It's genuinely crazy how expressive this art is. I could literally write a fucking essay in how much personality there is in every frame of this comic

I also wanted to ask, since I know Fek shows up in these comments sometimes: how wealthy are Fekkri and Arvie? My understanding is that they've got years of adventuring behind them, plus an adventuring guild and a brothel? And they also seem to be in charge of a library? Are they just, like, the local Rockefellers?

metallosexual said:
[...]

I also wanted to ask, since I know Fek shows up in these comments sometimes: how wealthy are Fekkri and Arvie? My understanding is that they've got years of adventuring behind them, plus an adventuring guild and a brothel? And they also seem to be in charge of a library? Are they just, like, the local Rockefellers?

I believe the short answer would be:

Multiverses/Parallel Dimensions.

Hah, Dad Jokes!

metallosexual said:
how wealthy are Fekkri and Arvie?

Fekkri would be reluctant to admit it, but tremendously.

Even as "just" adventurers, they were rolling around in piles of loot that were essentially fortunes. At any point, they could have retired, bought generous estates, and lived in luxury for the rest of their lives.

After their own personal adventures, once they established the guild, they sat at the pinnacle of one of the most lucrative industries in the nation. They regularly dealt in transaction volumes that outweighed baronies, not just from adventuring commissions, but (mostly) from the sale of magical services and animism for agriculture, husbandry, security, transportation, logistics, and almost every other corner of the economy.

Importantly, however: neither Fekkri nor Arvie has a taste for obscene wealth. Fekkri is downright plutophobic, although he later came to accept that wealth is nothing more than the liquidation of power, and power, like any other tool, is not inherently evil. Meanwhile, Arvie enjoys fine things, but we're talking "live in a nice house with expensive magic pillows," not "suck the local economy dry so I can live like a king." They were especially adamant, when they decided to have kids, that they shouldn't be raised as if they had been born with silver spoons in their mouths (even if, secretly, they totally were), and went out of their way to make sure they experienced life from multiple different financial worldviews.

Ultimately: the guild's wealth is the guild's wealth, and they use it to further the guild's interests. And the guild's interest is the well-being of the populace - public housing, free clinics and hospitals, food kitchens, teleportation services, education, etc.

The only exception to that rule is the bit they not-so-secretly siphon to prop up Spellbound, so they can force unethical, slavery-driven prostitution out of business via predatory pricing.

The real fantasy of Fekkri and Arvie's post-adventuring story is "what if the Rockefellers were chaotic philanthropists?"

fek said:
Fekkri would be reluctant to admit it, but tremendously.

[...]

Thanks! that actually clear up several questions I had about these comics