Chapter 4: Page 17
The story that saw Bevan’s entire tribe get wiped out and become collective pariahs amongst the ermehn of the Northern Wastes was originally covered, like I said last week, in a Choose Your Own Adventure-esque story that I wrote in Twine for readers many long years ago. It was pretty grim, featuring something like a dozen different ways for Bevan to meet his untimely end and just one ending where he survived.
Obviously the canonical ending is the one we follow in Beyond the Western Deep, and I didn’t want to create any confusion among readers, so I revisited the concept for an Intermission story I posted during our run of Song of the Eastern Sands called Fall of the Evyn-din that covered the same story, but as a prose story instead of a CYOA.
If you’re interested in checking out that story, you can still find it here: https://westerndeep.net/comic/song-of-the-eastern-sands-hiatus-story-3/
Obviously Bevan still carries a bit of guilt surrounding his tribe’s (and many other surrounding tribes’) complete routing at the gates of Deltrada Garrison several years prior, but it’s not exactly something he’s been able to speak to anyone about this openly. In the world of the ermehn, what is it really to lose a friend to canid aggression? A family? A tribe? It happens to everyone in the Wastes, right? For Bevan, there’s little consolation to be had from his own people–and as we can see, that’s been eating away at him for years.
In a bit of personal news, the latest episode of Guild Wars 2: The Icebrood Saga will be launching on November 17th, and I helped to write several sections of it. You can check out the trailer here:
If you’re a player of the game, it’s also worth mentioning that voice acting from our incredible cast (including Matt Mercer, Nolan North, Kari Wahlgren, Jennifer Hale, Steve Blum, Sam Riegel, and more) is finally going to be added to Episodes 3 and 4 of The Icebrood Saga. I was the lead writer on Episode 4: Jormag Rising, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that our storylines are WAY better with voice acting than simple plain text and emote grunts :)
See you all next week!
Huh, unexpected. How old is Bevan?
Seems like he was waiting for the opportunity to unburden himself but couldn’t in front of the Sratha Din. Interesting that even though Kenosh is about as closed off as it’s possible to be he still radiates enough dadliness to trigger this confession in Bevan.
This page changed quite a lot from the sketch. It’s more concise now.
His body language is youthful, and I’d peg him as under twenty in human years.
Kenosh is an outsider, so it’s easier for Bevan to open up to him than his peers. The poor boy has lots of bottled up grief inside, and that goes against the carefree appearance he’s putting up!
Okay, so I revisited the Cast page to see if Alex said how old Bevan was, but he didn’t. BUT then when I happened to be rereading some of the story, I stumbled across this: https://westerndeep.net/comic/chapter-2-page-17/
Thank you. The Salmon Party’s ability to unearth relevant old comments never ceases to impress me.
You’re welcome :) I’d actually never seen that comment before (iirc), so I’m glad I happened to find it!!
“dadliness” is a fun word :)
I actually think it’s possible for a character to be even more closed off than Kenosh is; for instance, he, or another character in his place, could’ve chosen to refrain from revealing Dakkan’s backstory to Bevan in this scene. I think the fact that he did tell the story is what triggered Bevan’s confession, because I think telling that story was how Kenosh “radiated dadliness”, as you put it. Because by telling Dak’s story, what Kenosh communicated to Bevan was, “I’m a father who has a son who was traumatized, but I don’t think that he’s useless because of it. I used to think he was, but I regret it deeply, and the fact that I regret it so deeply means that I really firmly believe my current belief that he isn’t useless.” So that rightly led Bevan to assume that if he revealed his own trauma to Kenosh, Kenosh wouldn’t think he was useless since he’d relate Bevan’s situation to his son’s who he doesn’t, and doesn’t want to, think is useless. Now, why did Kenosh choose to tell Bevan Dak’s story in the first place? I think it was because, as Alex put it in the commentary on Page 13, “somebody [was] actually *complimenting* Dakkan for once.” When Kenosh first opened up to Bevan a bit by deciding to tell him that Dakkan was the reason he came along (and he revealed *that* because Bevan asked him genuinely), Bevan made it clear that he had bothered to notice and remember that Kenosh told Hardin that Dak was his son, and also that he remembered the one brief encounter he had with Dak, which left him with respect for Dak’s swing. So by showing through all of that that he respected Kenosh and Dakkan, Bevan was able to get Kenosh to lower his guard and tell him Dak’s story, which he wouldn’t have if he’d thought Bevan would’ve made fun of Dak or something. So basically, over the course of this scene so far, Bevan and Kenosh have gone back and forth developing rapport, in a way that feels natural (because this scene is very well-written, which I love). I guess it all goes to show that showing respect to people and treating them with dignity is not only a good thing of itself, but can lead to rewards such as, in this case, getting the chance to finally get your traumatic backstory off your chest. Anyway, as someone with an interest in communication and conflict resolution and the like, I love scenes like this :)
Poor bevan. Kenosh inspires the confidence of the younger ones and inspires a caring father. I guess he can’t confide in sraha-din because they consider him a weak child. Each of them has probably lost their tribe and has a tougher character. If Kenosh pats Bevan on the back or hugs him, I will be fulfilled.
The thumbnail suggests that Kenosh was going to tell Bevan to “Stop”, so I have the feeling he’s not exactly going to provide the comfort Bevan needs
I think that “stop” is Past-Bevan begging his Tribe-That-Was-Alive-In-The-Flashback-But-Is-Now-Un-Alive not to throw themselves on the swords of the canid.
It appears that the “chief attack” and “stop” dialogue in the thumbnail has been moved to a new 3rd panel on the final page, possibly so Bevan can look as sad and isolated as possible against the backdrop of the end of his people.
To cut a long comment short: perhaps a cathartic hug is not entirely off the table?
I don’t think the “stop” was ever Bevan begging his tribe, it’s just the abbreviation for the bit of dialogue he says to Kenosh which, as you point out, got moved to a new panel, along with the “chief attack” bit of dialogue.
“[A]s sad and isolated as possible against the backdrop of the end of his people” is a really good, descriptive way to put how Bevan looks in the new version of the page’s final panel, and caused me to better notice just how much of an improvement the final version of the page is over the thumbnail, so thanks for writing it :)
Yep, a cathartic hug isn’t off the table yet! We can still dream!!
Actually, just going off of the information on the Cast page, it looks like Bevan’s the only one of the Sratha-din whose entire tribe is dead. Except maybe Ashtor, since his tribe isn’t mentioned. And possibly Hardin, I suppose, but we know his tribe was alive when he was a teenager keeping Kenosh prisoner, and I don’t think he’d let his tribe be killed once he became an adult. I hope anyway.
Yeah, I’m hoping Kenosh will hug Bevan, too :) He did hug Dakkan that one time, after all. Granted, that situation was different, but still, at least we know that he knows what hugs are, so that’s hopeful I guess.
Thanks to this page, I went back to reread “Fall of the Evyn-dyn”, and now that I know how Bevan survived the massacre of his tribe, I do wonder if the next page will elaborate on that. After all, my reading of the thumbnail page was that originally the part about them being massacred was going to be on a different page. It is interesting to see how different (or not) a comic can be between the thumbnail and the final page.
Also, not sure if it was intentional, but the placement of some of the sparks/embers/whatever made it look like some of the Canid soldiers had an ominous glowing red eye, making them just a bit more menacing. (Accidental?) nice touch there.
Love the detail of the tear in panel three and it running down Bevan’s face at the bottom, good detail to work in.
Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me
That I live and you are gone…
********************************
I really love this scene; it’s my favorite since the garrison escape (and may end up being my favorite overall, we’ll see). I’m definitely eager to see where the rest of this conversation goes, and curious to see if/when/how Kenosh makes another attempt to comfort Bevan (it’ll be “another” if we’re counting his failed attempt to think of something to say).
…Alright, I think this ends my spree of going to town on the comment section. (For tonight, at least.)