WHEEL SMASHING LORD 2-33 to 2-34
Chapter: 2
“It is said that the Diktate Au Vam had a pillar four hundred handspans high set in the main marketplace of the Yellow City, and guarded by a man day and night. Upon the top of the pillar was a great stele upon which was engraved his name. Below were engraved the names of some four thousand lords, each of them of great standing, with large households and many servants. Upon Au Vam’s death, it was said the stele would be shattered, and the first name on the pillar crowned as the new king, and so on and so forth. But when the pillar was ground into the dirt, or the bearers of its names no longer alive, then there were no more men worthy in the city, and it would die a true and final death.”
– Ogdo, Tellar Historian
So did White Chain get new eye, arm, and leg (and not violently rip them out) or did she just not lose them?
I’ve been wondering exactly the same!
RAYUBA MENTIONED 😀
Wasn’t only the capitol that got devastated? Or maybe she’s saying that Rayuba became the epicenter of the civil war and got the worst of it.
Rayuba is the name of the planet and the capital city. All of it was razed in the War for Rayuba side comic stuff
I know, but she seems to imply that the planet has been thoroughly nuked.
Damn, I wonder if Solomon knew how fragile it was, with absolutely no foundation underpinning it.
He saw no need for a foundation as he saw himself as the foundation and the leader. He ensured that there would be no way for them all to live in any other way. He truly was the worst leader
otterly adorable
I just wrote a short story inspired by the ferrets cooking on the temple floor
Is there somewhere we could read it?
“The cathedralopis is filled, stock and shelf with beggars: dispossessed, eyes dried of longing for life, hopeless, seething, mendicants, the dying, and the dead. A great cauldron has been hauled across the stone, cracks left behind the wake of its tumble and weave across the stone, and from the small feet that carried it to its hearth. Ugly gouges like fat webs are left in the beautiful floor where it was dropped every few steps. Now a fire burns under the massive bowl. The kindest among these awful masses, who brought the iron monster over its bed of flame, tend to the dinners and water of those with the stomach strong enough to handle eating again. Some travelers from the south have rations to spare, and share it. Some others keep to themselves with what scraps they hid in their sleeves. Many choose to starve their broken lips in the dark, hiding behind the skin of their hands.”
“A revelry of god’s guards approaches, inevitably to inspect the ruined and burning floor. Silver spears, old and deadly, fill the guards’ palms familiarly. Their shouting orders don’t echo in the empty black air hanging under the buttresses. The heavy march inseparable from their armor doesn’t sound in any corner nearby—there is too much flesh and filth and cloth in the way. They push their way through the crowds.”
“They push roughly, down like sliding rock, and bark complaints for the harm done to the temple’s floor. A fight begins to break out in the distance from you, and though the noise is nothing among the equally deafening bay of trade, lamentation, angry poetry, and theft, and worse… the silence stuck in almost everyone’s throats… the sound of steel being drawn is like a lightning strike. The room—all of the room, like a wave of desperation and fear—falls silent. The awful masses pull away to give breathing room to the cooks of tonight’s humble crumbs, and for the guards of god in god’s temple.”
“Elbows cram into stomachs, shoulders kneel against necks, and toes scrape to their tips to make the dim room’s air (stale. hot. tense) a single breath fresher, hoping to ease the tension. A guard dressed with the gold and a rainbow of braids denoting his
station of Heaven’s Knight Vigilant demands the fire be quenched, the pot dismantled, and the food thrown into the river. The smell, he says, rots the sacred air that has for centuries been pure with the correct and very sacred incense of the chantry. The floor is already broken, scored, and burned, he says. The taste of sweat and piss on every scrap of clothes is scum, he says. And he won’t have these cobbled alms adding the taste of shit to the mix, he says. Let them starve for the night until morning, he says. The priest’ hands will feed them when the sun rises, with simple bread and water. He says this is food fit for the devout. The cooks are furious.”
“The temple’s god approaches from behind. God’s guards do not see the coming, nor does god’s guests. No one sees, and god’s arrival is like waking to god. None are pushed to make god’s arrival comfortable or breathable.”
“In the instant between waking and knowing you are awake, you see god standing between guards and guests. The roiling flames caged under an iron pot light god from behind.”
“The cooks skills are clear, for they know the craft of fire. Their fire is sacred, sacrament, and dutiful. They cooks are god’s guests and serve god’s guests. Their food is fragrant, though it is unusual. They have taken a hundred donated pockets of crumbs and spoiled bags of scrap into a thousand meals. What they have done inside the cathedropolis is a miracle, and it is not even enough for a night. Pram Omnsi, the fourteenth god, who is lesser among ranks, puts his back to the miracle and faces down the guards. With a single smooth motion, god steps forward and lifts a hand across a surprised cheek.”
“FOOL!” cries god.
“WHEN THE TEMPLE IS CRACKED AND BURNED AND BROKEN, WHERE WILL MY PEOPLE BE WHEN IT IS GONE? THEY WILL STILL BE HUNGRY.”
“WHEN MY PEOPLE ARE DEAD, WHERE WILL THE TEMPLE BE? IT WILL BE EMPTY AND SERVING NO ONE.” demanded Pram Omnsi, fourteenth god.
“Heaven’s Knight Vigilant flinched with indignant shock. You’re sure his jaw is broken now, easily. The pain is swallowed and a bow is offered to god, begging forgiveness and thanking for the lesson.”
I don’t think there will ever be a more astonishing transformation than the angel who got punched so hard it turned her into her heart’s desire. Kudos Abbadon.
Short Purple Chain Upholds Democracy weeps with friend and is annoyed by mention of height.
Howdy to the Marmot folk, the Frog folk, the Supra-Wolf, and Deer folks !
And hello – is that a non-standard, non-conforming XL devil sitting pretty and polite with everyone else ? Golly.
HAIL ABBADON ! Creator of diverse sentient peeps !
It sucks there’s no kiss even on the cheek as welcome one.
Seems only Zaid gets the freebie now cause he is a male self-insert character in the story left who also got 2 free cool swords during timeskip while not getting even a fraction of drama shit and sexual abuse Maya got in comparison in her flashback for “plot”, but then she is a woman so maybe that is author reasoning here.
People are reading far too much into that cheek peck, methinks. There is far more emotion in this hug than there was in that little kiss.
I agree that Zaid has gotten the best deal in the entire story, without doing a thing to earn it. He got martial arts superpowers in three years, while Maya got six years of sexual servitude. While he was in the custody of the Salami King, he was kept in fairly luxurious circumstances judging by the uniforms he wore. Even his noble readiness to sacrifice himself to the pyramid-headed guards of Jadis was interrupted by Allison. That damn surferboy just seems to catch every wave, and may even catch Allison in the end (on her terms, of course).
And why deny him? He hasn’t been an A-hole to anyone. *Someone* should get a lucky break in this story, why not him?
no, not him-not anyone, for the same reason why nobody gets a lucky break in WH or warframe lore. the whole appeal of universes like this one is that they’re utterly horrible to everyone and everything.
Yeah, I mean he only got kidnapped from his home dimension and has been stranded in a Multiversal war for four years, not having a thing to say on the matter, and knowing full well that everyone home think he’s dead (except maybe for Allison, who he probably thought was just… Dead, for a long time).
And we don’t know what happened during the three years of the war, but I’m guessing since he was the Heir in another timeline, there’s a solid chance he actually fought during the War for Rayuba (but this is speculation on my part).
At the very least he learned MMA (magical martial arts), but we all know it’s not easy to learn (as shown with Allison, who got hers in one year of training).
I’m not saying he got the worst deal here. Far, FAR from it. His journey is probably one of the least traumatic ones.
But I’d argue that it’s still pretty traumatic.
Again, less than probably everyone else (except maybe Princess Moonshine ?), but still traumatic nonetheless.
Like… Book 1 and 2 Allison traumatic? Something like that?
Okay why do we need to evaluate a character’s worth by how traumatic their journey has been?
I absolutely agree with tronn here.
(just to be clear : what I meant in my comment wasn’t that Zaïd was worthy or interesting because he was also traumatized, but that I disagree with people saying he “got it easy”, and I wanted to remind that he simply got it “less horribly than the other main characters”, which is quite different in my opinion)
He’s the heir after all, means he’s going to inherit shit. He’s the person who’s supposed to be having Allison’s adventure and he went out and had his own in its abscence since he’s just exactly the sort that ends up having those. I’m sure he’s had some tears along the way. But that is not the story we are following, he just doesn’t have a very big role in this one and so is unimportant.
ZAID GOT A PECK ON THE CHEEK AND OFFPANEL TRAINING WITH SWORDS, WHILST MAYA GOT SEXUAL ABUSE TRAINING AND WHITE CHAIN ONLY GOT A HUG – PROOF, I SUBMIT, OF THE AUTHOR’S SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION.
Jeez, I don’t even know where to start with a comment like that.
That is why a kingdom build upon a single person, no matter how immortal they may seem, cannot stand. Once that person is removed the whole state shatters like a plate falling from a shelf. Solomon thought he would rule forever and never considered what would happen to his people if he were to ever leave. A good ruler always considers how their kingdom can go on without them.
Except he did? He wanted to leave, he knew that he was denied the way to Royalty as long as he was chained to being the lynchpin. He saw no one to take up the burden and reliably keep everyone from being omnicided.
Now or course it looks like he didn’t do much to *create* a successor either, seeming to rely on one just showing up at his tournament one day even though he got to where he was by being trained by others.
To be honest, it seems quite clearly implied in the narration that he uses that excuse to stay in power (White Chains even outright says it once, I think), and that he basically built a prison for himself this way.
I’m sure he BELIEVES he’s actually looking for a successor, but if he really wanted a successor he’d have trained someone in Ki Rata and educated them their whole life in order to succeed him.
Or he would have ordered the population to train regularly, and would have chosen the most worthy to be raised in the palace and trained as his successor.
Waiting every decade or hundred years to do a Ring of Power contest where he basically reaffirms his position as “strongest dude in town” and official Tyrant sounds more like an excuse to convince himself and the rest of the Multiverse that he just HAS to stay in power.
White Chain’s republic is in a terrible position, unfortunately. But that does not mean we must despare! The new age is often bloodier than the last, initially.
awwww, white chain missed her so much! i’m so happy they’re together again
Now lets return to point (tournament arc) where White Chain and Allyson demands Solomon to “step down NOW” .
I do agree with what depicted there ; the consequences : it would result in empire shattering, millions outright die , an order magnitude more forced to leave their home and/or have huge loss in standard of living (poverty , suffering and misery) for _decades_ .
All that results from Salami “stepping down naow”.
So lets stop for a minute and think : giving the consequences , is “hateful tyrant must go immediately” was really such a good idea ?
I recall during tournament arc comment section mood was quite uniform , “salami must go”. Well. Here the consequences – millions outright die , majority of surviving people poor , lost home , and will struggle for decades. Still think its good idea ? Still everything is black and white “tyrant must go this moment immediately ‘ everyone who even hints this bad idea is evil” ?
I mean…this is the exact consequence of a man setting up his empire like he did, with no plan for succession. If Jagganoth hadn’t attacked, and Salami hadn’t died, stepping down would likely have moved a fair bit more smoothly. But regardless, if a man balances every spinning plate on a single point of failure, there’s a difference between having them stop and slow the spinning vs just shooting him.
Right before Jag attacked, Solomon was about to say something about it being difficult to grant that request. Given time, and if Jagganoth hadn’t destroyed everything, I think Solomon might have started to prepare the Empire for his departure. If it wasn’t for the Jaggy, this could have worked out alright. This was apparently what he wanted all along, so that he could go off and achieve true Royalty.
I imagine it might have been more manageable with Solomon still being alive and do a transition rather than an abrupt cutoff as what happened instead.
Pretty sure you’re accusing people of your own problem here (seeing things in black and white).
White Chains was saying her wish was that he released his grip on the empire and step down from his role as a tyrant. She never said he had to do it RIGHT THIS SECOND.
She’s an angel, she knows these things usually take time.
But then, Jagganoth arrives. I’m pretty sure the disappearance of Solomon David shattered the Empire, but the death of millions?
That’s on the big Red Guy.
And I’m pretty sure an empire of people not just relying on their literal God to protect them would have been better.
Even if only for evacuation purposes.
So… No, most people agreeing that Salami Dave must relinquish his empire to his people didn’t led to this.
The millenias of Salami Dave not trusting anyone but him did.
She’s an Ally?
no she’s an Allyson
Ah… I do not like the state of that battle map.
I miss the more stern White Chains, a White Chain that becomes emotional like that does really not feel the same anymore, considering how old she is and how much shit she has saw in all those centuries of existence i don’t think she should be crying just because she saw one of her friend being alive, her reaction is too short-lived human-like.
Could it be that being nearly human for the first time in her many long lives, she now is inflicted with nearly human emotions? You roll the dice and you pay the price.
wow black people can’t handle democracy you really went there huh
BAIT.
yisun pls SMITE this man
Looking back over the last few pages I am struck – not for the first time – by the discipline and talent brought to the color grading in this work. At the moment Al-YISUN pronounces herself to have survived the Maybe Sword we stand under a piercing blue sky, the kind of summer day where the sun is overhead in late afternoon and everything seems possible. In the sanctum here with White Chain we are in a darkened room, of course, but the colors of night – violet, torchglow, slate. And *in between*, even still on the mountaintop, we begin to move through grays and browns, the falling of dusk as Al-YISUN moves from the noonday radiance of winning the conflict within, into the gloaming of facing the conflict without, armed with her new-won power. The environment becomes a kind of soundtrack, and I don’t see that done well enough to be worthy of comment very often. And then, after the overture, the establishing tone, after all that, ferret chefs? What a delight!
Amen, fellow.
So, reuniting with WC is swell and all, but what I really want is Cio back.
I like how patient Alison was being. She waited while they talked to refugees, smelled the soup. That’s character growth.
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Alison: 6’2
White Chain: 5’11