Exiern
Swords, Sorcery, And Then Some!
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Swords, Sorcery, And Then Some!
Howdy, New Readers! Thanks for reading Exiern!
Written by Scott T. Hicken with art by Antipus, the comic updates Mondays.
Please check out the Archive to enjoy the earlier adventures of Typh and Peonie!
Exiern contains mature themes and is best for readers 18+.
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“This is all I could bother to carry within view of your house. Dramatic tension, and all that, you see.”
Happy to see Typhan-Knee’s grandmother again.
LOL I was right.. There more gold than house!
In what kind of economy is a solid gold (it’s solid, right) statuette like that not going to go far?!
Russell Gold: ever heard of a small, once prosperous, country called “Zimbabwe”?
One where people aren’t going to buy small gold statuettes?
Oh yes, I forgot this year’s supply of Unicorn steaks!
For a true Barbarian, gold is just a way of keeping score.
Can you please revert to the high-res images? Being able to maximize the image is much easier on aging eyes.
I’m still getting used to the change in art style but I definitely like it.
The primary kind of economy where gold spends poorly is (no surprise) one where it’s common. If the Grand Luminary Alliance has been bringing in gold the way historically Spain was bringing in gold from the New World, gold is going to be devalued.
@Russell: in an economy that does not use gold in daily life. For example did you ever see 500$ or higher notes in your life or being them used in everyday life?
I’m presuming that, in an economy where gold statuettes are a thing, there are also jewelers and goldsmiths who will buy them.
@Vorlonagent is correct (with one minor caveat). Generally, the only economy where gold statuettes are of little value is one in which gold is abundant. Otherwise, gold is soft and infinitely malleable. If some one gives you an eight-ounce solid gold statue, you don’t need goldsmiths or a market in statuary. Anyone with a knife can easily scrape off an ounce of gold to trade. That caveat I mentioned is the rare society wherein gold has no value. Some tribes of Indonesia and various Pacific Rim islanders who have never seen gold have no concept of its worth. Such societies are rare and dwindling and tend to be of low technological development.
Just by way of providing a little perspective: I’m 57 years old. As long as I can recall, in the US, one ounce of gold has always been enough to keep a single adult alive for one month. One ounce per month would keep you just above the poverty line. This, in 1976, an ounce of gold was worth about $350. Today, an ounce of gold is currently running just over $1320. Now,if you look at the statue in the cartoon, how many ounces of gold would you think that represents? I’m guessing most of you would grossly underestimate the worth of a solid gold statue that size (seriously, who makes hollow statues of gold?). Consider this: one cubic inch of gold weighs over eleven ounces. The statue shown in the first frame is filling two hands. That’s at least (if the woman has small hands) four cubic inches: 44 ounces of gold. At current US market rates, that statue would be worth $58,000. The gold economy must be in pretty dire straits if that statue is so underwhelming to the old lady.
@Chaucer59
Well, I mean, while your argument makes sense, consider this the other way. In 1976, gold was worth $350, but now it’s worth $1320… We use gold for all sorts of s!!t (my buddy actually makes all his money by scrapping and recycling gold out of cellphones, usb ports and all other manner of things), so maybe that’s why the gold value is higher? IDK. I’m not an economist.
However, what I DO know is that generally, in fantasy settings such as this, where they are modeled after a medieval society… they normally use gold as currency. A few pieces of gold for this or that. 2 pieces for a pint. 50 pieces for a sword. I don’t recall if that was the case here, but I do seem to recall the treasure room being filled with gold coins, so that’s likely the case…
If that’s true, how many gold pieces do you think they can get out of that statue? Sure, it’s not small, but it’s not exactly massive, either. I did some quick (very very quick, so numbers are often rounded and not exact) figuring that the gold coins would be half the size of a USD silver dollar, making them a little over 1 ounce per coin.
Of course, this is all speculative, regardless, because, again, this is a fantasy world with magic, dragons and skin-walkers. But if their economy matches up with the way many fantasy worlds do it… yeah. 44 gold coins isn’t very much.
People are still arguing if it worth or not. It is not the statues worth that matters it is that a commoner can’t trade with gold unless they are merchants and a gold statue would not sell to a local smith no matter in which form it is. Only way to sell that statue is to find a black market that deals in that kind of stuff which a commoner would not have access that easily to begin with. In short it is not gold does not have vaule it is that she can’t trade it.
@Greenstalker, from an historical perspective, your argument makes no sense unless the current regime has doecifically restticted who may trade in gold—an unusual and generally burdensome law from an enforcement perspective. Even in Medieval Europe serfs could trade in scrapings of gold. Scrapings, by the way, are about all the typical peasant ever saw—if that. For abut more perspective, recall that a copper penny was a peasant’s day’s pay. A penny a day, a shilling per fortnight (12 cents). On 1400s Europe, a single gold piece was a year’s pay for a peasant. With gold that rare and that valuable, laws restricting who could trade in gold were not only untenable, they were a waste of paper. That being the case, only an idiot would refuse gold in trade for anything.
Tiffany would know this. If she did not her messenger would know it, and would explain it to her.
@Cerulean which is why redhead said it is her fault. She lived in castle iirc as peonie’s handmaid so she wouldn’t know commoners economy.
@greenstalker What I’m expecting is that since Typh is getting booted from the country, that the pile of treasure that was given to her as reward is now being passed on to the grandmother and that statue is just a teaser.
What is Isabella doing showing her knees in public? What have you done to her?
http://demonocracy.info/infographics/world/gold/gold.html
This will give you a visual idea of how much gold is in that statue, probably enough to live well for a good while even today, and enormous for a medieval or rennaissance peasant even assuming it’s probably significantly diluted with other metals. But in exiern it’s probably more like s game wher one gold coin will get you a nice meal or somerhing along those lines so the statue is nice but not worth all that much.
@greanstalker:
Except Isabelle is obviously leading Typhan-Knee’s grandmother towards more gold, the statue is obviously not all Typhan gave his grandmother.
Isabelle’s ” mistake” as was previously pointed out, was drawing out the dramatic tension.
@ greenstalker
July 26, 2016 at 12:02 pm | #
“@Russell: in an economy that does not use gold in daily life. For example did you ever see 500$ or higher notes in your life or being them used in everyday life?”
Actually, I see them from time to time. The City agency I work for in Chicago recently took a payment in 10k notes.
@Hipiap: Still, not common among us commoners. I would not expect to see anything larger than $100 denomination, and that would be rare.
And I do believe Isabelle is leading Grandma to a fortune.
Huh, what do you know. Urtica isn’t always so good at managing things. He’s allowed the economy to get get dangerously overheated and let inflation really run away. For everyone wanting him to have a flaw, apparently it is economics.
The statue obviously has value other than as capital.
Well if the country is always in war with someone almost always on celebration days its economy would be not good.
I am kinda disappointed in the new direction of the art. The person is obviously talented, but I find I have lost all interest in the comic since the change. I wish that wasn’t the case.
I a world where Alchemy is Real Lead into Gold Would tend to Ruin the Gold Standard bringing down the Price to the Effort to make it.
@jonathan d wint, your claim assumes the price of making gold from lead makes the process worthwhile. If the process consumed rubies, emeralds, or diamonds, it wouldn’t be so popular as you assume. Then there’s the possibility of morally questionable components. If the process consumed small children, many would be outraged, but some people (like Coriander, perhaps) would consider a few deaths a negligible cost. Some people can rationalize acts that most of us consider unthinkable.
… why is everyone hung up on the gold bar? A hot turkey leg would of worked the same for the plot device. It looks like she’s about to stab the everlovin’ heck out of that old woman. “What do you mean ‘The Emmey isn’t filled with chocolate’? Back when I was a lass, they use to launch Emmey’s filled with chocolate by catapult over the walls! Half of them were poisoned, but you knew the risk!”
RE: “won’t go far”.
We have no real grasp on what her idea of ‘goes far’ is. To Mycenaean Warriors (Agamemnon & such), wealth was measured in ‘how long can I sustain my household’ and was measured in generations. She might be thinking far into the future – feeding ever-expanding family & bondsman, servants or slaves, taxes, and the price of being a successful Matron (dowries, bribes, loyalty rewards, etc).
Such a statue wouldn’t even suffice as a dowry for her grand-daughters.
Something tells me the next page will be called “a LOT of gold”.