Prologue: Page 11
The Polcan are officially introduced this week, and while they don’t officially have a kingdom to call their own, they patrol the Western Seas like they own them – which of course serves as a constant element of tension between the Polcan and the water-loving Lutren who live on the western coasts of Sunsgrove.
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This was the first appearance of the Polcan in the old-old version of the comic – they were meant to fill a standard kind of “pirate” or “bandit” role originally, and would cause trouble for the Lutren at regular intervals. However, as we fleshed out the world more, the Polcan backstory started to come together, making them much more interesting than some standard band of murderous brigands.
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While many of the revelations we concocted for the Polcan’s backstory will be saved for the comic’s continuity itself, we felt it was important to establish that the Polcan are not simply attacking the Lutren and patrolling the Western Seas because PIRATES ARR! This is a desperate race that has been displaced from its homeland far across the sea, and is only a recent addition to the races within the Four Kingdoms. They are, for example, the only race in the land to use bronze in any capacity, both for weapons and for decoration. As a matter of fact, as each race has its own culture, we also gave each race a specific set of colors to identify them by. The Polcan are identified primarily by bronze, but also darker shades like purple.
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Before we made the decision to publish the full Beyond the Western Deep story as a webcomic, Rachel and I toyed with the idea of telling a webcomic-exclusive story that was a prequel to this tale. The story, called “War of the Western Deep”, was planned to feature the Polcan quite heavily as a brand new threat to the Four Kingdoms and give us a chance to lay out their backstory. However, this project fell by the wayside when we moved to publish Beyond the Western Deep online – though a lot of work was done on this Polcan-heavy prequel story and we both grew very fond of the characters in it, so there is little doubt we wil return to it someday.
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wow! this looks pretty cool.
let me try to guess what animals they are:
ermehn: ermine, based on the name
caniid: wolves
felis: cats
vulpin: I’d say coyote, but they don’t live in the desert, so i dunno
lutren: otter maybe, since you said the ocean?
tamian: no idea
polcan: ferrets, because of the colouring
are these right? the vulpin sound the coolest so far. great job!
Hi Leafpool! You’re right on most of them, actually!
The Ermehn are based on stoats, the Canid on wolves, and the Felis on cats. The Vulpin design is actually inspired by the kit fox, and their name derived from the kit fox’s binomial (Vulpes). The Lutren are most definitely based on otters, and you will see more of them next week! The Tamian, as you will also see next week, are based on red squirrels. Their name was inspired by the genus of the American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus).
The Polcan design was inspired by both ferrets and their less-domesticated brethren, the polecat (which the Polcan name is derived from).
Thanks for reading!
I just found this comic today and started reading from the very beginning (I prefer to do that with comics I’ve never seen before.). When I read the name of the Polcan race, polecat was the first thing I thought of. However, because of the design, I thought the Ermehn were based on tigers (especially when you consider that several species of tigers live(d) in extremely cold environments of central and eastern Asia.
Welcome to the comic readership, Mvilu!
The polcan are based on the marbled polecat, specifically–you can see some of their bright yellow markings in the prologue and in our “Music of the Western Deep” cover art! The ermehn are actually based on ermine/weasels, and those striped patterns on their fur are painted tattoos that change depending on which tribe they represent.
Okay. Thanks for the info. I believe I’ve heard of the Marbled Polecat but I can’t swear to it. I’ll have to Google it and see it. I guess what confused me about the Ermehn was the stripes since I don’t recall ever seeing ermines or weasels with stripes. (As you obviously know, they have brownish coats with masks and white highlights.) However, since you told me the stripes are painted tattoos, I understand about them now. They must be the most primitive of the 7 races since full-body tattoos seem to be more common among the more primitive of human societies.
Aha! So the Polcans are the seventh race. I remember knowing that there were seven races but there were only six cities on the map. Now it all makes sense. :) And I’m glad that you are going to flesh out these guys a little more. The fact that most of the conflicts would happen within the kingdoms made me worry that you would neglect them at first. Hm… Could they even be considered a kingdom?
I really liked the 2nd panel. May I ask how long you have been drawing?
I’ve been drawing since I could pick up a crayon, haha. So: many years X)
Huzzah, a new page! I really like the dynamics of these 3 races, and I’m very glad you guys decided to develop the Polcan beyond simple pirates. Compared to the other races, this would have left them feeling very 1-dimensional. As it is right now, I feel I can sympathize with all the races, which is awesome. :3
Oh goodie piratey types, I do love piratey types.
I really like the two hovering crowns in the first panel. I also enjoy how it goes from a very peaceful scene, to the sea battle directly below. Very cool stuff. I can’t wait to see next week’s page.
STRIPY PANTALOOOONS! <3
That is all.
This comic is so awesome. I’m loving how this prologue is done, with the scroll-like drawings. Scwheet!
Here we get to see the Polcan, after a brief description of the peace between Lutren and Tamians. The battle scene is great; what I’m impressed by the most is the environment, especially the water and how it interacts with the light. I think you said that once that you weren’t very good at drawing environments, Kobb, but I think this picture proves you wrong!
The Polcan are indeed an interesting race, and I’m very glad you’ve decided to develop them beyond stereotypical pirates. They’re like the Ermehn in a way, since they don’t have a homeland of their own (having them come from the other side of the ocean is an interesting nod to the wider world that lies beyond the comic). However, unless they live their entire lives on massive ships, I presume they must be in control of at least some islands where they can repair their ships, stock supplies and where they keep their families while they go on raids?
Also, are they the only race to use bronze AT ALL? Like, the other races have never discovered the metal at all? That seems a little odd, since bronze is so integral to most civilizations.
Also, it’s interesting to note that, aside from this page, we haven’t seen the Polcan in the rest of the comic at all. They seem to be the species we know the least about at the moment.
The old panel where the Lutren are battling them aboard their ship was badass!
One kingdom is two
Tamian and lut(r)en together
Polcan hated for piracy
Searching for a home
Great sailing ship
I love how the tapastory is done ! its done with imagination !!1 <3
Is the Polcan ship based on a brig?
Good representation of pre-gunpowder naval warfare!
Wait a minute, that’s FIVE kingdoms, not four!