Final Quest #22

Sadachbia that's great that you put so much work into an Elfquest fanuniverse of your own!
I like Crocus as a name.

Sadachbia wrote:

Other notes: the Blood of Ten Chiefs stories are generally assumed (at least by the Pinis) to be completely non-canon, chalked up to "Unreliable Narrator" (Elfpop wrote a few of them himself, but I imagine he'd justify that it's been 10K years and the elves are just passing memories down. Even a telepathic game of Telephone is going to lose or distort details).

I, on the other hand, just shoehorned them into my headcanon. The first anthology has a story that mentions Nightfall's mother is named Amber, so that's what I went with. None of this "she's Brownberry and Longbranch's daughter" that Wolfrider forced upon us, because then Scouter and Tyleet are cousins, and ew. (I am well aware that first cousins among humans have bred many times through history without problems, unless cousin-x-cousin breeding continues for multiple generations, but still. Elves are already low-key inbred as it is. Ew.) So Nightfall's AU parents are Amber and Runner, who was also acknowledged to be non-canon. I have extensive headcanon family trees that trace Redlance back to Kaslen and Kalil's daughter Treedancer, and give Voll and Winnowill an out-of-Recognition daughter who was neglected by her mother and adopted by a friendly member of another tribe who happened to encounter her. I made an official list of all 128 Firstcomers who were on the Palace, who survived and who didn't, who went off to help establish what tribe. Because I have OCD. I can't just "leave it all to my imagination" like Elfmom suggests. I have to establish things.

Question! Do you have Skyfire as Two-Spear's sister or his aunt?

Shadowpath wrote:

Sadachbia wrote:

Other notes: the Blood of Ten Chiefs stories are generally assumed (at least by the Pinis) to be completely non-canon, chalked up to "Unreliable Narrator" (Elfpop wrote a few of them himself, but I imagine he'd justify that it's been 10K years and the elves are just passing memories down. Even a telepathic game of Telephone is going to lose or distort details).

I, on the other hand, just shoehorned them into my headcanon. The first anthology has a story that mentions Nightfall's mother is named Amber, so that's what I went with. None of this "she's Brownberry and Longbranch's daughter" that Wolfrider forced upon us, because then Scouter and Tyleet are cousins, and ew. (I am well aware that first cousins among humans have bred many times through history without problems, unless cousin-x-cousin breeding continues for multiple generations, but still. Elves are already low-key inbred as it is. Ew.) So Nightfall's AU parents are Amber and Runner, who was also acknowledged to be non-canon. I have extensive headcanon family trees that trace Redlance back to Kaslen and Kalil's daughter Treedancer, and give Voll and Winnowill an out-of-Recognition daughter who was neglected by her mother and adopted by a friendly member of another tribe who happened to encounter her. I made an official list of all 128 Firstcomers who were on the Palace, who survived and who didn't, who went off to help establish what tribe. Because I have OCD. I can't just "leave it all to my imagination" like Elfmom suggests. I have to establish things.

Question! Do you have Skyfire as Two-Spear's sister or his aunt?

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Aunt, because otherwise her parents were cousins, and I've already explained my feelings on that. xD Prey-Pacer x Wreath would have worked if some author in a later anthology hadn't decided to make Wreath the daughter of Laststar. Wreath's father in my AU is an unspecified member of Trickster's Clan (the majority of whom were killed by allos—per the anthologies—but then non-canonically resurrected in Return to Innocence).

I actually have the family tree files saved in my Dropbox, lemme go dig 'em out…

All of these are kinda spoilery for future stories in the RtI AU, but I doubt anyone will be that upset.

Wolfriders and associates: https://www.dropbox.com/s/72kohvqzwuuwl97/~lineages%2C%20wolfriders%2B%20v6%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0
Firstcomers/Firstborn: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tce671d10wq3b59/~lineages%2C%20%EF%AC%81rstcomers%2B%EF%AC%81rstborn%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0
Sun Folk (Elfmom has stated that at the time of the Original Quest there were only about 40 Sun Villagers, but looking at the background characters, I count WAY more than that. Plus, 40 is not really a sustainable population, even for elves): https://www.dropbox.com/s/5dh7qy4ae0ed2hz/~lineages%2C%20sun%20folk%2B%20v6%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0
Gliders: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o09ornlu62mh8t2/~lineages%2C%20gliders%2B%20v6%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0
Go-Backs: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lm2hl5iac97tyhd/~lineages%2C%20go-backs%2B%20v6%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0
Original (Black Mermaid) WaveDancers: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h6128lgqy8jxc84/~lineages%2C%20wavedancers%20A%2B%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0
New (canonical) WaveDancers: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fa2jmwjxt2ih9fl/~lineages%2C%20wavedancers%20B%2B%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0
The Rootless Ones (specifically just the ones who became the Sun Folk or were slain by humans, no relation to the fungal elves seen in FQ): https://www.dropbox.com/s/xd6blvymgzpcr9b/~lineages%2C%20rootless%20ones%2B%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0
Trickster's Clan: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bo1fw4n9cwy5uyx/~lineages%2C%20trickster%E2%80%99s%20clan%2B%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0

(Symbols and stuff: * means an elf who died and was rezzed in RtI, † means an elf who died and wasn't rezzed. Names with a line through them don't mean anything, I just used that for keeping track of whom I'd updated in my wiki.)

Oho! Nice work! =D

I've also got script drafts saved in my Dropbox, since I write the scripts faster than I can sketch out the pages. Let me know if anyone's interested in reading them—I would appreciate the feedback!

Sadachbia wrote:

x.com/s/tce671d10wq3b59/~lineages%2C%20%EF%AC%81rstcomers%2B%EF%AC%81rstborn%20%28DR%29.pdf?dl=0
Sun Folk (Elfmom has stated that at the time of the Original Quest there were only about 40 Sun Villagers, but looking at the background characters, I count WAY more than that. Plus, 40 is not really a sustainable population, even for elves.)

You count more than that because she's retconning again - though this retcon dates back to the 80s or so, whenever they put out the "Journey to Sorrow's End" novelization.

Bloody hell, woman, only 40 Sun Villagers and we NEVER saw Rayek's parents until you shoved them in his face in FQ?! He brings back the fabled home of the elves in KotBW and they're not even there to say "Wow?" This is screwed up for humans, let alone your "highly evolved beings."

We did technically see Ingen and Jarrah in one of the HY issues, "The Enemy's Face" I think it was, and even though Wendy didn't draw that one, she did script it and it appeared in one of the Complete Elfquest compilations so I'd assume it's canon.

That issue does not count for my purposes. That was a flashback. What I mean is that through all the drama of elfquest through the first challenge through his leaving through his return to sorrows end - with, as I mentioned, the ancestral Palace of the elves - we never saw them even as background characters. Wendy might have made some ham fisted comments about Rayek spurning them but it seems to me like they were never there to start. You can't spurn someone who doesn't even bother to show up.

They showed up during HY 9. This also explained parts of their relationship and his "career". Other than that I can hardly remember. Maybe they weren't shaped out / planned as characters when OQ was made, later they were introduced as a background-giver / explanation issue-set in the HY issues.
What bothers me more is that they show up in FQ, but there is so little dialogue.

"Jarrah. Ingen."
"Shade and sweet water..."
"... Son."
Oh. Well. Not the talk I would have expected after all these years. Even if they weren't so close, there shoud have been more.
Also a lot of other characters are linked e.g. via Kahvi (mother of all, went to bed with all...) so they could share memories of their mother or fur- and lovemate...

I think Wendy really wants to finish that whole thing but lacks energy for all the scenes that should be. However, she shouldn't introduce 20 new characters each issue then.

Of course the parents were never planned, the same way Leetah's former lover (the one, who got kicked to death) was never planned.
The story in Hidden Years wasn't really well thought through, and Manga is right to blame the parents. Sun Folk parents seem like the doting kind, they wouldn't leave a kid on his own. And it would've been better, if they never appeared in the story again.
Since the Pini's had the last word on the story, the mess is their fault in the end.

If Wendy had the means of George Lucas, she would digitally erase the Sun Folk children from OQ (you know, since there are supposed to be so few births)

*screaming internally* Now I want to write some more of the Plainsrunners script, but I have to finish getting ready for work…

So after reading this issue, all I seem to be focused on is.... when did Rayek get blue contacts?

What page is that on?

Maybe he actually is the original Cutter who's soul got displaced by Timmain's Avatar and sent back in to another body.

Lol, Shadowpath, I had a plan to write a fanfic about exactly that!

Kindredsoul wrote:

Hmmm. For some reason I'm inclined to think has something to do with Winnowill?

manga wrote:

Lol, Shadowpath, I had a plan to write a fanfic about exactly that!

Write it! 8D I wanna read!

And I thought the "lenses" were a joke! O.O ... BLUE eyed Rayek - I'll declare it Winnowill messing with him ...

... cuz NO colorist can mistake either Rayek's eye color or blue and gold, can (s)he?

Sonny Strait can! And has numerous times thru Final Quest.

I mean, if you can give Skyfire and Ember almost the same skin colour...

Well, that is interesting, and even more interesting that I didn't notice. Damn.
I must check my comic when I'm home. Maybe it's a printing error or something. Though e.g. there was Rayek's skin colour that always changed in the past. Really. A lot. So partially that was probably due to printing tech at the time, or due to communication with different people who would colour or adjust colours during printing.
Though a transition form "desert" to "sky" can hardly be explained just by that or some RGB->CMYK transition.

Sonny Strait is just straight up a mediocre colorist at best. He seems like a nice guy but he's not a great artist by any standard. I like his really cartoony stuff-- it's funny. He had a good sense of humor. That's really his forte. I think the Pinis must just like to work with their friends.

(God I love not censoring myself! No one reads this but us-- so no one's feelings are getting hurt. I used to just edit the heck out of myself on the scroll when I talked about the artwork and story-- despite the brouhaha with Richard.)

It's kind of liberating, isn't it? It is nice to be able to express how we really feel about these things.

Shadowpath wrote:

Kindredsoul wrote:

Hmmm. For some reason I'm inclined to think has something to do with Winnowill?

The panels thereafter, his eyes are gold again. I don't think Winnowill had any influence over Rayek at that very moment, unless she was suddenly feeling maternal

Unless....

When he says, "for the both of us", he meant for himself and Winni, instead of meaning Ekuar