Les Naufragés d'Ythaq ("The Castaways of Ythaq"; released in English as Ythaq) is a long-running French comic book series created in 2005 by writer Christophe Arleston (of Lanfeust fame) and artist Adrien Floch that blends elements of Space Opera and High Fantasy. 17 albums have been published so far.
Granite Welgoat and Narvarth Bodyssey work onboard the Brume de Comète, a luxury space cruiser, in which Callista De Sargamore is a passenger. The spaceship crashes on an unknown planet and the three of them find themselves in the same lifepod.
After landing on the planet, which is called Ythaq, they realize it is populated by several different sentient species, including humans. It turns out that a number of other ships have known a similar fate over the years, and their shipwrecked crews and passengers have assimilated into native societies. Some of them have developed the ability to master one of the four elements; Granite herself discovers that she has acquired pyrokinesis.
Gradually, the big picture emerges. The planet is the setting of a live-action game that has been played for centuries by the greatest powers in the galaxy, under the supervision of mysterious entities.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Granite is an all-around badass even before her fire power manifests.
- Ancient Conspiracy: The game has been going on for centuries, and only the players themselves know about it.
- Conspiracy Placement: The logo of the Silver Star lines, which ends up permanently displayed on Callista's forehead.
- Fang Thpeak: Krurgor is basically a sapient bipedal walrus, including thpeech-inhibiting fangth.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Callista prefers women and tries to talk Granite into a relationship, she screws men for their money meanwhile.
- Playing with Fire: Granite acquires fire powers over time.
- Powers That Be: The game masters, who also probably qualify as Sufficiently Advanced Aliens.
- Rich Bitch: Callista starts out as a haughty, pretentious upper-class woman.
- Shout-Out:
- The title of the series is a reference to The Odyssey.
- Various winks to a similar series by Arleston, Lanfeust, pepper the narrative.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Several characters are dropped in the story like the Queen Ophyde after the second tome even when she claims revenge at the end but the biggest offender is Dohkas after being the main antagonist for a good part of the series never appears again after he's expelled of the games by the masters.
