Order of Tales

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

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.

Tropes used in Order of Tales include:
  • 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, especially in the climactic fight with Gerrah, who attempts to fulfill his own version of the Obilik myth, dryly noting that the hero, Koark, dies in the tale. In the end, all myths are subverted. TOE puts it best at the beginning:

TOE: An absurd simplification of the actual events.

  • Badass: Aethirus. So badass he can even make others badass in his presence, like when he and Koark fought over the Bottle Woman.

Bottle Woman: Koark...he'll kill you...
Aethirus: He doesn't care.