Seeker of Thrones 2-13
Chapter: 2
“The deeps are treacherous,” said Enyis. “It’s cold, and my ribs hurt. I fear my poor heart will give out before long. How on earth can I protect it, if not by steel?”
“You can’t,” said the Boar King, “A hero must always wear his heart on the outside.”
Some are born great. Some become great through much effort. And some are made great against their will.
Ebb and flow of our heroines…
Our soon to be all power Queen needs a hug.
And maybe some chocolate ice cream…
Hah, name me one person in this cursed creation who doesn’t need either or both.
Graclax, He Who Crumbles Like Dust At The Merest Touch is allergic to chocolate.
Well that’s why they have vanilla.
She who named him is kind of a huge jerk, tibkwah.
And YISUN thought theirs was a sad, stagnant existence…
Oi.
Who left this bowl of onions here?
That last panel. The ship still sails!
Cio’s concerned face is adorable.
“Tough girl, short haircut” describes a startlingly large number of woman warriors across the universe. I remember I once encountered a raider tribe comprised entirely of shaven-scalped women that rode enormous wolves and wore the tanned hides of their enemies.
Well, by ‘encountered’ I mean ‘was hunted for several days and nights across frozen tundra’ because I had stolen a treasure from their most sacred shrine. I only lost them by covering myself in mammoth dung, which made their mounts completely loose the scent. The riders didn’t seem to want to approach me after that either…
(scruffs her hair, suddenly self-conscious)
Mine used to reach my waist if I let it grow enough. But in this line of work, anything past my chin either gets grabbed by someone fighting dirty or hacked off by close calls. Still, I get jealous of my wife’s pale locks sometimes.
And that’s not a bad idea for evasion, except you might drive away anyone wanting to help you, too…
Ship has docked for repairs, I see. Good.
Such burdens we shoulder, little King.
So that’s what She brought with Her… Clothes and shoes and cosmetics. Always handy when a disguise is needed.
Even a an old butcher grows tired of handling a knife, it’s no wonder a new Royal needs time to come to terms with cutting.
One cannot take back a swung sword or a thrown punch. It is the same with words and promises.
Even kings have hearts.
Indeed, a Heartless King is a contradiction in terms. When a King loses their heart, they cease to be True Royalty. They become nothing more than a Tyrant, and Tyrants are weak, pathetic creatures. Insecure in their own power, they lash out against anything and everything around them, fearful of losing their crowns. Fear they ought, for a Tyrant is not respected. Feared yes, but never respected, by any subjects they claim dominion over.
Tyrants are weak, twisted things, who invite their own deaths. In such cases, a new True King always rises to take their rightful place, and disabuse the Tyrant of their old notions, crown, and head.
Excepting our favorite Tyrant, Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork.
Especially kings must have hearts.
Kings without hearts are merely Tyrants.
So what is the name of the star that illuminates the Red City and is it a “normal” star?
It has been mentioned that the sun orbiting the Red City was forged by Koss during the City’s creation, to illuminate the wonders of Throne.
That would be the sun. It is a huge (but not immensely huge) sphere, several days sailing from Throne. It is broken- originally it circled around Throne, but it now hangs motionless in the sky.
The shade side of the disc is, of course, where the criminal density is highest.
I imagine it is something like “Aesma’s Folly” and is really just a bit of smoldering ash she knocked off the side when trying to forge her creations.
Not sure if it has a name, but here is some info.
“The sun of Throne was forged by the god Koss, but was broken in some untold catastrophe of the past, and no longer moves. It is a dim sun that sits in the air remarkably close to the city proper. Historians theorize that Throne had a 28 hour day evenly split between day and night as the sun rotated over and under the disc. The disc itself does not rotate, but has a very slight oscillation over a century-long period. This means that one side of Throne is perpetually in sun, and the other is perpetually, in shadow. These sides are referred to as sunside and shadeside respectively.”
Excellent. Where did you get that from?
This one did not expect such a sudden turn of emotions from AL-YISUN so soon! But than again, these are tumultuous time that we live in and all beings, even kings, need to let out their emotions every now and than. This one is personally glad that it is Cio that she appears to be about to open up to, they have potential for a great (and interesting) relationship.
This is an interesting implication of the operating instructions for a Key of Kings, that I hadn’t connected the dots about until now.
To use it, you have to use it. You have to just *decide*, no THIS is the way it’s gonna be, and SLICE
and in that moment the world hears you speak with authority, and complies.
That takes a certain mindset. It takes being able to feel, in that moment, no fuck you THIS is the way it’s gonna be.
Which moment?
“Man always strives to cut man. Therefore he who draws his sword the fastest is the survivor. To pre-empt this, you must live, eat, and shit as a person who has their sword drawn.” – Meti
So this means, if you need to have your weapon mentally at hand at all moments, that means being mentally in that headspace all the time, categorically.
“Royalty[…] is a continuous cutting motion.” – Lord Intra
People can do that. You can live a certain way, and grow into it, until that way becomes the new normal for you.
“A true ruler is the wielder of names[…] and she cuts herself into greater forms still. She is not shaped by the world, but instead becomes the shaper.” – King Zoss
But what does it mean to have perpetual resoluteness as your normal? I think it also, necessarily, means a certain hard-headedness, a certain hard-heartedness. To be perpetually resolute means to perpetually bar the door against doubt.
And there’s a cost to that, I think.
If “Hard Soul Making Hard Decisions” is your normal, doesn’t that make it difficult to be soft sometimes? To be emotional sometimes? Doesn’t that cut away one’s readiness to engage with the emotional landscape, both within and without, as someone down in the ground facts rather than pretending to float above the fray?
And so, in my uneasy dreams, my mind gets drawn back to Meti.
“The only true path to kingship lies through regicide.
Moreover, only the worst kind of idiot strives to be king.”
Then again, maybe I’m overstating my case.
Maybe you can have it both ways. The easiest way may also be the most treacherous. But at the same time, being eternally resolute is, at least in theory, compatible with any given resolution. If you resolve, among other things, to understand, and to connect, well, that’s still resolve.
It’s just, I guess, it’s just something you actually have to decide to do, rather than simply resolving to be resolute.
They do say none of the Seven were ever truly happy — it’s what qualifies them for Royalty.
Thank your for sharing your musings. They have directed my mind to the allegory of Set and the Demon Tree. I fear that assuming emotions to be soft or hard or any-which-way leads one on the paths of Set’s unfortunate associates. Emotions are the heart, the center. They are the fire that drive want and desire. Hardness is not required, though many flee to it for safety. that which they truly flee is a relationship with the hidden name of god.
Pleasant dreams.
Huh is observant.
The aftermath.
Who in the damned wheel are you?! Ive done and seen a lot of horrific things in my life and no one has ever had the audacity to claim the number 0 among my kin!
I am… creations shadow. Un of what is not is merely the opposite side of the wheel of all worlds. I am… absence. I am 0, for I do not exist and never will.
The vatra who summoned it from the black flame must have had a strange sense of humor.
Ah, here betide the first casualty of Royalty, namely, your old Self.
Mourn your lost life Al-Yis-Un, Oh Rising Star, Godking Resplendent. Mourn now, for soon you will have no time for such things of childhood.
I wonder if the little Blue, so obviously smitten by the Godking Ascendant, will be wise enough to serve as comforting presence and no more.
Enthrallment to a good and wise King is a fate much to be envied, and the praise, “Well done, my good and faithful servant”, is sweeter far than any fleeting kiss.
Choose wisely, little flame. The tornado is a perilous lover.
Yay, she’s still a person.
“Thinking of chucking it, eh? Perfect waste o’ good hair dye, that is.”
“Give it to me instead. We can use it on Princess Mamoru!”
Well. I sort of take back what I said in the last panel. I thought we’d be expected to just accept Allison being forced into a ‘badass’ identity. But now we see that although she acts tough at times, it’s still sort of an act, and she’s still vulnerable. This makes her development feel much more genuine.
How did she get all that stuff? Did she go back to Earth again, or did she carry it with her when she returned from Earth the first time?
When she decided to come back and find Zaid just before Wielder of Names started, she had a backpack with her. I’m assuming Cio has kept it safe while Allison was gallivanting about showing abysmally poor judgement.
No matter how strong your wrath and defiance,
No matter the force you bring down on your doubt
To a human, it takes but a moment of quiet
And your fears, like a flood, will come pouring out
~Abrae Deas, Verse 32, on the Dangers of Actually Stopping to Think About What The Hell You Just Did And What You Intend to Do Now
Hey! Can anyone help me!? This is my first comment and I was wondering if anyone knew what kind of accent or vocal patterns Cio uses?
I’ll be cosplaying her this April and I figured this is the best place to ask next to contacting the author themselves thanks in advanced to any that respond!
I would guess that she would have a bit of the fluidity of Irish, mixed with the passionately swearing nature of Eastern European languages (Hungarian comes to mind) with her own twist of early Modern English (“Tha”) in all of it. I probably don’t know enough languages and accents to truly make a list.
She’s a devil. They are supposed to be have charm. I think Cio deliberately does not have the full charm she should have even as an blue.
Cio speaks using “Black Speech”. There’s a wiki page on it that includes a rudimentary implementation guide. Seems tailor made for your purposes.
http://killsixbilliondemons.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Speech
I think it’s an English Yorkshire accent, particularly from the use of “tha” instead of “you”.
According to the TV Tropes character entry, she speaks with “what appears to be a devilish version of Cockney rhyming slang”. So imagine if Cio was in a Guy Ritchie film (‘Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels’, ‘Snatch’, ‘Rock ‘N’ Rolla’), which, considering her criminal past and present, is actually appropriate for her character.
Excellent, she is using her emotion to secure her place as a main character. If on purpose or by accident, she’s playing the law of cosmic narrative like a fiddle.