most were so that they felt absolutely weightless, lightning fast and agile (completely beyond even the very best modern reproductions I’ve handled). Only a few antique rapiers of the wider variety felt a bit awkward to me—and even then rather actually than being poor weapons, that may have been because they were experimental designs or designed for some particular person’s fighting style, or in recent times were given different hilts that changed their feel. The specimens I’ve weighed or have specifications on were all less than 3 pounds, with most under 2.5 pounds and a few even less than 2 pounds. They were not the least bit cumbersome. As both a student of Medieval swords and a former sport fencer, I can declare with authority that these weapons were not slow or clumsy to wield. With few exceptions, I have no doubts whatsoever that nearly every rapier technique described in the historical sources (and then some) could be executed effectively with most all of these weapons.
What kind of blades did rapiers have?
Like any other sword, the variety of rapier blades is considerable, as all sorts of designs were being experimented with at the time (which creates confusion about them now and makes classification of them very difficult). Rapier blades varied considerably in length, thickness, cross-sectional shape, and edge sharpness. Many of these rapiers are hard to completely distinguish from the varieties of military cut-and-thrust swords then in use. They ranged from flatter, tapering blades to thicker, narrower (so-called “true’) ones. But nearly all are rigid, quite narrow, and become thinner toward the point and, rather than flattening out, many actually become oval or round in cross-section at the last quarter or last fifth of their length. Their weight was concentrated in their hilts, thereby facilitating an agile point to make rapid long-reaching stabbing attacks.
Rapier blades are relatively thin but have thick cross-sections. Some rapier blades are of flat diamond (or triangular) shape capable of holding a shallow edge, while other cross-sections are thicker hexagonal, octagonal, or four-pointed star-shaped with virtually no sharp edges. These various cross-sections were all simply efforts by sword makers to produce a light and very stiff blade. Rapiers may have thick, squared off and blunt ricassos (the blade portion just above the hilt) or be wide and entirely sharp at this portion. "
You can see the entire article here: http://www.thearma.org/Youth/rapieroutline.htm
Thank you, I get confused about a lot of things, and only familiar with occasional clips of competition events and Zorro and only vaguely aware of their names at all
Is it true that modern fencing came about simply from manual imagery showing the various stances?
Nice! I myself got to handle a rapier in the Veste Coburg’s armoury, albeit wearing white gloves to protect the historical metal. The curator mentioned that a main reason why there are so few historical medieval swords is because they were recycled into rapiers, and that is also a reason why each rapier is individual in design.
I was more into the Dussack/Langes Messer style of fencing, and it influenced my stage fencing considerably.
Some rapiers are capable of making light cuts, but they are predominantly thrusting weapons, cutting through two apples like that is really pushing it IMO. Just because a weapon has a sharp edge does not make it a great cutter, and a thin, long rapier blade definitely fits into that category, suitable more for quick worrying cuts against vulnerable places like the face or neck rather than chopping through limbs.
Yeah, I've worked with a lot of rapiers. This is more fantasy than reality.
You have homeworks now, to see Forged in Fire and watch the damage a rapier do to a balistic mannequin XD
"Designed for some particular person"–that would include people with six fingers on their fencing hand, would it not?
Domingo Montoya LIVES! 😀
Have watched a few episodes, but I don’t like ‘elimination’ contests like that, prefer the older ‘points awarded’ contests (last one I watched, the winner only outperformed the second place in a single category, so should not have ended up winning in my opinion)
Remember that ‘American Idol’ season where the Hard Rocker got eliminated during the Country week, and the next week was going to be Hard Rock?
Anyone else hoping to find out how well Urzal has done adventuring for the last ten years? Namely: did she ever track down that dragon-born?
So are we never going to learn who "?" in the afterlife is, or is that a story for another day?
Also, poor Runt.
A whole new beginning.
I expected Lucas to declare him his heir, but I didn’t foresee a 10 year timeskip! And damn I am loving the fashion changes time has brought, I feel like I’m reading Girl Genius.
Glon and Hogga getting married is nice, that’ll probably help the orcs with immigration.
Man I hope Runt hasn’t let himself get too weird and reclusive. Not good for the mind.
Oh Runt :< Why do I have a bad feeling about this? It feels like he’s given up completely on ever finding someone.
Their whole world turned a corner. I look forward to the same for us.
I am getting a strong A Realm Reborn vibe here. I am not complaining just making an observation.
No sign of a sarcastic, Machiavellian butler to an idiot regent.
*checks for trap above head*
I love the sense of *potential* this whole strip gives. Looking forward to where we go from here.
This was a great opening to a new era in the YAFGC world. I’m looking forward to seeing what adventures the young generation will have. 🙂
Have firearms developed yet? It would be interesting to know if the Kingswords have a Musketeer Corp. (And many years ago some SCAdians were given a tour of the Metropolitan Museum’s armory dept & handle their historical weapons, so I can confirm everything about the sharpness & balance of rapiers. Some quibbles about the guard maybe, but the cup style IS simpler to draw!)
That’s his practice sword, it’s got a very simple handguard. But it’s not based on reality, it’s a YAFGC convention I’m using.
Also: There were cannon battles at sea, so yeah, firearms are a thing in this world.
Siege weaponry only? Or handheld firearms as well?
When you introduce them, will you follow the Real World examples? Or some fantastical blend skipping some of the basic early ones?
I feel like the cast we are familiar with will be completely replaced going forward. Older versions and flashbacks will be where they live. If that happens, I’m totally okay with that, life goes on. New cast, new adventures.
I promise that while this is partially the case, there is some overlap. Many of the old cast aren’t /that/ old. Lucas and Cadugan, for example, are in their 30’s rather than their 20’s. Also characters with Elven blood won’t have aged visibly much, if at all.
Remember, the 1700s was the century that Man first took to the air (also, farmyard animals not normally used to being airborne… Because, why not?)
That’d be one way to get the, sorry I forget the name of the ship, back aloft.
??? You’re not talking about the Wright brothers, are you? Their first controlled flight happened in 1903. You’re about 200 years off. Or do you mean hot air balloons? That was in the 1780’s. Still much farther ahead than I was going with YAFGC.
Now, a problem with ‘dating’ YAFGC and trying to map in on Earth technological and fashion history is that it doesn’t work at all. For a start, when I began YAFGC in 2006 I was pretty loose and silly with the clothing and technology. So they were basically dressing in SCA gear (which covers fashion more or less between 1400 – 1600) and sometimes with anachronistic stuff. Like Maula Bloodhand’s 70’s tracksuit and 60’s hairdo. When I dropped pirates into it they were already dressed like Blackbeard from 1718.
Also the world’s tech and fashion levels hadn’t changed much for several thousand years. In recent times I took my worldbuilding more seriously, so I used the excuse that magic and gods kept the world in a sort of developmental stasis for centuries and now it’s managed to break out of stagnation and is developing haphazardly and in bursts. So… don’t expect it to map onto Earth history very smoothly. It already doesn’t.
I can see something like a hot air balloon being made pretty quickly in this setting though, even if it appeared a little later on Earth than the time you’re modelling things after. Magic airships existed before, so even if those wouldn’t be possible any more in the new low-magic setting, the fact that this world already has the concept of an airship and just has to piece together a way to make one non-magically means it shouldn’t take long. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody like Gummer could have made one already, had he seen the need.
I imagine those airships are quite heavy for hot-air balloons … however, hot-air balloons are really not hard. You only need hot air and air-tight fabric (probably something with sap, rubber or tar). Or, well, silk, but that will cost a LOT both to produce the fiber AND wove without machines …
… so, I actually consider more likely someone will develop "classical" hot-air balloon while researching how to get airships back to air without actually succeeding. Unless, well … maybe there is enough magic left for the airships to only need smaller hot-air balloons?
They just need more and bigger Ballons. Or Zeppelins.
I feel like this should be a good place to end the comic
Why? There are so many more stories to tell
When I looked at it, I was afraid that was exactly what I was seeing here.
It’s surprising that Louis and Charles haven’t written to each other. Granted, mail services might not be that good, but still, at least a few letters should have been delivered
Maybe they did write to each other but a certain father intercepted them.
Is it just me, or is the small text blurry for anyone else?
Not just you, I’m experimenting with a new style. I’ve solved the low-res text for this one, it’ll be better on the next strip.
I love this! This is like new game plus. I really want to see what the wizards will do about their powers. This feels good.
Wow… another ten year skip. I can only imagine how long it’s been in this realm since that fateful day Bob the Beholder decided to sneak a peek on Gren the Goblin as she was out bathing in an underground lake.
Truly, this series is a reminder that sometimes, the grandest of adventures can start from the simplest of things.
While I’m really excited about the new adventures, I have still so many questions left: Where did Chimera ended up after the war? Who is ‘?’ ?Did Adina and her friend return to Safana’s crew, or they stayed in Umbril? I also hoped to see Urzal’s adventures, but I can imagine, they are just the usual adventuring stuff. The ones worth to tell and see might just about to come after her 10 years of experience.
So, among other things… Ryann, Helen, and Cypress, ten years older. Did it last? I hope so… what have they been up to, I wonder?
So this is our time skip is it? I'm not very fond of those, but doing them by montage is infinitely better than just saying "Ten years later". I believe the shading is digital now, yes? Looks good. And I do hope that things aren't going to be *too* bad with Runt.