A webcomic by SrGrafo, set in the world of the game Rimworld and posted from September 2017 to August 2020. In the author's own words:
"It's a series of comics about the colonists of the game Rimworld. Complex timeline, morals, and ethics explored. JK, it's super simple and family friendly!"
Can be read from the start here
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A video by the author pointing out references and easter eggs is here.
Contains examples of:
- Always a Bigger Fish: A recurring theme. Even with all his raiders and experience, Tarn is no match for Tynan. Even with all his personal combat prowess, Tynan is nothing compared to the Moth Queen. Even with her powerful cybernetics and control over the most technologically advanced force on the Rimworld, the Moth Queen lives and dies on the whims of the Defiler. And the Defiler himself bends the knees to an unknown and mysterious "him." Either Randy Random or the player themselves.
- Anachronic Order: The story's individual strips aren't strictly chronological, with many plotlines taking place before or during others that were published earlier.
- Animal Motif: All the colonies so far have been named after some kind of bug.
- Anyone Can Die: And thanks to the non-chronological nature of the story and the nature of the artstyle, you might follow a particular character for several strips before a name makes you realize you already know how their story ends.
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: In a setting where Killer Robots roam the land and most people have a pistol at the very least, Tynan's main weapon is a sword.
- Bad Boss: Tynan executes an underling in front of his children for lying about the direction the fugitives were going, the Moth Queen kills an underling for circumstances outside his control, the Defiler does the same by turning his Psychic Insanity Lance upon her, and Val tricks people to join his colony and harvests their organs if they don't accept his cybenatics obsession.
- Bittersweet Ending: Tynan and the Huntsmen die, and while the Moths take some losses, they're ultimately not that worse off from how they were before. But the child survives, and both Tynan and Huntsman are satisfied with their deaths because of this.
- Body Horror: When Val finally gets his wish to become a cyborg, he's gruesomely fused with a scyther.
- The more insane a character is, the more monstrous they appear to others. The cannibals look harmless at first but tun into slavering beasts. Sara and Tynan both go psychotic and appear as monsters when they do so. The sappers are constantly in a state of rage and psychosis with their eyes glowing red and wide as dinner plates. And Randy Random has it the worst, being a literal walking corpse when he appears.
- Bound and Gagged: George and the other cannibel victims are crippled and chained to the wall.George: (after releasing Noodles from his chain) (muffled) "GET OUT OF HERE! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!! JUST GO! GOOOOOO!!!"
- Cain and Abel: Tynan with his brother, though at the time is was Tynan who was the Abel.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Just about every notable character in the Spiders colony has high quality technological upgrades. The most stand-out exception is Val, who's the only one skilled enough to do the transplants and as a result can't receive any himself.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Most characters have differently colored outlines to distinguish them. Raiders in particular are red while neutrals are black and heroes are blue. Speech balloons are colored this way with the same colors. Except for the green balloons which are (often) used for savages hinting at what the technologically advanced Spiders are really like. Huntsman's primitive tribe is also black to show how much morally better they are than the "perfect Colony". Though there doesn't always seem to be hard rules for what the colors means in terms of character.
- Deuteragonist: Andrew and Tynan are the protagonists of the story, and each other's main antagonist. Though just about every other named character receives at least a strip or two of their own, reinforcing the idea that just about everyone is the Hero of Another Story, though just as often they the villain of someone else's.
- Enemy Mine: Andrew and Tynan work together to retrieve a resurrector after the child is killed.
- Eyepatch of Power: Tarn the raider leader, who also happens to be the child's real father.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Tynan, Oliver, Tarn, the Defiler, the Moth Queen, and the Major all count.
- Tynan and Oliver were normal happy children before their parents were killed by raiders. Oliver gained a bloodlust and had no problem killing children. Tynan would go on to be a One-Man Army and terrify an entire army of raiders to serve him.
- Tarn was just a normal space technician working with his older brother on a spaceship before it was hit by a meteorite. He would wipe out entire colonies with his band of raiders.
- The Moth Queen and the Major were also normal children before being kidnapped by sappers. They would be tortured to help one of their lowest members practice his medicine skill. The sapper beat into the Moth Queen how important silver was until it became her major obsession. Meanwhile, the major lost his memories every time he was revived and would help her commit her atrocities to protect her.
- The Defiler was just a normal man before he started to realize he was in a video game (or something similar) and would be taught by Randy Random and would found the Moth Colony. He would use his puppet, the Moth Queen, spread his power and control over the planet.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The small family that appears in a few strips keeps a selection of prisoners chained up outside as their larder.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: The Huntsman was a crack shot even before getting an artifical eye.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Resurrector mech serum brings the dead back to life, but they don't retain any of their memories before they died.
- Last Stand: Tynan and Huntsman against the full force of the Moth colony.
- Make an Example of Them: What Tynan does to his captain after the latter lies and lets a pair of fugitives escape.Captain: Sir... please. Not in front of my kids.Tynan: Oh but captain, how else would they learn?
- Mind Rape: The Defiler's signature weapon is an advanced version form of the Psychic Insanity Lance that confuses an enemy. He uses it on the Moth Queen after he loses his temper, giving her a vision of her intestines falling out and being eaten by his dogs.
- Mortal Wound Reveal: At the end of his Last Stand, the camera pans back to reveal Tynan's been fatally impaled.
- Only in It for the Money: She's in it for more than money, but the Moth Queen is obsessed with silver to the point of brutally murdering an underling who reports that a major source of the stuff has been destroyed.
- Organ Theft: Like in the original game, harvesting organs from prisoners is a source of income for the most despicable individuals.
- Power Floats: The man in black whose feet don't touch the ground, implied to be the same "him" that even the Defiler is subservient to.
- Tranquil Fury: When the Moth Queen pisses him off, the Defiler drops a single word of profanity and forces her to experience being torn apart by his dogs with a smile on his face.
- Transhumanism: The ideal of the West Spiders Colony, and Dr. Val in particular. They are obsessed with cybernetics and wish to be the perfect futuristic Colony where pain doesn't exist. Val replaces most of his body with the pieces of Scyther.
- Unusual Euphemism: In Rimworld culture, "Glitterworld" seems to have the same connotations as "Heaven" or "afterlife." It's up in the air how much this is a euphemism and how much is cultural drift where stories of a shining utopia came to be viewed as tales of what happens after death compared to the world they live on.
- You Are in Command Now: The Moth Queen kills a captain, though only realizes it afterwards. She then designates another underling the new captain.
