State of the Exiern Nation

by on December 7, 2020 at 12:00 am
Chapter:

No new story page today because among other things, the artists need a little more time for the upcoming subsequent pages. Due to that and other upcoming things we have to sort out, there’s only going to be new pages for the main story on this site on the 14th and 21st of December 2020 before we resume with at least weekly updates on the 4th of January 2021.

That’s not to say there won’t be new pages frequently, for this week there’s still new Dark Reflections pages from Monday to Friday here (or here or here!) and there’ll be lots more new material for the holiday season, it just won’t be part of the main storyline and a lot of it won’t be from the main artist as we try to get some production issues sorted out. This page for starters is by regular guest contributor Sean Harrington of Spying With Lana as you may well tell from the style!

Once again, thanks again to Sean for all his help over the years and we’re not going to hold the recent cheating scandal against him where he was seeing another barbarian themed webcomic behind our back! (Seriously, though it looks like another good webcomic worth checking out!)

Anyway, this image was made at my request to preface some big announcements including a very important one from Scott below the line which I’ll follow up with more about what it actually means for Exiern below what Scott has to say. So without further ado, over to Scott!

I didn’t find Exiern at the very beginning, but I did discover it sometimes around 2008, I believe. I loved it so much I got involved with behind-the-scenes support. Then, in 2011, I was offered to write Exiern by Drowemos. Then he offered me Exiern itself.
I wasn’t ready to write Exiern way back then – and some would argue I’m still not 😉 – but I did know this series had something special to it. Exiern had the potential to tell stories I hadn’t seen told before. And I promised I’d do whatever it took to make sure the potential of Drowemos’ plucky comic wouldn’t be snuffed out.  Nearly 10 years later Exern is still here. We’ve seen artists come and go, writers have changed, but Exiern is still here. I am extremely proud of that.
That promise to make sure Exiern keeps going is a double-edged sword. There are huge changes to my life coming, and these will significantly impact my ability to support Exiern in both time and finances. Exiern survived because Drowemos took the time to make sure it was safely passed on to the next person who could shepherd it. And so now I must do the same.
I can’t tell you the first time I interacted with Shan. I know it was through a comment on some Exiern page – which I could look up if I took the time – but, like me, that simple engagement slowly opened a grander involvement. I can tell you right now that without Shan’s help and support Exiern would have crashed long ago. He cares about parts of Exiern’s lore and extended universe that I have not had the ability to properly tend to. I can think of few people more deserving to take over ownership of Exiern. I can think of few people more capable of making sure it thrives.
After the contracts are signed and Shan officially takes over Exiern on January 1st, 2021, you can rest easy that I am not going anywhere soon (or certainly grouse about it if you don’t like where things have gone. 😉 😛 ). Writing Exiern is still something I take great satisfaction and care in. I look forward to doing it for as long as Shan will have me. It is something I will always take the time to do.
And I hope to share these adventures with all of you for years to come under Shan’s capable guidance.
Thank you for reading.
~STH

Scott, this was the first page of Exiern I ever saw here and the first page I ever commented on (complete with Scott’s replies to my comments) was the next page here. From first discovering Exiern, it sounds like in a similar way to Scott offering to help Drowemos out, I started to offer to help out and over time I was doing more and more behind the scenes until we got to where we are with this announcement today.

Yes it’s true, I discovered Exiern through The Bad Webcomics Wiki (I still remember thinking the art seemed awfully good and wondering what was up with the webcomic to earn it an entry) and it’s also true that I wrote and then rewrote the entry for Exiern there since then (it’s due yet another rewrite given all the changes since then). Funny how life can be now I’m going to be in charge of Exiern given how I found it in the first place.

So about what my now being in charge of Exiern all means, we’ll be going into this in greater detail over the coming weeks but putting it in simple terms – not as much as that might sound (fortunately for everyone!) as I’ll go on to explain.

As Exiern runs at a deficit it means that I’ll be responsible for the financial shortfall each month. Scott being Scott, even though he has plans for the future of Exiern right up to the very end of the adventure he has in mind, as I’m taking over the financial side of things in their entirety Scott offered to let me take the story in any direction I liked regardless of what he had planned from here.

Now me being me, I’m still more than happy for Scott to keep doing exactly what he’s doing for the foreseeable future. I’m at least vaguely aware of my limitations and I already have a version of Dark Reflections to wreck (Chaos is probably a very apt name for it and even more so as we go along!). Scott will still be doing a lot with Exiern for a while at least yet and not just with the writing.

So from the story point of view (for better or worse!) no changes are planned for the whole story Scott had in mind to tell and has been laying the foundations for for some time now. From the logistical point of view, I’ll be bringing up all the ways I hope to keep Exiern running to help make that happen and possible ways everyone can help if they want.

One way is simply leaving comments about the story. What’s happened on the current page, comments on things that have happened so far and things you’d all like to see addressed in future. Also any questions or other things you all want to bring up. It was very encouraging to see the number and quality of comments on last week’s page (I can’t possibly comment on myself so I’m leaving myself out of that!). That alone is a great help for us and something we really like to see as it really helps us with the making of Exiern.

Anyway, there will be a new story page for next week on the 14th of December 2020 and we’re looking to get things back to not just weekly but more than that as soon as possible. As always, there’s also new Dark Reflections pages every week for two different timelines (so at least two new pages every week!) and we’ve also been working on additional bonuses for the Patreon for a while now as you might have seen recently. We’ll also try to keep you all updated regularly on what’s happening with the production of Exiern and why things are they way they are at any given moment.

All in all, we hope to see you all for the rest of this month and next year as well! Thank you everyone for everything and we will be speaking to you all again soon about what the future holds!