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Richard is Tavor, or at the very least they're the same type of being.
It has been established in this strip that  Richard has also lived for an inhumanly long time (perhaps longer then Tavor) and has dying issues too. It's possible that at some point Tavor realized that he is Richard and that to cement his own existance, he has to make sure Cale goes on his quest. It would take a bit of time-jumping, but Tavor/Richard's a powerful warlock, he might be able to pull it off.

Richard is powered by acts of evil
Richard's apparent immortality, and perhaps even the totality of his power, relies on acts of evil. Based on this followed by this.
 * Quite possible, although it could just be some form of powering-up soul sucking that is easier to defenceless people/outside combat (innocent people huddling together out of the way indicates a degree of defencelessness).

Tavor is the emperor of Legaria
The last time we saw him, he was trapped in the past, leading the Vulii raiding Kenthenecia. Afterwards he gained power among their ranks and eventually became the leader. Now he is being The Chessmaster, manipulating all the events that have thus far happened in present time trough his puppet, Aelloon.
 * Legaria was his attempt to fix everything, and get revenge. Best case scenario, he rules the world and prevents Cale from being born. Worst case scenario, and maybe acceptable depending if he has gone insane, would create a universe destroying paradox. He just never considered he might have actually set a lot of things in motion.
 * Confirmed

Richard is suffering from a case of Ho Yay
Similar to the above theory. It would explain what he meant when he said that himself and Cale would "walk a path together".
 * I am so very glad I'm not the only one who thought this.
 * Or they're Heterosexual Life Partners with some Vitriolic Best Buds tossed in for good measure.

Cale is suffering from a case of Ho Yay

 * In addition to not minding at all when Richard possesses him, he apparently missed Richard so much he set himself on fire trying to recapture the feeling of that possession. Later, there's "Chicken need Squishy." "Chicken does need Squishy." Followed by Cale glomping Richard. Plus, there's Cale's remarkable tolerance for Richard's tendency to kill innocent people.
 * And is it just me, or was Cale staring at Richard's Marilyn Monroe moment with something other than horror.
 * Shock? Disbelief? Disgust? "lolwut Richard?" I think Cale just loves Richard for his mind, he doesn't seem like the sort to be into dead guys that way.

Richard wasn't evil and was powerless at first.
However, due to some unexplained event, he gained absurd amounts of warlock power and did what most gamers can only do in sim games: Test them out by slaughtering everything in sight. He later found he liked the taste of it (literally, in the case of one monk, anyway).
 * I always kinda thought that he started out powerless, died, was changed, went insane, and forgot everything other than "Hey, this killing innocents thing is pretty damn fun! Look how they squirm!"

Richard will be made mortal, goes back in time and becomes the Archmage
Richard already said that the Archmage "looks familiar." Likewise, the demon court threatened to restore him to mortality as punishment. His destiny with Cale will involve a Stable Time Loop, and it would also explain why Pella is in so much awe of him.
 * Alternatively it's the other way around - the Archmage became Richard. Richard's either forgotten (who he was or what he looked like), or is just being a colossal dick.
 * Richard actually stated that he has forgotten and just "started to remember" his previous life "before he was turned" ; and, previously, the phares felt "another presence behind the darkness." One could suppose that the Archmage came with that new, unexpected plan, when things did not turn out as planned.
 * Uh-oh...
 * In  We can clearly see an empty rabbit cage here. And guess who else was there? Make of this what you will.
 * They seem to have the same forehead ridge in some scenes.
 * Well, the first half of this seems pretty confirmed.

Richard will die by the time the comic actually ends.
His undeath is canceled and he goes into regular death, for good this time. Possibly a Heroic Sacrifice in order to save Cale or Kethenecia, or anybody else he's grown attached to like Pella, Krunch, Benny, Sooba, Felbunny, etc. It's inevitable because Undeath Always Ends.
 * My theory has always been that Cale gets his ass into huge trouble with the Archmage (or some similarly powerful magical being) in the final battle for Kethenecia that'll probably come up at the end of the story, and Richard will sacrifice himself in order to save him. Cue a touching speech from Richard about how he changed for the good or a Big Reveal or something, and Cale going into berserk mode. The war is won thanks to Richard's antics, and Cale matures from the loss of his closest friend. He also builds a huge gold statue in his honor, has portraits placed everywhere, and makes Richard just as worshiped as he would have wanted to be.
 * Then, maybe in the future, Richard could be raised again when Benny figures out how to handle undeath. That's if he doesn't tell Cale not to in his final moments. Or, Cale gets raised after his own death, either by his wishes thanks to Richard or because some necromancer got bored.
 * Then some Closed Time Loops get fixed.
 * Or Cale has a child and names it after Richard. He lives a privileged life as prince, wearing cute little blue outfits and the like, is waited on by maids, and gardens. When he starts to show interest in magic later in life, Cale disapproves (knowing what happened with Richard and the Archmage, not trusting the stuff), and the child rebels. After coming back from the dead. The Archmage just decides to take advantage of the situation by erasing the kid's memories, and sending him back in time.

Richard and Pella are flirting/in love.
When they first met, Richard actually asked if they "could keep her." Then, the page where Richard impersonates Simon from American Idol, he says something along the lines of "You didnt put enough of yourself into that performance. I'd like to see more of that," before giggling like a schoolgirl (which may have just been the head injury). Richard later accuses Pella of "Violating his soul." Why would he/she do that? Because he/she totally digs him/her. They always get paired up when the group splits up, just apply what we learned from Freddy and Daphne in Scooby Doo and we've got ourselves an official couple.


 * Or they are both really repressed, because of this insurmountable barrier between them that is commonly known as Death. Elf/Troll relationships are hard enough, but at least those two are both living. Pella and Richard are doomed to Belligerent Sexual Tension unless some miracle returns Richard to life.
 * Well,, that barrier might be weaker than we think...

The little village up the coast (Alvuc for 'A Little Village Up the Coast') is Richard's phylactery.
He did say it was his 'source of power.' He's very lich-like anyway.
 * Or it could be Richard's real place of burial. There is apparently "a tomb" in which Richard is interested, and that he doesn't want to see consecrated.
 * Didn't he say that was his father's tomb? Maybe his his father was very magical and Richard gets his power from what emanates from his father.
 * Perhaps he murdered his father as part of an arcane ritual to gain his powers. The tomb (which is his father's) is now the source of his magic and unlife.

Benny is half troll and half minotaur.
Produced by some prison loving on Krunch's part. Or a prison breeding program. They have the same number of digits and eye markings. And her eyes turn red in battle like the Bloodrage.
 * Not as likely as you might think. Cale's eyes also turned red when he was fighting alongside the Bloodrage. It is highly possible that this is due to some area of effect spell rather than any mixed heritage. On top of that, Benny is the resident staff chick, so it's entirely within the realm of possibility that her eyes glow different colors depending on the sort of magical ability she's using.
 * Alright, Ill take that. So how do you explain her markings and number of digits then?
 * And those adorable cow ears she had as a baby.

The stone coffin/tomb is actually a the altar of an Evil-aligned god that Richard put his family in after slaughtering them.
Killing his entire extended family may have been a prerequisite to his power, or it could just have been a bonus side effect. Either way, it's the altar staying unconsecrated that's important, and not his bones, the bones of his ancestors, or the artifact from which he gained his power in the first place. (Probably not the Counted Shadows boxes, but could be something similar, that had a bunch of different potential effects to do with death.)

Richard's "He is my mother" isn't a joke, it's a Sarcastic Confession.
Pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Aelloon killed Commander Kickass.
Think about it. Its been confirmed Kickass has disappeared, its clear that he and Aelloon don't think highly of each other, Aelloon has proven to be overly ambitious in the past, and the issue where Kickass is revealed to have disappeared is immediately after he and Aelloon have a somewhat heated argument over what their next move should be.
 * No, he's shown up in Kathenecia offering to help Cale.

It really was self defence...
The Orphanage did, in fact, try to kill Richard. Could a good thing to have in the Movie.
 * If an undead guy wearing full black and red clothes came marching up to my orphanage in a time when the undead were not known for their compassion, I'd send out an attack force too.
 * Which leads to the question: If you're running an orphanage, what are you doing with an attack force?
 * Creating orphans, of course, by sending out parents, thereby keeping the cycle going.
 * Or use the orphans.

The series is headed towards a semi-indirect Tenchi Solution.
Everyone in the main team who survives ends up in a stable Love Dodecahedron centered on Cale. Tim>CaleXPellaXCaleXRichard+Sooba>CaleXBennyXKrunch, and maybe with  if she survives and   through the end of the story.

Richard and the Archmage were BFF/Lovers before Richard died.

 * Think about it: Richard is Really Seven Hundred Years Old. The Archmage is from the distant past. Now the Archamge is trusting this Omnicidal Maniac with the fate of the world, and cries when Richard disappears. Richard did not kill  They share a bed/tent.
 * For one thing, we have no idea how many hundreds of years old Richard is. Another thing, the Archmage is from thousands of years ago. Assuming the Archmage is into dead guys, and traveled forward in time to put his plan into motion, he'd have to be really messed up to sidetrack everything for some necrophilia. Also, he's in bunny form. I dont think Richard would do a bunny, no matter how mess up he is. Archmage probably hangs out with him for the added protection while he's in that state.

The Archmage is really Richard's Dad.

 * Or Cale's. Or even Benny's biological father.
 * Huh? Benny's green, has three fingers and toes, pointed ears, and sharp teeth. The Archmage is an average elderly human, pasty white. So I repeat: Huh??
 * It is mentioned a couple of times that she's a half-breed. Maybe the Archmage got freaky with a troll-chick with a thing for really, really, really old dudes.

Krunch will become ruler of Legarion.
When Kethenecia wins the war, they will cross the sea to avenge the war against the north in book five (Unless book five is entirely the fight of Legara vs. Kethenecia, then it's book six). Once Legarion is conquered, Cale will need someone to rule the land while he rules in Kethenecia.
 * Jossed.

Richard has a compassionate second personality that he's hiding from the rest of the party.
At least twice, his speech bubbles' border has gone pink instead of red, and both times he said something normal and semi-compassionate. Though it seems to be sarcasm, this could be Richard's good personality breaking free to say normal, non-homicidal things before reverting back to Richard. Plus, why else would Richard save a child's life?

This all takes place in an alternative universe to Futurama.

 * Richard is Bender, Benny is Leela, which fits because they both have purple hair and Cale is Fry.
 * So...Benny is a mutant? Cool.

When Richard visited the family tomb way back when, it REALY healed him up.

 * Notice we haven't seen him take many of his 'Amusing Injuries' since then, save only when he was ironning, and he did that to himself, so he was prepared...

Pony is actually a person/thing from Richards past and not just a silly battle cry.

 * Not much is known about Richards past, and it seems perfectly possible that Pony was someone/thing that was important to him that he has immortalized into a battle cry. He simply lets it seem to be silly maintain his image, or he possibly doesn't even remember the origin himself.

Richard's sentence is being executed.
Richard is becoming human because the demon judge was able to pass sentence on him. The moment Richard was found guilty, he began a slow transformation into the man he once was.
 * As a corollary, killing the innocent delays/reverses the change. Hence, this.

Now Tavor is just like Richard

 * Meaning, a semi-immortal.... thing that fuels his immortality with the ashes of the innocents. Notice that his speech bubble is the same as Richard's without the mask (white, circled in red).
 * Actually, they aren't - if one looks at strip 480, Tavor's first sentence is white circled in black, and scattered throughout the comic (for example, one strip back), there are examples of white circled in red appearing to mean merely something especially important/emphasized.

Felbunny is a god

 * Felbunny really is the god that the Sisters think he is and the Archmage is just a disguise for interacting with people

Shora is alive and/or Richard

 * Chronologically, Richard appeared in the story only moments after we assume Shora died. Richard also has several crossdressing moments, and when his veil fell off in the battle in the worm (and Cale noticed he's un-undying) his speech bubble turned pink, possibly to indicate a feminine voice.
 * Except that it was more like red and no other female character speaks with pink words. Also, Cale's reaction would have been a little more different from simply being stunned and saying something like "He's.. not dead!". I'd expect something more like "It's... it's " or "You're...!" and so on.
 * It's also implied that Richard was the "dark man" who saved them both when they first met. So unless Shora was planning way ahead by inventing a mysterious savior only she had seen, probably not.

Tavor is dead

 * Cale's swords didn't just trap him in flaming ice, they also forced Tavor to become his true age (they did used to be Sword of Truth) and canceled out whatever spell kept him alive all this time. That's why he looks like a dessicated corpse in the end. And even an immortal would have a hard time surviving the loss of a head.

Richard is Obfuscating Stupidity.

 * He acts as comic relief so people will ignore him for the most part, and it seems to have worked.

Richard didn't want to become what he is now.

 * Back when he was Lord Ashendale, he was essentially a predecessor to Cale; an example of The Cape (trope) who amassed an army of outcasts to try and overthrow the empire. Unfortunately, when his allies were defeated, he sacrificed his soul to become immortal so he could continue his quest. To do so, however, he had to kill an innocent - much like when Cale killed the boy. In doing so, he gained incredible power, but also went insane and lost most of his memory. Him becoming Cale's ally actually is because he subconsciously wants to make sure Cale can succeed where he didn't.
 * This actually sounds strangely plausible. This troper also thinks it would be a great plot twist.

The person Aelloon wants Richard to kill is...

 * Benny, the one he has the least emotional attachment to.
 * Given that his target apparently lives deep in a marsh, possibly Jossed.
 * Richard just dropped hints that it's, but the last time we saw him wasn't in a swamp...
 * Partially confirmed in #557.

Benny is the biological daughter of Krunch and .

 * It's implied that they were lovers. The "adoption" could have been a cover story all along.
 * Seems to be confirmed