The tavern “The Lesson of Alcohol” was named out of spite and contempt.
One of the several forces that was able to capture and hold the city of Val Salia for any length of time, belonged to a particularly powerful noble house from Akalos. The occupation lasted just long enough for the invading force to begin construction of its own buildings, which included a high-walled mustering yard, and a smaller attached wooden building.
The stonework structure was meant to be something of a gatehouse, once the city had been ringed with a similarly tall and solid stonework wall, but this was never constructed, as House Ivenmoth (aided by the vast majority of the city’s permanent populace) was inevitably able to drive off the invading force soon thereafter.
The noble held to the Akalosian custom of giving structures poetic, flourishing names, and the meeting house that was built to accommodate the noble and his high-ranking companions during the early stages of the siege was given the name “The Lesson of Might,” as it was intended to be the first of many new structures that would spring up around the city under his leadership. The name “lesson of might” was intended to be the first structure to be named as a lesson of some sort. The first one, by which they were conquered, was might. Future installments were intended to be things such as “The Lesson of Obedience,” intended to be the headquarters for the city’s new lawmaking force, and “The Lesson of Knowledge,” a grand library and study hall.
When the revolt happened (sparked by a mass poisoning of the invading forces garrisoned within the city), the structure was claimed by the locals, and was repurposed into a bar, and given its new name to spite its original intention and the man who built it.
From its walls hangs a repository of the banners and armaments of all the forces that have tried and failed to take and hold the city over the years, a monument to the endurance of the city and its people in the face of those who would see them conquered.
The entryway used to feature the polished, grinning skeleton of the patriarch of the Akalosian noble house, with a beer mug attached to his skeletal hand, welcoming the customers inwards in a rather undignified pose, but his remains were eventually relinquished to his descendants in his homeland as part of a rather lucrative trade deal House Ivenmoth struck with Akalos many years later.
While far from the largest tavern in the city, it is cherished by the locals, and never lacks for patrons.
Raptie does character colors/shades
Nobody:
Val: Here’s a bigass essay about the history of this tavern seen in a singular frame at the bottom right corner of this page
You are a fuckin worldbuilding legend
Patience is important, but all the same, one must be careful not to make needless jabs at people who don’t even understand where they come from
I have a feeling he might have taken Kasses comment the wrong way. Then again, it’s hard to see what the right way would be.
When DON’T House Ivenmoth have something going on?
I can understand the need to quickly strip someone out of clothing that prevents the necessity of basic bodily functions – but I doubt that dropping them dead on their ass afterward would be conducive to the avoidance of said functions going from “imminent” to “immediate”.
Story of my life right there
Do wonder if Kass’s clothes have similar issues, or if she can even get into them herself with those stick limbs. That said, looks like she needs another bucket of clams to get over how pent up she is getting. Or just jump Lopin’s bones and get it over with, or both. With a Yinglet’s sex drive she isn’t doing herself favors by staying celebate.
Vizlit mentioned taking a trip for a while to see different humans across many different lands and must have managed that somehow. We don’t know if they get more amped up than humans or just don’t have the self control/social inhibitions to care
In the comic (OOP 26), Vislet brought at least one male along with her on her travels. If she felt the need, relief wasn’t far away. As for having any social inhibitions for sex, I think that is something that Kass will find out. Val Salia’s Enclave has a private area set aside for such activities (OOP 23) so it must be both acceptable and necessary, akin to having a public restroom (sometimes IRL used for similar uses). Certainly the males have no inhibitions for public sex, and even while tracking down Zat Zhing, with probable death a likely outcome for failure, Brakka still banged the Oracle of Bakersroof in OOP 74. Lopin has shown the least sex drive of all the Yinglets, with one half assed pass at Kass high on clams. So it is possible for Yinglets to abstain, but like Kass going without sleep, its messing with biological programming.
I don’t think you quite realize what it would be for Kass mentally. There’s a high chance Kass doing the thing at this point – with a male, with a _yinglet_, in this body, with the possibility of pregnancy – is going to absolutely BREAK her.
Why? With Yinglets the males do most of the childcare, and most of the Pregnancy takes place outside of the body. If Kass wants to be a true Matriarch, with the respect due one in Yinglet society she will have to embrace this side of herself. The patriarchs are motivated by being in the Top of the list for breeding privileges, Kass isn’t a fighter as a Yinglet, she isn’t rich personally, and has a total of one follower, a outcast from a enclave. If Kass is to move forward, she will have to exist as Kassen Akoll to her friends, as Officer of Val Salian’s military arm, and as a Patriarch in her own right.
And yeah, Egg laying species kinda lay unfertilized Eggs (see chicken for example) so Kass will have the same exact experience weather she has sex or not if her species follows the trend of most egg laying creatures. Yeah I Know the field guide says Yinglets don’t lay eggs exactly, so wait and see I suppose.
Ha LOL Kass a Patriarch! (switch for Matriarch in the last sentence of first paragraph) She wishes!
Because Kass is NOT a Yinglet, and is not ready to be one. She doesn’t want to be a Matriarch OR Patriarch – I doubt she even actually already thought about what she wants to be if she can’t turn back to a human.
Also, even with most of the pregnancy being outside of the body, she’ll still have a breakdown over having laid an egg, or even over the mere possibility of laying one. Want proof? Go back to the pages 73, 79-80 and 83 and look at Kass’s reactions to the whole egg-laying deal.
And yes, I know how the egg-laying species work. Doesn’t mean Kass isn’t going to delay that as much as she can.
The title of this comic is Out of Placers A story of Inconvenient Changes. Not a change, but plural. Kass has to change to not only stay sane, but to keep her friends alive also. And that is the lever to enact further change, her love for Elim, and her friendships with the others who rely on her.
I still think Brakka would make for a good Patriarch for Kass, but after stabbing Elim, I think he’s a dead yinglet walking. It might be selling a breeding session to Patriarch Beizel (the sly black one) in exchange for Brakka’s head that is what pushes Kass over the edge. It will take action by Val Salia’s encalve to catch Brakka, having a bounty posted for his capture dead or alive would be logical, and in a currency that Yinglets would jump for.
There is no reason to suspect that lifes or even well-being of Kass’s friends, allies, benefactors etc. somehow depends on Kass becoming pregnant. Nor would he need to do anything to get Brakka apprehended if #110, 111 etc. are any indication, and even if Brakka is not killed he is no threat anymore (and if Narklet somehow manages to spirit Brakka out Brakka is even more likely to be dead).
So Kass may end up being pregnant and\or laying unfertilized eggs, but so far this is not likely to be some sort of trade and\or political move.
Consider this angle a residue of me having been a soldier, like Kassen is supposed to have been. In the military, you generally have to give something to get something in return that you don’t have the absolute authority to demand. I’d think Kassen having watched her best friend get shanked would raise the stakes considerably as to what’s on the line. Its supposed to be a funny comic, I get that. But watching a friend bleed for you is not something any soldier aspires to.
If Kass is to have a future, she needs to decide on at minimum who she wants to be. If a soldier, then she needs to learn to fight as a Yinglet. If a Scholar, (which may be where she is heading) then she needs to clean up her current mess and put it behind her. If a Matriarch, she needs to accept her feminine side and that it isn’t something that means she is lesser for. And really, I don’t see why she can’t be all three.
Lastly Kass/Kassen’s character. Kassen wants authority. His Ambition is what drove him to bring first Isher, and then Yannit to Val Salia. It wasn’t curiosity, or belief in the Trademaster’s ideals, but raw ambition that drove Kassen to the point where Kassen became Lady Kass. As a Yinglet, there is no higher authority than being a Matriarch, which she can well obtain herself. Lopin already recognizes her as his Matriarch (though Kass really don’t yet feel honored by this). So yeah forgive me for thinking Kass/Kassen is a bit of a screw-up, but one who cares deeply when he allows him/herself to. So what Kass will do to protect her friends I can’t say, but starting to organize Val Salia’s wild Yinglet population into something that resembles order has to be done, or Kass will either have to leave or be a virtual prisoner like Lopin is.
So, uh, not to be overly confrontational, here, but why is everyone so insistent on using feminine pronouns for Kass? He very clearly still identifies as male, and in no way chose his current predicament. All of this talk of needing to fulfill female biological functions is really kinda messed up, at least until Kass decides to embrace that potential path, if he ever does. Heck, if he wants to become a leader/symbol to the Yinglets, he could even do that without assuming a female role. The local enclave is already clearly building towards a traditionalist vs progressive conflict anyway, and the traditional matriarchy is not above question.
@Perp The comic itself has Kass refering to herself in the feminine 5 years ago in OOP oo8 “The Goddam Scav Bitch of Ivenmoth”. So for pronouns if indeed the Yinglets bother with nuance, its She/Her unless she gets TF’d back to Kassen in the future, of for myself, refering to Kassen before Zhat Zhing.
The comic author is free to do what the hell they want with Kass. I’m thinking along the lines of what Kassen the human wanted, which is respect, and how to achieve this as a Obviously biologically female Yinglet. We already have the example of the Val Salian Enclave’s Matriarch as to how Yinglets treat the intellectually gifted. The short answer is they don’t care. So Kassen being either Female, or Smart really isn’t what is going to change her fate IMHO. Its creating a power base using what talents and assets she has that will allow her to be more than a prisoner in Val Salia, or indeed find if there is a reversing for her Transformation.
“My son didn’t make it!” ~ Rimuru Tempest
In answer to the last panel: “What was your first clue?”
I just noticed the map with red lines on it. Makes me curious as to what that’s about.
I’d think likely common/established trade routes.
House Ivenmoth has not got some shit going on.
House Ivenmoth has ALL the shit going on.