Prologue: Page 10
The Felis and Vulpin are two of the more cultured races in the land, which has ironically led them into conflict more often than not.
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The Felis reside in the easternmost kingdom of Kishar, but have a very wide reach when it comes to chronicling history all across the Four Kingdoms. Their scholars have traveled far and wide and record many first-hand accounts of events across the continent, which are then transported back to their capital city of Gair and distilled into a series of historical tomes in the Great Spire seen at the start of the prologue.
While the Felis have readily adopted their forward-thinking ways, the Vulpin have been torn between these new world views and their ancient customs. The Vulpin capital of Nessa is a kind of cultural melting pot within the Four Kingdoms, and with citizens of all species living there, the native population has become more worldly. This regularly puts the urban Vulpin at odds with the rest of the kingdom, and it’s not uncommon to see the more conservative Vulpin protesting the prevalence of outside culture into their land.
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In the original draft of the story, we managed to squeeze three whole races into each page, each race getting 1/3 of the page area. While that was… economical (I guess?) it gave such little space for the races that you didn’t really get to see their culture, what their capital looked like, etc. With the new script, we tried to pair races in more fitting ways, showing cultural dynamics through the panels themselves. Before we had the Ermehn and the Canid, who are bitter enemies, and now we have the Felis and the Vulpin, who are both “civilized”, “cultured” races, and are engaged in a bit of an arms race to find out out who can be the cleverest and smartest.
Ha, I love how you can really see the Felis bias in these histories. I’m sure most Vulpin don’t feel the same way about Gair. :3
Rachel added some fun little touches to add to that inherent Felis superiority. The native text here, for example, is a fun example of how they view the Vulpin in comparison to themselves. Most Vulpin scholars begrudgingly acknowledge that Gair is a monumental achievement, but they wouldn’t quite go so far as to call it “The focal point of logic and reason” in the known world.
I love the concept drawing of the Vulpin soldier. So desert-y.
Oh… My… God… This is AWESOME! I’m really looking foward to see the rest of the story.
I love how you have desert foxes here, instead of the classic red fox. Gives your comic variety and makes it stand out from the rest.
Moving on to the Felis and Vulpin, we get a glimpse of each of their cultures. Just like with last time, there’s a bit of a contrast between the two panels. The Felis scene is quiet and serene, simply a feline scholar walking by a gathering of his fellows, resting in the shadow of a pillar while holding a discussion of philosophy or talking about historical matters (or maybe the white-furred cat is simply boasting about the gorgeous Felis girl he had last night). In any event, it’s a really lovely little scene.
The Vulpin scene, on the other hand, is full of life and vibrancy and even some understated comedy. I love the image of the bespectacled prim-n-proper scholar walking past a throng of foxes spontaneously celebrating in the streets with dance and music. I do wonder if he simply considers them an annoyance though, or if he actually disapproves of their behaviour and considers it indecent or even immoral. Is this an example of the cultural conflict within Vulpin society? The notes state it’s mostly between city-dwellers and country folk and these Vulpin both seem to live in the city, but the image does seem a little too convenient to your point.
I said earlier that the Felis came across as rather Arabic in style, but maybe it’s the Vulpin who are more like that – Arabic and Romani, maybe? Maybe the Felis are more Indian in style…
And as PB&J pointed out, it was great fun seeing the subtle Felis bias in this scroll, like “Gair, focal point of logic and reason in the kingdoms!” You can tell that the cat who wrote this was trying to be as neutral as possible, like “many CONSIDER Gair to be crowning achievement of all races”, and giving some nod to the Vulpin’s own thinkers and scholars, but he just couldn’t keep the favouritism to his own people completely out of it. Really good job on that!
The Vulpin soldier looked really cool in his sketch too.
Felis lea(r)ned
Vulpin learning
Hm…I have a feeling that Gair is going to burn like the Library at Alexandria did.