A comic dedicated to Arvale 2, an RPG that has been swallowed by The Oceans of Time.
If you wish to explore the story on your own, then you can.
Dive into the archived version of the old dev website and fish this gem from 2005 out!
Big thanks to @clownboybebop for allowing me to use the text from this banger post I came across on my dashboard one day, and even point out some errors!
Creation process and story explanations linked here! =)
Very inspiring text that infested my mind with a comic idea for quite some time now... Arvale 2 Ocean of Time and The Great DeMenchev, my beloved. <3
hello it is i, i come with appreciation for the amv (which btw amazing showstopping etc etc)
when people in the tavern are talking about dm's achievements vs later on (2:47) when we see the same images BUT beylord is included on them >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
the sequence in the mirror at 0:50 hello ?????? so fluid and creepy i LOVE it
this is in general but i had to restrain myself from pausing and going frame by frame the first time i watched the video because i didn't wanna miss any details but also i didn't want to interrupt the flow (so i just. watched it a couple of times :])
the face at 2:16 of the boat shade when the spirit!beylord jumps over board made me chuckle
THE ANIMATION IN THE CHASE at 2:17. the punch when beylord uses the hat against dm >>>>>
THE STUDY/LIBRARY, THE JACKET, we are holding hands 🤝
love the clock/eye/moon
the emotions at 3:36. unmatched
the pixel art animation at the end is super cute TT
IT'S SOSO COOL i'm so happy i got to see it :]
Greetings everyone else.
I want you all to know that Tumblr User error404notfound send this ask 30 MINUTES AFTER I DROPPED THE AMV?!!?
HOLY SHIT YOU ARE SO FAST???
Anyway, I ADORE this digital letter of yours, because it is so thorough… genuinely very moving, especially knowing you looked forward to it so much . (SOBBING)
1). YESSS!!! THE PARALLELS!!! From the description:
» Everyone in Arvale remembers The Great DeMenchev, but almost none remember Beylord «
DM being this famous polymath, Arvale’s Leonardo DaVinci, is so important !! It’s one of his core character traits, he’s world famous! I HAD to do something with them, especially since that major lore drop in Arvale 2 Ocean of Time where we learn he wasn’t being a genius adventurer on his own!!!
To quote an NPC from Arvale Treasure of Memories, which takes place a whole MILLENNIA in the future from DeMenchev’s perspective:
» Oh, come now! Everybody knows who the great philosopher, thinker, scientist, and adventurer DeMenchev was! He basically invented everything! Also referred to as DM? «
2). I’M SO GLAD I especially wanted it to feel fluid after you stare at a static image for quite some time, only for it to slowly and then suddenly start moving fluidly =) Really adds to the creep factor, too~ And did you notice? The bandages the Spirit Beylord is wearing in this scene are the same ones he had post accident >=)
... Notice how DeMenchev tried to stay awake to be there when Beylord wakes up, instead of sleeping himself in the bed behind him. And this room? That's the inn from Pike:
3). HEHEHEH IT’S BY DESIGN. I love making art that isn’t immediately understood at a first glance, no stuff where you look at it once, understand everything, and then move on. Instead you can get your brain blasted by the visuals the first time watching it uninterrupted, and then a curious viewer, such as YOU, can stop and pause and inspect every frame to piece together all the information~ Much like a puzzle or poem!
And to be fair, there was also no other way to jam their entire story into 4.5 minutes. In fact, twice now I I told 2 of my friends their entire story in detail in VC, and both time it took around 4.5 hours
4). LMAO THAT’S THE FERRYMAN! An actual NPC you can meet in Arvale!!
Not to be confused with the Narrator, who shares the same sprites because they were running out of art assets it seems 💀 ...and they also seem to have the ability to be at multiple places simultaneously, because gameplay.
Spirit Beylord is currently on his way to the afterlife, riding the Ferryman's ferry, But his reanimated corpse is wrecking havoc and killing/eating people, which is why there's suddenly an influx of souls/ghosts who have claw and teeth marks >=)
The way Beylord's Body rises here is also referenced from Arvale Short Tales, from the animation where it suffers a critical hit and recovers:
Now. To quote myself from my Beylord lore post/documentary:
» If I was in the afterlife after I died and hoards of fellow souls blame me for their deaths and a bunch of terrible things back in the mortal world that I know I didn’t do… because I’m dead… Dude, you could not stop me with 10 inches of reinforced concrete, I would somehow find my way back to the mortal world to find out what the hell is going on and try to stop it. «
Which is what Spirit Beylord does, by jumping off The Ferry.
That planet you see, BTW? That’s Arvale! (ca. 1000 A.D.) (After Dragons)
Here’s some old art of the continents and one of 🤖Jaybot7‘s sketches I dug up with the WayBackMachine:
5). No joke… For 2 years I wanted to animate that scene. It was stuck in my head on loop so vividly. OTZ
It’s so important, because of multiple reasons
- It shows both their personalities
- It shows how they even met, Beylord doesn’t even have that eye scar, ring and his cape isn’t tattered yet.
- It shows where DeMenchev got his hat from and why it’s so important to him…
- In fact, DM’s whole outfit is different in the beginning of that scene! He’s got none of those dark Beylord Blues incorporated in his design yet! (his little bag did not make it into the final cut)
You can pause at EVERY frame in that scene and it’s PURE comedy too!
6). WE ARE HOLDING HANDS.🤝🤝🤝 Now you know why I was spending so many months drawing shelves filled with books…
7). HEHEHE That’s some Arvale 2 Ocean of Time symbolism! In Arvale 2, there are 3 timepieces.
The Panther Eye, timepiece of The Past.
The Lunar Tear, timepiece of The Present.
And The Cedar Root, timepiece of The Future.
We start in The Past (Panther eye clock keeps ticking forward), arrive in The Present (it turns into a tear) and while it’s never specified where in time DeMenchev travels at the end of Arvale Short Tales, considering he appears in Arvale Treasure of Memories… it was probably the future. That’s why glowing roots grow out of his hand at the end there!
The place where the ending scene takes place is one of the time temples on a remote island from Arvale 2 Ocean of Time, BTW!
» During their final encounter on a remote island, DeMenchev was cornered by Beylord with no exit in sight.
At the last moment, just as Beylord was about to finish him off, DeMenchev warned him that he could still travel somewhere that even Beylord could not follow.
Beylord scoffed at the preposterous remark and asked him where.
»Through Time!« DeMenchev replied, and in an instant, DeMenchev disappeared in a bright flash. «
8). THANK YOU… god, that entire ending scene, I tried to keep the drawings as close to the storyboard/animatic ones as possible, because I think I cooked:
9). HEHEH THANK YOU. Oh… OH… since the AMV is out now… I can share these ones I made as well!!! :
Ugh... This is the second time I wake up disappointed when I realize the dream that 🤖Jaybot7 updating his blog wasn't real.
For context, I'd love to reach out to the guy and show him my Arvale fanart. Problem: The last online activity I could find of him was an Instagram post from early 2020 where he's covered in fake dirt. (Context: It was for an acting role)
Truly flabbergasted how perfectly DeMenchev and Beylord and the world of Arvale as a whole are catered to my interests and what I want to see in a fantasy story specifically... It almost feels like a targeted psychological missile from 🤖Jaybot7 himself.
Except that's not what happened at all.
What actually happened is that 🤖Jaybot7 took a complete shot into the dark, which proceeded to ricochet for 2 decades, only to hit me with the biggest combo crit imaginable right through the cranium and change my brain chemistry irreversibly.
Whenever I open up to people IRL what I've been doing, their eyes pop out of their skulls o(-(
