Erlmaiden Discordia FAQ (Patreon)

What is your Patreon project about?

Patreon serves as a supporting fundament for my manga project Erlmaiden Discordia and for its upcoming homepage which will be released at the end of this month. It will also be a platform to provide insight in my work process and all kinds of background information about my characters and the world. New pages are scheduled for every week and will be released in HD. In the meantime I will also upload my sketches and early stage versions additionally on Patreon. Patreon  

What is your manga about in a nutshell? 

Okay, I’ll give it a try: At first glance it may be about an inheritance conflict between two siblings but due to different involvements the ongoing plot will lead to a large-scale war. For more information you can read the synopsis in my introduction post, which outlines the premise as good as possible, although I don’t want giving too much away for now.

What genre does your story belong to? 

So far you probably noticed its high-fantasy character with some monster fights included, but it will also be about political conspiracies and war-related scenarios.

There will also be crime elements as the story progresses. I guess, it’s easier to let the manga pages speak for themselves. What I can tell you for now is that paying attention to even the smallest detail from the very first page will be worthwhile later.

How many pages will the prologue contain and how many chapters do you plan to release?

I plan to go with 75 pages for the prologue.

Erlmaiden Discordia is supposed to be told as a long-term epos but how many chapters it may have at the end I can’t say for sure. Not every chapter will be as long as the prologue and they will probably vary between 10-20 pages, I guess.

Do you have your complete story outlined already?

I’ve planned the story in broad strokes. Several key scenes are certain, but how the plot will lead to them is just roughly sketched. It’s the most exciting part about this project for me and I am curious myself where it goes, though.

How long have you been working on the whole project?

You may believe it or not, but by now it has been 8 years or more. And yes, I released the first page to the story just 3 months ago. So why did it take so long? Well, to be honest, it was due to my lack of confidence and an ill amount of perfectionism. Fortunately I was able to take my first step and can move forward now!

What were your strongest influences for your manga story?

When it comes to story-related influences, Yoshiro Togashi’s manga Hunter X Hunter is the most noteworthy to mention. His work and his way of story-telling inspired me foremost. There are also several JRPGs I played in my early days which influenced my manga in many regards. In fact, some of my characters are based on some of my favorite games, for instance, Golden Sun, Breath of Fire, Fire Emblem and Sora no Kiseki are few of them. Furthermore I remember that my first playthrough of The Legend of Zelda – Majora’s Mask had a huge impact on the early outline of my story. Another specific game, which I would also name as a decisive source of inspiration for my story is the spin-off game Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. You will realize soon enough how it will fit in the mold.

So apart from that, what were your artistic influences?

There are three anime/manga artists which heavily influenced my drawing style from the early days until now. Again, the first one to mention is Yoshiro Togashi and his work on Hunter X Hunter. There are many artists which I favor by their visualization but in case of Togashi it’s also his way of line drawing, the energy in his strokes and his diverse style for each of his characters. The second one is Kazuki Takahashi and his well-known manga Yu-Gi-Oh!. Last but not least is Ikuko Ito, mostly associated with her character designs and animation works of the Sailor Moon series.