Line #3 Webcomic/Overside


1	[[http://www.rice-boy.com/ Overside]] is a fictional world created by Evan Dahm, which serves as a setting for his various webcomics.
2
3	Overside is a {{flat world}} populated by [[LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces a wide, colorful variety]] of beasts and intelligent species. Interestingly, [[StandardFantasyRaces the standard assortment of fantasy races]] is [[AvertedTrope completely absent]]. For that matter, so are humans: the inhabitants of Overside are all either some species of CartoonCreature, or MechanicalLifeforms.
4
5	The stories set in Overside include three long comics and several [[http://www.rice-boy.com/shortstories.php short stories]]:
6	* ''Webcomic/RiceBoy'' (April 2006 - May 2008)
7	* ''Webcomic/OrderOfTales'' (July 2008 - July 2010)
8	* "The Tethered Isle" (October 2009)
9	* "Waiting in Surya" (November 2009)
10	* "The Jewel of Brambool" (January 2010)
11	* "The Tusks of Wusterim" (May 2010)
12	* ''Webcomic/{{Vattu}}'' (July 2010 - September 2022)
13	* "Settling Down" (January 2011)
14	* "The Thinker" (A three-part series, the first part being released in May 2011)
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16	[[folder:In rough chronological order, for those interested...]]
17	* "The Tusks of Wusterim" (sometime in the Green Age)
18	* "The Tethered Isle" (date unknown; could have occurred anywhere between the early Blue Age and the rise of the Sahtan empire from ''Vattu'')
19	* ''Vattu'' (the ninth century of the Blue Age)
20	* "The Thinker" (date unknown; may have occurred anywhere in the Blue Age and the early Red Age, but definitely before ''Order of Tales'')
21	* ''Order of Tales'' (the third century of the Red Age)
22	* "Waiting in Surya" (the seventh century of the Red Age)
23	* "Settling Down" (direct prequel to ''Rice Boy'')
24	* ''Rice Boy'' (the ninth century of the Red Age)
25	* "The Jewel of Brambool" (occurs not long after ''Rice Boy'' chapter 32)
26
27	However, the events of the various stories are so disconnected that you're probably better off reading them in published order.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	Tropes specific to ''Webcomic/RiceBoy'', ''Webcomic/OrderOfTales'', or ''Webcomic/{{Vattu}}'' should go on those pages. Following ''Vattu'''s completion, Dahm's next comic ''Webcomic/ThirdVoice'' is confirmed by WordOfGod to ''not'' be set in Overside, though it shares a visual style and themes with the Overside stories.
31	----
32	!!Provides examples of:
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34	%%%Zero Context Examples are commented out. To restore them please read the tropes and describe
35	%%%how this work uses them.
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38	* AdventureFriendlyWorld: Boy, is it ever! An indeterminate number of strange, fantastical creatures who are constantly meeting, merging, or competing with each other, with plenty of ancient legends, relics, and ruined empires from the days of yore to go around (some of which get rebuilt and repopulated by successor empires which later collapse and leave new ruins on top of the old ones...) Overside is a world that is made for tale-telling.
39	* AIIsACrapshoot: In "The Thinker", a woodland nation sacrifices everything to literally create an artificial intelligence out of wooden cogs. It responds to this dedication by [[spoiler:ordering the last surviving attendant to resign and give its duties to The One Electronic]], which causes this loyal servant to cross the DespairEventHorizon and crawl into the desert to die.
40	* AlternativeCalendar: Overside years were only about 5 months Earth-time... until Dahm decided that was too complicated and set the years back to the normal length.
41	* CartoonCreature: Nearly everyone.
42	* TheConstant: The three quasi-immortal Searchers (The One Electronic, Calabash and Golgo) [[spoiler: all die in ''Rice Boy'', but since the other stories are set before it, they still]] figure in many of the stories.
43	* ConLang: A few, complete with scripts.
44	* FingerSnapLighter: T.O.E., the Searcher with a never explained power to make sparks with a finger snap, uses this power for lighting his pipe and anything he needs to set on fire.
45	* FlatWorld: It's a disk with two sides, each with continents and seas.
46	* FullCircleRevolution: An extremely drawn-out example. In "The Tusks of Wusterim", the Frog-men are the slaves of an empire. By the time of ''Rice Boy'', many centuries later, they formed an empire of their own.
47	* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: The wiki names and describes Blackbirds, Dimmons, Fin-Folk, Fluters, Frog-Men, Gaundts, Gorrkans, Hornèds, Ice-Striders, Machine Men, Rhed, Sahtans, Shade-Kin, Sirpah, Trills, and War-Men. There are also the unnamed inhabitants of Seen and Taragi, and the mysterious White Formless. Most of these have named characters in the comics.
48	* MechanicalLifeforms: Machine Men. According to the creation story in ''Order of Tales'' they have been created as soldiers to TakeOverTheWorld by the four proto-machine men.
49	* PlaceWorseThanDeath: Surya. The similarity of this name to Siberia should tell you all you need to know.
50	* SlaveRace:
51	** The Frogs were slaves in the Wusterim Empire, until they revolted.
52	** The Sahtans outright enslave the War Men. Every other non-Sahtan is relegated to serfdom.
53	* ThemeNaming: Hornéd characters are named after grammatical features.
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Context Webcomic / Overside