The Story Continues…

July 15th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

The novella Wizards and Kings: Sacrifice is the sequel to the graphic novel Rune: A Tale of Wizards and Kings.

A lone warrior seeks revenge for the death of his king and finds himself battling for the survival of his kingdom. A wizard, far from home, eases the guilt from past transgressions by helping those in need. A displaced king risks everything to find love. Their paths intersect as they face a threat unlike any they have ever known before.

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Rune Commentary – Page 48

May 25th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

Again, we see Zara’s bird and know that she is keeping tabs on Rune.

Rune could have elected to bring a large force with him and travel openly as the king, but he decided it would be safer to return to the same disguises he and Justin used for their journey home. Dawson is not well-known in this part of Valheigh, so he can travel incognito simply by hiding his signet ring.

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Rune Commentary – Page 47

May 24th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

Rune is moved. He did not expect to hear such contrition from Lord Redley. Still, he fears he is going to regret the decision to trust the kingdom to Redley’s care. On the other hand, he doesn’t have much choice. He needs to leave someone in charge, and Redley has been running the kingdom for years, so choosing him will cause the least disruption.

Interestingly, Rune doesn’t share this conversation with Justin, mostly because Justin doesn’t ask about it. In Wizards and Kings: Sacrifice, we learn that Justin believes that his father has no regrets about disowning him and he continues to believe that until they finally speak to each other again.

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Rune Commentary – Page 46

May 23rd, 2014 | by CC Rogers

I love the unspoken communication between Redley and Justin in the first two panels. This page is where we finally learn the details of their estrangement.

Rune deliberately addresses Lord Redley as Jonathan to set an informal tone for this private conversation. He’s also making it clear that they are now peers, and that he will not be Redley’s pawn. He’s recovered enough to stand up, and he chooses to do so rather than invite Redley to sit.

The last panel is not the actual lighting in the room, but rather an illustration of the darkness that Redley feels as he admits his guilt.

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Rune Commentary – Page 45

May 22nd, 2014 | by CC Rogers

Rune is letting Jeremy Dawson’s story sink in; the implication is that he’s doomed, and he knows it.

I love Dawson’s reaction when he learns whom Rune loves. Jalina is the last person in the world any of the nobles would have expected. She lives in lands that have no nobility and hate the concept. Dawson is trying to show restraint, but he’s intensely curious how Rune could have developed a relationship with Jalina.

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Rune Commentary – Page 44

May 21st, 2014 | by CC Rogers

The lovely picture frames on this page are images from *Adaae-stock.

The last image came out much more disturbing than I intended. I used Century Nightgown (which using the Dynamic clothing engine) so it would have the right drape. You can see a larger-sized version of the picture on my Facebook page.

I like to imagine these pictures are from Jeremy Dawson’s collection. The last one, in particular, is meant to convey to the viewer the horror of this curse, and by extension, to underscore how evil the Jinn were. It is, therefore, a product of the revisionists who took over after the Jinn went into seclusion. It’s possible that they contrived the entire story, and that the curse was never really used on anyone before Rune.

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Rune Commentary – Page 43

May 20th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

Lord Jeremy Dawson frequently has pithy country sayings like this. You can’t “hear” him in the comic, but he has a charming drawl. House Dawson is the poorest of the Seven Noble Houses, and the only one that has never held the throne in Valheigh. The people in the other Houses tend to think of them as country bumpkins.

Hawthorne and Redley are more similar than either would admit. They share the same reaction to Dawson’s proposal. The idea of breaking through the Wizard Wall and unleashing the horror of the Jinn is incomprehensible to them.

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Rune Commentary – Page 42

May 19th, 2014 | by ccrogers

Rune is aware that their history makes no sense long before he learns he truth from Zara. People in Valheigh, however, are taught from birth to believe that everything written in the Archive is completely true. So they never question it. Even when faced with the obvious self-contradiction (that the Jinn were supremely powerful and yet were inexplicably defeated by ordinary people), they rationalize that the details of the defeat must have been kept secret for a reason. Unfortunately, this is fairly realistic. I’ve heard that it takes six times as much evidence to convince a person that he’s wrong than it takes to convince him of something in the first place. Or, more simply, it’s easier to fool people than to admit you’ve been fooled.

The history that Dawson relates was concocted by the people who seized power after the Jinn left. They played up the image of the Jinn as terrible and cruel. They discouraged people from going near the Wizard Wall, for fear that someone would decipher the story written upon it.

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Rune Commentary – Page 41

May 18th, 2014 | by ccrogers

A reference to page 3! Justin knows that Jalina is an honorable person, though she works according to her own code, which is why he didn’t think she would actually kill Rune directly, even when she was upset to learn that Rune was royalty.

Rune and Justin are such close friends that Rune knows what’s going on in Justin’s mind: he’s wondering if he can stop the curse by killing Jalina.  He wouldn’t do it, of course, if for no other reason than he knows Rune would forbid it.

Rune was expecting Lord Hawthorne and Lord Redley to come see him. For obvious reasons, these two would want to gain his trust and then start controlling him. Lord Dawson surprises him, however. Dawson has no ambition to claim the throne. He is there with a sincere offer to help, feeling that he might have something valuable to contribute since he’s the leading expert on the Jinn.

By remaining seated while the Lords stand, Rune is sending a subtle message: he’s of higher standing than them, and he’s not going to be their pawn. In truth, he’s also simply too weak to stand, but he’s back into his persona of strength and he’s not going to let them know that.

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Rune Commentary – Page 40

May 17th, 2014 | by ccrogers

I love interjecting little humorous moments, like Rune’s belittling of his impossible to-do list. If everything is uniformly dark and serious, a story gets monotonous.

I’m ridiculously proud of the poses in third and fourth panels. In 3D rendering, posing two figures interacting is an order of magnitude harder than posing a single figure, and I feel like Justin helping Rune up looks very natural.

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Rune Commentary – Page 39

May 16th, 2014 | by ccrogers

As I mentioned earlier, cussing in Valheigh centers around books, paper, and ink because of their obsession with the written word. “Quills and ashes” is a common exclamation of shock.

Rune, unlike most people in Valheigh, has seen the Wizard Wall up close. There is writing along the bottom which no one on their side of the Wall can read. The Jinn, of course, still know how to read it, because it was the common writing before the Purging (or, as they call it, the Seclusion). When the Jinn left the world, they left the true account of the Wall’s history for anyone to see. The people who drove them out and secured power for themselves rewrote history and made sure the knowledge of the old writing was lost.

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Rune Commentary – Page 38

May 15th, 2014 | by ccrogers

Rune is in a LOT of pain, and Justin feels completely helpless. This scene is where the curse burns the runes onto Rune’s arms and hands. You might wonder if this is where the character derived his name, but it was actually the other way around.

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Rune Commentary – Page 37

May 14th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

I couldn’t find a way to illustrate it well, but Rune is coughing up ashes. The crackling energy recedes but there’s still magical smoke coming off him. The Lords are horrified but impressed.

Rune’s command in the final panel speaks volumes. Having just seen Arklomene erase text from the Archive, the Lords would be inclined to think that writing in it is now pointless. However, Rune demands that the Lords follow tradition. He wants them to believe that he is in control, and that he will not let Arklomene destroy the order of their world.

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Rune Commentary – Page 36

May 13th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

We finally learn that Justin is Lord Redley’s son. Redley wants to apologize, but he doesn’t know how.

Rune still has magic crackling all over him and feels like he’s on fire on the inside, but he is determined not to show weakness to the Lords.

Rune’s ability to claim the throne and exit from public view before collapsing is inspired by a tragic story I heard in one of my college classes: a circus performer fell from a great height, but stood up, bowed, and exited the tent before collapsing and dying.

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Rune Commentary – Page 35

May 12th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

Arklomene’s curse: either kill the person you love or die knowing that he or she has to suffer with having killed you.

This vengeance curse is not perfectly suited to Rune’s situation: he loves Jalina, but he doesn’t expect that Jalina would agonize over killing him. However, he doesn’t want to die and he would never kill an innocent person to save himself.

At the bottom, we see the Lords of the five houses other than Beowald and Redley. My favorite is Lord Dawson, in the center. The other Lords are aghast at the scene before them, but you can see sympathy in Dawson’s eyes . He knows that the pain Rune is enduring is only the beginning. He understands the full impact of the curse because he loves his wife deeply, and she loves him. He’s also heard of this curse before and has had time to ponder how he would feel under it.

The concept for this curse was inspired by a scene in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Buffy has to kill Angel, whom she loves, in order to save the world.

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Rune Commentary – Page 34

May 11th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

Arklomene’s magic is faster than Justin’s sword. Rune is taking advantage of the delay to attack, but Arklomene casts the curse before he can close the distance.

You can actually see Rune’s skeleton through his flesh in the second panel. Ouch!

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Rune Commentary – Page 33

May 10th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

Justin has been standing quietly on the side, but as soon as Arklomene threatens Rune, he attacks. He has sword to protect Rune, and he takes that oath very seriously.

Rune is reaching for his sword; Justin is that much faster.

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Rune Commentary – Page 32

May 9th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

And here we learn why Avery/Arklomene was banished from Valheigh: King Edgar blamed him for the death of Queen Loria, Rune’s mother.

Arklomene uses magic to obliterate his banishment from the Archive, figuratively thumbing his nose at the most solemn traditions of Valheigh.

Lord Redley is horrified. Everything that gives his world order is crashing down. And yet… there is nothing that he wants more than to erase Justin’s disownment from the Archive. In Wizards and Kings: Sacrifice, we learn how far he goes in pursuit of that goal. I absolutely love that scene, where Justin and his father finally speak to each other after years apart. It is, in my opinion, the emotional climax of the larger story (of which the graphic novel is the first installment).

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Rune Commentary – Page 31

May 8th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

This page (really quickly) establishes Arkomene’s back story. He used to work for Rune’s father, King Edgar, as the Royal Magician. At that time, his name was Avery. King Edgar banished him, and he is now claiming to be a wizard in a world where wizardry is dead.

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Rune Commentary – Page 30

May 7th, 2014 | by CC Rogers

I love the look on Rune’s face in the first panel. This is not the life he wants, and he expects this choice will get him killed, but he is resigned to his fate.

Then, BOOM, everything changes! This graphic novel loosely follows a three-act structure. To quote Wikipedia: “The first act is usually used for exposition, to establish the main characters, their relationships and the world they live in. Later in the first act, a dynamic, on-screen incident occurs that confronts the main character (the protagonist), whose attempts to deal with this incident lead to a second and more dramatic situation, known as the first turning point, which (a) signals the end of the first act, (b) ensures life will never be the same again for the protagonist and (c) raises a dramatic question that will be answered in the climax of the film.”

Arklomene’s curse on Rune is the incident that drives us into Act two.

 

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