Chapter 4: Title
“The Long Memory” is a concept that I was near-certain had been referenced in the Bevan-focused hiatus story that I published during Song of the Eastern Sands’ run, but imagine my shock and surprise when I went back to look at it and found all references to it had been scrubbed!
As you might be able to tell based on the subject matter, “The Long Memory” is a distinctly ermehn concept, and also plays into one of the major themes of Beyond the Western Deep in a major way: specifically that of how history is told and who gets to tell it.
In the Northern Wastes, where life is harsh and short, the idea of your people once accomplishing great things, as well as having been a singular civilization and not just a handful of violent, scattered tribes–that idea holds a lot of power.
That idea is The Long Memory, a kind of shared, agreed-upon historical reality that the ermehn once held above all. And some ermehn continue to hold.
The opening scene of this chapter, by the way, was started six years ago. That’s my Google Drive history up there just for funsies. For many years, the script remained locked at about 2-3 pages of material as I went back and polished other chapters, reworked the outline, and wrote side-stories with Jerome and Leah.
It’s incredible to me that we’re finally beginning this journey through Chapter 4, ideas in which have been percolating since the very earliest days of this tale (going back to before it was even called Beyond the Western Deep)!
Rachel and I are incredibly excited and proud to be sharing this next chapter with you. Please join us in the comments below to chat about the new pages, and if you have any guest art you’d ever like to share with us, please send it our way! You can reach us at hello(at)westerndeep.net!
For guest art this week, it seemed more than appropriate to give Cain and Yurk a proper sendoff with this wonderful piece by ItsdaBlazeWolf! Even the file name is perfect (“cain and yurk are the best boys.jpg”)
Cain and Yurk look like they’ve recovered nicely from their excursion down in the depths of that forgotten vulpin city. Cain’s neck even looks like it’s healed up nicely, so the two can get back to doing what they do best: getting into all kinds of trouble!
Thank you SO MUCH for the fantastic artwork, ItsDaBlazeWolf! Cain and Yurk are absolutely the best of boys.
By the by, if you haven’t read through all of Jerome’s wonderful story The Abyssal Dunes, now that it’s 100% completed I’d definitely recommend giving it a full read through! You can always select the chapter right from the drop-down, or head to this link right here: https://westerndeep.net/comic/the-abyssal-dunes-title/
Or you could just look at this image Jerome made, which baaaasically sums up the entire story in two frames:
See you next week for page one of Beyond the Western Deep: Chapter 4!
I can’t wait for the title page to look epic. Ps this picture of Jurek and the price looks hilarious
HERE WE GOOOOO!!!
I just wanted to take this moment to say thank you and awesome job to all of you guys working on this comic. The actual comic has be going on of almost ten years which is fantastic and a huge achievement. I also wanted to say I started reading this somewhere back in 2013 or 2014 when I was honestly still a child, but now rereading, as an adult (in part due to covid) it is just as amazing of a story if not more so. I have fallen in love with all the characters, not just quin and Dak, who I strongly relate to, but also everyone else from bevan to teo to yurk. Thanks again for all this amazing work you have done!
Love the “Long Memory” concept as you explain it here. Quite profound, and perhaps even universal, for what society *doesn’t* have its own way of seeing itself and its place in history? I can see that belief exerting its power over the Ermehn tribes and driving their story in ways it would not drive any other species in your mythos – not even the Felis, who seem to base their entire society around knowledge and history.
Hey! I recognize those tattoos, and that burly frame! Rathik has returned!
Thank you so much BTWD team, this world was a wonderful idea!
Oh boy, it’s time for Chapter 4! So excited to see what happens next! :D
Yurk: “NEVER talk to me or my bro ever again!”
Giant Arthropod: (´｡• ω •｡`)
This is beyond exciting!! Or, beyond the Western Deep exciting!! I can’t believe it’s finally time for chapter four!! Thank y’all so much for your hard work, dedication, and attention to detail!! This is the first webcomic I’ve ever read and I fell in love with it! It’s funny how I stumbled upon it, too! I found it on a girl’s blog when I had looked up Redwall song lyrics. I clicked on the link and the very first page I read was the the one where the King assigns Quinlan to the mission and Adal comments that he “still knows how to command a room.” I came back to it a full year later because I realized that the one page had stuck with me all that time!!
I’m not sure why I rambled on like that! I suppose I just wanted the creators of this comic to know that a single page of their work had stayed present and clear in my mind for an entire year. That says a lot about how amazing they are, and it also fits into the theme of this new chapter: “The Long Memory.”
Oh, I didn’t notice till after that autocorrect changed Dak to Adal!
Also, sorry, but I found the blog that I haven’t seen for years!! I’m glad it’s still there!!!
https://greytravel.blogspot.com/2009/08/?m=1
He’s got quarrels with the canid
But short a cross-bow,
Rathik’s raging, engaging
In a good old fashioned throw
Down. Quarry found.
Does every wolf around
Hear the sound?
Howls of woe abound
As he puts them in the ground.
He’s got quarrels with the canid
What have they to show
For their raiding, invading
But cooling corpses in the snow?
Finally, we get back to the action!
Yurk: Bad Sandy, you shat on the carpet again!
Sandworm: Does puppy eyes