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Post by silicondream on Feb 9, 2024 8:04:13 GMT
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Post by King Mir on Feb 9, 2024 8:53:08 GMT
So instead of a bonus page, the previous page be taken as an extension of this title page. Feels like things are about to get real. Could this be the last chapter?
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Feb 9, 2024 10:43:38 GMT
The retaining pins look like bismuth symbols.
[edit] Probably of no significance but that's a spiral bevel gear front and center, and a straight-cut gear left of the thing I should know but can't remember at 1:30. Not sure about the odd-shaped bits but maybe some of the older transmissions had thingers like that for something to nest and rotate in without pressing up against the box or something important. [/edit]
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Post by ctso74 on Feb 9, 2024 14:45:54 GMT
Like with the rusty cog before, this is giving me strong Diego vibes. Maybe it's just me, but if Kat is the NP's Angel...
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Post by Gemini Jim on Feb 9, 2024 17:00:17 GMT
Devil's due at 9:30, but expect delays because of the storm.
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Post by Gemminie on Feb 9, 2024 17:24:05 GMT
So the previous page featuring a toothed wheel was not, as I'd guessed, the first page of a multi-page bonus spread, but rather the first page of the first-ever multi-page chapter title page! There was no bonus page at all.
The chapter is called "Devil's Due," and the usual rectangular title image is a rather dim glimpse of the inner workings of some Victorian-era machine. But superimposed on it are a number of machine bits, many of them looking somewhat like the bismuth/Taurus symbol. The gear on the previous page was just one of these machine bits.
We can't say a lot about this chapter at this point, but "Devil's due" is clearly a reference to making a deal with the Devil (probably metaphorically in this case, as the literal Judeo-Christian Devil hasn't shown up as a character in the story up to this point). But it means some person (or group of people) has made a trade, and they've been enjoying their end of the bargain, but now the bill is coming due. Who's made a bargain?
My number one guess is the Court. Whatever they did, back in the misty distant past, they obtained something called the Seed Bismuth whose nature is still unexplained. But this object caused the creation of the Court's physical infrastructure and seems to have allowed them to pursue their goals. Those goals seem to be to use the Ether to escape the Ether altogether ... although, if they did indeed make some kind of deal with some ethereal being for the Seed Bismuth, it may be another motivation for them to escape the Ether – to escape their creditor so the bill can never come due.
Perhaps what we see in the background is Omega's inner workings – perhaps it began its existence as some sort of analytic engine, a mechano-alchemical computer that the Court improved over the centuries, but at its heart it still has this old-school core. That's a lot of perhapses, but it doesn't seem that anything else has that sort of technology at its core. Diego's golems don't seem to look like that inside, and neither do the robots, or anything Kat has made or built. It has to be something we haven't seen, or seen in much detail. What if Omega has gained sentience and now wants something? The floating bits seem to suggest a less than optimal state of repair, so on the other hand, perhaps something's damaged Omega, or perhaps something's going to.
The chapter icon is also some bit of machinery. It's all very mechanical.
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Post by Gemminie on Feb 9, 2024 17:28:25 GMT
So instead of a bonus page, the previous page be taken as an extension of this title page. Feels like things are about to get real. Could this be the last chapter? I strongly doubt it's the last chapter. But I agree about things getting real. This is the first multi-page title page that I can recall. Title images don't frequently escape from their rectangle, either. Something big is about to happen. Somebody's been writing checks, and it's time to pay up. And we may get to see some of the inner machinery that's been hidden, possibly just in time for it to break. |
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Post by shadow3 on Feb 9, 2024 20:14:03 GMT
Plot Twist: The people heading to the new world are actually being fooled by an evil trickster deity who devours souls and ether, like jumping into the maw of a hungry beast.
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Post by lurkerbot on Feb 10, 2024 0:40:12 GMT
[automotive nerd mode on] The front and center bevel (technically hypoid) gear with shaft is a drive pinion from an automobile differential. It's superimposed over a faded background image of the exposed bottom end of an internal combustion engine - multicylinder; possibly horizontally-opposed. Crankshaft, main bearings, connecting rods, pistons, and bearing web supports are all discernible. The chapter icon looks like a chain wrapped around a sprocket; it reminds me of an overhead camshaft drive. [automotive nerd mode off] I suspect that these specific images are not significant and Tom is using them simply to convey a general sense of something intricately engineered coming apart. (Maybe he's faced some unexpected car problems recently...) Either that, or Coyote's ultimate plan is to convert Gunnerkrigg Court into an auto repair shop with Antimony as service advisor, Katerina as shop supervisor, and Renard as lead mechanic.  |
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Post by blahzor on Feb 11, 2024 12:39:09 GMT
dem gears they look like dem bones
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Post by pyradonis on Feb 11, 2024 13:31:08 GMT
First thought after seeing the comment thread: Am I the only who sees bone fragments together with the machine elements? Honestly the page makes it look as if some mechanical mind came apart.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Feb 11, 2024 13:52:06 GMT
First thought after seeing the comment thread: Am I the only who sees bone fragments together with the machine elements? Honestly the page makes it look as if some mechanical mind came apart.
When I was a little kid (circa mid-1970s?) I happened to be on scene when a car engine suffered catastrophic failure (not sure what kind). I could be wrong but some of the shrapnel reminds me of those wonky-shaped bits, though I can't be sure because it was a long time ago and I wasn't permitted to collect/examine any. |
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Post by Hatredman on Feb 11, 2024 18:00:24 GMT
I didn't notice they were car parts in an engine in the background until reading this thread, but I did notice they were diferential pinion gears on the foreground. I have a pickup truck with a broken diferential awaiting parts, so it's all fresh in my mind. BUT... I suspect that these specific images are not significant and Tom is using them simply to convey a general sense of something intricately engineered coming apart. (Maybe he's faced some unexpected car problems recently...) Either that, or Coyote's ultimate plan is to convert Gunnerkrigg Court into an auto repair shop with Antimony as service advisor, Katerina as shop supervisor, and Renard as lead mechanic. I think I disagree.
In all of the other chapters, the opening art has at least a tiny element that makes an appearance inside the chapter, sometimes it depicts the whgole idea of the things to come. I don't think this is fortuitous: next chapter must have * SOMETHING* to do with cars, or car engines. |
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Post by blahzor on Feb 12, 2024 2:20:42 GMT
What if this entire chapter is actually one page split over 20 updates
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Post by Gemminie on Feb 12, 2024 15:04:38 GMT
First thought after seeing the comment thread: Am I the only who sees bone fragments together with the machine elements? Honestly the page makes it look as if some mechanical mind came apart.
I think you get a cookie, given today's update! |
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Post by Gemini Jim on Feb 12, 2024 22:28:52 GMT
Considering that the series has a supernatural Coyote as a main character, and a whole lot of mythological stuff has been shown to be real, it would be funny if an actual, factual devil did show up. It doesn't have to be the Judeo-Christian guy, just any sort of devil/ demon.
Of course, it's probably not that literal. "Give the devil his due" and so forth.
We also have Kat's New People contract, and we all know that the devil's in the details...
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Post by pyradonis on Feb 13, 2024 1:43:19 GMT
Considering that the series has a supernatural Coyote as a main character, and a whole lot of mythological stuff has been shown to be real, it would be funny if an actual, factual devil did show up. It doesn't have to be the Judeo-Christian guy, just any sort of devil/ demon. Of course, it's probably not that literal. "Give the devil his due" and so forth. We also have Kat's New People contract, and we all know that the devil's in the details... Well, the dudes Tony once met do check a lot of the typical boxes, though there probably not from any specific mythology. |
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Post by Hatredman on Feb 14, 2024 1:47:16 GMT
What if this entire chapter is actually one page split over 20 updates WormWorld Saga does this. www.wormworldsaga.com |
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