Tiernan can see the fourth wall. It’s a thing.
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Hyacinth: I was talking about Sønheim! They have even worse bias against ethnic minorities than we do! And less than half their provinces allow for interspecies marriage!
And their version of capitalism allows for indentured servitude in a way that’s basically modern-day slavery, and their presidential elections are a joke, everyone knows they’ve been effectively ruled by the Beringar dynasty since 572 —
Thorn: Okay, okay, Hyacinth, slow down!
I don’t need a history lesson to know that I don’t endorse all of Sønheim’s policies.
Tiernan: Good, because nobody was going to have the patience to read it.
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I almost burst into laughter at Tiernan’s thought and that takes a lot as I try not to laugh too much at certain times (this is one of them)
I did read it.
A few speech bubbles’ worth of history isn’t so bad. It’s when people interrupt their comics with 5 pages of dense text explaining the whole background of their fantasy universes that readers’ eyes start to glaze over ^_^;
It’s not so bad … unless they do it before end of first chapter. Do you read Erfworld? They started as standard comics, but now almost every second page is text only. It doesn’t matter as readers are already interested in the world.
But it’s true that for comics which is only on 30th page you may be close to limit with just this.
Not familiar with Erfworld, but I’ve dropped other webcomics in the past because they got too text-heavy. And even when there’s a substantial archive and I care about the universe (say, with Guilded Age), my eyes glaze over at wall-o’-text backstory pages.
So the worldbuilding in Leif & Thorn will be doled out more subtly, piece-by-piece, as it becomes relevant. (Much as Hyacinth would be willing to stop the strip for an extended lecture.)
I have to ask, “interspecies marriage?” We’ve gone several chapters, and the only other “species” we’ve met, are the vampires – which seem to be a mainly Sonheim group, and one that Hyacinth does not approve of. What else is running loose, and has the sentience to commit to a marriage?
Unless we are talking about soulbonded couples like Thorn and Tiernan…but that seems to be a little different from the normal implications of “marriage,” in the conventional sense – non-contractional (or, at least, non-severable, I’d assume), for one.
Vampires may be the only one you see for a long while…but Hyacinth’s problem is with their privileged treatment, not with their general existence. (It’s like a person in the 1950s opposing Jim Crow laws, but at the same time wanting it to be legal for black people to marry white ones if they feel like it.)
yeah, I got that aspect of her personality – but it’s good to confirm that vampires are the “other species” she’s referring to with the “interspecies” comment. Thank you for that clarification, and the general hint that there may be more intelligent folk running around…much later.
Tiernan’s magical abilities, so far:
1. Thinking in complete sentences
2. Fourth wall awareness
god, I love that Hyacinth told him right from the beginning and it still took Thorn AGES to understand Leif’s social status because he wasn’t listening. very true to my experience on both sides of the ‘exhaustingly self-righteous angry political teen’ experience.
Hyacinth is still figuring out how to direct her energy in ways that are useful and effective… but yeah, she’s not wrong.
(Currently laying out early foreshadowing for the storyline where she actually *meets* Leif. That sure is going to be a thing.)
I’ve always enjoyed the way you do worldbuilding, I think it’s a good way to do it. Subtle but informative.
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