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Starting February 1st ALL new Exiern pages will post ONLY to Exiern.com and Our Patreon. Please read and support us there!
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+.
Many people, in-universe and out, criticize Urtica for his scheming and underhandedness…yet it’s precisely those traits that continuously save both him and his kingdom repeatedly. Attacked by a shapeshifter, confronted by a corrupt magical church leader, attacked by the NEW magical church leader and very recent ex-wife…the reason he and the kingdom are still standing is because he was crazy prepared, and had underhanded/sneaky methods at his disposal. Kind of hard to make a case that he shouldn’t do these things when those very methods continue to be an arse-saver on a regular basis.
@Dullahan. It means Neils and Bohr must be able to act with 100% certainty that Urtica’s orders come from Urtica, not someone impersonating Urtica, not somebody mind-controlling Urtica, not someone forging Urtica’s signature, etc.
@Andor: I don’t think he’s under criticism for being ‘crazy prepared’. It’s for being deceptive when he shouldn’t be. In particular for deceiving and tricking an ally. Teresa failed him on at least one count, but she never /lied/ to him.
He, on the other hand, lied to /her/ to trick her into signing that agreement. Unless she’s completely wrong, he lied to her also about the mysterious song, and that was well before her own failure. He had a loyal, if inexperienced and overconfident, ally. One who could have been trained up to higher standards because she would trust his teaching. Now he doesn’t have her, and she may be on the way to becoming an enemy. And that’s his fault.
Unfortunately, Urtica had an ally whose loyalty was to Church first. That same Church that was plotting a usurpation of the Throne.
Urtica needed to hold onto the book to prosecute Coriander and as a hold over the Church against a future coup. If Teresa understood his perspective, she wouldn’t have all but demanded she walk off with that same book She would have asked *when* would the Church get its property back.
Once Teresa failed to understand the need for the Alliance to hold onto the incriminating evidence, she ceased to be useful in keeping the Alliance together. Urtica had to anticipate her choosing Church first
Would this have gone any better if Urtica told Teresa that the Alliance simply wasn’t going to give the book back? She’d have the right to demand its return and a reset of the conditions that gave rise to this coup plot.
@Vorlonagent, He didn’t explain it to her. He didn’t give her the chance to understand. He schemed first, and that’s what she’s pointing out there. At this point she’s speaking not as the gorgeous young thing she appears to be, but as the old and wise scholar and sage that she actually is. And she just implied that Peonie might suffer for his schemes, as well as others in his kingdom.
He knows it, too. You can see his regret at what he’s done – she hurt him far worse with her words than she would have with the ear thing. He’s alienated someone he admires and respects, he’s damaged his ability to work with her, and now he’s working overtime to mollify her.
Also, we just had confirmation that Teresa has the ability to fix her ears – just as she already did for Coriander’s minions, the ones who were turned into mouthless little girls. So… that’s a plot point cleared up, at least.
That doesn’t clear anything up. There were four mouthless little girls and Urtica said “two.” I think he’s referring to the two men who didn’t recognize the book, the ones Coriander silenced. Which means the four who hurt themselves are probably still stuck.
Also, Theresa isn’t evil. She’s not threatening Urtica, just reminding him of the nature of scheming. She has no intention of going after Peonie, no matter what Urtica has done.
Hmm, did she attempt to coerce Urtie? The way he says about Niels and Bohr implies that she did, and whatever spell he has on him is to ensure his continued free-will
Respect for Teresa for stopping digging after she realized she’s in the hole. You need to know when to hold them, and when to fold them.
I don’t get the Niels and Bohr comment. Is he making a prediction as to what her next attempt would be? Because no one suggested mind control or impersonation at any point in this conversation.
I think he’s implying that her spell could have been a mind-control spell, instead of an a!s-ear spell, and that is why he had to have defenses up.
She isn’t making a threat with “far more than you who pays for it” – more like a prediction. But as others in the comments point out, he seems to be doing fine so far, so is unlikely to worry much about her point of view, other than factoring it into future plots.
She is forgetting that he gave her every thing she has now. It is her job to hold on to it now. With out his schemes she would be muted and locked up by the church not leading it.
I also think he has his defense up at all times. Magic is just one of the layers in his defense.
Cerulean, I don’t think you’re being entirely fair to Urtica; He didn’t _trick_ her into signing something she shouldn’t have, the burden is on HER to read the damned contract before signing, just like when people go to the car dealer and plop down a bunch of money, often without reading the contract. Sorry for Lady T, but them’s the breaks when you just sign your name.
VonTugboat- Except that’s not really how contract law works, at least in a civilized society. What she signed was a Divorce contract, she therefore had a reasonable expectation that it did not contain provisions unrelated to that. In spite of what TV and Movies show, both parties must be in full agreement of every provision of a contract and if one party finds that something was “slipped in” that they didn’t agree to, they can go to the courts and get it thrown out.
Now granted, this kingdom is a more primitive, less civilized society and probably doesn’t have courts that will stand up to the King, so Teresa isn’t likely to have any recourse here, but that doesn’t make what Urtica did right. He’s taken a potential ally and poisoned the relationship right off the bat.
@ravenwald I don’t think it’s a difference in artistic skill so much as artistic style. This new style has rougher gradients with a bit more color blurred in where the other style had smoother color transitions with more focus on well captured action(motion) than color depth.
I enjoy both styles and recognize the skill in both, but yeah this new artist makes more pictureske pages than we had a few pages ago
Theresa learned an important lesson here, read documents before signing; there is a famous case of Dmitry Argarkov who printed out the t&c of a credit card agreement, typed it back up with a few altered words in his favour, signed and sent it back to the bank who then signed it. Their claim of “but we didn’t read it” did not impress the judge who found in favour of Argarkov. The onus is on the signer to read it.
Good job she learned it in private with a guy who is unlikely to hold a grudge over it. Can you imagine if she screwed up like that with someone like Coriander? She might have lost a little face with Urtica, but it will still stand her in good stead and that will make the church stronger and more stable in the long run. She’ll now attend each document closely, and keep her temper under control too.
That guy with the halitosis she is sending; I bet Urtica does listen to him closely too, even if he does reek. That is what competent administrators do, they listen to the message not the messenger.
@vonTugboat: Cerulean is being more than fair. That’s not how contracts work, as CaptainXpendeble said.
@Bad taiming: That hardly justifies him manipulating her and lying to her. In fact, she just realized it was all a trick and Urtica just used her, so she’s has no reason to be grateful since all he gave her was meaningless.
@Andor: No, Urtica is under criticism for being a manipulative a!!!!!e and Teresa isn’t wrong in saying that it will come back to bite him. Which isn’t a threat, just a matter of fact.
You can only backstab so many people before it’s you with a blade at your back.
Also, it was Typhan-Knee being Typhan-Knee that saved everyone this time.
Urtica, as others have noted, is doing what he believes is best for his kingdom–and I believe he is correct. Theresa acted carelessly in the duel by failing to warn Urtica of the Duet, and again in signing the Divorce without reading it. She has indeed begun her tenure as Primate of the Church badly; she has two strikes against her.
Theresa could have fully invested herself in her new sex, married the King, and become Queen. She could have enjoyed a powerful lover. She could have received all the powers and privileges of her position, been a wise, kind, and patient protector to her adoring people. She could have exercised her magic for the benefit of the land, and acted as liason with a humbled Church. She could have been a legendary Queen of great renown.
She could have been a royal mother as well, loving her children and basking in their love for her.
Instead she chose to treat her new sex as no more than a playful costume, a kind of toy, while grasping the powers of her Church, against its traditions and likely the will and conscience of many of its members.
She wanted both the social powers of her new femininity and the political power of her abandoned masculinity–and fumbled them both.
A few strips ago she complained that embracing her “new youth and vigor allowed in more naivete” than she realized. She forgot that Typh’s spell molds its target into her own view of womanhood. She became what she believes women to be, and let me say it, what she always was at heart–a good spirited if somewhat flighty woman.
For all her intelligence and ability, Theresa needs a husband, and Urtica would have been ideal.
Now she has an adversary, if not an enemy (unless she makes him one by pursuing revenge).
It is loss for her, for Urtica, for the Church, and for the kingdom and its people.
Her only way out is to humble herself, pass her Church leadership to a trusted associate, and accept a true marriage with Urtica. If she did, the divorce would be null and void, and the restrictions on the Church–now known only to her and Urtica–would evaporate.
Otherwise, this is deep tragedy, with good lessons for many in our own world.
@Jake et al, it is how contracts work. Once you sign it, it is binding. You can’t then go and say “this isn’t what we said we’d agree” because a verbal agreement is not worth the paper it is printed on. The printed and signed version is the agreement. A lawyer might be able to go to a court and argue buyers remorse or sellers regret, but 9 times out of 10 they will fail because the signed version is what you signed to say you’d agree. You can object right up until you signed and say before then that this is not what you’d agreed.
The Paris Agreement between America and France is a good example, the French snuck in a “typo” that would have made it a lot more binding if it had been signed with it in, but it was caught before hand and edited. However even the most notorious deal breaker on the planet, the USA, admitted it would have been legally binding if it went through. The typo was merely adding in the word “shall” btw: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2015/dec/16/how-a-typo-nearly-derailed-the-paris-climate-deal
That is why you read something first to make sure it is what you agreed.
@ Cerulean Lion – Urtica never actually lied about the song, he just didn’t mention everything he knew. Besides, loyalty doesn’t erase mistakes, especially at the level a king plays at. Urtica’s deceptions and misdirection, even toward his allies, is done to save his kingdom, not make friends. Lost allies can be replaced, his country cannot. It’s high risk poker, constantly…of course he’s going to bluff.
@ Jake – Typhan-Knee did save the day, but I never meant that Urtica did everything himself. In fact, you make my point for me…the king keeps Tiff around intentionally, knowing she’s roughly an “ally” who will help him and the kingdom, but he doesn’t disclose everything to her. He misleads her, withholds information, and yes…he would lie to Tiff if he needed to. But she understands why he does this. She doesn’t like it, but she understands the need, because Tiff understands leadership on that level. Remember when Urtica clocked Tiff in prison to “show is respect” by hitting her back from the parade? Tiff actually thought it was funny…she “gets” Urtica. I think Theresa is ruled a bit more by pride than by wisdom in many cases. She still doesn’t get what it takes to play at those stakes…she’s still too idealistic.
@Andor: Excellent point about Tiff “getting” Urtica, while Terry does not.
I’d add only my thought that this points up the essential difference between the two: at her core, Tiff is male, while Terry is female.
Terry is acting very much the jilted lover, precisely the kind of behavior that you don’t want in the leader of an organization like the Church. Urtica is able to distinguish between his self interest and the interests of his nation. Terry cannot.
@50srefugee @Andor I agree as well. Like her stunt. When Coriander tried to play legal manipulation and Tiff decided to go after him, what did she do, declare her resignation and independence, Then after her strike she “allowed” herself to be arrested.
@Archone, Urtica shouldn’t have *needed* to point anything out to Teresa. It’s obvious the book is needed to prosecute. It should be obvious that Urtica would need the book until Teresa cleaned house at the Church. It should therefore be obvious that in demanding the book back up-front, Teresa is demanding a reset of conditions that led to an attempted coup.
For Teresa to be a *good* ally for Urtica, she has to be able to think ahead the same way Urtica does.
A good ally would have said before signing the divorce, “Hmmm…Hydra blood on Hydra skin. What’s on here that needs this kind of…Oh. Well played. [sign anyway] [rip] Here’s your copy. I’ll send for the book when I have things locked down.”
@Random22, actually contracts made under duress or false pretenses are NOT legally binding. If I point a loaded gun to your head and make you sign a contract, that contract is going to be thrown out of court. If I tell you a contract says one thing and it actually says another, that too is likely to be thrown out – in your case of Mister Argikov, the judge was doing his job and dispensing justice – and credit card companies have traditionally gotten away with relying on fine print and people not reading it to get away with some very shady things. The company had every opportunity to double check that the shady and underhanded terms that were signed were the same as the ones they’d sent out. But in this case, things are different. Urtica can be said to be guilty of Breach of Trust (an actual legal term, referring to when you trust someone to act in your best interests and they abuse that trust. Usually applied to lawyers and financial advisers).
@Vorlonagent, allies don’t have to be able to think alike. They simply have to work together. Niels and Bohr don’t think the way Urtica does – but they’re two of his greatest allies because they are loyal to a fault. And it’s not obvious that Teresa is demanding any kind of reset of anything – she’s just expecting him to abide by the original deal. Saying “it should have been obvious I’d have to break our agreement” doesn’t justify a thing.
@50s refugee, that… sounds rather sexist. She’s not acting like a jilted lover. She’s acting like someone who just got betrayed by the ally she trusted.
Bottom line: Urtica had good intentions behind what he did. But he’s not perfect, he didn’t do everything 100% correctly, he’s not the chessmaster some are claiming him to be. Typh acting the way she did took EVERYONE by surprise. So did the magical duel. So did Coriander attempting to walk away with a sneer and a promise to do even more nastiness, while Urtica was openly and genuinely confused as to whether he could even do something about it. And even his complaint that Teresa failed to provide full disclosure (of an archaic legal clause that hadn’t been used in a century because it was considered tantamount to an admission of guilt) rings hollow when he actively concealed information from her from the start.
End result: he’s alienated a friend and ally. He left a lot of people suspicious and wary of future dealings with him. And he almost failed in his scheme to take down Coriander, until Typh saved the day with a well aimed swing of his sword.
@Archone. This contract was not made under duress. Terry was afforded time and opportunity to read it through, she CHOSE OF HER OWN FREE WILL not to take advantage of that instead perfunctorily signing it assuming that everything would be in order. There was no force or duress involved. That is the kind of behaviour that a leader of a politically significant faction cannot afford to indulge in.
@Random 22:
You make a good point. Teresa needs to be less trusting, and to read before she signs.
None the less, Urtica committed a fraud upon Teresa. Her carelessness (and I would bet she will not repeat that mistake) does not excuse his deceit.
Further her error was that she /trusted/ Urtica. That may be a political failing but it is not a moral flaw.
@Random, what Cerulean said. It wasn’t made under duress. It was made under false pretenses. There’s a misconception regarding legal contracts as a result of fiction – there’s a TV Tropes page I’ll link here, and then I’ll sum it up:
In summary: a contract is the written record of an oral agreement between parties. You agree to a deal, you shake hands… and then you write down the details of the deal so you won’t forget. If there is a discrepancy between the deal as understood and the written record, it’s fraudulent. If you tell someone that a contract says one thing and then it actually says another… it’s fraudulent.
Since Theresa was signing what she thought was a divorce decree, and Urtica inserted clauses dealing with the state/church relation that had not been discussed, I think you may be right. (At least under modern contract law.)
However, I still think Terry’s reaction was out of line for her office, and she acted very carelessly in regards to the Duet, and in signing the decree without reading.
In my mind, she failed crucial tests of fitness for office.
So… does anyone else think that, with the shadows of the second panel… Urtica looks apologetic? His mouth, his eyes, posture… They seem to be reserved. He is legitimately upset that it came to this.
Hrm… but is that right? He seemed pretty smug just the previous panel… So perhaps it’s not that he is legitimately upset that it came to this, but rather, that he realizes just how true Theresa’s words are? He tries to put forward that there are no hard feelings, by putting forward his concern about returning her ears to normal.
Supported by after the fact, where he starts to quip again, something Theresa noted was absent while he was mid-scheme. He is trying, in some small way, to salvage the relationship. Theresa seems to acknowledge this, despite being still more than a little bit pissed with her response to his joke about the garlic and onions.
She’s mad, yes, but she knows he’s making an effort to not be an a!!!!!e, and so she’s trying to do the same.
@Ben: I don’t think that’s Urtica’s view. He’s been in wars, and knows about battle plans meeting enemies. He improvised a solution to achieve his immediate goal, which I think he had not foreseen the need to do, and he will improvise further on down the road.
@50srefugee It is implied that just as the curse affected Typh’s mindset it affected Theresa and that now that’s she’s aware of it it should be gone. What’s more I was NOT talking about Theresa or anyone specifically. What
I WAS doing was pointing out that Urtica’s behavior is the type of thing that makes people tend not to trust him. Someday he will be in a position where he needs trust and finds he has none. Think the boy cried wolf on an international scale.
Most important, he learned something about Therese’s character. This knowledge will have its costs, but he can now take Therese’s volatility into account in future dealings with her.
@50srefugee, you’re being very much an Urtica fanboy here. Urtica has made some smart choices. He’s also made some bad choices and mistakes. This is a guy whose first meeting with Typh involved walking up to the angry barbarian lady with his jaw leading the way, right after humiliating his daughter in public:
He didn’t “learn something about Teresa’s character” this time. He enraged a friend and ally by altering the terms of their deal and betraying her trust. Imagine what Typhan-Knee would have done in Teresa’s place. Or… pretty much anyone else. He done goofed. And as Naroji noted, he seems to know it. He didn’t achieve a net gain here – not if he’s alienated the new leader of the Church, a powerful spellsinger, and a friend.
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She looks good with her hair down.
The ink and color work in this page are amazing.
Is it just my resolution, or in panel 2 is that a “BR” instead of a “BE”?
That is a BR indeed. But what’s the meaning of the comment with Niels and Bohr?
Hat tip to Danish Physicist Niels Bohr who helped develop modern Atomic Theory on the structure of the atom and the behavior of electrons.
Many people, in-universe and out, criticize Urtica for his scheming and underhandedness…yet it’s precisely those traits that continuously save both him and his kingdom repeatedly. Attacked by a shapeshifter, confronted by a corrupt magical church leader, attacked by the NEW magical church leader and very recent ex-wife…the reason he and the kingdom are still standing is because he was crazy prepared, and had underhanded/sneaky methods at his disposal. Kind of hard to make a case that he shouldn’t do these things when those very methods continue to be an arse-saver on a regular basis.
@Dullahan. It means Neils and Bohr must be able to act with 100% certainty that Urtica’s orders come from Urtica, not someone impersonating Urtica, not somebody mind-controlling Urtica, not someone forging Urtica’s signature, etc.
@Andor: I don’t think he’s under criticism for being ‘crazy prepared’. It’s for being deceptive when he shouldn’t be. In particular for deceiving and tricking an ally. Teresa failed him on at least one count, but she never /lied/ to him.
He, on the other hand, lied to /her/ to trick her into signing that agreement. Unless she’s completely wrong, he lied to her also about the mysterious song, and that was well before her own failure. He had a loyal, if inexperienced and overconfident, ally. One who could have been trained up to higher standards because she would trust his teaching. Now he doesn’t have her, and she may be on the way to becoming an enemy. And that’s his fault.
Unfortunately, Urtica had an ally whose loyalty was to Church first. That same Church that was plotting a usurpation of the Throne.
Urtica needed to hold onto the book to prosecute Coriander and as a hold over the Church against a future coup. If Teresa understood his perspective, she wouldn’t have all but demanded she walk off with that same book She would have asked *when* would the Church get its property back.
Once Teresa failed to understand the need for the Alliance to hold onto the incriminating evidence, she ceased to be useful in keeping the Alliance together. Urtica had to anticipate her choosing Church first
Would this have gone any better if Urtica told Teresa that the Alliance simply wasn’t going to give the book back? She’d have the right to demand its return and a reset of the conditions that gave rise to this coup plot.
@Vorlonagent, He didn’t explain it to her. He didn’t give her the chance to understand. He schemed first, and that’s what she’s pointing out there. At this point she’s speaking not as the gorgeous young thing she appears to be, but as the old and wise scholar and sage that she actually is. And she just implied that Peonie might suffer for his schemes, as well as others in his kingdom.
He knows it, too. You can see his regret at what he’s done – she hurt him far worse with her words than she would have with the ear thing. He’s alienated someone he admires and respects, he’s damaged his ability to work with her, and now he’s working overtime to mollify her.
Also, we just had confirmation that Teresa has the ability to fix her ears – just as she already did for Coriander’s minions, the ones who were turned into mouthless little girls. So… that’s a plot point cleared up, at least.
That doesn’t clear anything up. There were four mouthless little girls and Urtica said “two.” I think he’s referring to the two men who didn’t recognize the book, the ones Coriander silenced. Which means the four who hurt themselves are probably still stuck.
Also, Theresa isn’t evil. She’s not threatening Urtica, just reminding him of the nature of scheming. She has no intention of going after Peonie, no matter what Urtica has done.
Hmm, did she attempt to coerce Urtie? The way he says about Niels and Bohr implies that she did, and whatever spell he has on him is to ensure his continued free-will
@Red Shadow,
…Good point. Yeah, those four are probably… well, that’s nightmare fuel, but I don’t know if Teresa WANTS to help them.
Respect for Teresa for stopping digging after she realized she’s in the hole. You need to know when to hold them, and when to fold them.
I don’t get the Niels and Bohr comment. Is he making a prediction as to what her next attempt would be? Because no one suggested mind control or impersonation at any point in this conversation.
I think he’s implying that her spell could have been a mind-control spell, instead of an a!s-ear spell, and that is why he had to have defenses up.
She isn’t making a threat with “far more than you who pays for it” – more like a prediction. But as others in the comments point out, he seems to be doing fine so far, so is unlikely to worry much about her point of view, other than factoring it into future plots.
She is forgetting that he gave her every thing she has now. It is her job to hold on to it now. With out his schemes she would be muted and locked up by the church not leading it.
I also think he has his defense up at all times. Magic is just one of the layers in his defense.
Cerulean, I don’t think you’re being entirely fair to Urtica; He didn’t _trick_ her into signing something she shouldn’t have, the burden is on HER to read the damned contract before signing, just like when people go to the car dealer and plop down a bunch of money, often without reading the contract. Sorry for Lady T, but them’s the breaks when you just sign your name.
I fixed the “BR” to “BE” – thanks for catching that.
I’m still working out the best size/DPI/resolution for the new pages. I DID increase the font size a little, not sure if I will bump it up again.
VonTugboat- Except that’s not really how contract law works, at least in a civilized society. What she signed was a Divorce contract, she therefore had a reasonable expectation that it did not contain provisions unrelated to that. In spite of what TV and Movies show, both parties must be in full agreement of every provision of a contract and if one party finds that something was “slipped in” that they didn’t agree to, they can go to the courts and get it thrown out.
Now granted, this kingdom is a more primitive, less civilized society and probably doesn’t have courts that will stand up to the King, so Teresa isn’t likely to have any recourse here, but that doesn’t make what Urtica did right. He’s taken a potential ally and poisoned the relationship right off the bat.
The artwork on the last three pages has taken a huge leap forward. No disrespect to Antipus, who has done wonderful work, but whats the deal?
@ravenwald I don’t think it’s a difference in artistic skill so much as artistic style. This new style has rougher gradients with a bit more color blurred in where the other style had smoother color transitions with more focus on well captured action(motion) than color depth.
I enjoy both styles and recognize the skill in both, but yeah this new artist makes more pictureske pages than we had a few pages ago
Theresa learned an important lesson here, read documents before signing; there is a famous case of Dmitry Argarkov who printed out the t&c of a credit card agreement, typed it back up with a few altered words in his favour, signed and sent it back to the bank who then signed it. Their claim of “but we didn’t read it” did not impress the judge who found in favour of Argarkov. The onus is on the signer to read it.
Good job she learned it in private with a guy who is unlikely to hold a grudge over it. Can you imagine if she screwed up like that with someone like Coriander? She might have lost a little face with Urtica, but it will still stand her in good stead and that will make the church stronger and more stable in the long run. She’ll now attend each document closely, and keep her temper under control too.
That guy with the halitosis she is sending; I bet Urtica does listen to him closely too, even if he does reek. That is what competent administrators do, they listen to the message not the messenger.
@vonTugboat: Cerulean is being more than fair. That’s not how contracts work, as CaptainXpendeble said.
@Bad taiming: That hardly justifies him manipulating her and lying to her. In fact, she just realized it was all a trick and Urtica just used her, so she’s has no reason to be grateful since all he gave her was meaningless.
@Andor: No, Urtica is under criticism for being a manipulative a!!!!!e and Teresa isn’t wrong in saying that it will come back to bite him. Which isn’t a threat, just a matter of fact.
You can only backstab so many people before it’s you with a blade at your back.
Also, it was Typhan-Knee being Typhan-Knee that saved everyone this time.
Urtica, as others have noted, is doing what he believes is best for his kingdom–and I believe he is correct. Theresa acted carelessly in the duel by failing to warn Urtica of the Duet, and again in signing the Divorce without reading it. She has indeed begun her tenure as Primate of the Church badly; she has two strikes against her.
Theresa could have fully invested herself in her new sex, married the King, and become Queen. She could have enjoyed a powerful lover. She could have received all the powers and privileges of her position, been a wise, kind, and patient protector to her adoring people. She could have exercised her magic for the benefit of the land, and acted as liason with a humbled Church. She could have been a legendary Queen of great renown.
She could have been a royal mother as well, loving her children and basking in their love for her.
Instead she chose to treat her new sex as no more than a playful costume, a kind of toy, while grasping the powers of her Church, against its traditions and likely the will and conscience of many of its members.
She wanted both the social powers of her new femininity and the political power of her abandoned masculinity–and fumbled them both.
A few strips ago she complained that embracing her “new youth and vigor allowed in more naivete” than she realized. She forgot that Typh’s spell molds its target into her own view of womanhood. She became what she believes women to be, and let me say it, what she always was at heart–a good spirited if somewhat flighty woman.
For all her intelligence and ability, Theresa needs a husband, and Urtica would have been ideal.
Now she has an adversary, if not an enemy (unless she makes him one by pursuing revenge).
It is loss for her, for Urtica, for the Church, and for the kingdom and its people.
Her only way out is to humble herself, pass her Church leadership to a trusted associate, and accept a true marriage with Urtica. If she did, the divorce would be null and void, and the restrictions on the Church–now known only to her and Urtica–would evaporate.
Otherwise, this is deep tragedy, with good lessons for many in our own world.
@Jake et al, it is how contracts work. Once you sign it, it is binding. You can’t then go and say “this isn’t what we said we’d agree” because a verbal agreement is not worth the paper it is printed on. The printed and signed version is the agreement. A lawyer might be able to go to a court and argue buyers remorse or sellers regret, but 9 times out of 10 they will fail because the signed version is what you signed to say you’d agree. You can object right up until you signed and say before then that this is not what you’d agreed.
The Paris Agreement between America and France is a good example, the French snuck in a “typo” that would have made it a lot more binding if it had been signed with it in, but it was caught before hand and edited. However even the most notorious deal breaker on the planet, the USA, admitted it would have been legally binding if it went through. The typo was merely adding in the word “shall” btw:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2015/dec/16/how-a-typo-nearly-derailed-the-paris-climate-deal
That is why you read something first to make sure it is what you agreed.
@ Cerulean Lion – Urtica never actually lied about the song, he just didn’t mention everything he knew. Besides, loyalty doesn’t erase mistakes, especially at the level a king plays at. Urtica’s deceptions and misdirection, even toward his allies, is done to save his kingdom, not make friends. Lost allies can be replaced, his country cannot. It’s high risk poker, constantly…of course he’s going to bluff.
@ Jake – Typhan-Knee did save the day, but I never meant that Urtica did everything himself. In fact, you make my point for me…the king keeps Tiff around intentionally, knowing she’s roughly an “ally” who will help him and the kingdom, but he doesn’t disclose everything to her. He misleads her, withholds information, and yes…he would lie to Tiff if he needed to. But she understands why he does this. She doesn’t like it, but she understands the need, because Tiff understands leadership on that level. Remember when Urtica clocked Tiff in prison to “show is respect” by hitting her back from the parade? Tiff actually thought it was funny…she “gets” Urtica. I think Theresa is ruled a bit more by pride than by wisdom in many cases. She still doesn’t get what it takes to play at those stakes…she’s still too idealistic.
@Andor: Excellent point about Tiff “getting” Urtica, while Terry does not.
I’d add only my thought that this points up the essential difference between the two: at her core, Tiff is male, while Terry is female.
Terry is acting very much the jilted lover, precisely the kind of behavior that you don’t want in the leader of an organization like the Church. Urtica is able to distinguish between his self interest and the interests of his nation. Terry cannot.
@50srefugee @Andor I agree as well. Like her stunt. When Coriander tried to play legal manipulation and Tiff decided to go after him, what did she do, declare her resignation and independence, Then after her strike she “allowed” herself to be arrested.
@Archone, Urtica shouldn’t have *needed* to point anything out to Teresa. It’s obvious the book is needed to prosecute. It should be obvious that Urtica would need the book until Teresa cleaned house at the Church. It should therefore be obvious that in demanding the book back up-front, Teresa is demanding a reset of conditions that led to an attempted coup.
For Teresa to be a *good* ally for Urtica, she has to be able to think ahead the same way Urtica does.
A good ally would have said before signing the divorce, “Hmmm…Hydra blood on Hydra skin. What’s on here that needs this kind of…Oh. Well played. [sign anyway] [rip] Here’s your copy. I’ll send for the book when I have things locked down.”
Urtica might have bedded her then and there.
@Random22, actually contracts made under duress or false pretenses are NOT legally binding. If I point a loaded gun to your head and make you sign a contract, that contract is going to be thrown out of court. If I tell you a contract says one thing and it actually says another, that too is likely to be thrown out – in your case of Mister Argikov, the judge was doing his job and dispensing justice – and credit card companies have traditionally gotten away with relying on fine print and people not reading it to get away with some very shady things. The company had every opportunity to double check that the shady and underhanded terms that were signed were the same as the ones they’d sent out. But in this case, things are different. Urtica can be said to be guilty of Breach of Trust (an actual legal term, referring to when you trust someone to act in your best interests and they abuse that trust. Usually applied to lawyers and financial advisers).
@Vorlonagent, allies don’t have to be able to think alike. They simply have to work together. Niels and Bohr don’t think the way Urtica does – but they’re two of his greatest allies because they are loyal to a fault. And it’s not obvious that Teresa is demanding any kind of reset of anything – she’s just expecting him to abide by the original deal. Saying “it should have been obvious I’d have to break our agreement” doesn’t justify a thing.
@50s refugee, that… sounds rather sexist. She’s not acting like a jilted lover. She’s acting like someone who just got betrayed by the ally she trusted.
Bottom line: Urtica had good intentions behind what he did. But he’s not perfect, he didn’t do everything 100% correctly, he’s not the chessmaster some are claiming him to be. Typh acting the way she did took EVERYONE by surprise. So did the magical duel. So did Coriander attempting to walk away with a sneer and a promise to do even more nastiness, while Urtica was openly and genuinely confused as to whether he could even do something about it. And even his complaint that Teresa failed to provide full disclosure (of an archaic legal clause that hadn’t been used in a century because it was considered tantamount to an admission of guilt) rings hollow when he actively concealed information from her from the start.
End result: he’s alienated a friend and ally. He left a lot of people suspicious and wary of future dealings with him. And he almost failed in his scheme to take down Coriander, until Typh saved the day with a well aimed swing of his sword.
@Archone. This contract was not made under duress. Terry was afforded time and opportunity to read it through, she CHOSE OF HER OWN FREE WILL not to take advantage of that instead perfunctorily signing it assuming that everything would be in order. There was no force or duress involved. That is the kind of behaviour that a leader of a politically significant faction cannot afford to indulge in.
@Random 22:
You make a good point. Teresa needs to be less trusting, and to read before she signs.
None the less, Urtica committed a fraud upon Teresa. Her carelessness (and I would bet she will not repeat that mistake) does not excuse his deceit.
Further her error was that she /trusted/ Urtica. That may be a political failing but it is not a moral flaw.
@Random, what Cerulean said. It wasn’t made under duress. It was made under false pretenses. There’s a misconception regarding legal contracts as a result of fiction – there’s a TV Tropes page I’ll link here, and then I’ll sum it up:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReadTheFinePrint
In summary: a contract is the written record of an oral agreement between parties. You agree to a deal, you shake hands… and then you write down the details of the deal so you won’t forget. If there is a discrepancy between the deal as understood and the written record, it’s fraudulent. If you tell someone that a contract says one thing and then it actually says another… it’s fraudulent.
I`m really loving this comic.
@Nimeyal: And the comments page is fun too.
@Archone:
Since Theresa was signing what she thought was a divorce decree, and Urtica inserted clauses dealing with the state/church relation that had not been discussed, I think you may be right. (At least under modern contract law.)
However, I still think Terry’s reaction was out of line for her office, and she acted very carelessly in regards to the Duet, and in signing the decree without reading.
In my mind, she failed crucial tests of fitness for office.
So… does anyone else think that, with the shadows of the second panel… Urtica looks apologetic? His mouth, his eyes, posture… They seem to be reserved. He is legitimately upset that it came to this.
Hrm… but is that right? He seemed pretty smug just the previous panel… So perhaps it’s not that he is legitimately upset that it came to this, but rather, that he realizes just how true Theresa’s words are? He tries to put forward that there are no hard feelings, by putting forward his concern about returning her ears to normal.
Supported by after the fact, where he starts to quip again, something Theresa noted was absent while he was mid-scheme. He is trying, in some small way, to salvage the relationship. Theresa seems to acknowledge this, despite being still more than a little bit pissed with her response to his joke about the garlic and onions.
She’s mad, yes, but she knows he’s making an effort to not be an a!!!!!e, and so she’s trying to do the same.
@50srefugee True. Still the point that someday this is all going to backfire on him stands.
@Ben: I don’t think that’s Urtica’s view. He’s been in wars, and knows about battle plans meeting enemies. He improvised a solution to achieve his immediate goal, which I think he had not foreseen the need to do, and he will improvise further on down the road.
He is a dynamic leader.
@50srefugee It is implied that just as the curse affected Typh’s mindset it affected Theresa and that now that’s she’s aware of it it should be gone. What’s more I was NOT talking about Theresa or anyone specifically. What
I WAS doing was pointing out that Urtica’s behavior is the type of thing that makes people tend not to trust him. Someday he will be in a position where he needs trust and finds he has none. Think the boy cried wolf on an international scale.
Most important, he learned something about Therese’s character. This knowledge will have its costs, but he can now take Therese’s volatility into account in future dealings with her.
@50srefugee, you’re being very much an Urtica fanboy here. Urtica has made some smart choices. He’s also made some bad choices and mistakes. This is a guy whose first meeting with Typh involved walking up to the angry barbarian lady with his jaw leading the way, right after humiliating his daughter in public:
http://www.exiern.com/2010/08/24/exiern-2010-08-06-web/
He didn’t “learn something about Teresa’s character” this time. He enraged a friend and ally by altering the terms of their deal and betraying her trust. Imagine what Typhan-Knee would have done in Teresa’s place. Or… pretty much anyone else. He done goofed. And as Naroji noted, he seems to know it. He didn’t achieve a net gain here – not if he’s alienated the new leader of the Church, a powerful spellsinger, and a friend.
Running a bit behind, eh?