Grayling

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

It's a god eat god world.

Grayling [dead link] is a Fantasy webcomic which takes place in the world of Faida. An average farmer just wanted to live a peaceful life with his family, but after an encounter with the Sun and a catastrophic accident, he is roped into joining the ranks of the Elementals. The plot revolves around the Faidan gods and their interactions with both their world and each other; it's a serious tale, but one told with plenty of wry humor.

The current comic is a reboot of the original Grayling, which ran from 2002 to 2008. The author, Arborwin, wanted to fix the flaws in the story and so started afresh. The comic updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays; there are also several issues available in print from Indy Planet [dead link] that are ahead of the online schedule.

Tropes used in Grayling include:
  • Anthropomorphic Personification - The Elementals embody abstract or physical ideas; Cal is death, Fern is fire, etc.
  • Constructed World - Faida was a detailed word created by the author long before Grayling started, with its own flora, fauna, and language.
  • Only One Name - Most of the cast
  • Physical Gods - The Elementals
  • Theme Naming - In Faidan, "ner" means "master," and "-ial" is a suffix equivalent to the honorific "Mr." The Elementals' full titles reflect language conventions: Cal is Callanerial, May is Mayaner, and so on.