“Now hold on a second, Alex,” I can hear you saying. “How were we supposed to guess the name of this story from its initials when one of those things stands for a completely made up sea creature with a strange name?”

You got me. That’s a genuine pickle I put you in, and for that I apologize. We had some pretty solid guesses, and a lot of folks definitely figured out the first half, so that certainly made me happy!

So, what exactly IS a “seawal” you ask? That’s a very good question. I could answer it now, but I’ll let you all ruminate on the topic until it’s addressed in the comic. We fiddled a bit with the naming of it, as you can see in the above tiedown of the teaser image, but for some reason “seawol” just made me think of “Sea World” and man, once that’s in your head it’s hard to get it out. So, yes. SEAWAL.

For this story, we wanted to try and explore some of the cultural elements of the world of the Western Deep universe that we wouldn’t really be afforded in the main storyline. This side story is completely separate from the current comic events, and may not even take place in the same general time period! It’s left a bit nebulous.

I really love the style that Jayelle is bringing to the table here, with everything from gruff lutren captain with a bushy mustache to those positively radiant sandals. If there is only one thing that is for certain in this world that we all can agree on, let it be this: this felis Scholar’s got an awesome taste in sandals.

Because the Scholars travel far and wide in search of all knowledge throughout the world, they’re often known to break from the usually strict dress code that you see within the Spire itself. A comfortable pair of foot wrappings or sandals is usually the first thing to appear on their person.

As for other answers… well, you’ll just have to wait until next week! Until then!