Keychain of Creation 3: Not-a-Keyblade Understanding & Falafel-is-Awesome Prana Combo

[horngeek]

...the first page, and I'm already teary.

Good work, Jukashi.

[golentan]

Yay, I can stop twitching.

Excellent work as always, Jukashi. Thank 'e.

[Revlid]

Huzzah, update!

And it turns out that my estimation of Farle's character was wrong. Probably, for now.

Of course, as a Brit, this update wasn't up on Monday at all. I think I broke my F5 key...

Question: Why is Secret doing an evilface after receiving a hair-ruffle from her dad in panel 3?

V. Disappointed that Flame and the Sheriff didn't make it into the shirtless fanart.

[The Rose Dragon]

How young is Secret, exactly? And how many years have passed since the disappearance of good ol' Scarlet in the comic? She looks like a child in the last panel, which is after the Scarlet Empress has gone missing, so she Exalted when she was, what, 13?

[Castel]

Well, she was 5 when her mother disappeared and her father found her 4 years after that... So she should be 9 years old in that last panel.

[The Rose Dragon]

So, she's at best 14, assuming the current timeline fits that of the game.

[Weimann]

Question: Why is Secret doing an evilface after receiving a hair-ruffle from her dad in panel 3?

I think it's more of a determination-face. She will sweep the hell out of that dust, and be a good girl!

[horngeek]

Jukashi stated over on the Freedom Stone that KoC is set another 5 years after the standard setting- gives him more room to play around.

[golentan]

Jukashi stated over on the Freedom Stone that KoC is set another 5 years after the standard setting- gives him more room to play around.

So she could be as much as 19.

*Scribbles* Ears!

[Ganurath]

In the normal timeline, the Empress vanished five years ago. So, in this timeline, it was ten years ago. That means that Secret was born fifteen years ago, at most. Furthermore, Abyssal Exaltation makes you stop aging, and she was with either the Prince or the King for several months. I'd peg Secret's death at being in the 12-14 area.

[The Rose Dragon]

In the normal timeline, the Empress vanished five years ago. So, in this timeline, it was ten years ago. That means that Secret was born fifteen years ago, at most. Furthermore, Abyssal Exaltation makes you stop aging, and she was with either the Prince or the King for several months. I'd peg Secret's death at being in the 12-14 area.

Of course, his mother might have died after the Scarlet disappeared, which gives it room to be higher.

[Ganurath]

Of course, his mother might have died after the Scarlet disappeared, which gives it room to be higher.

Ignoring the typo, Secret was five when her mother died. The later that death took place, the younger Secret is. If you want a Secret that's older than 15, her mother needs to die before the Empress vanishes.

[The Rose Dragon]

Ignoring the typo, Secret was five when her mother died. The later that death took place, the younger Secret is. If you want a Secret that's older than 15, her mother needs to die before the Empress vanishes.

Of course. That's what I meant. Sorry about the confusion.

My point still stands, however.

[Kyeudo]

Jukashi has stated that Secret died at 16 and is currently 17.

[Jair Barik]

Jukashi has stated that Secret died at 16 and is currently 17.

Shwing!
Word of God ahnihalates all the carefully constructed debate

[Mewtarthio]

In other news, I believe we've just seen three consecutive panels of Secret being happy. Is this a new record?

[Jukashi]

Jukashi has stated that Secret died at 16 and is currently 17.

Um, no. I said she was 16 when the comic began, and she's 17 now.

I might as well copy-paste.

The Empress disappeared when Secret was nearly seven years old - the situation in coral deteriorated rapidly. Five years from the Empress' vanishing act, the Solars and Abyssals really begin to make themselves known (that's the default setting date). It's two years after that that Secret was Exalted, and she'd been Exalted for two years when the comic began - she was 16 then and is 17 now. The current time in the comic is roughly five years after the default setting. There haven't been any huge changes yet - maybe a few extra shadowlands, some nascent Solar kingdoms, but mostly it's been a case of everyone thwarting everyone else. I wanted to give myself some room to introduce changes to the setting if I needed them.

As a matter of interest: Marena and Karen Exalted within the year of the default setting. Misho begins his memories of the Age of Sorrows a few months after that. Those of the Lion's Abyssals who have been in the comic are all "first generation", as is King. Fury has been Exalted longer than they have. Ten Winds is in his fourth century. Nemen Yi was Exalted soon after the Usurpation, and Racer was Exalted a short time before the Contagion.

[Kyeudo]

Misho begins his memories of the Age of Sorrows a few months after that.

Interesting choice of words there. That implies that he was Exalted before that. That makes the options for Misho either amnesia or else a full-scale memory overwrite.

[Jukashi]

Interesting choice of words there. That implies that he was Exalted before that. That makes the options for Misho either amnesia or else a full-scale memory overwrite.

Or he could have been temporally teleported forward, or woken up from a magical slumber, or have been taken out of his clone tank, or fabricated from the wyld, or whatever.

The point is: I imply nothing!

(But both your suggestions are precisely correct.)

[Kyeudo]

Or he could have been temporally teleported forward, or woken up from a magical slumber,

Which would make him the original Thrice-Radiant Misho and thus have 10s in almost every Attribute and Ability. Doubtful, otherwise Flame wouldn't stand a chance against Misho in a one on one fight.

or have been taken out of his clone tank, or fabricated from the wyld, or whatever.

Which wouldn't leave him in possession of a Solar Exaltation. Those can't be made by anyone short of Autochthon (yet).

(But both your suggestions are precisely correct.)

I love being right!

[Tavar]

Which wouldn't leave him in possession of a Solar Exaltation. Those can't be made by anyone short of Autochthon (yet).

Solar Exaltations look for the potential for greatness. What has more potential than a copy of an Essence 10 Solar?

[Raz_Fox]

I squealed in a most unmanly fashion when I saw this comic, enough so that a family member had to check to see what was wrong with me.

cuuuuuuuuutenessssssss

I had to do a complete system shutdown and reboot after seeing determined!child!Secret in panel three. And I'm not talking about my computer.

[The Rose Dragon]

So, here is a question unrelated to the comic, but inspired by this strip.

Why is Mask of Winters named Mask of Winters? There is no season named Winter in Creation, so the Neverborn could not have named him after it.

Similarly, what does the word "May" in May Blossom refer to, if not the month?

[Weimann]

...good question.

[Revlid]

He wasn't named after the season, but after Shelley Winters, of whom the Neverborn in question was a fan.

Which wouldn't leave him in possession of a Solar Exaltation. Those can't be made by anyone short of Autochthon (yet).

Which is exactly why Nova refers to him as her sibling.

Thrice Radiant Misho was one of the few Solar Exalted to have a genuinely good relationship with Autocthon, and to hold onto his sanity in the First Age. Therefore, when he died in the Usurpation, Autocthon, or one of his agents (Nova?), cloned him from what genetic material they had (resulting, comic-book-science-style, in him remembering only the stuff up to the point of the material being taken). Autocthon then made a new Twilight Exaltation for his old friend/apprentice (making him sort-of Nova's sibling, or if she was the one who cloned him, her son), and was deciding what to do with him when Nova's Elsewhere engine went kablooey, sucking her, her workshop, and Misho through into Creation. Shortly after the Jade Prison busted open, Misho woke up, escaped Nova's land in a berserk clone-rage, and regained his memories some time after.

If even one element of this theory is correct, I shall claim victory.

[The Rose Dragon]

He wasn't named after the season, but after Shelley Winters, of whom the Neverborn in question was a fan.

That makes no sense.

[kamikasei]

If even one element of this theory is correct, I shall claim victory.

Well, I imagine that at least once in the past Misho did wake up. So congratulations!

[Revlid]

Well, I imagine that at least once in the past Misho did wake up. So congratulations!

...
VICTORY!

That makes no sense.

And people die when they are killed.

[The_Snark]

Why is Mask of Winters named Mask of Winters? There is no season named Winter in Creation, so the Neverborn could not have named him after it.

Oh, winter exists, as do our other seasns. Check the map for the Summer Mountains, or look at the seasonal associations under Exalted castes: summer, winter, spring, and autumn (rounded out with Calibration) are used, not the elemental seasons. They're also referred to a number of times in the text, although that might just be the desire not to confuse people by referring to "the color of oak leaves in Resplendent Air". There are two explanations for this.

The first is clumsiness on the part of the writers: whoever wrote the bit about weather and climate came up with an alternative calendar. Almost everybody else ignored this or forgot about it, and used the seasons we're familiar with. It's not like the climate cycle is actually very different, and the unfamiliar names don't conjure up the same imagery. "Mask of Ascending Water" doesn't sound quite the same as Mask of Winters, does it?

The second is that the five-season, fifteen-month calendar is the formal calendar, used by the Realm and other kingdoms to mark time, and that it coexists with words like winter and summer, which are generalized terms meaning "that time of year when it's really cold/hot". I imagine peasants would be more inclined to use the less formal system; does a farmer really care that the growing season is divided up among Earth, Wood and Fire? All he needs to know when the planting season starts. Plant, hot, harvest, cold; it's a simple cycle, and most people don't need to know that the planting season technically starts two-thirds of the way through the season of Earth.

Both of these explanations may be true at the same time.

You've got me when it comes to May Blossom, though. Winter and summer might exist in the setting, but the Gregorian months? Not so much.

[horngeek]

May could mean something different in Exalted.

...exactly what beats me as well.