- Julius: How do you plan to get food?
- Scarlet: We’ll hunt and gather. And maybe we’ll meet someone who’ll pay us with food for our work.
- Julius: That sounds very risky. What if you don’t find anything to eat?
- Scarlet: Then we’ll try to make our way to Arados…
- Scarlet: Will you join us?
- Julius: I don’t know…
- Julius: My parents would never allow it anyway.
- Scarlet: You can’t just listen to your parents in a situation like this! It’s a matter of life and death!
- Julius: We still have plenty of supplies…
- Scarlet: It’ll be ten months until the next firebeet harvest! Ten months!
- Scarlet: Please join us!
- Julius: I don’t know…
A Sky Full of Stars 058
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17 thoughts on “A Sky Full of Stars 058”
Pharmadan
He’s either gonna break her heart or show up again when least expected.
Josh S.
Or both.
Vicious Sand
Ten months until the next firebeet harvest? So assuming a lot, that’s 8 months of winter, then 2 months of beet growing time. (From wiki on beets) “Generally, 55 to 65 days are needed from germination to harvest of the root.” Potatoes take about 100 days, but they’re clearly the better foodsource, but the Lavarellians seem to have misplaced them.
Scarlet thinking “Pleeeeeese?” is a convincing argument to get Julius to join her in living on the Steppes like a mongol is cute and possibly hypnotic for the poor subject.
Me
Did you miss the part where Novil keeps banging his head against the wall about not comparing this world so literally to Earth? Just because firebeets have “beet” in their name doesn’t make them the equivalent of Earth beets. You may have noticed the other four letters in the name are “fire”; will you extrapolate from that to assume that firebeets are too hot to touch and will consume themselves in a puff of smoke, just because that’s what Earth fire does?
Vicious Sand
You have to start somewhere. Can you stack bricks make of water? Does singing reliably summon imps? Fortunately it’s supposed to be sci-fi, not some “magic is present therefore whatever” version of reality. Sci-fi has more reliable rules, but more advanced technology, not that any of it is present in Scarlet’s life.
I should be surprised that mirror rooms aren’t a thing on Lavarel, as it’s a way to turn sunlight into warmth. Good for sitting back in a warm room, or using it as a grow-box. Needs a lot of glass, though.
HKMaly
Needs a lot of CLEAR glass. Historically, obtaining glass you can actually see through was a problem. However, looking few pages back, doesn’t seem they have problem with glass being rare.
Crystalgate
We have to start with the earth and then figure out how the different circumstances such as the cold and magictec instead of our technology affects the world. The reality is that if I can’t compare this comic to our world, then reading this comic becomes a lot less fun.
Crystalgate
The steppe Mongols were first and foremost sheep herders, not hunter/gatherers. I made myself the mistake of earlier mentioning steppe nomad logistics, but in reality, it’s impossible to live like a steppe nomad in this setting since it lacks big herdable animals. As for potatoes, Lavael is probably too cold for them.
Vicious Sand
I don’t think that comparing the location to the steppes is incorrect. Cold, some grass, some animals- compared to cold, some grass, some beets. As for “lacks big herdable animals” that depends on how hungry everyone but Tibor is. 🙂
Crystalgate
Well, Mongolians who lost their sheep had to retreat into the forests to make a living as hunters, the life on the steppe was impossible without sheep.
HKMaly
Potatoes take 100 days in temperatures between 20˚C and 25˚C (68˚F to 77˚F). If their top summer temperatures are 15˚C it may not be enough for them.
Crystalgate
Starting out as hunter gatherers in the winter in Lavarel is hard mode. You probably want to start learning your craft during better times, but they don’t have that option of course. It’s a desperate plan, but so is staying and hoping you live until next harvest.
If the food is out already two months after harvest, then the crop failure was indeed catastrophic. The setting page mentions that Bloomrabi is more resilient than Firebeats, so maybe there will be some Bloomrabi harvests before that. Heck, this brings the question of why there isn’t more Bloomrabi production and less Firebeat and I can only guess that Firebeat gives more calories per acre of farmland. The settings page does mention that if the Firebeat disappears, all animal life will perish, so there must be a downside to relying too heavily on Bloomrabi over Firebeats.
If Scarlet and Tibor pulls this off, they get some valuable training for the upcoming “find the MoES” quest.
HKMaly
It’s also possible that Bloomrabi doesn’t provide all necessary nutrients.
Shadow Threat
I think this is a “Point of no return”. I’m just wondering if it’s too early.
Mogarl
It’s pretty comparable to the length of book 1 for Gaia.
As a prologue of a main story featuring an adult Scarlet I think this is a pretty good end spot. We’ve seen her dreams, motivation, and what she’s lost. Without spending so much time that when the story shifts to adult Scarlet it feels like a rug pull.
Markus
Hunting? I thought there were no animals in this world.
Kalrotix
Scarlet may be right, but you can expect someone to abandon his own family so easily.
Poll
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