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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+.
Thanks, Chaucer59. I can’t decide what upsets me more; that I missed that despite MULTIPLE proofreads, or that when I uploaded my FIRST attempt to fix it I realized I’d written “…sort out my on own.”
I thought Tiff had come to terms with/acceptance of her current state during the last story arc? It just seems that this is more regression than development.
@Ambaryerno Not at all, this is progression. Typhan accepted that he’s a gay man, he even told the bookworm he still wants to return to being male again when he told Typhan this was “better”.
To put it simply, Typhan came to terms with his attraction to men. That doesn’t mean he wants to stay in a female body.
@Ambaryeno, there is also the small matter of the curse making her clothing both highly impractical and extremely uncomfortable, not to mention dangerous. Can you imagine a suit of platemail (and all the undergarments that go with it) suddenly transforming into a plate bikini in battle, IN WINTER TIME, or the frozen north? Furthermore, chainmail/plate bikinis only exist in fiction for a very real reason, those plates can cut and chafe the skin beneath, and that could lead to a very real threat of tetanus infection, which without modern antibiotics could be fatal.
I’d guessed that Typh (See? I can compromise) was naked, having torn off the brass. But she still has at least the bottom on.
The gash in the door–I mean, the split in the wood!–shows the sword went through aligned with the grain, which might just barely be possible. Wood is much easier to split than cut.
I like the little puffs around Typh’s head; she’s gasping with her exertions.
And for some reason, I can’t help but think that Urtica’s last question about Peony was a deliberate prod. I bet he’s smiling inside.
What will she wear to the clothing shop? And what will she get there?
@50srefugee: She doesn’t need to go to the clothing store. She can order the store to be brought to her. There are some perks to being a King’s Knight, and more to owning a very big pile of gold.
It wasn’t wearing the clothes that triggered the spell. It was cutting the hair. This appears to be an intelligent spell, and it decided that cutting the hair was just one step too much and she had to be reminded exactly who was boss….;)
That strand of hair has bothered me for years. I actually feel much better about it knowing that it’s not by choice Typh wears it like that. I guess the curse also prevents her from tying it back or tucking it under some form of headgear. It was flapping freely even while Typh was wearing a furlined hood.
A curse is a curse even if it is by way of white magic. Personal i like the lock of hair in her face.
Tiff has to remain womanly or she will feel the curse. She is probably lucky the clothes changing was all that happened.
Hey. It’s been a few years since I last read Exiern, but I’m kind of glad I came back to it. Mostly the same as I remember it, typos and all, but what really got me hooked again was the same reason I started reading the first time: the art. I love seeing how the art and stories progress together as time goes on, and this is a prime example of how many things only get better with age.
I only hope that now I can rely on the update schedule.
Looking forward to joining you all once again on the ride!
@Laughing Jack she did kept driving a knife threw his heart and then pulling it out to revive him! Couple times! Said it was just to keep him helpess killing him over and over! While smiling !
@Ambaryerno, he might have come to terms with being in a female body for now, but that was when he could still manage to wear men’s clothing and put on some bit of masculinity. Now he is even getting robbed of his choice of garb.
@Krahazik, I’m pretty sure she’ll be able to martial dress cut to her form, as long as she doesn’t whack that forelock off with a sword. (I’m rather militant myself about using the female pronoun here.) I think we do yet know the nature of the spell Faden used on her; it certainly surprised him.
There’s a gender-bender trope that when guys get turned into girls, they kick about it a bit at first, as they learn the new rules, but then they discover how much fun their squishy bits are, and just enjoy the ride. “Boys drool, girls rule!” that sort of thing.
I originally started following Exiern because it looked like Typh was going to fight the spell and the trope, insisting on her male identity.
With this later development, though, I’m beginning to think that Typh’s real struggle is going to be actually accepting her female nature. She cannot, must not, try to over-write it, to make herself into something women aren’t, or even to redefine what being a woman is. The spell will not allow that. It’s not that she gives up, either.
It’s that she needs to correct her false understanding of what it means to be female. And that goes far beyond hair, dress, and who you want to have sex with, and goes to understanding the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the female role.
I mentioned the “brass wedgie” think on the “Misfile” forum, and someone said probably – which would at least partly explain how cranky she is.
Another possible explanation that any number of males of the type who don’t think women should try to do “manly things” occurs to me, but i’d wager even the King wouldn’t dare say anything about “time of month”…
@Fairportfan: I think I’m the one who concurred on the brass wedgie at NL.
“males…who don’t think women should try to do ‘manly things'”
As a male who has been characterized that way, it’s not necessarily that women shouldn’t do manly things; it’s that women tend to do womanly things, and men tend to do manly things. Both men and women tend to be more comfortable in cultures that reinforce that. And those cultures tend to be more successful than those that don’t.
Please note my repeated use of the word “tend”.
I’m afraid this idea is something of a bee in my bonnet, and underlies my view of TG comics (and much else).
@50srefugee no other way around! She shapes the spell by what she thinks women truly atr! In her case women knights wear chainmail bikini’s and are chease cake! She wants to dress butch instead of a bimbo she needs to stop seeing women as bimbos! Proble is her role model is Ponies,no need for me to explain that! This exactly the type of outfit she love! What Tiff needs is to meat and see a woman dressed and acting as a barbarian knight warrior soldier! Not a 50 shades of grey extra!
@jonathan See, that’s something I KNOW Tiff has already learned already. She KNOWS from the fight during the royal ball that it’s her perceptions that shape the spell.
Besides she met her basic sister-in-law who is far from being dainty i think it’s mostly motivated by the trauma of her past and her mother, being also tainted by her father.
She met her sister inlaw but dose she realy beleive? Nope !! She needs to see it! Might of made more diffence if she was not so young and hot! No she looked like A fantasy chick Tyth needs a girl role model that dresses like a dude! Or at least not a Swedish bikini team winner! Or at least come to beleave not all women do that. Remember in some ways hi sister inlaw confirmed her beliefs ! she was a double D! and had become powerful by mating her brother with chief!
A metal bikini outfit is ludicrous and impractical. But let’s not forget that when Typhan-Knee first appeared in this comic strip, the outfit being worn was that of wrapped gauntlets, fur boots, a fur loincloth and nothing else. Rather impractical in battle whether you’re in a summer climate or a winter one, no?
I still think Typh’s subconscious is playing with her perceptions. one reason that she can’t see women as strong is that last time she saw it the woman was killed, and she may blame herself since the woman died trying to protect him.
@norman728 mommy issue could be a big part of it and I wonder how that conversation with her grandparents went (I mean we know it was bad but how bad?) Could they of reinforced the old issues? Damaging coment like I.e…”your going to wind up like your mother she had fantacy she was a swords woman to !”
The constant changing of writers is really making the storyline too fluid. Every chapter Typhan-knee goes from accepting being a female, to hating it, to wanting it, to something else…ugh.
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Looks like Typhan is putting his foot down when it comes to his name. You take your victories where you can get them i guess.
Shopping/Changingroom montage!
Typhan-Knee’s fourth speech bubble ends “.. sort out on own.” I’m pretty sure that should be “…sort out on MY own.”
Thanks, Chaucer59. I can’t decide what upsets me more; that I missed that despite MULTIPLE proofreads, or that when I uploaded my FIRST attempt to fix it I realized I’d written “…sort out my on own.”
So, my SECOND fix should start showing up soon.
Guess she thinking bronze underwear better than none.
you know I can’t help thinking that Tiff might be rethinking who came out of that Faden fight the real loser!
I thought Tiff had come to terms with/acceptance of her current state during the last story arc? It just seems that this is more regression than development.
@Ambaryerno Not at all, this is progression. Typhan accepted that he’s a gay man, he even told the bookworm he still wants to return to being male again when he told Typhan this was “better”.
To put it simply, Typhan came to terms with his attraction to men. That doesn’t mean he wants to stay in a female body.
By the bookworm i mean Denver, just to be clear.
@Ambaryeno, there is also the small matter of the curse making her clothing both highly impractical and extremely uncomfortable, not to mention dangerous. Can you imagine a suit of platemail (and all the undergarments that go with it) suddenly transforming into a plate bikini in battle, IN WINTER TIME, or the frozen north? Furthermore, chainmail/plate bikinis only exist in fiction for a very real reason, those plates can cut and chafe the skin beneath, and that could lead to a very real threat of tetanus infection, which without modern antibiotics could be fatal.
I’d guessed that Typh (See? I can compromise) was naked, having torn off the brass. But she still has at least the bottom on.
The gash in the door–I mean, the split in the wood!–shows the sword went through aligned with the grain, which might just barely be possible. Wood is much easier to split than cut.
I like the little puffs around Typh’s head; she’s gasping with her exertions.
And for some reason, I can’t help but think that Urtica’s last question about Peony was a deliberate prod. I bet he’s smiling inside.
What will she wear to the clothing shop? And what will she get there?
@Uhl Something that was pointed by Typhan in the earlier strips.
@50srefugee: She doesn’t need to go to the clothing store. She can order the store to be brought to her. There are some perks to being a King’s Knight, and more to owning a very big pile of gold.
Looks like Typhan could make lots of extra money by turning cloth to brass
Were I her, I would’ve kept Faden alive specifically to kill him again today xD
@Laughing Jack: Faden IS still alive, he’s just technically imprisoned (or at least as far as we know he’s still imprisoned…)
Lion, good point. I wonder if Typh will remember that she can just call the tailors in.
Andorxor, Typh doesn’t really need any more money, although she probably doesn’t agree.
See:
2010/11/25/mine-all-mine/
…which reminds me of two things: first, that Typh is rich. That’s a lot of gold.
Second, that the curse tolerates some outfits that are more than a little martial. It wasn’t the uniform that got her trouble.
I found that strip looking for the sequence in the dress shop where she tried on a chain mail bikini outfit.
That’s even skimpier than i thought.
Wonder if she’s got a brass wedgie…
If the magic changes one’s clothes, what good will buying new clothes do?
She cannot be handsome, but she can at least have some sort of feminine decency, perhaps?
It wasn’t wearing the clothes that triggered the spell. It was cutting the hair. This appears to be an intelligent spell, and it decided that cutting the hair was just one step too much and she had to be reminded exactly who was boss….;)
That strand of hair has bothered me for years. I actually feel much better about it knowing that it’s not by choice Typh wears it like that. I guess the curse also prevents her from tying it back or tucking it under some form of headgear. It was flapping freely even while Typh was wearing a furlined hood.
A curse is a curse even if it is by way of white magic. Personal i like the lock of hair in her face.
Tiff has to remain womanly or she will feel the curse. She is probably lucky the clothes changing was all that happened.
So now she needs to find some clothing/armor combination that the curse will tolerate.
Hey. It’s been a few years since I last read Exiern, but I’m kind of glad I came back to it. Mostly the same as I remember it, typos and all, but what really got me hooked again was the same reason I started reading the first time: the art. I love seeing how the art and stories progress together as time goes on, and this is a prime example of how many things only get better with age.
I only hope that now I can rely on the update schedule.
Looking forward to joining you all once again on the ride!
Welcome back, Argent!
@Laughing Jack she did kept driving a knife threw his heart and then pulling it out to revive him! Couple times! Said it was just to keep him helpess killing him over and over! While smiling !
…Wasn’t there a giant, 4 post bed in that room?
Damn but she had a good rampage.
@Ambaryerno, he might have come to terms with being in a female body for now, but that was when he could still manage to wear men’s clothing and put on some bit of masculinity. Now he is even getting robbed of his choice of garb.
@Krahazik, I’m pretty sure she’ll be able to martial dress cut to her form, as long as she doesn’t whack that forelock off with a sword. (I’m rather militant myself about using the female pronoun here.) I think we do yet know the nature of the spell Faden used on her; it certainly surprised him.
There’s a gender-bender trope that when guys get turned into girls, they kick about it a bit at first, as they learn the new rules, but then they discover how much fun their squishy bits are, and just enjoy the ride. “Boys drool, girls rule!” that sort of thing.
I originally started following Exiern because it looked like Typh was going to fight the spell and the trope, insisting on her male identity.
With this later development, though, I’m beginning to think that Typh’s real struggle is going to be actually accepting her female nature. She cannot, must not, try to over-write it, to make herself into something women aren’t, or even to redefine what being a woman is. The spell will not allow that. It’s not that she gives up, either.
It’s that she needs to correct her false understanding of what it means to be female. And that goes far beyond hair, dress, and who you want to have sex with, and goes to understanding the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the female role.
*sigh*
“she’ll be able to WEAR martial dress…”
I mentioned the “brass wedgie” think on the “Misfile” forum, and someone said probably – which would at least partly explain how cranky she is.
Another possible explanation that any number of males of the type who don’t think women should try to do “manly things” occurs to me, but i’d wager even the King wouldn’t dare say anything about “time of month”…
“…that would occur to any number…”
Not while she’s holding a sword, anyway.
@Fairportfan: I think I’m the one who concurred on the brass wedgie at NL.
“males…who don’t think women should try to do ‘manly things'”
As a male who has been characterized that way, it’s not necessarily that women shouldn’t do manly things; it’s that women tend to do womanly things, and men tend to do manly things. Both men and women tend to be more comfortable in cultures that reinforce that. And those cultures tend to be more successful than those that don’t.
Please note my repeated use of the word “tend”.
I’m afraid this idea is something of a bee in my bonnet, and underlies my view of TG comics (and much else).
Also, has Typh been visited by Aunt Flo in-comic?
@50srefugee no other way around! She shapes the spell by what she thinks women truly atr! In her case women knights wear chainmail bikini’s and are chease cake! She wants to dress butch instead of a bimbo she needs to stop seeing women as bimbos! Proble is her role model is Ponies,no need for me to explain that! This exactly the type of outfit she love! What Tiff needs is to meat and see a woman dressed and acting as a barbarian knight warrior soldier! Not a 50 shades of grey extra!
@jonathan See, that’s something I KNOW Tiff has already learned already. She KNOWS from the fight during the royal ball that it’s her perceptions that shape the spell.
Besides she met her basic sister-in-law who is far from being dainty i think it’s mostly motivated by the trauma of her past and her mother, being also tainted by her father.
That doesn’t mean Typhan has learned his lesson though.
She met her sister inlaw but dose she realy beleive? Nope !! She needs to see it! Might of made more diffence if she was not so young and hot! No she looked like A fantasy chick Tyth needs a girl role model that dresses like a dude! Or at least not a Swedish bikini team winner! Or at least come to beleave not all women do that. Remember in some ways hi sister inlaw confirmed her beliefs ! she was a double D! and had become powerful by mating her brother with chief!
Damd auto correct! * her brother the clan cheif*
A metal bikini outfit is ludicrous and impractical. But let’s not forget that when Typhan-Knee first appeared in this comic strip, the outfit being worn was that of wrapped gauntlets, fur boots, a fur loincloth and nothing else. Rather impractical in battle whether you’re in a summer climate or a winter one, no?
I believe that would be pronounced /tɪɸãˀ ‘ni:/ with the k representing the glottal stop…
I still think Typh’s subconscious is playing with her perceptions. one reason that she can’t see women as strong is that last time she saw it the woman was killed, and she may blame herself since the woman died trying to protect him.
@norman728 mommy issue could be a big part of it and I wonder how that conversation with her grandparents went (I mean we know it was bad but how bad?) Could they of reinforced the old issues? Damaging coment like I.e…”your going to wind up like your mother she had fantacy she was a swords woman to !”
Of course, there is also girlie, but actually useful, stuff like this.
Every member of the fair sex gets a visit from Aunt Flo once a month unless she’s expecting.
The constant changing of writers is really making the storyline too fluid. Every chapter Typhan-knee goes from accepting being a female, to hating it, to wanting it, to something else…ugh.
@hobbledwebs i think you misunderstand what Typhan-Knee is accepting. He accepted that he’s a gay man, but not that he’s stuck in a female body.