At long last, the big reveal.

is that the SIMPERING WORM, ROGER FOI HELLICK

>>149545806 (OP)
clever bitch included an Ald check into her ceremony

"Woe is me, see what I'm sacrificing? I am so selfless."

>>149546050
yeah, I'm not really sure if "I'm killing off my fake husband, who everyone already hates" is the winning argument here. gonna see what else she's got to say about it.

Website:

> He’s looked better.
>
> Have you checked out the Unsounded Kickstarter campaign page? Consider giving it a follow! The campaign will be launching in less than a month!
>
> -Ashley

Patreon:

> As Miracle Max would tell you, he's only mostly dead.
>
> Some TMI, but when my grandma had a stroke and was essentially braindead, it took her body a few days to die. Fluid ran endlessly from her nose, and her eyes and lips got scabby and dark. I based poor Roger's look at that image burned indelibly into my memory.
>
> But that Maha never lets a braindead boy go to waste. So tidy, so economical.

Ufal should get on that boat with Toma and tell him to take it all the way to West Manilda.

>>149545806 (OP)
Okay, who here won?
>>149546050
She's not letting any bit of Roger go to waste. Body and soul, sackerficed nicely.
>>149546093
Poor grandma, watching the body die isn't pretty. What unnerves me is the death rattle. You instinctively know that's not how things should be.

>>149546090
More likely she’s going to convince them she used Roger and now has the key to defeating Alderode because of him

>>149546169
According to the winners, the good guys,
As it always is.

>>149546090
Well did seem to like roger or at least feel guilty still Roger's soul is long gone so at most this is a mercy killing.

>>149546169
>Okay, who here won?
Ruck.

>>149545806 (OP)
Horrifying how even Roger's hair looks decayed here. Thoughts: since the dammakhert affects the soul which in turn affects fetal development, if a body could live without a soul (not saying this should be tested), would Roger's body in time shift closer to what it could have been if he hadn't been born within the dammakhert?

>>149546446
>at most this is a mercy killing
She fed him bit by bit to a rape snake. There's nothing merciful about it. This is just her extracting a last buit of extra personal benefit from his empty shell.

>>149546508
Doubtful. The phenotype is set. It’s like putting silicone in a mold, just because you take the mold away doesn’t mean the silicone will change its shape.

>>149546090
She's not trying to convince you the reader with a god's eye view

>>149546530
Roger consented. All his unwillingness went away after he was forcedto kill vampire.

>>149546619
It would depend on whether the extra-normal changes the castes have require ongoing Khert stuff
We know that you don't create things with the Khert, just shift and transfer and isolate. The dammakhert has to play by the same rules, so its unlikely whatever transfer its making between the castes is a one and one deal. Its a shitty design, and losing too many of one or another caste could screw things up.

That would also imply that the longer lived castes literally use plats like vampires, leeching their vitality and transferring over their cancerous accumulations.

How does he walk? I imagine even standing in this condition would be unlikely if there's a direct comparison to a braindead state here.

>>149546791
>That would also imply that the longer lived castes literally use plats like vampires, leeching their vitality and transferring over their cancerous accumulations.
The hobo from Ethemik was a prophet.

Even though we predicted it, this was a good reveal.
>>149546090
We, the readers, know why she married him. We know they hatched a plan together to unmake Alderode. Her people don't know this. Her people generally considered her too acutely sympathetic to Alds: Roger, Quigley, and Matty all, so long as they're traitors to Alderode. This is a very good political play to endear herself to them, whether she simply gives them the Aldish blood they crave, tells them she used him against Alderode, or tells them that she would give up her husband for her country. However she wants to frame it, it's an easy way to build favor.

>>149546308
Seems like a big risk to tell her people that. Word spreads, making Alds panicky that she might be about to do something crazy could easily cause increasingly frenzied and desperate attacks. I think it'll be framed as using him for a diversion given the curse, or to gain Aldish secrets, but she won't be so bold as to tell them she can defeat Alderode. Especially when her plan is still quite vulnerable and in need of further tinkering. Most of the black tongues are gone. Ruck is gone. The knife is gone. Roger's memories/ soul is gone. She needs time, not to warn Alderode and make her people impatient.

Whatever her play is here, she has to say and do enough to sate them for now, without provoking Alderode, and then make her play in her time, secretly, when she is ready.

>>149546165
Ufal's got what Tela was trying to convince Emil of: too much responsibility to the state and the citizens. Ufal is genuinely a patriot, and as bad as things are, he'd rather be here, doing what he can, than elsewhere.

>>149546902
He's a plod

>>149546902
There were people holding him when he was being taken to the stake. Presumably they were actually carrying him, and his legs were just moving along from instinct.

>>149546791
>>149546943
Aren't the kussen and red cost basically that? At least that's what it seems to be pointing to.
>>149546902
>>149547246
Technically he's soul-dead. Maybe low level physiological tasks like walking are within what's left of his physical brain's capabilities. People recover from efheby bites with time. The memories are lost, but the brain adapts and heals so long as they're removed from efheby venom. It may be he was drained so slowly that basic tasks like walking were moved out of the soul and exclusively into the brain as that part of him tried to recover. Or maybe things like walking just don't exist inside the soul in the first place, and happen exclusively inside the brain unless there's an important memory associated.

>>149547118
It's only a risk if anything can be done about it. If the gamble the black tongues took at Grenzlan was successful then maybe the damage is already done and Alderode is off the table, and her people just have to be convinced of that.

>>149547331
We just saw Alderode try to launch a large scale attack. I don't think things are set into motion far enough yet that she would be safe to reveal her plans to the general public. Especially not after so many setbacks. Remember, not even the nobles or Ufal knew about the details of what she was doing behind the scenes. Telling your entire country in a public audience your war plans, what your secret weapon is, especially with so many setbacks to still resolve would be an absolute disaster. This is being publicized in a live broadcast around her country. There's no way Alderode wouldn't find out.

>>149547376
>There's no way Alderode wouldn't find out.
I'm saying it might not matter. If whatever the plan was is absolutely not undoable, as effective as it's been hyped up to be, and already been executed, then whether or not Alderode or anyone else knows about it might be completely irrelevant to its effectiveness. Shit, maybe they know about it already, since it's to do with the dammakhert, and it's just Crescians that need to be convinced.

>>149547436
Yeah, and I just don't think we're at that stage yet or anywhere near. Ashley has said on the Tumblr that this is being done to buy more time for the plan to be put in motion (and really, Maha doesn't strike me as the kind of person to use Roger's body this way if she didn't feel the need). We also see in the comic that the black tongues were worse than decimated, that Roger's soul was swallowed prematurely by Ruck, that Ruck is no longer cooperating with Maha, and that the soul knife is gone. We also know she needed a diehard loyalist for a suicide mission to do with Alderode and that the person she wanted refused the job. And we're going to Alderode in book two to contend with caste tensions that seem set to bubble over into a civil war. We might well see the effects of a Crescian superweapon later in book two, but I don't think we're starting it with one already in force in a way that Alderode couldn't hope to send wave after wave of soldiers into Cresce if they thought whatever she was about to say here was more than propaganda. Maha can't afford to tell them state secrets. She can only share so much.

The safest way to say she's used Roger was as a gambit to direct Alds to him specifically instead of more sensitive targets. That he's filled his purpose now and can be disposed of.

>>149547331
>If the gamble the black tongues took at Grenzlan was successful then maybe the damage is already done and Alderode is off the table, and her people just have to be convinced of that.
What they did at Grenzlan was just take it back. The Queen now has two pieces of the plan: the information on a soul that got Etalarche'd and control of a dammakherty hub. But the Black Tongues, as far as we know, were not able to find the map of the soul they needed before their fatal autoerotic asphyxiation incident.

So the plan is still unfinished, but if anyone in Alderode is paying attention, they might wonder what's up with a Queen who possesses both an Etalarche and a dammakhert hub might mean. Especially because it's been implied the higher ups in Alderode are absolute aware there's a weakness in using the curse beyond merely it driving everyone, but the pissmops, mad about the target.

>>149547709
>What they did at Grenzlan was just take it back.
If all they were doing was taking it back, why the hesitation from Paul here? Why the talk of getting only "one chance" a couple pages ago? To me this conversation implies they're taking it back and fucking with the dammakhert in one go, and they sure didn't seem to be in low spirits in the scene of their death.

>>149547709
I think if we were still getting three books the structure would have been something like book two deals with Alderode, the civil unrest, the plague, Miki and Lem, Murkoph, Sette's Jacaranda, and the wandering root. Book three would cover major world building like Ssael, Rortide, the origin of Alderode and the changes creation of the dammakhert, the red cost, and the existential threat that the Queen has created for Alds coming to fruition. Basically the interplay between our two driving countries.

It's a goddamn shame that Ashley is as good of an editor as she is, the uncondensed story would be a masterpiece.
>>149547799
The opportunity is having a khert hub under their control connected to the dammakhert. That means that they can begin to research the dammakhert with the queen's blessing. If they failed, the attack could be repelled, the khert hub might not be set up yet, or the khert hub could be destroyed rather than allowed to change hands.

No dammakhert enabled khert hub has ever been under control of a state other than Alderode. No soul has ever been mapped before. And no etalarched individual has ever been the subject of detailed dissection and research before. All three are firsts, and they combine in such a way to create a once in a copper's lifetime opportunity. If they didn't get the hub it would be wasted.

>>149547799
Paul's hesitation is because this is in the middle of all this other shit happening. Since they aren't actually ready to exploit the hub yet, he doesn't think they should be trying to take it right now over using their forces to fight off the other bullshit raining down on them. Worst Girl is arguing they need to take it now, before it becomes too difficult to pull off, even if they can't actually insert their hack just yet.

>>149547990
Paul's deliberately not saying it's impossible with what they've "cobbled together so far", though, he just says there's no guarantees without the work completed. The implication is that it might work, but since they've only got "one chance", he wants to wait for a better time.

>>149546093
Damn that's brutal. But all the more reason to channel that horror through art. That reminds me that sometimes I'll be reading something and think "the artist's attention to detail feels unnervingly deep." While not as extreme, I watched my grandma waste away from old age as her mind fell to pieces and that along with seeing her body once the light finally went out sure left a impact on me.

>>149547709
Maybe that's why she's burning Roger publicly, so that the Aldish upper castes in the know don't put two and two together.
>>149547890

>>149545806 (OP)
but IS that roger though

>>149548618
Why wouldn't it be? What further use does a soulless husk have?

>>149548455
Too bad that there is a rapesnake headed their way with Delicieu's soul map AND Roger's soul. Compared to that Roger's burning is a big fat red herring.

>>149546050
>>149546090
It's an meaningless gesture to us, who know what happened. To the general audience, she's killing the husband who she married against tthe will of the people and who up until now she had appeared to be protecting. To them, she's sacrificing something she values above everything for the good of the people.

It's a brilliant move. She's giving up literally nothing while everyone else thinks she's making a major sacrifice. Which is exactly why everyone with half a brain knew it was going to be him under the hood and not Dwaayne.

>>149549850
It was never going to be Duane, but it could have been Lemuel, another literal who to the audience but at least clearly a pissmop ald. Burning some random plod would just puzzle people.

>>149546902
Roger could probably walk assisted, it's mostly a spinal reflex and his brain and body are intact

>>149549943
>it could have been Lemuel
Logically, maybe. Narratively, absolutely impossible.

>>149545806 (OP)
>four toes

>>149549997
She has 5 toes on each foot, blindanon. Look again.

>>149549850
Dwayne wouldn't be slouching!

>>149550054

>>149550467
right pinky is hidden under the other toe, older women can have very fucked up feet due to the fancy shoes they wear.

All this buildup for what amounts to queenie recycling her leftovers for some free pr instead of just binning them. Wow, good for her.

>>149546696
What other options did he have left at that point?

>>149549997
She must have two-toe ancestry!

>>149550467
Well are you gonna sniff and lick them?

>>149553208
BUT ASHLEY I AM STOOPID OGRE

>>149553244
given the religious background, she's probably using it as Tirna symbology

>>149554602
Yeah but i would think that the queen should be red and black right? That SIMPERING WORM is kinda red and black tho...

>>149553208
Pre-glut knock as her avatar?

>>149545806 (OP)
ROGER FOI HELLICK!

>>149553244

It signifies both humbleness and sincerity. It complements the theme of her speech: that the rulers of Cresce derive their legitimacy not from some sort of divine right but through their effectiveness in ensuring a decent life for all citizens.

>>149549850
I swear some people just self-insert as Dwayne and think the entire world revolves around him.

>>149545806 (OP)
Finally, that WALKING BAG OF DUNG ROGER FOI HELLICK will get what's coming to him!