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3374 The Empire That Fell Asleep
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3374 The Empire That Fell Asleep

on August 12, 2020
Chapter: Ranna's Fulcrum
Characters: Ch'Thier Goddess of Health and Purity, Lady Marion of Heatherdale, Ranna Goddess of Chaos and Cruelty
Location: Elegrost Fields

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Discussion (48) ¬

  1. Mark
    August 12, 2020, 11:45 am | # | Reply

    They both appear to be normal size now. Or has everyone become a giant?

    • Fnordius
      August 12, 2020, 12:06 pm | # | Reply

      It’s a little detail like that what makes the comic so good!

      Also, note that they both have lost their wings. It seems that they are either reflecting the way the armies now see them, or they are remembering and their physical forms reflect how they see themselves.

      • Sparrow
        August 12, 2020, 3:48 pm | # | Reply

        so if one of their followers decided that they were nudists then this god party would get a lot more interesting.

        • HKMaly
          August 12, 2020, 5:52 pm | # | Reply

          I don’t think ONE follower would be enough. But I can see such addition gain track …

          • Nikary Flare
            August 12, 2020, 11:39 pm | #

            Hoooooly deeeaaar.

    • Charlie Lobo
      August 13, 2020, 9:10 pm | # | Reply

      I think it reflects that the story is changing how their followers, and themselves, look at themselves. They are now able to remember, because their followers believe, they are also being humanized and becoming more accesible.

      This story could easily weaken all the gods, as they are shown to be every-day people that are powerful because people believe they are, not because there’s anything inherently godly about them.

      I wonder too, there hasn’t been an outright explanation given for why magic is so much lower, if not gone, later on. We could interpret it that the goddess wars consumed much of it. But I wonder if it’s simply people stop believing in it. If belief is what causes godhood, couldn’t magic also come from belief in it too?

  2. Aebliss
    August 12, 2020, 11:57 am | # | Reply

    And now they look like what they are and were: two misbehaving children who have awoken from a dream of power…

    …when in the end, the true power lay with the mortals who shaped them into something terrible.
    So what now? If I were them, I’d want to go somewhere beyond the reach of the faithful and sort myself out.

    • Prairie Son
      August 12, 2020, 12:16 pm | # | Reply

      Yeah, this isn’t quite on the level of Mommy calling you on the carpet, but I’ve seen that exact look too many times on my kids’ faces when they both knew they were in for it and that they deserved it.

      • Aebliss
        August 12, 2020, 5:27 pm | # | Reply

        And in this case, it’s not Mommy calling them out, but Auntie.

        And she’s reminding them that they let their Mommy’s death pass as if it were nothing out of the ordinary, of no personal significance to them. That’s got to sting.

    • Eric
      August 12, 2020, 4:07 pm | # | Reply

      I think that’s a good point, they are formed by what their followers want from them, not their own choices, not really. Right now they are being reminded of who they were and it is reverting them back to themselves, but it’s clear that is a temporary solution, their followers always re-write them eventually and they are back to square one.

      I think their only real solution would be to leave. But I don’t know where they could go. Is there a retirement spot for deities that are sick of their ‘followers’ making the gods into what they want.

      • Aebliss
        August 12, 2020, 5:26 pm | # | Reply

        Maybe they could go into the afterlife, as opposed to watching over the access point?

        I recall Ch’Thier mentioning she couldn’t affect the Orcs’ afterlife to pull Goria out, so the sisters might be able to find refuge from their followers’ belief there – if they find the right area.

      • Charlie Lobo
        August 13, 2020, 9:13 pm | # | Reply

        This is happening in front of their most faithful followers. That’s a key difference from every time they’ve met before.

        I could stick, simply because this story will be retold for a very long time. Long-term who knows, but we’ve seem glimpses of the future that tell us that the era of gods will not return to what it was before.

        I’d even ask: why would they believe it, if the believers don’t let them? If they were able to forget their mother and family, and that they were children and born at some point, why would they believe this story as anything other than heresy? Only because their followers are hearing the story, believing it, and helping shift their space.

      • Lewis
        August 14, 2020, 2:21 am | # | Reply

        Conveniently Eddie and Company are preparing a dimensional hideyhole far beyond the reach of their followers’ beliefs where they can start over.

        https://www.yafgc.net/comic/3343-trap-evil-trust-good/

      • THAT bard
        August 14, 2020, 12:58 pm | # | Reply

        Arent the wizards just preparing a place like that? They might decide to go their on their own, just to really be themselves, and to eventually sort their differences out without the messy intervention of their followers…

  3. Nikary Flare
    August 12, 2020, 2:14 pm | # | Reply

    Hey, Ranna with a different hairstyle!

    • NotRichard
      August 13, 2020, 12:43 am | # | Reply

      No, she has always had dreads, in panels one and three, they are just *long* dreads

      • Nikary Flare
        August 14, 2020, 1:34 am | # | Reply

        …seriously? You’re seriously going to insist that short dreads and a long ponytail are exact the same hairstyle?

        • NotRichard
          August 14, 2020, 9:16 am | # | Reply

          Only one who can say for sure is Rich, but to me, it just looks like long dreads tied back in a ponytail
          And panel six looks like loose dreads (can’t tell the length from that angle)

  4. Aaron Lowe
    August 12, 2020, 3:12 pm | # | Reply

    She’s literally, talking them down to size.

    • Aaron Lowe
      August 12, 2020, 3:14 pm | # | Reply

      It’s not going to keep going is it?
      Honey, I shrunk the gods!

      • mucat
        August 12, 2020, 11:52 pm | # | Reply

        Turns out the entire history of this world is a giant physics experiment. They’ve finally reached the stage where they can shrink two gods to sub-proton size, so they’ll come back with groundbreaking new data on quark-quark interactions!

        "It’s working, Marion! Tell them their mom would not be angry with them, only disappointed. We estimate that sentence *alone* will make them feel nearly four orders of magnitude smaller!"

        • T-Chall
          August 13, 2020, 2:38 pm | # | Reply

          They keep getting smaller and smaller untill they finally cross dimensions and wind up in Terry Prattchet’s "Small Gods."

          • Aaron Lowe
            August 14, 2020, 3:51 am | #

            Or find Antman floating in quantum space.
            Down imagination! Down!

  5. Jonathan in Mississippi
    August 12, 2020, 4:42 pm | # | Reply

    Typical of big political power plays, it’s always the little people who suffer for them. I doubt there is an ideology anywhere that doesn’t have blood on it’s hands. Also, it appears the Dark Mistress is patiently waiting for all this boring talking to end so she can get back to having fun.

    • HKMaly
      August 12, 2020, 5:56 pm | # | Reply

      Hmmm … even movements like Summer of Love can probably be linked to something, like some blood in Vietnam …

    • NotRichard
      August 13, 2020, 12:44 am | # | Reply

      Except, in this case, it was literally the ‘little people’ who put Ch’Thier and Ranna in this position in the first place

      • Charlie Lobo
        August 13, 2020, 9:16 pm | # | Reply

        Maybe that’s the whole point. There isn’t little and large people. There’s people in power, and the masses that move them and follow them. And there’s a feedback loop, the masses are controlled by their leaders, but their leaders become what the masses want them to be. Human nature in the end..

  6. HKMaly
    August 12, 2020, 6:37 pm | # | Reply

    "Distant memory of your mother teaching" … sooo, they didn’t actually forget their mother. They just got so firm conviction no mortal can be their mother they didn’t TRIED to remember.

  7. t!
    August 12, 2020, 7:46 pm | # | Reply

    They’re holding hands in Panel 6:

    What a beautiful, and thought-provoking, delicate little detail.

    t!

    • Tebryn Daltar
      August 12, 2020, 8:09 pm | # | Reply

      And the geek in me immediately wondered if it was a touch attack.

      I do prefer your line of thought

    • Rancourt
      August 12, 2020, 8:43 pm | # | Reply

      > What a beautiful, and thought-provoking, delicate little detail.

      I choked up. Seriously.

    • NotRichard
      August 13, 2020, 1:28 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, no matter how much they fight, they are still (at their core, buried deeper than either would want to admit) sisters

    • Kanthara
      August 13, 2020, 10:41 am | # | Reply

      This is a consistent detail: in previous tellings of this story, this handholding was also portrayed then.

      • mucat
        August 13, 2020, 12:32 pm | # | Reply

        In fact, several of these scenes — including the hand-holding sisters — are panel-by-panel remakes of the story Ata told in https://www.yafgc.net/comic/2722-the-legend-of-ranna-and-chthier/ .

        I wonder if that’s a hint that Ata herself had heard the story directly from Marion?

        • NotRichard
          August 13, 2020, 12:57 pm | # | Reply

          Would had to have learnt that prior to Ata ending up in Ruun, wouldn’t it?

          • mucat
            August 13, 2020, 2:00 pm | #

            Which is possible. Marion could have been a presence, regular or occasional, in Lewie and Ata’s old kingdom.

            (She also might have had occasion to visit Ruun in the intervening centuries and meet Ata there. If *anyone* could find and reach the place, it’s the loremaster herself. )

        • Charlie Lobo
          August 13, 2020, 9:27 pm | # | Reply

          Don’t think so, there’s a lot of nuances that show.

          I see it more like the things that are different, and the things that are the same, and the things that are same but different.

          Note the differences:

          * Ranna and Ch’thier choosing to be in the mortal plane instead of ethereal like other gods. When in Marion’s story, at that time, most Gods seem to still be around.
          * Ch’thier’s showing, in Ata’s version she’s surrounded by believers. In Marion’s she’s alone, realizing that her demand for perfection left her with limited followers and Ranna grew stronger whenever Ch’their threw someone away. Neither sister sees this irony, they’re already in their new roles.
          * The extra panel with the memory inside Ch’thier’s mind.

          Note the things that are the same:

          * Ranna’s army and attitude
          * The actual encounter
          * The physical nature of the encounter.

          Note the things that are the same but different

          * Ranna’s army did not come from nowhere. It was the culmination of those that were ignore freeing themselves, but in the process becoming oppressors themselves. The war, we now know, was started by Ch’thier.
          * The touching of hands, very different context to what it means. It was barely noted in Ata’s telling, even though it’s the exact same panel.

          I think it’s on purpose. To make us revisit the same story, now at the part were it’s the "story we know" except we realize we didn’t know the whole thing. There’s part of the story that made it unharmed, there’s parts that were changed, and parts that were missing. If Ata knew even half of Marion’s tale, I doubt she’d be able to keep her faith, much less dedicate herself to keeping Ranna trapped.

      • t!
        August 13, 2020, 8:22 pm | # | Reply

        Wow, yeah. It’s been a while since I went back to those. Thanks, you two.

        It’s quite something to re-read them in the current context.

        And the matching is a *great* touch, Rich!

        t!

  8. Hee Fone
    August 12, 2020, 8:26 pm | # | Reply

    In other words without yin & yang, the world became even more chaotic.

  9. Lotaso
    August 12, 2020, 9:52 pm | # | Reply

    I’m starting to see how magic started to disappear as the mentioned in that Flash Forward. If the mortals beliefs reflect the goddesses and the goddesses are now being brought back down to size, they won’t have as much magic to give out.

  10. NotRichard
    August 13, 2020, 12:46 am | # | Reply

    Last panel, both sisters share one thought: oops! We done goofed, didn’t we?

  11. NotRichard
    August 13, 2020, 1:02 am | # | Reply

    Next page: Ranna turns to Ch’Thier- "Wait a minute, We are *gods*, We don’t have to take this!"
    Marion- "Oh crap! We almost had them! Hit them with everything you got Eddy, NOW! Before they start growing again!"

  12. boar
    August 13, 2020, 9:01 am | # | Reply

    Somewhat noble? Sister Alouette sealing herself and the Dark Prince Croix was completely noble, I will tolerate no hidden insults even if they are only directed at people with similar circumstances.

  13. Hee Fone
    August 13, 2020, 10:43 am | # | Reply

    I believe she finished her story.

    • NotRichard
      August 13, 2020, 11:18 am | # | Reply

      What about the other gods though?

      • Aaron Lowe
        August 14, 2020, 9:57 am | # | Reply

        I think the story was just going to be about Ranna and Ch’Thier, otherwise it would end up longer than the whole comic.

  14. Dave
    August 13, 2020, 1:09 pm | # | Reply

    Yeah I think there is more to come involving the other gods

  15. Charles Rockafellor
    March 6, 2023, 5:40 am | # | Reply

    Y’know, this felt a little like this story that Aang once told (in Avatar). The party had run across two warring religious groups, and he explained how it was all a misunderstanding and snowballing of a minor incident a century or two earlier between two kids arguing over a ball. When the factions made peace and the party left, he explained that he had no idea what the truth of the matter was, only that the groups were now at peace.

    I don’t think that Lady Marion is pulling the same fast one, but I kinda halfway wonder…

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