In a lot of ways, this moment between Rathik and the other members of the Sratha-din (but particularly Hardin) has been brewing for a long time. We’ve known all the way back since chapter three, following the revelation of Hardin’s family history.

Rathik is fiercely protective of the Sratha family name–and to see his famous ancestor’s legacy co-opted by some warlord who wants to mask his family’s own sorry past put him on this long road to confrontation. Rathik is finally taking a stand against what he sees as merely the latest in a series of lies and withheld information.

The way he sees it, it’s not Hardin who the ermehn are fighting for–it’s Sratha. It’s the weight of the name, a hero of old, that Rathik gave to Hardin for the ermehn to rally around. And if Rathik disagrees with how it’s being used, does he not have a right to rescind it?

Compelling questions, to be sure! And I’m sure the following pages will lead to some very interesting developments on those fronts!

ALEX IS DOING ONLINE-CON!

That’s great! I hear you ask! But what the heck is Online-Con?

Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world and cancelled all sorts of public gatherings–comic book conventions included. In response to that, Mouse Guard creator David Petersen concocted a brilliant scheme: what if there was a convention of cool creator-driven panels that you could just WATCH on Twitch, for free?

And so Online-Con was formed! This year, Beyond the Western Deep‘s co-creator and writer, Alex Kain (that’s me! Hello!) will be doing a really cool panel on March 27th at 3pm Eastern Time. In a nutshell, I’ll be building a small 1-scene point-and-click Mouse Guard adventure game LIVE in front of the streaming audience while chatting about narrative/game design.

So, for those of you skimming:

ALEX IS MAKING A MOUSE GUARD GAME LIVE IN FRONT OF A STUDIO AUDIENCE ON MARCH 27th, 3PM EASTERN!

https://www.twitch.tv/davidpetersen

There are other awesome guests in the lineup as well, including Lackadaisy creator Tracy Butler (who contributed a glorious pin-up piece for our Volume 2 hardcover last year), Usagi Yojimbo creator Stan Sakai, and of course David Petersen himself as the emcee and moderator! There are a TON of great panels this year, so check out the schedule below:

The convention begins this upcoming Wednesday, March 24th, and will be running on David’s Twitch channel right here:

https://www.twitch.tv/davidpetersen

Please join us for the show! We’d love to see you there!