Comic for December 2, 2022: Power Overwhelming

[Eclipse]

The way I interpreted the idea of Mana versus Dark Mana was that normally, Mana is present in the world as a whole, as a sort of energy used to go about normal life. But when that drains, it would be like straining a muscle past its limit, causing serious and sometimes irreparable damage.

And now, theory time:
If Keidran charge their crystals naturally, by some process through nature, and use it that way, they would be far less susceptible to inadvertent use of Dark Mana. Humans, by contrast, though they can store mana in crystals (hence the towers' existence in the first place) and access it remotely, if not connected to a tower, they can drain it directly from the ground. However, that can kill nearby flora if done to the point of exhausting local Mana supply. So here's my theory: Mana is something present in their world, as a part of nature. Possibly some kind of element, possibly something entirely different, but is still something that "flows" through plants and such. And as such, when said Mana is removed, the plants which were using it to sustain themselves, die out almost instantly.

Thoughts?

Mana being a part of Mekkan's nature seems fairly obvious, what's not as obvious is exactly how it would be classified. I think mana is a form of energy. It could possibly be converted to and from other forms of energy, but it's a form of energy like heat, electricity, etc. that exist in our world. And just like in the real world, mana is subject to conservation of energy, there's only so much energy in the universe, it needs to be sourced from somewhere, and when it's cast it releases into the surrounding environment and potentially converts into other forms of energy. Humans may also be able to convert other forms of energy to mana when they absorb it from the environment, and that's why plants die, the plants don't contain mana, they just sustain themselves with other forms of energy that humans are converting to mana.

[Tyger42]

Okay....So....this may have been covered already....But how the hell did nobody notice that until Nat pointed it out?

[Bellhead]

Okay....So....this may have been covered already....But how the hell did nobody notice that until Nat pointed it out?

Purely for the irony, I would wager. Nat is famous for looking the wrong way when stuff is going down.

That said, we don't know for sure he was the first to notice, just that Keith and Lynn didn't notice. It's entirely possible everyone else in the room was already focused on the forming monstrosity, and it's also possible he didn't make much noise or have much visual transformation progress until right about the time Nat pointed it out. Also factor in everything they've been through since they've seen Lynn, and how tired they must be. Attention to detail is always limited when you're exhausted from fighting for your life.

[aitaituo]

The way I interpreted the idea of Mana versus Dark Mana was that normally, Mana is present in the world as a whole, as a sort of energy used to go about normal life. But when that drains, it would be like straining a muscle past its limit, causing serious and sometimes irreparable damage.

And now, theory time:
If Keidran charge their crystals naturally, by some process through nature, and use it that way, they would be far less susceptible to inadvertent use of Dark Mana. Humans, by contrast, though they can store mana in crystals (hence the towers' existence in the first place) and access it remotely, if not connected to a tower, they can drain it directly from the ground. However, that can kill nearby flora if done to the point of exhausting local Mana supply. So here's my theory: Mana is something present in their world, as a part of nature. Possibly some kind of element, possibly something entirely different, but is still something that "flows" through plants and such. And as such, when said Mana is removed, the plants which were using it to sustain themselves, die out almost instantly.

Thoughts?

Mana being a part of Mekkan's nature seems fairly obvious, what's not as obvious is exactly how it would be classified. I think mana is a form of energy. It could possibly be converted to and from other forms of energy, but it's a form of energy like heat, electricity, etc. that exist in our world. And just like in the real world, mana is subject to conservation of energy, there's only so much energy in the universe, it needs to be sourced from somewhere, and when it's cast it releases into the surrounding environment and potentially converts into other forms of energy. Humans may also be able to convert other forms of energy to mana when they absorb it from the environment, and that's why plants die, the plants don't contain mana, they just sustain themselves with other forms of energy that humans are converting to mana.

I think life forms generate some amount of mana, that humans then drain. Once mana is drained, they can obtain more by directly draining the life forces that create the mana. But I think it's an equally valid explanation that life channels mana from some other source or that dark magic is conversion of the energy stored in life (i.e., chemical energy) into mana. Using dark magic is an intentional process as far as I can tell, not something that automatically happens when humans keep trying to use magic after ambient mana is exhausted, as demonstrated by Trace's dark magic dragon and keidran using dark magic. If mana comes from some other source, what is it and why can it be locally exhausted? I think the ability to build towers that grow gigantic magic crystals (without having a dragon around), supports the idea that life forms passive generate mana. Over time, siphoning even a small amount of continuously generated mana could generate unlimited magic crystals, although this does not rule out an inorganic origin of ambient mana.

[Technic[Bot]]

My fast take on mana:

Some sort of energy permeating all of Mekkan, thing of the force from star waars or Makko from FF VII living things also have mana inside them , to function, but there is also ambient mana floating around that can be taken into crystal or by humans.

When ambient mana is depleted you can extract it from living things, killing them on the process. tha taints the mana cause killing is bad giving raise to dark mana,

[mongoosemazanec]

Is this hiatus unusual for this artist?

[Bellhead]

He's been active on Picarto for streams and such, so he's fine. But recently, like this past year, comics have been getting a bit more sparse. So no, not that unusual.

[Tornir]

But recently, like this past year, comics have been getting a bit more sparse.

I wonder if Basitin ale is responsible?

[Kyrit]

Is this hiatus unusual for this artist?

For the entirety of 2022 we were lucky if we got more than 1-2 pages a month, not including fillers like New Year's, Anniversary, Halloween pictures. 2021 wasn't much better either.
January: 1 page
February: 3 pages
March: 2 pages
April: 2 pages
May: 3 pages
June: 2 pages
July: 1 page
August: 4 pages (a treat!)
September: 1 page
October: 2 pages
November: 1 page
December: 1 page

It's honestly hard to not feel like the patreon has caused a decline in comic progression. Can't say I blame Tom though when the patreon brings in as much money as it does and most weeks only requires sketches. Much less story planning required.

I think I saw that he's also been working on a side comic for the other side of the Riftwall tavern and Willow? Which also takes time and attention from the main comic.

Would really be nice to see a return of at least bi-weekly comic updates, but based on the past few years I don't have my hopes up. Doesn't stop me from checking daily just in case

Edit: Since my posting of this, we've got a new filler that says we'll be back to weekly updates! (I don't get my hopes up, but I'll certainly be happy if we do get more frequent updates next year)