About The Comic
Each of the major races has a diverse set of cultures and racial subgroups/ethnicities, meaning that often times, nations of the same race will be comprised of very different-looking individuals.
Mankind or simply just 'humans' are a race comprised of various humanoid forms, but all sharing in a recent common ancestry, even if their shapes and statures may vary, all the ethnic groups still consider themselves human. Humans also stand out among the other races not just for their lack of full body fur, but also their lack of close resemblance towards their closest animal relatives; a fact the race as a whole seems to have something of an inflated ego about, and a trait which has historically led them to take advantage of the other two, more animal-like races, exploiting misunderstood cultural gestures and enacting forms of magic-induced slavery on multiple occasions. And although in the present day the practice has been outlawed for some time, and some humans still carry with them a great sense of superiority over the other two races.
Panthrin are a feline-based, bipedal animal race, coming in many forms, such as Lynxes, Tigers, Snow Leopards, Cheetahs, Lions, Panthers, and more. Panthrin are not usually the kind to quickly bond with strangers, yet still, they are sometimes percieved as a laid-back and very caring people, so long as you stay in their good graces. Their culture greatly values preserving a sense of balance with nature, and preserving it wherever possible so as to not usurp its presence entirely; something easily seen in their architecture and clothes, both being fairly minimalist and in favor of not clearing out or disturbing what's naturally present.
Keisols are a canine-based, bipedal animal race, coming in several forms, such as various Wolves and Foxes. They tend to be more territorial than the other two races, and value martial prowess, strength of body, and ambition over much else. Keisols are by far the most physically-durable race among the three, and some more powerful individuals are even able to deflect magic attacks or arrows with nothing but their bodies, arms, and bare hands. And in terms of production quality and caliber for weapons and armor, they are only matched by Mankind's Dwarves, but in terms of physical combat, armed or unarmed, they have no equal.
There are also Stable and Unstable types of both magic and mana in the world. Mana readily exists in either state, but between the two, unstable mana – commonly known as black mana and dark mana – is the more dangerous form to handle, being both volatile, and in some cases, even addictive, as its volatility also makes it an incredible source of power. Mana is not just used for magic however, as it is vital to the processes of all life. Thus, when a being tries or is forced to use a form of magic their body is not naturally capable of, the strain and intensity of whatever natural capability they are forcing into an incapable pathway destabilizes the mana being used, potentially causing harm to both body and mind in those untrained in unstable magic.
Internal Magic is the form used naturally by all of Mankind; It relies on the body having vast enough natural mana reserves, as well as mana pathways easily-capable of mana projection, allowing for the user to draw upon their own internalized mana and project it into a conjured form, often as projectile or manipulation spells, however with the ability to naturally regenerate reserves of mana with the user's metabolism, with the downside that prolonged use can easily drain a user's physical energy, but without any mana burn.
External Magic is the form used naturally by all Panthrin; It relies on the body having mana pathways which allow for quick and efficient mana flow over the body, along with being easily-capable of mana projection, allowing the conjuring of spells, similar to Internal Magic, however requiring an external mana source, without the drawbacks of mana exhaustion, but with the risk of mana burn to the user's mana pathways with prolonged use.
Physical Magic is the form used naturally by all Keisols; It relies on the body's ability to allow mana to flow fluidly throughout the user's body, from the core to the surface in a sort of convection. This form of magic does not project mana, and is therefore incapable of conjuring in the traditional sense, but is still capable of contact-instance spells, allowing enchanting as well as the ability to reinforce the user's body beyond what would be normally possible, and the user is able to both take in mana and regenerate it naturally with their metabolism, but with far lessened effects of mana burn or mana exhaustion respectively.
About The Author (Me)
I always liked drawing growing up, but it wasn't until roughly around 2014 when I first started getting really into anime and Metroid that I really started trying to draw for real (hey, it's not my fault the 'see you next mission' CGs from those games are so good.) and then some time in 2015, I discovered the wonderful world of webcomics!... About five years after the golden age ended. But the comic that I really got hooked on was one that I'm sure you all have likely heard of, authored by the brother of a certain warfstached goofball of a youtuber, but you can go check the links page to check that one out.
Ever since then, my mind would always come back to the idea of making a webcomic, but my first attempt at writing Selfless with someone else back in 2018 didn't make it very far, and while I still wanted to write a webcomic, I had no direction or message yet, and it wasn't until 2020, the year of lockdown and my junior year of highschool, after being begrudgingly signed up for an online "how to write a good character" creative writing course and finally learning what makes a good compelling character, where when I finally wrote the current version of my comic's primary protagonist, Aries into existence, taht I finally had the start of my story's message forming in my head. I went back afterwards and asked to be signed up for the instructor's follow-up curse on story progression, and for the five years following that, I even began taking private 1-on-1 sessions with the instructor to continue working on my story and learning better how to write and make the story work, and with it, I've been building my confidence, draft after draft, as the story became better, and the plot holes more scarce, until now, when I'm quite sure that I've managed to get myself on the right track, and finally started drawing my first pages in a style reminiscent of the golden age of webcomics.
I may not be able to properly point to one thing or event in my life that really inspired the message behind this story, but that's okay, because this is a story of many themes and messages, and I only hope that it doesn't come across as overt or preach-ey, but above all, I just want to give people something to enjoy and get excited about.
Well, that was a long and winded rambling, but thanks for reading it!