Webcomic / Black Tapestries

Black Tapestries is a long running webcomic about a world called Raekarta which is home to Humans, and a race of anthro-animals called Kaetif. The story stares Lorelei, an immortal werefox who likely already wants to kill you. The story mostly details the conflicts between Humans and Kaetif, the various attempts of the Order to capture Lorelei, and how series antagonist Issac is involved.

The comic is written and drawn by Jakkal. It was started in 2002, though it was abandoned in 2007. It was going to be started up again in 2008, but after a couple filler pages the comic was again abandoned. In February of 2010 Jakkal announced a possible reboot of the comic, and again on July 11th, 2011. However that promise went unfulfilled as well.

Near the end of 2012, Jakkal posted a link to http://www.blacktapestries.com/. By January 2013 the entirety of the Black Tapestries comic, sans the 2008 fillers, was transferred from the Comic Genesis site. But she spent the remainder of that year adding on to the Realm of Kaerwyn timeline, producing three new issues of material centered around an Orderguard named Endiymon and Niixa, a xarax'il, (raccoon-ish cave dweller), forced to work together against a mysterious woman in white and her amassed werewolf army.

Finally, during February and March of 2014, in the midst of the fifth Kaerwyn issue, Winds of Change, Jakkal began adding pages to Black Tapestries issue #19 "Factions". She has stated clearly that during the 7 year hiatus, there would be noticeable tweaks and adjustments to the story.

As of 2020, https://www.blacktapestries.com/ is a redirect to https://kaerwyn.blacktapestries.com/ which contains the Realm of Kaerwyn story, and the Black Tapestries story appears to be only on the Comic Genesis site.

Black Tapestries no longer updates, but Kaerwyn does so on regular basis (sometimes even daily).

This webcomic contains examples of:

• Abandoned Info Page: Originally the pages just had outdated stuff about the characters and plot. Now the links to any of the info pages are just flat-out broken.

• Big Bad Ensemble: The leaders of the Kaetif and the Order are both jerks, adversaries with one another, and major threats to Lorelei personally.
• Blessed with Suck: Both immortals in Black Tapestries are killed multiple times throughout the story, in very painful ways. Issac explains that while dead, the experience does not dull in the slightest.
  • Deaths include broken necks, slit throats, skinning, beheading, impalement, crushed by rubble, and soul snatching, and they have to experience every moment until their bodies heal again.
  • Being immortal also means being locked in the same moment of their lives forever, which means in Lore's case, she can never have children.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Jack. Seems like Lorelei double crossed him... but then he comes back with a vengeance.
• Bolivian Army Hiatus: This is not alone!!!
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Three guesses why the Order are nicknamed 'The Ol' Blue'.
• Color Me Black: Lorelei turning into an immortal werevixen. Issac claims this is for her to see firsthand the cruelty humans show toward kaetif. And has nothing to do with his fixation on her.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Tristan doesn't seem to know if he should side with his friends, or his father.
• Cursed with Awesome: Sort of. Lorelei and Issac are both immortal, but they still both feel pain. Lorelei is also a werefox, but she doesn't like that at all. Later she gets upgraded after some experiments during her detainment with the Order, and gets super-strength at the cost of sometimes loosing control of her animal self.
• The Dandy: Issac is noticeably the most well-dressed kaetif, often showing off bright expensive colors like green and red as opposed to the brown and gray rags of his peers. This makes sense considering his wealthy human upbringing.

• Do You Trust Me?: Invoked often and almost always averted.
• Face–Heel Turn: Tristan. Apparently a case of Brainwashed and Crazy.
• Filler Strips: The most notable is the most recent one which, not only is a big advertisement for the author's RP site, but is also unfinished and the last few posts to the comic.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: A few comics were Lorelei, Issac or another character answer mail from readers. About half of the mail were people complaining about Lorelei not liking her werefox form, while others were questions about plot elements.
• Glowing Eyes: Lorelei is asked how she is able to see with her eyes glowing green every time she goes on a killing spree.

• How We Got Here: Black Tapestries begins with Lorelei sitting on a rock with a mysterious black anthro-canine, (who is not kaetif), looking out at the sunset. The story begins almost 200 years earlier.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Played with. Yes, the humans are bastards. So are the Kaetif.

• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Lorelei gets revenge on the ringleader of the Kaetif arena.
• Insane Equals Violent: "In the beginning God said let there be light. Some other stuff happened later but I never cared, but there was a lot of bloodshed... So let's have some bloodshed! Oh look, a volunteer!"
• It Makes Sense in Context: "We stroked and touched each other's balls. It was a very personal experience you obviously wouldn't understand."
• Karmic Transformation: Lorelei. She refuses to learn from it.
  • Devin, too, for using the Chaotic Art. He tries to weasel his way out of his punishment by switching bodies with Lorelei.

• The Lad-ette: Lorelei starts out having no qualms about murder, torture, and theft. Various characters have commented on her uncleanliness and how she drools in her sleep. Her snores are even likened to CHAINSAWS!
• Long-Runners: It's coming out in different forms since 2002. Even The Realm of Kaerwyn itself runs since 2012, and getting more, rather than less frequent updates over time.
• Loners Are Freaks: Jackal. Also Lorelei to an extent.
• Loveable Sex Maniac: Red seems to be shaping up as this.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Issac, a powerful fox kaetif, toward the werefox, Lorelei. Guess which form he likes. Gets into even weirder territory when it's revealed that he married and copulated with a fox kaetif-turned-human back when he, himself, used to be human.
  • Jackal's also into foxy Lore. (Especially when he gets to use her chest as a canvas and her blood as paint.)
  • Red, too.
  • Don't forget all those brutes at The Ring!

• Magic Knight: The Templar Order.
• Mighty Whitey: As the only prisoner who knows how the artstones work, it's up to Lorelei the half-human to save the kaetif trapped in The Ring.
  • Issac becomes the leader of the new kaetif resistance movement, even though he wasn't born a kaetif. It's possible most of the kaetif aren't aware of this fact.
• Mind Rape: Issac and the Orderguard sure love messing around in Lorelei's dreams.
• Ms. Fanservice: Both of Lorelei's forms gain quite a lot of male attention. This is made fun of out of universe.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Upon hearing she will spend the rest of her days as a fox kaetif, Lorelei's first intent is to commit suicide. Issac prevents this by making her immortal just like himself.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: All Tristan was guilty of was wanting to help an unconscious fox kaetif, and he ends up a homeless fugitive for his trouble. Too bad that kaetif happened to be the infamous Lorelei and he's harboring her. When he asks why this happened to him Lorelei cites this trope word for word.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Red says this to Lorelei after it is revealed he is another human turned kaetif.
• Obsession Song: Aggessive Type. Issac recites William Blake's "The Tiger", in reference to Lorelei's defiance against his approaches. If that isn't disturbing enough, he does this right before arranging for her to be captured and thrown into The Ring.
• Orphaned Series: The comic stopped updating in 2008, though there were promises of a reboot. However, this has changed - the reboot fell through, and instead it was continued for two months in 2014, before being dropped again. Both side comics, The Realm of Kaerwyn and Crimson Fury: Legend of the Red Wolf, have met the same fate as well.
  • The Realm of Kaerwyn returned in November 2013 and is picking up the pace with regular, often daily updates.
• Playing Both Sides: Red works as a double agent for the Order, using his appearance as a kaetif to obtain information on Issac's plans, then misleading or flat-out lying to the Order when he thinks it may give him an advantage.
• Rape as Drama: Lorelei is raped for about 3 months when she is a prisoner at the Kaetif arena in attempts to get stronger children. They only eventually stop when they determine she's incapable of bearing children.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: During one of the earlier chapters, Drakko has to cease production of the comic to evacuate ahead of a hurricane. About ten chapters later, both Theropos and Creedmore are preparing to be hit by a hurricane, too.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lorelei is spoonfed several of these during the course of the story, by Issac, by Dane, by Devin, by Red. They're usually something to do with her stubbornness.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Anything nasty will always have red eyes, to the point the trope is eventually brought up verbatim.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Lorelei after she frees herself from the Kaetif arena. Also, Issac after The Order kills his wife

• Shout-Out: What's that? Tristan fell down a well?
• Sliding Scaleof Free Will Vs Fate: Discussed by Nolokari and Talaris.
• The Sociopath: It's harder to find a drifter who DOESN'T like to cut things up.
• Spell My Name With An S: Issac (not Isaac).

• Stock Phrase: "Holy mother of fuck!"
• Take a Third Option: Talaris does this to prevent a Second Human-Kaetif War.
• Terms of Endangerment: Issac calls the main protagonist 'My dear' so often that she panics once when Tristan says 'My dear lord' while scaling a mountain.
• Token Evil Teammate: Devin. Allowed to stay so Lorelei can learn The Art from him.
• Unreliable Narrator: Lorelei is stopped several times during her story and asked if she is embellishing events to make them more dramatic.
• Unsound Effect: *Other disgusting eating noises here* was used once when Lorelei was really hungry.
  • Happens again with *Whinny. Other pissed off horse noises* when some Orderguards scare Dakotah.
  • And again with *Enter unintelligible string of expletives* when a puppy Forced Transformation who is Dane under a curse bites her tail.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Issac.

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