"You can't be serious"

[Madmoonie]

Wildcard, perhaps? Then again, the second time around we don't see anything but flying severed tentacles.

Also, a question: is there any way to get directly to this board after signing in? It always kicks me out to the ComicGen home page.

One way I do it is click "post reply" or something and it will ask for your name and password like normal, so sign in then when you see the posting screen click on the NPC or whatever comic you are posting under and it should redirect you to the main of forum of that particular comic without having to post anything.

[Doink]

I'm not one for blind speculation. But I do appreciate the fact that this particular strip does two things at once. Ten brownie points for Ralph!

[Sariah]

Wildcard, perhaps? Then again, the second time around we don't see anything but flying severed tentacles.

Also, a question: is there any way to get directly to this board after signing in? It always kicks me out to the ComicGen home page.

One way I do it is click "post reply" or something and it will ask for your name and password like normal, so sign in then when you see the posting screen click on the NPC or whatever comic you are posting under and it should redirect you to the main of forum of that particular comic without having to post anything.

Also, if you check the "remember me" box when you sign in, it'll automatically sign you on when you hit the forum button from then on.

[T.s.a.o]

Uh, did anyone already say this looks similar to MIB?

[Maxgoof]

To each their own. I think PCs are icky *and* I've never gotten a virus. EVER! I don't even need the software to keep them away.

With Apple's switch to Intel processors, do not expect that to last. someone will start writing viruses that will crash on either platform.

[Lee M]

Uh, did anyone already say this looks similar to MIB?

I think someone's mentioned the MIB but in a different context.

I'm also reminded a scene in an early Elfquest comic where one of the characters is talking about the need for everyone to be aware of what's going on, while some people are doing stuff behind his back.

[Jachra]

You've got the Disciples who might be after, but that seems unlikely since, if they exist, they probably still havn't even heard od Quentyn.

...The Disciples? They'd be executed if they so much as showed their faces! Mobs would string them up! The lab he trashed was spewing a monster that could have slaughtered the entire nation! (Although that last one counts for less than one might think sometimes...)
In any case, the Disciples of that nutty Biomancer will never show up to sue him. The very existance of their organization is illegitimate.

[EdBecerra]

What's interesting is that if the Council is advisory, the executors are acting in a very strange fashion. They should not be starting with Lady Rose but filing the official papers and setting up the details of implementation with the local guard after introducing them to their new bosses in whatever political subdivision Freeman Downs is getting folded up inside.

Okay. I'm coming rather close to doing something stupid here relating to my own past, but... *shrugs*

I can't say for certain, but given what little information's presenting in the strip, the two gents in the clerical collars sound like they're responsible for carrying out an attempt to pressure either the village council or Quentyn himself into doing something they're reasonably certain would be refused under normal circumstances.

This happened once to me. I was "encouraged" to wave my legal rights regarding a certain event because, as I was told, doing so would cause damage to the public reputation of the US military.

"For the good of the Service" was the phrase they used.

If I'm right, either the village or Quentyn will be offered a chance to "clear things up" in return for a "small favor".

If it's Quentyn, it makes sense - he's got (as they say over in Harry Potter fan forums) a "Saving people" thing, and a very bad case of it indeed. You can guilt him into almost anything if you put it on that basis...

[Detrius]

Im also puzzled about the electricity looking thing....

If I'm not mistaken, almost all Rac'conan have magical abilities to a certain degree. Quentyn could have produced a simple "Let me off!"-spell commonly used for defense.

[Wanderwolf]

Something stinks here...

Yes, indeed... and, putting together bits and pieces, here and there, here is my hypothesis.

Quentyn of Freeman Downs has been found guilty of heresy against the Church.

The reasoning:

During the whole mess with the wights, Quentyn found a door marked with Baither's symbol... and opened it. Whatever his intentions, he knowingly opened a laboratory door marked with the symbol of the most evil luxworker to blight the face of the Seven Villages. Quentyn himself realized this shortly after doing it:

"The rats couldn't get food to it... and then a three-foot stack of fresh meat walked through the door."

As far as culpability is concerned, it's cut and dried: He recognized the symbol, then opened the door anyway. In a modern analogy, he went tracing a slime trail, found a blast door with a radiation symbol on it in bright orange, and opened it up. Without bringing in heresy, an uncharitable person could see this as public endangerment.

Throw in the fact it was Baither, and the Sojourners are going to be frothing at the mouth. Touching evil, unless authorized by the Church, is heresy. Enabling the spread of evil, for any reason, is heresy. Willingly interacting with evil, without the Church's consent, is heresy.

(This is actually somewhat tamer than the real world, where a woman was once burnt for a card trick, a man for having a trained pig.)

The problem now is the degree of severity, assuming the penalties involved are similar. Punishment by the ecclesiastic courts in heresy cases tended to cleave to three simple verdicts:

1. Corporal Punishment. Lashes to the point of bleeding, typically after having been Questioned (note the capitalisation). This stage is for those cases in which no true harm has come from the heresy other than endangering one's mortal soul.

2. Capital Punishment, Stage 1. The prisoner, having been thoroughly Questioned, is hung by the neck until dead. The body is then beheaded, after which it is burnt to ashes. This was the typical real-world fate of burned witches; it is for cases in which harm befell by other than physical means, and/or the prisoner worked against the Church.

3. Capital Punishment, Stage 2. The prisoner, having been thoroughly Questioned, is burnt alive. This is the maximum punishment allowed under ecclesiastic law, and is reserved for cases of heresy in which true physical harm was committed while working against the Church. Typical real-life punishment for werewolves (in case you were wondering how I know).

On the bright side, the Rac'Conan system of law seems to be slightly more sane than the Church was when such matters were considered germane. Quentyn will likely have a "Doubter of the Faith" at his side as a "defense attorney". (In RL, the office was discontinued during the Inquisition, as any successful Doubter was brought up on heresy charges himself.) (Language trivia: The alternate title for a "Doubter of the Faith" is "Devil's Advocate".)

Oh, the capitals on Questioning? A minor point of law: Under ecclesiastic law, torture was forbidden. Once convinced that some force need be applied to prisoners on charges of heresy, however, the Church relented, allowing "minor torture", or "Questioning" to be applied. The restriction was that the skin could not be broken. Thus, the Questioning was limited to the thumbscrews, the rack, sleep deprivation, dunking, and the strappado (an unusual device which lifted the prisoner's arms behind his back with such force that the collarbone was shattered). The practice was discontinued after a German nobleman invited the two greatest proponents of Questioning to witness a witch's Questioning... during which she was made to name them as members of her coven. (Language trivia: "Inquisition" is literally "Questioning" or "Examination".)

Yours honestly hoping he's wrong,

The wolfish,

Wanderer

[Catherine_Puce]

Indeed, it seem that something powerful need a favor from Quentyn. Quentyn is not the better warrior or mage among the Rac'conan so they probably choose him because he's expendable or because he can pretend that he knew nothing about that if things go sour. Afterall, he's a questor and this kind of person find often trouble of their own. I bet that he will deal with politic (foreign or intern) and this will be not pretty.

For what happen in the other side of the windows; there nothing to worry. Quentyn is not in a as bad situation that this look. He escape from that so he can do it again, above all when the creature is in pain from the lost of several tentacles. He'll have deal with that creature before the group reach the well.

Il capable de s'en sortir tout seul.

S.P.P.[/url]

[Tbolt]

Wanderwolf, I'd have to say that I disagree with your analysis. I see where you're coming from with regards to opening the door that shouldn't he opened, but I really don't get the connection to heresy.

Beither was a powerful biomancer. He was using abilities well within the reach of Rac-Conan ken. To our knowledge he was not attempting to summon demons, or call upon the forces of darkness. He was, however, making incredible strides in the art of biomancy. Perhaps to the point of making the biomancer's equivalent of a nuclear bomb, a dragon.

Beither's work was forbidden, but not destroyed. He was given a year to finish his notes before they ultimately executed him. The cult grew up after Beither's execution.

Also Quentyn got a finder's fee for the lab. He was told to quash the fact that he found it, but they still gave him a cash reward. Thus far he has shown no inclination of revealing the fact of the lab's existence.

I still think politics is ultimately behind this affair, I don't think a religious smokescreen would work in this case.

[Madmoonie]

Wanderwolf, I'd have to say that I disagree with your analysis. I see where you're coming from with regards to opening the door that shouldn't he opened, but I really don't get the connection to heresy.

Beither was a powerful biomancer. He was using abilities well within the reach of Rac-Conan ken. To our knowledge he was not attempting to summon demons, or call upon the forces of darkness. He was, however, making incredible strides in the art of biomancy. Perhaps to the point of making the biomancer's equivalent of a nuclear bomb, a dragon.

Beither's work was forbidden, but not destroyed. He was given a year to finish his notes before they ultimately executed him. The cult grew up after Beither's execution.

Also Quentyn got a finder's fee for the lab. He was told to quash the fact that he found it, but they still gave him a cash reward. Thus far he has shown no inclination of revealing the fact of the lab's existence.

I still think politics is ultimately behind this affair, I don't think a religious smokescreen would work in this case.

I think that you make a point that really needs to be reinforced if you think hereacy is a viable outcome. Quentyn was paid. He was given hush money, but the government did thank him for his work. Also, it does not seem to me that the Church has that much politcal cloute...do they?

[Tom Mazanec]

And the Sojourner Church (the Racconnan religion) is based on Ralph's own brand of Baptism. It is the Universalist Church of the humans which is based on the Bad Old Days of the Catholic Church (and was responsible for all the Crusades against the Racconnans which drove them into hiding).

[Chaser617]

Q may not be the best of warroirs, or the best of LuxMages, but he has something in his favor, while his skills are lacking in two fronts, from what I've seen, he has the enginuity to combine both his meager luxmage and fighting abilities, basically making him sort'a like a fighter-mage. Not the best at one or the other, but boy will he have some neat tricks that someone who underestimates him might not even think of. From what I've seen (and granted, there is only one instance where we see both a LuxMage and your typical warrior fighting, the fight in the swamps) it seems like most Rac'coonan that have to deal with more... martial situations lean either towards the 'hack and slash' as it were of a typical warrior, or more 'subtle' way of doing things of a mage. However, RH has proven me wrong on most my ideas so far concerning his world, so don't take too much stock in what I say.

Wild Card dosen't hurt either, though its a bit... random.... (I think that is what the lightning strike is, Wild Card going off). As well as the rest of his equipment, he himself comments during the Weight ordeal that a large portion of his equipment was luxcrafted(Though, I do not know how common it is for 'adventurers in this world to carry large portions of their equipment as 'exceptional quality' ie luxcrafted).

As for Herasy, I am not buying that one either, at least not yet (no offense wonderwolf). While opening the door might have been a display of public endangerment, I don't think it counts as herasy either. And honestly, I think the Weights and the rat king constituted a big enough threat that the 'Unwitting Hero' clause from The Order of the Stick comics might apply. Basically? Even if you mess up, if, buy messing up you prevent a greater catastrophy from happening, well, you probably should get a pat on the back...

[RHJunior]

Okay, to start off, the Racconans don't have a state religion. It's just that the Sojourners are the most predominant--- same as protestantism (in all its varied flavors) is predominant in America today. They have seperation of church and state after all.

Second, in all fairness it wasnt just the Universalist church that persecuted the Racconans (though they were a large factor.) Other religions and factions persecuted them as well. Thaumaturges of every stripe hunted them for slaves or worse, for vivisection; pagans, cultists and nature worshippers routinely executed and sacrificed them; and xenophobes of every race sought their exile, enslavement or extermination. The Universalist church's finances, organization and resources made it the biggest pain in the arse for the racconans--- and for any other "heretics" or "abominable races," for that matter.... but hardly the only one.

Third, Rosad Beither was evil because he did horrible, evil things to innocent people-- not because of some imagined involvement in the occult or demonology. He kidnapped people, experimented on them, mutated them, released his experiments onto the community at large...

[Madmoonie]

Other religions and factions persecuted them as well. Thaumaturges of every stripe hunted them for slaves or worse, for vivisection; pagans, cultists and nature worshippers routinely executed and sacrificed them;

.........ewwww

[Madmoonie]

You one thing I like abut Quentyn is that he has always been a brave little fighter. In this strip he charges in and does his duty, no questions asked, no stalling, he just goes in and fights, regardless of how scared he may be. Another strip that I really like is the one where Quentyn first meets Squidge. Instead of running away or hiding, he is surprised but then immediatly attacks this seemingly fercious monster. Although he dosn't actually hurt Squidge (thankfully we find out later cause we would be without our Squidge and who would want that?) he acted despite how scared he could have been and protected Colon. THAT is what I love about Quentyn. No matter how scared or firghtened he may be, Quentyn always fights to protect those around him. That is a real hero.

[MikeVanPelt]

You one thing I like abut Quentyn is that he has always been a brave little fighter.

Exactly. The scene in Rosad Beithor's workshop, beginning where Quentyn says <a href="http://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20050312.html">"Did you ever know you were going to die?"</a> is marvelous, and shows him at his best.

He's also someone with just plain a good heart. To the Racconans, the Gragaum must seem to be giant, hideous monsters, but though he fully understands he had to do what he did, <a href="http://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20030511.html">killing the Gragum cultists still bothered him</a> and <a href="http://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20040207.html">he's concerned about Gragum souls.</a>

By the way -- I still don't think Lady Rose's visitors are wearing clerical collars. I think... Quentyn's been drafted.

[JakeWasHere]

I'm not one for blind speculation. But I do appreciate the fact that this particular strip does two things at once. Ten brownie points for Ralph!

Heh. Ever read Watchmen? Alan Moore does the same thing on almost EVERY PAGE - and sometimes two or three times a page.