Glorianna
Glorianna
is a fantasy/sci-fi comic created by J. Kevin Carrier. It began as a series of self-published minicomics in 1991, and began appearing as a webcomic in 2007. Glorianna is a sword-wielding mercenary, wandering a post-apocalyptic world seeking fortune and adventure.Glorianna contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Glorianna's father actually treats her with callousness to the point that it became one of many factors besides the prophecy of her missing twin sister that led to her Call to Adventure.
- Action Girl: Glorianna.
- After the End: The entire setting is implied to be this with a village built from a hollowed-out airplane and a town inside the remains of a power station being examples of the setting. The Hall of the Mountain King clearly shows the setting on post-apocalyptic Earth, which was implied to be scientifically advanced before its collapse.
- Amazon Brigade: The priestesses of Ojhal in "Steel".
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Glorianna is forced to marry Portai in "Children of Woe" due to the village's Sterility Plague resulting in captured women being used as breeding stock, and this being the only other option. Their union resulted in a daughter, whom Glorianna left her under the care of a priestess.
- Appease the Volcano God: In "The Halls of the Mountain King", this is a Subverted Trope with the "volcano" being a one-way portal from a malfunction of an ancient starship's engine connecting between the moon and Earth.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Vasgor, Lord Claughmoore, and Duke Ludwig ( who just happened to be a marooned alien in disguise, though his lack of ambitions beyond maintaining order of his own domain made him The Lesser Of Two Evils between the civil war between his power-hungry bride-to-be who would likely stage a conquest after securing their holds, and discontent peasantswho would likely start a bloody revolution across the region once the establishment is dealt with).
- Barbarian Hero: Subverted Trope. While Glorianna's Chainmail Bikini and lack of interest besides fighting and carousing would make her seem like a female version of this trope, her background is from a seaside town along with her first employment as a sailor while dressing up as a boy.
- Bittersweet Ending: Most storylines feature this.
- Bodyguard Babes: Glorianna sometimes gets hired as one.
- Broken Bird: Glorianna is prone to melancholy when she's not fighting or carousing.
- Canon Welding: With J. Kevin Carrier's other work, Lady Spectra & Sparky, albeit both Glorianna and Lady Spectra being switched in place during "The Replacement Killer" storyline.
- Chainmail Bikini: Her garb of choice, which she took it from an abandoned temple dedicated to a war goddess Ojhal many years ago. This comes to bite her in the back in "Steel" which a faction attacked her due to her attire belonging to the Ojhal cult that turned out to be still active in the region she was in.
- The Charmer: Jandar, Glori's occasional ally / foil / lover.
- Consequence Combo: Glorianna is told that she will "never know peace" until she finds her mysterious twin.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Glori sometimes alludes to her difficult childhood due to her abusive father.
- Evil Chancellor: Vasgor, in "The Conscience of the King", who had been manipulating the aging king into funding expensive projects paid by taxation of the villagers, which the combination of embezzlement towards his organization and discontent to stage a coup. At least until Glorianna, Nemi, and Gith put a stop to it.
- Fantasy Gun Control: As the setting is post-apocalyptic, other than Syons who wielded modern weaponry and equipment, gunpowder weaponry is uncommon among many civilizations to the point that Gloriana had to ask an abused orphan on its mere concept after being trapped in modern era during "Time Past" storyline.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Ninjas, dragons, vampires, you name it.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Glorianna travels to the 21st century in "Time Past" and "The Replacement Killer", which she had to resort to her own sword and baseball bats due to unfamiliarity with firearms. The second storyline emphasized this in this stripwith the settings' Deliberate Values Dissonance (and Glorianna's mercenary mindset) treating prostitution, gambling, and drug trafficking with indifference rather than major crimes in 21st century.
- Fortune Teller: Valangia, the oracle who tells Glorianna that she has a twin out in the world somewhere.
- Future Imperfect: Implied Trope, where one comic involved ruins of a power plant being assumed as bones of a demon.
- Gentle Giant: Gith
- Jumped at the Call: Glori was happy for an excuse to leave the backwater village she grew up in.
- Long-Lost Relative: Hope, Glori's abandoned daughter.
- Opening Scroll: The strip begins with one of these.
- Nominal Hero: Like many Sword and Sorcery protagonists, Glorianna isn't interested in doing good most of the time with her main interest of her adventures being only for monetary reasons. Though she does have moral standards to not work for morally dubious employers (slavers, bandits, and other nefarious figures) and willing to help people albeit reluctantly.
- Parental Incest: The Iron Oasis storyline involved Hassan—a former Harem guard—who took the daughter from one of his multiple wives due to her father—the Caliph of Dharnistan—wishing to take her as his consort. The wife attempted to slay the Caliph but she was killed right in front of her daughter, who went mute from the trauma. This turned out to be a lie since the daughter herself was the child of the Hassan, who himself was only castrated after his deed was found along with his daughter's tongue being cut. The wife was actually alive and continued the search for her daughter, who was taken by the Hassan along with the treasure, even after the Caliph's death.
- Prophecy Twist: It turns out during the final storyline that the "twins" being sought after by both Glorianna and Hope all series are each other, rather than either of them having a twin sister.
- Puppet King: Arven, in "The Conscience of the King".
- Raised by Orcs: Glorianna's daughter Hope, whom she left in the care of an Ojhal priestess before being "rescued" by Syons who later fought against a band of Ojhal cultist.
- Really Gets Around: Glorianna has, shall we say, intimacy issues.
- Royal Brat: Princess Nemi in "The Conscience of the King", though eventually, she becomes a Politically-Active Princess.
- Scavenger World: Leftover bits of the 21st century are everywhere, though mostly in ruins.
- Science Fantasy: Gloriana's magical nature makes it unclear whether it was genuine arcane (demons, necromancy, and dragons) or misinterpretation of scientific artifacts (teleportation, energy emitters, and mind-control devices) in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
- Sensual Spandex: In lieu of her Chainmail Bikini, she wore a skin-tight outfit from an orphan in this strip to "fit in" with 21st Century environment.
- Small, Secluded World: "The Halls of the Mountain King", which is actually a [http://glorianna.thecomicseries.com/comics/340 habitat on Earth's moon]].
- Sterility Plague: "Children of Woe" involved the female populace of an entire village becoming barren and the new leader herself being a pregnant wanderer who usurped the old leader. It is hinted that the toxic waste pile at the bottom of the plane may have been the cause of it.
- Stripperiffic: A lot of the costumes fall into this category, male and female.
- Teenage Pregnancy: She was at her late teenage years when she got pregnant by Portai in Children of Woes, though she would be considered as "young adult" by the standards of the setting.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Portai, Gith, Thanaktos, the Mountain King, et. al.
- Walking the Earth: Glorianna is constantly on the move, looking for mercenary jobs, questing for her twin, and avoiding lasting relationships.
- Older Than She Looks: Based on her daughter being a full-grown woman (probably late teens), Glorianna's age would probably around mid-Thirties yet has the same appearance since her sixteen years of age, which is considered as "adult" by the setting.
- You Mean "Xmas": In "Solstice", Glori gets an inspirational message from an unidentified jolly fat man.
