King of Swords 1-3
Chapter: 1
“Across the desert of Khul Kharim,
There stands an ancient and mighty temple, worn with age,
Its two hundred monks drenched with sweat and bent with the labor of its maintenance.
There, enshrined, the graven image of a god;
Mighty, imperious, carved masterfully, his eyes thrust to the horizon, his lips curled in a smile of mastery;
All burnished with the worn hands of monks and the labor-marks of slaves.
Its grip upon the land about is absolute. It has stood for two thousand years.
So long that, indeed,
Cracks have begun to form.”
-Unknown
Daddy issues all over the place
Jesus just how much does Salamk Dave get it on?
“the ruling king who sees in another his equivalent rules nothing”
-Lord Vivec
Reminds me of the Kingdom of New Orleans in East of West, which is intended as a high compliment.
We seek Perfection.
We must.
Because it is there.
It must Be.
-The Crawling One
Ah, so this is why it is called king of swords. The martial arts tournament episode.
Ego much?
I mean, I’d say he earned it
Well, Salami Dave is indeed the representation of Pride
HOLY SHIT
REPULSIVE THOUGH I MAY FIND HIS ARROGANCE AND THE WORLD THAT HE HAS BUILT, SOLOMON DAVID HAS EARNED MY RESPECT.
And what is this? A tournament?
I see that the fair-haired dumbass known as THE RISING KING has a road open to her…
Solomon David may preach about laws and order, but I suspect that this system of inheritance will cause much chaos upon his inevitable death. Even Gavelkind, scourge of dynasties, would be better than this.
“My body is the state and the whole of the law. It is here for the taking.” is possibly the most badass thing I’ve ever seen written, in this context. Fuck yes, Abaddon. THIS is how you hype a motherfucker.
So dude here has single-handedly sired his own council. Nice. I wonder if the younger men off to the sides are the younger generations waiting to take a seat at the table and grow a magnificent beard. Also, no girls? What are you? Kronar?
No girls, no. He had two daughters in his previous life, and lost them to violence.
Curious, the shape of Solomon’s demise is not obvious collapse I expected it to be. His pride doesn’t blind him to the possibility of his defeat, but it does make him underestimate it. He also groks the cycle of Empire and accepts what inevitably befalls them all. Dispite he’s pride he knows his place as the king that will be cut down to make way for the new, he’s even streamlined the process by setting it into law.
I like this tyrant.
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair
Well, that explains why everyone has the same style of beard.
Everytime I read this, Solomon David sounds Like Lawrence Fishburn playing as Morpheus in my head.
Dad God
MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!
Let the Kumite begin!
‘80s movie night!
Wait… So… His succession scheme is “Bitch, Fight me.”
Huh.
Molon labe.
I wonder, are the children of the Purple One so weak because they never had to fight for their crowns? Or do the fierce ones make their gambit and die young? Regardless, such a collection of milkmaids blushing upon the seat of power is a bruise upon the multiverse!
Of course, it is all relative I suppose. Jagganoth would laugh if you suggested he restrict legalized regicide to only a single day. That is why he is many times stronger than this puny god. I suppose in that sense I could be said to represent the chink in his armour…
Such is life in Wakanda.
Ah, the paradox of winning. It ain’t fun unless there’s a regular supply of losers.
There, enshrined, the graven image of a god;
His beard immaculately rectangular in appearance.
Tournament arc? Tournament arc. Probably with a gratuitous eighties music training montage before it starts proper. This is gonna be fun.
Ah, most understandable. I see now why he has yet to choose a successor.
What good would it do to have the wisdom to rule, if they have not the strength to do so? To defend against all threats to the kingdom, to enforce solidarity even as the kingdom stumbles from its loss.
I assume even were a worthy candidate present, they would not be acknowledged as such, at least not until they have [i]proven[/i] it is so.
(Yet, a softer touch is further required. To rally the people under the Heirs banner, to gather forces and sway loyalties. To this and more, without the Kings knowledge. Perhaps these are not needed. But such would prove a great aid in holding the empire… Or, perhaps, a burden no longer required?)
No matter, we shall see. We shall see.
Huh. The eyes of the assistants(?) along the wall are all glowing Solomon David Purple. (From the infamous CRA-YO-LA: Dyes of the Demiurge collection)
Don’t know what exact that would mean or portend, but it is as it is.
Also, more business meetings should end with “What, you think you can do better? Come at me, bro. All you gotta do to outvote me is land a punch. No? Anyone?”
I like Him. Pity about that whole Sword of Want thing that’s about to come down on His gloriously bearded head.
Eyeshadow. And one dude with glasses.
> tournament
Hah! Is it time for the tournament arc now? I see a championship in Allison’s future!
Curses, Invocations
Weird bate-headed mongrels
I keep expecting one of you to rise
Fool, you cannot hope to be worthy with your paltry facial hair. Look upon my beard and despair!
I mean, if you set aside that key for a small bit, I might be up for the task.
But against such a thing, it’s simply not a fair fight. I know none of the syllables of royalty and fear that without them I would simply stand no chance in such an encounter.
Father grows from stone
To Berry with roots below
Blood, red at home.
someone’s gonna get backstabbed 12 times soon
Who was it, that said there was a Idles of Mach / Caesar’s stabbing feeling to this chapter?
What is justice without equality?
How many of the “sons” have to bleed in order to produce a droplet worth of Solomon-David’s blood?
So few that none have had the brains to think of it.
So many that none have had the guts to try.
Immortality truly is a terrible, horrible curse.
He? Whatever “he” so wishes?
I am still waiting for a table which tells us what divine word he wields. I suspect it may be Brilliant, yet am not sure.
Allison’s going to fuck him up, isn’t she?
Father indeed, and that explains the similarity of jawline and nose and penchant for beardedness. At least the advisory council aren’t the partially spent husks of prior containers for the prideful magnificence that is Solomon-David. That would have been a bit creepy, if a touch awesome as well.
Ooo, well this explains a lot.
Also, looking forward to see this tournament !
There will be blood, but whose ?
So basically, you can’t be fit to rule if you aren’t prepared to fight your own father for his power? Yeah, sounds totally wise and fair :v
“So long that, indeed,
Cracks have begun to form.”
Indeed, I tell you, you can’t hope to stand forever. Even YISUN committed holy suicide (though YISUN was wise beyond our comprehension, mind you, and that was good), meaning that eternity is not meant even for gods. In truth, hubris carries its own undoing, as YISUN teaches that everything is a lie, including your own might. The more you see yourself, the less you will be able to realize the the true name of god, which is I. That is again a paradox, looking at yourself without actually seeing yourself.
The solution of the paradox is simple: free yourself of everything you see about yourself, layer after layer after layer, not even the bones, until nothing remains and you have finally rid us of your presence.
Truly, the meaning of YISUN’s teaching is to stop being an insufferable bitch.
I helped daddy with a lipid profile the other day, and he totally gave me a free boat ride – shit was sooo dope!
FYI he’s super healthy cholesterol-wise
We sing the great prayer – Paternoster!
Fool is the King that presumes the gender of His successor before He has even met Her.
Alison gonna cut you up
He certainly is a patient king. An underling of Mottom would have PERISHED for less than that.
I think I see how this is going…
https://youtu.be/QqreRufrkxM
Callled it!
Will Allison spurn the leadership of two separate kingdoms? Or will she accept control of the council in a bitter insult to a jealous queen.
She will demand nothing more than the return of the boy and, if he is in another castle, kindle another war in the doing.
Will a sausage join the crew of the Yamga, or does it’s kitchen serve only fish tacos?
The poem is really interesting. It reminds me of “Oxymandas”, if the poem was set during the last days of his empire, instead of ages later.
Great is the Paternum! No where is beyond his control! No one can appose him! Nothing can harm him!
But woe is he for the new heir is a no one from no where important to these gods and she wields nothing in her empty palms…
Family gatherings are always awkward.
Dude has had a *lot* of sex.
Like his namesake, I suppose.
Tasteful though his palace is — and numerous his advisors — his power and rule is still founded on being able to beat the shit out of anyone and everyone.
Typical, I say.
It is difficult to notice the absence of something, but often critical to do so.
What of his daughters?
Reach heaven through violence.
Oooh, that’s why they are old and wrinkly. Now to find out why all of them are dudes…
Eh. I guess no self-respecting woman would ever serve as a sounding board for her own dad/grandpa/thousands-upon-thousands-years-of-boning.
Twenty percent off general attendance tickets, my lovelies. As Pantokrator Jagganoth is wont to comment, Everything Must Go.
Ahaha, yes he does say that a lot doesn’t he.
Dang that realy takes some massive sack. He is basically begging them to attack him. I wonder if we really find out just how this war got started. Also i wonder if there are more angels like if there could be an angel contest like the demon contest…just saying. Love the work though just got caught up after leaving off at the end of book 2 for a couple years
…we *witnessed* the start of the war. We *know* how it started. Allison started it by killing Mottom’s husband and invading Ynamon.
Wow, him being Solomon’s son completely changed the reasoning of why he asked about inheritance. Here I just thought he was a concerned councillor. Might just be a greedy/ambitious boy trapped in an old man’s body.
That one guy looks like he’s gonna snap from having an existential crisis of some sort.
I wonder if they have any kids, or grandkids of their own? I mean, it must really suck on the dating scene for them.
“Hey babe! How’s it goin’? The name’s Bob, I’m on the council you know…”
“Ah, yes, I heard about you from my son Charlie. He’s on the council as well! I’m so proud of him!”
“Yes, all of Paternum’s favorite sons get to be on the council. (adds the one, carries the two), you’ve, uh, “met” my father, I take it? (looks at the family resemblance of all the other men in the room) Yes, yes… Of course you have… I need to… I need to go lay down, excuse me…”
Paternum seems to have managed to create his very own race of people…
So… I just thought of a weird loop-hole in his challenge. Not sure if Solomon-David would appreciate it though.
Like, in the comic above, he says both, draw a drop of his blood to win the tournament. He also says, they share his blood, so technically they could draw their own.
Also, a theme song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr1IwU3yfys
Found the rules lawyer! Yer hired!
There actually goes a story among the bog-hog-riders that a philosopher queen declared, similarly to Solomon, that whoever could enter the ring with her and draw royal blood would win the keys to her famous library.
Her sister, envious of the sibling’s power, entered the ring taking only a needle as her weapon. She pricked her own finger, and spilled her own blood, which was indeed royal.
Duly, she received the keys, and was then formally executed because nobody likes a clever-dick.
Cunning. You would make a fine devil.
I like this guy.
This god has a mighty forehead
In a world where it is all too easy to lose face, you need a god whose face doesn’t stop at the hairline, but continues on, ad infinitum, into the hairless space beyond…
I am extremely jealous of the good king’s ability to speak in purple.
“average person fucks every week” factoid actualy (sic) just statistical error. Solomon Georg, who lives forever & fucks over 10,000 times each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
Meh. I mean, he’s kind of a neat shounen antagonist, but Reach Heaven Through Violence aside, the skills involved in leading have very little with the skills involved in conquering (or fighting in general, for that matter.)
As a philosophy, as a statement that the world owes you nothing and if you would see it different you must pave the way yourself, it is valid. But taken absolutely literally, it’s a rather poor way to choose a successor, I have to say.
… of course, these power-hungry squabblers aren’t likely to be all that good at the other skills, so perhaps it’s merely that he’s yet to see someone who *does* have those other skills…
I… can’t find much fault in his reasoning, really. If he goes down it will mean some really, really nasty tomfoolery has gone down. Anyone who isn’t already at the level where they at least have to be NOTICED is going to be a dead man walking starting the second they take his throne. Inherited power or no.
This may not outright determine the nature of the successor, but it at least improves the chances of an orderly transition of power. And there is nothing that says he can’t put in a little extra effort in brutally murdering the other guy if they deserve his disdain.
It even removes powerful idiots from the field before they can contribute to a succession crisis. If you have more ambition than brains and less than the amount of monstrous power necessary to counterbalance that… you are just another corpse.
Ooh a tournament!
Strike first, Alison, and strike hard. No mercy.
The cat has not been returned to our shelter by the adopting demon in the agreed time, and last seen the cat’s guardianship, environment, and safety were good. The Throne Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals asserts the well-being of the adopted cat, and will henceforth cease monitoring unless alerted.
It occurs to me that a couple of the other councilors at the table are looking at the one who spoke up with either masked ire or open contempt.
I wonder, indeed…
“If you want to create a lasting, stable social order, only one person can ever be immortal.”
–The High Consul of Laconia
“Come get some.”
Reach heaven through violence, Council. Not through words.
“L’état, c’est moi”
Damn hes alpha
If these are all his sons, I wonder where all his daughters are…
It doesn’t say sons anywhere; the only explicit statements are that he is their father and that they share his blood.
My conclusion is that these are his sons AND daughters, and his beard is of such power that all of his children inherit it.
It’s one thing for a peasant to demand a throne, but for a nobleman it’s just arrogance. All the splendor you could ever want is right there, but you just need that throne. Pathetic.
Every one of us comes with a suitable understanding of the info provided to the public, so I really liked the guide and expected you to supply us with more things similar to this
one.
Nobody in the comic has ever displayed a “double” crown like Solomon here. He must be using a tremendous amount of power, relative to the usual dimension-rending scale of the characters’ antics, just to tell his children they are unworthy. What kind of insecurity. . .
This is very educational content and written well for a change. It’s nice to see that some people still understand how to write a quality post.!