Worldbuilding
Welcome to the worldbuilding page! Here you can find some of the details we’ve written about Idenau and its residents over time.
These pages were scattered throughout our blog, so we decided to collect them in one place, broken down by category. None of these are required reading, but they should help you understand the world and plot a bit more. Also, none should contain major spoilers for the main story, so you can read them whenever you feel. We do recommend you get into the story before coming here though – it’ll make more sense when you have context!
Encyclopedia Entries
These are found in the midst of the comic itself and in the archive, but we’ll link them here for easy reference.
Magic
Lurkins
Flish
Demons
Salamandrians
Zombies
Ghosts
Captain Silverskull
Character Details
Spare Time: Skärva Edition
Spare Time: Derk Edition
Pronunciation Station – Courtney talks about how to pronounce some of the more contentious names we’ve come up with!
Sharkman Biology – get inside Skärva’s head!
Assorted worldbuiling notes
Salamandrian Development – the lifecycle of Salamandrians, which is not divulged on the encyclopedia page.
In the Navy – in this post and the comments below we answer some assorted questions generally related to seafaring.
A Follow-Up – a report on certain revolutionary plant people in Wilderfall.
Working at Castle Skärva – more detail on the castle and what it’s like to live and work there.
Magic Items and Magic in the Arts – what are some common uses and limitations of item enchantments? How do Idenians view art, including music and theater, that was created in part with magic?
Healing Magic – What is healing magic and why does it require general medical knowledge? What makes Lorelei exceptional to these rules?
Anti-magic – a bit on the rare material which interrupts spells and can have harmful effects on the mind.
Open Session – in the comments we cover a few assorted topics including characters’ favorite colors and ages, and magic in society.
Holidays
Six major holidays are celebrated in Idenau, one for each god and goddess. They are spaced evenly throughout the year at approximately two months apart (although not exactly, as each is held on the respective weekday dedicated to the deity) and some bear resemblances to holidays in our world. Click to learn more about the holidays we’ve revealed so far.
Lightfest – New Year’s festival of love, hope, generosity and new beginnings. Midwinter.
Medifest – Mid-spring festival celebrating (primarily romantic) relationships.
Normafest – Harvest celebration of food, family and gratitude. Marks the beginning of fall.
Havocfest – Atumnal festival of trickery, practical jokes and dressing up.
Creative Process
The Meta-Session: We answer questions about our inspirations and process.
Does Idenau have any way of preventing counterfeit Ides from ending up in circulation?
Sorry I missed this comment! I wasn’t getting emails about new comments for a while and didn’t realize that was the case!
And yeah, we’ve never depicted an ide, but I presume the royal mint has some way of enchanting them to have a special appearance when held under light or exposed to a checking spell, and the means of recreating this enchantment are kept heavily secret. Of course, in Idenau it’s also a little more common to buy things with gold or silver coins and the like (especially around the coasts where pirates and traders tend to deal in coins from other lands), which get converted into the kingdom’s official currency somewhere down the line. There are also ways to test for the veracity of those metals, and ways to dispel any illusory spells that may be on fake money. I don’t want to rule out alchemy as a thing that exists in Idenau and which people could use to get rich quick, but if it does I think it must be uncommon since magic in Idenau is largely based on energy and consciousness/illusions rather than transformation of objects.