3/14/2014 - Fey Winds

They say when you are about to die, time starts to slow down. I've even heard it theorized that when you actually die, your perception of time stretches to infinity and so you “live” that single last moment for what seems like all eternity … it's not a happy theory I suppose. But have you ever wondered what kinds of thoughts would go through the mind of someone in those moments that feel like forever? That was what I ended up expressing in my Character – Final Vista piece (found at fav.me/d47wz7y ) and it turns out that the thoughts may be somewhat philosophical in nature. And so I wonder: would everyone have thoughts like these in the moments of frozen time before their death? After briefly reflecting on our lives, as so often happens with near-death occurrences in fiction, perhaps one's mind turns to the various regrets and wishes that take on the air of spirituality when we have the chance to share them with others. How many truly great thoughts have been had in those moments, by people all around the world and all throughout time? What flashes of genius insight have been discovered and then immediately lost? Would the world be a better place if we knew them? Or is there nothing special about the thoughts we have when viewing our final vista? Perhaps they only take on that importance for us as we desperately seek for a meaning to it all. Perhaps they are not genius insights but instead simple common-sense truths that we know but do not always remember. I like this piece because I think it's one of the rare beautiful pieces I sometimes write, combining colorful visuals with high-intensity drama and capping everything off with a few thoughts. What did I learn? Even the worst moments can be sublime.

This week, a surprise! I was working on my Leogre map and realized it was good enough to share, so I'm doing exactly that! Now you have the visual means to follow along in the adventure of Pokemon: the Game and see what kinds of places the heroes will visit! Next week we'll be back to High War, in part three of what may be a four-part chapter! And hey, 10 K views, thank you all!

---

Fey Winds
by Nicole Chartrand

Home: kitsune.rydia.net/index.html
First: kitsune.rydia.net/comic/page.p…

Good characters have layers – yes, like an onion, but not literally as many. Layers provide more for the writer and audience to explore, much as a layered plot helps drive interest with every twist and turn; learning something you didn't know before draws you closer, especially when that something is about a character you were emotionally invested in. Some layers are obvious from the start, the sort of character tropes we all know and love and that need no further story space. Others come as a complete surprise, creating a sudden upheaval in the story as this new identity is explained and dealt with. Some characters flaunt their layers, driven by a need to share and explore their two sides with the help of their friends. Other characters are only just discovering their layers, finding new strength within themselves they didn't know they had on their quest for personal growth. When a new layer is revealed we see more and deeper in to the character, but whether their core has been reached is another question entirely. This webcomic follows the multi-layered adventures of a group of multi-layered characters through their multi-layered epic fantasy world. Our main hero is a fox (turned mostly human through happenstance) who likes fighting and not wearing much clothing. She is protected and trained by a taciturn warrior and ex-mercenary who is pretty obviously her mutual love interest, what with his following her around and their conversations about life. Their occasional-leader occasional-damsel in distress friend has a strange ghost curse and is more than capable of extricating herself from a tough situation (seemingly every adventure) and the new guy is a prince on the run who becomes a dragon when the plot demands and is proving himself competent in all sorts of situations. Some powerful big bad is threatening the local kingdoms with domination or annihilation, but really he and his by-the-book evil plots don't matter. This is the heroes' story, searching for ways to break their various “curses” and growing in the process. The art is of professional quality and in full vibrant color.

Why you should read this: Good characters with secrets big and small, each a great example to learn from of round characterization. Good mix of drama and action, the comic switches naturally between epic fights and interpersonal relationship banter. An interesting fantasy world with a long history, basically all the creatures of fantasy had lived there forever and then humans came to escape their dying world along with powerful mages, resulting in several wars and kingdoms.

Why you shouldn't read this: Some of those character secrets are completely boring or too cliché, such as one character with a false origin story and a true origin story that are so similar as to be uninteresting; many of these could be artifacts from the story's previous incarnation. The villain and his minions make their token appearances and do the occasional bad deed but mostly the comic jokes about how unnecessary they are. The story almost never lingers in any one locale to explore the world, it seems content with its heroes and their problems.

Other cool stuff: The website is full of cool additional content, starting with blog posts full of links to things the artist cares about such as their random art on Tumblr or vote incentives. The Archive includes some bonus comics and even a sneak peek at another project by the artist, the Art page shares both fanart and concept art and the Cast page details the important people and any questions you may have had about the world's fantasy races. There's a World map with kingdoms to learn about, an Extras area with a general FAQ and a student animation to watch, and the Links page has the usual list of other webcomics that the artist recommends.