Webcomic / Fey Winds

Fox, Warrior, Elf, Prince.

Sylphe's gifts are now sought out by thieves, kings, and wholesome adventure-type folk... like us!

Kit was a fox until a senile witch turned her not-quite human. Nigel's been cursed to follow someone who is "a girl but not a girl, and neither human, dwarf, nor elf." Thankfully there were no "transvestite hermaphrodite gnomes" around, so instead he's left following a Cute Fox Girl. Larina left a remote elven sanctuary only to have a Possession Stone lodged in her forehead. Now random ghosts can take over her body. It's "kind of a pain, you know?"

This intrepid trio sets out to find ancient relics left over from when a legendary being called Sylphe ended the last great war. Along the way they pick up a loser prince who plays the lute, a clumsy thaumaturge-in-training who looks like a demon, and manage to leave a trail of failure in their wake.

Fey Winds updates every Tuesday and is lushly illustrated and wittily written. Contains that rare, delicate blend of rich backstory, realistic character development, quick action, dry humor (much of it lampshading), tasteful fanservice, and subtle self-awareness to keep the characters intriguing, the fantasy setting fresh, and the story moving at a proper pace, not to mention totally unbiased TV Tropes writeups. Referential jokes show up now and again.

Character page here.

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This webcomic provides examples of:

• All There in the Manual: The characters page has a fair bit of backstory.
• An Arm and a Leg: Sigurd gets a Type 3 courtesy of Keres.
• Art Shift: Aside from the multiple lapses into chibi style, the art has more than once switched abruptly to a very shojo style in parody of particularly shojo-esque moments — notably, the use of "Sid-Vision 5000".
• Bag of Holding: The Satchel Giles Grimsworth Swaggerforth III
• Bastard Understudy: Sigurd apparently was one of these, though he has already has the better of his former master by the time the story starts
• Black Cloak: Sid's brother's advisor, AKA Mister Sinisterly-Cloaked-Guy. AKA Zeph in disguise
• Black Eyes of Crazy
• Bishie Sparkle: See Shout-Out below.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: "Larina's agent called. The lawyers are threatening to sue if we don't give her more screen time."
• By the Lights of Their Eyes
• Cerebus Syndrome: Parodied in the Halloween special here
• Chiaroscuro
• Chivalrous Pervert: Sid and Dorian both.
• Collapsing Lair: The tomb.
• Creator Cameo: In the splash page at the academy two of the author's World of Warcraft characters can be seen.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Sid, with the right motivation. Ekhm.
• Curse: The original premise was that each one of the group had some curse on them that they've been trying to break by finding the Sylphe's artifacts. But it turned out that only two of them actually are cursed. Kit was turned humanoid when she accidentally hosted the Sylphe, Nigel is actually a golem commanded to find the Sylphe and he made up his backstory as an excuse for following Kit around, and Zeph was a spy working for Sigurd.
• Cursed with Awesome: "Sid, in what way is turning into a dragon a terrible curse?"
  • "In the way that Dragon Hunter Monthly usually has my dad's face on the cover."
• Cute Little Fangs: Kit.
• Damsel in Distress: Larina, frequently. She's saved from being annoying by her attitude while she's imprisoned, although Hepzibah does claim she has "the personality of a gilded doorstop." However, even though Hepzibah took over Larina's body, Larina is not quite helpless.
  • Badass in Distress: Easily this, she's rather bad at being a damsel with all those escapes. As we later learn, she's actually a super agent of sorts.
• Disability Superpower: Sid is easily scared or flustered. Upon which he turns into a dragon.
• Dual Wielding: Kit.
• Enfant Terrible: Hepzibah D'Espayr.
• Evil Gloating: Lampshaded and Subverted.
  • Kit sarcastically asks the Big Bad if they should expect a rant, and instead he immediately attacks. After that...
  Lord of the Dying Light: No need to get up. Oh wait, that's right, you can't. ...Did you say something?
  Sid: He was going to ask you what your grand scheme was! So we can... bask in the glow of your evil genius!
  Lord of the Dying Light: No more explaining.
• Expy: Hepzibah looks and talks suspiciously like a demonic Affectionate Parody of a certain blind earthbender. Extra irony points for being surrounded by floating eyes.
• Failure Knight: Nigel is a war golem who was created to protect the Alchemist. When he failed in his mission, the Alchemist ordered him to find and help Sylphe. He follows Kit for that reason — though since golems are bound to obey the word of their masters, he may not have much choice in the matter.
• Forced into Their Sunday Best: here
• Forced Transformation: Zeph gets turned into a goat by Keres. See also Cursed with Awesome entry.
• Functional Magic: Fey and other creatures of nature tap into "the Song" (Force Magic) directly. Humans, elves, and other mortal races must employ "the Rule" (Rule Magic) a system of formulas and spells. Most of the main cast are also chasing after artifacts (Device Magic) left behind by a strange being called Sylphe when she rebelled against those who wanted to use her in a war.
  • One of the more unusual things about Kit is that she can use the Song, it turns out to be because she ate the Sylphe, and Nigel is a golem who can use the Song as well.
• God in Human Form: Sigurd's plan. Using a number of components (several involving our heroes) he planted a piece of a god into one of his golems. She wasn't happy about it.
• Golem: Quite a few of them were used in this one giant war. The Sylphe was apparently one, and Nigel is a golem ordered to find her. Kit is a mix of golem and fox that resulted when the Sylphe turned herself into a small shiny object that some hapless woodland critter mistook for an egg.
• Gratuitous Japanese: A-are you my ouji-sama*? *Ouji-sama = prince in the language of Omgkawaii
• Hellish Pupils: Sid's are slitted, Zeph's are "+" shaped, Sinisterly-Cloaked-Guy's are also slitted. In this comic, however, weird pupils do not necessarily denote evilness.
• High School AU: Parodied for all it's worth with the 2014 Halloween special, "Doki Doki Fey Winds High School".
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Larina's preferred method of exorcism.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Kit was this when she was first turned into a human. She has since learned the importance of clothes.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Sid's Transformation Trinket activates whenever he's sufficiently nervous.
• Lampshade Hanging: Enough to keep things funny, but it never removes Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Sid, of all people. Heroes don't need subtlty!!
• Lens Flare: Invoked by prince Dorian.
• Load-Bearing Boss: After Sigurd flees, the tomb is destroyed.
  Nigel: Collapsing ruins. Classic, I guess.
  • Keep in mind it was intentional.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Kit is short for Kitsune.
    • Not to mention meaning "young fox" (or other small fur-bearing animal).
  • Nigel is derived from Nathaniel, which means "gift from God". He is a war-golem, animated by captured elementals and a stolen soul. So he is literally powered by spiritual energy.
  • The Sylphe, a powerful spirit, refers to "Sylph," a term for elementals or faeries of the air.
  • The Big Bad is named after the legendary hero of Norse mythology, Sigurd.

• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Lord of Darkne the Dying Light.
• Odd-Shaped Panel
• Our Elves Are Different: First of all they are actually Ogres.
  • For another the whole "nature-loving hippie" thing was a myth they invented so that they could help rebuild after the wars, and a smear campaign by some angry trolls.
• Overly Long Name: Prince Sidney Theodorus Cassian Merriweather Findain VIII. Mercifully, he only ever goes by Sid in the actual comic. His brother's name is slightly shorter — Dorian Norwood Anson Findain VI.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Minionz!
• Raised by Wolves: Kit, who was raised by foxes.
  • Rather, Kit, who was a fox.
• Reverse Grip: Kit holds her left-hand sword this way.
• Riddle Me This: Played with. Early in their quest for the Sylphe's artifacts, the heroes decide to consult a sage who spoke in riddles. Note the past tense.
• Sarashi: Kit's preferred form of underwear.
• Ship Tease: Between Larina and Sid, and also a bit of this for Kit and Nigel.
• Shirtless Scene: After Kit rips off the dress that was hampering her in battle, Nigel follows suit...
  Sid: Why did Nigel take off all HIS clothes, too?
  Larina: I... don't know. Solidarity?
• Shout-Out: "I know a spell that makes me sparkle in the sunlight!"
  • "Urge to kill... rising..."
  • "...death by Snoo-snoo"
  • The Fairy Grandmother
• Showing Off the New Body: Hepzibah does so after possessing Larina.
  Hepzibah: And now... it's finally dress-up time!!
• Spoony Bard: Sid. Not that anyone is happy about it...
  • *breaks instrument* "Well, you're a fighter now." "Congrats on the multiclass."
• Suicidal "Gotcha!": Kit and Nigel are in on this plan. Sid and Larina are not.
• There Was a Door: ...but Keres decided not to use it.
  Keres: I like to break things.
• Torches and Pitchforks: Twice!
• Twincest: Implied between Hansel and Gretel
  • "Are you married, or twin brother and sister?" "Yes!" [everyone else chuck their cookies] "Hey!"
• Upper-Class Twit: Sid and his brother, as well as Larina's cousin.
• Will They or Won't They?: See Ship Tease above, but there's a lot of this going on between Larina and Sid throughout the story, though his pursuit is generally one-sided most of the time.
  • But at least as of this strip they will.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Sid seems to think he's the Chick Magnet in a Shojo Manga and acts accordingly.

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