Ask Novil questions about Gaia
└ posted on Friday, 22 August 2014, by Novil
Do you have any questions about Gaia? Then post them in the comment section of this post. I will try to answer all questions which I do not consider to be relevant for the future plot.
Any questions as long as they don’t involve spoilers? Well, I’m in. So, what inspired Gaia? And in-universe, how old are the main characters? Do dragons, imps, elves and the such live longer than humans? Are they a recognized minority in human society or are they mostly outcasts? Are there any important countries we should know of besides Cania, Midgard (uh, can’t remember if that’s the right name) and Ilesaar?
Nimphy wrote:
From the About page:
The comic is based on a campaign which was developed by Oliver Knörzer (Novil), his mother Ute Knörzer (Milena) and some other team members as a modification for the computer game Neverwinter Nights 2 in 2004 and 2005. The project was eventually cancelled, but a large amount of dialog had already been written for the campaign at that point. The game’s content was eventually taken as source material for the comic in its current form. However, many changes were necessary to make the story more exciting and to adapt it to the new medium.
Major influences were Final Fantasy7, Baldur’s Gate 2, and in particular Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 9. It was always my goal to recreate the terrific group interaction in those games.
Ilias, Ryn, Lilith and Viviana are 19. Sandril and Alissa are 20.
Dragons live significantly longer. Elves live a little longer. Imps live a little shorter.
Dragon-like creatures and humans don’t interact much. Imps interact with humans the most, real dragons the least. Imps are generally regarded to be equivalent to humans. Dragons are generally regarded to be equivalent to highly skilled wizards and are always met with respect. Some draconic races like gargoyles are less intelligent than humans. They are not capable of performing fully qualified labor. They are usually treated like humans by criminal law since they are sapient creatures. But they are usually not given full rights in civil law.
Not at the moment.
Might have been answered already, but about how long do you anticipate the story of Gaia to be?
Is there a print version and/or plans for one in the future? (I know the chapter lengths differ, which complicates things, but doesn’t make it impossible.)
After the story of Gaia is finished, do you have any plans for the world after that?
And while strictly speaking not a question pertaining to Gaia, do you have plans for a project (aside from S&W) after Gaia’s concluded?
Bree wrote:
Definitely less than 2000 pages.
There are currently no plans for a print version. It takes too much time to create one.
I will rather write a story set in a new setting.
Yes. I have ideas for two comics. The first one is an adventure story set in a snow world featuring an anthropomorphic fox and raccoon. The second one is about the life story of a girl in a dystopian world. It will be titled “Sarah”.
Does the Church in Gaia have uniforms or traditional garb? I was surprised to that San was wearing such casual-seeming clothing at a function as important as a meeting of the Dragon Council. What is the structure of the church hierarchy, and does the Church regularly deal with magic?
Also, I just love all the character and costume designs in Gaia. (The sheer number of outfits you’ve designed for Viviana is quite impressive!) Do you have any places you find inspiration when it comes to costume or character design?
Do Orcs, werewolves, vampires, undead or other common races/creatures exist?
• Was the figure in RH-7/8 that caught the messy student a Gargoyle or an enchanted statue? If a living creature, why would it be content to spend so many hours perched on a pedestal as if it were a statue?
• Was it Eldor that fired that last bolt at Lilith in the Academy attack, or was it another wizard?
• Does Eldor consider San and her sister, “Touched ones”?
• Is Eldor’s “companion” an imp?
• We haven’t seen Elias pining after Lilith since the Graduation dance. Are his feelings for her as strong as ever, or have they begun to wane as most crushes do?
• Why did Teglen and Edwyn only bring one RockSplosion Crystal with them to break out of a prison surrounded by stone walls?
• How were they planning to get over the moat?
• Why did Lilith’s “mattress” spell partially fail as she fell to earth from her cell?
• Did the Shadowdancers locate the recipe for the teleportation potion, or are they limited to what they found in the catacombs under the ruined Wizard guild? Is the potion permanent, or does it wear off over time?
• Was the golem that was “accidentally” activated actually part of the finals?
• Lilith mentioned getting 41 out of 40 points after not doing so well in the Alchemy Final (RH-33). Was that 41 points for the entire Magic Final, or only the Alchemy Final?
• How did VIviana slice through the Baldor’s window bars; did she use the Rainbow Knife?
• Did she retrieve the used knock-out bots, or did she leave them laying around?
• When did Jael Bara write her letter? Was it during Lilith’s lecture?
• If the Shadowdancers never fenced any Canian loot (they’re returning all of it), and if they never fenced any Ileasaari loot, what have they been living on all these years? All their “toys” have to cost a pretty penny. How have they been financed?
Hello, new reader here and I’m really enjoying this story, I’m also liking the world building I’ve seen so far. I especially like the way you’ve done magic as a technology. I get so tired of seeing worlds with magic all over the place and yet it it has no effect on the advancement of the society for… reasons. It’s clear you’ve put a lot of thought into the magic system and it’s nice to see a world that actually realizes their are practical applications for it beyond, say, wizards trying to kill each other.
On that note, is all of their technology magic based or do they also have a mix of conventional technologies too? For example, was the microphone shown in today’s page a conventional one connected to an amp and speakers, or some kind of magical voice amplification totem?
@ CaptXpendable:
Also, why do I only spot the typos after it’s too late? *groan*
Are there any evil dragons?
Just a simple yes or no question.
Why was the comic named after the Greek ‘goddess’ Gaia, and the story of creation taken from Greek mythology as well?
How do staffs work?
• Do they merely channel the spell energy from the spellcaster or do they augment it in some way?
• If they augment it, where does the extra energy come from? Is it a spigot from the Bluestream that can be turned on and off, or does it store up energy to be released later?
• Ages’s staff does not appear to have a crystal. What are the implications of that?
@ Janoh Wavewalker:
To quote RvB “Good and Evil are human constructs, [there are] merely groups of people dedicated to achieving different results.”
Could you place a link to the map of Gaia somewhere easily locatable? I am constantly wanting to refer to it to find where the various locations that a re mentioned are in relation to one another. Thanks.
Ruby wrote:
Yes. But the truly powerful people often do not wear such clothes.
The church regularly deals with “natural magic”, e.g. healing spells. They usually don’t deal with “constructive magic” as often used by the Shadowdancers.
I sometimes link reference pictures of dresses on Google Images. But Powree designs most of the clothes herself.
sky wrote:
No.
PMark wrote:
Who says that it was sitting on the pedestal for hours?
No. He’s looking very different to Ars & Co.
Because it would have felt forced and stupid.
Because the Shadowdancers had only one. They had only one because it is a very powerful and expensive spell. They also had a staff with the same, less powerful spell that the Lilith golem used.
For example with a spell that turns water into ice.
Because she was just hit by the security system gun that impaired her concentration.
Yes.
40 points for the magic final.
Yes.
She collected them.
Yes.
They will return gems and objects, not money and crystals they have already used up.
CaptXpendable wrote:
It’s often a mix. Viviana’s Lilith golem was a carefully crafted device, but it was propelled by magic/crystals.
Janoh Wavewalker wrote:
Yes. The kingdom of Cania was founded after Canian troops killed an evil dragon who terrorized the bordering duchies. Cania’s coat of arms shows that: http://www.sandraandwoo.com/gaia/2012/05/04/shadowdancers-014/
Landbark wrote:
The plot has changed tremendously compared to the first draft of the plot for the comic. The second half will be completely different. But there are also big changes in the first half. Most notably, the country of Ileasaar did not exist in the beginning. And Viviana played a much more minor role.
Alive wrote:
The original title of the video game was “Tales of the Third Age”. “Gaia” was always the name of the world. I changed the comic’s title because “Gaia” is a good title that is easy to remember. It makes sense to call a world that is/was also a goddess after the Greek goddess of life.
PMark wrote:
Like Viviana said, staffs make it easier for mages to focus their spells. This often results in them being more effective without having to use a larger portion of the Bluestream.
Crystals come in different sizes and may be cased inside the weapon.
KTrimbach wrote:
There is only a rough sketch of the map done with a HEX editor. It is not in a shape to be published. Powree is also not particularly good at drawing realistic maps. So I currently have no plans to publish a map.
Novil wrote:
There’s always a catch… After re-reading LJB-067 I see that there is indeed no reference to returning the money.
One thing I’m still wondering about is how Alissa is going to explain the absence of “A Magical Night” when the Shadowdancers have returned all other goods.
Now I’m at it, I’d also like to make a small suggestion to improve the web site; how about automatically expanding the comments when the URL ends with #comments or #comment-<number>? Right now, you have to re-open the comments after reloading the page or posting a comment, which is slightly annoying.
And a last suggestion: I sometimes loose a comment when the submission goes wrong. It would be nice if there was some auto-save functionality for comments. For example:
var commentArea = document.getElementById('comment');
window.addEventListener('unload', function(evt){
if(commentArea.value) window.localStorage['comment_'+location.pathname] = commentArea.value;
}
window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function(evt){
var storedComment = window.localStorage['comment_'+location.pathname];
if(!commentArea.value&&storedComment) commentArea.value = storedComment;
}
The logic problem!
The existence of the ability to churn out an infinite energy(“forever….never repeats”) machine in just 15 minutes poses a HUGE logical flaw in the comic:
If such a thing produces/taps infinite energy, the entire social structure of the comic is completely pointless(who needs a king to see fair resource management when you have infinite resources???).
Alternatively, If such a thing taps limited/finite energy of the bluestream, and “forever” is really only “as long as there is bluestream”, the entire political structure and motivation for the lead characters should be entirely based around capturing and hoarding bluestream, not petty things like land and roads.The technology portrayed demands it. Also, this means that, for some odd reason, Lili lied, despite it being in her nature to over-explain everything.
Either way, an integral part of the comic is seriously broken.
Also, oddly: Vivi is shown as loving to learn new things about the world around her, but appears to have completely tuned out Lili (without telling her she was). That also seems out of character. Also, how much of the drawings are just “jibberish to make Lili look smart”, and how much of it is actual, meaningful technical data? What was it based on?
Additionally, you mentioned earlier in this thread, that “crystals” are apparently different from “gems”. What’s the difference? Can you convert from one to the other? How is each created?
Another thing bothering me: It’s been suggested that at least some(perhaps even all?) of the story Ilias told as his understanding of creation is an out and out lie. Is it possible to get a yay/or nay on that?
Also, the cast page claims Ilias is the main character, however he’s had ~0 development, very little screen time, and is generally somewhere between bland and downright unpleasant. The first few pages seemed like it would stick with the “Ilias is the main character” idea, but at this point in the story, he seems to merely be the least likable of the supporting cast. Do you still consider Ilias the main character, or have the massive changes in the story so far altered that? At the moment, I’m rather glad he’s been slowly written out of the script, and wouldn’t mind him being killed off as a rallying point for the other characters.
Also, how set in stone is the plot in general? Some points have clearly had a lot of building time, but then again, the whole “Ileasaar exists” and Vivi thing, for example… so, how flexible is it? What influences the flexibility? Our input, your own perceptions, some mix of the two…? It’s interesting to know if the plot thus far is still almost as nebulous and malleable to you as it is to us.
You said that there’s no map because of a lack of ability to draw one…. have you considered some of the available(and even free!) cartography programs out there to help design and draw a proper map?
Or, are you also using the lack of definition of the map to your advantage, to add new things when you think of them?
Does anyone (in the comic) know why Lilith did not get killed by the attack in RH-047?
Why did the attackers choose not to murder Ilias in RH-046?
Do you write the comics in German first and then translate them to English? Or the other way around?
Lucid wrote:
No, it does not. If Lilith can produce a device that emits some pretty lights for as long as the device is in good order, that does not mean that she can produce a device that does actually productive work for an infinite amount of time. On top of that, there is certainly no infinite amount of flare crystals that she can use.
I’m not able to follow your reasoning. You are wrong.
The stuff on the blackboard does not make sense. It explains magic that does not exist in any form on earth… or this universe.
A gem is just a pretty stone, like a ruby. A crystal is a container for magic.
This has not been suggested in the comic, or if it was, it was so subtle that I didn’t get it myself.
Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
This is a hostile opinion that I find reprehensible.
The plot is as flexible as it needs to be to tell a good story.
No important plot point is influenced by suggestions or speculations of readers. But some details that add to the atmosphere may be.
This is not true. I’ve always had a pretty good idea where to go in the next 100 pages or so.
Lucid wrote:
There is a rudimentary map that is used internally.
This is the big advantage of not publishing a map. But I don’t think the overall story will rely that much on geographical features so it’s not set in stone that we will never publish a map.
Alive wrote:
They did not have the order to kill him. They concentrated on the Academy’s teachers.
Alive wrote:
Sometimes I write the English version of a sentence first. Sometimes I write the German version of a sentence first. Sometimes, I mix German and English in the same sentence.
Hm… I have a possibly-plot-central set of questions. Feel free to RAFO these (Read And Find Out) if it’s too plot-central.
Who is Trius?
Did Trius create Gaia and Bhaal?
Is Trius connected to the Tower in the Sky? If so, how?
The mysterious door to the Tower showed a triangle symbol. Is this related to Trius?
If Trius has a Stream, what color would it be? Green? White?
Novil wrote:
There was a map in one of the pages, it was pretty good in my opinion, I had thought it was published separately, I’ll look through to see if I can find it.
KTrimbach wrote:
Novil wrote:
░▒▓█│Walkman│█▓▒░ wrote:
Found it: http://www.sandraandwoo.com/gaia/2013/05/07/the-tower-in-the-sky-009/
@ ░▒▓█│Walkman│█▓▒░:
It’s in TS-009, but it only shows Cania, Ileasaar, and Midgard and only Ileasaar in detail (with the cities). Nothing about Golnar, Sinthilia, or the Dalelands.
There was some question about whether Eldor burned the black disc into Elea’s head (TS-020). Did he? (Or does it even matter?)
Also, the black disc was the symbol of the demon Asmodeus. Eldor mentions the Cult of Osterath. Was this difference intentional, accidental or just random?
Sandril goes to the cemetary to the grave or Aaret Melus, who we assume was the friend of Ilias’s who was killed in the attack. Was there some special relationship between them that we don’t know about or was that simple revenge for a friend?
Thanks and I’ll hold off on my dragon & San questions since they appear to be about to be answered.
KTrimbach wrote:
Yes, he did.
If you look closely you will see that the disc is not solid black.
Aaret was a good friend of Sandril, not necessarily of Ilias. I do not think that the friendship will play a significant role later in the story.
What is a “Staff of Stars” and how does it differ from other staffs?
Hi, maybe there will be no more answers, but since I can still post my question I might as well do.
First of all I would like to thank you for a great comic. The world and the story are in quality with highbrow fantasy novels. In my opinion you and Powree are spot on with the storytelling so far. Also I am glad that you keep your artistic integrity, too many cooks spoil the broth…
This isn’t really a straight forward question, rather some blabbering and theorizing, so bewere…
Aside from inspiration to the World do you have any authurs that have inspired your storytelling, like how to build drama and create tensions and so forth.
It seems, at least to me, that you are familiar Chekhov and his gun. Like every line and detail are there for a reason and if the line or detail doesn’t make any sense yet, it will in the future. Like some things might be there just because it fits the image, explains the characters or story or contribute to the atmosphere, like a market salesman in the streetcorner, that Sandrils father is a “ladiesman” etc.
But things that doesn’t seem to “fit in” do they generally carry some hidden massage or plot? Like the girl with burns/scars in SD14, “floating?” Flavius SD85/86 or the Trias prophet?
Some of this is obviusly storydriven, like Eldors sparetime hobby, and so on and forth, but these things I mentioned above, but not just those things but sort of things, are they there for a reason and will unfold secrets later on?
(I do not expect anything to be revealed, a mere Yes/no will do;)
Are there any hidden messages in the names of the characters or are these just coincidence?
Ilias is biblical (Elias) and stems from the Prophet Elijah whom God made sort of a pact with (Like Adam…)
Jael is as stated a biblical meaning mountin goat (kind of fits with her skills)
Viviana is a variant of vivian meaning lively and two early female christan martyrs had that name
Lilith stems from jewish myctisism and was thought of as the first wife of Adam who later become sort af a demon Queen.
(If you put the relation of Elijah to Adam it kinda fits cause Lilith was Ilias first love…as though the rest… hopefully not)
Alissa means nobel (fits but seems to have different origins, one of them being hebrew)
Here is a fun one! Ryn means ruler… Will he become king after all?
Sandril is funniest and with most space for intepretation: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sandril
Thank you for your time, hope you will answer.
(Sorry for the massive text…)
Alive wrote:
I think I may need to clarify this question of mine; does any of the characters know why Lilith didn’t get killed?
(I’m not asking for the reason, just if any character knows that reason.)
PMark wrote:
Lilith explained its qualities already. “Staff of Stars” is just a name. Many powerful weapons have distinct names.
ForafreeIleasaar wrote:
Some do, some are just there to add to the atmosphere of a real world.
The girl with scars was a victim in the attack.
Some names were selected to emphasize a character trait. But a name does not define a character.
Ilias is rather based on the German name of Homer’s Iliad.
What sort of creature did Faye use in TS-5 to carry the message. It looks like a miniature dragon of some sort.
If the message was to Xarlaxe, how did he get it there so quickly? Can dragons teleport?
The map on the wall behind King Olrik in TS-38. Is that a map of Gaia or just Cania?
PMark wrote:
A draconic creature. I do not have a name for its species yet.
The message was for Lilith’s parents.
I take your silence to mean that Trius is important to the plot. Hm, more in-universe speculations.
Does the Tower in the Sky have any magic-light-thingies besides red and blue?
Novil wrote:
Oh, ruined my theory (Adam and Lilith), but it totally fits better. I had the Iliad in mind but didn’t give it much thought.
Now the questions, if they’re still being answered.
Was it Hel who had the eighth Place (Greendews rankinglist) in the ranking last year, and where would Ars be (roughly).
Would the one who cast the massteleportation be considered most powerful?
(Or if you can’t give a straight answer, would that feature (normally) take you to the top somewhere?)
In RH-33 we see someone calling for help. Is that the same person of RH-26? Why are Lilith and Alissa not helping? Or is it another test, later, and we’re just not shown it? If so, does it influence the final result in any way (they’ve already gotten their points, after all) ?
• Free hand casting
• Wands
• Crystals
• Staffs
Could you expound upon these for a bit. It would help us get a clearer understanding as to their pros, cons, and limitations, and why you would chose one over another for a give task.