Slightly Damned

From Comixpedia

Slightly Damned
Creator(s)	Sarah "Chu" Ellyn W.
Website(s)	http://www.sdamned.com/
Update Schedule	Updating every Saturday
Launch Date	2004 March
Genre	Fantasy
Rating(s)	T

Slightly Damned is a webcomic created and written by Sarah “Chu” Ellyn W. The story follows the adventures of Rhea Snaketail (a Jakkai), Buwaro (a fire demon), Kieri Suizahn (an angel), and Thadius (Buwaro’s “pet” rock).

The strip is set in the fictional world of Medius, populated by the Jakkai race and humans. It begins as Rhea meets Death, who informs her that she is dead. Judging her to be neither worthy enough for Heaven, nor evil enough for Hell, Death places her under the trust of Buwaro in the Ring of the Slightly Damned – a sort of limbo. Hence the comic’s name.

[edit] Main characters

Rhea Snaketail - is the main protagonist of the comic and a member of the Jakkai race. Rhea was murdered by an unknown assailant, and because she was agnostic, unlike many others of her race, she was placed in the Ring of the Slightly Damned, a place of limbo for those unworthy of Heaven or Hell. Rhea exudes sarcasm and dry wit, which makes her somewhat of a difficult person to get along with.

Her demon supervisor, Buwaro, causes her much grief with his innocence and naïveté, and Rhea frequently comments how she wishes to kill him. Their relationship can be described as a love-hate one, though she would be loathing to admit any feelings for him. When she met Kieri, Rhea first wanted to eat her, as Kieri was in the form of a snow rabbit. Since Kieri has assumed human form, Rhea has expressed reservations about her.

Buwaro - is the simple minded foil to Rhea. Having spent most of his life alone in the Ring of the Slightly Damned, his personality is that of an eternal child. He has formed a bond with Thadius, and plays “catch” with her. Ironically, there is no catching involved in this game, as every time Buwaro tosses a rock upwards, it ends up landing on his skull. He wears a star-shaped pendant that keeps him from becoming his true, berserk self, and a sun pendant he received from his late sister, Sakido.

His relationships with anything, and everything, involves unconditional love for his new friends, be it human, demon, or Jakkai. This turned out to be difficult with Kieri, as demons and angels are traditional enemies. It also led to some friction between himself and his sister.

Kieri Suizahn - is the final addition to the trio. First encountered as a snow bunny – she was named Snowy because of this – with odd bracelets and a collar, she morphed into a human during the night. This led to a rather odd confrontation with Rhea, as a frightened and confused "Snowy" tried to use a steak knife against her in self-defense.

At first deathly afraid of Buwaro, Kieri warmed up to him after learning he was not like other demons. There were two demons after Kieri however, and they confirmed her true identity to a skeptical Rhea.

Thadius - Buwaro's pet rock. Apparently a female according to him, Thadius' role in the relationship is to crash down upon his head. Rhea’s outlook on Thadius is that of disgust. Thadius is an apparently popular character, and also the target of comical fan-art.

[edit] Supporting Characters

Death - The third god of Medius, Death’s duty is to guide souls to their proper location after death be it Heaven, Hell, his personal domain of Purgatory or the rarely used Ring of the Slightly Damned. He is also the creator of Drazil who guards Heaven and the 3-headed hound Cerberus who guards Hell – though the later may be beyond his control. Though somewhat frightening, he is a gentle being.

Sakido - The late, older sister of Buwaro, she was a powerful wind demon of Hell. She forsook her place in Hell however and moved to the Ring of the Slightly Damned as she felt she owed it to Buwaro. Having done many unmentionable things in Hell, she found it difficult to befriend Buwaro who had little knowledge of evil.

Quiet and reclusive, she grew bonsai and wrote (bad) poetry. Though guarded over Rhea’s arrival, she warmed up to her and eventually rescued Rhea and Buwaro from the Ring at the cost of her own life. She gave her sun pendant to Buwaro

Iratu - The older brother of Buwaro, Iratu is a vast earth demon who is drunk much of the time. He visited Buwaro occasionally in the Ring and on his last visit confided to Sakido of a piece of paper that would lead him to “bigger and better places." He had it stolen by Rhea and Buwario who ventured into Hell and took it from him as he slept.

Lazuli and Talus - The pair of demons sent to capture Kieri, Lazuli is a water demon whilst Talus is an earth demon. Not much more is known about them save the first time Lazuli and Kieri fought, she had the upper hand. Lazuli is later shown to be still alive, and is currently after revenge.

Jake "J" Thorndyke - Rhea's childhood human friend, Rhea calls him by his nickname, "J", while he calls Rhea by her nickname, "Snake". He currently works at a used clothing store in Farun, and was the one who sold Buwaro's pimp suit to Rhea. J agreed to be Rhea's pen pal while she traveled around Fragaria with Buwaro and Kieri and warned her about a demon sighting in his last letter to her.

Kazai Suizahn - Kieri's brother, who is traveling with a friend named Sanjulo. The three are currently trying to find him.

Heathcliff "Cliff" Sinclair - Heathcliff Sinclair is a traveler who makes his living as a peddler. Due to his travels, Heathcliff is very knowledgeable. He does not fall for Kieri and Buwaro's "disguises", and currently does not trust Buwaro for being a demon. Despite his grumpiness, he is really a good guy.

Samantha "Sammy" Kailum - Samantha is the niece of Heathcliff Sinclair. She travels around the world with her aunt and uncle and learned how to speak to faires from the a friend of the family and fairy, Duster. She meets the trio after being stopped trying to free a fairy.

Miranda Sinclair - Samantha's aunt and wife of Cliff and currently pregnant with his child. She invites the trio to join them on the way to St. Curtis.

Duster - Duster is a fairy who looks like a moth. He is a friend of the Sinclair family and travels with them, and taught Sammy how to speak to fairies.

Darius Elexion - Darius is an earth Angel who was stranded in Hell during the Great War roughly 15 years prior to the comic. While there, he became the foster father of the orphaned Iratu, Sakido, and Buwaro in the Ring of the Slightly Damned. He was blinded in one of his eyes in an attempt to cure Buwaro of his berserk nature. Darius modified his angelic pendants for the use of his adopted children, which allowed Buwaro to maintain control. His current whereabouts are unknown.

[edit] Plot

Rhea, a Jakkai, is murdered by an unknown figure. Upon arriving in the realm of the afterlife, Death proceeds to judge her life based on her actions. While her bad deeds outweigh her good deeds, barring her from Heaven, she is not evil enough to qualify for Hell proper. Instead, she is sentenced to the Ring of the Slightly Damned. There, the demon Buwaro is assigned to torment Rhea for all eternity. However, Buwaro is far from anything like a normal demon, and is instead more interested in becoming friends with Rhea, although she tends to view the relationship with some exasperation. They have a few adventures, such as stealing a note from Buwaro's brother, Iratu, and when Rhea is accidentally killed by Buwaro when she jokingly stole his star pendant and caused him to revert into his naturally berserk state. Buwaro's sister, Sakido, barely manages to subdue Buwaro by defeating him and placing the pendant back around his neck. When strange things begin happening in hell, Rhea and Buwaro manage to escape from the Ring of the Slightly Damned with the help of Sakido. Unfortunately, during the escape, Sakido loses her life to a mysterious archer, who shoots her with a holy arrow.

Having successfully escaped from hell themselves, Rhea and Buwaro find themselves in the cemetery of Rhea's homeland. Rhea buries Sakido in her old grave, after which they make their way to Rhea's abandoned house. Rhea decides that they ought to lay low, as the living would not expect to see a demon and a dead Jakkai walking around. On the way to the house, Buwaro finds a snow bunny and names her "Snowy." They discover later that this snow bunny can transform into a human-looking girl with blue hair. She seems to be mute and unable to explain who or what she really is. She is terrified of Buwaro at first (which Rhea finds hilarious), but after Rhea explains that Buwaro is not fierce, and Buwaro's kindly apologizes for scaring her, the blue-haired girl begins to rethink things.

Thinking that "Snowy" is human, Rhea decides to trek to the human village and let her return to her home. However, two demons who apparently know "Snowy," find and reveal her to be an angel. The trio must run for their lives as the demons pursue, intent on killing all three. Lazuli, one of the two demons chasing them, frees Kieri from her bonds by accidentally saying her full name. Able to once again use her powers, she battles with the demons for her life, and the lives of her new found friends. With Rhea and Buwaro's help, she eventually defeats the demons.

When Rhea, exasperated, asks what Kieri is, Kieri explains that she is an angel who was sucked into a "strange portal" and deposited into the living world, along with her brother, Kazai, his friend, Sanjulo, and another spirit from Heaven. The group arrived at the grave of the spirit that accompanied them.

Kieri also explains that she occasionally turns into a snow bunny due to a curse from Toski, one of the Twelve Guardians of Medius--godlike figures who inhabit the living world.

Following the fight with the demons, the trio makes their way to the human town of Farun, a western city in the nation of Fragaria. Rhea has Buwaro hide in the woods on the outskirts of the city while she finds that will hide his identity as a demon. On the way, Kieri leaves Rhea to head to the inn where she and her brother, Kazai, were staying.

Rhea finds some clothing for Buwaro, which, amusingly, gives him the appearance of a pimp. Rhea and Buwaro head into town and stay the night at the inn where Kieri is staying. They discover that Kieri's brother is missing.

The following morning, Kieri visits Rhea and Buwaro with breakfast. As the three talk, Kieri tells Rhea and Buwaro that she was ambushed by Lazuli and Talus, the two demons from the fight earlier, when she was separated from her two companions, who were following a fire demon.

Buwaro makes the suggestion to help Kieri find her brother Kazai and his friend Sanjulo, and after some discussion the decision comes down to a coin toss. Even though the coin toss result means they would not help Kieri, Rhea fibs the results and tells Kieri that they will help her find her brother. The trio leave and head east for Riverside City.

Along the way to Riverside, they stay at an abandoned rest stop, and later after continuing on are ambushed by two inept bandits. After being defeated by the trio and frozen by Kieri, the three friends leave the bandits and continue until they reach Riverside.

After staying at a inn, Kieri is talked into reading a bit from the book Buwaro had with him for as far back as he can remember. They find out it's the diary of a angel named Darius Elexion, a artisan who can craft angelic pendants who writes that he fears he will be forced battle soon. The three stop reading there and go to sleep to continue the search in the morning.

While finding no clues to Kieri's missing brother, Rhea sees two kids playing on thin ice over a lake. After warning the kids to stop, one of them falls in and Rhea jumps in after him reminded of a traumatic moment in her past when one of her friends drowned, too late realizing she might be in over her head. Rhea wakes up later finding out the kid is okay and that Rhea was pulled out by Buwaro and Kieri. Rhea is bedridden for a few days from being in the cold water, so Buwaro and Kieri join the trouble center to get money for Rhea's medicine and to maybe find Kieri's brother. On one of the nights, Kieri is talked into reading Darius's diary more, and they find out that he was drafted to fight in The Great War and sent away to join the fight in Medius around 20 years ago.

After Buwaro and Kieri help a elderly lady for the trouble center, she comments that she saw two people dressed like Kieri, and that they were headed to either St. Curtis or Wyville. On the way back to tell Rhea the news of the clue they received, they bumped into a man (whom is later named Heathcliff "Cliff" Sinclair) whom seemed agitated. After Buwaro greeted him trying to ask him if he needed help, the man became frightened and warned the demon that he knew some powerful magic, but leaves confused about why would a angel protect a demon when Kieri defends Buwaro.

Shortly afterwords they stop a would be thief, only to find out the little girl named Samantha "Sammy" Kailum was only trying to free a fairy from the shop owner who illegally sells them on the black market. The two go back to Rhea, whom was feeling better, and ask her to help them free the fairy to redeem themselves for their blunder. Rhea tries to use the money they have and a few items to barter for the captured fairy, but in the end has to knock out the shopkeeper and steal the fairy herself. They free the fairy and find out she was the sister of another fairy that Sammy had hidden under her cap. The three meet Sammy's aunt Miranda, another fairy and family friend called Duster, and find out the man they bumped into earlier was Sammy's uncle. Despite Cliff's protests, they agree to help the three on their journey to St. Curtis.

Along the way Rhea gets a response to a letter she sent to her friend J while she was sick before they leave town, and finds out from her friend that a monster that sounds like Lazuli is searching for them. We find out that around this time Lazuli, whom is still alive, meets up with the bandits whom ambushed the trio earlier, and kills them for getting in the way. She vows she will not rest until she gets revenge on Kieri for injuring her and killing her companion.

While traveling on the way to St. Curtis on Sinclair's wagon, Kieri begins reading more of Darius's journal on the way. She learns that after a bloody battle, Darius is forced to join other angels in a assault on hell, but on the way is knocked out. When he awakens, he finds himself in the ring of the slightly damned. He writes that one day he found a new friend, Iratu, when Iratu was just a young demon. Despite a awkward meeting, the two become friends in a abandoned and desolate environment.

They eventually run into a young Sakido, whose parents were just killed in a battle with angels. Darius buried the bodies lying on the battlefield, and offered to let Sakido join Iratu and himself. Over time he came to view the two as his "adopted" children.

Kieri reads from Darius's diary that during a game of hide and seek with the children, they run into the egg of a demon. They are soon attacked by the father of the demon, and Darius comes to their defense. They learn that the father and the egg were injured by angels, and that the mother was dead. While the demon is dying, Darius makes a promise too look after the demon if he manages to hatch, and promises him that his son will live. As he dies he mentions the name of his son, Buwaro.

However when Buwaro finally hatched, due to the damage that was done to his egg, he was born in a berserk state. Darius manages to subdue him by using a sleeping spell, which keeps him alive and out of the berserk state. While he was keeping his promise to Buwaro's father, Darius felt guilty that Buwaro had to be kept asleep due to his berserk state. To see if maybe Buwaro was better, he used his magic to wake Buwaro. Buwaro immediately goes berserk, and blinds Darius in one of his eyes. Iratu and berserk Buwaro fight, leaving a wounded and half blind Darius to cast a spell to put everyone to sleep. When Darius wakes up, he heals Buwaro and Iratu's wounds and covers his eye to hide the scar. He decides for now he needs to keep Buwaro in a sleeping state.

Kieri, shocked to learn about Buwaro's state, reads on to see what changed him from the way he was then to how he acted now. In one entry, Darius writes that Sakido wished for wings like Darius since her's were injured from the time he met her. She begged him to let her try on his sun pendant which is what gave him his wings, but he declined since the pendant was for angels only and would hurt her. This got him to wonder though, what if pendants would work for demons if they were no longer blessed by the holy magic that protected them from being touched by demons. His suspicions proved correct, when he removed the holy spell from the sun pendant and gave it to Sakido, whose wings were recovered by the pendant. If the sun pendant helped Sakido regain the ability to fly, Darius came up with the idea that maybe the star pendant could help Buwaro control his berserk nature. He was correct when the pendant allowed Buwaro to be awake without going berserk, and Kieri stops reading the diary there. She leaves the wagon to confront her two friends about the truth of Buwaro going berserk without his pendant.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Slightly Damned

[edit] Credit