A closing shot.
Thank you for reading and your kind comments. This has been a hell of a year and we are proud we have pulled this first volume off according to plan – and now the plan is to delve even further into the Weave and the fate of the Fruit of Man. Get ready for new stuff we have been waiting for ages to lay upon you, coming your way in the next chapter – or rather, an Interlude. See you all on Monday with a sort of a special page that will reveal a great deal about the world!
Oh yeah – you can preview an early version of it if you vote for Weave on TopWebComics! Just click below!
I thought this might be a good time to drop a comment in.
This comic pulled me in from page one and has been consistently and constantly impressive in both aritistic style, quality and writing.
Furthermore it’s easily one of the most creative and unique webcomics I’ve seen anywhere, and I’ve literally been through hundreds. Fact is, it’s one of the most creative ideas I’ve seen, read, played or watched. If you’re anything like me, then you’ll know that’s a lot of material.
While it can be occasionally obscure at times and some pages did require a bit of flipping back and forth before they made sense, given the subject matter, I’m surprised it’s not completely incomprehensible without a thesis beside it. So a massive kudos for having created something so original without needing to explain anything!
I will note, however, that some of the choices of context swearwords, while entirely appropriate were a little awkward. I completely understand where you’re coming from with the use of ‘Blacking’, and black in general as a swearword. It makes perfect sense, and as a worldbuilder I absolutely appreciate the depth and thought that’s gone into creating a world so authentic.
But I just can’t get past it. It always sounded jarring. Nonetheless, I’m not just saying that just to nitpick and be mean. I’ve just loaded up mobysaurus and taken a look at the synonyms it’s got for black…. A lot… But then, it’s giving me everything even remotely related to black, and then the things related to those words as well!
Nevertheless, There are a quite a number of possibilities. For the sake of hypothesis, I’m going to put up a small list, make what you will of it. In no particular order:
Becloud
Bedarken
Bedim
Begloom
Blacken
Blot out
Blotten
Blot
Cloud
Darken
Dim
Drop
Eclipse
Encloud
Encompass with Shadow
Expunge
Glood
Gray Out
Muffle
Murk
Obfuscate
Obliterate (these are really on the list! Heck. You should see the ones I’m skipping! Hugger-mugger… which according to The Sage means “Act stealthily or secretively)
Obnubilate (Yes. It’s a real word. It means, “Make unclear, indistinct, or blurred.” or “Make less visible or unclear”)
Obumbrate (Similar to overshadow)
Shade
Shadow
Smother
Stifle
Suppress
Wipe Out
Stygian
Absolute
Aniline [black]
Arrant (Not entirely appropriate, but interesting… It means “Without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers.”)
Asperse (Charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone)
Atramentous (Of or pertaining to ink; inky; black, like ink; as, atramental galls; atramentous spots. I love this one!)
Baleful
Beamless
Blackish
Bleak
Bodeful (Had to include that one)
Boding
Bone Black (such a strange opposition to the usual, I had to include it)
Caligious (Dark, misty, and gloomy.)
Calumniate (Same as Asperse)
Charcoal
Coal
Corbeau (French, related to black, ravens, and poison letter writers. Depending on context.)
Dark
Deathly
Ebon
Ebony
Funebrial
ink
inkiness
Inky
Rayless
Ruiness
Sable
Saturnine
Tar
Tenebrious
Tenebrose
Tenebrous
Unlit
Starless
Yes, the relation is often tenuous. But nevertheless, I do believe that those words offer a stepping stone for choosing words that flow a bit more, later down the track. Or simply offering more variety to people’s references to black, as they may be averse to saying black.
And some of those words are amazingly awesome.
Moby thesaurus is very hard to find, I’ve uploaded the latest version to mediafire. It’s completely free, the main site just happens to be unavailable, and has been for some time. I think the developers stopped supporting it.
http://www.mediafire.com/?1t10z0h78u187i1
It has 2.5 million synonyms apparently. I don’t doubt that, given the sheer volume of words you can get for typing in something as innocuous as ‘pear’. You’ll almost guarantee an increase of your vocab just by reading some of the words. Though internet searches might be frequent, as most dictionaries only cover about 150 thousand words. A tiny fraction of moby’s vocab.
Continuing from the above list, if I was in your position, I’d be considering different applications from them.
Straight off the bat, I’d put down Obumbrate (You Obunbrate! Don’t like it given the actual meaning, but given that the character’s worship Owbrik, and many words are similar, it’s very appropriate). Aniline and atramentous are interesting, but not entirely useful.
After that, I’d start getting creative. ‘Night take you and midnight rape you.’
“Dark drape you forevermore.” (nevermore, evermore, depending on intent and meaning)
May your skin Blacken
And I can’t think of any single word cusses. Truth is. Black is a very hard word to apply in this instance. It sounds slightly clumsy, but there aren’t anny better alternatives that I can think of right now.
One interesting coupla books that I read had a great way of creating swearwords. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of them. But one memorable swear word was “Flaming Ammet!”, which didn’t make sense (but rolled right off the tongue, which is what a good swearword does. Why do you think most are four letters?) until a glossary briefly explaned that this was a reference to the fact that the god had an intrinsic relationship with a grain figurine and that the burning of said figurine was blasphemy. It was so long ago that I can’t remember the exact details, but it made perfect sense.
I hope what I’ve just written helps a little when you write the script later down the track. Obviously a rewrite is a little too much trouble to be necessary.
Truth is. That’s my biggest problem with this comic! Which isn’t much at all! Fact is, you’ve got an amazingly good story, lore, and world system that is both unique, beautiful and filled with depth. I literally love it so much I’d like to formally request the use of it in a world section in a game I’ll soon begin developing. If the game is ever finished, which means a commercial release, you and anyone related to the webcomic will be fully and prominently credited in the game.
I love worlds, and the stories that can be made within truly singular and unique ones; and this is easily one of the best I’ve seen.
Amazing, amazing stuff! I’m looking forward to what comes next.
Wow. That’s the longest, and maybe the nicest comment we’ve ever received.
Thanks for all the praise. We really thought about and brainstormed and mulled over how best to introduce everything that pertains to the world, its concepts and features – we knew right from the start that we wanted to do it as organically as possible, show as much and tell as little as possible – and even when we tell, we wanted it to be told in a natural manner (i.e, a character explaining or mentioning something in a dialogue that would make sense to be mentioned in the current situation). Oh, we like “lore” and encyclopedias (and Borges) but they should be flavoring, not the backbone. And besides, not knowing everything , having hints dropped etc. makes the reader more curious and engaged, we think.
Regarding the cuss words… Thanks for the multitude of suggestions. The “problem” here is 1) that we are not native english speakers and 2) that we wanted the characters in this volume – well, Shanqari, basically – to sound like a trash-talking street kid. Not too wordy, not too creative with her swearing, just a way to sound tough. 3) and that leads us to the choice of “black” – it is a four letter (well, a four-sound) word that sounds a lot like “fuck”, so I guess the sound was the main reason for choosing it as a substitute – and the context of darkness-at-the-end-of-the-world, where the characters live, fitted nicely into it.
And hell yes – if you want to use something from Weave in world- or game-building, don’t hesitate to contact me. Best of luck, and keep reading – there’s plenty more to come!
Superb art, as usual. I look forward to the second tome!
Thanks! It’s just a Monday away, so stay tuned!