Drowtales: The Info Dump

[Oneris]

I actually didn't even realise Ana was a cameo at all (I don't read any commentary or forums there), so I guess that tells something of the character. I was a bit unsure what to think of her first, but guess she grew on me. ^_^

I read their News and Blog posts regularly, and Anahid (nicknamed Keychain) was an original character of a guest-artist who kept drawing uncharacteristically shoujo fan art of her character being shipped with an NPC. She appeared in nearly every single news post for months before starring in the series proper, interacting with canon characters and whatnot. Kinda like the situation with Zair who got a Daydream short all to his own. Maybe I'm extra sensitive, but cameo OCs interacting on that level with official characters just feels wrong.

If this was the last we're to see of Kyovarde though, I'm a little sad. Kind of liked that fanatic. Though I think there should have been at least one more page explaining her change of heart/decision to leave the clan. It doesn't seem wrong per se, I'd just like to have seen more about how she came to that conclusion.

Kern answered a bit of that in the forum.

The fate of Kyovarde. Burned , alone and filled with guilt, she decide to exile herself, at Anahid's great dismay.
Ky's ending is not a happy one, the more nice Anahid gets, the more likely she is to leave, thus nothing could be done to convince her to stay. If Kousei suddenly ruled the clan, she'd stay to watch him and continues her usual trust-no-one attitude.

[HandofShadows]

Spoiler

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Damn. Naaldemon gave into the glutton in her. She is going to feel horrible when this is over.

[HandofShadows]

Spoiler

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Well, can't keep a good Drow er, Demon er, whatever, down. Kern is still letting the readers decide for themselves if this is Naal or a demon or both. The "I Live" certainly scary though no matter who it is.

[CWater]

And even without a Dr. Frankenstein. :J

I read their News and Blog posts regularly, and Anahid (nicknamed Keychain) was an original character of a guest-artist who kept drawing uncharacteristically shoujo fan art of her character being shipped with an NPC. She appeared in nearly every single news post for months before starring in the series proper, interacting with canon characters and whatnot. Kinda like the situation with Zair who got a Daydream short all to his own. Maybe I'm extra sensitive, but cameo OCs interacting on that level with official characters just feels wrong.

Well, as I only read the main comic, that is what I judge it by. If an OC doesn't feel disruptive there, it doesn't bother me. :)

Kern answered a bit of that in the forum.

Yeah, Kyo'varde's decision makes sense, it's just that I think she should have gotten one or two pages to show it better. But I guess in a story with as many characters as this...

[Vinyadan]

And so we have a new scene with the Ice Queen and one of her sisters. And I can't but think that the situation has been defused by an angered Sarghress janitor.

[HandofShadows]

Only delayed a little. The Ice Princess has worse sister to freeze first.

[eschmenk]

Only delayed a little. The Ice Princess has worse sister to freeze first.

If Zala doesn't get the antidote, it might be too late by then. I mean that it might at least become obvious that Silice would just be saving her from a worse fate.

[Vinyadan]

Very nice page today, probably the first in which this kind of emotive interaction is shown.

For me it is normally very difficult to relate to character emotions in Drowtales. Each time there is a mother-child relationship, it is usually mediated through weapons or one being the other's subject, or isn't played out at all (like Chrys and Zala. She could be her mother, her big sister, her English teacher...). We also don't usually see things change during these meetings: Waes had a scene with Naal, but that was an explanation of the situation. I don't know, it's as if people in this comic were quest givers in a videogame. They tell you what to do, you do your thing, fight, and their disposition towards you improves, (or sinks underground). You get a "Thank you!", they give you your next assignment and there you go. A nice attempt was after Syphile's death, with Quain wanting to be a good mother; it was interesting because it was in character but out of the expected, and dangerous for her figure and her clan, given that regaining a decent relation with her daughter meant "Snadhya".

There also is the fact that everyone is constantly bent on HONOR HONOUR HOUNOR HODOR, and that Drows are supposed to be completely different from us in their relationships (no touching, people don't kiss much, signs of interest are usually shown as sexually overblown). Drows in relationships don't seem to change because of them. Ariel being with Faen has brought no difference whatsoever in their behaviour, assuming they really are in a relationship in our sense.

I also like the domestic setting. It gives a (unhappy) family feeling.

[eschmenk]

I never would have guessed, without reading Kern's explanation, that what was on the floor was a door that had been blasted off its hinges by Sil'lice. Well, I guess I could have figured it out eventually from the damage to the door frame, but I still have no idea how Sil'lice wound up far behind where she was in the first panel.

I agree that it's rare, but I think of a few good scenes with parents. One of them involved Sil'lice, actually. Now that I know about the door, it seems very unnatural to me, though. If Sil'lice was angry enough to blast the door, I would have expected her to get even angrier when she saw the tainting.

[HandofShadows]

Sil'lice is wondering were her daughter is. The tainting is coming in second to that. And finally Diva is back. From what we can see of her pose she knows what happened.

[eschmenk]

Sil'lice is wondering were her daughter is. The tainting is coming in second to that. And finally Diva is back. From what we can see of her pose she knows what happened.

Unless Sil'lice was certain that her daughter must be in that room and couldn't possibly be anywhere else, wondering where her daughter is wouldn't explain her sudden shock and change of emotions. I think she had to be reacting to the tainting first. I think Sil'lice is very concerned about her daughter, but I think that was her second thought, not her first one.

I hope Kern does more with Diva than he usually does, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Diva should help Sil'lice realize that she's overreacting, but that's so obvious and so overdue that it won't count for much even if it does happen.

[HandofShadows]

The twins are almost always together. Sil'lice was expecting to her daughter with her son. I suspect that Diva was able to start to tell Sil'lice but she didn't wait around for Diva to get very far. I hope they do more with Diva. (She's my favorite character.) Here is a wacked out idea. Knowing her grandkid is tainted Diva goes to the only person who might know how to save him. On the way, she runs into Kiel and they both break into the 9th Tower.

[eschmenk]

I think that "almost always" isn't enough to account for that level of shock when there is an exception. I think that Sil'lice is reacting to more than that. I think she realized first that something bad happened to her son, then she realized that something bad could have happened to daughter, too. I interpret the second thought as occurring at the bottom of the page.

I don't know what Diva knows. Her pose could have simply been due to Sil'lice not calming down much after her run-in with Zala. OTOH, she probably would have had a chance to learn something about what happened by then.

Diva could have been my favorite remaining character, but Kern didn't hardly use her for so long. When he did use her after the time skip, she came as very flat to me.

[CWater]

And Sil'lice joins the terrible parents club. :P
I hope she comes around though, I liked how she genuinely seemed to care for the twins, a rare thing seen in drowtales.

Very nice page today, probably the first in which this kind of emotive interaction is shown.

For me it is normally very difficult to relate to character emotions in Drowtales. Each time there is a mother-child relationship, it is usually mediated through weapons or one being the other's subject, or isn't played out at all (like Chrys and Zala. She could be her mother, her big sister, her English teacher...). We also don't usually see things change during these meetings: Waes had a scene with Naal, but that was an explanation of the situation. I don't know, it's as if people in this comic were quest givers in a videogame. They tell you what to do, you do your thing, fight, and their disposition towards you improves, (or sinks underground). You get a "Thank you!", they give you your next assignment and there you go. A nice attempt was after Syphile's death, with Quain wanting to be a good mother; it was interesting because it was in character but out of the expected, and dangerous for her figure and her clan, given that regaining a decent relation with her daughter meant "Snadhya".

There also is the fact that everyone is constantly bent on HONOR HONOUR HOUNOR HODOR, and that Drows are supposed to be completely different from us in their relationships (no touching, people don't kiss much, signs of interest are usually shown as sexually overblown). Drows in relationships don't seem to change because of them. Ariel being with Faen has brought no difference whatsoever in their behaviour, assuming they really are in a relationship in our sense.

I agree with you on many points. The general lack of emotions between characters, them being siblings, friends, lovers, etc.. and how little effect even losing someone usually has on a person, is something that bugs me at times. Notable exceptions that come to mind are Kiel about Naal's death, and Kau and Sar'nel about Shala's. I'm sure there are others, but most of the time people just seem to 'shrug off' this sort if thing. Also, what you said about being in a relationship doesn't seem to affect behaviour much.

I suppose it makes some sense considering the chaotic and lethal setting, and the fact that these folks aren't actually human. But I admit I wished to see them react more at times.

[kardillamo]

So I stopped reading drowtales 5 years ago and have seriously considered picking it back up. Is there anything I should know beforehand?

[guttering flame]

So I stopped reading drowtales 5 years ago and have seriously considered picking it back up. Is there anything I should know beforehand?

I'm an on again off again follower of this comic. It deteriorated after they did a time-skip to let the heroine(s) grow up. Therre's not the same amount of emotional depth to the characters and the story is much less gripping. The art (and update rate) on the other hand are good. They have a whole team dedicated to it.

[eschmenk]

The story meanders all over the place, even worse than in the first half. A new city with a new set of clans was added, but I think that was more that five years ago. Actually, with the exception of some bird people, the plot has become somewhat tighter lately. Unfortunately, though, Kern gave up on selling books and sells cameos in order to raise money instead. As a result of that, there are tons of unimportant new characters that keep slowing down the story and distracting from it.

One good thing: Kern announced that he has given up on doing another story about the wood elves and their hideous princess. He had actually wanted to go back to them.

The overall story is getting close to the end. Kern just called the current chapter (Chapter 50), "the last chapter for everything to wrap up." I think he was just talking about the side stories, but it's coming clearer who the main villain is, so maybe a chapter or two to deal with her and the aftermath, then we'll be done. Hopefully.

[HandofShadows]

Well. I hate to say it but Zala has actually earned some respect from me this chapter. Still does not make up for what she did to her mother though.

[eschmenk]

Well. I hate to say it but Zala has actually earned some respect from me this chapter. Still does not make up for what she did to her mother though.

She claims that she didn't do anything to her mother. She says that she realized that she couldn't stop the plot anyway so she didn't interfere, but she wasn't responsible for what happened. Of course, that's what she would say.

[HandofShadows]

"The Longest Wait" shows what Zala did. She was right there with the other two. IIRC it was her idea to trap Diva in the Throne Room.

[eschmenk]

I had already downloaded it, so I looked. Diva did talk about Zala always being under her sisters' thumbs. Originally, the plan was to kill Diva and say that the Nids did it. Snady revealed her alternate plan to kill Diva, but pretend that Diva was still alive and rule in her name. Sarv came up with the idea of just leaving Diva trapped, rather than kill her directly. Zaless halfheartedly proposed forcibly tainting Diva and having her join them, but Snady overruled that idea. However, sometimes Zaless would become bizarrely giddy and start saying things like, "Let's kill her now!" I don't know if that was supposed to show the stress getting to Zala or if that was supposed to be Zala reassuring the other two that she was going along with things or if she wasn't fully in control of her demon yet or what.

Anyway, I view Zala as being an accessory to the crime and just ignore how bizarre she was behaving.

[Vinyadan]

A whole week of cameos greeting each other? What could be more interesting?

[HandofShadows]

Shows more than just that though. It shows that Ariel is getting some traction/support in the Raiders. That could prove to be very important very soon if there is a rebellion in the Clan which it looks like there may be judging by the cover. Of course it shows a little bit of Ariel's personality as well.

[eschmenk]

Yes, and Kern said as much.

http://forums.drowtales.com/viewtopi...53469#p853469:

And yes there's a lot more cameos in the next few pages . There's a point to this.

http://forums.drowtales.com/viewtopi...53581#p853581:

Part of the point of these scene is that; a lot happened, a lot of people were met, they now know each other. She mess up the chain of command and she recklessly volunteers for all sort of **** but she's involved and grew enough of reputation among her peers that she is far gone from the locked up little girl she started as. She's invested in her clan, she's "patriotic" and she isn't shy about being in display anymore. Though as will be shown in the next pages, there,s still some issues she has to face within her own clan. Some embarassing, some deadly.

Given that, it doesn't really bother me, even though I don't remember who these cameo characters are and don't care who they are. It also helps that I waited for a bunch of pages to accumulate, then read through them quickly.

[Vinyadan]

If you scratch it, you'll only make it worse. Right, Quain?

[HandofShadows]

Well it doesn't seem she has been infected by the madness poison at least. That looks more like some kind of stuff that causes the flesh to necrotize maybe? IKf it is there might be a cure. Hopefully Diva might know a cure if no one else does. And of course pay attention to who (or rather what) is standing next to Ariel in the last panel.

[Vinyadan]

I have this weird image in my head of Ariel grabbing her challenger's head with her hair, throwing her onto the ground, forcing the hair into her throat and screaming "Whose mouth is pink now, punk?"

BTW, the DT forum seems to say that only people who were correctly nourished during childhood have pink mouths. The starved and malnourished have it purple.

[eschmenk]

BTW, the DT forum seems to say that only people who were correctly nourished during childhood have pink mouths. The starved and malnourished have it purple.

Thanks. I was thinking that people talk with their mouths so Ariel's mouth had just said the opposite.

[HandofShadows]

Considering Ariel's childhood, wonder if she would have preferred to be malnourished rather than what she got. I always thought that the purple mouths were a sign that they had been eating mushrooms and such grown in the underworld and it stained their mouths that color.

[Vinyadan]

Reading more answers in the DT forum, there are a lot of different opinions (and no link to sources) about what makes mouths purple.

• Malnutrition
• Mushrooms
• Mushroom beer
• Soylent (as undiversified diet)
• Drow meat

So pick the one you like best! For the way I see it, it could even be an effect of sleeping in the underworld without a roof on your head, or having access to unpurified water or having to use low-class pottery.

Someone also noticed the Vloz ex-sargh ex Syphile's subject previously calling commoners "purple mouths". http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=8684

This whole Val talk has had me wonder. Are there lesser titles? Quain has an exceptionally small family, so there are few Vals. Are people like Koil, Rosof, the blind anti-demon girl and their families Vals? Or do they have a form of nobility which only belongs to their houses, but not to the clan in general? In the Wiki, Koil is the only one from a different house to be called Val'Sarghress, probably because she was adopted by Quain.