Sverd Shelgr
From Inheriwiki, the ever-growing Inheritance database
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| Sverd Shelgr | |
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| Creator(s) | SM Turton |
| Website URL | http://www.smtenterprises.com |
| Launch Date | September, 2006 |
| Focus | Webcomic |
Sverd Shelgr is an Inheritance cycle webcomic created by SM Turton in the style of popular D&D comic Order of the Stick. The webcomic focuses on the adventures of a motley group of adventurers and their journey through Alagaësia. Their group's name, "Sverd Shelgr", means "Hallowed Sword" in the Ancient Language.
Sverd Shelgr celebrated its one-year anniversary since the first comic was created (the website was launched in September, but the comic was created on the 11th of June).
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[edit] Protagonists
Geuloth, an elven magician, is often sarcastic and impolite, as well as being relatively sadistic, revelling in the destruction of things. He broke the Elf Queen's scrying orb and was sent to retrieve a new one. He dresses in purple, and sports violet hair. (In the new story arc, it is due to a dragon who turned his hair purple ) "Geuloth" means "dull" in the Ancient Language.
Volheim is a dwarven warrior from the North. He is usually the voice of reason in Sverd Shelgr. Volheim was sent by the Dwarf King to retrieve Urunien, a magical staff stolen from the dwarves by an enemy unknown to them (Aruna).
Zhada is an Urgal warrior, who joined up with Sverd Shelgr after its previous third member, Thargen, was killed by a falling copy of the book Eldest in the same battle where Sverd Shelgr killed her husband. She originally joined as part of a plan to kill them in revenge, but later decided she liked them more than her fellow Urgals. Unlike most of her kind, she is relatively gentle and good-natured. Zhada means either "rebel" or "doom" in the Urgal language.
Drajl is a sarcastic werecat, who has taken to following Sverd Shelgr around for unknown reasons. He first came into contact with them in the lair of two giants, who planned to cook them all and serve them up as dinner for their girlfriends. "Drajl" is an Urgal insult meaning "spawn of maggots".
[edit] Antagonists
Aruna is an evil sorceress. It is implied that she somehow arranged for Ted and Bob to capture Sverd Shelgr. It is revealed that she is the one who stole Urunien and is responsible for the disappearance of most scrying orbs. She has so far used Urunien to free a spirit from its scrying orb. This appears to place the spirit's power under her control, thought it is unknown what she plans to do with the staff. She has a collection of zombie servants whom she often kills; apparently most of her wardrobe and furniture is made from them.
Trazhid is Aruna's familiar. He is a client of the Supernatural Entity Agency, and has been contracted to work for Aruna. He is the fifth known familiar to be in Aruna's service; she killed the previous four for various petty and cruel reasons.
Menthiv is an environmentalist human wizard who lives in the Pinewood Forest, who captured Sverd Shelgr and attempted to execute them (except for Drajl) for harming the plants and animals of his domain. He had a pet werecat named Whiskers, though she seemed to have her own motives for serving him; she helped Sverd Shelgr escape him, and eventually left for a job with a dental plan. Menthiv has since sworn revenge on Sverd Shelgr, and bought a flying wolf mount to use for that task.
Ted and Bob are two giants who capture Sverd Shelgr early in the series, hoping to cook them for their girlfriends as a romantic dinner. Despite their girlfriends breaking up with them, the giants still insisted on eating the group.
[edit] Plot
The comics start with the original members of Sverd Shelgr (Geuloth, Volheim and Thargen) doing battle with a group of Urgals. Suddenly, the word "BOOK!" is heard and they stop fighting. Volheim realises that Eldest must have been published, and because the particular tribe of Urgals they're fighting allied themselves with the Varden and dwarves, Sverd Shelgr and the Urgals can't do battle without violating canon. Thargen refuses to give up the fight and kills an Urgal (who is later revealed to be Zhada's husband). A giant copy of Eldest promptly falls from the sky and crushes him. Zhada asks if she can join Sverd Shelgr as their new third member seeing as the old one is dead, and Volheim agrees.
It is learnt that Volheim (with the late Thargen) and Geuloth are on separate quests, but are travelling together because their destinations are both in the Southeast. Volheim has been sent by the Dwarf King to recover Urunien, a magical staff made by the dwarves that gives the wielder power over all nearby spirits without being bent to their will, and, according to Geuloth, also acts as a bug zapper by shooting small bolts of lightning at any insect that gets too close to it. Volheim is travelling to the Southeastern City because he has a contact there who can tell him the last known location of Urunien.
Geuloth, meanwhile, is on a quest to a swamp in the Southeast to retrieve the only scrying orb still known to exist. He accidentally broke the Elf Queen's own orb when, as a practical joke, he hid 20 pounds of gunpowder in the Queen's fireplace and set fire to it. In the ensuing explosion her scrying orb was broken, and all the animals in a 2-mile radius were killed.
[edit] Deities
There are five known pantheons in Sverd Shelgr, the only canonical one being the Dwarven Pantheon.
[edit] Urgal Pantheon
The God of Bunnies, Flowers and Miscellaneous Soft Pillows (GBFMSP) is a deity who was kicked out of the Urgal pantheon (which is mostly made up of gods of death, bloodshed and the like), presumably for being too soft and weak, though after training his bunny minions to kill non-believers he has been let back in. Aside from the Urgals, his known worshippers include some of the Southeasterners. He has appeared in several comics but has not as of yet interacted with Sverd Shelgr.
The God of War (GOW) is the only other Urgal god to have actually appeared in the comics. He is covered in red tattoos and carries a shield and ax.
A number of Urgal deities have been mentioned aside from these two - the Gods of Death and Bloodshed, the Goddesses of Wrath, Destruction and Pain, the Gremlins of Disorder and the Spirit of Ultimate Chaos.
[edit] Southeastern Pantheon
Gods worshipped in the "Southeast," i.e. Surda:
The God of Mildly Stormy Weather appears as a dark-skinned man dressed in purple, with a small rain cloud floating just above his head.
The Goddess of Goats is a bronze-coloured goat with a collection of tattoos. She is the only known deity with an animal's body. [1]
[edit] Familiar Pantheon
Gods worshipped by "familiars," spirits like Trazhid conjured by sorcerers:
The God of Turtles is the only known member of the Familiar Pantheon. Unlike the Goddess of Goats, he is not actually physically the animal of his domain - he has a familiar's body, although with green skin and a shell on his back. The Urgal God of War mentioned once that he had some sort of bad experience with a group of travelers; on another occasion Geuloth and Volheim discuss events that happened to them before the comic strip began, and Geuloth mentions that he is "still afraid of turtles," with Volheim hinting there may be a prequel comic one day to explain this connection. Trazhid also mentions the God of Turtles has power over lightning for some reason.
[edit] Fowl Pantheon
Various unusual bird deities with illogical and pointless powers. There are only four deities in the pantheon - the God of Effervescent Puddles (green duck), the Goddess of Noxious Slippers (red hen), the God of Misplaced Aglets (blue rooster) and the God of Questionable Aspirin (purple goose). The Fowl Pantheon is worshipped by wizards; each wizard is dedicated to one of the four deities, depending on which element he has magical control over.[2]
[edit] Renovations
As part of the changes made to the comic and website over the new year, the style and storyline of Sverd Shelgr was totally redone. The old comics are still available for viewing on the website, but they are no longer considered canon, and their story arc does not feature in the new storyline. The author has cited numerous reasons for all of the changes.[3]
[edit] Deviations from accepted canon
Although Sverd Shelgr usually sticks to the canon of the Inheritance Cycle, it does deviate on several points:
- Early on, the group comes across some giants who plan on eating them, even though the books state that giants have been extinct for many, many years. The giants respond to this by saying that "just because something isn’t exactly canon doesn’t mean we can’t get away with it," to which Geuloth humourously replies, "I’ll say. Look what they did with the movie."
- The concept of a "scrying orb" does not exist in the books like it does in the comics, although the mechanics behind the orb (using a spirit to observe things one has never seen) may be possible within the magic of Inheritance.
- The portrayal of Urgals is also somewhat different in the comic -the books describe Urgals as being man-like in appearance, with gray skin, bowed legs and horns. Although the Sverd Shelgr Urgals also have horns, they are tall and green-skinned. Most of the Urgals featured are bald, the exception being Zhada, who ties her black hair up in pigtails. Zhada is the only female Urgal who has been seen in the comic so far.
- When Sverd Shelgr goes to the "Southeast" (apparently Surda), the culture is similar to traditional India, while no real indication of that is given in the novels.
- Gods are very real in Sverd Shelgr, and are shown interacting with characters all the time, while it is likely that the gods mentioned in Inheritance are not even supposed to really exist. Also, of the gods shown, only the "Goddess of Rivers"/Kílf is at all canonical; aside from the Dwarven gods, no deities are named in the series (discounting Helgrind).
- The comic mentions "familiars," which seem to be somewhat different from "spirits"---exactly how is not known. The spirits/familiars/gods also have their own world that sorcerers can travel to by magic, while this is never mentioned in the books.
- Sverd Shelgr once encounters a green, female dragon, which does not exist in the canonical series. When Volheim points out that creating an unknown dragon for the fourth book would be "horribly redundant," however, she vanishes in a puff of logic.
[edit] Copyright
So as not to violate any copyright laws, Sverd Shelgr tends to steer away from properly referencing people and places from the Inheritance cycle. Thus, Queen Islanzadí is recorded in the comic only as the Elf Queen, Hrothgar is the Dwarf King, and Du Weldenvarden as the northern forests. Gûntera was once mentioned in the third comic, but this was later altered so as to read "KODG" ("King of Dwarven Gods"); the goddess Kílf, one of the few canonical characters to appear in the comic, likewise goes unnamed. Referring to Zhada as an Urgal is possibly the only direct reference to the canon of the books, although because Sverd Shelgr is a work of parody, it is allowed to make some references to the copyrighted material of the books.
