The Order of the Stick

Weird thought, but if Banjo had been elevated to deity status, would that have been a temporary deity for this world only, or would they have now been an pillar of the next world, like any other living deity?

Maybe that's what's special about this world. It has Banjo, The God Of Puppets.

On a more serious note, "I can count them. I remember everyone who's ever worshipped me." Aw, Thor... you poor thing.

Hmm. If either of those is the case, why wouldn't a Good god just grant the ritual to one of his clerics and have them do it, without all the subterfuge? I think the Dark One is being straight with Redcloak, and the other gods can't grant the ritual, or subvert Redcloak's casting of it themselves, because they don't know it. Something about the Dark One's life or ascension has given him the insight to create this ritual, and he's not sharing. What Thor needs is for Durkon to steal the ritual (maybe even the Crimson Mantle itself) from Redcloak and adapt it to do the thing you said.

It's easy to forget about the IFCC, and how they still have a big part to play in all this. That would be a way for them to exert some control over the process.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Sep 12th 2018 at 5:50:24 AM

If the ritual is supposed to take weeks (someone linked the strip where Xykon says that a couple of pages back), then the IFCC's remaining time won't matter.

And if the V and Durkon have weeks to perform this ritual, then it's a safe bet Team Evil have already been taken care of by that point, which is even less likely to happen.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 12th 2018 at 4:54:52 AM

I'm not sure that the IFCC have a specific plan. They apparently didn't even know about the Gates until Sabine told them. So I doubt that whatever they're planning is a direct subversion of the plan Thor is going to tell Durkon right now.

If Durkon and V get into the ritual, and several weeks later V's soul is yanked out of his/her body at a crucial step in the process...

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Sep 12th 2018 at 6:26:32 AM

Then they start again. Like I said, for them to be in a position to even do that already implies they've dealt with Xykon and Redcloak. The Order has essentially won, and the IFCC has made it clear they don't want either side in this conflict to win.

Edited by LSBK on Sep 12th 2018 at 5:31:39 AM

The fact that the Gates stabilized this world is, in and of itself, reason for the Dark One to enact his great Plan.

• Plan A: Use the ritual to blackmail the gods by moving the Gates.
• Plan B: The world gets destroyed. Shit happens. Now the Dark One, being a god, gets an equal hand in the next world's creation.

It might seem like he wouldn't need to do this if Plan B was inevitable, but consider that the creation of the Gates eliminates that inevitability. Assuming that the Gates are what makes this world different, suddenly there's a chance that this world might go the distance!

...for a goblin deity who was banking on fixing the problems with this world when the time comes to make the next one, that's a problem. Thus, the Plan. Redcloak's job is basically to destabilize the Gates one way or another, so either the Plan works or the formerly inevitable becomes inevitable once more.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Sep 12th 2018 at 4:31:50 AM

By "crucial step," I suppose I was thinking, "one which if not completed correctly would result in the release of the Snarl" or some other catastrophic result. But I'm still unclear as to how the IFCC could manipulate any of this towards their stated goal, that of cooperation between the fiendish races to the detriment of the Upper Planes.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Sep 12th 2018 at 6:38:32 AM

But... but... the gods are ALSO stick figures! And so are the sentient theatre snacks!

Unless... the beings from this world really are stick figures, but everything else that looks like a stick figure is merely being artistically represented as a stick figure...

A Form You're Comfortable With would be my guess as to that.

I wonder what theater snack all the gods would be.

I'll be honest, I'm amazed that what started as a gag comic actually has this intricate a plot. I'm hooked.

So, perhaps Thor is about to tell Durkon that Xykon and Redcloak must be allowed to control a gate, so that they can begin the ritual, which is a necessary step to stopping the Snarl. However, for reasonsyet to be explained, he cant tell the Order, which will force him to covertly sabotage their efforts until the time is right./

Recycling the "Durkon is untrustworthy" plot point? I don't see that happening, to be honest.

A plot point that could come into play is that Xykon currently has the souls of two of the Order of the Scribble trapped on his person; they likely have information that the Order of the Stick could use to determine how to defeat the Snarl.

We know that knowledge of the Snarl is on a very strict need to know basis, but I wonder how common it would be in the outer planes.

Like, What happens to this world has been established to do nothing to do, so presumably some outsiders should be old enough to know about it right? Pass down information, etc.

Unless the gods also have a block on that from them too.

What's the Outsiders relationship with the Gods? The Gods didn't make them, right?

Hmm, now there's a thought. The two he does have are also the ones that actually performed the sealing ritual the last time too. Rich probably wouldn't have established this fact in Start of Darkness unless it had some relevance.

Edited by Kostya on Sep 12th 2018 at 10:23:44 AM

I'm not sure how important the dangling plot points from Start of Darkness are going to be. On the one hand, he did leave a couple important points dangling (Xykon giving the MitD orders to eat Redcloak if he betrayed him, Redcloak's niece being mentioned several times to be wandering the world, and maybe the soul gem), but on the other hand none of these things have ever been so much as hinted at in the main comic. It doesn't seem like Rich's style to have the climax hinge on a print-exclusive comic.

The Soul Gem did briefly show up in the main comic, actually. Xykon's holding it when he casts Cloister on Azure City. There wasn't any explanation of its' significance, but it is still a reference.

Some details have been brought up though. Red Cloak looking at his reflection and saying "It will all be worth it", Tsukiko calling him Wrong-eye, and the ritual not doing what Xykon thinks were all story elements that reference things in Start of Darkness. I'm sure the Monster in the Darkness's hypnotic command will come up too. Introducing the Soul Gem isn't that much of a stretch if Thor tells Durkon. Him knowing isn't that unusual.

It's worth pointing out that Dorukan and Lirian's relationship was mentioned in the comic proper.

New comic is up.

So it seems the worlds are lasting longer and longer. And I didn't expect that sentient movie snacks gag to make a comeback.

Are Dorukan and Lirian the only Scribblers that have appeared as more than crayon drawings in the comic?

Edit: Wait, Soon and Girard did too. Well, sort of. One was dead and the other was an illusion.

Edited by Kostya on Sep 12th 2018 at 12:02:54 PM