IPOLA: No, Keltan, we didn’t. This isn’t part of the main complex of the Tower, and it’s rather cunningly hidden in this little dale. So it stood here, undisturbed, until last year. And, of course, it was my Tula that found it.
PANEL 2: Tula in flashback, researching in the library
IPOLA: When she came back here after meeting you, she dove into the libraries for anything about Giants. She found the traces and cross-references among ancient texts and maps and artwork. She’s as close as we can get to an expert on Giants, now.
PANEL 3
MENTL: Yeah, must have taken her all of half an hour of ceaseless toil …
IPOLA: A little longer than that. There are many libraries in the tower, and lots of stairs, after all. But in the end, she found it.
PANEL 4
KELTAN: So what … is “it?”
PANEL 5
They emerge into a large underground cathedral with life-sized statues in bronze and marble of giants and giantesses in heroic poses.
IPOLA: This.
IPOLA: No, Keltan, we didn’t. This isn’t part of the main complex of the Tower, and it’s rather cunningly hidden in this little dale. So it stood here, undisturbed, until last year. And, of course, it was my Tula that found it.
PANEL 2: Tula in flashback, researching in the library
IPOLA: When she came back here after meeting you, she dove into the libraries for anything about Giants. She found the traces and cross-references among ancient texts and maps and artwork. She’s as close as we can get to an expert on Giants, now.
PANEL 3
MENTL: Yeah, must have taken her all of half an hour of ceaseless toil …
IPOLA: A little longer than that. There are many libraries in the tower, and lots of stairs, after all. But in the end, she found it.
PANEL 4
KELTAN: So what … is “it?”
PANEL 5
They emerge into a large underground cathedral with life-sized statues in bronze and marble of giants and giantesses in heroic poses.
IPOLA: This.
14 thoughts on “That’s Big. Page 1237”
SeanR
Did you turn down raytrace sampling to get that “flashback” effect? It works, whatever you did.
jedraft
If you mean Panel 2, it’s all PShop filtering. Add noise and tone down the saturation. In fact, this render was one I was quite pleased with, and I’ll be sharing the full rez original on Facebook, because I always love showing my nerdy girl neck-deep in research.
Warm regards,
-JED
Reservist
Man, Keltan’s dentist is a real pro. And our tame giant is spotless too: check out these pearly whites. I’m so envious.
jedraft
Don’t you wish real life was like this?
Warm regards,
JED
Reservist
Oh yes. Yes, I do.
Calisto
Just a question, I like the panel but why is someone like Tula reading by candle light? Isn’t there spells for that she can do in her sleep? Especially now that she has seen first hand, the light sources available to our technology level. I would have thought she would use her magic to emulate it. This isn’t a criticism, just an observation as an open candle flame might be dangerous in a library if there are other options.
Lora
Magick takes concentration and will power and emotional energy. And when researching I rather imagine her focus is on the research, not on keeping a magickal spell going. Tula can make light, but why do it when she already has access to perfectly good sources of lighting?
Also, Jed, I really like where this is going. It’s so interesting to hear more about the giants. 🙂
Calisto01
I don’t want to make an argument out of this but just to respond and first and foremost, thank you for responding, but a candle isn’t a “perfectly good” source of light. An open flame can be quite dangerous in an enclosed space full of dry parchment and reading by candle light can stress out your eyes after even a short period of time. Also you seem to be suggesting a spell to produce a small light takes concentration to keep it lite. That doesn’t match anything we have seen so far. (no arguments about how magic is suppose to work) but even when Tula was hurt bad enough she had to be carried and her magic was being suppressed and she was concentrating on not passing out, she was able to make a small light, even if it was feeble. Now while warm and well fed, rested at home and without immediate threats she can’t match a candle? We have seen her magic produce much brighter light and that as a side effect of a spell that had a different purpose, and that light was a pure white not a ruddy yellow of a candle.
I think this is just a stylistic choice by JED to show Tula working in a library and he decided a candle looked cool. He is the artist after all, if he wants a candle he can have one. I’m just here to poke at the bear from a safe distance. >poke, poke (but polite)<
DeadmanwalkingXI
Maybe it’s an enchanted candle? I can easily see that being easier to maintain than light out of nowhere, and the enchantment could remove most or all of the issues with using a candle like that.
Lora
I meant that from Tula’s perspective a candle light is normal and what everyone uses, so it’s no biggie. For us it’s a ‘get that away from the parchment!’, but the Erogenians just don’t see it like that. A candle and flame is simply their most common lighting source.
Maybe she could do a magick light and easily keep it going, but want to save the energy for other things, or maybe Erogenians just don’t believe in using magick when there are simple alternatives that does not require it. Or maybe the scrolls and back have fireproof magick cast on them. 😉
Personally I wouldn’t want a flame near all of that either, but different universe, different rules.
calisto01
Those are good points. The idea that the scrolls (or the room) could have magical protection never occurred to me. It would make a lot of sense to do that, especially since we know Shuach has a thing for fire and flames, moon magic could conceivably be about light without heat associated with it. Yet another cultural difference between philosophies (heat and anger and hate in reds vs. coolness compassion and empathy in blues) showing through everyday life. Cool.
BTW: nice candle JED :). we probably made a lot more out of it than was ever intended. LOL
JE Draft
Folks,
OK, I am tempted to just tell the truth, which is that I like the candle choice artistically. It looks cool, and I don’t think an unabashed fantasy needs more than that as justification.
HOWEVER:
Practically at the beginning, I made the in-world choice that the modern Erogenians study magick for knowledge of the universe itself, and for use in what they would view as important things, like healing, defense or as an aid in dangerous or desperate situations. (See Ipola’s injunction to Zonn not to use the ring unless it’s absolutely vital) That is what they learn in the Erogenian equivalent of “Magickal Ethics 101”
The ancient Erogenians used magick even as we use technology, to create toys, entertainment, labor saving devices and for trivial things even where other more mundane solutions might exist which would be less wasteful of magickal energy, I’m not sure if I ever actually wrote this out or had someone explain it in dialogue, but it is implied in the flashback where the princesses first tell Mentl about the ancients and Shuach, and his overthrow. They explain that at the time of the fall of their empire the surviving Erogenians were sent into the forests to live a simpler life. That would, of course, include being restrained in their use of magick in the manner I describe above. So in day-to-day they would restrict themselves to candles for light, fireplaces and stoves for heating, horses and other beasts for travel and farming, etc. It would not take much for a priest or crone to make a fire for cooking, but it would be wrong, ethically. To use a spell to create fire to defend onesself, or to start a pot boiling for a magickal potion would be different.
And yes, there are very powerful spells of protection on the ancient codices and scrolls.
Warm regards,
-JED
calisto01
So Lora was right on both counts, “Erogenians just don’t believe in using magick when there are simple alternatives that does not require it.” and “the scrolls… have fireproof magick cast on them”, awesome! And I was right about the artistic look of the candle, cool.
Thanks JED!
Lora
The explanation is appreciated, JED. 🙂 It’s always fun with a bit of background lore.
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