Mar 272012
 

… buuuuut overall I’d say it was one of my more enjoyable experiences, if only because I walked away from it relatively fluent in Dragonish. I mean, mostly kind of dirty Dragonish, but I can still do some basic sentences and stuff.

For a moment you are worried you might have gone into too much detail, but Sigrid merely laughs and says it’s a fascinating story. Though, she was trying to ask if you experimented with magic at all before you moved to Cyrodiil.

Oh! Whoops. Ah, not really, you explain. I mean, when I was younger I always wanted to learn spellcasting, but the local mages mistook my birthsign as some kind of incurable disease and I spent most of my life thinking I could never use magic. But even then, I guess I was still kind of interested in it. I would read a lot of books, stuff like the Feyfolken series, and just sort of try to figure out how the magic worked, or imagine what it would be like to actually use it. Fantasize about a world where everyone saw me as some kind of great wizard, rather than as Hammerfell’s easiest talking animal.

Sigrid nods. Most folks out west never even learn about birthsigns, and it’s a terrible shame that you went so long without understanding your abilities. But she has to say, it’s also incredibly admirable how you kept studying magic even when you thought it was impossible for you to ever learn it. You don’t find many mages with that kind of dedication.

You thank her, and tell her that means a lot coming from a fellow magic-user. I mean, you’re not sure if you’d call it “studying”, reading fiction books about wizards, but… well, it kept you happy, you guess. Right now you’re just really excited that your old dreams are finally coming true.

You smile and take another bite of bread. Tonight is turning out pretty great. A part of you is starting to feel like maybe, just maybe, you’ve finally found where you belong.

And that feels better than all the booze in the world.


Whimbrel wrote:
Hey, Katia…

Look, I’m not trying to keep you from making friends, honest. I would love nothing more than for you to have ALL the friends, even the weird vampire-ish ones that want to lick jelly off your neck, as long as it was a not-getting-Katia-killed sort of friendship.

HOWEVER!

The meal is barely underway and she’s already got you wrapped around her finger–you went from extremely suspicious to downright chummy in mere minutes! Add to that the obvious misanthrope Stephane bending over backwards for her, and it’s starting to seem as though Sigrid’s charm may not be entirely natural.


Yeah, sure, because it’s that hard to believe someone is actually being nice to you.


Uthkara wrote:
Katia: Ask Sigrid how she knew that your sign was the Atronarch. You never told her.


MWK wrote:
>Katia: Ask Sigrid if she has any spare healing potions or spells to fix your wounds. Unless you want to stay as Katia the One-Eyed, that is.


JJA wrote:
Katia: Right now, the person with the biggest fangs in the room is you. Try to take some comfort in that, and some confidence as well.
Speaking of which, if you don’t want your fangs to get a lot bigger over the next three days, you should see if Sigrid can give you a Cure Disease potion, just in case.

Anyway…

So Sigrid! I was meaning to ask: how did you know about my birthsign? Did I do something to tip you off, or…?

This guy, she says. Thank this guy right here. He stopped by earlier today and said we’d be getting an out-of-town visitor – an atronach short on magicka – and to prepare something accordingly.

Oh! Thank you, Stephane. And, ah, did you? Prepare something, that is?

Right in front of you, Sigrid replies. That dark blue dipping sauce is a mushroom paste with ground flax; it should charge your magicka up sufficiently. Oh, and if you want to help that eye heal faster, consider trying some of the aloe-spiced venison spread. There’s not much there since I was running out of cured venison, but it should still speed your recovery up a smidgen.

Ah! Thank you, you tell Sigrid. You had no idea any of these sauces were magic.

She says it’s one of the many perks of being a master alchemist. Our meals become very interesting.

And, ah, not to sound greedy, but do you maybe have anything for curing diseases? I had a run-in with a vampire on the way here and, you know, would rather play it safe than the undead-equivalent-of-sorry.

Hmm. Sigrid says she doesn’t have anything prepared, but curing diseases is simple enough…

There. Just lick this thing’s foot.

Like that?

Yup! You no longer have any diseases, Sigrid says. That’s the power of ALCHEMY!

You thank her, and say that’s certainly a… creative way to cure a disease. You guess she doesn’t have a normal curing spell?

Sigrid says she does, but this way is much funnier. Assuming you can get someone to actually go along with it.


woundedkneecap wrote:
Don’t forget why you came there, ask for a test to join.


Dousiq wrote:
In any case, it’s high time you ask to join, get a couple of jobs to do, and do them.

Yeah, you think you might be falling in love with this place. It’s lighthearted, it’s educational, and it’s seeming a lot less creepy now that you understand what’s going on here. Sigrid seems really nice, and she’s already seen your two spells – if only in the form of you heating some chocolate sauce and trying to flop a breadstick into it. You think it may be time to pop the question.

The joining question.

Miss Sigrid, you’ve done an amazing job restoring this guildhall and also you are a wizard and therefore awesome. Would you perhaps be willing to maybe accept a new member? Into the Mages Guild?

Sigrid freezes, seemingly taken off-guard by your question. You… want to join the Mages Guild? Here?

Assuming that’s alright? You tell Sigrid that you really like it here and you’re looking for a place to stay the next couple days. And you’re willing to help out however is needed, with whatever is needed. If she’s okay with getting a new member, that is.

Sigrid’s demeanor suddenly seems more concerned than before.

I… I don’t know! This is so… unexpected! The last time we even had another mage visit here was when the Cabal guy came for the mural. And now we may be getting a member? Steph, do we even have the stuff for a new member?

Yes, he replies.

Are you sure? I mean, getting our first member is a big deal, we want to make sure it goes perfect! We’ll need to get you a copy of the charter, a beginner’s alembic, maybe a complementary silver dagger… and that’s not even counting whether or not we have any beginner-level books on disciplines you’re interested in!

  • Raven

    Well, this sure is an original way to provide clannfear claws O.o

    Also, Sigrid is totally fine. People need to stop worrying so much.

    • She clearly has a lot in common with Katia, right down to the uneasy nervous feeling when things actually seem to be going right. What could possibly go wrong?

      • Sigrid:
        Hey, Sigrid…
        Look, I’m not trying to keep you from getting guild members, honest. I would love nothing more than for you to have ALL the members, even the weird vampire-ish ones that you have an appointment with, as long as it was a not-getting-Sigrid-killed sort of friendship.

        HOWEVER!

        The meal is barely underway and you already got her wrapped around your finger–she went from extremely suspicious to downright chummy in mere minutes! Add to that the obvious misanthrope Stephane bending over backwards for you, and it’s starting to seem as though Katia’s charm may not be entirely natural.

        • TheLogicalOne

          You made this post in vain, I believe. Go to the “Submit Commands” and submit your commands there. I do believe Kaz has already told us that she WON’T take in the commands posted HERE, in the “Reply to ” section.

          • JohnTheAgitater

            I believe he was merely making a joke, not trying to submit an actual command

          • DUDE

            Guys, don’t forget Nah’s vision of Sigrid…It looked pretty menacing to me.

    • hey brony lol

  • Hx

    Mhmmm Clannfear foot and venison spread

    *nom nom nom*

    • Volchek

      The Dinner of Champions.

    • Riddler

      Hold the potions, breadsticks and apparently, Dino feet! Sigrid just summoned a Dino-dragon into a domestic environment, Vulcan neckbenched it with something that should be at least 500 into the future, grounded it like it was a lame dog and told a talking cat that licking its foot will heal her eyeball! This is one of the most random things that a character can do,

      I think I’m in love with sigrid!

      • Relem

        Summoning that thing kept Sigrid from actually casting a spell on Katia, which seems strange to me because Katia would like “nice” spells to be cast on her.

      • Sasha Nekosune

        Its called a Clannfear and its a medium sized Triceratops/trex Daedra. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Clannfear_%28Oblivion%29

  • Steve Potluck

    What was placed on the clannfear’s neck?

    • hambutt

      Just one of those big paper clips.

      Also the way it blushed when Katia licked its foot had me in hysterics.

    • A Bulldog clip. I forget which viral videos show that putting one of those on a creature’s neck makes it fall over limp….

      • benjymous

        It’s “how to disable a cat”

        I tried to post a link, but I guess the forum moderation system is suspicious of linky comments

        • benjymous

          Aha, and as if by magic, all my comments appear at once 🙂

          • Kazerad

            Yeah, it’s something to do with the caching system, it makes a little delay before comments appear. Ch’marr was telling me I should put a note about that above the comment form, and I’m thinking now that he might be right…

    • Ghestalt

      I’m assuming the bulldog clip was to paralyze the clanfear, a-la the way cats work when you pinch the scruff on the back of their necks.

      I approve, well done.

      • Dakota

        The wonderful thing about Elder Scrolls lore is that the Daedra remain much in mystery. The Clannfear could have at one point been Sheogorath’s kittens for all we know… Yup, they seem like the kind of cat he would own…

    • Chris Finlay

      looks like a crocodile clip on the scruff of the neck, like how a cat picks up its kittens. I assume that pressure there would make it keep still – much the same way the kittens don’t move when they get picked up by the scruff.

      • DaveD

        I am now imagining the sight of one of martigan’s clannfear matriarchs carrying a regular clannfear like a mother cat carrying a kitten.

        • Neuronyx

          Holy christ that’s adorable.

    • benjymous

      Never mind the bulldog clip, feel sorry for Mrs Clannfear, who’s now without a husband:

      http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12389792/ClannfearFamily.png
      (that’s what flashes up for a fraction of a second when she casts the summon)

      • ClancyDamon

        Good god! That’s a lot of detail in an image that you really can’t see in the comic proper, and that people might not have even pulled out to show.

        Kazerad, you never cease to amaze me!

        • Nameloc

          I agree, that was truly awesome. I wonder if Bethesda will consider something like that in the next game (6, or something else) and show a bit of the oblivion realm that your summon is coming from when the conjurer’s “gate” opens.

          • ClancyDamon

            Bethesda? Probably not. Modders? I can see something like this appearing on the Nexus.

          • Nameloc

            Now that I think of it, that does sound more like a modder’s job, since it’s kind of an unnecessary flair anyways.

          • Wise-Ol’-Man

            Errm, they kinda already showed “a bit of the oblivion realm”
            Y’know, in their game titled
            “Oblivion”? Where the main quest line has you traveling there REPEATEDLY to save the world?

      • Liquid Dinosaur

        Don’t worry, in a few minutes the summon will wear out and it will pop right back into Oblivion. I only hope he goes back to the same area, so he’s back with that girl clannfear (or I think it’s a girl, judging by the eyelashes).

      • DaveD

        I wonder if its the same thing with the unbound dremora that you summon in skyrim as well.

    • It’s an ordinary metal clamp, placed just at the swelling on the posterior nerve roots for, oh say, five or six seconds. This blocks all communication for motor functions from brain to body.

      • Ch’marr

        Really? I didn’t think it was that drastic!

        I just thought it triggered a cat’s “I’m being carried by my mother, I should remain still” response.

    • Steve Potluck

      The most embarrassing part of the question I asked originally is that I am currently going to school to become a Vet Tech. AKA, placing the clip on the clannfear’s neck should have made sense to me.

  • The Nerevarine

    And now I am becoming incredibly suspicious. Perhaps Sigrid is simply incredibly flustered about getting a new member, or perhaps there are a few things they don’t want getting out. I would advise caution, but others have and it has been ignored.

  • R’becca

    It’s going well with Katia. Great.
    I’m suspicious. There is something terribly wrong with this.

    • lu bu

      Agreed. Sigrid is doing her best to convince katia she’s her friend, but i still don’t trust her. Especially with all the weird stuff around the guild and all the omninous sayings, “We don’t talk about Kvatch mages guild.” Kaz is trying his best to make us trust Sigrid but I’m still not buying it.

      I think what will follow is the most epicnous cat crying episode we’ve seen in this series (might take a few updates to get there though.)

      • fang

        If he wants us to trust Sigrid, why did he give her blatant fangs?

        • Wolf

          Hey now, that sounds like bigotry. Katia and Quill Weave both have fangs, yet we trust them. Sigrid doesn’t even have red eyes like that vampire girl outside, the one who had the awesome backstory about being a battlefield medic. Kazerad’s characters are deeper than they first appear, and while I admit that Sigrid is suspicious, I don’t think we shouldn’t trust her just because she has fangs. Heck, she could be like Luna from Dominic Deegan somehow, too.

          • KerouacCat

            “Heck, she could be like Luna from Dominic Deegan somehow, too.”

            God, I really, really hope not.

  • DaveD

    Daww she did the switch off cat trick with the clannfear 😀

    Wait- would that trick work with khajits as well?

    • Soadreqm

      Of course not. That is an incredibly racist thing to suggest. Khajiit have hands, they don’t carry kittens around in their mouths. There is no reason for them to instinctively stay still when someone is pinching their necks.

      Well, MOST khajiit have hands.

      You know, maybe it WOULD work.

  • … buuuuut overall I’d say it was one of my more enjoyable experiences, if only because I walked away from it relatively fluent in Dragonish. I mean, mostly kind of dirty Dragonish, but I can still do some basic sentences and stuff.

    For a moment you are worried you might have gone into too much detail, but Sigrid merely laughs and says it’s a fascinating story. Though, she was trying to ask if you experimented with magic at all before you moved to Cyrodiil.

    Experimented, huh? Given that context, I can only assume Katia got down with Akatosh. Impressive!

    • ClancyDamon

      Given that the constantly frowning and stoic PRIEST Stephane has a worried look and drops his breadstick in (apparent) shock, that’s not an unreasonable assumption. In fact, the lack of response at the Cathedrals makes a lot more sense.

      “No baby, I’ll totally call you tomorrow. Now, uh, the door to Nirn is over there, so….you know….”

      • AFox

        more like defiled one of his priests on a shrine to him with those naughty khajiit tricks of her’s. after all it’s quite obvious while they have never contacted her directly, she has still managed to annoy them all.

      • Relem

        Stephane didn’t drop his breadstick. Katia was raising it with accidental bad aim will showing off her second spell, and he was preventing it from flying off.

    • GHOSTBRO

      Erm, I’d say that it was a reference to Daggerfall, since dragonish was a skill in the game (see http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Skills) and Katia came from Hammerfell, which was one of the two provinces you could visit, the other being High Rock.

  • Rhaz

    Join, get the beginner stuff and get out of Kvatch before oblivion happens. >_>

    • Uzi_Man

      Or stay in Kvatch, but be saved by the (-not yet-) Champion of Cyrodiil

  • AdultPuppetShow

    I have to say, that’s the first time I’ve ever felt bad for a clannfear.

    • AdultPuppetShow

      Also, I just remembered that today is my birthday.

      Thanks Kaz, I always knew you cared. <3

      • Kazerad

        Completely true story: I woke up today and was like “hmm, what can I do for AdultPuppetShow’s birthday? I know, I’ll update my webcomic!”.

        Happy birthday!

  • able

    >piles of cash lying around.
    >”not sure if we have the equipment”

  • IndigoNeko

    I love this comic so much. I nearly died laughing when Sigrid used the paperclip on the Clannfear. Did anyone else notice how the Clannfear blushes when Katia kneels down?

  • Duster

    My name is Stephane. My brother’s name is Steve. I find this character hilarious.

  • eternity08

    1) That whole clannfear thing was funny as all hell.

    2) It seems as everything has gone pretty well. But for how long?!

  • Quill-Weave

    Dear god I hope that dragon but at the start isn’t referring to a slightly prequel related picture one of my friends showed me thinking it would be funny. Because if it is (which I’m not sure) I think I know what she is gesturing with her hands…

    • Greed

      1) It’s most likely not, an is infact, referencing her rampant promiscuity

      and 2) what your friend most likely showed you is “Furry Porn” – there is a LOT of it… like, seriously. A LOT.
      Including PREQUEL characters too.
      He was probably testing to see if you liked it or not, in which case – you should have a chat with your friend, because that’s goddamn hilarious.

      • Quill-Weave

        Yeah I kinda guessed that it wasn’t referring to the, shall we say “art”, that my friend showed me but the coincidence is uncanny-and I knew that what he showed me was furry porn but he didn’t-which is why I found it so funny but he was the first person I told about prequel in my group of friends because I can trust him but he won’t read prequel no matter how much I try to persuade him but at one point he did google it an that’s how be stumbled upon the previously mentioned picture so I can’t wait to tell him, I think he’s going to laugh his ass off. (sorry if this is sort of a jumble of bad grammar but I’m to tired to fix it and as I previously didn’t mention I, and I’m pretty sure about my friend, don’t enjoy furry porn).

        • Link

          Why do you need to “trust” people you tell about Prequel? I keep telling everyone I know to have a look at it =D
          It’s awesomely written, have a great art style, contains well made short flash games, and copious amounts of silly humor. I think a lot of people could come to love this comic given the chance, in fact I’d say that a lot of people already have, even people that has no knowledge of Oblivion.

        • dkd

          Im kinda disappointed by the lack of rule 34 on nah.

  • ClancyDamon

    Something that’s been bugging me and has probably already been explained, but what is with the Mages’ Hands-Up thing? I keep trying to think of something from the lore or games that matches. The best I can figure is that when you walked around with a spell prepped in Morrowind, your arms would be out in front of you, kind of old-school zombie like. Not UP just out in front. I must be missing something obvious.

    • Liquid Dinosaur

      Yeah, it’s a reference to holding out a spell in Morrowind. Why their hands are pointed up, I cannot say. Though that might be because it’s funnier if mages always have jazz-hands.

      • djw175

        It might be in reference to the way magic is held in skyrim. I’d need to check the dates though.

  • Beano Curufinwe

    YESSS! new page is up! just as awesome as ever!

    …Sigrid seems a little sarcastic and cruel… could be my imagination… could just be because it’s extremely hilarious. Maybe I’ll finally check out the forum.

    • conantheimp

      Could be both! Could be schadenfreude!

  • Beano Curufinwe

    There’s a small issue with the Latest Updates sidebar. Go to an older page, for example “Katia: Have a seat” and look at the Latest Updates sidebar. You won’t see a link for the most recent page. The link does show up on the sidebar for this page and the “=>” page.

  • Greed

    Well shit, at least we know how this happy beginning will tragically end this time…

    .. y’know… in flames and an invasion from hell itself.
    I wonder what would happen if we somehow got Katia to convince Martin to go to…. say… Leyawiin… i never liked leyawiin

  • Seba :3

    I wonder what task will be given to our dear Katia. Maybe she will have to obtain a recommendation from other guild halls.

  • Soadreqm

    Sooo cool! 😀

    I’m worried that this clannfear is too awesome a character to last very long, and will soon die (or return to Oblivion or whatever), just like the well and the apple bandit leader. 🙁

  • David Argall

    Now why is Sigrid so concerned? And about what seems to be a trivial point? It may be nothing at all. Sigrid seems at least a little touched in the head. Could be she is just going overboard with an idea. But it could be something very serious and Sigrid is just making any excuse she can to hope the problem goes away. For example, we know that this guild is held in bad repute by some powerful forces. These forces might be willing to tolerate it as long as it pretty much is only one caster, but when it starts growing by taking in more members, they might decide to get rid of this danger before it gets worse. [Alternately there may be a bylaw somewhere that members are to be more than friends. If Sigrid has a fear of lesbian activity, she would already know Katia is quite sexually experienced, and might greatly fear Katia might insist on her rights.]
    Apparently Katia meets, or is likely to meet, the basic rules to join, so Sigrid can’t just say no, but she can find ways to make it difficult and hope the problem solves itself.

    • someone

      what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what. what.

      Why do you even think such ideas? There are no ways in which that “bylaw” would make sense. Have terrible fanfictions and cheap-ass cartoon porn sites rotten your brain or what?

      • David Argall

        a-It is simply one of a zillion possible reasons, and illustrates the wide range of possible explanations for Sigrid’s behavior.
        b-Given the wide range of human sexual and nonsexual behavior, this ranks as no more than odd, and is close to the behavior of several well-known cults and cultures. We can note here the young Greek male was encouraged to engage in pederasty in ancient times. And there have been a number of free love cults as well.
        c-But we can normalize this somewhat by saying that Sigrid has only a vague memory of the bylaws at this time since she likely has not looked at them in years, So she could easily think there is a reference to mandatory lesbian activity when there is not.

        • This makes NO SENSE at all. In fact, I reckon we’re fairly deep into negative sense here.

          Additionally, as a veteran of three Elder Scrolls games I think it’s fairly safe to say that nothing of the sort has been indicated even in the vaguest sense.

          Seriously, why in the name of Azurah would you think “Sigrid seems nervous about admitting a new member, it must be because she’s required to engage in sexual relations with all new members BY LAW”…

          (Fantastic update, Kaz. Looks like the Kvatch guild might be the ideal place for Katia to develop her skills. It’s probably the single safest city in Cyrodil too!)

          • lu bu

            Well when you put it that way, lawl.

          • David Argall

            Now where are you getting “must be”? As stated, the idea is one of several possibilities, which includes the possibility that it means effectively nothing at all. But Sigrid’s behavior has suddenly changed. And that could mean a lot. At this point we can only guess what and there is a wide range of possible guesses, which includes Sigrid doing things with girls that she prefers to do with boys.

            Nothing of the sort has been indicated in canon?
            a-We are not in canon here. We are in somebody/ies fanfiction, which may revere canon or may trample it under foot, or both.
            b-It is a safe bet that canon also has nothing about prostitutes and/or loose drunken women either. They would have little or nothing to do with the plot [and would set the uptight types screaming]. It is not a violation of canon to bring in what it lacks, And it seems most unlikely that canon has much of anything to say about bylaws [and like with prostitutes and loose women, reality tells us that bylaws or laws that have been in use for a long period of time will have some weird stuff in them that seemed like a good idea to somebody at the time.]

        • ClancyDamon

          a-We are not in canon here. We are in somebody/ies fanfiction, which may revere canon or may trample it under foot, or both.

          You just started reading and haven’t gone through this very far have you? Kazerad has such an insanely encyclopedic grasp of the lore that I’m personally convinced he’s part of the dev team, if not one of the original creators.

          In other words, canon is revered.

          b-It is a safe bet that canon also has nothing about prostitutes and/or loose drunken women either. They would have little or nothing to do with the plot

          Lusty Argonian Maid, Nude paralyzed Nords, Suran’s House of Earthly Delights, the cult of Dibella and the Dibellan Arts, Crassius Curio’s Hlaalu advancement requirements, Mistwatch Tower (Skyrim), The Real Barenziah Volume II (and the uncensored Volume IV from Daggerfall), basically any description of Nocturnal and her summoning, Molag Bal is the King of Rape, Thirty-Six Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 14, etc.

          There’s actually a shitload of sex in canon, and NO WHERE in there is even the slightest mention of official sexual activity of any kind within the Imperial Mages Guild. The only place you could possibly get even the vaguest hint of that is if Katia was attempting to join the Temple of Dibella, or join a number of the Daedric Cults, which she’s not. Where you could possibly get an idea like this is beyond me. You must be trolling and, if so, congratulations on a 9/10 from me.

          • Ocylith

            Let’s face it. This guy is just hoping to see Katia on Sigrid action.

          • David Argall

            Somewhat surprising, but now you run into the opposite problem; if there is a lot of sex in canon, why would we be at all surprised to find official rules on sex in a set of bylaws?
            That we don’t know that such a bylaw exists does not mean it does not. Not known does not mean not existing. And for any story like this, the not known is a huge amount, practically everything in fact. A story might contain.. “The XYZ won’t like this because…” “No problem. We will just…[do something that moves the plot to the next scene]” “I suppose, but…[foreshadow of coming problem]” and we never learn a thing more about XYZ, whether they are a legal body, a pressure group, a social class, how large, how small, how.. whatever. Nor much about their desires, powers, and intentions. But we know they have them despite their absence from canon. So we can not deduct from an absence in canon that something does not exist.
            An author then is not violating canon if he simply fills in the blanks, and there are a whole lot of blanks.

          • Vindictus

            [Somewhat surprising, but now you run into the opposite problem; if there is a lot of sex in canon, why would we be at all surprised to find official rules on sex in a set of bylaws?]

            In part, because the Mages guild charter is very clearcut and spelled out explicitly. It’s not a cult or a religious group, it is !!!SCIENCE!!!, except it’s magic instead.

            [
            That we don’t know that such a bylaw exists does not mean it does not. Not known does not mean not existing. And for any story like this, the not known is a huge amount, practically everything in fact. A story might contain.. “The XYZ won’t like this because…” “No problem. We will just…[do something that moves the plot to the next scene]” “I suppose, but…[foreshadow of coming problem]” and we never learn a thing more about XYZ, whether they are a legal body, a pressure group, a social class, how large, how small, how.. whatever. Nor much about their desires, powers, and intentions. But we know they have them despite their absence from canon. So we can not deduct from an absence in canon that something does not exist.
            An author then is not violating canon if he simply fills in the blanks, and there are a whole lot of blanks.]

            This, in effect, is adding characterization to an underdeveloped group- In your example, the ‘XYZ’ is apparently a throwaway mention which will never be revisited, or a loosely defined group that exists in the background somewhere. This is very common in media such as TV and videos, as putting too much detail into this group would draw attention away from the main character’s antics. TES, however, is not a TV series- It’s a series of detailed video games, which had a lot of worldbuilding in the background. So… THERE IS NO GAP YOU FOOL! As previously stated, the charter is for an ACADEMIC GROUP, not some silly little teenage cult where magic is a metaphor for being a lesbian or something.

          • David Argall

            [the Mages guild charter is very clearcut and spelled out explicitly.]
            The short answer is that no, it is not. We simply have those sections that were game useful. Notable here is that crimes against members are forbidden, but there is no definition of crime. Presumably these are defined in the unprinted bylaws, but in any case, we just lack a tremendous amount of data.
            note here…
            http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Mages_Guild_Charter
            “Candidates must exhibit mastery in the great schools of magic: Destruction, Alteration, Illusion, and Mysticism. Candidates must also display practical knowledge of enchantments and alchemical processes.”
            So if we are closely following canon, Katia simply does not qualify to join the guild. Yet she is treated as a serious candidate. We can suggest a number of possible explanations. Possibly Kvatch is in revolt against the rest of the guild. And we have… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls “There is no one compilation of all information pertaining to the Elder Scrolls world, and, within the games, historical references are often vague or even contradictory, as players are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about situations and events.” We can do various things to resolve conflicts. But again, we just can not say, “it is not in canon and thus is not.”

            [TES, however, is not a TV series- It’s a series of detailed video games, which had a lot of worldbuilding in the background.]

            So? Elder Scrolls may be a more developed story, but it is a story, and that means those matters away from the story suffer neglect.

            [THERE IS NO GAP]
            Of course there is. So we have a small encyclopedia about Elder Scrolls? We can go to the library and find large encyclopedias, and we find that if we take a random sentence from such an encyclopedia, we can find an entire encyclopedia on just that line. And the authors of that encyclopedia have to admit there are gaps in their knowledge.

  • patrick

    I am going to hope for the best here. Sigrid must be legit. Things have been going great so far. although things have being too great..

  • Steve Potluck

    Do I get an award for asking a question and receiving almost 20 answers?

    • Tech

      ACHEIVMENT UNLOCKED – Ask Steve

  • Guillebon

    >Become Sigrid
    >Deal with the new member situation

  • TechSmurf

    The gator clip move is my new favorite thing in this story. Well, almost. Nothing’s going to beat “Drugs.”.

  • Furnut

    Alright….it’s kinda close to the point where things spin horribly out of control downhill. Maybe in 2 or 3 updates……. o.o;;

    So I guess Sigrid can summon creatures from their realm…but can’t put them back. Poor Clannfear =(

    • Soadreqm

      Don’t worry, summon spells expire after a while, and the creature is returned to Oblivion. That clannfear is going to be with its family soon enough. Even if something kills it, that’ll just make the spell end sooner. Summoned critters have things pretty easy.

  • Riddler

    Ok, I got to admit that this was One of the random top ten, but let’s examine this for a second… It appears that our sigrid will fall into one of five catagories for character personalities, let’s see what the world thinks!
    A: secret evil crime kingpin
    B: dark Mage of basic good gone bad past
    C: someone who’s illumination spell is working but no bodies there ploy of powerful Mage with the brains of a toddler
    D: a spiritual “sister” of katia that is just under a bad rep. of distorted facts and vampires

  • Jebediah Oldenheimer

    “Ten minutes later…”

    -about nine days after the last post.

    😀

  • Felidire

    I like how she scorched the fuck out of the table and presumably made breadsticks explode in trying to make them levitate. xP

  • Riddler

    Did anyone else notice the small fire on the backet in the first pic?
    … Is the magic puppy dog amulet dead?!? Or is katia getting too powerful? This is not good is it? Why am I asking so many questions? Is it because my name is riddler? Or is it the more obvious choice that this story is so compelling? Will only time tell? Who let the cats out!?!?! Who, who who, who!?!

    • TechSmurf

      There are also scorch marks all over the table. She’s still not so good at the whole “controlling fire” thing.

    • patrick

      she most likely took it off to show sigrid her magic. hence the marks and small fire.

      • Riddler

        (slaps forehead) well, there goes that idea!

  • Chaos_Descending

    Katia, reality is toying with you by making EVERYTHING GO RIGHT!!! If you let go of the last of your Paranoia everthing will start to go wrong again. Keep doubting, the moment this isn’t too good to be true is the moment it WILL BE!

  • Bad_Skeelz

    Oh thank god Katia is still alive and sober.

  • Norexico

    Then suddenly KVATCH GATE! And either she get’s dispatched by Kathute’s angry kin, or she ends up accidentally the whole Oblivion gate in a drunken fit and becomes hero. And becomes warlock or something on the Mages Guild, cuz’ she’s cool like that.

  • Alec

    Oh… my…. god.
    I had no idea I would get to the end of this.
    I can be a part of the unfolding of the story : D

    I would be suspicious of Steve. Maybe Sigrid isn’t the one that has him enthralled… maybe its the other way around. He has a very unpleasant demeaner Katia. Ask him a few questions, and put those fancy detective skills to work.

  • TB Tabby

    Katia: You know you just got hazed, right? Or are we expected to believe that you can cure any disease by licking a bashful dinosaur’s foot?

    • Owenman2000

      Now THAT is what secretly pisses me off. Goddamn, if Katia didn’t depend on this…

    • Soadreqm

      Yes, you can. And kissing a Daedroth on the mouth will give you night vision. Isn’t alchemy amazing?

    • Link

      Well… in the game you can cure disease by using a clannfear claw so… it’s not entirely untrue, if perhaps a bit mean in a silly way.

      Who knows though, perhaps Sigrid is simply a raving foot fetishist =D

  • eternity08

    Look at these two pictures and keep an eye on the dish full of green.
    http://www.prequeladventure.com/this/story983.gif
    http://www.prequeladventure.com/this/story985.gif
    So much detail!

    • ScienceGuy

      Wow, I didn’t notice that at all. Thanks man.

    • lu bu

      I’m not sure what I’m supossed to notice :/.

      • NoriMori

        Me neither.

  • katia

    *noes katia ! that’s not his foot but ….*
    never mind xD

    (blushy part)

    • Uzi_Man

      lol, nice one

    • Engineer

      SPY SAPPING MY DISPENSER

      • Katia

        stop calling me a spy !

        • Engineer

          Nope.
          You just ain’t doin it right!
          (You can’t be commenting on the story if YOUR INSIDE THE STORY
          Only Kaz can do that)

          • I’mnotKatia

            better ?

  • Dousiq

    Well, this is going swimmingly.

  • Will

    Well. This is embarassing. She’s worried about NOT HAVING ENOUGH?

    Katia, just tell her that you’re sure whatever she has will be enough to get started. …I-if she’ll have you that is.

  • qlmaX5

    This is the second update since I added Prequel to my RSS feed, and already this is my favorite webcomic in a long time.

    Not sure if this has been discussed much, but there is one reason I think Katia couldn’t be the CoC: If she WAS in town for the Siege of Kvatch, she could not be in the prisons, and the Siege started roughly when Uriel Septim died and the dragonfires went out. Unless Katia in a very short period of time became a time-traveling, multi-dimemsional superwizard, this idea seems preposterous.

    • Raven

      According to the scheduling challenged Mythic Dawn cultist Katia met by the city gates, the attack will not happen before at least a full week from now. Which means she has ample time to get inducted into the Mages Guild by Sigrid, do her errand for Quill-Weave, and get sent on whatever other mission towards the Imperial City where she’ll get arrested for lollygagging just as most of her friends from Kvatch get brutally slaughtered.

      • lu bu

        “So what are you in for?”

        “Thievery, extorsion, trespassing, assualt, murder, and lollygagging”

        Best line ever.

  • Wabbajack

    I love how Stephane just sits there through the entire things like “:|” and eats all the bread sticks.

    • hambutt

      haha he totally does too

    • Zerithos

      Stuff like that is so common to these people in chapels that they just don’t give a crud any more. I mean, you can be Sheogorath, the Crusader, Cyrodiil’s Champion, Arch-Mage of the Mage’s Guild, AND a seriously overkill assassin, just kind of pop into the chapel, conjure up a few daedra, burn a few tapestries, drop nirnroots all over the floor, wabbajack the daedra and then proceed to make some potions and NOBODY will care. Oh, and you can have The Adoring Fan following you while you do it all.

  • xwinnor

    DA POWER OF ALCHEMY!!!!!!!!!!

  • Willhelm

    This guy! This guy right here!

  • absolofdoom

    At this point I love Sigrid so much that even if she turns out to be the worst thing that ever did, I hope she stays in the story being her awesome crazy self.

  • tech

    running out of cured venison?
    So the door with blood leaking out from under it must be the larder. Mystery solved.

    • hyenabites

      hmm… why ~was~ the “cured” bit de-emphasized, anyway?

      try as i might, i can’t find a reason for it, sinister or otherwise.

      • Spatzist

        Venison is deer meat. Probably just referring to those deer walking around on the first floor.

  • OldSchoolRPGDude

    This. Is. Wonderful. Stuff. I kept jumping back and reading the whole damn thing.

    And I love the direction things are going with Sigrid. As a few have pointed out, it was previously hard to think of someone who was more ditzy than Katia, but lo and behold! And to think she’s a decent mage as well! Perhaps this is a glimmer of Katia’s future — professionally competent, amicable, and yet still a mess in some respects. Good stuff.

  • jesus lizard

    PFFT HA HAH A HA HA
    that claanfear had be ins stitches.

  • yuri

    think of all the uses of that dagger, you would be SUPER CHAMP!

  • cakhi

    …Three more slides.
    I give it three more slides till something goes horribly wrong.

  • Othoniel

    Katia as you can see, Sigrid is kinda anoyed by you ask, just get up your chair and knee, telling her how much you need this, that you will be a loyable member of the guild and do your best as your duty how a mage… If you’re acordly acepted.

  • Bad_Skeelz

    It’s too bad that Kvatch gets steamrolled by Daedra until the Champion of Cyrodiil shows up. How much more awesome would it be if instead the defended by Katia teaming up with Sigrid, Nah, Asotil, Dmitri’s-soul-in-the-cat and Gro-Upp in an enemy-mine situation? Them facing off against the Deadra, now that right there would be a hundred thousand septim portrait.

  • justme

    Is the dinosaur-thing blushing in panel 11? And where did Sigrid get a binder clip?! AAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!

  • Husk

    lol…sigrid sits there and watches katia lick the dinosaurs foot with a smile like she likes it. XP …..gross. 😛

  • anonymous

    I’d just like to point out that Kvatch, along with its Mages Guild, will be destroyed in an unspecified, yet relatively short time.

  • Octane

    >Tonight is turning out pretty great. A part of you is starting to feel like maybe, just maybe, you’ve finally found where you belong.
    >And that feels better than all the booze in the world.

    3…
    2…
    1…

    D’AAAAAAAWWWWWWWW

    I can’t wait to see how horrifyingly, soul-crushingly, heart-wrenchingly wrong this goes.

    • flash

      keeping the actual update speed we will have about 2 more years of prequel

  • Shadowscale

    I’ve just realized something i hope i’m wrong but since there are only 7 days left until the siege of kvatch and katia isnt present in the game world of oblivion . . . we may only have seven days worth of comics left 🙁 . . . THE END IS NIGH!!!

    • eternity08

      Or the Mythic Dawn guys basically say, “Eh, fuck it. There aren’t nearly enough people and resources for us to assassinate the King and the rest of the people. Let’s just try again in say, a year or so?”
      That’ll give plenty of time for Katia to level up, have a nice time, get thrown into jail, meet the emperor, and start off this oblivion crisis stuff.

  • MajorWX

    I found a gif of the binder clip in action.

  • MajorWX
  • MajorWX

    Looks like the forum doesn’t want to display my links.

  • Vince

    Greetings, new guy here!
    Gosh, I sure wish I had met this earlier. It’s awesome! The whole reading makes me feel enthralled to the plot – it was utterly enjoyable to follow Katia on her “prequel” (disregarding a few bits that made me feel a tad uncomfortable, though, but still)

    … To be honest, I WAS pointed out to this place, but my lack of literacy and patience with long texts didn’t help any to get through the introduction paragraph. Eh, shame on me. >_>

    The art style is also delightful, and sometimes even cute to some extent. Admitedly, pixel art never gets old for me. I happen to be an artist, myself (and sure wish I was nearby when Katia had to design attires for herself and Quill-Weave), but I never actually built courage to try something on paint. Kinda clueless on the whole thing, still getting used to brush around in SAI or Photoshop.

    Well… err… I look forward for this adventure and whatever else I might find in here.. ? ^_^;;

  • EveryZig

    Such an adorable clanfear.

  • Seth

    Chocolate Cake!!!!

  • NoriMori

    I wonder why Stephane looks so upset in the second-last panel… O.o

  • loganthewolfe

    hmm sigrid is strange VERY strange whats with the skulls and red liqid under that door and the deer? what about the deer?

  • Jessica U. Ingmann

    It’s official: Sigrid is most definitely my new fourth-favorite character. Which makes Nah my fifth-favorite and Quill-Weave sixth. Sorry, girls! X3

  • AnonymousDragonWolf

    Ahahahah! Sigrid is so funny! Everything she do is… great…

    Also, Stephane dropping breadstick after Katia’s story is lol.

  • Tigersong

    Not forgetting those weird nudist pictures… what gives?

  • Not Royalty

    Totally fine…

  • Dragon

    Where did you get that information from? Everyone without an account has the same avatar.