The Legend of the Bloodraven Chronicles
There is no such thing as a distinction between science-fiction, fantasy, and reality in the fractured world called Meir. The land is in a quiet chaos, quite simply, because nobody can decide on any sort of behavioral and governmental standard. Most of the inhabitants aren't too fond of this bedlam, and would really rather just go on with their lives instead of having to keep half an eye open for an attack from a warring faction or a footpad gang, but there are the inevitable few who thrive on the Chaos, and would do anything to have it envelop every civilization in every corner of the universe...
Thus sets the stage for Aslua Studios' eldest webcomic, Bowspirit's Aim. It is the story of five youths, barely started with their lives when they are thrown into the center of a war between two factions--one fighting for order, the other fighting for total control of the raging beast, Chaos.
There are many small tribes and communities, groupings of people united by a common goal—be it fame, power, riches, or just comfortable survival—and the small cult known as the Hellfyres was no different. The members were generally young, wild ruffians and well-off humans in their late teens or early twenties, who could buy almost everything they desired, and were bored with what their parents' games and rich friends had to offer. Their leader was always given the title-name Kanos, to signify his bond with the Chaos that gave life to the Hellfyres' adventures. They were never more trouble than the average gang of low-brow thieves, however, until their leader was overthrown by a man whose true name was never known, almost fifteen years ago. Slowly, subtly, but as sure as one can be, the Hellfyre's objective changed from just another adventure cult for rich, snobby kids to destroy-and-conquer tactics, for what higher adventure is there than conquering the world? Kanos drew on many of the rich's almost inherant and hereditary xenophobia and convinced existing members that all sentient races who weren't humans were inferior, and should be subserviant to human will at all times.
The Bloodraven clan, founded by Li Antha Ravensblood, was created as a sort of windbreak to hold the Hellfyre clan's raging ambitions at bay and keep the already shaky and uncertain peace of their area as stable as was possible. Liantha, herself one of the "inferior" elven races, was one two free survivors of a slaughter-and-enslave campaign funded by Kanos, the other being her younger sister, Liandra. Liantha dedicated herself to freeing all those of her tribe who had been enslaved and still lived in slavery, which eventually metamorphosed into stopping the slave trade altogether by freeing as many slaves as possible and stopping those powers in charge of enslavement—one of the largest being Kanos Hellfyre.
While the Hellfyre clan alone is nearly double the size of the Bloodravens and their allies combined, they are mostly incompetent and untrained, left by Kanos to learn to fight through real-world experience, given a weapon and told to learn as they go, so that only the strong survive. Liantha, however, ensures that every Bloodraven is fully trained to deal with whatever emergency or battle may come their way before they are formally accepted into the fold, with the help of her two chosen co-leaders, dragonkin Acirema and Harmony, a human. While most, if not all, Hellfyres are still of the upperclass and human, the Bloodraven clan is made up almost entirely by other sentient species, middle to lowerclass humans, and former slaves set free by Liantha or others.
The ball was put in place seven years ago, and thus our story starts...
Bowspirit's Aim started as a chat-based plot-driven RPG between the founding members of Aslua Studios in early 2000, called "The Bloodraven Chronicles", and which continued until late that year. After two or three months' break, it continued in a more linear fashion as a message-board/mailing-list RPG. That, too, eventually died down, and there was a period of a couple more months in the beginning of Fall 2001 in which nothing was happening with the storyline. On November 6, 2001, that changed, as the entire storyline was being taken, rewritten, and changed into a more eye-pleasing format. The Bloodraven Chronicles' third incarnation: Bowspirit's Aim. The prologue, "Quiver Load," was never a part of the reworked script, but rather a short story written by Rachel Hull, who originally created and played Sevvie, and was used as a diversionary tactic until the rest of the script was ready to be produced as a comic in June of 2002.
Bowspirit's Aim and the characters depicted therein are, unless otherwise specified, © 1997-2004 Aslua Studios. It is written by the Aslua Studios team, and illustrated primarily by Alicia 'Xellandria' Kilpatrick. Other artists are noted as applicable.
Bowspirit's Aim is hosted on Keenspace, a free automation and hosting service for webcomics.