This week we get a bit of history into Quinlan’s predecessor as Captain of the Royal Guard – his own grandfather, Caldus! Caldus was the product of a more barbaric era, when the remnants of the great wars that created the Four Kingdoms were still threatening the peaceful folk of the land. Back then, if you weren’t a warrior, you were a coward, and the unfortunate multi-generational gap that separated him from his grandson resulted in more than their fair share of fights.

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The original version of this page was, as many prior ones, a bit too wordy. The layout, while generally better than the old-old version of the page, still felt a bit static. The extreme close-up of Quinlan wasn’t really doing it for us, along with the subsequent close-up of an old, grizzled Caldus in the panel below. The panel of Quinlan watching the other Tamian also didn’t necessarily sit right because Quinlan is actually meant to be pretty good with a bow and arrow, so his passive observation wouldn’t gel too well with future events in the comic. In the end, this whole sequence was taken back to the proverbial (and actual) drawing board, starting with the design for Quinlan’s grandfather.

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Originally, Caldus was a grizzled war veteran who looked… well, mean. He was admittedly a bit one-note, but because Rachel had the brilliant idea of showing Caldus in his prime, as well as when he was a bit older and acting as Quinlan’s guardian, we got a chance to see a few more sides of him aside from “disappointed patriarch”. Caldus was by all accounts the ideal Tamian warrior – fearless, acrobatic, deadly up close and at a distance – when there were no more wars to fight, he would go home disappointed. When Quinlan showed little interest in getting gutted on the front lines for honor and glory, Caldus – who risked that and more in countless battles over his lifetime – was bound to take offense.

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Now, you may be asking yourself where Quinlan’s parents are throughout all this. That is another story for another time!

No fanart this week, but in lieu of that, I figured I would show the cover to the old pitch from 2010. Quinlan here is hanging on a branch at the edge of the forest, looking out onto a very early version of a Canid garrison. The piece was meant to instill a sense of scope and scale of journeys to come – perhaps we will revisit the concept in the future with our new chapter teaser images? Hm, ideas ideas – always ideas! Anyway, enjoy!

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