Beyond the Western Deep

Hi everyone! As I mentioned last week, we spent a majority of this week focusing on edits and updates to previous pages throughout Chapter 1 to prepare for the upcoming book. These changes are mostly just simple word tweaks or minor art details we wanted to fix but couldn’t before, and now that the story is venturing out of the digital realm and into the world of print, we figured a spit-polish beyond the hectic week-by-week schedule would be a good idea.

So instead this week I thought I might offer up a fun little intermission post to carry us through to next week and initiate some discussion! In the story right now, Quinlan, Kenosh, and Dakkan have just arrived at Deltrada Garrison in the Canid kingdom of Aisling. As emissaries from a neighboring kingdom, they’re to be on their best behavior and represent the kingdom of Sungrove in the best possible light. This introduces us to the concept of Sunsgrovian etiquette.

You may recall early on in Chapter 2, Dakkan mentions that if they had been traveling to see the Canid king in the capital of Arklow, they would have worn fancier clothing. He wasn’t joking — while Kenosh’s manner of dress wouldn’t necessarily change due to his well-known position as a high-ranking military officer, Dakkan and Quinlan would have likely donned more “high class” clothing if they were going to the Canid capital instead of a freezing military garrison near the border. It’s important to make the right impression, after all!

 Above we see the Lutren equivalent of a tuxedo. It could be argued that Dakkan is wearing it a little more casually than normal — the forearm wrappings would either be equally aligned to avoid looking haphazard or they would be made of a solid material like wood or gold. Dakkan’s misaligned arm wraps are a bit like a bowtie being askew in a tuxedo — you’re still wearing the right things, just maybe not quite the right way. The high collar is a Lutren fashion element borrowed from their seafaring history (high collars helped to stave off cold coastal winds) — you’ll notice Kenosh’s military garb sports something similar.

Even when the coasts are far away, the high collar design is markedly Lutren. Each race has its own variation on the formal tail-ring, as well. The Lutren have a heavy, solid piece, usually fashioned from the same material as the arm wrappings (gold or wood again). Proper fashion etiquette generally favors having the arm wrappings and tail ring matching in material, though this isn’t a hard and fast rule.

Another element to etiquette comes from customs and behaviors between the kingdoms and authority figures. In our world, for example, a deeper bow is a sign of deeper respect and reverence to the one you are bowing to. In Terria, the Tamian have various degrees of bows they perform in different situations, from a simple head bow to an extremely elaborate gesture used to show that the one giving it has the utmost trust and respect for the one receiving the gesture.

Formally called a “proper bow”, this position, achieved by balancing on the right foot, with the left leg raised and crossed at the knee, is meant to show that the Tamian in question trusts the one receiving the bow implicitly. Because the Tamian race is built for quick reflexes and hasty escapes, the landbound races (particularly the Lutren) felt most uncomfortable meeting with the Tamian when they believed their tree-jumping counterparts could launch an attack and dash off at a moment’s notice. The introduction of the proper bow changed that — a Tamian contorting into this awkward position removed all possible advantages of their kind and made them vulnerable in ways they wouldn’t normally be. This show of trust helped set a positive tone for diplomatic exchanges with other races.

This week, we’ve got an awesome bit of guest art to share! For this, we have reader Veigue (aka Klein01) to thank!

I absolutely love this style, and seeing most of the cast here elicited one big grin after another as we pored over all the fun details Veigue added. The weapons in particular are fantastic — both in the “awesome” and “fantastical” senses, with their almost World of Warcraft-level of detail and exaggeration, they’re all extremely fun to look at.

Another fun addition here is the “human in the BWD world” in the lower-right! While there aren’t any humans in the BWD world, I do know Rachel’s been thinking about trying to draw the main cast as humans (similar to what Tracy Butler does with her Lackadaisy cast on occasion). I know I’m personally looking forward to seeing those someday :)

Thanks again for the wonderful art, Veigue! We love it!