Today’s update of Golden Shrike was as lore and plot heavy as it gets. It’s one of those pages when a huge plot point is made bare. Pretty much up there with Karuna revealing himself and making demands of Nero on page 120. When I originally started this comic, I was pretty sure it was going to be about Nero and Runi seeing the world and eventually returning to their herd.
That certainly is what part of the story is about, but the larger overall plot is that Nero has been tasked by the great deer god to find his missing children. Those children being Eve (responsible for the birth of new deer), Loss (responsible for the death of deer, especially the sick and elderly), and War (responsible for violence). In a messed up twist, War was actually created last for the deer god’s amusement. Karuna’s children were lured to Earth and in a way abandoned their duties which means everything is slowly becoming unbalanced. Soon the old won’t die naturally, children won’t be born alive, and War himself will revel in the violence as predators take advantage of this fact.
Today’s page is another big, eye-opening reveal. Helevise possibly along with Antaras had something to do with luring the stars away from Karuna. At the very least we know that Eve is with Antaras and is inhabiting the body of his wife. It is possible that Helevise also has lured away Loss as well. Her plan seems to be to restore the ability of regular deer to easily communicate with the gods and to see miracles performed. Her grand plans will come at the cost of the future of deer that have yet to be born– after all, asking the gods for favors always come at a price.
As for Helevise’s daughter, Iralee, she’s responsible for sending Nero, Runi, and Kasko to find War and she’s convinced they’ll come back with him in order to return the other two stars to Karuna. She’s talking about them even as she confronts her mother.
This shows us that Nero and his group are essentially important to this story, so the wolf deer, aka the Stonekrovns won’t be the end of the group. Of course, they’re in a really tough spot at the moment, but their mission is too big to let them fail. Also, the last few pages showing how Helevise is slowly sliding into antagonist territory have been a nice break from the overpowered StoneKrovns. As interesting as the main trio are to follow, the characters and world-building are just excellent in Golden Shrike.
One comment Golden Shrike 193 – When the Plot Hits the Fan
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Nice