Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXVII: God Has Nothing to do With This

[CurlyKitGirl]

Analysing Dominus Deegan

The Golden Age*

Spoiler

A Frail Hope of Adequate Enjoyment
21/05/2002 - 17/07/2002 Arcs covered: Oracle for Hire, The Curse
The First Signs of Serious Psychological Issues Appear
18/07/2002 - 4/12/2002 Arcs covered: The Curse, Luna, Into the Woods
In Which Teh Great Dominus Indulges in Torture and Terrifies Me
5/12/2002 - 21/02/2003 Arcs covered: Into the Woods, Couch Forts and Crying
Dominatrix Luna. Oh, and The Dominus is More Feared Than A Necromancer
22/01/2003 - 11/03/2003 Arcs covered: Makeover!, Mob Mentality
Thing Are Looking Up
12/03/2003 - 30/04/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts One and Two
Siggy Is Iesus. Make of That What You Will
01/05/2003 -23/06/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts Three and Four
The Great Dominus Is Officially A Marty Stue an It's THRILLER! THRILLER NIGHT!
24/06/2003 - 19/08/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts Five and Six
Character Development! And We Conclude an Arc
20/08/2003 - 10/09/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts Seven and Eight
Short Arc Is Short
11/09/2003 - 21/10/2003 Arcs covered: The Party

The Tarnished Age

Spoiler

Hell Is Meaningless Filler
23/10/2003 - 20/11/2003 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Part One
Kink + Dominus Deegan = Eye and Brain Bleach
11/11/2003 - 16/12/2003 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Parts Two and Three
Inflatable Boobs and Sex! Occasional Plotting Is Permitted
17/12/2003 - 30/01/2004 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Parts Four and Five
Enter: Deus Ex Machina! And Boobs.
31/01/2005 - 19/04/2004 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Parts Six and Seven
Mookie Reveals More of His Sexual Fantasies. And Noone Ever Suffers From Any Effects of A Near-Rape. Ever!
20/04/2004 -26/05/2004 Arcs covered: TEatE: Parts Eight and Nine

The Silver Age
The Corruption of Sister Pam. Iocks Are Misogynistic Idiots.
27/05/2004 - 27/08/2004 Arcs covered: Hello Nurse

All Hands On Deck! Swirly Thing Alert!
06/09/2004 - 22/10/2004 Arcs covered: The Storm of Souls Parts One and Two

Spoiler

What do Patxhwork Zombie, Dirk the Mighty and the Dominus have in common? They're allergic to swirly whirly magic paintings. I hope Dirk isn't featured too heavily in this arc, I liked how his character and Dryad girl had a happy ending.
Whatever the Swirly Thing is, it's pretty well depicted. Oh, it's chaos. Point to Mookie, that''s quite a good attempt at a visual representation of chaos.
I agree with the Dominus though, he has finally lost his mind. Proof: he touches weird globey things with people in them.
Hai Iacob!
Yay!
These globes are surveillance cameras, and the one the Dominus is touching is spying on Iacob and his creation. With all the powers coming from his separate pieces he's a gestalt Patchwork Zombie. Mysterious cloacked personage!
Is it Rachel!?
Nope. It's a lipless necromancer dude called Rilian. He can send Blight ("In the Blight he courts death as a suitor courts a maiden") through, ummm, magical nothingness into a Vision to start turning the DOminus into cracked pottery glaze.
Okay, I'll buy that super-old lipless necromancers can tell when Seer's are spying on them - it's logical after all. But how can he send the BLight ("In the Blight he courts death as a suitor courts a maiden") through space, magic and dimensions(?) to curse the DOminus? It shouldn't work because back when the Dominus and Karnak were busying gang-mind-raping Szark he said that you could control your actions and influence things in the Mindscape.
The Dominus tries to do this, and promptly starts disintegrating.
The question still stands on how he's doing this, but its so cool (and the Dominus deserves it) that I don't care.
I like Rilian.
By the way, the dialogue in p.1? So incredibly narmy it ruins the the drama of the moment.
For the record, Attempted Rape/Rape Count: 10. That'd be Dirk, Patchwork Zombie and the Dominus. Now, while the DOminus we actually know to be a Seer, he gets the mind-rape status for having his arm be dissolved off.
In his flailing he spys on Dirk the Mighty in his unconsciousness. The Sylvan Oracle makes a title drop. It makes me want to read ASoIaF again. That series has fantastic, intricate plots. And the characters suffer consequences from the actions and develop accordingly.
This is meant to be creepy, but it isn't really. Granted it's mildly intimidating, but, especially p. 3, but it's not really effective.
Huh, it was Coma Vision. Now that is some scary stuff. This is good writing, the DOminus is all scared and babbling, he's thinking it's only been a minute or so, and Luna tells him it's been a week.
A week of vulnerability and terror. That comic's good too, it gets across how terrified he was with hardly a word, especially with regards to his Blighted ("In the Blight he courts death as a suitor courts a maiden") arm crumbling away. Luna's introspection is sweet, for once, and displays character development. Part of being in a loving relationship is supporting each other, here at least, Luna recognises that it's okay for her to need the DOminus and vice versa, because it's what couples do for each other. She finally gets over one of her many emotional stumbling blocks.
This lovely piece of quiet character development continues, and then Mama Machina and Elanovan enter. Is it wrong that my first thought on p. 4 was 'Elanovan looks good in black'? Because he does. And even that little interiection by Elanovan shows how close the family is. Nothing horribly dramatic or showy, simply a quiet little remark.
How did the Dominus forget TIM murdered many of his mother's stundets? I'll let it pass because of his Trauma Coma Vision. It also makes sense for Lady Iayden and Lord Dan to be here because they're associated with the Royal Knights of Callan and this is something they'd definitely want to investigate. Particularly if you consider that these two have ineracted with the Deegans before. Plus, wherever these two are, Siggy can't be far behind!
Yay!
The dialogue in p. 4 is narmy, and the "light" is implied to be the DOminus. As if he's the only saviour in the Dominiverse. I don't like that, but it could be read to mean it's a ray of hope.
Wait. My assumption was incorrect. Rather than a logical coincidence Lady Iayden and Lord Dan are there to counsel the students. Out of all the priests and priestesses of Luania in the world, they iust had to send out the only one we know. Contrived. It also means the liklihood of Sigggy appearing in this arc has decreased.
Sadness.
The idiotic expression on Elanovan's face is terrible. I also sense exposition from Mama Machina! I say her because it makes sense for the Archmage of the Fifth Circle to talk about something clearly magical in origin. I was right. And apparently the surveillance cameras are also restraining orders to keep the SoS at bay. This guy called Acibek invented them. They're souls of The Chosen.
Wait.
Those guys from VoD?
So they were good guys? Because if they're holding back the SoS that must be a good thing.
Mama Machina explains and Luna recaps the explanation from the previous page by explaining, no I mean summing up what was already said. The SoS is a sentient Weapon of Mass Destruction. I love that song.
The Dominus lampshades everything that hasn't been explained, and we get a poor ioke from Spark.
Aha! I was right. Rilian isn't only a necromancer, but the first of his kind! Gasp! How he discovered necromancy is a mystery. But he's thousands of years old now. He's in pretty good shape all things considered.
Oh, and the Dominus insults his mother, implies she's allied with evil necromancer, shows in vitriolic hate for his brother and reacts in an vile manner to a valid explanation.
DRAMATIC LIGHT SHIFT!
The Dominus is sufficiently shocked by his outburst. I'm not saying he doesn't have a point, he does. Especially considering he should still be shocked after coming out of a seven day coma (even though he looks amazingly well cared for, no malnourishment, dehydration, loss of muscle mass, very little confusion, and no facial hair or obvious dirt) and why he woke up are reason enough. Add in Hexelia the necromancer and Iacob, and the effects of Barthis (only three weeks old) he has more than enough reasons to burst out like that.
It's still pretty damn shocking.
I like that.
And the consequences of this cruel outburst are childlike. Bed with no supper. Wow. Way to not deal with a great problem - the Dominus should certainly apologise, there should be ramifications, Luna should be appalled! But he's treated like he was eight years old and had a temper tantrum.
. . .
On second thoughts, that's the perfect punishment then. All he'd need to complete the picture would be "I hate you! I'm going to run away and never come back, and then you'll be sorry!!" Mama Machina was surprisingly insightful there and in the next comic.
Even if it does mean we don't get any taut emotional mini-arcs where they confront the DOminus' hatred and try to solve it. If it was someone else, I'd say it was a bit Sue-ish, but all parents are a little Sue-ish when it comes to their children, so she gets a free pass here.
Wot.
The DOminus' hand is talking to him.
Wot.
This is the druggie stereotypical trip.
The Dominus is on drugs! Heeeeee! That explains so much. It's probably a combination of uppers and downers; mixed with a few unwise LSD trips in his earlier years which have severe ramification now in the form of trips which the Dominus thinks are 'visions'. These combined with his actual visions make him metally and emotionally unstable.
His arm is called Klo Tark now. He was a wizard waaaay back when with Acibek.
This is the situation: the Dominus' arm is going to teach the Dominus how to fight the SoS. Becaue the Dominus is officially the Messiah.
Sentence fragments. First panel. Why? What? Not funny. Annoying. Angers me. And a genuinely half-decent ioke! I'm also driven to say that Luna's new dress is quite pretty. And the ioint magical nerdgasm is fairly cute too. And it's not a bad way of instantly figuring out something that could have provided an interesting subplot.
Except after that moment of cuteness I'm confronted with the Dominus choking a bitch. Thanks to TEatE and the myriad sexual kinks involving Lady Amelia, I am now forced to say that the Dominus like auto-erotic asphyxiation. Plus he mayn't have been ioking when he told Gregory he liked it when Luna hurt him (The Party (or possibly VoD Part Eight)).
Anywho, Venus de Seer!
Hang on. Wasn't he arrested by the Knights of Errosus? He was an accomplice to murder. He should be in prison! Why is he free?
Plot hole aside, we have a morally ambiguous character with a complex motive who's out for revenge! Oh, and there's some lady - who appeared out of nowhere apparently? - who's going to coach Venus in becoming the Big Bad of the arc.
Hmm, mysterious member of the Chosen who's giving her interpretation of the cult's purpose and exploiting Venus' fully-iustified anger. I like her!
And incoming awesome villain-with-a-motive.
And this makes me think that the Dominus is a Beacon of Order? Which really doesn't make any sense when you consider his actions, willful disregard for the laws of Callan, or many other things about him.
Because only the Dominus or another Deegan can be the Saviour.
However, Venus de Seer gets to visit unholy, righteous vengeance upon the DOminus, so all is right with the world, and for once, I can conclude an essay on a truly geniune, foreshadowing arc! There's only once comic left before I finish. Mookie can't ruin his cliffhanger in one page.
He. Did. He did!
Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid MOOKIE!!!
It was an honestly threatening and suspenseful conclusion to Part Two of the SoS; and you had to screw with it by that idiotic ioke with SPARK?!?! Hate.

I have the perfect way to end this essay:
Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find

Whatever happened to this plot
I wish I understood
It used to be so nice, it used to be so good

So when I read this, reader can't you hear my
SOS
The love you gave me, nothing else can save me
SOS
The drama's gone (it's all gone)
How can I even try to go on
When it's gone (drama's gone)
Though I try how can I carry on

With this crappy comic?

*Ages as defined by Trazoi here.

Next up!
Some elves are building Iron Man. In a bubble. Without any scraps.

Title for the next one is probably "Darling, Can You Hear My SoS?"

[averagejoe]

Originally Posted by CurlyKitGirl

The Dominus is on drugs! Heeeeee! That explains so much. It's probably a combination of uppers and downers; mixed with a few unwise LSD trips in his earlier years which have severe ramification now in the form of trips which the Dominus thinks are 'visions'.

I once did a slay about this. I don't think it's spoiler-y since almost all of the dialogue has been changed, but some of the images might be, um, interesting. Especially out of context.

Spoiler

[Wraith]

I'm pretty sure that we've previously had the theory that Dominus actually DID fall victim to Mind-Break, and that all of the comic since this is entirely inside his own head.

As he insanely tries to piece together a life where things are nicer, he is constantly defeated and sent into a deeper spiral of madness when his brain is unable to keep track of his imaginings and they fall apart like an unstable house of cards.

And once again, insanity and catatonia explain far more about Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire than the characters and the plot do....

[Coidzor]

Originally Posted by Glass Mouse

Hahaha! Dunno why, but this just made my morning. Thank you!

Well, it's like I've always said, there is nothing like a dane.

Originally Posted by Glass Mouse

On today's comic: Is this recapping, or are we actually supposed to learn something new? I'm not... really sure myself.

Well, I guess we learn that Karnak has nightmares while he's awake since he can't sleep now that he's ... um... not undead... A spiritual creature?

Either that or Karnak not only sleep walks, he also sleep eats/pikas and sleep kills.

Heh, maybe Siggy's just trying to wake him up without getting skewered and the sounds of his alarm clock are having an effect on Karnak's dreams?

Originally Posted by averagejoe

Spoiler

I rove rooo! @_@

Originally Posted by SaintRidley

In Scots every word in Ilka Tuk Tak has a meaning.

Ilka means each or every,

Tuk means to gather

and Tak means thorn, nail or tack.

So, in a quite literal sense, it means "To gather every thorn."

Mystery solved.

...@_@ How do you know that?

[Lillith]

Rilian isn't only a necromancer, but the first of his kind! Gasp! How he discovered necromancy is a mystery. But he's thousands of years old now. He's in pretty good shape all things considered.

Yeah he's pretty good at conserving himself.

And Ridley, awesome that you managed to translate it! Too bad it makes... no sense in that language... Let's make up our own meaning!

[CurlyKitGirl]

Welp, I'm off to uni tomorrow, so here's another analysis in case I can't post any for a while.

Analysing Dominus Deegan

The Golden Age*

Spoiler

A Frail Hope of Adequate Enjoyment
21/05/2002 - 17/07/2002 Arcs covered: Oracle for Hire, The Curse
The First Signs of Serious Psychological Issues Appear
18/07/2002 - 4/12/2002 Arcs covered: The Curse, Luna, Into the Woods
In Which Teh Great Dominus Indulges in Torture and Terrifies Me
5/12/2002 - 21/02/2003 Arcs covered: Into the Woods, Couch Forts and Crying
Dominatrix Luna. Oh, and The Dominus is More Feared Than A Necromancer
22/01/2003 - 11/03/2003 Arcs covered: Makeover!, Mob Mentality
Thing Are Looking Up
12/03/2003 - 30/04/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts One and Two
Siggy Is Iesus. Make of That What You Will
01/05/2003 -23/06/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts Three and Four
The Great Dominus Is Officially A Marty Stue an It's THRILLER! THRILLER NIGHT!
24/06/2003 - 19/08/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts Five and Six
Character Development! And We Conclude an Arc
20/08/2003 - 10/09/2003 Arcs covered: Visions of Doom Parts Seven and Eight
Short Arc Is Short
11/09/2003 - 21/10/2003 Arcs covered: The Party

The Tarnished Age

Spoiler

Hell Is Meaningless Filler
23/10/2003 - 20/11/2003 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Part One
Kink + Dominus Deegan = Eye and Brain Bleach
11/11/2003 - 16/12/2003 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Parts Two and Three
Inflatable Boobs and Sex! Occasional Plotting Is Permitted
17/12/2003 - 30/01/2004 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Parts Four and Five
Enter: Deus Ex Machina! And Boobs.
31/01/2005 - 19/04/2004 Arcs covered: The Ecstasy and the Evil Parts Six and Seven
Mookie Reveals More of His Sexual Fantasies. And Noone Ever Suffers From Any Effects of A Near-Rape. Ever!
20/04/2004 -26/05/2004 Arcs covered: TEatE: Parts Eight and Nine

The Silver Age
The Corruption of Sister Pam. Iocks Are Misogynistic Idiots.
27/05/2004 - 27/08/2004 Arcs covered: Hello Nurse
All Hands On Deck! Swirly Thing Alert!
06/09/2004 - 22/10/2004 Arcs covered: The Storm of Souls Parts One and Two

Darlings, Can't You Hear My SoS?
25/010/2004 - 28/11/2004 Arcs covered: The Storm of Souls Parts Three and Four

Spoiler

Because Klo Tark asked the Dominus to help him, the Dominus uses his Seer abilities to look into the past and finds out that Acibek is Iron Man in a bubble. It seems that an Acibek was once common and they were representatives of Law and Order, but they were cancelled because they weren't needed. And now they are.
So Elf Guy is basically the head of The Chosen, but for Law and Order. Acibek decides to rebel, probably because murder is bad. And Acibek knows this because Elf Iudge Dredd ("I am the LAW!") killed relatives of those who were in his cult, and that, logically, enforcing laws by killing people would create more insurgency and rebellion.
On another note, Acibek is a mix of Iron Man and the Borg. I think I'll call him Acibek the Borg King.
Which leads us to this sentence: The Borg King suggests killing Elven Iudge Dredd because he murdered people. Except thatlady who's currently with Venus saves Elven Iudge Dredd.
The Dominus freaks. It turns that that she's Hexlia, you know, the lady who tried to kill the Deegans when they were lickle.
Kink update: black leather straps for clothing and thigh high leather boots make another reappearance. Fetish finalised.
Mama Machina looks fairly awesome here, fighting to save her children from the evil necromancer. If you look though, Iacob (currently in emo-gothic teen mode (oh, and he does bleach his hair)) is clearly enamoured with her and her skills, he's smiling. Not scared one iot. I'm also forced to wonder what on earth is keeping Lil Gregory and Lil Dominus' hair up so perfectly spiky. Rather than show us an epic battle between Mama Machina and Helixia we cut back to the present to show the Dominus pondering things. I love his logic from p.1 to p.2 "The Borg King was a golem, and he was the world's leading Mage of Order. It explains why law-based magic is so structured and logical. Head. Desk.
No. Really? law-magic is orderly and structured like the law system. I suppose you're going to be shocked when it turns out that chaos-magic is chaotic and has no rhyme or reason to it?
Idiocy aside, the Dominus assumes he's going to need to build another Borg King to redefeat the SoS. Way to keep to conclusions, what if it wasn't iust the Borg King who stopped the SoS?
The Dominus realises the flaw in his logic and skips ahead a couple of years to find out the thrilling conclusion! It has Darth Vader? He even speaks like him! Or it's Klo Tark. I hereby dub him Darth Tark.
Time skip!
It's time for the last stand against the forces of evil. I mean the "obscenity of chaos". His chosen warriors are the Sylvan Oracle, Darth Tark and . . . Rilian? Here I thought Rilian was evil, because all necromancers are evil. The Dominus said so. I can see why Rilian's here though, iust because he uses dark magic doesn't make him an advocate of chaos. In fact, given the difficulty of his magic necromancy must be a highly structured magic. You don't want to mix chaos with necromancy.
You might get flesh-eating zombies a la 28 Days Later and The Evil Dead when you didn't intend to!
The Borg King's looking a little crumbly around the edges, so he's going to commit suicide. Hummmm, I thought Rilian was an ally, because necromany is evil, but the Borg King - the oderliest Mage of Law and Order ever! - calls him a friend. Necromancy must have received some bad publicity between than and now. And the Sylvan Oracle has a name: Leaflette. Punny.
The cloak's effect in p. 4 is very nice.
Well, it turns out that the Borg King indirectly created The Chosen. Oops.
So now we get to see a climatic battle right?
This is going to be awesome.
Never mind. It's iust another mass murder and the Elven Iudge Dredd rips off Mama Deegan's wing effect from back in TEatE which is itself ripped off from several Discworld books.
So Rilian is forced to kill his best friend. What is it with paragons of goodness forcing their friends to kill them or participate in them getting severely iniured? Rilian's fingers are also very blocky, but I quite like the way Rilian cradles his frien's head. It must have hurt Rilian very much to help the Borg King kill himself.
Anyway, he Borg King goes all laser-y on the Elven Iudge Dredd, kills him, and separate chaos down into patterned blocks sealing away the SoS for a long time.
And then Darth Tark attempts some mind-rape. Attempted Rape/Rape Count: 11.
SO there's this battle which Darth Tark wins, thereby making it actual mind-rape, not attempted mind-rape.
And this sets up a temporal paradox.
Because none of this would have happened if the Dominus hadn't looked back into the past to make Darth Tark look into the future. But the Dominus only looked into the past because Darth Tark possessed his arm (seriously? His arm!) and told him to research the Borg King. But Darth Tark only did that because he raped the Dominus' mind and found out the future. But he only found that out because the Dominus looked into the past because Darth Tark told him to. But the Dominus only - my head hurts.
So it seems that both time and chaos are wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey/chaosy balls of stuff.
And because this happened Darth Tark knows the Dominus is a very powerful magician. So he suggests a Vulcan mind meld from across dimensions. Luckily, this mind meld explains why the DOminus - or someone else - wasn't contacted earlier about the End of the World. It would have driven anyone else insane.
Naturally, the Dominus decides to fight The Chosen again. Because, hello, noone hurts a Deegan or their loved ones and lives.
Back with Venus de Seer he's concluded that The Chosen's beliefs are nuttier than a fruit 'n' nut bar, but then he gets to see the SoS. He does the exact same thing as the Dominus, gets hs arm asploded off - Attempted Rape/Rape Count: 12 - and asplodes a soul iar with his evil Seeing powers. But it seems that it wasn't Venus' powers. (Attempted Rape/Rape Count: 13? I'm undecided, so I keep it at 12 until more evidence appears) And the other soul iars attack, but he wakes up (and hasn't lost a week, so why did the Dominus?) and starts freaking out because he doesn't know what the hell is really going on when Darth Tark appears out of nowhere and says he's going todestroy Venus de Seer and tear his mind apart! Attempted Rape/Rape Count: 13!
While I understand why Darth Tark does this, you really have to pity Venus. He has no iea what's going on, only that The Chosen want to assist him in killing the Dominus and all he loves, and Venus is only going along with it because The Chosen have some pretty nifty spells. If anything, Darth Tark's attack will only cement Venus' decision to help The Chosen out properly. And we mustn't forget that Venus is only contemplating helping them because the Dominus was instrumental in helping kill the woman he loved.
Hexali intervens to save Venus and Darth Tark is about to be eaten by a fangy SoS and we end our run for the day.

This is a genuinely dramatic, dark and interesting plot; even if Mookie is prone to killing the moment through some stupid art, puns and general weirdness. And while everything's too linked - once again everyone to ever interact with a Deegan is in this arc - there are at least some well thought out reasons for doing so. Although I think that getting Leaflette, Dirk and Dryad involved was fairly pointless, and only there to have symmetry with the flashback to the Borg King's asissted suicide.
Rilian in the past - Rilian with his protege.
Leaflette in the past - Leaflette with her friends.
Darth Tark in the Past - Darth Tark introduces himself to his protege.
I could even argue that the pointlessly tantalising one-panel flashback to Halxia mirrors her finding her protege (Venus) in the present and that mirrors Haxila saving her master from the Borg King's laser attack. This makes Venus the new Elven Iudge Dredd.
So the Dominus is either to be the new Borg King, or helps make one.

It'd be nice if that's what Mookie really intended. This arc again has promise in these two parts, as opposed to the less-than-mediocre part two.
It's a little complicated, but hey I've read David Edding's Belgariad and Mallorean wherein the two halves of the universe (one Light and one dark) duke it out for control of the universe by choosing champions so that they can fight without obliterating reality.
Curses.
Mookie is ripping off one of my favourite fantasy author's work.
Despondcy aside, my biggest question from this entire expository setting up of the plot is: why is Klo Tark wearing a Darth Vader mask? Does he come from the Star Wars universe? Does this mean he's Iedi or Sith? Given he's a proponent of Order I'd say Iedi, but the mask is too Darth-y for words.
Yep. That one thing is more interesting that the rest of the story. Although I do wonder how Iacob managed to get Rilian as his mentor and only be set off on the necromantic pat by the woman who threatened to murder his mentor's best friend.

*Ages as defined by Trazoi here.

Next up!
Spark makes fun of Luna's many emotional problems and we find out that people want to fire Mama Machina from her position as Headmistress of the foresmost university in Callan!
Gasp.

You know Mookie, your A-plot's interesting enough for you to not have to put in any secondary or teritary plots. They'll iust tangle up the narrative and waste precious space.

[Joro]

My 2 cents for the next thread title would be "Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire, Mk. XXVIII: The Bore in Hell," but "KARNAK!" has a certain something-something.

[averagejoe]

Originally Posted by CurlyKitGirl

Spark makes fun of Luna's many emotional problems and we find out that people want to fire Mama Machina from her position as Headmistress of the foresmost university in Callan!
Gasp.

This bit contains the arc's main wall-bangers. And thus it's mostly what I talk about when referring to this arc. However, I don't think you'll find some of the other points you've touched on to be too disappointing. May even be pleasantly surprised in some places!

[CurlyKitGirl]

Originally Posted by averagejoe

This bit contains the arc's main wall-bangers. And thus it's mostly what I talk about when referring to this arc. However, I don't think you'll find some of the other points you've touched on to be too disappointing. May even be pleasantly surprised in some places!

Hey!
I iust had another thought about my mirror theory.

The Borg King is a collective of souls, and he's a golem.
Iacob's Patchwork Zombie is a collective of bodies, so he's kind of a golem.
I was a little annoyed I couldn't find a Borg King parallel. But I found him!

So seeing as we have two of everything so far, except for golems, would it be too far to say that Patchwork Zombie is the Representative Golem of Chaos like the Borg King was for Law and Order?

Given what Mookie's displayed so far, it might be a little out of his reach, but I have my hopes up now. I'm in for such a letdown.

[averagejoe]

Originally Posted by CurlyKitGirl

I'm in for such a letdown.

Not going to spoil it, and not going to speculate too much on your tastes, but I honestly think you might not be. Or, at least, not as badly as you think.

[SaintRidley]

Scots dictionary.


If you use thorn for Tak, it actually works given Orc culture. It would be incredibly idiomatic, but it could be seen as something along the lines of a severely humiliating and degrading act.

[Coidzor]

Originally Posted by SaintRidley

Scots dictionary.


If you use thorn for Tak, it actually works given Orc culture. It would be incredibly idiomatic, but it could be seen as something along the lines of a severely humiliating and degrading act.

I was... thinking something along similar lines myself when you brought it up.

Scots dictionary, eh? Interesting thing to get ahold of...

[Thanqol]

Storm of Souls is actually a really good story, despite it's flaws. Savour the moment.

[Domochevsky]

Originally Posted by Thanqol

Storm of Souls is actually a really good story, despite it's flaws. Savour the moment.

Unfortunately it kept going after that. >_>

[SaintRidley]

Originally Posted by Coidzor

I was... thinking something along similar lines myself when you brought it up.

Scots dictionary, eh? Interesting thing to get ahold of...

Compiled by the University of Dundee.

I have no idea what made me think to check it, though. Call it intuition.

[Coidzor]

Kind of a random thing to possess too.

Guess it was just fate, haha.

[Gez]

The thing about the Chosen being cultists of Chaos is that they're all in clad in the Official Chosen Uniform, they all act in the same way, they all have identical souls, and they are obedient to the point of performing the greatest ever mass self-slitting of throat, turning collective suicide into a perfect choreography.

They're the guys who fight for chaos and freedom? This bunch of nameless, samey-same drones? I guess that's what Celesto lampshades by saying their ideology does not make sense.

PS: Skimpily-Clad Chaos Necromanceress is named Helixa. Not Hexlia or Haxila or whatever other spelling.

[Trazoi]

Order vs. Chaos in DD might as well be Red vs. Blue. I don't think there's any behavioral differences. Celesto might be the Champion of Chaos, but in D&D alignment terms he's either Lawful Neutral or at most True Neutral.

BTW have we made a catalog of what D&D alignment each of the DD cast are? (of the nine alignment, Law <-> Chaos, Good <-> Evil type of 2nd and 3rd ed.) My opinion of the main cast is this (spoilered for length):

Spoiler

First Caste
Dominic: Neutral Evil
Luna: Some type of evil, most likely chaotic
Miranda: True Apathetic, i.e. True Neutral
Donovan: Chaotic Neutral veering towards good (never sure if he's first or second caste though)
Greg: Chaotic Neutral now, formerly Chaotic Good
Nimmel: True Neutral, now veering slightly toward evil

Second Caste
Spark: Chaotic Neutral
Milov: Lawful Good
Jayden: Neutral Good or True Neutral, hard to say.
Pam: Lawful Good
Dex: Lawful Good
Szark: Chaotic Fabulous... uh, neutral teetering on evil?
Rachel: Chaotic Evil
Rilian: True Ineffable. (True Neutral?)
Klo Tark: Neutral Good, at least in intent
Stonewater: True Stupid. I mean True Neutral
Melna: Chaotic Evil bordering on Chaotic Neutral
Grench: Way too little info. Possibly Neutral Good?
Runcible Spoon: Chaotic Neutral
Cassafin: True Neutral with a hint of good
Dom's non-Nimmel class members: Can't remember, call them vaguely neutral
Dejah: True Neutral, although I can't remember much about the little guy
Suyan: Lawful Good
Azazia: Neutral Good
HukThak: True Neutral
That dragon: True Jerk, meaning Neutral Evil

Third Caste
Stunt: Chaotic Evil
Bumper: Chaotic Good
Celesto: Lawful Neutral or True Neutral, hard to say for the Champion of Chaos
Jacob: Neutral Evil, maybe now True Neutral.
Any Travoria not Luna: Neutral Evil
Snowsong: Chaotic Stupid, uh, borderline Evil with Neutral.
Outrage Chief: Lawful Neutral

Fourth Caste
Karnak: Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil?
Siggy: Neutral Evil then True Neutral now Neutral Evil again.
TIM: Chaotic Evil. Duh.
Serk: Lawful Evil
Brett Taggerty: Chaotic Evil
Helixa: Chaotic Evil. Maybe Neutral Evil, but hard to think so in that outfit.
Warlord Moustache: Chaotic Awesome. Okay, Chaotic Evil.

Fifth Caste
Who cares?

Did I get anything seriously wrong or leave anyone important out?

[Coidzor]

wait....

RILIAN IS LAPLACE'S DEMON!?

[Glass Mouse]

Originally Posted by Trazoi

Fifth Caste
Who cares?

Haha!

Really nice list! I'm thinking, at least for the first caste, we could seperate into actual alignment and intended alignment.

Dominic: Neutral Evil (intended Lawful Good).
Luna: Some type of evil, most likely chaotic. (intended Neutral Good).
Miranda: True Apathetic, i.e. True Neutral (intended Lawful Good).
Donovan: Chaotic Neutral veering towards good (intended Chaotic Good).
Greg: Chaotic Neutral now, formerly (and intended) Chaotic Good.
Nimmel: True Neutral, now veering slightly toward evil (intended Neutral Good).

[Gez]

Originally Posted by Glass Mouse

Dominic: Neutral Evil (intended Lawful Good).

I think he's intended to be NG, not LG. Since (spoilered for Kurly)

Spoiler

Him being not the Champion of Light and Law, but the Champion of Balance, was a plot point in the Storm of Soul.

[Glass Mouse]

Originally Posted by Gez

I think he's intended to be NG, not LG. Since (spoilered for Kurly)

Spoiler

Him being not the Champion of Light and Law, but the Champion of Balance, was a plot point in the Storm of Soul.

Oh yeah, good point.

Spoiler

The weird thing is, according to SoS, he should really be True Neutral - but for the rest of the comic, there's just no way Mookie hasn't intented Dominic to be Good.

[Wraith]

Originally Posted by Glass Mouse

Dominic: Neutral Evil (intended Lawful Good).
Luna: Some type of evil, most likely chaotic. (intended Neutral Good).

More likely that Luna is also "Neutral Evil (Intended Lawful Good) with spasms of Chaotic Neutral" to me, on the grounds that she is either Dominic's Puppet (and thus mirrors his own whims an intentions) or she wanders around aimlessly doing whatever pops into her shriveled little cranium and stumbling over whatever plot-relevant McGuffin is lying around.

Chaotic Neutral: To have no goals of your own, and to exist according to the winds of fate. Sounds just like Luna whenever she has slipped her collar, to me.

[Trazoi]

Originally Posted by Wraith

More likely that Luna is also "Neutral Evil (Intended Lawful Good) with spasms of Chaotic Neutral" to me, on the grounds that she is either Dominic's Puppet (and thus mirrors his own whims an intentions) or she wanders around aimlessly doing whatever pops into her shriveled little cranium and stumbling over whatever plot-relevant McGuffin is lying around.

Chaotic Neutral: To have no goals of your own, and to exist according to the winds of fate. Sounds just like Luna whenever she has slipped her collar, to me.

With Luna I was debating between Neutral Evil and Chaotic Evil, but in my mind she is clearly evil. Luna only cares about herself and Dominic and seems incapable of feeling empathy towards anyone else. When she does muster enough confidence to act how she really thinks she is usually quite vicious. She's just as selfish as the rest of her Travoria kin, and thus at least as evil.

[M84]

Heyall,

Originally Posted by Trazoi

With Luna I was debating between Neutral Evil and Chaotic Evil, but in my mind she is clearly evil. Luna only cares about herself and Dominic and seems incapable of feeling empathy towards anyone else. When she does muster enough confidence to act how she really thinks she is usually quite vicious. She's just as selfish as the rest of her Travoria kin, and thus at least as evil.

Far be it for me to defend Luna in any way, but she always struck me as simply someone who tries to be Neutral Good but is far too incompetent and self-centered to pull it off. She's not strictly evil -- just a complete idiot.

Mookie never should have made Luna a main character.

[guttering flame]

So... if we discarded Luna after that arc at her mothers' house, who would you propose to be Dominic's mate?

Rachel? Imagines endless dress-up extravaganza. Dominic repeatedly sighs either contentedly or exasperately and secretly changes into his own clothes which he hides in the back shed before leaving the house. I really don't think this would work.

Jayden? Meh. That would be boring, except, would Siggie skulk around the house and accidentally end up in their bedroom while Domi is busy seeing important other stuff?

Szark? This definitely has possibilities.

Pam? Maybe.

Momma Travoria? This could be pretty funny actually. They both have that misanthropic, jaded outlook and she'd be powerful enough to handle him. Bonus point: we can still have Loona but in a more manageable position (the annoying depressed kid that must be coddled or reprimanded out of the way to Momma's bedroom, Ooh Yeh.

Spark? Well this is pretty much what we had at the start but maybe with a whole new dimension.

Bumper? This could be pretty interesting I think.

Anyone else?

[Thufir]

Originally Posted by CurlyKitGirl

Wait. My assumption was incorrect. Rather than a logical coincidence Lady Iayden and Lord Dan are there to counsel the students. Out of all the priests and priestesses of Luania in the world, they iust had to send out the only one we know. Contrived. It also means the liklihood of Sigggy appearing in this arc has decreased.
Sadness.

Hmm. Siggy counselling people could be... interesting...

Originally Posted by CurlyKitGirl

"The Borg King was a golem, and he was the world's leading Mage of Order. It explains why law-based magic is so structured and logical. Head. Desk.

Actually, what he said was "That explains how Acibek was able to come up with the formulas etc." The reason he's famous as a law-mage is because he was pretty much built to be one.

Originally Posted by CurlyKitGirl

So seeing as we have two of everything so far, except for golems, would it be too far to say that Patchwork Zombie is the Representative Golem of Chaos like the Borg King was for Law and Order?

I seriously doubt that was intended, but it would make a surprising amount of sense...

Originally Posted by Trazoi

Celesto might be the Champion of Chaos, but in D&D alignment terms he's either Lawful Neutral or at most True Neutral.

Really? I think he's fairly chaotic.

Originally Posted by Trazoi

My opinion of the main cast is this (spoilered for length):

Spoiler

First Caste
Dominic: Neutral Evil
Luna: Some type of evil, most likely chaotic
Miranda: True Apathetic, i.e. True Neutral
Donovan: Chaotic Neutral veering towards good (never sure if he's first or second caste though)
Greg: Chaotic Neutral now, formerly Chaotic Good
Nimmel: True Neutral, now veering slightly toward evil

Second Caste
Spark: Chaotic Neutral
Milov: Lawful Good
Jayden: Neutral Good or True Neutral, hard to say.
Pam: Lawful Good
Dex: Lawful Good
Szark: Chaotic Fabulous... uh, neutral teetering on evil?
Rachel: Chaotic Evil
Rilian: True Ineffable. (True Neutral?)
Klo Tark: Neutral Good, at least in intent
Stonewater: True Stupid. I mean True Neutral
Melna: Chaotic Evil bordering on Chaotic Neutral
Grench: Way too little info. Possibly Neutral Good?
Runcible Spoon: Chaotic Neutral
Cassafin: True Neutral with a hint of good
Dom's non-Nimmel class members: Can't remember, call them vaguely neutral
Dejah: True Neutral, although I can't remember much about the little guy
Suyan: Lawful Good
Azazia: Neutral Good
HukThak: True Neutral
That dragon: True Jerk, meaning Neutral Evil

Third Caste
Stunt: Chaotic Evil
Bumper: Chaotic Good
Celesto: Lawful Neutral or True Neutral, hard to say for the Champion of Chaos
Jacob: Neutral Evil, maybe now True Neutral.
Any Travoria not Luna: Neutral Evil
Snowsong: Chaotic Stupid, uh, borderline Evil with Neutral.
Outrage Chief: Lawful Neutral

Fourth Caste
Karnak: Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil?
Siggy: Neutral Evil then True Neutral now Neutral Evil again.
TIM: Chaotic Evil. Duh.
Serk: Lawful Evil
Brett Taggerty: Chaotic Evil
Helixa: Chaotic Evil. Maybe Neutral Evil, but hard to think so in that outfit.
Warlord Moustache: Chaotic Awesome. Okay, Chaotic Evil.

Fifth Caste
Who cares?

Did I get anything seriously wrong or leave anyone important out?

I think you're being a bit harsh on some of the ones you say are evil/neutral bordering on neutral/good. Well, when I say 'some' I mostly mean Donovan.

[Seerow]

Can I get a quick summary of what's supposed to be going on in the current arc? Thus far it's seemed like nothing but a couple infernomancers wandering through hell, watching Karnak kill stuff for no apparent reason, with random flashbacks. Is that really all it is,or is there more to it I'm just not getting.



It seems like all I've miss the last month or so was Curly coming into the thread. I took an hour or so to read through her posts so far, and that was pretty entertaining. Sad that the actual comic can't say the same.

[Gez]

Originally Posted by Glass Mouse

Oh yeah, good point.

Spoiler

The weird thing is, according to SoS, he should really be True Neutral - but for the rest of the comic, there's just no way Mookie hasn't intented Dominic to be Good.

Spoiler

Personally I diverge from "official" D&D on that point, in that balance means NG, and evil tries to upset the balance. Instead of a square, my alignment chart is more like a triangle. It just makes more sense to me; because while a balance between chaos and law seems desirable, maintaining a balance between good and evil seems ridiculous. "Sorry, things have been too good these last few days, so I've got to go stab an old lady or something. Gotta fill that evil quota or things would become unbalanced, and that would be bad."

[Glass Mouse]

Originally Posted by Seerow

Can I get a quick summary of what's supposed to be going on in the current arc? Thus far it's seemed like nothing but a couple infernomancers wandering through hell, watching Karnak kill stuff for no apparent reason, with random flashbacks. Is that really all it is,or is there more to it I'm just not getting.

I think Lady Loxo is planning to gain a powerful position in Hell herself.
Orc dude is apparantly trying to find a way out of Hell (because he's a nice guy who doesn't belong there).

Oh, and Siggy is free of Karnak's control - we're just not sure whether it's happening right now or some time back.
This may be why Karnak is in such a foul mood.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Gez

Spoiler

Personally I diverge from "official" D&D on that point, in that balance means NG, and evil tries to upset the balance. Instead of a square, my alignment chart is more like a triangle. It just makes more sense to me; because while a balance between chaos and law seems desirable, maintaining a balance between good and evil seems ridiculous. "Sorry, things have been too good these last few days, so I've got to go stab an old lady or something. Gotta fill that evil quota or things would become unbalanced, and that would be bad."

Spoiler

Oh, so you're taking the SW route?

More seriously, I agree, and this is basically the reason why I personally avoid good/evil axes.
Problem is, in the Dominion, there is such an axis. It's definitely very D&D-inspired. So, from a general philosphical perspective, I agree that NG would be more logical (after all, it would take a certain altruism to dedicate yourself to maintaining a balance for the good of all things), but within the framework of the Dominion, Dominic's balance just... fails.