Weekly Update - 210 - 3/18/24 (Patreon)

It's Monday.

A day of all time.

Normally I'm excited to get back to work on Mondays, but it's kinda blah and icky outside. It's too warm to be snowing, too cloudy to be sunny, and I also stayed up probably too late last night so today is a day of heavy eyelids and... extra slow brain thoughts.

Comic this week? I dunno. Tell ya what, if I can finish the linework and flats today, then yes!

Drawing: Page 191, Riley art, Page 200 celebratory thingy.

Playing: You know how I've been saying that the less I play video games, the more art I get done? No? Well, I've been thinking it at least. And right as I found myself getting into a more productive pace, the games industry smacks me with the triple whammy of Rimworld 1.5 and the hype over it's incoming DLC, then I got the Eiyuden Chronicle closed backers beta, and Unicorn Overlord. I must be strong. Art first, then games. Art first. ART FIRST.

Ramble: Here's another excerpt from the lore/TTRPG document I've been working on. Again, I'm going for a soft-worldbuilding approach, so this is written from an unreliable in-universe perspective. Also, none of this is the final draft, so I'm always open to feedback, thoughts, pointing out any inanities or inconsistencies I may have missed, errors, typos, redundancies, etc etc. I know I tend to be overly wordy in my writing and I have yet to sit down and prune these passages completely. I did have to correct a few things I spotted from last week's post.

Anyway, here you go, and I hope you're enjoying reading these! If not, well, idk, feel free to smack me or something. Idk what I'm doing!

Fire, Blood, and Hunters

While the term “Slayers” would always be associated with those original assassins that supposedly rescued people from the tyranny of the “gods,” they showed everyone it could be done, and how to do it. New prospective god killers showed up from all regions of the city, with reasons ranging from “a god killed everyone I loved” to “I lost 4 watts at the Tail Toss!” These wanna-be murderers became known as “Hunters,” a broad term that would come to apply to anyone who had enough balls to try and hunt the most deadly of prey. Anyone could be a Hunter, and therefore Hunters could be anyone. A fact which became rather terrifying to anyone born a god.

The rage from living under tyranny quickly boiled to the surface and unleashed itself in a fury on anything that even reminded us of our “gods.” Monuments were toppled, temples trashed, writings and records destroyed. The so-called “utopia” the gods had built was razed to the ground, and since it was all probably made out of the same junk as everything else, no trace of it remained when they were done. When people ran out of obvious targets, they turned suspicious and paranoid of hidden ones. There was no obvious way to detect a god unless they used their Vim, and this resulted in a bloody massacre. Neighbor accused neighbor, and in many cases, both would be killed, just to be safe. It has been said that so many people were killed during this time, the Canal got clogged with bodies and flooded parts of the city with blood. Frankly, I tend to think that’s an over-exaggeration, but it’s probably pretty likely that lots of people were killed during this time.

The gods didn’t just roll over and let themselves be killed, either. They lashed out in desperation and retaliation, contributing to just as much death, if not more, than the Hunters. Gods are always dangerous prey, it turns out, especially when cornered. A single god could be capable of wiping out an entire army of Hunters, if it knew where to find them. The smart Hunters survived by becoming unidentifiable, and any god that valued their own life soon learned to do the same. As their hot war began to cool, both sides struck at each other however they could from the shadows, but for the gods, it was a losing battle. The more the gods fought back, the more and more people flocked to join up with the Hunters. The number of gods was already heavily depleted, and while a single god could wipe out a whole city block, each god rarely succeeded in striking more than once. Furthermore, not every god was suited for combat, many of them had Vim that was useless for battle, and had no choice but to hide.

Eventually the sorrow of loss overwhelmed the fury of injustice, and the survivors of an ever-shrinking population longed for an end to all the death. Hunter crews began to come up with their own doctrines to ensure that the people they were killing were only, in fact, confirmed gods. As far as anyone can guess, by this point there weren’t enough gods left to organize a drum circle, let alone any sort of competent resistance. The war between gods and Hunters stagnated and faded into history, as neither side was willing to risk open confrontation. The Hunters feared discovery because a single god could wipe them out in an instant, and gods feared discovery because there were always more Hunters watching, and waiting, for them to try something stupid.

This is, of course, the most popular version of the tale. Depending on who you ask, some might tell a very different story, painting the Slayers as villains who were simply jealous of godly powers, seeking to cast down the innocent and noble gods in an effort to seize power for themselves. As for what the truth really is? Well, there’s no doubting that at some point in our history, there was a bloody fight, and gods lost that fight. There’s also no doubting that it happened so long ago that nobody is still alive that bore any firsthand witness to it. All we have is the stories that have been passed down again and again, and it’s always the survivors who get to taint their retellings of history however they choose.

These days, most people still believe the majority of gods have been slain or driven into hiding. Hunters operate in packs and small squads, relying on a network of scouts and informants to keep themselves apprised of any clues that will lead them to a kill. Each time a god uses its Vim, Hunters swarm the area, hoping to find it and kill it before it can get away. For the most part, these strategies work well enough, and Hunters keep the population of gods in check, often putting them down while they are still young. The smart ones, however, will occasionally slip through the cracks. It’s said in Kuserra that gods live short lives… and to most people in the city, the plague of gods is a problem that has been solved once and for all. But if that’s true, why does it seem as if there are more and more gods born each year?