Update [20.02.2024]: I uploaded a new version of this page with adjusted artwork for the close-up of the coin in the fourth and fifth panel. The old version may still be cached by your browser.
- Scarlet: May I listen to the musician?
- Gavin Carolus: Yes, but first I have to pay the rent for the cart.
- Merchant: Seven Shards, please.
- Merchant: Pleasure doing business.
24 thoughts on “The Machine of Eternal Summer 005”
BlackDragonSlayer
Very interesting currency. Gives orange slice vibes 😛
Vincent
Especially now that it is orange 🙂
All-Purpose Guru
Looks similar to the Spanish 8 reales coin, which could also be cut into 8 pieces to make change. (This is where American English got the terms “pieces of eight” and “Two-bit” (meaning a quarter dollar).
Antonio Rodríguez
It is no coincidence. When United States became independent from the Britain, they needed a new coin. They just copied the dominant coin in the area, the Spanish Real (back then, Florida, Texas, California, Mexico and most of the Caribbean where provinces of Spain). The first Dollars where exactly the same size, weight and material as the Real, so they had the same value and could be used in trade.
Brett Bellmore
In the US, the coin was known as a “Spanish milled dollar”, which is where the name for our own currency comes from.
MaxArt
Boy, that is a *big* horse! Looks like a Dutch draft or similar.
Also, quite the currency. I suppose the disc holding the shards has little value in comparison to the shards themselves?
Novil
It’s not that the disk holds the Shards. It’s rather that the Shards create the disk around them. I’m currently considering adding an extra page after the last page of this chapter that explains the nature of the money on Lavarel in detail.
V
I love the art style of this new comic!
Btw is there a Patreon for the new comic?
Novil
A Patreon campaign will be started later, after more pages have been published and I’ve started the second part of the advertising campaign for the comic.
Novil
I uploaded a new version of this page with adjusted artwork for the close-up of the coin in the fourth and fifth panel. The old version may still be cached by your browser.
Vicious Sand
An interesting way of dividing a dollar. The coin looks fine as it is. I’m sure we’ve all seen a beat up coin or two. Are they so indestructible that someone wouldn’t squish it a little using it as a screwdriver, as a table balancer, it’s going to get sat on. Why wouldn’t the rich keep all the better-looking coins frames for themselves?
If shards are detachable is anyone using it as jewelry? Gold chains are a thing people on Earth wear.
Dog people. It’s a nice fantasy vibe, but it must cut down on the types of pets that people have. Oliver isn’t the type to add a baudy song about “The sheep and the sheepdog.” That dog guy by the minstrel… I’m going to have to look up Star Trek to remind me which one is white on the left side.
Novil
1) The Shards are very sturdy.
2) All Shards look the same, so there are no Shards that are more valuable than others.
3) The disk around the Shards resembles glass and is created by the Shards to fill gaps between them. The glass disk itself isn’t particularly impressive.
4) Nobody is using Shards as jewelry. It would be seen as weird.
5) People on Lavarel don’t have pets if you don’t count work horses. There are no animals left on Lavarel that could serve as pets.
Dilandu
Then what practical function shards have? If they aren’t suitable for jewelry, what maintain their value? The rarity itself is hardly a solution; platinum is rare than gold, but till the industrial era was viewed as worthless, since it was very hard to work with.
Old Brit
They have the same utility as the coins of any fiat currency – a medium of exchange. As long as the people believe they have value, they have that value.
Sekhmet
Shards are probably magic crystals like others crystals that are talked about. Just Once Upon A Time, when people knew how to handle magic and crystals, they created this as a currency. After some wars and some time (and temperature decreasing) the knowledge seems to be lost, but the shards stay in use as a currency. It’s like using old money coins from another age. Nobody knows how to make new ones, but since they are (probably?) highly resistant, there is (almost) no loss from these ancient times.
Novil
Only a fixed number of Shards exist on Lavarel. They’re managed by the Master Crystal (name not yet final) located between Capella and Callisto. It’s a sophisticated worldwide magical money system that was established thousands of years ago. We’ll see some other aspects of it later in the story.
Dilandu
Aha. So essentially the currency system is automated and the value of shard maintained by either producing new, or switching off some of the exising ones?
Vicious Sand
The blue one looked better, but the yellow one looks more ‘golden’. Now it looks like desirable money, but the frame is less visible. And there are sigils? Glyphs? (Now, it looks like an orange slice!)
Novil
I’ve always intended the Shards to be golden since many other magical elements will be colored blue and I wanted to add some variety in this regard. I think the coloration of the golden coin turned out nicely. While the blue version also looked all right, it had several issues not in line with my original concept for the coins:
1) There was a rim around the outer edge.
2) There was a hole in the center.
3) The empty slot was also colored blue.
4) Most importantly, it wasn’t shown how the removed Shard creates a new coin around it.
Vicious Sand
-“If something would be seen as weird, then weirdos exist to do weird things.” The bossy, selfish, stupid, and overconfident can be found anywhere.
-Shards create coin disks? So that’s what that ghost image is. For what was said to be a sci-fi series, Matter Magic can be some pretty hard Fantasy. Thanks for the explanation. I hope you’ve got a Series Bible or “RPG module” or other such rulebook of Summer listing all this. They always come in handy at some point.
Dilandu
Magnetic coin in eight parts? Either magnetic metals are in very high value, or the world have well-developed fiat currency system.
Novil
Shards are special crystals that are managed by the Master Crystal (name not yet final) located between Capella and Callisto. It’s a sophisticated worldwide magical money system that was established thousands of years ago. We’ll see some other aspects of it later in the story.
BlackDragonSlayer
Now the coin looks even more like an orange slice!!! 😛 The concept for the currency is amazing though.
Poll
Characters
Ariana Carolus Athamas Baako Bolin Cyril Evelina Ferrus Gale Nenawa Gavin Carolus Iona Jehona Shardyk Julius Mirkning Kala Silverspring King Protos Lauro Levon Goldwood Leyton Wayt Luitpold Marik Marton Princess Elodie Raymond Reto Mirkning Reva Rodar Rosetta Greenleaf Scarlet Carolus Severin Silvana Mirkning Tibor Frey Vidal Viola Vreni Xaver Yerim Zach Ilkin