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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- Dark Days Ahead January 12, 2020
- Top Webcomics Voting Incentives for January 2020 January 1, 2020
- Bloomin’ Faeries vs Exiern Final! December 6, 2019
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- Top Webcomics Voting Incentives for December December 1, 2019
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Recent Comments
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Oh, this is not a good sign.
Why do I hear a funeral march?
Methinks the new Queen may not be as harmless as previously thought.
What worries me most is how the maid is undaunted by the grim statue.
@TotallyAnon she obviously has been taking care of Isabel for some time now, so she’s probably used to it and just makes sure she’s ok. We’ve also seen those two maids before.
@WindSinger Isabel isn’t dead, she was just turned to stone. In theory she can be turned back. She’s Peonie’s friend though, so the princess will obviously not be happy about what Teresa has done.
Spellsinger or not… i think Peonie’s got some stepmotherly a!s to kick now.
Can someone remind who that character is again? I honestly don’t remember her (I really wish this site had a list of characters to help remind me) also how the hell is this NOT evil? It looks like the woman was pegging for her life before being turned to stone. Unless the author says it’s only temporary he just made the new Queen do something super evil.
“Evil” is pretty subjective. If she was turned to stone for mocking the Church of Rem, there are plenty of people who might consider this less “evil” and more “justice”. It might even be considered an act of ultimate “good” if it acts as penalty/penance here in the physical world, as opposed to paying for it in the afterlife (i.e. the Queen is saving Isabel’s soul by punishing her now). If nothing else, it may not be so much evil as it is reactionary…if you have a national church and someone publicly mocks it, you’ve kind of GOT to do something about it. Something at least as public as the mocking was. It’s all part of keeping order, sometimes hard choices need to be made.
At least she wasn’t caught eating the wrong sandwich in the icebox. It’s marked in permanent marker, you know…
There’s an ELO song that fits this…
And just whose word do we have to go by about her crime? How do we know that is what ACTUALLY happened?
Now, what if Isabel’s not the statue, but the MAID? The grand punishment being a reduction in status, turned into a lowly servant. Wouldn’t that be a twist?
As though Princess P-cups really needed another reason to want to stage a coup against her step-‘mother’
Andor: how is it public punishment if the begging statue is shut up in the Crown Princess’ (for now) bed chambers? She wasn’t that much of a tramp that everyone in the city had a key
And the church of Rem is above mockery because….
Honestly, I believe the Church of Rem clearly deserves to be openly mocked at every opportunity. Here’s why, from what we know so far.
1.) The Remians have openly engaged in genocide against the tribes of the North. Not because of anything the tribes have done, mind you, but simply because some priest supposedly had a “vision” telling them to, and wrote official church doctrine to that effect. The priest was later ruled a heretic, and the doctrine overturned, but The Church still sees nothing wrong with the act itself.
2.) There’s the matter of Theresa. A man who’s been a devout, loyal, and well-respected member of the faith is gender-bent by a curse against his will when he and his fellows attempted to lift this curse from another by royal decree. SHE is silenced, arrested, and would have been executed had the King not intervened. Why did the King have to intervene? The blasted priests were arresting her during an invasion by several armed groups while she was trying to defend the castle, seriously hampering her efforts and putting the Princess’s life in jeopardy too!
2.) b.) It’s actually heartbreaking to hear about what happens to other talented spellsingers who became that way as a result of being born daughters to powerful spell singers of the church, like that poor girl who was ordered to beg for her life by Raiders, but couldn’t because she was silenced.
3.) And now we have this. The matter of Isabella.
There are individual priests of Rem who are commendable, like the one who saved Beth-an Knee’s life when he was a teen, and outcast long ago, but the church, as a whole, deserves a LOT of public mockery.
IMO, evil done in the name of any church is all the more evil for being passed as good. But I think we need more information before we can draw conclusions; mainly, whether it’s temporary or permanent, and whether Isabel’s still conscious in an “And I Must Scream” situation.
Either way, I don’t think Peonie will let this one slide.
So what did the corset line in the final panel of last page have to do with anything?
And what about Naomi?
To be fair, it seems Isabel isn’t permanently like this seeing as how Teresa’s assistance was saying that the red headed one should have moved Peonie’s belongings to the b
new room.
@DexterSinister except the maid is a completely different character and the statue looks exactly like Isabel. So what exactly are you implying?
@Andor No, that’s still pretty evil, not to mention petty and disproportionate retribution, even if the spell is only temporary(Again, Teresa’s assistant mentioned Isabel should have moved the Peonie’s things to the new room).
Meh, it’s probably not what it looks like. It’s probably a statue OF her, not actually her. Everyone else is clearly way too cool with it. If the statue were actually her, they would all be in terror of their new queen.
The real woman will probably walk out in the next page, wearing a really tight corset (her actual punishment), and say something like “Wow the statue turned out amazing!”
Oh new quest activated: How to kill a spellsinging witch-queen and save your friends and family”.
Its just a statue the queen while faithful to Rem mocked the church her self. Its a trick so she can be some wear else.Isabel fine bet its the kings idea.
@DexterSinister: “Now, what if Isabel’s not the statue, but the MAID? The grand punishment being a reduction in status, turned into a lowly servant.”
@JMV: It’s probably a statue OF her, not actually her….
The real woman will probably walk out in the next page, wearing a really tight corset (her actual punishment)”
I like both of these options, or something along these lines. I lean towards the idea that the maid dusting the statue is Isabelle, given her greeting to Peonie. She has been deprived not only of status, but of her appearance, and dusting the statue of herself is part of her punishment. Perhaps that is her default task when nothing else is assigned.
This whole “turn a human to stone over a trivial slight” just seems way over the top for Theresa.
@Uhl: “And the church of Rem is above mockery because…. Honestly, I believe the Church of Rem clearly deserves to be openly mocked at every opportunity.”
Theresa’s torment and oppression at the hands of the Church, plus the other offenses you mention, makes Olivia’s description of what happened to be just that: HER description. Theresa probably did this because Isabelle was being mouthy to her personally–but Olivia’s nature is to couch such things in terms of the power structure. People like that are extraordinarily dangerous because their implacable tyranny does not trouble their own conscience.
I’m still uncomfortable with Theresa’s inability to tolerate the minor insubordination of a mere maid. Although of course, we do not know what the actual transgression was, nor even what the actual punishment entailed.
[settles in for another long week]
Except again, the maid is a completely different character and the statue looks exactly like Isabel.
So the maid is obviously not Isabel. Did everyone really forget There characters?
Jake, I’m saying that Theresa changed Isabelle’s appearance as part of the punishment. Those heavy dreads seem high maintenance to me. So Isabelle is given straight black hair, and must spend the time she used to give to her own appearance, to a mere statue in humble supplication. Or something like that. I’m going to reserve judgement until we know more.
In the last comic, Olivia seemed to imply that Isabelle’s fate, whatever it is, is one of the things Peonie must be informed of, but keep to herself. It’s a need to know thing. Why that should be is also something we have not yet been told.
Nor do we know what the deal with the corset is, or even who said the line. Again, I’m reserving judgement until we know more. My speculations are merely that; I’m not trying to predict what will happen next. I mean, I was certainly surprised by this.
This does beg the question of why Teresa never did this to Typhan-Knee. Since Typhan was more than just mouthy in their fights and Teresa is rather prejudice towards barbarians.
Then again, despite frequently mocking Typhan, she still think of him as a friend.
@50srefuge: You don’t seem to understand, that maid is an established character and a completely different character from Isabel.
It’s obviously not her.
Here you go. As you can see, the two Maids we see are sisters. She’s not Isabel and the maid has been a maid since her introduction.
http://www.exiern.com/2011/03/24/begin-infodump-now/
Oh and this old strip is relevant to the current storyline. Isabel defending Typhan from Teresa and the revelation that Isabel knew Teresa back when she was still Thomas.
http://www.exiern.com/2011/05/16/getting-up-to-speed/
http://www.exiern.com/2011/06/27/by-george-i-think-she-got-it/
http://www.exiern.com/2011/06/29/they-know-each-other/
http://www.exiern.com/2011/07/04/by-george-now-she-does-get-it/
So Typhan-Knee won’t be happy since Isabel is also a friend of his.
On the other hand, Isabel and Teresa seem to have some sort of past relationship, so this might be as bad as it seems.
But again, the maid is a completely different character and it’s not Isabel. Actually, it doesn’t seem like the Maid Sisters have been named yet.
*Might not be as bad as it seems
Jake, thanks for the links. You’re correct, I hadn’t realized the black-haired maid had already been established.
The corset comment sure sounds like Isabelle, though, so I’m still holding a hope she isn’t permanently stoned. We’ll see.
yeah, i don’t think she’s permanently stoned either. They have history together and even though Isabel and Teresa snarked at each other, it didn’t seem like Teresa hated her.
Hell, Teresa even seemed proud when Isabel out smarted her back at the party. I’m starting to think Olivia doesn’t understand Teresa’s relationship with her “friends”.
Now wondering if Isabelle made the mistake of trying to use her past affair with Thomas to gain leverage over Theresa, somehow. Blackmail, that sort of thing. Even that doesn’t really sound right, though. I dunno.
Isabel didn’t seem like the type and she values her friendship with the princess.
My guess is that she did in fact tried to stop the wedding for Peonie’s sake like Peonie had mentioned and this happened.
…And now that Peonie’s back, she can be restored. Makes sense.
Ah, I see it now: Isabelle’s sentence is that while her senses are intact, she is unable to move, even to speak.
And here she is, her naked body tormented with feather dusters, day in, day out, wielded non stop by maids working in shifts without letup.
Unable to avoid, laugh, or even twitch. Why, she can’t even sneeze from the dust.
Theresa is indeed a cruel queen.
🙂
How did Teresa remove Isabel’s clothes?
I feel like a page is skip. Last page there was talk about a corset and her face was shocked. Now she seems to be calm, and just cleaning, so a little confused.
Also I wonder if she aware or not, as being aware even a worst punishment.
Hey all, remember that idea that popped up a while ago about Peonie being a young goddess? This would be a great opportunity for that to start coming into play.
@mhalpern;
Fire On High, off of Face of the Music?
Still say it is not her that the whole thinks a sneaky king trick, might even be in the letter the Princess never got, I often wondered if Isebel was more than a Lady in waiting in medevil society’s they wear just glorified fluff and alibies that they wear not commiting adultery but in earlier none Christian ones ladies in waiting wear Assassins body guards, basically BC they could go with a female royal wear men could not. If she was a bodyguard she was ether really bad at it or really good since Poeney was kidnapped half dozen times yet she survived! Still she might bone her job from shadows spilling that drink of poison and oh my did you new boytoy (assasin)slip break his neck to bad Princess ! Ether way that statue not her unless she was poisoned and it was done to save her, like I said Toma’s faith is solid but he/she hated the crap the church did more than any and mocked her/his fellow priests constantly ! So its a trick or the real reason a secret ,I.e poison , or she astro traveling or needs to otherwise take a nap, and the king wanted his new bride just a tad feared!
I almost wonder if this is a joke trick, and the next page we find out it a statue of her, and not her turn to stone, lol.
@Jonathan Wint: That’s all very unlikely.
Wait, who was that again? I don’t recognize her…
Alright! Kinzie’s back!
Marscaleb, see Jake’s links upthread starting here:
http://www.exiern.com/2015/02/03/stone-cold-queen-decree/comment-page-1/#comment-97441
I have no idea what is going on.
Frankly, Nick, it kinda looks like we’re all almost as confused as Peonie herself.
And Peonie is going to vent those frustrations herself.
Exposition Week is coming…
Jake asked “How did Teresa remove Isabel’s clothes?”
You cast a spell that only turns flesh to stone, then cut the clothes off the statue. Assuming she was turned to stone, yada yada.
How much dust does a statue accumulate? Were they freshening her up because Peonie is back in town?
Sorry to post again, are there three maids in the room? In the first panel, there’s one to Peonie’s right (our left) with dark hair, the short haired brunette near the door, and there’s a feather duster behind the statue. The third one is probably the one in full view in panel 2.
@jmucchiello: Or she was nude to begin with.
And the only Maids there are the two sisters. Speaking of…
@ScottHickens: Will we finally find out their names? Also, will we find out more of Isabel’s and Teresa’s history? It didn’t seem like Teresa hated Isabel, so this action was rather extreme, eveven for Teresa.
No, there are three maids: the one with the duster has longer, straighter, hair than the one to Princess P-cups’ right
@jake time will tell, but to clearly my guesses, one that Isabel not a statue or else it was done for benevolent reasons not to punish, two Iseabel is more than window dressing and real jod protecting and keeping princess out of trouble, three the kings Behind it, four its done in part to help the new queen look scary.
@jonathan wint: Again, unlikely
You have to remember that Isabel is no warrior. I fact, she was rather shocked to learn that Tiffany was a warrior, remember?
So with all due respect, but you guess doesn’t match what we know of her character.
@Guesticus Then it’s probably their mom, see the links i posted in page 1.
“Everybody ought to have a maid…” But there are three here. In order, clockwise, starting in the first frame:
1. A maid with long black hair standing with her back to us.
2. Mackenzie, the short-haired blond (last seen hyped on sugar and coco and possibly something else).
3. Featherduster, wielded by (in the second frame) another maid with long black hair.
Going back to the first maid scene at Jake’s link (thank you Jake) the three maids are ‘Kenzie, her sister, with long black hair, and a third maid with long red hair, possibly their mother.
So here we’ve got two maids with long black hair, and Kenzie. We are missing the red head.
The dusting maid is quite familiar with Peonie. I am again turning to my original guess, that Isabel has been magically demoted from handmaid to the Princess, down to cleaning girl. She is dusting herself.
Can’t be sure, of course, but that’s my best guess, given what we now know.
Most likely alternative: one of the two black haired maids is someone we’ve never met.
Forgive me, but I do not remember Isabell. Who was that?
@Natalie EGH: I posted a link in page one and in the comics of the last strip.
@50srefuge Except the one dusting Isabel is the maid we saw previously, we’ve been over this. It’s not Isabel.
And of course the maids are familiar with the princess, why wouldn’t they be?
@Jake: There are two maids with long black hair. My suggestion is that one of them is the former Isabel, and I’m guessing that the one who speaks up in greeting is her.
Of course, there could well be a black haired maid we simply haven’t met yet. And I grant it’s rather far-fetched. I just don’t want Theresa to be so wicked as to turn the Princess’ handmaiden to stone over what seems a minor slight.
We’ll see in a few days. “Exposition Week” looms. I’m certainly prepared to be wrong, because I really am grasping at straws. And my score on predictions is horrible. But guessing is fun.
@50srefugee, Those transgressions I mentioned are actual FACT in story, not Olivia’s interpretation, except perhaps #3.
#1 and #2 CLEARLY deserve rebuke in public and in private, by professional jesters, and town criers. Especially 2b.
Since The Church clearly sees nothing wrong with following “sacred doctrine” written by someone under the influence, plays should continuously and repeatedly be made about drunken, or crazed “priests” writing “doctrine” with more and more bizarre, outrageous, and humiliating things, and actors dressed as priests DOING IT BECAUSE IT’S “SCRIPTURE” until The Church finally gets the message, and stops thinking “The Purge of the North” was a good thing.
For #2, we can easily have plays where men dressed up as women lament that they can’t sing BY LAW (rips open bodice to have fruit fall out) “BECAUSE WE’RE NOT MEN!” (It could even have some rather racy limericks, and would sure sell tickets well.) Or better yet, they could re-enact the scene where three armies are attacking Castle Urtica, and Theresa is fighting by the King’s side, only for Priests of Rem to run up and silence Theresa mid-battle and have the Gel-onies carry the princess away.
I could go on. Even in the Middle Ages, satire was one of the primary vehicles for social change. Killing a Jester is always bad form. Even Kings could face serious consequences for doing so.
MACKENZIE!!!!
DAUGHTER OF DOOMSAYER OLD MAC!!!
Sorry, Granddaughter, not daughter.
Still! I have hope that she will become a part of the team and assist them in overthrowing the false Doomsayer!
@50srefuge: Except that’s clearly not the case, since she’s the maid whom we’ve seen before. And greeting Peonie isn’t proof of anything, since both maids know Pionie, why wouldn’t they great her?
As for Teresa being wicked, we’ve seen her meanstreak before, so this wouldn’t be new.
@Jake we know very little about her thats why there guesses.And shocked could all be a act. For all we know Isabel a Ninja. A warrior may seems a stretch but we know nothing of her.I was thinking more spy and Assassin type. But we do know she survived all of Peonies Kidnappings.
And we do Know it would be out of character for Teresa to be STONING some one. Her Fellow Priest of Rem Yes but not Teresa. She Shown a Very Different Attitude.
Well i guess if it is reversible and she is not aware of time passing it would be much like being frozen in carbonite. If she is dead(probably not) who cares.
At lease it is better that the normal stoning religitards do.
Unexpected and sinister, regardless of the reason. Makes me wonder if there was another reason why the ‘Brothers’ decided to silence the new queen. Even if there is a way to change her back, or if its temporary, the risk of breakage and the obviously involuntary nudity are both not cool…plus, is there an implication that she’s aware inside that inanimate state? How many days? What can that do to a person’s mental state, especially not knowing how long it will last.
Queenie is definitely shaping up to be a bad (ex) guy.
Though one thing to consider (from comments above) is that while it may be out of character for the Theresa from established canon, with all the reality slips in their last adventure, do we know if they returned to their own time and place? i.e. this may not be the Theresa we know and sort of tolerate…
@50sRefugee:
That’s an example of what I like about this comic: Something for Everyone!
Ok, I remember Theresa and she’s mentioned on the cast/character page, but who’s Isabel?
@uhl: “Those transgressions I mentioned are actual FACT in story, not Olivia’s interpretation, except perhaps #3.”
I’m speaking of Olivia’s interpretation of what Isabel did to get punished as transgressions against the church.
I absolutely concur that the church itself has transgressed and deserves scorn. My point was that Theresa has been the church’s victim, so that she would be unlikely to punish a mere maid for idle mockery.
Olivia, however, is a stickler for the rules. She might well have misinterpreted Theresa’s actions. Especially in the presence of mere cleaning maids, who need (in Olivia’s opinion) to be kept in their place.
@That One Guy:
Isabel is Peonie’s handmaiden. Link Master Jake pointed to her first appearance:
2011/02/17/it-did-happen-alot/
My bet is currently on Theresa desperately keeping herself unspelled with her constant humming, and her weird actions are because she one of the only ones in the kingdom not enspelled, but the enemy they’re dealing with doesn’t realize she’s not truly part of the act.
So she’s playing up her part while still trying to protect who she can? And part of that plan meant becoming Queen, and then after that circumstances forced her hand and she had to play up the haughty, ruthless, new Queen bit, which ended in Isabel stoned as he only safe option.
@zero_traveler, I really like that. Isabel may even have volunteered, under the condition that it would not be permanent. That would make Olivia’s “mocking the Church of Rem” comment part of the act for the benefit of the unknowing maids. It would also explain Olivia’s previous comment to Peonie that there are things she must be told, but must keep to herself.
I’m not sure about the humming, but something like that is in play.
@Jonathan Wint: No, we no a lot about Isabel, we’ve seen her before in the strip, she’s an established character. This is not the first time we’ve seen her. Seeing her reaction to Typhan-Knee being a warrior, it’s unlikely she is one herself.
@50srefuge: Indeed! I fully believe Teresa only meant to turn Isabel to stone so she wouldn’t stop the wedding until Peonie’s return. But now that the wedding is over and Peonie is back, Isabel will return her to normal (Like you said in a previous comment).
Plus Teresa left Isabel in Peonie’s room, so it doesn’t seem like she did it to humiliate Isabel, since she left her where no one could see her. Except for the maids, but it seems they were instructed too keep Isabel clean.
Olivia probably misunderstood why the queen did it.
@Jake, yeah that makes a lot of sense. Although the church wedding is still to happen, so Peonie will be there for that. And the wedding has not yet been consummated, so if there is some nefarious plot afoot, Peonie and Tiff still have the chance to derail it.
She looks pretty well STONED to me ! 😆
@jake you really think the king never had a. Body guard for his daughter before? As for reaction it might be to the thought Poenie was getting a replacement bodyguard and blatantly obvouse one at that, as for what we know of her it is this she a friend of the princess and a polished lady in waiting, every thing Else is just your assumptions Jake! We do know she studied something with Trother Thomas when he was a guy and her lover and freind, and it was not magic, you remember Brother Thomas was a teacher that tought Marshal Arts! Gee wonder whonder what he was teaching the Lady in waiting of princesss who was constantly kidnapped?
@ jonathan wint Well whoever the previous bodyguard was they sure we’re awful at their job. If they were halfway decent Peonie wouldn’t get kidnapped so much
@JonathanWint: The previous bodyguard wasn’t good at their job and likely died when Faden kidnapped her.
And what we know about Isabel isn’t assumption, it’s fact. It’s what we’ve seen on panel and what we’ve see her state herself.
@JonathanWint Oh and brother Thomas was man that liked the company of men, he and Isabel obviously were not lovers.
@ Jake It was established when they first meet. Jake they were Exes and Friends.
Enough bitch to turn you to stone
Just like Medusa