Order of Tales



"My business is not to know the truth of stories."

Order of Tales is a surreal fantasy webcomic by Evan Dahm. The story is set in Overside, several centuries prior to Dahm's other webcomic, Rice Boy. However, Order is more of a side story than a direct prequel. The comic completed July, 2010, and Dahm has since started a third webcomic, Vattu.

Koark (pronounced Ko-ark) is the last Teller of the Order of Tales. He barely escaped the destruction of his hometown with nothing but a book of stories, his mount Potok, and the instructions of his father to find an ancient and powerful story: "The Ascent of the Bone Ziggurat". Fifteen years later, Koark has a chance run-in with a Machine Man named The One Electronic, and his first good lead to finding the tale of the Ziggurat... and his travels get him mixed up with a very pissed-off Damsel in Distress, made of glass and known only as Bottle Woman.

This webcomic provides examples of:
"TOE: An absurd simplification of the actual events."
 * Action Survivor: Koark is growing into the role.
 * All Myths Are True: Played with to such an extent that the story is one step away from going meta,  In the end, all myths are subverted. TOE puts it best at the beginning:

"Bottle Woman: Koark...he'll kill you...
 * Badass: Aethirus. So badass he can even make others badass in his presence, like when he and Koark fought over the Bottle Woman.

Aethirus: He doesn't care."


 * Big Bad:
 * The Blank: T.O.E.
 * Book Ends
 * Character Development: Subtle and off-screen, but heartwarming. When Koark is a boy, he treats Potok with disdain for being scrawny and grey, favoring joyrides on his father's mount instead. After the Flash Forward to Chapter Two, he is quite affectionate with Potok.
 * Chiaroscuro: A given, since the comic is in black and white.
 * Doomed Hometown: Played straight with Koark's home; slightly subverted with Stone Palm,.
 * Fetch Quest: It seems Koark's journey is shaping up to be an endless series of these.
 * Five Man Band: As of the end of Book Two. T-O-E is the Hero, Calabash the Lancer, Koark the Smart Guy, Aethirus the Big Guy, and Bottle Woman the Chick.
 * Horse of a Different Color
 * Last of His Kind
 * MacGuffin Girl: The Bottle Woman.
 * Meaningful Name: Koark (say it out loud) and the Bottle Woman
 * Although Evan said it was not intentional. And his name in Seen-script shows that it's pronounced Ko-ark, with two syllables.
 * Mistaken for Murderer: Accused of murder while visiting Tenshells.
 * Mythopoeia: Koark's job is to catalog it.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: The Torchlord.
 * Ravens and Crows: The Blackbirds
 * The Storyteller
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: How the stablehand saves young Koark's life.
 * Tsundere: The Bottle Woman is understandably a little pissy about being dragged around by people who won't tell her anything.
 * Walking the Earth: What Koark chooses to do as he travels with TOE and Calabash, crafting a new book along the way.
 * What Happened to The Mouse:
 * Walking the Earth: What Koark chooses to do as he travels with TOE and Calabash, crafting a new book along the way.
 * What Happened to The Mouse: