In a World of Funny Animals, bat waitress Belfry Baker finds an abandoned, furless baby and decides to raise it herself. There's just one problem with that: she's the town klutz.
The animal citizens of Treehollow have no idea what a human child is. Clearly much too young to be on her own, it’s anyone’s guess how this mysterious being, named Tamberlane, ended up in their town.
Guided by a colorful cast of animal characters, Tamberlane’s mysteries continue to unfold. But questions burn in everyone’s minds: who, and what, is she? And could she have something to do with the far-off and unspeakable taboo, Abroad?
The comic can be found on its main website
or on Web Toons here.
Tambertropes:
- Ascended Extra: A retroactive example. Cur goes from a background character to an important supporting character/ antagonist in chapter 4 and even more so in chapter five. Interestingly, Cur originally did not appear before chapter 4 but this was rectified in the 2024 edits, which had him appear, albeit in the background, of a few pages throughout the chapters 2 and 3.
- And Man Grew Proud: The founders of Silver Sage rose up against some unknown enemies (possibly humans) and carved out a home for themselves. Unfortunately, the laws they passed (the "Edicts") promote blind nationalism, isolationism, and fear of the unknown.
- Anger Born of Worry: Tess was outspoken against Belfry raising Tamberlane as the unidentified kit is considered deformed, and would need specialist medical care absent in Treehollow. Belfry would have to go Abroad if the human fell ill, and she’d never see her adopted child again. As implied earlier in Chapter 2, Belfry's own birth parents left for Abroad when they fell ill.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal/Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: All the furry characters fall under one of these tropes, and some don't even wear clothes at all.
- Berserk Button: Due to her backstory Belfry reviles parents who abandon their children. It's why she's so dead set on taking Tamberlane home when it seems like she's been abandoned by her parents.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Milo has a cat sized moth as a Shoulder Pet.
- Bubbly Waitress: Belfry starts like that. A clumsy cheerful bat-squirrel-lemur, helping her adopted parents in their bakery. Though, she quickly ends up working in the library.
- Cats Are Mean: Piper, at least at first.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Although the early chapters had touched on things like family drama and hinted to the xenophobic nature of Tree Hollow and their taboos of other places, the comic noticeably becomes much more dramatic after Tamberlane and Jonas fall into a freezing river, putting her and Jonas in critical condition from pneumonia. After that, Oakewood realizes that Tamberlane is human - the half-forgotten species that Silver Sage hates - and the following chapter is nonstop emotional devastation.
- Character Title: The name of the story's important Token Human.
- Conlang: Tamberlane signs in a constructed sign language called Trissol (Silver Sage Sign Language) when she has trouble expressing herself verbally. Some of other characters also know Trissol and use it to communicate with her.
Word of God says it is based on an actual sign language. - Crapsaccharine World:Downplayed. The comic has a soft and cartoony art style, and though the world it takes place in is peaceful with kindhearted furry folk, it is still suffering from some serious cases of xenophobia, child abandonment, and a fear of the unknown, as well as Treehollow being under the repressive thumb of a parliament that will banish people and condemns a town for not following their rigid edicts. That being said, it's not shown to be an outright dystopia like this trope usually implies; the characters are able to live mostly normal lives and other than the taboos centered aroudn Abroad, quality of life seems overall decent for much of the world.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Belfry, who's introduced mislabelling jars of spices, burning her hands and barely avoiding a burning pie in her face.
- Destroy the Evidence: When Oakewood finds The Vitruvian Pose, one of the last pieces of information left about humanity and proving that Tamberlane is in fact a Homo Sapiens, he rips it to pieces. This is because Silver Sage has made it their sacred duty to exterminate humanity.
- Dramatic Irony: A teacher refuses to talk about Abroad, citing she does not want to spread fear or paranoia...which are the exact means by which Abroad itself is made to sound like a Fate Worse than Death.
- The Diaper Change: On the first night Belfry took her in, Tamberlane has an accident, much to Belrey's dismay. Belfrey is at a loss of what to do until Oakewood helps her.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Sure, Cur has been a bully and a delinquent who picked on Tamberlane for a while. And he did in fact push her onto the lake, which led to her falling into the ice and getting hospitalized. But that last part was not intended at all and was accidental; Cur and Kira did what they could to get help. He may deserve a punishment for his actions but Piper takes it too far when he throws a water balloon at Cur during freezing temperatures and when he has been starving himself and lacks a coat, which his adoptive brother explicitly states to Piper it could kill Cur. (if this were in a different season of the year than winter, than maybe this would have been more understandable.) Made worse by the fact Cur was finally opening up to the Parsley and Marie before this happened, causing him to close back up emotionally.
- Everyone Has Standards: Cur and his gang of bully friends mock and taunt Tamberlane when she goes to confront them but when she accidentally slips through some ice and is at risk of freezing to death, they start panicking and one goes to tell the adults despite the trouble they could get in.
- Fantastic Racism: The inhabitants of Treehollow look down with scorn and contempt at the people of Follybrook, despite supposedly having commerce and diplomatic relations. The dislike seems mutual.
- Silver Sage has written their hatred of humans in the Edicts, meaning their constitution actively orders the purge of humanity. What makes this fantastically ironic is that nobody remembers what they looked like after they were exterminated, so there are minorities of this race walking among the inhabitants of Treehollow and nobody realizes they're 'breaking the law' every waking moment by being decent people to these scapegoats.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Cur's parents left him to go Abroad and Cur himself ended up spending some years homeless as the resident urchin. But Belfry points out that Cur has been frequently a Jerkass to anyone who has ever taken him in and his problems shouldn't excuse his bullying behavior.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Piper. She's a nominal friend of many, but no one everyone is disgusted by her attitude and mean behavior.
- Full-Circle Revolution: Defied. While Treehollow's old Council would apparently exile anyone at the drop of a hat, the new Council, who specifically rose up against the injustice, appears determined to not make the same mistakes. However, most of Treehollow doesn't appear to know this, and being reported to the Council is still a cause for fear by many citizens.
- Free-Range Children: Downplayed and justified. Treehollow is a small, close-knit community where there is very little in the day of actual danger (there are not even any cars that might make one worried about kids getting hit), and everyone there typically knows of and looks out for each other. Older kids are allowed to walk around on their own, but it's typically considered safe. A toddler like Tamberlane is given appropriate supervision, and when she runs off from Penny after being scared by Piper in the second chapter, the first adult who finds her attempts to have her returned to her family. (Tamberlane mentions Parsley, as she was going to with Penny at the time to learn to read and cannot talk nor articulate herself properly yet due to her young age) She sent Tamberlane to Parsley with the supervision of her daughter.
- Belfry was asked by Piper's mother to take her and her brother down to the docks to see their father. Belfry is too busy with the festival and her family's stall to do so, but Oakwood escorts them in her stead. Its apparent that in places potentially dangerous places like docks, where kids could potentially fall off and drown if not careful, Treehollow adults see fit to provide supervision.
- Averted during the field trip to Bally Bluffs in chapter 4. The adults are around to supervise the children, and while they are allowed to explore a bit, they have to stay in a group (with older kids present to watch over the younger ones) and are given specific parameters to stay within, with the adults not too far off. Cur's group and Tamberlane only end up on the lake because they snuck off without permission while the others were sleeping.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Belfry is disbelieving about the possibility that Jentzen could be exiled for speaking about Abroad even after the more well-traveled Jason states that he's seen people be banished by their own friends and families.
- Good Parents: Belfry loves her human daughter with all of her heart.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Walter, Belfry's adoptive father, sprinkles a few Russian phrases in his speech.
- Furry Confusion: Apparently, non-sapient pet cats still exist in this community of Funny Animals.
- There are also cart horses.
- Humanlike Animal Aging: Not addressed in the main comic so far (2022), but mentioned at cast pages and Patreon extras. Silver Sage dwellers mature 20-30% faster, more so at younger ages. Belfry's late teens equals human mid-twenties, Tamberlane's 3-4 equals local 2-3.
- Human Like Foot Anatomy: Inverted. Belfry and the other bats seen have digitigrade legs while real bats have plantigrade legs.
- Humans Through Alien Eyes: Tamberlane is unlike anything the residents of Silver Sage have ever seen. Some think she might be deformed or a mutant, Oakewood has difficulty determining her diet and even the more well traveled researcher Milo can't even figure out her genus, postulating that she might be some kind of ursine after ruling out rodent.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Tamberlane has grown to dislike being different from the rest of the people she knows and has even started to lash out at Belfry as a result.
- Inherent in the System: The political system of Silver Sage revolves around the Edicts, which is ancient scripture that promotes xenophobia and suppression of information. Which ironically allowed Silver Sage's local governments to be even more democratic than real-world examples - because they're effectively powerless against Parliament. Parliament's policies heartlessly exile anyone who speaks out about the outside world, and can deem any town council that acts against Parliament's rulings as corrupt. So while most of Treehollow's council doesn't want to exile a popular kid for calling out the system on unpersoning the victims of Abroad and leaving their surviving kids unable to grieve properly, political pressure from a higher power that bends the knee to two giant-ass tablets means they must put him on trial or risk the entire town being impeached and sanctioned.
- Interspecies Adoption:
- Belfry, a bat lemur-squirrel hybrid, was adopted by a badger and a deer, then she herself adopted that strange furless kit.
- Marie, a skunk, is Happily Adopted by Terra (a White Wolf) and Maya (a Red Panda / Eskimo Dog hybrid).
- Cur, Jackal-Jerboa hybrid, was abandoned by his parents who went Abroad, becoming a malnourished streetrat. Parsley, a red fox and his mother Coriander have tried to rehome him, cloth him, renaming him "Ellis", but he's not adjusting to this change well, and wants the love Tamberlane has from Belfry.
- Jentzen, a cheetah, was adopted by Genevieve, a horse, after his parents were banished.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Belfry and Avery chastise Piper for attacking Cur, but thoroughly agree Cur is a bullying troublemaker.
- Cur also pulls that in talk with Tamberlane. When she accuses him of being a bully and a jerk, he responds that Piper is that too, and Tamberlane doesn't seem to bother her about that.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Oakewood, a very grumpy and cynical old man who is also extremely kind. There's a fine example of his sour-coated good advice beginning on this page.
- Piper has also developed into this after a few years. She retains her rebellious and mischievous nature but also becomes ferociously protective of Tamberlane.
- Cur, the local bully is antagonistic towards Tamberlane, but deep down he’s hurting his mother and father abandoned him to go Abroad. He's also fiercely loyal to his gang, which is why he lashes out at anyone who he thinks is hurting them. In fact, in chapter 2 he can be seen happily playing with his friends in at the dock near where Parsely is at.
- Oakewood, a very grumpy and cynical old man who is also extremely kind. There's a fine example of his sour-coated good advice beginning on this page
- Karma Houdini: Played with and zig-zagged heavily by Cur in chapter 5. He does not seem to have been officially punished yet by the adults, but they know of his roll in pushing Tamberlane into the ice and he has been called out on this by Jonas' parents. Interestingly, Cur is clearly shown to be feeling deep remorse for what he did and is actually trying to get himself punished, confessing to his adoptive mother and yelling at her to punish him somehow. He is even refusing to eat, implying he is trying to starve himself as a form of punishment.
- Given that Treehollow is a close-knit community and Cur's issues are pretty well known, it could be that he adults are not letting him off the hook but know being too harsh could get him to shut down emotionally completely and be closed off to them again, which is an issue that they have been trying to help him with for years. Seeing as Cur is only a young kid, it puts his adoptive family in a difficult spot on how to actually go about handling him. It might be that they feel is clear remorse (that he is trying to brush off by making claims to the contrary)
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Piper pelts Cur with a water balloon as retribution for his bullying and (unintentional) hospitalization of Tamberlane by pushing her into ice, which led to her falling in. However, this was at a moment when Cur was finally opening up to Marie and Parelsey, and it caused him to shut down emotionally and run off, causing Parsley to snap at Piper for doing that. Given that its currently freezing when Piper did this and Cur is near skeletal, it's brought up that this could actually kill Cur, which no one feels he deserves. Additionally, Cur ends up eavesdropping on two councilmen talking in a window and the conversation (relating the trial of a teaching aid who spoke up about Abroad against the Edicts) mentions the consequences of actions, causing Cur to reflect on what his actions led to hospitalization of Tamberlane and his friend Jonas) and cry.
- Kiddie Kid: Most of the people of Silver Sage view Tamberlane as a kiddie kid by their standards due to her developing at seemingly a slower pace compared to the anthro children. To give you an idea; we first see her at age 3 when she is still in diapers and hasn't learned to walk (though she learns shortly in a later chapter after Belfry takes her in).
- Highlighting this point is the fact that Nora and Henry gave Belfrey supplies typical of a newborn baby the day after Belfry took in Tamberlane, such as a bottle and diapers. Admittedly, Tamberlane was only a toddler and still in diapers at the time, but a bottle wouldn't be necessary since Tamberlane already had fully grown teeth at that point and no longer required milk.
- Not helping matters is that Word of God says the life-cycle of a Creature is faster than a human, meaning she would remain a child for longer but outlive the other kids.
- Mama Bear: Though she hasn't had much of a chance to demonstrate it in full, Belfry has still already shown that she will pull out all the stops to protect Tamberlane.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Most of the characters have traits of various animals. For instance, Belfry has a fluffy, raccoon-like tail despite the fact she is a bat. She also thinks she's part squirrel.
- Mysterious Past: It's unknown where Tamberlane came from, or why she was abandoned in the woods outside town. Some suspect she is from Abroad. The girl herself cannot account for how she knows Trissol sign-language or who taught it to her. When fighting with Cur, it triggers a repressed memory of someone (possibly a deer) trying to educate or raise her, via words on a computer monitor. They may or may not be, the Mysterious Protector who saved her from drowning and called the little human "Kai".
- Mysterious Protector: A shadowy figure dressed in robes pulls Tamberlane and Jonas to the river bank after falling through the ice.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Schoolteacher Callie reports her assistant Jentzen to the council for trying to talk about the outside world which puts him at risk due to the xenophobic laws of the Silver Sage. She tries to recant her actions, only to discover that the system cares more about upholding the law than sparing minors.
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: Downplayed. Most females don't have breasts, but grow them to nurse children.
- Parental Love Song: My Tamberlane, made by the webcomic's co-writer, Metajoker, has Belfry swearing she'll be by Tamberlane's side no matter what.
- Papa Wolf: Don't mock Tamberlane in Oakewood's presence unless you want a verbal and possibly physical beatdown. This heartbreakingly goes into Broken Pedestal territory when he uncovers information on her species, and he can't control his disgust that she's not an animal. It gets worse, the First Edict orders anything human must be destroyed.
- Parents as People: Discussed by Belfry and Nora in Chapter 2 and appears to be a major moral of that chapter; there's no such thing as being a "perfect" parent. You'll inevitably find moments where you second-guess yourself, lash out, or make mistakes. The best you can do is recognize your faults and try to improve as best you can going forward.
- Belfry's adoptive parents are prime examples of this. Both generally were good parents to their children but had flaws of their own. Tess was the most eager to adopt Belfry at first, but could not always get along with her daughter and it's noted in chapter 4 by Briar she had the bad habit of blaming others, including her daughters, at times of anger. Walter meanwhile actually was very reluctant to take in Belfry at first and spent a while trying to convince Tess to reconsider adopting her, though it seemed mostly out of doubts that they were ready to take on a child.
- Parental Neglect: Implied with Tamberlane. As noted in several tropes on this page, she was found abandoned in the woods, could not walk, could barely speak(besides knowing Trissol), and was still in diapers at the age of three, when most kids are at least potty trained and know basic speech. These factors could point to her being neglected by whoever her birth parents were, but it's not entirely clear who they were or what they circumstances were that led to her being abandoned in the woods. A flash back at once points shows someone, possibly a deer, apparently teaching Tamberlane language using a computer, which could at least imply an attempt to raise her by a previous guardian. Of note, she has a *Mysterious Protector who saves her life and apparently named her "Kai" so the jury's still out if she was truly neglected or not.
- Some characters like Cur suffered from a mix of this and Parental Abandonment. Effectively speaking, his parents left for Abroad without him, seemingly without even caring about their son since he was left behind. It’s not confirmed how much his parents did or did not care for him, though.
- Persona Non Grata: Exile seems to be a common way of punishing those who break the Edicts.
- The Plague: One of the biggest fears the propaganda of Silver Sage has regarding those who journey to Abroad is being contaminated with "The Taint" and banned from returning. It's not even clear if its a real disease, or mass hysteria. Some think of it as a zombie virus, others like Belfry acknowledge those who are "tainted" probably become enlightened as they are rumored to be able to build and repair machines absent from the island archipelago.
- Treehollow was ravaged by one several years ago, leading to the overthrow of the previous town council.
- Propaganda Piece: Belfry reads Tamberlane a story, Ivan Saves The Town, where the mole's father goes to Abroad for medical purposes and comes back a tainted monster. The son is made a hero when he drives his father off, and then helps write the laws forbidding the citizens from speaking of Abroad. The story even had the message that it's better to die at home than "be selfish" and go to Abroad for treatment. The story ends up being much darker than Belfry remembers it being.
- The retcon, Inquisitive Ivan, portrays Abroad as a trickster demon who offers to save Ivan's father. And they do - by turning him into an ugly monster with sharp claws. The propaganda is trying to portray the medical aid Abroad offers as a devil's deal whose true price is 'curing' the patients with corruption, and that it's better to just ignore forbidden hopes.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Villified: There was an uprising against the previous Council when they badly mishandled an epidemic to the point of tyranny. Nobody seems to begrudge the current Council for this, though there's still fear that they'll uphold the old laws.
- Remember the New Guy??: Played with by Cur and his friend Jonas and Kira. Real-world wise, they had not been created until the start of chapter 4 and those had not shown up in previous chapters. They in-universe been in Treehollow, with Jonas' mother actually being seen in a previous chapter, but simply never interacted with Tamberlane before, at least on screen. Its partially justified as she was not inschool with them during the first few chapters, having bene too young at the time.
- This was averted during the 2024 retcon on the comic, which added Cur and his friends to the backgrounds of certain of scenes in previous chapters. Such scenes include the three playing near the docks in chpaer two when Tamberlane is brought by Marie to see Parsley, and Cur can later be scene in a few scenes of chapter 3, namely sitting in the bar when Oakwood is with Tag and Danger during said scene. And then Cur can later be seen hiding under a chair during he big group shot towards the end of the chapter where the Treehollow council address the town during the festival.
- Rotating Protagonist: The comic often shifts the spotlight between Belfry, Tamberlane, and Oakewood.
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens: During the last epidemic, the population of Treehollow was practically hemorrhaging. The laws and edicts that forbade them from asking for help from Abroad, which resulted in many families perishing or being banished, all because the statutory instruments cannot be changed.
- Serious Business: Thanks to the cultural xenophobia, the people of Silver Sage talk about Abroad like it's some kind of eldritch hellscape and it's against the law to even teach about it in school.
- Small, Secluded World: Silver Sage is essentially its own little world, with little contact from the outside. Going away from Silver Sage is seen as a permanent exile, and the town is heavily xenophobic, even when it comes to other Funny Animals from other, similar settlements.
- Time Skip: Chapter 4 takes place a year and a half later, with Tamberlane now an elementary school student.
- Spot Light Stealing Squad: Cur seems to be getting this to an extent in chapter 5, seeing as (of early 2024) he has had about three scenes focusing on him while the actual title character has had only about two in depth scenes(technically three with but one was very brief and Tamberlane was only seen briefly being carried into hospital) , with Belfry having only two (albeit one of those is showing up in the aforementioned earlier brief scene) and Oakwood so far only showing up in one scene respectably and a large, multi-page gap between when Tamberlane first appeared in this chapter and then later on.) Only time will tell how this plays out. By contrast, Cur's scenes have been longer so far and more in-depth.
- Through a Face Full of Fur: Briar sports a pretty impressive one here. Even her forelock turns red.
- Token Human: Tamberlane, who is the only human as far as the readers know.
- The Vitruvian Pose: Oakewood figures out Tamberlane's origin after many months of research, when he sees a Vitruvian Man drawing in an old book.
- Truth in Television: Tamberlane's inability to walk (first) and lack of potty training at the age of three during the start of the comic is not as uncommon as one might expect in real life. Disregarding Tamberlane's mysterious origins and the faster rate at which animal children age in this comic, plenty of three-year-olds in real life take longer to be fully potty trained and actually do still wear diapers like Tamberlane does at that age. In Tamberlane's case, it's ambiguous if it's due to neglect on her biological parents' part, however.
- Word of Gay: Most LGBT characters were confirmed on Twitter during Pride Month.
