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
July is the time to make art gifts, and have a couple for you
I’M LOSING MY MIND‼️‼️💥💥 THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING WHAT‼️‼️‼️💥💥💥💜💕💓💗💜💕💞❣️
What a BANGER start to this month- I hope you won’t mind if I strap your art on my vivisection table now and dissect these... more than I usually do with my art commentary, of course~
Let’s start with DeMenchev- LOOK AT HIM!!
I ADORE how you rendered his hat here… what a delightful 3D cartoony shape! The way the blue ribbon is bound tight at the center and makes the cylinder part of his hat pop out like that, being a little wider at the top in contrast to where the ribbon is. The shape of the rim is so delightful as well, the way it’s so wide and how it’s clearly got weight by the way it’s bending/flopping, how it bends just right for the viewer to see DeMenchev’s eye pop out like that, how we get a clear look at his face- man! The way his dark brown eye bleeds a little into his dark brown hair and partly the shade, it’s so COOL.
This entire artwork is cool- he looks like a proper adventurer here! The way he balances his giant sword on his back- BTW that’s one really nicely painted hand right here!!! The anatomy is simply perfect. You even implied the leather wrapping on the handle of the sword… I can’t blame you for simplifying the handle, it’s a smart decision. PDAmill/🤖Jaybot7 really wanted him to have a cool sword… and he does. But my god, they absolutely overdesigned the handle. It was killing me whenever I had to animate his sword, hah...
Anyway, the way he holds the map, the way he’s intently looking at it with that smile… he’s absolutely in his element here! The map got creases! Hah, he clearly folded it into a tiny form and stuck it into his journal probably LMAO. (Or one of his many, many pockets) And it even got little holes in it… what a nice detail. Hell, speaking of details, you even got the metal bits on both his belts right! I also really like how the coat in general flops/hangs here. IDK how to really convey it, but you just kinda got the weight of it right.
Nice use of the blur effect to convey depth and focus BTW.
Awww, it’s even my younger version of him… with the man bun, the lack of facial hair, the lack of holes in his blue ribbons (which flow very nicely here) and in his hat- except for that one seam, of course… heh.
I teased this before, but I got a short little comic idea planned how that seam even came to be: When he was still venturing with Beylord, the wind once blew it away. In a last ditch attempt to catch it, Beylord threw one of his daggers at it, and it got stuck in a cedar. This of course left a hole in it, so Beylord offered string from his own cape for the sewing. The seam now functions as a memento for DeMenchev of their friendship. (Along with the rest of the hat, considering how he got it in the first place...)
I made this seam (and hat) backstory completely up BTW. There is no evidence in 🤖Jaybot7‘s work to support this... I just think/hope it's nice and fits into Arvale’s lore.
But, man… the way you painted DeMenchev here, so full of personality! I’m not 🤖Jaybot7, so I can never be 100% sure, but… I think this is pretty spot on! That’s Arvale’s witty adventurer right there!!!
MAN, the way you painted young/human Beylord here… bravo!! I adore it!!!
And menacing! Very menacing! Especially with that lighting. His hood is pulled over his head, his turtleneck is pulled over his face, he’s being all sneaky and trying to blend into the shadows... and he does. Hah hah hah! I have similar animation/illustration ideas where his black cape helps him blend into the shadows, and I am really glad that even though I didn’t get to show that yet, someone else could already tell that this is something his cape is/can be used for. Hah!
But somewhere, the sunlight still hits him and reveals his shape.
I really like that it's very clearly sunlight here. With how bright it is, probably midday sun too. A clear sunny sky.
Sunlight… something only human Beylord can be exposed too/seen with.
Aww I just realized… Both DeMenchev AND Beylord are in the sunlight here… with DeMenchev it’s just more obvious.
I really like how it reflects on his dagger as well… like a warning.
There is this looming sense of violence here that I really like.
Beylord’s clearly hiding, but he’s already pulled out one of his daggers and he is gripping it tight.
He’s looking back, looking for something or someone, somewhere in the direction of the exposing sunlight. Ohhh he is preparing a stealth attack! Or ready to defend himself from something/someone looking for him!
I really like the rendering of the chainmail shirt, especially those small reflections/highlights… Very lovely. Almost like fishscales!
Man, the folds in the black hood/cape are so satisfying. And the glove- You added a subtle blue backlight in here and it’s 👌
And that face, hah! That nose is spot on LMAO good job!! I myself yoinked it straight outta his vampire design (among the shape of the rest of his face), along with that little hairstrand he has poking out of his slick hair, to be as accurate as I could. And you included that too! And it just looks really good!! You even added that eyeshadow I gave his human form, and I see that scar!! HELL YES!
Even the eyes… the blue is brighter around the pupil and you included that too! I really like how the sunlight subtly reflects/shimmers in his eyes, making them almost glow.
It’s so cool. I love these.
» Yeah like its a friendship, an intense friendship, but it has no less devotion then someone would compare to "romantic love".
DeMenchev goes through with being his friend to start, we might not know to what capacity, but enough to be referenced again and again, almost sadly in guides which feels out of place.
Like the man you see before you is a tragedy. Almost as if DeMenchev is grieving despite the dude being right there. But you're playing as the good guy [in Arvale 2 Ocean of Time] and Beylord is obviously killing people [in Arvale Short Tales] so what is happening here? Only to go in deeper with Arvale Short Tales and DeMenchev is the one to put 'him' [it] in the ground as dormant.
Not dead! Dormant.
A way to fucking buy time in order to fix his friend that's just murdering anything that happens to come across 'his' [its] path. Like that wasn't just some guy he knew, he isn't keeping Beylord alive because its easier, (if he can kill gods it sure as hell isn't) Thats His Guy™ [...]
God that's so sick,,, Beylord [on the back] paying homage to the Arvale Short Tales game over screen and the empty dead husk 'he' [his Body] becomes with the long fangs. The pinky swear making the heart silhouette. DM's just absolute anguished desperation [on the cover], how despite both his disguise falling apart and his eye ripped out, neither have any part of his attention. It's all forward as he's reaching out- To the manufactured memory of a friend long gone. Who would have likely reached back but. Well that's not Beylord anymore, is it. The Husk he's brawling with. The man who he'd tease and bicker and travel and support. Sure he could be a bastard but this. This is wrong. He's Wrong. Because the man in the memory is long dead, and what's leftover is hardly anything more than rancid malice.
The Beylord he knew is long dead, but he kinda skipped his afterlife to try and fight the good fight. If The Spirit at the lake is anything to go off of.
But just. The grief of it. If he's wrong, he can be fixed. The problem is, not even DeMenchev can fix death. Sorcynth didn't even fix it completely. But on the surface, Beylord looks alive. A dead man isn't this eloquent, this agile, or this damn strong. Beylord was, though. Except theres one damn problem. Two actually. And looking at this man, who you knew and spent however long with, in the eyes, and seeing only hunger as 'he' [it] says [in Arvale 2 Ocean of Time] "I'm sorry, do I know you?" «
- Analysis & commentary by @alienmoths ཐིཋྀ, friend of mine ♥
First of all- Thank you Alex... And second, of course, who am I to deny someone Arvale lore?
But beware:
This’ll contain major spoilers for the first game,
Arvale 1 Journey of Illusion.
Usually this is irrelevant. But unlike Arvale: Short Tales, I don’t have to be the sole player! This one can still be played on a normal windows computer by others. Here’s an archived download link, and yes, the game really is that small.
Despite his villainous appearance, Tsilon is the most benevolent creature in Arvale I can think off. And it is his benevolence (and the benevolence of the other Dragons) that gets him used and abused to a calamitous degree. Despite this, he never turns bitter or hateful.
Tsilon has an immense fondness of humans. He gives away his magic for free, teaches them how to use it, befriends them, and becomes close friends with one in particular named Blynt. Together they built the great city named Arhaeldem, with Tsilon as the caretaker and protector.
Unfortunately, a crafty kid by the name of Kryphen had the world’s worst case of envy, ever, and proceeded to ruin it all.
You see, Journey of Illusion takes place 2000 A.D.
After Dragons.
Long ago, Kryphen was friends with a Dragon who taught and gave him magic, as they do.
However, he got so ultra envious, asking himself why they were gifted with these powers while he and the other humans had to struggle to survive, which, okay, fair.
But then he betrayed the Dragon during a magic lesson by reversing it’s own magic onto itself, putting it in a stupefied sleep. He figured out that he can siphon their magic and then sell it in bottles...
On top of that, this fucked up alchemist poisons the Dragons he doesn’t siphon with his own brand of turbo rabies one after another. Artificial Scarcity! How was he gonna be able to sell his product and start his magic potion comapny »Sorcynth« if people could still get magic for free after all?
Now, when dragons are poisoned by Kryphen’s turbo rabies, they turn into the classic evil very-much-hostile-to-humans-and-devouring-them fairytale monsters we know.
Dragons started attacking Arhaeldem, and Tsilon as it’s guardian has to defend his city.
And… I always wondered how terrible and confusing that must have been for him, to have to fight and most likely kill his own kind. Enough that I made a whole comic about it.
Kryphen ends up poisoning Tsilon. In the end it is Blynt who has to take down Mad Tsilon. This was The Calamity of Year 0 :
But Tsilon is not killed:
He becomes one of the 4 Dragons left, that Sorcynth continues to siphon the magic from for 2 millennia.
Now, there’s a slight 🤏 issue in his business model here, and it’s the fact that Tsilon seems to stir from his sleep after around 2 decades.
So what does this alchemist who is starting to control the entire continent/world and control the beliefs and people’s way of life with his magic corp. do? Every 20 years some unlucky bastard is chosen by ‘destiny’ to go on a Legendary Hero Quest™ to administer a knockout potion to the ‘Evil Dark Dragon’.
Why doesn’t Kryphen/ Sorcynth do this himself? Well, for some reason, this knockout potion has the nasty, or probably intentional, sideffect of making Tsilon briefly wake up, go mad, and consume the unlucky ‘Legendary Hero’.
My ongoing theory is that Krpyhen is feeding Tsilon a ‘Hero’ every 20 years on purpose to just barely keep him alive- and/or keep his entire business model secret, leaving no witnesses.
Now your player character, Duncan Forsythe, the last of those Legendary Heros, does not do the same mistake and just wakes Tsilon straight up. Tsilon confuses Duncan for Blynt briefly when he wakes up, which is totallyyy not foreshadowing something, nooo…
At the end of Arvale 1 Journey of Illusion, Tsilon is one of the final bosses, and only after:
1). Being drained for 2000 years
2). Being additionally extra drained right before the bossfight
3). Only eating a single 'Legendary Hero’ every 20 years
Only THEN Tsilon is so weakned that he becomes vulnerable to normal weapons.
So just IMAGINE the calamity he caused when he first went mad 2000 years ago, when he was still in his prime? One of the survivor’s entries described how the entire city was engulfed in flames, which, hey, another neat reference to classic evil fairy tale Dragons.
When you visit Arhaeldem in Journey of Illusion, despite 2000 years having passed, the earth around it is still pitch black, barren, and there’s no plants anywhere unless you go to the very edge of the level, where you can spot a measly few. Nice contrast to the flora filled Arhaeldem to back then. My guy practically nuclear bombed his own city!
Just before going mad again, Tsilon begs Duncan to kill him, even if Tsilon’s death results in a world without magic… which brings up some questions:
What are Arvale Dragons, and by extension Tsilon, anyway?
They’re… almost like laws or powers of nature with sentience? They are responsible for the magic in the world, not only being it’s source but also being able to generate seeimgly an infinite amount. There are 4 major ones, the ones Sorcynth/Kryphen kept alive:
There's Malzubed, The Dragon of Fire.
There's Hyandine, The Dragon of Water.
There's Klaetrocus, The Dragon of Earth.
And finally Tsilon, who not only possesses all 3 but is also The Dragon of »Everything Else.«
Which seems silly at first, and probably is supposed to be because Arvale is intentionally silly. But it starts to make sense when you take a closer look at the magic that’s being sold.
Because Sorcynth sells Fire, Earth and Water magic for offensive battle purposes. You attack with them. Obviously they get the fire magic from Malzubed, water magic from Hyandine, earth magic from Klaetrocus.
But they also sell potions that heal, boost your attack, defense, magical resistance, dexterity, magical intuition… And, well, they probably get that all from Tsilon. They get Everything Else they can’t get from the other Dragons, from Tsilon.
In the good ending, Tsilon returns to the ruins of Arhaeldem. You can see Duncan visit him. I always wondered how that conversation went…
Tsilon is said to be the oldest and strongest Dragon. And in Treasure of Memories, DeMenchev figures out how magic, such as remnants of a cast spell, likes to concentrate in a place. How it attracts more magic and how from that mass, even in completely inhospitable places with no water or sun, lifeforms can spawn. It also allows for otherwise impossible lifeforms such as water, earth or fire elementals to exist. They don’t have organs, flesh, bone and blood and yet they are still alive!
So... Where did the other dragons come from? It is said gods created them, but I’m not sure if I believe that, because if Arvale 2 Ocean of Time & Treasure of Memories taught me something about gods in Arvale, it’s that they are usually just selfish, lying and power hungry entities cosplaying that are not as almighty as they make themselves out to be.
If Tsilon dies, not only does all magic vanish, so do the remaining Dragons. And Tsilon has every type of magic, so… maybe he created them? But why?
This is extremely speculative theory posting on my part, it’s err, pretty much fanfiction. But… imagine…
Eons ago, there was a lone person. The primordial person. They look like a creature, with wings and horns and claws and limbs resembling the animals around them, maybe they modelled themselves after them. But unlike those animals, they were sentient, and they were alone. Through their primordial understanding of the world, they observed how life needs 3 elements to exist:
Energy, Water, and Mass. And after lots of trail and error, they figured out how to make more of themselves. Could you imagine a young Malzubed accidentially creating the volcano on Aphote? A young Hyandine toying with a sea serpent and mutating it into The Leviathan? A young Klaetrocus making the tectonic plates shift and create the cavernous mountains of Melonchi? I imagine whatever Dragons came after, Tsilon made sure they were not nearly as powerful to not further endanger the enviroments of Arvale.
But eventually, Tsilon came across a species of apes that acted different from the other animals. There was something familiar about them… and over the millennials Tsilon observed how they evolved, and began to understand what it was that made them feel like kin: Every one of them was a person. No wonder Tsilon was so enamoured.
Could you imagine DeMenchev, on one of his many expeditions, stumbling across a cave painting of hand stencils, and among them, is a Dragon’s hand?
