Vattu

Vattu, by Evan Dahm, is the story of a young member of a hunter-gatherer tribe forced to make her way in a Roman-analogue empire. Set in the Overside, the characters, many races, and the society of the empire are treated extremely realistically, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that none of the many characters are human.

The archive can be found here; here are the first and last comics.

edited 26th Jun '14 2:18:25 PM by Kesar

Wonderful art and story.

Though it's decompressed enough that I individual updates feel insubstantial. I have to wait a few months or weeks between my visits to the site.

I've noticed that same problem. It makes for great archive binging- I read some 500 pages in less than two days- and the story flows well together when you read several pages at once, unlike the work of some less experienced comics artists. But you really don't get a good read unless you go back a hundred pages from the last update and start there.

latest page, by the way.

The continued adventures of mopey painter guy.

Yeah, the policemen aren't impressed by his mopey painter babbling.

I'm still not sure where the plot with Vattu and the War-men is going.

The female War-men (War-women?) seem to have adopted her into the tribe somehow, so....she gets a gigantic cyclops army? And destroys Sahta? Yeah, I don't know where the plot's going either.

Honestly, by this point I'm more interested in the story thread with the Surin Enclave and Unweight, which we haven't seen in a while.

She'll be their leader by default because she's the only one who can speak.

Calling it: the final portrait of the emperor's daughter will have her holding a sword.

All right, you're calling it; we'll see how that plotline pans out. Considering we just got a few pages of Mopey Painter Guy (it's hard for me to remember names, okay?) though, we might not see that for a while.

Aaand someone is talking. Now who the heck could that be? :/

Oh hey, it's this guy.

"Everyone has their place in the Sahtan Empire. And if you don't start fitting into your place better, we're going to squish you like a bug."

Also calling it: Slave army uprising!

I'm just waiting for a massive "I am Vattukus" crowd scene.

Because flutters are so easy to mistake with warmen and the salamander people and the sunin.

Saw this thread. Binged the comic. Pretty good overall, I must say. Now to not read it for months on end.

Well yes . C'mon, a multi-racial Empire doesn't run itself.

All right, you're calling it. I'm pretty sure the Spartacus shout-out scene...won't really work out, you know. (Fluters just look so much like War-men, amirite?)

As for me, I'm calling it: the Surin are going to use Junti's newly discovered weight/unweight ratio to build airhips. Which they will then use to go home in the slave rebellion because c'mon, Rule of Cool.

Well, yes, that is the best way to read it. Then again, if you do that, you can't discus all the shocking plot twists that come up with us. Seriously, we just called like three things on this thread; how are you going to wait to see if they turn out?

Vattu could pull off an I Am Spartacus if she gets some other Fluters to join her slave revolt. It's already been established that the Sathans can't tell any of the Fluters apart without their forehead marks.

Although it will be slightly more difficult to pull off if this guy remembers that Vattu has that scar over her eye.

Which would be the main problem with it. They'll have to get Calirus to join the rebellion. ^note Which, considering the fact that he seems to report directly to the Emperor, would be highly unlikely; at this point he probably has more to gain by continuing the status quo. Or kill him I guess, which would be a shame. :/

By the way, does Vattu remind anyone else of Arya Stark?

Yeah, I likely will not maintain the willpower necessary to avoid this for long periods of time. Especially since we're getting something big going on at the moment.

That archive went away far too quickly.

Hahaha, willpower is for people who don't use the internet.

All right, Calirus is officially smarter than Morrian.

I get the sneaking feeling that Calirus is just worldly enough to make him really... dangerous.

Yeah, Calirus seems to be the only Sahtan who takes the Fluters seriously. So if he doesn't become a valuable ally, he'll be Vattu's most dangerous enemy.

In terms of force composition, he'd be smart to try to incorporate Flutters into their army.

On the one hand, Flutters seem to have the potential to be far more effective "grunts" from Halo, with Warmen being what, Elites? Sahtans are probably human equivalent.

Of course, he probably wants to be the next emperor, and likely sees the potential in having a Flutter light infantry loyal only to him. So, anyone else see him making an offer Vattu can't refuse?

Well, we don't actually know how the succession works in Sahta, so that could be completely off the table. But yeah, either Calirus is going to be the rebellion's awesome strategist, or he's going to trick them into working for him. (Either way he's pretty cool.)

Well, now I feel bad for ever saying anything bad about the guy. :/

I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. This just seems too easy.