Page 1511…
Hi all!
Well…these are the first time we’re seeing the “Guardians”.
These descendents from Ramses II trapped here for thousands of years on Dreamland have adapted magic and science to remain separate from Dreamlanders and the Nightmare denizens.
Thank you to Tracy Bailey for her wonderful designs and to Ivan Perez Ayala for the models. And to Juan Carlos Prados Herrada for the rigging and morphs.
I had a bit of trouble getting the wings to articulate (which is why this page is a few hours late).
You’ll see a LOT more of them in the next chapter.
Tomorrow…we’ll meet the Pharaoh and his court that will end Chapter 17.
Thank you all!
Sexxy…
Oooh, good luck with articulating the wings, they look really nice so far!
Those wings are beautiful!
“Welcome, King Alexander! But your princess’ parents are in another castle!”
Contrary to your name, I would say that this comment makes you just old enough to be cool.
Mario reference FTW!!!
LIKE!
You’re more like “Too Cool To Be Old”, except that “cool” don’t have an age limit
From my blog, slightly altered:
***
Why the handle of “Too Old To Be Cool”? I’m 46, and a lot of what’s supposed to be “cool” I just don’t GET.
Piercings everywhere? Tattoos? Hip hop? “American Idol”? Pink? Don’t get it. Not at all.
I’d rather play the original DOOM or listen to The Knack or Huey Lewis.
I’m looked upon as an old fogey, whose tastes are totally out of line with the times.
***
At the time I had been working at an FEC, running shifts with a whole bunch of teenagers. Now I do tech support, and the kids run the shift. I’m STILL looked upon as an old fogey, but quick with a joke (but not to light up a smoke) and more than willing to make a customer’s day.
/TheMoreYouKnow
Pink is only cool if suffixed with “-ie pie”
Littlepip is best pony! (Fallout: Equestria is one of the best fanfics I’ve read in any fandom.)
Agreed! I must finish my re-reading of it sometime.
As for the comic: lovely page, I’m really looking forward to this arc. Hopefully these guys speak English, or is there some convention in Dreamland where everyone can understand each other? Been so long since I did an archive binge.
…but there’s someplace you’d rather be?
(yes, I too fall into that age range. And I can recognize a Billy Joel ref faster than you can say “Mulberry Street”…….)
I actually get Pink and Tattoos (those have been around longer than WE have!) But some of the other stuff falls into the same category. Just be proud we grew up when music still had some story to it. When music videos weren’t just a bunch of dancers grinding snipped together with concert footage. Back when we learned to cope with a problem rather than taking a drug to ‘cure’ it. Back when “Social Anxiety Disorder” was called “Being Shy”. Yeah, we’re old, and we’re cool BECAUSE of it.
Remember, everything old becomes new again soon enough…..yay for ‘retro’ fads!
Though we may be waiting a long time for Big Hair and Leg Warmers to come back into fashion…..
I’ll be turning 40 in a couple months. With you on all counts.
Same here, Same here
I’ll be 50 this year. I’m used to being the grandma on forums, though I’m not actually a grandma, not yet.
Hey, I’m 29 and feel kind of the same. It’s like entertainment went down during the 90´s.
first off, it’s awesome, but I have to ask, if they were originally human, we can assume they can fly, so why do they need the wings?
If their flying is anything like Alex’s then it’s maximum elevation was some distance lower than the city (hence the group using the stones instead of flying). Perhaps the wings allow them to fly higher than that.
Speaking of which, very cool wings. I wonder if they have some way of giving the magic of the wings to others, the way the mer-people do with their tails.
Actually…
These descendents from Ramses are in their HUMAN BODY.
Alex is in his “DREAM BODY”.
The dream body can fly, is strong, etc.
These humans have NO special abilities whatsoever.
They’re just like you and I…but in Dreamland.
They have learned to harness magic (Earth and Dreamland) as well as technology (mostly Earth) to achieve flight for both themselves and their city.
Hm-m. Back on page 1500 it sounded as if the magic used in the creation of Seraphopolis was provided by friendly Dreamlanders. Maybe something’s just got lost in Niviene’s translation, of course.
Oh. I didn’t mean to imply they didn’t have help.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Oooo!! Very good clarification! I would have overlooked the difference between dream body and real body. That probably is one more piece in the “why can they fly this high but Alex and Co can’t” puzzle.
makes perfect sense to me
^ I think it said this is higher than humans can fly, right?
yes, you can’t fly UP to it, but once you’re there, you can fly around.
And of course, you can fly down but that’s usually called falling.
Unless you forget to hit the ground… then it is indeed called flying…
yeah, but up (or down) till then it’s falling. It’s that last second decision to forget or remember that makes the difference.
btw, Douglas Adams ref FTW *fistbump*
But, fortunately, it isn’t the falling that hurts, it’s the landing.
lol! That reminds me of an old half remembered joke: a guy falls off a skyscraper. Halfway down there’s an open window and a guy yells out, “You okay?” and the faller says “so far, so good!”
See Scott’s comment in the strong above this for another reason why their flying is different from Alex’s flying.
With technology, many things are possible!
Well, and they’re flying using wings. That’s different than magical superman-style flying. Wings don’t require magic to fly.
This isn’t the floating castle you’re looking for. Move along.
lol, i hope that you find Alex that weak minded, are you.
Thanks Scott for the wonderful story so far. I really love it so much and love to see what will be at Seraphopolis floating castle.
For me (us) i hope the next chapter is starting directly after this one is finished. For you i hope you take a little break (not to long
) to rest from the start fresh minded on the next chapter.
what you planning to do it is totally fine by me (us, i think).
ouch, i mend “… you find Alex NOT that …”
Come to think of it… what exactly do those Guardians guard?
Oh, well.
TWC. 16,860 votes keep us firmly in the third position. It looks like that’s what it is this month.
Yet, let’s keep voting anyway.
The Seraphopies of Seraphopolis. They are the tastiest pies in the history of ever.
Sava,are familiar with a DC Comics hero known as Hawkman? or perhaps the Hanna-Barbera hero Birdman for the wing designs?
Paddington appears a lot smaller in the last panel. His size is definitely an issue here because I don’t think those guard bird things would posture so menacingly with some huge rock person scowling down at them.
I’m liking the translucent effect in the wings.
Very nice!
Paddington? Scowl? He’s a friendly rock giant of variable density.
The welcoming party has arrived, but are they welcome?
What business does an Elf, a Man, a Fairy, a Feline and a Rock Giant have in Seraphopolis?
It’s the Thanagarians! Everybody run!!
I’m not so sure they’re going to get a “warm welcome”. hehe
The last page has a lot more people in it.
Man. I hate to be late again. But it’s not looking like I’ll have Wednesday’s page up by the morning.
The new computers are really fast. I would hate to think of how many days of rendering each page would have taken on the older machines.
Thank you for your patience.
Beautiful page, Scott! The castle is gorgeous.
I’m disappointed because I’ll have to wait again next update to read first words from guardians.
Wow, they`re really awesome and colourful!
Scott, I keep forgetting to post this, but I wanted to let you know that I did an internet fast for one and a half month two months ago and when I came back I had, of course, a lot of webcomics to read and a LOT of Dreamland pages too (which was awesome) I left when Alex and Nastajia just met Nivienne and so I could read all through the scenes where she meets up with Daniel and Nicole. I must say that that was the biggest pay-off of the comic for me. For Dan to finally see something of Dreamland. And exactly the right things happened, I was like: “It would be awesome if Dan could see Nastajia and he did. Then I thought: he needs to see his brother in Dreamland too! And he did. And when Felicity came with Alex I was actually jumping up and down on my seat and squeeing out loud. That moment was so awesome! I wanted to share that here.
Keep up the great work once again, Seraphopolis looks amazing!
Aw. Thank you!
I truly hope everyone goes back and re-reads the chapters in a whole either online or in the books. It’s the way they were meant to be read.
So glad you enjoyed them.
Love it, They kind of remind me of the Kachina Dolls of the Southwest, which makes a lot of sense, really- if they over the centuries figured out some way to visit the waking world through dreams…
Hmmm, SO- what happens when Dreamlanders sleep? do they visit our world? And Humans that are physically there IN Dreamland, when they sleep– what happens then?
I wonder, do they speak in hieroglyphs? ;D
That would be awesome. Reminds me of the Egyptians in the Asterix comics, they spoke like that too.
Exactly what I thought of
Nice wings, are they based on the Egyptian designs that are often seen alongside Hieroglyphs? At least in popular culture, I don’t often see the originals…
@ Ladyfox7oaks: Adults usually don’t end up in Dreamland and there has been nothing to suggest Dreamlanders dream into our world. The remaining question would be if the Seraphopolis children dream.
They managed to invest magic wings, but they still use antique-styled war sandals…
#####
I wonder if we will meet Nick tomorrow? Judging by the fact that its a chapter end, I’d say we do – chapter ends tend to be dramatic! ;-D
Why would the wings need to be magic? Wings allow one to fly…no magic needed.
Warren Worthington III notwithstanding, wings on humans wouldn’t work too well… something to do with the span and muscles needed to provide lift being just about unachievable. Sorry for the half technical answer, but I’m sure I’ve seen articles explaining it better. The curious may google… me, I’m lazy.
In this particular case, I’d guess magic could help compensate for the non ridiculous span and provide the actual motion (as opposed to a technological engine or actual biological muscles that I’m guessing are not present).
Oh, I agree that in real life, the human form isn’t designed for flying with wings. But in a fantasy story, I just assume that humans with wings have no problem flying–otherwise why have wings?
also: why would they need different sandals? Who would they war against up there? Probably more like a fashion statement than anything else, like the Swiss Guard at the Vatican.
If the sandal fits, wear it!
The importance of footwear probably decreases significantly once you have wings.
NEXT PANEL:
Head Guardian steps forward: “We are the Guardians of Nih. In order to enter Seraphopolis you must bring us a shrubbery!”
LOL!
Alex: A shrubbery? I don’t get it.
Guards: AAAAUUGHHH! He said the word!
Alex: Cut down Astoria with a sword? It’s can’t be done. I tried.
Nastajia steps forward, arm around Alex, and speaks to the guardian.
Alex: “Give us the gate key!”
Guardian: “I have not gate key….”
Alex rolls his eyes. Nastajia turns to Paddington.
Nastajia: “Paddington, rip his wings off.”
Guardian: “Oh, you mean THIS gate key….”
HA HA!
Hoo boy. Birdmen. Let’s hope they don’t have statues.
… On second thought, Paddington probably won’t come out of this unstained.
Third panel. A feather on the guardian on the right looks to have gotten in front of his staff.
Actually, it only looks that way because of the coloring: right at that height, on the staff, are two rings, which are the same color as a portion of the feathers (closest to the wing’s frame). The way the staff is angled, right in front of the wings, makes it look like the rings are feathers, when they are actually in front of the feathers, right around where the feathers pass from gold to orange.
One has to look very carefully to see it so.
Wow – good call!
Wow.
The comments to this page (#1511) have totally made my day. First a Mario reference, then a Star Wars reference, then a Monty Python reference, and then a Princess Bride reference!!! You guys ROCK!!!
There’s probably a Space Balls reference here somewhere, too. If not, I’m sure we can comb the desert and find one.
Add Lord of the Rings to that list
And I agree, this is awesome 
Hopefully Nastajia will the fate of her parents in the next chapter and should Alex defy Nevivine?
I divided the last page into 2 pages.
Thursday’s page will go up in the morning. Just rendering the last bits.
Then there’ll be a Friday page too.
Scott, Can’t wait to see them. I love the guardians’ wings. They are beautiful. Awesome job as always!
-Tink