Comic for Thursday 9/3/2015

[Kellard]

I believe the blue triangles on the face simply mean that the bearer is a certain level of templar. Trace only has one triangle, and he was the grand templar, so there's no telling what the 2 triangles on Sea mean

Indeed, it's most likely just a personal thing. Like how some people get certain tattoos after achieving something or experiencing a life altering event. It would appear that Trace got his just prior to becoming an official Templar.

Or it's just a fairly popular design? Who knows?

You could be right, though I don't remember Mary Silverlock having one of those.

[jex0]

<Discussion of Keith's sword and stabbing>

He could have just sidestepped and cut her across the stomach or he could've spun around her and sliced her back. That way he could have taken full advantage of the sword if he had actually wanted to kill her.

Also ,as far as the discussion about the other two being defenseless goes they showed that they weren't defenseless when they dodged the Bolas (the rope things). Those move at considerable speed and have a wide area that they can hit so dodging them completely just after detecting them is no small feat. They made it look easy.

[Dadrobit]

I believe the blue triangles on the face simply mean that the bearer is a certain level of templar. Trace only has one triangle, and he was the grand templar, so there's no telling what the 2 triangles on Sea mean

Indeed, it's most likely just a personal thing. Like how some people get certain tattoos after achieving something or experiencing a life altering event. It would appear that Trace got his just prior to becoming an official Templar.

Or it's just a fairly popular design? Who knows?

You could be right, though I don't remember Mary Silverlock having one of those.

Aye, it's a personal decision, like how some people get the names of lost loved ones tattooed on their bodies while others don't.

[Commander-Strife]

Sarah is missing 2 important things that cant be magicked that dragons have- patience and intelligence.

That's because dragons live for centuries.

Dragons are only so smart due to absorbing so much through their life. When you're immortal at most, or able to live for a millenium or a few more at least, you tend to be super wise and smart. The dumb ones usually piss off the weaker species, which usually bands together to destroy it. A smart dragon, is a careful one.

Also I'm pretty sure Lynn wouldn't have provoked Sarah if he didn't think Keith couldn't take her. We also don't know though if Lynn is at all a competent fighter or not. Based on their society, I imagine any adult would have some level of combat experience at minimum, and having such a highly important and prestigious role, I imagine Lynn's no pushover in mostly any measure of the word.

That or I'm literally shooting at thin air and am totally wrong on that.

Can't wait for the next one, Take your time Tom!

Quality cannot ever be created in the same time frame as the same thing, only rushed for time.

[zy-fi]

Alright lets do this. SARAAAAAAAH JENKIIIIINS!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hooKVstzbz0

[AndreRhineDavis]

Are we to understand that Landen's name is related to "Land"? And that the other girl is indeed called "Sea"? And that they have powers over earth and water respectively, like Sarah has power over fire? And what's with "Sarah" anyway? "Landen" and "Sea" are obviously associated with earth and water, but there is no connection between "Sarah" and "fire" as far as I can tell.

Well, if I were a wild far-fetched theory craftin' man, I'd say her name might have more relevance than you may think!

Tom made it potentially fairly obvious that their names are attributed to who/what they are, (I say potentially as we don't actually know what they could do, Sea might actually only have really excellent eyesight, we don't know!) So it does warrant a look into the etymology of Sarah. After my conclusive research, (I checked four whole pages!) I've found that the consensus is that it comes from Hebrew and largely means: Princess. Taken from here is the following: The feminine equivalent שׂרה (sara), denoting a princess or noble lady (Judges 5:29, Isaiah 49:23).

Also they mentioned that a related word, שׁרירות (sherirut) or שׁררות (sherirut), means firmness in a negative sense: stubbornness, which certainly fits here.

So if we were to look deeper than we should, (and why wouldn't we?) we might conclude that Tom may be hinting that this Lizard Lady Sarah just may be of royalty, which would indeed make this event very interesting. Think about it, an ambassador fighting royalty, (of some level) right out of the gate? I for one would like to see this pan out in such a manner.

As a speaker of Hebrew and student of linguistics, I can confirm that some (but not all) of what you're saying is true. "Sarah" (שׂרה) in Biblical Hebrew can indeed be translated as "princess" in English, although this is misleading. It doesn't mean "daughter of the king" or even "female relative of the king", rather it means "noblewoman" or "(female) ruler" or "wife of a ruler" (where the ruler is still below the king, if it's in a context where there is a king too). If the ancient Hebrews were to come across the Basitins, they would probably use "sarah" (שׂרה) to refer to the wives of the three generals, or the generals themselves if they were female.

Sarah (שׂרה) however has no relation to sherirut (שׁרירות). Even though they have the same first letter, ש, (hebrew is read from right to left), you'll notice that with sarah the dot is on the left (שׂ makes a "s" sound) and with sherirut the dot is on the right (שׁ makes a "sh" sound, although the English version of some Biblical names with שׁ in them end up with "s" in English (e.g. Yerushalaim --> Jerusalem) because they came through Greek and Latin, which have no "sh" sound). These two versions of ש are not related to each other, they are two completely separate unrelated sounds that really should be written with different letters. There is never any grammatical rule where שׂ turns into שׁ or anything like that. That link of yours is rather dodgy I'm afraid to admit, it was not written by linguistics or those who have an understanding of Hebrew etymology.

But yeah, I knew what "Sarah" meant when posting the earlier message, I just didn't see a direct connection between it and "fire" like there is with Sea and Landen. However, now that I think about it, "Sarah" as "noblewoman" is *definitely* appropriate for this woman who aspires to be a *dragon*. Interesting, "Saria" is a variant of "Sarah", and that is also an appropriate name for the wife of the (future) Grand Templar. It certainly isn't unheard of for Tom to hide meaning in names; after all, "to euchre" actually means "to deceive", and "Evals" backwards is "slave" . Interestingly, Keith's last name "Keiser" is a name that comes from "Caesar". It could be referencing the fact that his father was the Arms General, or it might mean in-universe that his family had historically been a powerful one in Basitin history, but I wonder if it could have foreshadowed Keith's eventual instatement as a Basitin leader. I've also wondered about just what role Alaric plays in the story, given his name is a Germanic name meaning "ruler of all". Then again, "Eric" similarly means "eternal ruler" or "one ruler" (depending on where the "e-" comes from), so maybe we shouldn't look too deep into all this

[SirJahar]

This should be where I start to hedge my bets and find another way of explaining the blue eyes, blue hair and blue face marks... but the idea of Trace having family that we get to see in the comic has the prosesing part of my brain going "NOPE! She's his sister, shut up and squee!" Heck, for all I know, Sea is a guy. But aperently, I'm already making several asumptions.

[Dadrobit]

That link of yours is rather dodgy I'm afraid to admit, it was not written by linguistics or those who have an understanding of Hebrew etymology.

Aye, unfortunately I'm not a linguistics expert, so I must rely on my Google-fu to assist me here. Indeed the mention of the "relation" to stubbornness was mentioned solely behind that one link, while princess and female ruler were all universal. However your mention of the underlying rule of what it meant to be a 'princess' irrespective of relation is an interesting note.

As to what will come of Sarah and whether or not she actually has any royal connections, I'm afraid we'll just have to see...

[gertok9]

Are we to understand that Landen's name is related to "Land"? And that the other girl is indeed called "Sea"? And that they have powers over earth and water respectively, like Sarah has power over fire? And what's with "Sarah" anyway? "Landen" and "Sea" are obviously associated with earth and water, but there is no connection between "Sarah" and "fire" as far as I can tell.

Well, if I were a wild far-fetched theory craftin' man, I'd say her name might have more relevance than you may think!

Tom made it potentially fairly obvious that their names are attributed to who/what they are, (I say potentially as we don't actually know what they could do, Sea might actually only have really excellent eyesight, we don't know!) So it does warrant a look into the etymology of Sarah. After my conclusive research, (I checked four whole pages!) I've found that the consensus is that it comes from Hebrew and largely means: Princess. Taken from here is the following: The feminine equivalent שׂרה (sara), denoting a princess or noble lady (Judges 5:29, Isaiah 49:23).

Also they mentioned that a related word, שׁרירות (sherirut) or שׁררות (sherirut), means firmness in a negative sense: stubbornness, which certainly fits here.

So if we were to look deeper than we should, (and why wouldn't we?) we might conclude that Tom may be hinting that this Lizard Lady Sarah just may be of royalty, which would indeed make this event very interesting. Think about it, an ambassador fighting royalty, (of some level) right out of the gate? I for one would like to see this pan out in such a manner.

As a speaker of Hebrew and student of linguistics, I can confirm that some (but not all) of what you're saying is true. "Sarah" (שׂרה) in Biblical Hebrew can indeed be translated as "princess" in English, although this is misleading. It doesn't mean "daughter of the king" or even "female relative of the king", rather it means "noblewoman" or "(female) ruler" or "wife of a ruler" (where the ruler is still below the king, if it's in a context where there is a king too). If the ancient Hebrews were to come across the Basitins, they would probably use "sarah" (שׂרה) to refer to the wives of the three generals, or the generals themselves if they were female.

Sarah (שׂרה) however has no relation to sherirut (שׁרירות). Even though they have the same first letter, ש, (hebrew is read from right to left), you'll notice that with sarah the dot is on the left (שׂ makes a "s" sound) and with sherirut the dot is on the right (שׁ makes a "sh" sound, although the English version of some Biblical names with שׁ in them end up with "s" in English (e.g. Yerushalaim --> Jerusalem) because they came through Greek and Latin, which have no "sh" sound). These two versions of ש are not related to each other, they are two completely separate unrelated sounds that really should be written with different letters. There is never any grammatical rule where שׂ turns into שׁ or anything like that. That link of yours is rather dodgy I'm afraid to admit, it was not written by linguistics or those who have an understanding of Hebrew etymology.

But yeah, I knew what "Sarah" meant when posting the earlier message, I just didn't see a direct connection between it and "fire" like there is with Sea and Landen. However, now that I think about it, "Sarah" as "noblewoman" is *definitely* appropriate for this woman who aspires to be a *dragon*. Interesting, "Saria" is a variant of "Sarah", and that is also an appropriate name for the wife of the (future) Grand Templar. It certainly isn't unheard of for Tom to hide meaning in names; after all, "to euchre" actually means "to deceive", and "Evals" backwards is "slave" . Interestingly, Keith's last name "Keiser" is a name that comes from "Caesar". It could be referencing the fact that his father was the Arms General, or it might mean in-universe that his family had historically been a powerful one in Basitin history, but I wonder if it could have foreshadowed Keith's eventual instatement as a Basitin leader. I've also wondered about just what role Alaric plays in the story, given his name is a Germanic name meaning "ruler of all". Then again, "Eric" similarly means "eternal ruler" or "one ruler" (depending on where the "e-" comes from), so maybe we shouldn't look too deep into all this

I'd remove all this text and write -snip- like other people do, but idk how to do that.

I believe the name Sarah is supposed to be kinda like Sear, nothing more, nothing less

But what do I know... Ask Tom next time you see him

[Tom]

But what do I know... Ask Tom next time you see him

"Sarah" is short for "Seraphina".

[gertok9]

But what do I know... Ask Tom next time you see him

"Sarah" is short for "Seraphina".

Ahhhh. I've never seen or heard of this book before, but now I'll have to give it a read

[AndreRhineDavis]

But what do I know... Ask Tom next time you see him

"Sarah" is short for "Seraphina".

Ahhhh, now that *does* make sense!
The name "Seraphina" comes from the biblical word "seraphim", the name of an order of angels, literally meaning "burning ones" in Hebrew, hence often understood to be heavenly beings of fire or having an association with fire and burning, ultimately from Hebrew שׂרף (saraf) meaning "to burn"

[kdragonk]

But what do I know... Ask Tom next time you see him

"Sarah" is short for "Seraphina".

Ahhhh, now that *does* make sense!
The name "Seraphina" comes from the biblical word "seraphim", the name of an order of angels, literally meaning "burning ones" in Hebrew, hence often understood to be heavenly beings of fire or having an association with fire and burning, ultimately from Hebrew שׂרף (saraf) meaning "to burn"

It is really interesting how Tom does a lot of research for his characters' names. Almost all the (major/important) names have some kind of meaning which mostly describes their owners (do you own names? there must be a better way of saying this)

[FrogSteaks]

But what do I know... Ask Tom next time you see him

"Sarah" is short for "Seraphina".

Ahhhh, now that *does* make sense!
The name "Seraphina" comes from the biblical word "seraphim", the name of an order of angels, literally meaning "burning ones" in Hebrew, hence often understood to be heavenly beings of fire or having an association with fire and burning, ultimately from Hebrew שׂרף (saraf) meaning "to burn"

That's... pretty clever actually. I don't know if I would have made that connection had I not known her full name.

I'd remove all this text and write -snip- like other people do, but idk how to do that.

Just highlight and delete all the text between the quote boxes and write snip in its place.

[Kaz]

*bows before Tom*