Comic Page for February 2nd, 2017

[lw123789]

Can't people trully see that it's Euchre in disguise ?

What makes you say that?

Well first, glasses

Second, She had red hair, not brown, it's a wig

[avwolf]

So Rose doesn't bear any collar. Proof old trace didn't even took seriously the rules HE made. Or that this law is just impossible to apply efficiently (I always saw it as more of a hypocritical law made only to say out loud "we hate keidrans").

I think it's more just that the law requires *slaves* to be collared - but not all keidran in human territory are slaves. We know that Adira and Maeve are free keidran, for example. Rose would just be another - she can be a seneschal or even a servant without necessarily having to be a slave.

There's also no need for the spell to be on a collar, or anything visible.

Right. The law is "bound by a control spell." Slave collars are a useful item to hang the spell on, and a visible reminder of the slave's position in society, but for a slave in a position demanding more aesthetics and decorum than "sailor," it's probably not unusual for the spell to be bound to some other piece of costuming -- or, as has been discussed, perhaps even the household itself or something as permanent as a tattoo.

I'm guessing Crazy-Evil Trace probably bound her to the mansion, perhaps as a counter or way to control Euchre?

Sounds plausible as the sort of thing he'd do... but do we know if Trace ever found out Euchre's secret, and hence the relationship between him and Rose?

We know for a fact that Trace discovered Euchre's secret, as he forced Euchre to teach him the ins-and-outs of Transformation magic in exchange for sparing Mary and Raine. Presumably he found out Euchre and Rose's relationship as well, since that's a lesser secret in the grand scheme of things than "promising wizard who is the Grand Templar's lover turns out to be a Keidran who turned himself into a Human to learn Templar magic and seduce her." I presume that Trace continued to blackmail Euchre into serving as his Master Strategist as well. (Though seriously, blackmail as a way to control the Master Strategist? That's not well thought out.)

[TinyVoices]

We know for a fact that Trace discovered Euchre's secret, as he forced Euchre to teach him the ins-and-outs of Transformation magic in exchange for sparing Mary and Raine.

Where was this pointed out exactly? I don't recall anything of this sort being expressed.

Can't people trully see that it's Euchre in disguise ?

What makes you say that?

Well first, glasses

Second, She had red hair, not brown, it's a wig

Old people tend to wear glasses. Her hair is losing color, as seen by the white streaks. It certainly won't be the rich red that she had in her youth.

Why would Euchre be in a crossdressing disguise, if he could just flawlessly transform into whoever he wanted to be? And why would he opt to transform into his cousin, of all people? Trace has no recollection of who she is, and he's the only one in the party who had any hope of knowing who she is.

[avwolf]

We know for a fact that Trace discovered Euchre's secret, as he forced Euchre to teach him the ins-and-outs of Transformation magic in exchange for sparing Mary and Raine.

Where was this pointed out exactly? I don't recall anything of this sort being expressed.

Raine more or less notes this when she discusses her own backstory. She mentions that her father was blackmailed into helping Trace become Grand Templar in exchange for sparing her and her mother's lives, and that Trace used a "version of [her] father's spell" to shape Mary into a Keidran for his own amusement. It follows that part of the "help" that Euchre was forced to offer Trace was the knowledge of transformation, and how would Trace know that Euchre knew transformation magics without knowing Euchre's secret? It may be that Sirius clued him in on it, since it's clear from the story of Raine's conception (when Rose was captured by the Templar) that Sirius had suspicions about Euchre then.

-- I will give you --
"Know for a fact" might be too strong of an expression, but I am confident that we are just short of that. Sirius certainly knows, as he knew Euchre before they were Master Templar, and he knows Euchre now as a Keidran. It would be...dramatically out of character for Evil Trace if Sirius actually knew something that important which he did not.

[SomeBody]

As far as death by aging goes, I think that kinda depends on what the masks actually are. If they're basically human-gods formed by sheer magical power, they yeah - keidran aging can be solved magically. Slowing down aging has got to be a lesser job than changing the rules around breeding between two entire species.

To be honest, I'm still not sure why Trace stopped studying the problem. Sure, don't neglect your lover, savour the time you have together... but maybe spend some of your free time studying? If not for her, maybe for your kid?

[Warrl]

As far as death by aging goes, I think that kinda depends on what the masks actually are. If they're basically human-gods formed by sheer magical power, they yeah - keidran aging can be solved magically. Slowing down aging has got to be a lesser job than changing the rules around breeding between two entire species.

To be honest, I'm still not sure why Trace stopped studying the problem. Sure, don't neglect your lover, savour the time you have together... but maybe spend some of your free time studying? If not for her, maybe for your kid?

We don't know that he completely stopped. Someone poring over multiple books doesn't tend to be very exciting. Considering that only one other person on the ship knows much about magic, and that person doesn't speak - let alone read - the humans' language... and there probably weren't that many books about magic on board the ship... BO-RING for the readers.

So he could easily have been spending a couple of hours every afternoon at it.

But not late evenings.

[Stoneage89]

Like Keith's shirt design.

The shirt design is something that seems to be strongly associated with the basitin generals [2007-02-19]... though curiously, I dont' think any of them ever wear it again after that scene. In Alaric's first appearance, [2007-01-24] it's also seen on a banner behind him.

I was actually wondering about whether this is something that was later designed out -- how a basitin general might dress in various circumstances came up in something I'm writing -- but there it is. (And for that matter, on the back cover of vol 3, though only on 2/3 generals.)

And so, since it's still an active element, an amenon wonders why Alaric didn't wear the tabard on his final confrontation with Keith. There's a lot that could be read into that, though it's more avwolf's headache than my own

I don't go about flaunting what comics I read, but this shirt is just subtle enough that I would buy it and wear it day to day. Plus I love maroon(or dark red. or whatever.)

[BadJoke]

You're both so far out on a limb that I doubt you can even see the tree from there

We have so few data points that Rose's life could have been anything.

Yeah, that's what you commonly call "formulate a hypothesis". And discussing it. For fun.

[Stormlight]

As far as death by aging goes, I think that kinda depends on what the masks actually are. If they're basically human-gods formed by sheer magical power, they yeah - keidran aging can be solved magically. Slowing down aging has got to be a lesser job than changing the rules around breeding between two entire species.

To be honest, I'm still not sure why Trace stopped studying the problem. Sure, don't neglect your lover, savour the time you have together... but maybe spend some of your free time studying? If not for her, maybe for your kid?

We don't know that he completely stopped. Someone poring over multiple books doesn't tend to be very exciting. Considering that only one other person on the ship knows much about magic, and that person doesn't speak - let alone read - the humans' language... and there probably weren't that many books about magic on board the ship... BO-RING for the readers.

So he could easily have been spending a couple of hours every afternoon at it.

But not late evenings.

I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason Trace wanted to come to his estate was because he wanted access to his old research and library to see if it could be used for that specific reason. This page suggests that even though he resolved not to let his research interfere with his time with Flora, and even though he vowed to "stop chasing his past," Trace is definitely not done looking into the issue, and he believes Old-Trace's expertise might help.

Warrl makes a good point that Trace would probably have hit a brick wall pretty quickly on that boat with no source of knowledge on the matter other than his old journal, but now, with Trace facing his past head on in the form of an estate that has to be chock-full of magic related books, notes, and a [censored] version of Rose to help his sort through it all, I expect him to get himself into trouble quite quickly.

As wary as Trace might be going into this, the promise of such power, to save loved ones, to stop death, is a whole lot of temptation for anyone to handle. It should make for some good drama.

[TheMouse]

Guysguysguysguys! Do you know what this means?

Unless we have keidran aging, the time scale of the comic, or both all wrong, Trace already found a way to extend keidran lifespans!

I'm expecting a pretty gut wrenching "what did I do to you?" page, though because I'm reading some kind of top-level mind control into her introduction. Which is in the top 10 most horrible worse-than-death fates.

[amenon]

Unless we have keidran aging, the time scale of the comic, or both all wrong, Trace already found a way to extend keidran lifespans!

I would rather guess Euchre did, because why would Trace care?

I'm expecting a pretty gut wrenching "what did I do to you?" page, though because I'm reading some kind of top-level mind control into her introduction. Which is in the top 10 most horrible worse-than-death fates.

Could easily be, though I'm assuming she's a free actor. There's so much at play here, and we know so little of it yet...

Though something I'm now wondering is what kind of defenses the place has, and whether Natani, being all wolf-and-stuff, is going to trip them.

[NiWo21k]

Though something I'm now wondering is what kind of defenses the place has, and whether Natani, being all wolf-and-stuff, is going to trip them.

If there were any defenses in this place wouldnt the "domestic wolves" already tripped them? Reed said that she thought all domestic wolves should have already been relocated.

But this would open another question - why had evil Trace a mansion somewhere where wolves also lived?

[BadJoke]

As wary as Trace might be going into this, the promise of such power, to save loved ones, to stop death, is a whole lot of temptation for anyone to handle. It should make for some good drama.

That guy approves:

Spoiler!

[Cyon]

I'm expecting a pretty gut wrenching "what did I do to you?" page, though because I'm reading some kind of top-level mind control into her introduction. Which is in the top 10 most horrible worse-than-death fates.

Could easily be, though I'm assuming she's a free actor. There's so much at play here, and we know so little of it yet...

Though something I'm now wondering is what kind of defenses the place has, and whether Natani, being all wolf-and-stuff, is going to trip them.[/quote]
Since Roselyn herself is a wolf, I don't think she would have willingly set up traps that may harm her.
She does seem to not be associated with the wolves, or then they'd probably have taken residence in the castle as a hold on the city.

[steelabjur]

So Rose doesn't bear any collar. Proof old trace didn't even took seriously the rules HE made. Or that this law is just impossible to apply efficiently (I always saw it as more of a hypocritical law made only to say out loud "we hate keidrans").

I think it's more just that the law requires *slaves* to be collared - but not all keidran in human territory are slaves. We know that Adira and Maeve are free keidran, for example. Rose would just be another - she can be a seneschal or even a servant without necessarily having to be a slave.

There's also no need for the spell to be on a collar, or anything visible.

Right. The law is "bound by a control spell." Slave collars are a useful item to hang the spell on, and a visible reminder of the slave's position in society, but for a slave in a position demanding more aesthetics and decorum than "sailor," it's probably not unusual for the spell to be bound to some other piece of costuming -- or, as has been discussed, perhaps even the household itself or something as permanent as a tattoo.

I'm guessing Crazy-Evil Trace probably bound her to the mansion, perhaps as a counter or way to control Euchre?

Sounds plausible as the sort of thing he'd do... but do we know if Trace ever found out Euchre's secret, and hence the relationship between him and Rose?

We know for a fact that Trace discovered Euchre's secret, as he forced Euchre to teach him the ins-and-outs of Transformation magic in exchange for sparing Mary and Raine. Presumably he found out Euchre and Rose's relationship as well, since that's a lesser secret in the grand scheme of things than "promising wizard who is the Grand Templar's lover turns out to be a Keidran who turned himself into a Human to learn Templar magic and seduce her." I presume that Trace continued to blackmail Euchre into serving as his Master Strategist as well. (Though seriously, blackmail as a way to control the Master Strategist? That's not well thought out.)

I think it's worth remembering the point of the Towers and who created them. It could be that Trace's Manor was a "testbed" for the Keidran control magic they're being built for. It could be a very dangerous place for Trace's friends, if so.