Part 1 the Call

Do not read this before you have read the first part of the story!

The first part of Tari Uyest' (TWOD from now on) builds the ground to the story. We begin it from our world which is much easier for you to understand. We also get to see glimpses of Amy's life and her personality which may or may not be simple.

She's a quite strong character and not easily scared. If I had been her and had seen my brother walk trough a portal I would simply panic and call 112 (which is the emergency number here) or something else! I would not go and struggle against a freaking magical portal!!

This early in the story and for a while Amy's strenght will seem like she's almost too strong. Later, however, we get to see other sides of her.

From the very beginning I always imagined Amy to be a teenager from the early 90's. That makes her a good 10 years older than myself XD

The fact that the story takes place in the early 90's might not be too apparent in the beginning, but much later in the story when we return to our own world I will make it clearer. I was only a child in the early 90's myself, however, so I don't know what it was to be a teenager at that time. But when we get to the later stages of the story, as I already said, I will make it more apparent (which means it will be some studying for me at that time!).

One thing I will still point out: Amy does not have a cellphone. This also includes that computers are rare and internet is not how you spend your time.

In Part 1 we also got to see other glimpses of her life.

She uses two languages, being fluent with both. She's not exactly a hard working student and just tries to get the courses needed. And she's not happy about the extra course she has. She has a boyfriend who's not overly trusting and believes she's cheating on him. She has a sister who has not yet appeared. She sleeps in the same room with her brother. Etc.

There is also a lot more I hint on about in her life, but for now I won't mention them.

To avoid spoilers I can't really tell much more so instead of talking more about what this first part had in it I will tell you about the changes the story has faces ever since it's creation in 2002 and compare them to this final version.

In the very first version Albert, Amy's brother, had no name and only a short storyteller part. The only thing I knew about him was that he was her older brother. After the first version Albert came to exist as he's today. And from that moment on he was the one to walk through the portal first and Amy's duty was to follow him. It still took untill the fourth version, however, before Albert started to walk in a trance. First he was fully awake, which was strange because who in his right mind would just walk trough a strange portal?!?

So, he became spellpound instead.

In the first version Amy was the only one to travel through the portal. But she wasn't very willing to do it since she actually fell from a bridge (how did I come up with a place like that?!). This also happened during the day not during the night so she wasn't dressed in a night dress. She was actually on her way home from school. During this time, however, Amy had no real personality (-.-).

The only thing I'm sad about in giving up my first plan of how Amy went trough the portal is the fact that it's actually much more intresting than the one I'm using now. However, Amy grew a personality and Albert came to have a big part in the story. This is why I had to give it up in the end. There is also another reason which I'll explain next.

The biggest change between the first version and the following versions was the point of view in the story. The first version was observed from the parallel world. Our own world stayed really as a mystery. I still even today like this old approach better than the one I have now, but the truth is that the current way is easier for a reader to understand.

And this change in point of view was also a reason to why I changed the method of Amy ending up in the other world.

I had to give up some very good material to make the story better as a whole.

Toni also came into the picture after the first try as Amy's boyfriend when Amy's character was forming in my mind. The relationship between them has always been the same - one of not much love. Designwise Tony has stayed pretty much the same. I only simplified him since the first design. I never thought that he would need any changing. His appearence already makes the character he is.

Amy's family and life has been in it's current shape since 2003 when I gave up on the first version. Her parents are divorced and she's living with her brother and mother in Finland which is her mother's birth country. Her father still continues to live in United States where he's from. Amy moved to Finland some years after the divorce. She was born in US and grew up there. She has an older half sister with whom she shares a mother.

The reason why I gave up the first version in the first place was that I wanted to create a story that really worked instead of just drawing something for myself as I originally did. This is why the change was most dramatic between the first and second versions. The following versions have been quite similar to each other with some improvements.

In case you were confused by my talk about versions I would like to clarify it.
The first version of TWOD was created in 2002 just for my own enjoyment as I mention above. After that first version TWOD has had three slightly different versions. The version I'm now working on is the final and fifth version. 

Between the fourth and fifth versions there isn't much difference. The fifth version is more like fixing the fourth version into something a reader could enjoy and understand. Not to mention better art and quality!

That's all I can say for now.

Chapter 2 Name

(Links to pages will take you to drunkduck.com.)

Do not read this before reading the chapter completely!

Taint of Exile's second chapter is named "name". That sound like I'm repeating myself!
The reason behind this name for the chapter is simple.
I do not know how many of you might have realized it, but I did not mention the main characters name even ones in the first chapter. In this chapter the name Viator is first mentioned and only on the second last page (page 33).

Louhiatar,
mother spirit
of wolves

Loaus,
father spirit
of mooses

In the first chapter we were learning a bit of the world. We got to see humans and q'etyanas and very little magic. The side of the story shown on the first chapter is easier to understand despite the imaginary race q'etyana.

This second chapter, however, shows us glimpses of the spirit world, the immortals, the deitys.  This chapter introduced three of these immortal beings: Louhiatar (also known as Loviatar and other names), Loaus and Kati.

You got to see a bit of interraction between Viator and Louhiatar. These first pages showing this scene hints on a lot of things which will open to you in time. You got to see a bit of the relationship between Louhiatar and Loaus which is far from simple despite both of them being immortal beings who have known each other for eternity and not to mention them being lovers with children!

Kati, mother spirit of trees

Some people have come to love Kati and I myself personally like her both personality- and designwise. She's tall, firm and strong like an old tree. Best of all is that when she opens her eyes she plants trees just by walking! (Page 21)

The story takes place in autumn which is easy to show now since I switched to coloring during this chapter. Still, it's quite early eutumn, because the woods are only catching color, but has still plenty of green.

In this chapter Viator eats a raw fish. Okay, here in Finland and neighbouring Scandinavia we eat a lot of fish. Pretty much in any shape possible (though I have not investigated this further).
We eat smoked, fried, raw and etc. fish. Some people eat everything in a fish. Including eyes. To some this might seem strange and to some not.

However, I don't think anyone would take a raw fish and just eat it belly-side-up with scales and everything still intact. Viator does eat fish in its most natural form as is shown in this chapter. In the world of this story Viator's eating habits are strange.

Loaus as a moose

Now onward to a detail I want to bring up because I have sometimes noticed people confuse the animal I call moose with something more elk-like and Loaus is the father spirit of mooses. I do not mean that you have confused them (but if you have here is a picture for you). In the years I have dealt with people who know nothing of Finland I have come to notice that they do not really know what kind of animal moose is.


Alces alces
source: luontokuva.org

Moose which is in Finnish hirvi (google that if you like to) does not really look like an elk. It's actually not as beautiful animal in my opinion (though I like mooses anyway). The latin name for moose is alces alces, if someone has need for that.


Moose range map
source: wikipedia

Page 12

CLOTHES

Aamu, the girl in the story, shows us a bit of detail that was taken from the Eura's dress mentioned before. Here in the fullbody picture you also see her shorter set of sleeves. Her dress looked like this only in this and the second page. After that for the entire chapter I forgot the extra sleeves! And I realized it much, much later...

Here's a close up of the wrist jewellery she's wearing. The same kind of wristband is seen in Eura's dress.

She's also wearing the sock-like shoes mentioned before.



Page 6

 One thing I enjoyed showing in this chapter was on page 6. In this page I show how Viator's cape is actually dressed. He's taking it off by taking it over his head after opening a buckle behind his neck. The whole collar part is attached to the cape itself by only the round part on the backside. This can be seen in the panel where the cape is hanging of a branch.

One last thing to be mentioned about clothing for now is the cape Viator as a child is wearing in the very last page of the chapter (page 34). You'll be seing a lot of this kind of capes in future and different ways of wearing them.

Oh, and do give attention to the shoes he's wearing on this page as well!

LINKS

World Setting
Moose (and to see the difference, Red Deer)

Chapter 1 Traitor

Cover

(Links to comic pages take you to drunkduck.)

This entry is the first one in the ”series” where I bring up background information of each chapter after they are done. I will do this with both of my comics and we’ll beging with TOE’s first chapter ”Traitor”.

The information I bring up are not meant to be spoilerish so you don’t need to worry about me giving up too much information. I might hint on things or point out things that could be useful to know for future chapters. I hope you find this interesting.

Only, do not read the information before you have read the whole chapter!

In future I will also make this kind of entries of characters. After I have began working on the second chapter of TWOD I will begin the ”series” telling about character creation. However, for TOE you will need to wait for that longer, because any background information would turn out being spoilerish at this point of the story.

But let’s begin with Taint of Exile chapter 1 ”Traitor”!

It’s at the same time nostalgic and disturbing to look back at this first chapter. Disturbing, because of the bad art. Still, I’m happy to see for myself that I have gotten better.



Page 37



First about the name of the chapter. It’s quite obvious I hope. I mention it twice in the chapter that the main character is a traitor. First on page 10 and second time on page 37.

The name of the comic is mentioned on page 11. ”Taint of Exile” is a kind of special scent on a person to inform or warn people that this person is in exile. Meaning most often that he’s a traitor. This is why the princess calls the sorcerer a traitor without another thought. The other reason for the special scent is for other people to stay away when they notice it. The princess is not ”staying away” because of the situation they meet in.

Taint of Exile will be mentioned in future chapters and I try to bring up more information each time.

The strange language (really just things I drew for fun) the sorcerer is using on the very first pages is just me not wanting to come up with actual words for spells. I guess it’s some special language used by magic users. It is not connected with the deitys of the story.

The way I began the comic was something I wanted to try out. I wanted to get straight to the situation at hand instead of starting the chapter from some moments earlier. I did this also, because knowing how things went down to the moment when the sorcerer is inside his giant egg loading a spell is not that important. Not this early in the story, anyway.

By the way, the princess’ shouting that took place a couple of times is not only a mere joke.

Page 16

On page 14 I’m hinting on the power of the high shaman. On the home site I have added information of his powers (world setting -link at the end fo the entry). Also princess’ disability to use magic (mentioned on page 5) is pointed out on the character page (main cast -link at the end).

The difference between the power of shamans and sorcerers is the resource. A shaman gets his power straight from the spirits. In some ways they are quite powerless with out the favor of their deities. You don’t need to be a q’etyana to be a shaman either.

To be a sorcerer you must be a q’etyana, because humans don’t have magic of their own. Sorcerers' powers are most often inborn. If not it is still possible for them to learn it just like the main character did (page 16).

The read band mentioned on page 26 is a symbol of the head of city security and castle security. This is how the sorcerer knew Hilarion’s high position.

The last thing to be mentioned is that there might appear some inconsistency between the first chapter and the future chapters. This is because TOE is being rewritten with out the intent of redoing the first two chapters. If you see any inconsistency, I’m sorry. Maybe some day the first chapter will be redrawn to make everything consistent, but not anytime soon.

Everything else worth mentioning is spoilerish, which is why I won’t point them out just yet.

Eura's dress

CLOTHES

Did you think I was done yet?!?

I’m not done! Now we’ll get to clothes which are mostly inspired by old Finnish and Viking clothing.

You will be seeing a lot of tunics in this comic - especially on men. The sorcerer is not wearing a normal tunic under his cloak, but it is a tunic nonetheless.

The princess is wearing sock like shoes with a binding keeping them on place. This is something you’ll be seeing as well.

Empress

Now the clothes to really look at are the ones the empress is wearing in this chapter. They are most accurately based on Eura’s dress. Also the dress she’s wearing in her character picture is even better, but based on a slightly different kind of dress (main cast -link at the end).

I might at some point make a completely new entry just to explain what I know of the clothing I base the dresses on.

Princess

In this chapter and future chapter you will see the princess dressing differently from others. The biggest difference is her short skirts which are uncommon or pretty much non existent. She’s very daring to dress like she does and is doing it against her parents’ wishes. Usually the skirts are either ankle- or calf-long.

Saturnin

Saturnin, the high shaman, usually wears clothes out of ordinary, but not in the same way as the princess. He does not dress improperly or otherwise wrong. What make his clothes in this chapter strange is the rope around his waist and abdomen and also the band around his neck. Still, considering that he has a curious hair with black spots and also a quite startling hair dressing, his other curiosities are forgivable. Also being a shaman “gives” you the right to be different. Or actually, you are kinda expected to somehow differ from others. Saturnin is not doing it the usual way by, for example, wearing an animal pelt. He does it his own way.


Sorcerer



The sorcerer’s cape is very unordinary and it has a story of its own.

More of the clothing will be told some other time.
I will get to the dressing of the soldiers, royal guards and city guards later.

LINKS

World Settings

Main Cast

Eura's dress - it's in Finnish, but there you'll see some pictures on the details of the dress :)