^ 38 Comments...

1. ICEKAT
   February 12th, 2013 at 11:42 pm

   First, and What the?

2. Local Yokel
   February 13th, 2013 at 12:05 am

   “It’s called a changeover. The movie goes on, and nobody in the audience has any idea.”

3. sentientcheese
   February 13th, 2013 at 12:07 am

   Nice ErfWorld Reference Nuncle!

4. Hwyla
   February 13th, 2013 at 12:38 am

   Aha! It IS them! They ARE in disguise!

   So, I presume that we see one act with Mara’s (?) singing and later a short play. What a handy way to travel incognito. A very clever plan on ?’s part - I’ve forgotten his name - Morcai?

5. Karyl
   February 13th, 2013 at 12:47 am

   I wonder if the kids are seeing the play while the adults are watching the singing? In either case, they are imparting something a little on the gray side to say the least.

6. Barrage7667
   February 13th, 2013 at 1:51 am

   Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Psy jumps on the stage and everyone goes Gangnam Style!

7. John Savard
   February 13th, 2013 at 3:30 am

   @Hwyla:
   Yes, that is now settled. But will the spectator with the torc see through their disguise?

8. Kris
   February 13th, 2013 at 4:28 am

   It’s interesting to see that the singer’s audience appears to be adults, while the play about kin slaying has children in attendance. I know everyone’s there for the whole show, but that little bit of presentation amused me.

   Also, I don’t think I’ve seen the word nuncle since my introduction readings of Pratchett.

9. LurkerAbove
   February 13th, 2013 at 4:53 am

   Shouldn’t that be page 655 ?

   Also: Shake’s beer

10. ExPaladin
    February 13th, 2013 at 7:18 am

    I’m enjoying the play so far.

11. ICWT
    February 13th, 2013 at 7:55 am

    As long as nobody asks for ‘The Murder of Gonzago’, we should be OK.

12. Sleepinin
    February 13th, 2013 at 8:58 am

    Oppa Erogenia Style?

13. Drachefly
    February 13th, 2013 at 9:02 am

    sentientcheese - Nuncle was a word long before Erfworld came along. At least as old as shakespeare.

14. Shyster
    February 13th, 2013 at 11:52 am

    I thought this was a King Lear reference too, especially since the word nuncle was only used by the fool.

15. Tom
    February 13th, 2013 at 2:00 pm

    I believe the word is nuncle, not nunde. The other times d is used it’s a different shape.

16. Tom
    February 13th, 2013 at 2:02 pm

    On the other hand, seeing how my previous comment looks when posted, I guess maybe you others got it right as nuncle…VERY small space between the c and the l. My apologies, pay me no mind.

17. Descartes
    February 13th, 2013 at 2:56 pm

    I think we a seeing a montage of “faces-in-the-crowd”–samples of the audience viewing samples of the entertainment. Verse seemed ersatz-Shakespeare and the “king” seemed to come out of a scene that was half-way between Lear and Hamlet.

    I also think we’ll see our Erogenians soon, but that they are not the performers.

18. Descartes
    February 13th, 2013 at 6:12 pm

    I’ll take some of that back. i didn’t notice until now that the “king” was chair bound. Now I think that they performers almost certainly are the Erogenian family we have not seen in a while.

19. ICWT
    February 13th, 2013 at 6:35 pm

    One Erogenian in the adult audience, so even if they are not at Dell yet, the folk mix more easily away from the cities (and the churches). I assume her children are taking tickets or being stage-hands.

    The men brought wives or girlfriends so the show must not be too hard-core, adults just like different stuff than kids (and vice-versa), The pre-teens are trying to figure out how to see both shows.

    I know Morcai like to sing, and improvise, but I’m just glad JED gave him a non-singing part. (I once was one of only 2 actors of Jewish ancestry trying out for Fiddler in a small Texas university and managed to get cast as His Honor Constable, the only non-singing, non-dancing speaking part)

    P.S. to JED, several of the men in the audience appear heavy-eyed, is that an effect of the footlights or are you guest-starring friends and family and needed to edit out glasses (which exist in Kivalia, but probably not for commoners)?

20. Jean
    February 14th, 2013 at 2:43 am

    ICWT, it’s the lighting effect. Stage lighting pre-electricity was done by placing candles and oil lamps at the foot of the stage, along the edge, which casts the light upward. If there isn’t much of a stage, just a performance space, then again, it’s at the feet of the actors, defining their “stage” area. Same with performing by firelight; it casts the shadows in different ways than we’re used to seeing in daylight, and correspondingly far different than we’re used to seeing in an era/world of overhead hung floodlights and spotlights. Of course, it can be argued with enough polished bits of metal, the light can be reflected downward…but they’re in a clearing; there’s no real scaffolding to support such things. It’s far simpler and far more portable just to put the illumination sources on the ground…which lights up the faces from below, causing those odd eye socket shadows.

    Previous to the electrically lit light-bulb (and all modern led/cfl/et ceteras), illumination came from something burning, and that meant your fuel source had to be under it, because the flame had to be on top. That makes it very difficult to shine light straight down (the fuel source always blocks it at least somewhat). Since it’s fairly obvious that magic is either frowned upon, looked upon with suspicion, or confined to the uppermost classes in the Kivalian lands (aka rarely seen by the peasants), we can safely conclude this performance is being lit by stuff that burns.

    (…brief pause for the Arsenist’s Ensemble Chorus, replete with tumbling & acrobatics…which are all very well lit, unfortunately…)

    I do wonder, in a society where telling a lie is a grievous sin, how they treat acting and storytelling. Unless the piece being acted out is based very strongly and closely on real events, isn’t it technically a lie? Or does it get a pass because it’s a story, a form of entertainment where everyone -knows- it’s merely entertainment, and nothing that was ever meant to be presented as a solid truth?

    There is a huge difference, after all, between telling a lie you’re trying to get someone to believe in order to manipulate them or the circumstances or whatever in some way, and telling them a lie that they already know is simply a creation of your imagination, and is therefore not deceitful.

    I don’t think Erogenians avoid storytelling and acting, because that’s such a basic Human need, and these are Humans, if ones that live in a world with magic and such. I would imagine, however, that they usually try to stick to historical stories based on real events, and that they’re not above a little big of impassioned exaggeration from time to time. Which would also explain why Zona wasn’t familiar with love songs, because the songs she knows are history ones about actual lovers and events–such as the song we heard about Ipola and Zonn before the fecal matter hit the aeration charm in the queen’s home post-dance party.

    *…pause for a brief intermission involving a plea for people to purchase more of Challenges of Zona Book 1…oh, and an amusing acrobatic poodle act…*

    After all, Zona did seem to take the “love song” concept in stride when Mentl explained it was “just a story” and not an actual tale of him loving and losing someone…and I’ll leave it up to someone else to insert the link to that, tonight, because it’s time for me to bow myself off the stage and let someone else have the spotlight.

21. AdamZero
    February 14th, 2013 at 8:48 am

    Sorry Jean, I only stop for space poodles.

22. ICWT
    February 14th, 2013 at 8:51 am

    Damn, I’ve been out-pedanted. * hangs head in shame * Exquisitely put, Sister Jean. BTW, I got a degree in Design for Stage in the Pleistocene and did a term paper on ancient and medieval pyrotechnics, I just was pleased Poser could so accurately model limelight.

23. Jean
    February 14th, 2013 at 1:55 pm

    Eh, get me rambling and I roll straight downhill. Unless the path curves. But then many people have told me to ‘get bent’ over the years. XD

24. Wolf
    February 14th, 2013 at 4:17 pm

    @Jean, that link you were asking for:
    http://www.soulgeek.com/comics/zona/2006/03/22/page-34/
    And with it a reference that the culture is familiar with bards and the type of extreme stories they tell. So, yes, I think the Tribes can enjoy a good play, so longs as no one is claiming that it is the undeniable truth.

25. Wolf
    February 14th, 2013 at 4:24 pm

    Unless this is the ballad you meant:
    http://www.soulgeek.com/comics/zona/2010/05/05/page-360/

26. Speedy
    February 14th, 2013 at 6:33 pm

    Hmm, all the adults seem “enchanted”. Why do I expect a bunch of laser points to appear on everyone followed by a collective “uh-oh?” (Or what ever the low tech version would be… maybe glowing eyes appearing behind them.)

    RUN YOU FOOLS!!! It is a TRAP!!!!

27. ICWT
    February 14th, 2013 at 8:59 pm

    um, Speedy? This is Morcai we’re talking about. They’ll wake up tomorrow missing their purses and half their livestock will be pregnant and one or two will be missing a kidney …

28. Hwyla
    February 15th, 2013 at 3:15 am

    Hmmm…how DOES lying fit with the need to disguise themselves as someone ‘other’ than themselves - as opposed to disguising themselves with bits of camouflage?

    At the very least Mara is going by a different name and the Grandfather went along with the tale that he was Morcai’s grandfather as they were originally leaving the city.

    I would say that while both truth-telling and the torcs are important to them, they are willing to lie and remove their torcs to save their lives.

29. Hwyla
    February 15th, 2013 at 3:21 am

    I also want to say that I like the subtle way that you have shown that the Kivalians and Erogenians don’t ‘mix’ much even away from the city here. The Kivalians tolerate a small number of them but they are not interspersed in the crown, Both guys with torcs that we have seen (this page and previous) are off separate and to the back of the crowd.

    I’m not sure what to make of the ring around Grandpa’s neck as it isn’t the same torc he wore before. In fact it doesn’t appear to be a torc as there isn’t a ‘break’ in it. Is it supposed to look like a ‘fake’ torc, like part of the play?

30. Rix
    February 15th, 2013 at 4:42 am

    Is it the same guy in a torc only from a different angle?

31. Elfguy
    February 15th, 2013 at 9:43 am

    Must be the Zonaworld version of King Lear/Macbeth mixed together…Lear was the mad king with the fool companion, while Macbeth was the king-murderer…

32. Paddy
    February 15th, 2013 at 12:56 pm

    I think it’s all a dream sequence, and the Kivalian queen’s recalling her past (mis?)deeds in her sleep.

33. Hwyla
    February 15th, 2013 at 11:15 pm

    @Rix - no it is not the same guy (Erogenian) on both pages. The one on the previous page has a torc that is twisted, while this page has a non-twisted torc.

    Also, I’m not positive, but the guy on the previous page seems to be wearing a shirt that covers a tiny bit more neck and I THINK the color is different - but that is really hard to be sure about.

    The guy on this page appears to have a bit of a mustache, but that could just be the lighting. He also looks a bit scruffier, but that might just be the angle we see his hair.

    I’d say the easiest difference to see is in the torcs.

34. Karyl
    February 15th, 2013 at 11:46 pm

    I think it’s two different guys, one with a mustache and a red shirt, the other clean shaven and wearing a black shirt.

35. Lebbrin
    February 16th, 2013 at 9:32 pm

    I’m not so sure Karyl… the Torc is twisted on both men and a red shirt with the shadows on the previous page could look black. Only time and JED will tell.

36. JE Draft
    February 16th, 2013 at 11:23 pm

    Hi Kids!

    Guess you saw that, despite my best intentions, there wasn’t an update on Friday or today. Basically work issues put me behind. There will be another update on Monday or Tuesday and I apologize for it.

    Hopefully I will also be able to put some more art in the galleries as well,

    warmest regards,

    JED

37. descartes
    February 17th, 2013 at 12:23 am

    JED: as LurkerAbove pointed out, your page numbering is off.

38. Robert
    February 21st, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    She’s Freestyling.

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