As suggested by the brilliant Ryani, this thread exists to:

1. Fill out the world wherein the comic is set with supplemental information.
2. Give an outlet for discussion without spoiling the plot. (Hopefully. I'll try and warn before any spoilers, but tread with care!)
3. Provide more information for the Vampire Attributes, etc. topic! Which is the best topic ever...

Due to the atrociously slow pace of a page-a-week comic, exposition has two options: crawl at a snail's pace, or slam down in giant text boxes that are big enough to squash Galactus underfoot. Not being a fan of any text large enough to squash a planet-devourer, I opted for the more natural pace that, when presented in such small installments, takes forever to get any substantial information out there. So to hopefully alleviate this somewhat, and to provide all you awesome folk that utilize this forum with extra goodies, there is now a thread specifically devoted to answering and expounding on any and all details about Dark Welkin and its world.

That said, two words of warning. One: Any information given herein is only canon unless and until the comic contradicts it. Since I'll be giving away information before the script has specifically reached it, it is unlikely but entirely possible that for story reasons I might want/need to change some of the ideas and details that I had when originally planning the comic and its world. That's just an organic outcome of writing. If these were being professionally published, I'd probably just keep my trap shut (like the brilliant Karen Traviss suggests) but since this is for fun...I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to babble away and then retract later. Right? Right.
So don't freak if I say something here like "all angels have blue eyes" and the next update shows an angel with green ones. That means that the blue eyed thing is no longer valid. (And, by the way? Not all angels have blue eyes. Just wanted to find a ridiculous example.)

Two: There very well may be spoilers beneath this. I'll of course try not to do anything stupid like "oh the answer to that question's gonna be obvious next update because Mandy uses a special magic power that kills Vince!" or something. But if you don't want to risk learning things that might impact future updates? Stop reading now! Stick to the other threads, wherein I have vowed to sit much more firmly upon my hands and keep all spoilers to myself. Don't want to risk upsetting the Spoiler Police Commitee (formerly known as the KYSMSWASSYOBSYD), after all...

So let's head off the edge of the map, shall we, and venture into the uncharted waters of ambiguously cannon brimming with the fins of spoiler sharks! Keep your fangs and cutlasses handy, kids...


*WILL BE IMPORTING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FROM THE OLD FORUM OVER HERE SHORTLY!*

Ryani Asked - 12 Jun 2008:


Answer Posted 13 Jun 2008: In reverse order because that leaves the most complicated one for last... Mandy is currently fourteen, and because I dunno when or even if I'll get around to telling her "origin" story, I'll tell you now that she met the others two years ago, and refused to go away. They eventually got tired to trying to make her, gave up, and let her hang around. She now spends so much time there that she (well, first she made them get a TV, which has been both good and bad for them) brought her video game system over to their place. Although this could be because it's just so much more fun watching supernatural bad asses getting their butts handed to them by pixellated avatars than playing at her place. And Vince doesn't just break outta the ties because that would also break the rules of their game. Or because the others are standing just off-screen ready to shove him back into the tea party because they think it's funny. One of those options.

As for the canonveracity of vote rewards...not specifically. But that doesn't mean they necessarily aren't. The RedShirts? Not so much. The layout of their home? Absolutely. Vince's Valentine's Day present? I'm so not going there. The tea party? Oh, you so know that happened...or at least, it could happen, absolutely. Dan's hat? Why, of course not...although those DW folk certainly do have a lot of interesting hats around their place, don't they? Ummhmm...

Now, the complicated one: vampiric origins. Turning someone into a vampire is actually extremely risky. The exchange of blood has to be just right, and it varies depending on the individuals involved. There’s a bunch of wiggle-room, of course, it’s not like you need to measure it with a teaspoon or anything…but it’s definitely easy to drink too much, or too little, or… There’s, say, a roughly fifty-fifty chance of the person you try and turn actually becoming a vampire. So it’s not exactly something you do for a lark, or because you happen to like someone who’s mortal, because it’s really easy to kill them, especially if you’re inexperienced at making vampires. The odds are better if you’re practiced and can trust your instincts more.

As for the actual physical how to...Well, I'm still a bit torn, there. I think I want it to only work when the blood is drained through the neck, but I'm not 100% committed to that idea yet. Especially because I haven't come up with a logical why would it only work through the neck that I really like, yet. And I have two potential characters that might show up later, one of whom I'd want the vampiric creation process to work one way, one the other. So I have to also decide which one of those characters and backstories I like better. We'll see. But there definitely has to be blood drunk, and blood exchanged...although that isn't always so much a deliberate act of the vampire; I'm thinking that they actually excrete a little bit through the mouth when they drink, so it happens more automatically--like a reproductive process, you know? But if you want to make a thrall instead of just a regular vampire, you need to deliberately give more blood. Because blood, to a vampire, is basically liquid will. So you can overwrite another's personality if you give them enough of your blood, either to the point of just exerting your control over them, or all the way to completely superseding their personality if they imbibe too much of your blood and don't have a very strong willpower of their own. Vince and Trevor and Dolores didn't have to worry about that when they drank the blood of the folk they've "killed" so far in the story, because those guys and girl were just thralls, and thus don't have much to speak of in the way of willpower.

All magic in the Dark Welkin world depends upon will. This makes the "rules" a bit more annoyingly fluid, but also hopefully pulls it away from standard incantation stuff and puts the potential for magical success or failure solely in the hands of the caster. If the spell didn't work, it's not because of some planetary imbalance or lay line interference; it's because you didn't pull it off. And it also makes for some nice character differences in the way that people use magic. Dolores, for example, is a very different brand of vampire than Vince is...

Ryani Asked - 17 Sep 2008:


Answer Posted 17 Sep 2008:
Yeah, you've pretty much got their ages. I'd say Dolores is more 17-23, though, than late twenties. She's just usually grumpy and it makes her look older. Not that I'd say that to her, mind you...

Dolores's statement is mostly said as a joking threat, but the sentiment itself could still be a viable one. If you'll pardon the spoiler, yes, it is possible to kill a vampire with a wooden stake. More or less. Destroy a vampire's heart, they'll usually very soon die. Vampires run on blood and willpower, and they need a heart in order to feed. They also need blood inside them in order to function; the older and tougher a vampire is, the more they can run just on will as opposed to blood, but generally speaking, if you drain a vampire of most of their blood, unless they can replenish within about a day, they'll be dead-dead (coma until then). Wooden stakes, though, are no more effective than any other weapon; just classic.

Shadow Asked - 18 Sep 2008:

Answer Posted 18 Sep 2008:
They can. Generally, though, the material that a wound is caused by has no real effect on a vampire (at least not beyond what it would for a normal human). It all comes down to blood for them, pretty much, and anything that can extract blood or damage the heart thus can hurt the vampire at least a little bit (and all injuries are more potent during daylight; like Dracula in the original novel, they get weaker during the day).

Here's an actual excerpt from my notes, which is pretty much as close to canon as information can get until it's confirmed in the comic:
• Bleeding is one of the simplest ways to kill a vampire, but one of the least certain. If a vampire loses too much blood, they become lethargic and weak. If a vampire is bled dry, they cannot function. If they are given blood soon enough (generally about a full day-night cycle, but it varies depending on age and will), they recover, but if not, they remain inert, that is, truly dead. This is relatively easy to do with novices or thralls, who tend to simply bleed to death if their throat or heart is ripped out, or something like that, or if they are drained dry by another vampire drinking them. A full, experienced vampire, however, can control the blood loss in most cases, and will it not to bleed out too badly, or at least manage to do it slowly. A very strong willed vampire can even temporarily survive the loss of their heart, although they will need it replaced in order to feed. Basically, blood-loss results in coma and eventual brain death, although a vampire being dead already makes it hard to tell exactly at what point one becomes the other.