My Hero!

Here we meet the Guardians to our recently introduces Champions. I’m sure they’ll be fine as well. Nothing bad ever befalls Guardians, after all.

Speaking of befalling. It’s time for another installment of…

Hasera and Lark Review:

Aether Eternius

Lark
So, I’m kind of confused about this one. There’re these creatures called ‘Elementals’ all throughout the comics, but they’re kind of hard to figure out if they’re chicks or guys. I’m just gonna go with my gut on this one. If I get it wrong, maybe they should consider getting a hair cut, or, like, trail trimming or something of their head.

I know some people like being rail thin with long hair and looking like they should be wearing dresses and playing dress-up and who are no where near as good of a Champion as the muscular, amazing, younger Champion… but that’s a completely random person I’m talking about. I certainly wouldn’t insinuate that anyone with long, girlish, golden hair and who is skinny as a rake with a name like ‘Magnus’ would be terrible at being a Champion or anything.

Right, so, Aether Eternius. It takes place on a plane that looks like Vethu would have a field day within its confines. With lakes of air and houses floating and stuff. Maybe they’re all cursed, I’m not sure. It sounds like when some people pass, they become Elementals, so maybe this is Vethu’s latest fancy. Dunno. It follows one of the ‘elements’, this one called a ‘null’ elemental – whatever that is, might be like the Void, but I’m not sure if ‘nothing’ counts as something. That’s for those brainiacs in the philosophy and legal department of The order, not for me.

Anyhow, this little guy named Makumbo has been remade or something and has been called on by the other Lords of these Elemental types and has to go on some kind of quest to fix things that have gone horribly wrong for so long. Tagging along are a pair of what I can only guess are spiritual siblings for the amount they argue – either that or they’re betrothed or something like that. One’s got pointy ears, like an elf, but no golden skin, and the other seems to be a neutral who has an attitude akin to a certain Champion I know.

Anywho, they meet up with the leader-elemental who has a mouth in their chest – seriously getting Vethu vibes from these things – and the Lord tells Makumbo and his (I think his) friends that they need to help decide the fate of their world. No pressure.

Along the way, Makumbo meets more of these elemental types and while they certainly are strange looking, I’d have to tip my hat, if I had one, to Vethu for its ingenuity in putting these things together. They look great, though I’m not sure how digestion works with three mouths. I can only imagine there are three other holes for thing to come out of.

The artwork is great. Very colourful and the world is rather interesting from the get-go. The first few chapters are a little hard on the eyes due to the size of the font, but that gets fixed later on. Like I was saying, some of these creatures are interesting to look at.

Story-wise, it’s interesting to follow Makumbo and his friends throughout their adventure. There are some well placed tells that give hints at what’s happening in the background, but they’re not used to bludgeon you into noticing them, so it’s a nice, subtle set of visual hints.

Overall, it’s a definite story to read for all of you looking for an adventure about coming into your roles in life – if that involved being an elemental being who is lower to the ground than a dwarf’s knee.

Now then, I need to check out some of these Elementals a bit more to try and figure out which ones would make for good… uh… business partners. Yeah.

Hasera
Dershan’s folly! Is Makumbo ever a cutie! I love that little guy, er, girl, er, thing… Er… Elemental. I just wanna hug hi-er-… Makumo… until Makumbo pops! Right, serious mode. Come on Hass, deep breaths.

Okay. Aether Eternius takes place on a plane, or, actually, multiple planes that seem to be comprised mostly of whatever element is supposed to be living upon it. While I have never met an Elemental, I’d imagine they like being around their own kind of element rather than someone made of fire wandering into the land of waterfalls.

Makumbo, or adorable little hero, gets a request to go and talk to another Lord of the Elementals – these things called Primordials – because Makumbo is the leader of the Null elements… Though I think we’ve only ever seen Makumbo, so maybe Makumbo needs to get stronger so more Null show up or something? This turns into a sprawling quest in which Makumbo has to decide who will lead the fight against a massive, Vethu-inspired nightmare that has taken over one of the planes and is proceeding to eat up everything in its path.

Along the way, a cast of colourful and amazing to look at monsters… people… characters! Are introduced and try to help or hinder the little Null Lord. As we continue to follow the adventure, we see that there’s far more on the line than simply one plane and things seem to be starting to unveil themselves that something is not quite right in the rest of the planes as well!

Overall, Aether Eternius is adorably cute. The style is such that everything, even the monsters, look like they’d be great at giving hugs. Mind you, tentacle hugs are not something that most people would enjoy. Then again… No, that’s just… Ick.

The story is easy to follow and has a lot of heart put into it. While there are some parts that make it a little frustrating, like how certain characters are about to reveal things or get threatened and the scene ends! I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE, ELF! YOUR SECRETS CAN’T BE HIDDEN FROM ME! Ahem. I mean… It’s gripping!

I would highly advise anyone who like adventure and interesting designs to have a look at Aether Eternius. It’s just amazing for your eyes when it comes to the designs of some of these creatures! Er. People! _{Cindrani be damned…} Elementals!