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Kingdom of Kandar is another theoretical Web Comic idea by Axioanarchist.

As the name would suggest, the storyline centers around the Floating Continent of the Kingsland and the archipelago of Kandar beneath it. Even more directly, though, it focuses on Tyra Revail, a young girl raised by a Dwarven explorer to become an Excavator. Other than strained finances the two seem to be having a good and happy life, moving from island to island, town to town while investigating the many ruins left over from the Precursors... until trouble comes calling in the form of two "Agents" of the King of Kandar. In the ensuing skirmish her adoptive father is killed and Tyra becomes a fugitive, leaving her with only a strange item the brigands seemed interested in acquiring.

On the run and all but penniless, Tyra attempts to carve out a new life for herself, starting by seeking out the Excavators' Guild, a group of fellow Excavators who work together to unlock the secrets of Kandar's past. Perhaps by coincidence, she quickly encounters Silas Orridian, the Guildmaster, while doing mercenary work to live off of. Between encounters with a vicious wyvern with whom Silas has a grudge, a steel-cold Lieutenant of Kandar's army and her brother, a polite, respectful General who harbors some doubts as to the true intents of his king, the Bandit Queen, and an enigmatic paladin from a distant land, Tyra discovers she may have just stumbled into something a lot bigger than some ruin stash.

And that's just the first quarter of Book One of Four.

Book One Characters:

Kingdom of Kandar: Book One will theoretically eventually provide examples of:

  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Tyra kills Death. Justified when Time explains that a Demigod who doesn't perform their duties properly begins to lose their powers and by extension their Immortality.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Demigods' names are essentially nothing more than their ranks and purposes: Time, Fate, Nature, Death, etc. Subverted by Trysta, who keeps being referred to by her name even after becoming Death, and who asks Nature what her name was before she became a Demigod - turns out it was Annabella.
  • The Fair Folk: Satyrs - goat-legged, whip-tailed, horned humanoids; technically the females should be called Nymphs but that tendency has faded over the centuries - are the distant descendants of human and fey crossbreeds. True fey are rare and tend to stay hidden.
  • Fusion Dance: Forma + Lorne = Forlorn. Unusual in that it's an extremely painful and torturous existence until healing magic intervenes.
  • Gambit Roulette: The White-Haired Woman is planning something... "Come And See."
  • Glass Cannon: Trysta: Powerful mage... zero stamina.
  • The Grim Reaper: Death is an emaciated, ancient-looking man who vaguely resembles an elf. He wears a billowing cloak and carries a scythe. When Trysta takes his place she gets the cloak and scythe, but her appearance doesn't change other than her wings turning black.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Half-Elves are common, Half-Dwarves slightly less so.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons proper are all but extinct, with only their weaker cousins Drakes - such as Vyper and her goons - still in any decent numbers. Draco gets a pass as he's been sealed in the sky for a few thousand years.
  • People Puppets: Slain Angels leave behind "Soulstones" which contain their essence, which anyone who possesses can then manifest and control. Tyra and Trysta's parents Angaius and Lyrdreia are held by Diotrephes in this manner, and Tyra is used in this manner once - accidentally - by Silas while she's dead.
  • Physical God: The Demigods. Their purposes are to run the day-to-day clockwork of the Universe, and have titles such as Time, Death, Nature, Phobia, et cetera. The Powers That Be are a little more individualistic and not always as... efficient.

SPOILER WARNING: READING PAST THIS POINT WILL REVEAL BOOK ONE SPOILERS DUE TO THE CONTENT OF LATER BOOKS. SAME GOES WITH EACH SUBSEQUENT BOOK. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Book Two is set twenty-six years after the end of the first, and begins with the destruction of the village of Cerbolt on one of the most removed islands in the Kandar Archipelago by an army of machines. When the military go to investigate, they find the village ransacked and devoid of any survivors... save one, an infant girl Lieutenant Ayaka names Antigone.

In short order Kandar finds itself at war again, this time fighting a war of attrition against Seth, the Machine Lord and his forces. The heroes of the Draco War have either died, vanished without explanation, or dedicated themselves to their families at the expense of leaving the military or adventuring life. Combined with an evacuation of as many survivors as possible to the Kingsland and the raising of three more cities to float with it, this is the Kandar that Antigone, her cousin Selah, and others of the next generation have grown up in.

Antigone, for one, isn't going to stand for that. She wants to do something about this. Luckily she's not alone - even if her protective parents have a few complaints, there's not much they can do to stop her when she meets Daven Keinran and his father Apollos and learns of their plans to undermine Seth's war effort. With Daven and (reluctantly) Selah along for the ride, Antigone dives headfirst into a war that's more her own than she realizes.

Book Two Characters:

Kingdom of Kandar: Book Two will theoretically eventually provide examples of:

  • Action Girl: Antigone, as well as returning Ayaka and Tyra.
  • Hive Mind: Any machine or cyborg in Seth's collective is controlled by it. Seth is the only member with actual free will.
  • King Mook: Though the regular ones are hardly Mooks in the traditional sense, as they're a terror every time they're encountered... Ur-Grue.
  • Knight Templar Parent: Lucas and Summer are dead-set against Antigone getting involved in any way with the war. Even after Apollos explains the good she can do they only agree reluctantly. Lohan is equally apprehensive, but lacks the stubbornness or will to stand up to Apollos... though in his case, Selah is equally unwilling to go and is only accompanying Daven and Antigone reluctantly due to some foreshadowing comments made by Tyra.
  • Laser Blade: The Divine Gladius returns along with Tyra, and Silas gains an actual laser sword during his time with Seth, which he keeps when he comes back to himself.
  • Last of His Kind: Antigone is the only Cerboltan who is not dead or under Seth's control.
  • Lethal Lava Land: The Heart of Elin, the volcano in The Twelve Hours of Night.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Argolas is Antigone's. Her birth name is Miranda.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: Subverted: Psionics operate under a different set of rules than normal magic.

Book Three has the shortest gap time of the entire series - only five years pass between the end of Book Two and the beginning of Book Three. Following the defeat of the Machine Army, Kandar turned its attentions to its neighbors, many of whom saw the magic kingdom as vulnerable after their war with Seth's forces and aimed to strike while the advantage was available. A short-lived war with the east was ended in three years, mostly due to the efforts of Commander Ayaka's DIREA team; however, the second conflict with the northern lands of Naurwyn has been much more sustained. When the enemy forces begin using Lune Tribe soldiers DIREA is called in to assist, investigate, and perhaps even repeat their performance of two years prior and bring an end to the fighting.

When the team heads into Naurwyn lands to attempt diplomacy, however, the native life is less than hospitable and the native people even less so; in the ensuing chaos the team is separated. Selah Aaronsen collapses from exhaustion and injury and nearly freezes to death before she is found and saved by Kunan, a Naurwyn exiled from his clan. Kunan thinks Selah is a shaman, due to the illusions that manifested around her while she was unconscious; she tries to explain her psionic abilities with little luck but ends up travelling with the ranger anyway, as he offers to escort her to a nearby village to speak with one of the tribal shamans about diplomacy.

Along the way the pair cross a battlefield where giants are rampaging, and see a Valkyrie knocked out of the sky along with one of her Einherjar while trying to exit the battlefield on their way to Valhalla. Realizing the mortals can see them the Valkyrie determines something is greatly wrong and offers to accompany the pair to their destination, with the promise that they will attempt to gain the shamans' assistance in reaching the World Tree, Yggdrasil, where they can inquire of the gods as to what has gone wrong. When they finally do so, after a few roadblocks along the way, they discover something is going wrong: Loki the Trickster God has escaped his bonds, and Ragnarok is about to begin. All the signs are wrong, this shouldn't be happening yet, but it is.

Book Three Characters: Returning characters from Book Two excluded.

  • Kunan: A hunter, falconer, and exiled Naurwyn ranger.
  • Vanessa: A Valkyrie trapped on the mortal world due to the strange happenings surrounding the beginning of Ragnarok.
  • Kerr: An Einherjar, a spiritual warrior of Valhalla. Except he never quite made it to Valhalla, as he was trapped on Earth with Vanessa while being escorted there.
  • Loki: The Trickster, the Earthwalker, the God of Fire. An imprisoned God of Naurwyn, he aims to start Ragnarok a bit ahead of schedule.
  • Fenrir: Loki's Dragon, returned from his "death" back in Book One.
  • Jormungander: The World Serpent, a massive snake that encircles the globe... or at least Naurwyn. Generally appears on land as a physical manifestation of a violet-haired woman who resembles Loki.
  • Queen Falbrynn: Queen of the Fire Giants and herald of Surtur, the Fire Giant god.
  • Janvulf: A Frost Giant warrior, aiming to prove himself in the eyes of his god Thrym and lead the forces of the Jotun in the upcoming Ragnarok.

Kingdom of Kandar: Book Three will theoretically eventually provide examples of:


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