The earth has never been the same since the Fall. Two thirds of the human population are dead, otherworldly abominations wander the ruins, and the occult runs rampant. In hopes of salvaging the only scrap of family remaining in her life, aloof courier Avril seeks an Anathema, a blasphemous creature rumored to have the abilities that she needs.
Soul to Call
is a supernatural action/adventure comic with dashes of horror, comedy, and drama by Katherine Lang, a.k.a. Rommie or Rommierin. It's recommended for ages 16+.
This webcomic contains examples of
- After the End: Referred to as 'the Fall'. Two thirds of the human popular were wiped out, and malicious supernatural forces seem to have filled the void they've left...
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Striders are massive Humanoid Abominations with blades for legs. They are also completely silent and produce fog to mask their presence, so you'd never notice one until it's right on top of you.
- Aura Vision: Anathema have this as a species trait.
- Badass Normal: Avril is basically a normal girl who just so happens to jump out of trains and parkour like a boss.
- Big Damn Heroes: James and Eli. [1] And then James and Avril. [2]
- Blessed with Suck: If you're an anathema. You have all these nifty super-powers. You can almost pass for human. Unfortunately, getting sufficient sleep is nigh impossible because your rest is filled with bone-chilling nightmares, everybody is out to suck you dry of blood because that's where your powers come from. You can not only detect every Eldritch Abomination, but you're a magnet for them, especially near "the fog," and if you're especially unlucky, you can find yourself being hunted day and night without rest by an unkillable "shadow" that wants to feast on your soul by causing your eyes to explode, just by looking at it, and won't stop until you're dead. Oh, and good luck finding help, because the population at large believes you're a dangerous, blood-thirsty monster.
- Blood Magic: Blood is used for ritualistic purposes. Eli's blood in particular seems to have some special properties. Probably because he's an Anathema.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Every chapter ends with the main characters in a situation that they seemingly can't recover from. Chapter 4 is particularly harsh about this. Eli is grabbed, Avril is subdued with Blood Magic, and James is not only still fighting off the after-math of an attack by a "Nightmare," but apparently has a concussion after being hit from behind by a two by four, with the Marcus Ironic Echo saying "This is what I like most about you. Whoever gets too close to you, dies."
- Breather Episode: The main characters encounter a horse, missing its rider after a particularly grueling night. The audience is highly suspicious of this.
- Church Militant: The Order is this. According to the Codex, they enjoy cleansing with fire.
- Crowbar Combatant: Avril keeps a crowbar on hand, and it is indeed an occasional weapon.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Given what the Fall looked like in the first pages of the comic...
- Deadly Gaze: The Shadow seems to kill using this method.
- Deadpan Snarker: Being in a grim situation does not stop Avril from snarking.
- Eldritch Abomination: A whole codex full of them. Various types of abominations wander the earth since the Fall.
- Enemy Civil War: The abominations of the world setting do not like each other, at all. One of the reasons the Bleeding Irises worship "The Shadow" is that it kills other abominations, like the bobbleheads, because it does not want competition getting between it and its "sacrifices."
- Everything Trying to Kill You: From the Bleeding Irises cultists, to the Order Church Militant group, to "The Shadow" and the "fog," not to mention all the various and sundry Eldritch Abomination encounters, as well as the deadly booby traps in just about every Room Full of Crazy in an entire city full of them, and it's a miracle any of the cast is still alive.
- Eye Scream: Ubiquitous. When the some of the many varieties of monster get a hold of you, your eyes start glowing blue right before they gruesomely explode, and then you die horribly.
- Fog of Doom: Not only do abominations appear out of the Fog, but people who wander in tend not to wander out... In addition, there are at least two eldritch creatures that create fogs of doom, the Striders that use it to sneak up on you, and the Smokers that create fog so corrosive it strips through clothes, masks and flesh in seconds, and is excruciatingly painful for anyone that gets caught in it, even other abominations are not safe.
- From Bad to Worse: The series starts out with Avril sneaking into a cult's ritual ground looking to summon an Anathema because she believed one of them could help her find her father. She gets captured by the Bleeding Irises cult, marked as a sacrifice by the very dagger she was hired to deliver to them, manages to flee the Irises and the Shadow to be taken into custody by The Order who then get attacked by a Strider, and while she, Eli, and James are hiding out from the Strider, the Shadow finds them, again, and fleeing the Shadow, they get recaptured by the Irises who are then attacked by Smokers, and now the gang's hiding from a large pack of unknown abominations making some rather disturbing noises... GEESH.
- God of Evil: The Shadow that the Bleeding Irises worship has an appetite for unwilling human sacrifices.
- Geometric Magic: Ritual circles and other symbols are used for a variety of supernatural uses, so far mostly in combination with Blood Magic.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Eli's eyes glow red. Thankfully he's of the rare friendly variety of this, but do continue to take the 'doom' part seriously.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: All of the actions of the Bleeding Irises cult are ultimately self-destructive and suicidal. All part and parcel of being Stupid Evil.
- Hostage Situation: Eli finds himself in one in chapter 4, page 3.
- Humanoid Abomination: Anathema are described as humanoid. Subverted when it turns out they can look outright human, too.
- I Call It "Vera": Avril has a tendency to name some of her favorite weapons, like her baseball bat, "Walter".
- Interrupted Suicide: Eli would likely have not been around any longer if Avril hadn't broken into the Bleeding Iris's ritual ground when she did.
- It's All My Fault: Eli is convinced of this, despite the true cause of his condition being Humans Are Bastards, particularly the "Bleeding Iris" cult.
- Knight in Sour Armor: James is strongly implied to be this by Eli.Eli: His... light is... grey. He wears it like armor.
- The Klutz: Eli is not gifted with physical prowess. [3]
- Laser-Guided Karma: If you're human (or at least humanoid), it's not a good idea to do, or plan to do, evil things towards Avril, or Eli. The universe makes damn sure you get a taste of your own medicine in the process. Several Bleeding Irises cult members found this out, the hard way. The rest of them simply refuse to accept it, and keep right on trying.
- Le Parkour: Avril's preferred method of travel.
- Light Is Not Good: Despite generating a fog to conceal themselves, Striders emit a very bright light and are highly antagonistic to everything else. There's presumably a group even worse than the Bleeding Iris cultists, "The Collectors" and they wear all white. Lastly, The Order wears all white and they're a church militant group full of highly antagonistic Knight Templar Jerkass people, like Marcus.
- Living Shadow: The creature the Bleeding Irises answer to is, rather aptly, called a Shadow.
- Morton's Fork: Ooh boy. Avril's been getting these en masse. First there's the Bleeding Irises vs The Order, then there's the order vs a Strider, then there's the Bleeding Irises vs a pack of Smokers, and now, of the latest update, there's a Strider in front of them, and the Shadow behind them... Girl just can't catch a break, can she?
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: The shadow didn't just win the Super Power Lottery, it makes up new powers on the fly (like being able to go anywhere air can).
- Religion of Evil: Well, the Bleeding Irises certainly aren't a nice cult...
- Room Full of Crazy: Or a city FULL of rooms full of crazy. There is some... interesting graffiti on the walls.
- Spider-Sense: Eli's eyes glow red when some supernatural-bad is close by.
- The Stoic: James, most of the time.
- Summoning Ritual: Avril attempts one of these in chapter 1, but was ultimately foiled. Or was she?
- Team Dad: James, some of the time.
- Tears of Blood: Bleeding Irises. Of course there's tears of blood.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Avril doesn't really play well with others.
- Unfriendly Fire: The "fog" produced by Smokers harms other Eldritch Abominations, like the bobbleheads.
- Villainous Rescue: If you know what you're doing, you can get one of the local abominations to rescue you from one of the others. Like getting a Strider to scare off a Shadow.
