Webcomic / Ashface's Daughter

Anna Dreschner, Ashface's daughter and apprentice of The Master

Ashface's Daughter is a fantasy webcomic centering on the snarky, sarcastic, and precocious daughter of the assassin Ashface and her life in a village full of monsters, necromancers, and the undead. The story takes off when the shop she's taking care of is held up by a couple of bandits (who are quite easily and quickly sent packing) which leads both her and the village to be caught up in a coming imperial war of succession.

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The webcomic has the following examples of:

• Action Girl: Anna often likes to say that she can take care of any threat that comes her way. She's made good on that boast while fighting a giant bear. Before getting knocked down a steep slope by an errant swipe of the bear's paw that is.
• Affably Evil: Orvar Aldane is polite and considerate, but is quite willing to have his fourteen year-old nephew assassinated just because it would help him acquire the imperial throne.
• Alt Text: All of the pages outside of the chapter extras have alt text.
• Ambition Is Evil: Orvar's primary goal is to ensure that he will be the next emperor after Galen passes, by whatever means necessary. While he may justify his actions by claiming to be the most capable for the position by dint of his study and planning (and he may not be entirely wrong in that), it doesn't change the fact that he's willing to manipulate and murder his relatives (including his brothers and their children) to realize his ambitions.
• The Berserker: Hartwig is shown early on that he is what's known in-universe as a "true berserker". What exactly that is and how it might differ from a regular berserker has yet to be shown.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: The Master is the chief of the village and has been described as the sort of magical powerhouse only seen once an era.
• Benevolent Boss: Orvar seems to care for his employees fairly well. When the assassination attempt he ordered on his nephew failed, he made sure that the families of the assassins who died would be taken care of as opposed to having them all killed as per his head assassin's recommendation. Later on, he also personally apologizes to an underling that his daughter was sick so she couldn't attend a birthday party for the underling's granddaughter.
• Big Bad: Part of what kicks off the plot is the third imperial prince, Orvar Aldane, attempting to assassinate his nephew in order to weaken his brother, the second imperial prince.
• Bishie Sparkle: Seen in Joakim's first meeting with Deryn Demir.
• Both Sides Have a Point: The argument between Emperor Galen and his brother Gulbrand regarding Galen's decision to lead a campaign. Galen argues that it would be a vital show of strength to help maintain the Empire's image and stability (regardless of its faults) and that even if Galen happens to die, the Empire itself will continue. Gulbrand and Zita shoot back that it would be disastrous for the Empire if Galen got himself killed at the hands of a random conscript, which is increasingly likely due to Galen's worsening health, and that this raid looks more like Galen trying to have one more glorious battle before his death.
  • However, Galen shoots back that they don't really have any better options, as it's largely Galen's reputation as an invincible leader that's keeping the Empire together, not helped by the fact that the current heirs to the throne are all too flawed individually to lead the Empire by themselves.
• Cool Mask: Anna's father, Rainard Dreschner, is always seen wearing one of these. It's made of wood, specifically ash, hence the name "Ashface". It also helps hide the fact that he has become a vampire, albeit unwillingly.
• Costume-Test Montage: Joakim has one of these when Anna tries to find him some clothes more suitable to everyday wear.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Many of the characters, such as The Master (an undead, skeletal lich), Sardar (heavily tattooed and muscular orc berserker), Ashface (mysterious and masked assassin) are rather pleasant and polite individuals.
• Dem Bones: The Master seems to be a skeleton, though his armor, robes, and gloves do cover up the rest of his body. Considering how thin he looks, it seems safe to assume he's entirely skeletal.
• Druid: A type of mage who are capable of growing and manipulating living things (such as plants) through druid magic, including healing themselves and others. A notable example is Baugulf, who has been identified as a 'high druid,' and is incredibly powerful, to the point that his regenerative abilities make him effectively immune to physical injury.
• Exact Words: During training, Joakim is flipped onto his back. He tells Anna that she said it wouldn't hurt. She responds that no, she said she'd go easy on him, that doesn't necessarily mean no pain would be involved.
• Fantastic Racism: The first time Joakim enters the village, he freaks out and runs away from some people just because they're from "monstrous" races, even if they were doing perfectly ordinary things such as baking bread or building tables.
• Instant Runes: Whenever any of the characters cast magic, they will typically create a magic circle with geometric shapes to appear just in front of their open hands.
• Killer Rabbit: Hartwig asks Rainard if he should be careful about dire-rabbits only to be told that dire-rabbits are not real. Later on, a rabbit does surprise the group, but it turns out to be a regular rabbit. Unfortunately, the giant bear behind the rabbit was quite real.
• Limited Wardrobe: Of all the characters, only Joakim has ever changed his outfit.
• Missing Mom: Anna's mother has never been mentioned yet, with only her father, Ashface, appearing.
• Necromancer: Both Anna and her teacher The Master are necromancers, the latter of which is stated to be of the sort of skill and power that comes about once an era. Anna herself is no slouch either.
• Names To Run Awayfrom Really Fast: Ashface, judging by Joakim and Frode's reactions to meeting him. The Master as well based on Captain Siward's description.
• Non-Action Guy: Joakim spells it out pretty clearly that he's pretty pathetic when it comes to fighting
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The Master has only ever been called "The Master" with no indication as to what his real name (if he has one) might be.
• Our Liches Are Different: The Master, Anna's teacher in necromancy, is a thousand-year old lich. Though he doesn't quite live up to the typical grim and stoic image that liches might usually have.
• Painting the Medium: Some characters such as The Master or Ashface have different text bubbles and fonts to show how differently they sound compared to others.
• Perma-Stubble: Hartwig sports one of these.
• Pointy Ears: All the elven, orcish, and one goblin character have them.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Hartwig whenever he goes berserk.
• Retired Badass: The village seems to be made up of these. Appropriate, as it houses many of the Master's upper echelon from the war with the empire.
• Revenge: While Baugulf is technically working for Zahir (and by extension Orvar), and was on orders to find Joakim after the failed assassination attempt, there's no question that his primary motivation is to kill The Master. It's later revealed that the reason for this is that Baugulf's daughter was killed during the war between the empire and The Master's forces. Whether The Master himself was directly involved in her death is unclear, though it may not matter to Baugulf.
• Succession Crisis: One of the things that starts off the entire plot.
  • The crux of the issue lies in the three leading candidates for the crown, three of the Emperor Galen's sons. The first is Prince Melkar (Joakim's father) is an accomplished warrior and respected by his men, but has no real desire to run the empire and is not the most intelligent person by his own admission. The second is Prince Orvar, the most scholarly and wise among the three, but also the most ambitious and power-hungry among them as well, willing to do anything to secure his position if he can get away with it (having been the one who planned the assassination attempt on Joakim in the first place, despite apparently liking the lad). The third is Prince Sandar, who is the most popular among the other nobles, but lacks the leadership ability of the other two, and is incredibly wasteful to boot, apparently emptying his own domain's coffers by throwing extravagant parties. None of them like or trust each other enough to work together, and any other possible candidates are either too young or too far down the chain of succession to be a realistic option.
• Unsound Effect: The comic makes quite liberal use of these.
• Would Hit a Girl: When Joakim refuses to attack Anna during training, she's angry and asks him if it's some ridiculous chivalry thing. It turns out that he has no problem with trying to hit her, rather he refused because he was terrified that as soon as he did, she would hurt him pretty badly once he failed to connect.