Cindersong
is a web comic created, written, and drawn by Sarah Stern.The comic updates Mondays and Fridays
Cindersong tells the tale of Helne, an empathy-challenged healer and her quest for vengeance of the murder of her girlfriend. She enlists the aid of the mild-mannered dragon, Arden as muscle. And then the well-intentioned thief Rehl tags along. They stumble head-long into boisterous adventure and national intrigue as well as friendship and the occasional hug. A heartfelt and humorous fantasy comic.
Cindersong contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Helne and Rhel. Rhel in particular is better at the “action” part of an entrance.
- After Action Patch Up: Arden and Helne have a brief moment after they escape the jailhouse guards.
- Anger Born of Worry: How Arden reacts to Rehl after she retrieves the keys from the guard room.
- Arc Words:
- “Its not clean work.” From the filler story.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Arden is very surprised that his sister Rhel has taken to stealing even though he incinerated three guards a few pages previously.
- Brother–Sister Team: Arden and Rehl when facing the War Golem.
- Crazy Enough to Work:
- Helne’s “plan” to break Arden from confinement.
- Rehl’s plan to take down the War Golem.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: How Arden deals with the jail guards during his tower escape.
- Deadpan Snarker: Helne has a particular flair for this.
- Famed In-Story: The Soth-Dirra to the world at large, though most of the populace seems to have wildly varying ideas of what they may look like.
- Friend to All Living Things: Arden seems to draw small animals to him. And fan art shows him seemingly getting along well with small animals.
- Funny Background Event:
- Indy Ploy: Helne’s modus operandi for her jailbreak. “The Plan”
- Kill It with Fire: Arden’s method of combat resolution.
-
Moral Event Horizon: For some readers, Helne passes from basic Jerkass into this territory, when she blackmails Arden into becoming magically oath-bound to murder someone for her (he was ready to be killed rather than do the same thing for the Margravine), by refusing to heal his mortally wounded sister if Arden doesn't give Helne his real name. (Also, in most developed countries, medical professionals have to try to save dangerously injured people by law, as long as that wouldn't endanger their own life.note So Helne, a trained healer, is apparently willing to commit the negligent manslaughter of an innocent woman who has been helping her, just to get her revenge.) - Mysterious Past: Helne’s makes allusions to events that happened prior to the story’s start.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Arden is referred to by many characters at “Dragon” and is spoken of as if he is a large, fire-breathing beast of destruction. While he does have horns, glowy eyes and glowy marks around his body, he is otherwise very people-shaped. A codex entry sheds some light on the matter, as Sóth-Dirra are apparently humans who have made a pact with one of the ancient gods who had been trapped into stones by the first human settlers of the land.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Averted. The action continues during Helne and Arden’s escape, interrupting the conversation at a few points.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Helne’s reaction when the King dies.
- Tranquil Fury: Arden before he ends the fight with the jailhouse guards.
-
Word of God: Several provided via codex pages and questions asked by readers on the site’s comments page.
