King of Swords 1-1
Chapter: 1
“The Star Emperor is a man of great stature, with an oiled beard and stern countenance. He does not concern himself, as his kin do, with plotting and scheming against each other, but chiefly with the exercise of ruling. His primary concern is justice. His subjects live fairly, peaceably, and one might say even well, if not for the heavy blade of the law constantly grazing the tender skin of their necks.”
-Payapop Pritram, Chronicles of the Seven
Salami Dave, Deus Pater – The Godfather
I love this already!
I wonder if Solomon is as righteous as he appears.
Oh he certainly thinks he is
Welcome to beardy beardland, the beardiest beards in all of bearddom!
I bet my left ovary that all of those men in that room are descended from him, if not outright his kids. Solomon and David in our world got it on…a lot. And this dude is straight up named Solomon-David.
Behold The Blessed Tyrant!
Strong and youthful is His visage, and His soul doth not rot as the souls His star-kin do. For His atum is as incorruptible as his form, and His Will is tempered steel.
Adore Him! Or suffer eternal damnation!
Nah, I’m good. But I do know a guy who has some land to sell you in the great abyss.
I think this is the most beardy page we’ve seen
There’s an amazing amount of visual coherence in this page.
Marlow comes upon a white
sepulchre and sails south to light
The air ablaze in dark of night
Dayum, I don’t think I’ll ever get over this beard.
On another note, I’m digging the architecture and all the details you’ve put into the page. Really brings the scene to life!
Now here is a man who knows Royalty.
I met a beggar once on the road to Al’Hwarizi. Upon seeing my robes, as tattered and ragged as his own, he hailed me and spake thus:
“Speak thou not to the noblemen, nor to the ladies, if thy head thou wishes to keep. The lords of the city are not cruel, but a single glance of their eyes could sever a man’s neck should they wish it.”
Empire and Stagnation tear at one another’s throats, snares that have swallowed their aspirants whole, and now hunger for more.
Behold now the third snare, most subtle and devious of the traps the Great Enemy has strewn on the path to Royalty.
Apotheosis.
To consider oneself above the cycle. To believe the cutting blade can touch you no longer. To have taken one’s final name, and writ it in marble across the world. To consider Royalty achieved.
Not the slow, terrified death of Empire, or the sweet rot of Stagnation. Bold and glorious is Apotheosis, shining and magnificent. A light that hangs in the sky, pure, unchanging, and infertile.
Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.
see the court assembled
=//=
THE EMPEROR RULES ABSOLUTELY
STOP. HAMMURABI TIME.
“Our consensus is ‘We’re fuck’ my lord.”
-reportedly the response the councilors gave
As the Black God who thinks he’s the good guy, I’m ready to learn why Solomon David is not…
Power level in this society is clearly measures in beard length.
A superpowered, immortal chairman presiding over a Senate of nervous, powerless old men, who he probably appointed himself… Ruling in justice.
Yeah, there is nothing wrong or injust here.
Except for a can of worms that even Gog-Agog would envy him for.
I am fairly certain that they are his kin, on top of everything else.
For shame, Solomon, for shame…
A glorious first page of the book by the way.
Either they are currently deciding whether or not they should enter the war and on which side…
Or they are debating the funding of a new waste disposal system in the co-capital of the seventeenth-most-populous universe that Solomon governs.
Hey Abaddon, can you talk somewhere about your architectural design decisions between the 7 Emperors?
It’s a mix, and that’s why you make these panels work so well, but it’d be interesting to see you talk about your sources for the various palaces non-the-less. The white stone, flourishes, and vertical space here remind me of some Mughal style palaces and famous mosques from that time.
Holy hot damn, seems like Soloman isn’t just simply a random old guy in a robe, he’s some old guy with a council in robes.
Councilors: We think it unfair, nay, unjust that you’re hogging all the immortality. We could use some. Like just a little. Please?
“Sire, we are in agreement: Your beard is magnificent. Also, you look very nice in purple.”
Nothing is so terrifying as impersonal wisdom and unswerving morality
Solomon David’s nipples are frighteningly high
“Is it not written that my might is proportional to the awesomeness of my facial hair?”
Hoo boy lookit those beards.
Solomon David is proud of his nipples and wants you to see them.
Ah…
I’ve been to realms like this before.
Uniformly, they are cold, no matter how many line the halls, avenues and plazas
Uniformly, they are barren, no matter how sumptuous or sprawling the architecture and gardens are.
Uniformly, they are soulless, no matter how high the monuments are built or how loudly the people scream praise to the lords on high.
They are lands and worlds where Justice is forgotten. Tossed aside, to be truly honest, in the name of merciless and inattentive Law. No chaos to them, or anything that the Arbiters do not allow.
People do not live in these realms; they exist. Nothing more…
BAH! I MUST RETURN TO THRONE, AND BE AWAY FROM THIS PATHETIC AUTOCRACY. IT’S STREETS AND ALLEYWAYS AND MARKETS AND TEMPLES AND PALACES ARE DANGEROUS BEYOND COMPARISON, BUT IT LIVES! IT BREATHES! IT HAS SUBSTANCE AND HISTORY TO IT, BEYOND THE GLORIFICATION OF ONE SMUG ASSHOLE’S IDEAS OF PROPRIETY AND AESTHETIC!
HAIL TO SHE, KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS. MAY SHE LEARN FROM THE MISTAKES OF THE SEVEN HEADED BEAST.
If your beard is not at least THIS AWESOME >>U<<, you're not allowed to sit on Solomon David's counsel.
Gonna be honest, this guy is the one I have been most interested in. Visually, he is the healthiest of them, which seems to indicate that his method of life extinction is the most stable. Additionally, a ruler that actually considers how well they rule and how they meet the needs of their subjects as central to their job is the most likely to actually be a good ruler. That said though, that he doesn’t contest with the others raises questions about why he isn’t seeking to bring more under his rule and how he views the nature of leadership and responcibility.
THE KING’S NIPPLES COMMAND JUSTICE!
Stern, in charge, purple…
In a live action movie this character would be played by Samuel L. Jackson.
The greybeards, the beardless, and the Blackbeard. Damn, these guys really know how to party!
the colors remind me of incubus’s pit
He seems like a nice, sensible, decent ruler.
Clearly too good to be true. None of the seven are anywhere near what they seem, and sanity is in short supply at the top.
They’re probably going to bring up some sort of bi-annual culling or something.
People often mistake law for fairness. But it’s inherently tipped in favor of the lawmakers, no matter what voting may take place.
As an aside, I imagine Solomon David with the voice of Ike Amadi, who voices Drek’thar in World of Warcraft and, I think, Tyrael in Diablo.
Interesting that Solomon David’s ambassadors/attendants have circlets for their keys, but they obviously hold none. A subtle hint about his pride, he probably only doles out his power if needed. Must explain his huge crown.
Looks like a very uncomfortable chair. You’d think he could afford some upholstery.
Unless we’re missing something it looks like very person in that room is a guy.
It seems like this arc will take place in the mythical land of Beards and Togas.
One should always be cautious when speaking to a man with such fearsome nipples.
Beginning few & poor, with members taking an oath of poverty, surviving on donations people made to the order, and not the individuals themselves, the order ironically became wide spread & rich because of the oath of poverty the members were required to take.
For the order was an existential concept that bound all of it’s members together, & not a person who could take any oath in it’s own right. And whoever controlled the order, was indeed controlling the order’s wealth of resources in the forms of money, men, weapons, armor, armies, fleets & power, & was indeed wealthy for holding a position of command & influence of such a thing, whether they realized it or not…
And a large debt owed to the order, was a debt owed to all of it’s members.
And powerful entities with the habit of extinguishing debts by extinguishing the lives of those whom they owed something to, instead of making them whole, would have to extinguish the entire order itself to relieve themselves of their debts, a very difficult task indeed, not to say anyone hasn’t ever tried…
His
His nipples are halfway up his pecs
What the hell
Being the living embodiment of 1/7th of god changes a man…
Eh. What a sovereign bore.
Looks to me more like a circus than a Council. I wonder if Solomon ever heard of the Roman Senate. If so, he’s doing a good job imitating them.
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
I suspect that is the lesson Solomon is to learn.
10/10, would pledge fealty to this glorious paragon of Lawful Neutral
Old men ruling the world… a new age!
Get out of the way quickly
This all seems very nice. I wonder when the horror will begin!
What is this, the council of beards?
I know. Isn’t it rapturous? Such a fine collection of magnificent beards, Solomon David’s the greatest of all.
Oh, my. Solomon is showing a lot of chest there and I don’t mind one bit.
Ah, the first breath of a truly resplendent figure…can’t wait to see him reduced to a withered husk like the others, cloying for our girls to do…something or other.
Truly though, curious to see what this big ol’ nipple-bearer’s deal is. I’m sure it’ll be fabulous.
The beardocracy
Truly, the only form of government worth having. All inferior forms of rule wish they were as magnificent or as wise.
There’s a couple of things that struck me here:
– The councilors wear headbands imitating the halo of Solomon David. Neat.
– I’m not sure if it’s the angle or just Abaddon’s drawing style, but the room looks *not quite* symmetrical. As if being just slightly off. I’m wondering if this is intentional or not.
“You don’t have long
I am on to you
The time, it has come to destroy
Your Supremacy”
-Muse, “Supremacy”
Is Solomon david purple or a shade of black?
I just think the strongest real world parallel is to the Knights of Solomon, more commonly known as the Knights Templar. Individual poverty, their order owned all they had, to the point of people using it as a bank. They sold the services of their mercenary armies to kings. They were all burned as heretics when a king decided it would be cheaper to get them all killed than to pay them for the wars they fought for him.
There is no such thing as an innocent before a King. His will is law, and thus his word is the only thing that separates the sinner from the saint.
Because the king’s mandate, be it ever so divine, was not won through justice but through steel. Reach Heaven through Violence.
It appears that beards are required to be in his advisors. Are any of them bearded women?
That beard….I’ve only seen it in the Player’s Handbook. He is a Fighter, I believe?
GAZE UPON MY GLORIOUS NIPPLES, PUNY MORTALS.
His symbol seems to be a bit of a square, which for symbolism’s sake, is associated with order… Except, it has soft edges at the top, and only the top, if you understand what that implies if put there purposefully for symbolism’s sake.
The other gods we’ve met so far have recounted slaying relatives, the witch a husband, the dragon a brother, although he at least expressed some remorse.
I am wondering if the sword-master, for he seems the prideful sort, has fallen into the opposite trap of choosing favored descendants, from whom he lives through their accomplishments, but ignores their failures. Considering the battle scarring on the one council member’s face, he is already choosing & rewarding those based upon them being a lot like him in the first place. Not hard for me to imagine him sitting around for eons, watching the progress of his decedents generation after generation, choosing his favorites, and promoting them to be councilors. And whether or not that is the case, he seems to have only chosen men. Huh… In that case, it really would be the Sons of Solomon, wouldn’t it? I guess I can only hope I am that accurate.
golly, I wonder how Allison’ll screw *this* guy up!
Holy hell. I just found your comic today and I just read through the whole thing. I’m amazed at the level of detail, the beauty of the characters and the fracking culture mashups you use for the designs and mythology.
Your artwork is gorgeous and the story is great.
I dearly hope there’ll be a way to get this comic on paper somehow, I want this in my library. :O
Hrmm… Is it just me or is it a tad bit nippley in here? Did I say nipple? >.>
Seriously though, for anyone wondering why his nipples appear that high on his chest, it is because he wills it so. Obviously they have to be there in order to be seen – otherwise his robes would conceal them, and then you could hardly see them nipples. >.>
This Council has the gender (and age) ratio of your standard panel on abortion…
I must say Abbadon, I am at a loss for words. It has taken me some time to get to this point in the story of Rising King Allison and her ascension to the Throne. I eagerly await the coming yarns in this wide tapestry of war.
The king of Pride surrounds himself with copies of himself. Classy.
When the King speaks the Councillors listen.