18-136-146
Added 2024-08-02 02:49:08 +0000 UTCA big, fat, very somber update.
I said a while ago that everything you needed to figure out Lemuel's scheme was right there in his introductory chapter, and I still think that's true. From his weird statement to Duane that HE would fix it, to his sudden disinterest in romance, to his invitation to Mickie to be there at the temple that day, to that single tear he shed when Duane left - it's really all there.
But I noticed it wasn't until he talked of "glory" a few pages ago that people started to clue in to what it all meant. So my apologies if his intention in all this comes off rather sudden.
Now, the fallout of this murder - whether it was a mistake or not - and the conditions that caused it, are all the subject matter of the next series. There is a LOT going on in Alderode. For Unsounded's story, however, we're through now with the Adeliers. There are a lot of illusions, now, that Duane simply can no longer hold.
Comments
He's an attempt to make a Ssael in the absence of one
Capsandnumbers
2024-08-08 19:47:49 +0000 UTCEXACTLY. Even though he mentioned Lemuel's lot as tardy payers, he couldn't pass up the proffered "work" for the opportunity to test his theories on a tacit caster
Judith Bradford
2024-08-06 02:06:00 +0000 UTCHe could pop up, he seems to know stuff~
Ashley
2024-08-05 21:00:57 +0000 UTCI think it brings all the Lemuel scenes into really sharp focus.
Ashley
2024-08-05 21:00:31 +0000 UTCI really can not wait to re read the entire series once this final chapter is done. Im excited to see how knowing the endgame will change the readthrough.
HandsomePenguin
2024-08-05 20:47:45 +0000 UTCI really want to know more about our wright-killing ninja and what's become of him since. Maybe even see him in present-day events.
Taerjaga
2024-08-05 16:05:34 +0000 UTCWow. Just. Wow.
Srećko
2024-08-05 14:39:38 +0000 UTCYeah, he's definitely a sucker that could believe someone spinning it this way. The whole "we're gonna kill you, but you're going to jesus christ out of death to glory"? Yeah, right. But from the cold mind point of view, the 1st point doesn't pass scrutiny. If there are crescians pillaging through the streets, it still would make more sense to have the military presence everywhere. Amassing a single unit defense makes it only more suspicious – that the intruder would attack the most defended people in the area? In a remote area too? Because crescians, they're soooo dumb? This couldn't be possibly made more sus.
Duke BG
2024-08-05 06:36:37 +0000 UTC1) Suicide is forbidden in Ssaelism, so Lemuel had to die trying to defend himself. They also wanted a lot of dead Crescians around so the blame could squarely go onto Cresce. It wasn't just an assassination they were performing, but a whole show. 2) Riding to a remote location ensured no innocents were caught up and hurt in this. 3) Lemuel thought he personally was the best choice because he was Soud (like Ssael) and it would piss off the other Soud, inciting riots and making his brother a sympathetic figure, even saving his promotion after his stupidly hit the Counsellor. Duane was far too valuable and powerful to sacrifice on this scheme. Anyway I agree Lem was foolish, but he did have these same questions, and they were all answered.
Ashley
2024-08-05 06:28:15 +0000 UTC"I am called to gather all the guards in one big patrol in a remote part of the suburbs. This must be the night of the assassination! I'm definitely getting offed with extra guards by my side and not someone else is while all the guards are near me! No questions that it's gonna be me!"
Duke BG
2024-08-05 06:20:28 +0000 UTCThank you ;_;
Ashley
2024-08-05 06:12:58 +0000 UTCHe gave his trust unwisely. He has since learned from his mistake :)
Ashley
2024-08-05 06:11:56 +0000 UTCI meant to write a comment, but forgot / was busy with stuff. Lemuel is kinda dumb.
Duke BG
2024-08-05 05:40:25 +0000 UTCIt is heartbreaking that he'd say that, yeah.... but that struck me as like, totally what you say when you're trying to walk back an argument and find common ground. Perhaps the most heartbreaking part is that it's the kind of thing Duane's been taught to believe and thus it's the sort of thing he intellectually argues for while the better part of him, the decent man struggling to break free, emotionally recoils.
Josh
2024-08-05 05:37:57 +0000 UTCThis update absolutely floored me, if Unsounded wasn't already my favorite comic, it would be now.
Canaureus
2024-08-05 05:02:10 +0000 UTCFirst, yes, ditto to all those before me here who said they were stunned and amazed. The reveal was a surprise that unfolded over these last 15 or so pages so beautifully. But there was no surprise in your mastery of the storytelling, Ms. Cope. Outstanding as always. Second, the regression to younger Duane and Lemuel together at the end punched me in the gut with a reminder of how far apart they are in age. Seeing them both as adults together, I tend to forget. Such a brutal twist again. So well done…
Malik M.L. Williams
2024-08-04 05:52:35 +0000 UTCIt occurs to me that Murkoph will also get done in galit-style, and if he's Tacit then it would come out as a huge asspull at this point. So the intelligent undead part is probably doable to someone *without* the extra port mutation. But Murkoph is bodily in the Khert so clearly something about the process has changed since the first iteration, or other shenanigans are afoot.
CelebrenIthil
2024-08-04 00:36:49 +0000 UTCI'm calling my epileptic tree theory out here right here right now: the masked assassin guy is Murkoph. Pre-getting galit'ed. No time and causality in the Khert, babeeyy! Bronze boy. Good with a blade. Did something blasphemous to a Ssaelit clergyman that could earn somebody some gnarly ritual torture scars if caught. And he's already got his first facial scar here too. <3 And sooner or later he'll get a real full taste of what happened to Duane. That would be Artistic Parallels or what?
CelebrenIthil
2024-08-04 00:33:02 +0000 UTCAha, a potent hit from the pipe of the deep lore. I've read a lot of Ashley's extracurricular commentary but not all of it, so, yeah, makes sense. I knew only Bastion's quote about "rare materials" but again I figured that was just him geeking out about an extra bonus.
Josh
2024-08-04 00:13:36 +0000 UTCAgreed! Honestly, broke my heart a little to see Duane of the past praising Lem for his 'honest' brutality when it's so clear that ruthless worldview has been absolutely splintering the man for years and years and years... He wouldn't have had the internal resources to circle back around to the approximate sanity of a 7 year dead zombie who can still pause and find enjoyment in a beautiful sunrise.
CD
2024-08-03 06:26:49 +0000 UTCMaybe it feels mostly confirmed only if you keep an eye on the Tumblr askblog and people throwing things at the wall there, but it appears the tether is right at Duane's extra tacit port, up on a cerebral vertebra (where the "apparatus" appears to be). On that regard, you can see in the war flashback, during the khert fire that makes him clip through the ground, that his soul almost-but-not-quite falls out his body at that time. Only it stays anchored at the neck - another hint the port is important. And of course, when Bastion is chatting with Rham, he does mention he jumped on the opportunity because he'd work on a tacit caster, and he couldn't pass "rare materials" (quoting from memory there). These details leads me to believe the tacitness is a prerequisite for at least some of the features (like maybe for anchoring the line that leads one in and out of the Khert again) if not the entire process
CelebrenIthil
2024-08-03 04:52:23 +0000 UTCA bit of a different note, but God that first page is a kick in the teeth. And I think it's the unavoidable endpoint of someone like Duane, a decent person who's also devoted to a system that he should probably burn down instead. It's such a contrast with the family man and the chivalrous, soap-opera hero that we met in Ulestry.
Brianna
2024-08-03 03:49:53 +0000 UTCWait, does it really NEED a tacit caster to work? I thought that was just like, an added bonus Bastion was geeking out about (seeing as how he can do things that Elka had thought were only possible in theory.) Did I miss something?
Josh
2024-08-03 03:32:17 +0000 UTCStruggled to phrase this even as poorly as I have, but: I think I rather fervently agree with Duane that it is the supposedly soft coward namby-pamby moralists who lack the dick-spine for dog-eat-doggery that actually have the strength to bear the pain of [insert list of grievances in Hamlet's soliloquy.] Duane has bent like the willow branch where Lem would have snapped like a twig.
Josh
2024-08-03 03:25:28 +0000 UTCOh thank you, yes, part of never picking up on anything is that I am always pleasingly surprised by plot developments, and was not in fact asking to have this question answered. Personally my guess is that Lem's thoughts are something like, as Ssael unto the Gefendur gods, so Sword Jesus unto Ssael - he's sold out, maaaan. It USED to be about the music. Which is to say, his "no interference" policy in a flawed world is not helping make said world any better, and actively improving the extant world is what's needed to make people want the new world even more. And I cannot wait to see whether I am right or wrong.
Josh
2024-08-03 03:17:51 +0000 UTCMurkoph's a mystery~
Ashley
2024-08-02 20:47:12 +0000 UTCSo is Murkoph another attempt to reach Ssael? The scars on his face made me think of that idea. Only this time they sent him bodily into the khert instead of just his soul?
Nope Noperson
2024-08-02 20:36:10 +0000 UTCDuane is so fucking boss. I am swoont
Todd Tarsi
2024-08-02 19:49:10 +0000 UTCELEVEN PAGES!!
Todd Tarsi
2024-08-02 19:47:57 +0000 UTCAugust 2 is now officially Unsounded day. It's official
Todd Tarsi
2024-08-02 17:00:58 +0000 UTCOH MY GOD. OH MY FUCKING GOD
Todd Tarsi
2024-08-02 17:00:15 +0000 UTCThis update was a masterpiece. A masterpiece within a masterpiece.
School of Night
2024-08-02 16:12:08 +0000 UTCI'll let this mystery remain for now, haha. Lemuel has some interesting theological ideas that he'll explain himself one day :)
Ashley
2024-08-02 16:04:07 +0000 UTCThey're name-dropped a little earlier in the chapter.
Ashley
2024-08-02 16:02:52 +0000 UTCFrom Lem's POV, Duane was far too important and talented for his people to throw away. I mean, Duane's one of the greatest wrights in the world, why would you destroy that? It has never, even now, made sense to him. Lem doesn't think he's as special as Duane but he doesn't think he's a super loser either. He's proud of his accomplishments. And he was confident he could find Ssael. He put his trust in the wrong people though, and for that, he can never forgive himself. He can't really forgive Duane for dying, either, as crazy as that sounds. The only thing that makes sense is they must have both deserved this for not knowing their place. Anyway, we got a lot more of Lemuel in the next series, he remains a pretty important character.
Ashley
2024-08-02 16:01:34 +0000 UTCDefinitely do a reread because Lemuel essentially answers all these questions during the scenes we see of him and dead Duane. Seeing Duane insane and rotting in front of his eyes, he did quickly become very glad that he lost out on his "glory." And these feelings did nothing good for his guilt.
Ashley
2024-08-02 15:56:46 +0000 UTCHe'd need to figure out how such a figure would be useful to them, but he certainly would have preferred working with Cresce. Bastion doesn't like his homeland much, it's full of zealots like the Adeliers.
Ashley
2024-08-02 15:54:17 +0000 UTCI had no freaking clue. This is heartbreaking.
czytanie
2024-08-02 14:38:09 +0000 UTCI'm glad my predictions were right that the khert walking and the such were intended all along and no accidental funky side effects of "making an immortal". But I indeed didn't see it coming that Lem thought he was the one to whom it would happen, since it was made clear so long ago it needed a Tacit caster to work. Of course, Bastion knew that. We readers know that. Lem didn't know that. Someone got played for a fool. :( I teared up on the last page, very good engame stuff Ashley. <3
CelebrenIthil
2024-08-02 13:39:04 +0000 UTCWhat strikes me is Lemuel coming there for counsel, perhaps intending to tell him something, but when Duane returns to the cope about how he’s never lost a lad, Lemuel changes his mind. Not a one, including Lemuel!
antialiasis
2024-08-02 12:49:28 +0000 UTCYes, this is my main question too. How did you manage to draw and colour so much at once?? I am doing a comic too right now and it consistently takes me two full work days to complete one page!!!
Penny Nicoles
2024-08-02 12:12:26 +0000 UTCah lemuel! ah humanity!
Dr. Badvibes
2024-08-02 12:06:27 +0000 UTCWith that vile Ilganyag's direction I suppose Bastion got cued to only ask the Ssaelit who'd sign off on it, but I wonder what the reception would have been if he'd gone to, like, Bell, or the Queen with a "say, how'd you like a back-from-the-dead guy who's met however many gods you idiots believe in?"
dzefs
2024-08-02 10:08:49 +0000 UTCI did have a feeling that the purpose of killing Duane was to create a sort of 'ssaelit avenger' to use against their enemies, but I didn't twig that Lem intended to be the victim until the start of this scene. That makes so much sense. I wonder how Lem feels now about what he would have actually turned into, had things gone his way. Does he feel he got a lucky escape, is he guilty for what he condemned his brother to, upset that he never escaped from his brother's shadow? does he agree he couldn't have lived the life Duane has lived all these years as a walking abomination? I think I'm gonna do another re-read of the whole series once this chapter is over, since it's been a few years since I last read the whole thing from the start, and I'm excited to see what I pick up this time in light of what we now know!
gigi
2024-08-02 09:40:55 +0000 UTCI have to reread the entire comic now. Best reveal ever! Like a magic show. Now that you've shown it it all makes sense, but I never would have guessed.
Rion Boom Crabhands Keon
2024-08-02 08:10:46 +0000 UTCI think the main reason I didn't catch up before "glory" is that I didn't expect Lem could both be in on it and not know the actual truth, especially since it's so obvious from outside who's the juicy target for martyrdom between the two. I guess in his jadedness Lem successfully pretends to be smarter than he actually is from audience's PoV lmao.
Flyfly
2024-08-02 06:45:41 +0000 UTCSeems everyone but Lemuel knew they were targeting Duane...
Rifter
2024-08-02 06:20:00 +0000 UTCAs far as can be guessed, Bastion's method needed a tacit caster, and we know Lem isn't tacit. Unsure whether Bastion would know, but I think he probably could light up Lem's ports like Duane did to Sette and see he doesn't have a neck port
Capsandnumbers
2024-08-02 06:17:45 +0000 UTCWhat an incredible update, I think you're an amazing author
Capsandnumbers
2024-08-02 06:15:49 +0000 UTCOhhhh I see, I completely misunderstood. When you mentioned the next book having a different name briefly confused me. I get it now. Onward to see how the rest of the group fairs!
Rifter
2024-08-02 06:03:38 +0000 UTC...maybe I should phone my brother up once in a while.
Ross Hopkins
2024-08-02 05:39:53 +0000 UTCI have only five words.
The Clag
2024-08-02 05:35:06 +0000 UTCUgh goddammit this comic js so good
Sara McCardle-Blunk
2024-08-02 05:22:47 +0000 UTCOh my god ash this is..... amazing. So, so fitting, and yet not what I was expecting. Thank you.
Inwoods
2024-08-02 05:20:37 +0000 UTCOh hey, is this the first in-comic mention of the Tannery, that nebulous organization that started this whole wonderful thing back when it was a theoretical novel?
Josh
2024-08-02 05:12:39 +0000 UTC@Spider - I think Bastion only says that he could never resist working with "rare materials" and Duane counts as such as a tacit caster. So, unless I'm missing something or it hasn't been revealed, I don't think it NEEDED to be a tacit caster (of which I think there's only a few alive at any given moment) - I think Bastion was just geeking out about the crazy shit a tacit caster who was also freed from certain alive-guy constraints could do. (And we've seen that he was right, as even Elka was geeking out about the crazy DM's girlfriend shit Duane can do at Litriya.)
Josh
2024-08-02 05:09:29 +0000 UTCSweet monkey gods, wow. Glorious shit-ton of pages. And revelations. I never do pick up on stuff till it starts to get obvious, so count me as one of those that only cottoned on at "denied glory," but I never did think that Lemuel would have actually sold Duane out. For one thing, if he had, why would he caution Duane against pissing off politicians in Chapter 7? If he'd considered Duane's assassination zombie vacation a done deal at the point? For another, Lem's whole deal is doing sickeningly heartless atrocities... FOR the benefit of his family (and the Soud and/or Ssaelit.) He is a fucking bastard, but he's not just a pointlessly ambitious, cutthroat bastard. So, yeah, I was never gonna pick up on this, but it is blowing my mind that Bastion let Lemuel think he could set up the Ssaelit (by pulling a Sword Jesus) while Lemuel thought he was setting up Bastion by using that same trick to instead GO KILL GOD like the JRPG protagonist he is, but Bastion was setting him up so he could get to Duane, the real target. The only thing that I'm now hung up on is whether Lem intended to kill Ssael and then play Ssaelit Jesus anyway (guessing yes, cuz then he gets to help the people he cares about, even if he's soured on the religion.) Ha, damn. Christian apocrypha already has the Harrowing of Hell, where Jesus supposedly set the pre-Christian "virtuous pagans" free in the time between death and resurrection. It's sort of cracking me up to imagine that if everything had gone how Lem thought, it'd be "instead of the Harrowing of Hell, Jesus uses his time in Afterlifelandia to kill God and then return to lead his people in glorious civil war."
Josh
2024-08-02 05:03:52 +0000 UTCthese pages made me tear up Ashley. God damn. what a reveal.
metrocube
2024-08-02 04:56:39 +0000 UTCWell, the assassin points out that Lemuel is not a wright, and the assassin was called in specifically tonight to kill a wright. So that does sound... sus. Guess we'll have to see.
Ashley
2024-08-02 04:42:49 +0000 UTCDid they really get the wrong Adelier or did they know all along that they were going to target Duane instead of Lemuel?
astine
2024-08-02 04:40:56 +0000 UTCOh...this might be one of the best reveals in a work I've seen
Kaleb Galvin
2024-08-02 04:34:51 +0000 UTCWhooo WEEEE I badly want to smack their two heads together and tell them to talk to one another honestly in that tea shop, but honesty wasn't on the table then.
Fitzy
2024-08-02 03:54:29 +0000 UTCYeahhhh. Bastion's easy enough to explain - he was still very much working to Sessine's orders at the time of Duane's creation, and I imagine Duane suits her purposes far better than Lemuel the godslaying martyr - and then Argenti Sr may like the broad strokes of the plan, but why not kill a more irritating bird with this stone... etc etc. Poor Lemmy. It's literally never about him. Except to Duane 😭
CD
2024-08-02 03:44:40 +0000 UTCaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH
Nikaleles
2024-08-02 03:38:26 +0000 UTCAh, excellent point there. I believe either Bastion or someone else does mention that the victim NEEDS to be a tacit caster, and the Tanner was specifically brought in because the target was a wright, yet the rest of the gang was openly surprised and pissed that they were blindsided by this very important information. So clearly Bastion and the Tanner intended to hit Duane all along, but I wonder who else in the conspiracy had that knowledge, because Argenti Sr is not the biggest Duane fanboy himself...
Spider
2024-08-02 03:37:33 +0000 UTCI have a feeling that hasn’t gotten any better since Duane’s death.
Madison
2024-08-02 03:34:55 +0000 UTCI'm also in the "didn't ever suspect they got the wrong Adelier" camp, even seeing how glaringly obvious Lemuel's tells were in retrospect. I owe the boy a formal apology for suspecting he ever intended to kill Duane, and that Mikaila was the accidental victim. That last page is so powerful though. It's all at once Duane realizing his own resilience in the face of a fate that quite frankly is peak body AND religious horror, and also his simultaneous forgiveness and protectiveness of his brother.
Spider
2024-08-02 03:34:37 +0000 UTCFucking legendary. Per the usual.
Rifter
2024-08-02 03:29:39 +0000 UTCWe're in the last chapter of Unsounded right now. This is it. We need to see how Sette is going to handle Lady Ilganyag, how Toma rescues Chea, and if Quigley is able to save Matty. Maybe Duane will go help, or maybe he will decide to stay here in the dark with the dead. But there will be a sequel series after this chapter. Some of the characters will come back, some will not :)
Ashley
2024-08-02 03:23:44 +0000 UTCWeirdly enough, what actually finally made me catch on was rereading Chapter 7 for the millionth time in a desperate attempt to unearth Lem's Deal, and coming upon what I THOUGHT was his innocuous "'Tis glorious to die in the service of Ssael" line @ Will. It was like a lightbulb went off in my head. Many a truth said in jest, as they say~ Well, anyway, true to your word, Chapter 7 will never be the same for me again~~~
Cassie
2024-08-02 03:23:21 +0000 UTC[stage whisper] NOW TURN INTO A LION.
CD
2024-08-02 03:22:05 +0000 UTC🤯 So if I'm understanding, the rest of Unsounded will focus on a new cast, but there's another book after that to tie the whole story together and possibly give us some closure for our beloved characters?
Rifter
2024-08-02 03:18:41 +0000 UTCPiss, gold, paint; Lemuel feels like a vandalized thing, like a hated thing, like a THING.
Ashley
2024-08-02 03:15:48 +0000 UTCIf it's any consolation, I have felt so foolish for only clicking when Lem mentioned glory, because it really is all there! But, deepest irony, we follow Duane closest and fall into his own trap: god's specialest boy, the obvious, prime, surely intended target. (And I'm glad to see the tanner point out he's a wright killing specialist - that's long been part of why it all 'made sense'. Alas, conspiracies on conspiracies.) Anyway, BREATHLESS closing of the ouroboros. I'm so upset for everyone.
CD
2024-08-02 03:14:32 +0000 UTCI think the next book will have a different name. For now, in our current book Unsounded, we're done with Lemuel and Leysa and Mikaila and Rector Duane Adelier. Sette's friend needs to find someone new to be, because that old Duane Adelier died in the snow, and isn't coming back.
Ashley
2024-08-02 03:13:53 +0000 UTCWe're Done? As in no Duane in book 2?!
Rifter
2024-08-02 03:10:30 +0000 UTCThere's so much here and it's so wonderful, so wonderful. Oh Lemuel- I have a feeling HE was the one lied to, especially to keep him out of the way so Duane could be collapsed upon without his wild murder man brother saving his life and fucking up the plod-making. Well, Mikaila did that instead, do get fucked Bastion. Also-- is that piss or gold Lemuel is bleeding there. Or both. :) Also also, love the hollow child callbacks here- we understand how much Lemuel has to cut himself off from shit. How he sees and feels. Ugh. Damn. Just damn.
Madison
2024-08-02 03:09:25 +0000 UTCNot as I predicted! However my judgement of Lemuel was correct, he could not bear to kill his brother. It's tragic how much they've harmed each other from their love.
Stretch Andrews
2024-08-02 03:07:11 +0000 UTCHoly shit, a riotous cornucopia of sound and fury, and at the bottom of it all. . .a tragic error. I still hate Lem, but I see the cracks in his soul now. Pages 8 and 9 are absolute, 100% genius. Such terrible beauty you have given us.
StLOrca
2024-08-02 03:03:04 +0000 UTCTEN PAGES??
PantheraTigeris
2024-08-02 03:02:17 +0000 UTCA FEAST-- "for my brother I'd die twice." What a line!
JarJar
2024-08-02 02:54:11 +0000 UTCOh my lord, you spoil us.
Jeremy Ball
2024-08-02 02:51:06 +0000 UTC
