Chapter 1: Page 26
Kenosh’s menacing glare WAS a bit nicer than usual back there! I suppose you’ll have to trust us on this one – Rachel’s done some concepts of Kenosh when he’s really angry, and he doesn’t look very pleasant. Let me see what I can dig up here…
See? Bit of a nasty customer when he really loses his temper. We’ve seen how the subject of the Ermehn/Canid situation can rile him up, and the problems there are only beginning.
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In this world, speedy travel doesn’t quite exist yet. There’s no automobile and no “horse” equivalent animal for these creature to ride around on, so most travel is simply restricted to walking from place to place. While the landmass comprising the Four Kingdoms is not especially large by our own standards (it is not, for example, as wide as North America) it still takes a great deal of time to travel from coast to coast. Even “shorter” trips, such as the 10-12 day journey from the Lutren capital city of Lutra to the Tamian capital, Terria, are rather large undertakings that require armed escorts and enough supplies to prevent the journey from taking a wrong turn.
There are speedy solutions to getting simple information across great distances – such as messenger birds – but these will be brought into focus later.
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That Kenosh and Dakkan would make a return trip to Terria so quickly after their previous visit, therefore, was not only a pleasant surprise for Quinlan, but a rather direct hint as to the importance of Kenosh’s information. That he would not entrust it to a messenger bird and braved the journey twice in such a short period of time was enough to pull in King Dabheid and Quinlan without hesitation.
This week we’ve got a surprise drop of fan-art from the amazing Jerome Jacinto, whose incredible Beyond the Western Deep pinup commission graced this site a few months ago. This week, I’ll share some inks he sent over of the four main characters: Quinlan, Dakkan, Kenosh, and Hardin:
As Jerome explained, he had been working in digital painting for a very long time and hadn’t broken out any actual pens in over a year. That he decided to stretch out his (awesome!) inking talents on the leads in Beyond the Western Deep after a year+ hiatus is a huge honor for us. I love seeing these characters in your style, Jerome! Definitely need to arrange another epic piece from you someday!
And that’s not even the end of it! But I’m going to save the other piece he sent over for next week’s post. Until then!
Art’s getting better and better! :D
Also, I really hope that Crim isn’t going to be one of those tosspots that thinks he’s better than everyone else with nothing to show for it. I hate characters like that.
hehe-what would a story be without one of those?
YAY Crim finally enters….this is going to be good…..
If the journey requires an armed escort, are there currently other Lutren somewhere in Terria, and if so, will they be a part of the story?
There are usually always Lutren within Terria (and Tamian in Lutra) because the two races’ societies are so intertwined. Keep an eye out for a few in later crowd scenes for sure :)
Because Kenosh and Dakkan can take care of themselves they don’t really require an armed escort, but scholars, merchants, and dignitaries do require some muscle to avoid being robbed (or worse).
I’m having trouble finding the not-so-menacing glare even after flipping back a few pages. Could you tell me which page it is on?
>birds
Ooh, Sparra! :D
Quinlan is being sarcastic, Zian – Kenosh’s default gaze tends to have an air of menace :)
Ah, thanks for clearing that up.
//meta comment:
I wouldn’t have seen your response if I hadn’t needed to re-read this page because you didn’t post it as a reply so it didn’t trigger the WordPress e-mail notification system. :(
Another page full of life, colours and awesome facial expressions! I’m a bit surprised that Dakkan “hates” travelling with his father – I think Kenosh is pretty cool and someone you would want with you to protect you. After all, with a glare like we see in the sketch, he could scare evildoers away with just a glance!
About the fact that there’s no “horse” equivalent animal to travel on… I’ve been wondering a bit about what this would mean for their society, and how they have developed. I’m not sure about this, but I think the authors mentioned somewhere that the people of the Four Kingdoms have largely not mastered animal husbandry at all. We have seen some examples – a cat is seen holding a chicken in the very first page of the comic – but by and large they have had to develop their society without the help of “regular” animals. It seems like this would make it a lot more difficult – they’d have no animals to help them out with farming, or to act as pack mules and drawing carts, for example. Maybe more of this will be explored later.
Alex also mentioned that armed escorts are required for protection against robbers, amongst other things. That makes me wonder just who these robbers are. Are they Tamians? I could well imagine gangs of Tamians roaming the trees ready to jump down on unprotected travelers. However, the relatively pleasant way they’ve been draw, it almost feels surprising that they’d turn to crime. But if they do, that just makes the world more believable and complex.
Also, we’ll get to see Crim next time! I’ve been looking forward to this!
In the second sketch of Kenosh being angry, his ears almost look like little horns. I got a little snicker at that.
I know it’s been a long time since this page was posted but, I decided to click on the link to Jerome Jacinto’s page and was somewhat disappointed to find the account was deactivated. The sketches he sent you and you posted got me interested in seeing more of his art. I guess he’s decided to give up art entirely. That’s too bad really because a good artist’s work should be enjoyed by everyone.