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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+.
She looks heavy, but that’s definitely before the advent of the bulbous bow, or it’s too small to really use one. It looks relatively close and small, but perspective is tricky.
Probably post-WW2. The flag looks Greek, but it’s backwards (pretty sure the cross part should be near the flagpole, not away from it.) It lacks a sonar dome and I don’t see any radars. Dunno what the hull number 54 means.
It is a Hellenic Naval ensign, but it is being flown backwards. The Leon (D54) served in the Hellenic Navy from 1951 to 1992. It was the former USS Eldridge, the vessel involved in the “Philadelphia Experiment”.
I wonder if there going to board it. That would make an interesting twist to this story. They might get some interesting weapons or technology that they woren’t expecting. It would really throw things out of wack in this reality.
A long time ago, The Travelers were a thing. As I recall, they were retconned out (or, rather, most of the pages where they were mentioned/expanded on were dropped out of existence when the art was redone the first time)
But it was heavily implied that The Travelers were people from our world. Faden spoke of their tools and abilities, and all seemed to pretty much line up with a “Post-Modern” IRL world with robots, alarm clocks and all manner of guns and other “Magic”.
This seems to imply that the lore of The Travelers is still intact, at least, partly… This is a ship which is far more modern than anything else we have seen in Exiern. Perhaps it is how The Travelers come to this world? Or perhaps, it is considered a Traveler, in and of itself, albeit a non-living one, and the method by which it traveled to this realm (dimension-hopping, time travel, etc) is still an unknown?
I don’t recall the bit about them creating the nix, though I do recall that there was a Nix (featured in a backstory-story that went on very very long) who wanted revenge against the travelers, for some reason.
I also know that the formerly-male Nix was waiting somewhere for people to come to his pool to be killed, and didn’t leave until their pool was destroyed, and their essence tied to the Spellsinger who did it… And only once they were “freed” from their pool, did they seek revenge against the Travelers, whom they had such hatred for.
But why did they wait? Last Nix knew, The Travelers were still around, but they’ve been gone for longer than anyone seems to remember, leaving only artifacts behind. Clearly, Nix was restrained, potentially by The Travelers, themselves. It’s as good a reason as any to hate them so much that you want them all dead.
The problem with the travelers, however, is that we have no definite lore. We have rumors. Stories. Legend. They have been gone for so long, and were looked at as Gods, of a sort. But most of their strangeness seemed to be based in technology which are sci-fi to us (like smart phones, robots and portable computers were to us, mere decades ago), but seemed like insurmountable godly power to a race of beings that have actual magic.
It’s… kinda why I had defined it as a “post-modern” IRL world. It is not the modern world… but sometime past that. Perhaps not traditionally “futuristic” but… definitely further along the timeline than we are now. Especially when you consider the fairly modern design of that cruiser, which doesn’t really read as the ship of a super-advanced scientific society, but one which is very similar to our own.
It implies a world that has made certain strides in certain directions (genetic engineering, cyborgs, perhaps even time travel), but the full effects of which have not spread across the rest of their world. They’re not running around in rocket-cars and jetpacks. These grand strides are still new, or, otherwise, did not have a far-reaching effect.
Of course, like I said before, this is all based on the implication that this cruiser is somehow related to the Travelers, whose lore, for the most part, has been deleted, altered and/or lost over the course of 2-4 replacement authors.
Fairly sure the reason Nix was ‘trapped’ was because they were restricted to their pool, and when the spellsinger (who was good friends to the Nix when they were male) fell in and was ‘absorbed’ by the Nix (or she absorbed the Nix), Nix was ‘free’ to leave
Yeah. fair enough. Not really sure, there… Still, the point has long ago been made that, at some point, their world was very similar to our own, and/or still had vestiges of our commonplace comforts in their world.
Of course, if they are still considered time-travellers, they very likely could be from the far-flung future of Exiern, where magical nonsense is still the norm, augmented by technology and years of advances in both the aforementioned magic and the obviously-advanced tech.
Brings to mind the Time Slip from the movies G.I. Samurai and The Final Countdown. It’s reasonable to think there could be similar phenomena for multi-dimentional storms as well as time.
No. The conning tower/bridge deck configuration is wrong. The former USS Eldridge is a better explanation (as noted above) because to the mystery and élan associated with it.
USS Eldridge DE-173, seconded to Greek Naval service as D54 Leon (Image Here) — Much better visual match, even with artistic license (and fog obscuring details)
Antietam? Massachussets?
She looks heavy, but that’s definitely before the advent of the bulbous bow, or it’s too small to really use one. It looks relatively close and small, but perspective is tricky.
Basically: Which ship(s) is she based off?
Is that a modern ship?
A modern ship… trapped in Superman’s overgrown Fortress of Solitude.
Verily, a sight one does not see every day.
Probably post-WW2. The flag looks Greek, but it’s backwards (pretty sure the cross part should be near the flagpole, not away from it.) It lacks a sonar dome and I don’t see any radars. Dunno what the hull number 54 means.
It is a Hellenic Naval ensign, but it is being flown backwards. The Leon (D54) served in the Hellenic Navy from 1951 to 1992. It was the former USS Eldridge, the vessel involved in the “Philadelphia Experiment”.
The Eldridge… yes, that makes perfect sense.
So maybe this is a parallel world version of the Eldridge, where the “Philadelphia Experiment” worked, or just spawned this duplicate.
“Let the Woukee win!”
I wonder if there going to board it. That would make an interesting twist to this story. They might get some interesting weapons or technology that they woren’t expecting. It would really throw things out of wack in this reality.
Are we sure it isn’t the Israeli ensign? After all we can’t see the whole flag.
That’s not the Israeli naval ensign….that flag IS the Greek one.
I didn’t expect the warship revelation.
No one expects the warship revelation 😛
A long time ago, The Travelers were a thing. As I recall, they were retconned out (or, rather, most of the pages where they were mentioned/expanded on were dropped out of existence when the art was redone the first time)
But it was heavily implied that The Travelers were people from our world. Faden spoke of their tools and abilities, and all seemed to pretty much line up with a “Post-Modern” IRL world with robots, alarm clocks and all manner of guns and other “Magic”.
This seems to imply that the lore of The Travelers is still intact, at least, partly… This is a ship which is far more modern than anything else we have seen in Exiern. Perhaps it is how The Travelers come to this world? Or perhaps, it is considered a Traveler, in and of itself, albeit a non-living one, and the method by which it traveled to this realm (dimension-hopping, time travel, etc) is still an unknown?
Who knows.
I dunno… IIRC the Travelers also created the nixes and other mythical creatures. Seems a bit beyond the capabilities of anyone from this world.
I don’t recall the bit about them creating the nix, though I do recall that there was a Nix (featured in a backstory-story that went on very very long) who wanted revenge against the travelers, for some reason.
I also know that the formerly-male Nix was waiting somewhere for people to come to his pool to be killed, and didn’t leave until their pool was destroyed, and their essence tied to the Spellsinger who did it… And only once they were “freed” from their pool, did they seek revenge against the Travelers, whom they had such hatred for.
But why did they wait? Last Nix knew, The Travelers were still around, but they’ve been gone for longer than anyone seems to remember, leaving only artifacts behind. Clearly, Nix was restrained, potentially by The Travelers, themselves. It’s as good a reason as any to hate them so much that you want them all dead.
The problem with the travelers, however, is that we have no definite lore. We have rumors. Stories. Legend. They have been gone for so long, and were looked at as Gods, of a sort. But most of their strangeness seemed to be based in technology which are sci-fi to us (like smart phones, robots and portable computers were to us, mere decades ago), but seemed like insurmountable godly power to a race of beings that have actual magic.
It’s… kinda why I had defined it as a “post-modern” IRL world. It is not the modern world… but sometime past that. Perhaps not traditionally “futuristic” but… definitely further along the timeline than we are now. Especially when you consider the fairly modern design of that cruiser, which doesn’t really read as the ship of a super-advanced scientific society, but one which is very similar to our own.
It implies a world that has made certain strides in certain directions (genetic engineering, cyborgs, perhaps even time travel), but the full effects of which have not spread across the rest of their world. They’re not running around in rocket-cars and jetpacks. These grand strides are still new, or, otherwise, did not have a far-reaching effect.
Of course, like I said before, this is all based on the implication that this cruiser is somehow related to the Travelers, whose lore, for the most part, has been deleted, altered and/or lost over the course of 2-4 replacement authors.
Fairly sure the reason Nix was ‘trapped’ was because they were restricted to their pool, and when the spellsinger (who was good friends to the Nix when they were male) fell in and was ‘absorbed’ by the Nix (or she absorbed the Nix), Nix was ‘free’ to leave
I found a bit:
http://archive.exiern.com/comic/pip-and-ce-5/
Inter-rest-ting…
Yeah. fair enough. Not really sure, there… Still, the point has long ago been made that, at some point, their world was very similar to our own, and/or still had vestiges of our commonplace comforts in their world.
Of course, if they are still considered time-travellers, they very likely could be from the far-flung future of Exiern, where magical nonsense is still the norm, augmented by technology and years of advances in both the aforementioned magic and the obviously-advanced tech.
Brings to mind the Time Slip from the movies G.I. Samurai and The Final Countdown. It’s reasonable to think there could be similar phenomena for multi-dimentional storms as well as time.
USS Curtis Wilbur ? https://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ddg54/Pages/default.aspx
No. The conning tower/bridge deck configuration is wrong. The former USS Eldridge is a better explanation (as noted above) because to the mystery and élan associated with it.
*because of…
USS Eldridge DE-173, seconded to Greek Naval service as D54 Leon (Image Here) — Much better visual match, even with artistic license (and fog obscuring details)
The link is broken (today at least). ☹️
Fixed as best I could.
Maybe the Bermuda Triangle leads to these lands?