"There are many stories about the origins and the forthcoming of the end of the world. I'm not here to tell you all of them. I'm going to tell you only one. The one I witnessed."
Off-White was a fantasy webcomic by Anna Podedworna and Katarzyna Redesiuk, artists for CD Projekt. The world in which the story took place is a mixture of an interpretation Norse Mythology mixed with original ideas. The comic revolved around a pack of wolves led by their alpha to meet a mysterious sage, who will decide the destiny Iki, the group's youngest member.
In this world, among all living beings is a white spirit and a black spirit. Their purpose is to keep the balance between the other spirits of their species. The humans of this world have lost their white spirit and are now seeking the wolves' as a replacement, after trying various other animals, which all ended in failure. Albert and Seven are the agents sent to track the wolves and capture the white spirit wolf.
After the end of Book 1, the comic was put on indefinite hiatus. With the original website (off-white.eu) having been taken down, the comic is officially cancelled, although it's been archived on the official DeviantArt page
for anyone who missed it.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: The bishop seems quite polite and even cheerful when not sacrificing cats and speaking in voices of dragon spirits.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Hati goes from a hellish red masked form to something more normal and less fierce for Iki when its clear the true form scares him too much.
- After the End: Unlike most stories with this trope, the focus is not on the remnants of humanity (though they do play a part) but on the wolves, the "brother species" of humankind.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Jara's normally a very proud wolf, but when Raigho is killed, she puts aside that pride to tearfully beg Sköll to bring him back to life.
- Animalistic Animals: The physique of wolves (and other animals) in the comic is displayed in a realistic way.
- Animal Talk: Averted. Birds normally don't talk the same language as wolves, if they even talk at all. Iki is shocked when he can understand Hati's raven servants.
- Anyone Can Die: Pups and main characters are not immune to death in this comic.
- Art Evolution: And how! Just compare this and this.
- Art Shift:
- The old pages are done in a different style.
- The covers are done in a different style.
- Jera's little wolfaboo moment.
- There is a hidden page that is done in a different style compared to the rest of the comic.
- Artistic License – Biology
- A conversation between Othala and Raigho seems to suggests that a female leading a pack is unusual. In reality, a wolf pack has two leaders, the mother and father of the other wolves, and according to some sources the female is more likely to be dominate over the male than vice versa.
- Raigho bites a caribou on the shoulder, and blood sprays everywhere. Canine jaws and teeth are designed to crush, so this would not happen regardless of where he bites the deer, especially in the bony shoulder area where there are few blood vessels. It makes for a very nice dramatic shot though, and who would want there to be no blood splatter whenever they bite something?
- Bilingual Bonus: The runes that appear when a character casts a spell mean something, they are not there just for show. For example, when Sköll attacks Hati he says "Burn in my flames, Hati Hróðvitnisson."
- Bizarre Seasons: The winter has lasted for over three centuries for as yet unrevealed reason.
- Body Swap: The humans want to transfer the white spirit wolf's spirit into a human body to bring back the balance that was lost when the human white spirit disappeared. The reason they chose a wolf is because the only thing they have to go by is an old legend that pairs wolves and man together as being created at the same time.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick / Imagine Spot: Things that Seven wants include pretty shoes, comic books, frag grenades and a anti-tank rocket launcher.
- Cain and Abel: Sköll and Hati.
- Came Back Wrong: At least according to Skoll's rant, resurrecting Raigho would result in him becoming an abomination.
- Canine Confusion:
- A conversation between Othala and Raigho suggests that a female wolf leading a pack is unusual. In reality, wolf packs are a nuclear family structure, and having the eldest female parent lead a pack is not at all unusual.
- The pack is shown hunting a bull elk. This is possible, but unlikely, because wolves, like most predators, usually target the sick, the young, the weak and anything else less hard to catch than a healthy adult animal.
- Iki, a wolf, has blue eyes. Young wolves have blue eyes, but they change color as they get older. This is intentional, it indicates the color of his spirit.
- Cats Are Mean: A snow leopard causes trouble for a group of sledders,
- Creation Myth: Elaborated in the prologue.
- Creepy Crows: Ravens are Hati's minions.
- Death of a Child: Wolf pups die from exposure during a harsh winter as well as from hunters' bullets. Also lampshaded:Albert: "They even killed the puppies. How could they kill something that cute?"Seven: "Are you kidding me? Cute? So What? Is cuteness of something a good enough reason not to kill it?"
- Demonic Possession: The bishop is possessed by twin dragon spirits, although it's unclear whether it's willing possession or even if he's possessed all the time, or only during his rituals.
- Duality Motif: The bishop has one grey eye and one brown and is possessed by two opposite dragon spirits.
- Easter Egg:
- There used to be a hidden page but it was removed. The page was accessed by clicking on a glowing spell next to the page were the white spirit Raven dies. The main things it revealed are that Hati and Raigho are brothers, Hati was banished from his pack by their mother because of a superstition, and Raigho chose to leave with him despite the pleadings of their father.
- Before Hati appeared in the comic, if you clicked a certain area a picture would appear of him with the words "coming soon."
- Elemental Powers: The white spirit snow leopard summoned a snowstorm on a whim.
- Endangered Species: There are no more humans being born because of the human white spirit's death. The comic implies this may also lead to the fading away of good because he was the guardian of good, and the extinction of wolves, because they are a brother species.
- The End of the World as We Know It: The premise of the whole comic is that the balance of all things has been upset, thus everything is slowly going down the drain.
- Fantastic Racism:
- A snow leopard refers to humans as "wretched apes."
- Some of the humans really don't like wolves.
- Finger Wag: Albert does this with both hands at some hunters that were threatening him and Seven.
- First-Name Basis: Iki with his adoptive mother.
- Foreshadowing: The cover for "Chapter VI – Fangs of Steel" is of a wolf skull being pierced by broken sword blades, two of which are going through the eye sockets. It's probably not a coincidence that a important character loses a eye in this chapter.
- Freudian Excuse: She's not a villain, but the tragic death of most of her litter is at least partly to blame for Jera's attitude.
- Glowing Eyes: All the black/white spirits have this along with ethereal markings around their eyes, though the markings can be hidden and the eyes don't glow all the time.
- God in Human Form: Iki is actually the mortal from of Sköll, the white spirit wolf.
- Good Colours, Evil Colours: Subverted. The black and white spirits are not inherently good or evil, and are not always completely white or black (Iki, the white spirit wolf, is off white, and the white spirit raven is black feathered).
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Raigho receives a glowing scar over his right eye after he had it gorged out by Seven, and one on his right side when he was accidentally stabbed in the gut.
- Gorn: Feeding wolves don't have the best of table manners.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: The black spirit Wolf Hati is trying to save the world, but he's willing to kill Sköll/Iki's innocent pack mates to do so. Meanwhile, the white spirit wolf Sköll wants the world to die, but the world is going to get rotten anyway because the guardian of good died so goodness is dying with her.
- Hellhound: The form Hati takes on in the realm he takes Iki to evokes this.
- Howl of Sorrow: The wolves do this after Gebo's old pack is killed.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: Gebo interprets a human with a gun on a horse as a two headed elk with a voice like thunder.
- Identical Stranger: A wolf pelt that looks like Iki except with orange eyes.
- Interspecies Friendship: Hati and the two ravens. One raven even sacrifices himself for Hati.
- Largely Normal Animals: The wolves talk and reason very similarly to how humans would, but in regards of their motivations, instincts and sophistication (or lack thereof) they are still depicted mostly quite close to what one would expect of real wolves.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The self imposed kind. Iki forgot his life as Sköll. It took a encounter with his brother Hati for him to remember.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The black and white spirit humans are this in some concept art, but like all white and black spirits they both can change gender upon reincarnation, so this only applies some of the time.
- Light Is Not Good:
- The white spirit snow leopard is very malevolently territorial at the very least.
- The wolf Sköll, a white spirit, wants the world to "die in darkness."
- The Load: Iki is a Big Eater that is bad at hunting, is clumsy, and slow. The revamp gives him a excuse; the constant traveling leaves him little time to practice hunting.
- Locked in a Freezer: The snow leopard caused an avalanche that trapped the sledders in.
- Mood Whiplash: It abruptly goes from a shocking and sad scene of a entire pack deadto a humorous scene with Seven. Not that long after we have the
Narm of Kaya's magnificent eyelashes immediately followed by Kaya finding her entire pack dead. On deviantart, this is make worse by the author posting a Self Parodying Take That Me image right under the page. - Multiple Head Case: The black and white spirit dragons are are joined at the sides.
- My Beloved Smother: Jera towards Isa while crossing over towards Wicked Stepmother with Iki.
- Nightmare Face: The last panel of 263 has Skoll putting on a Slasher Smile when a grieving Jera pleads with him to bring Raigho back to life. Commentators below even photoshopped it onto a pic of Smile Dog.
- Noble Wolf:
- The wolf Jera is a firm believer in this trope. This is played for comedy.
- The wolves in this comic are portrayed as flawed, but ultimately mostly good.
- Occult Blue Eyes: White spirits have this paired with glowing eye marks as a identifying characteristic.
- Oh, My Gods!: Jera swears by Fenrir's (the monstrous Norse wolf god) name at the sight of Iki's disgusting appearance after eating.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Seven darts Sköll, Jara (who has just recently witnessed Iki's transformation into him) tells him "Don't worry, Mommy will handle this." Jara normally singles out Iki as not being one of her pups, but if she's acknowledging herself as his adoptive mother, it marks the instant she's accepting him, if belatedly.
- Our Souls Are Different: All spirits are shades of gray, except for a single white spirit and single black spirit to keep the balance between the other spirits. The white and black spirits can be Reincarnated and even the bugs have souls.
- Pet the Dog: Downplayed. While Sköll does agree to carry out Jara's desperate plea to revive her mate (regardless of the stakes), he precedes this good deed by laughing maniacally and letting her know (complete with unsettling grin) that he's only doing this on the nihilistic whim that there's little left for him to do except "pretend to be one big happy family".
- Plot Hole: After Raigho is healed, Seven's blood on his mouth disappears. Why is not explained. Perhaps the blood was sucked back into the wound?
- Precision F-Strike: Seven's "Well, fuck."
- Prophetic Names The white spirit wolf Sköll, whose name means "Treachery," betrays his brother Hati.
- No Party Like a Donner Party/What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The sledders had to resort to eating the dogs. Considering in this world the dogs are intelligent (although they can't communicate with humans)...
- Reincarnation: The white and black spirits can be reincarnated, but apparently they also can die a final death, one in which they don't rejuvenate. Apparently being eaten alive by another black or white spirit is one way for this to happen, going by what Sköll said.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The entire pack from chapter 2. Yes, even the puppies.
- Really 700 Years Old: Sköll and his brother Hati are at least over 300 years old.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The black spirits from have red eyes and Tron Lines. The evil part is frequently averted, however.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The names Fehu, Jera, and more derive from the old Runic alphabet.
- Retcon: Raigho's face markings were changed slightly. Also, the dart that hits Sköll in the ass was changed, probably because it looked like a flower had sprouted out of his ass.
- Roar Before Beating: The wolves are shown growling at an elk before killing it.
- Tangled Family Tree: Raigho, Hati, and Iki/Sköll's relationship is complicated. Hati, Sköll's sibling since the dawn of time, was reincarnated into Raigho's mother's litter, making Raigho Hati's blood brother. When Raigho became an adult, he adopted Iki/Sköll. So Hati is both Iki/Sköll's brother and uncle. It's weird, but no actual incest is involved.
- Taking the Bullet: Munin does this for Hati.
- Savage Wolves:
- Raigho eventually reveal himself to be one of these. He just keeps attacking Seven for a stupid reason, even after she gorges out his eye.
- Jera is probably one of these, considering her volatile temper.
- Saving the World: The attempt to do something about the cosmic imbalance created by the loss of the human white spirit.
- Scenery Porn: Lots of really gorgeous landscape backgrounds.
- Shout-Out:
- Iki at one point hopes that there are no woozles or werebadgers around. Jera asks him if he's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.
- During one of Seven's If I Were A Rich Woman daydreams, The Black Blood Alliance and Spider-Man comics can be seen.
- Shrinking Violet: Gebo, the white wolf.
- Sinister Minister: The first we see of the bishop is him sacrificing a cat and drawing runes with its blood.
- Slasher Smile: Skoll puts on a particularly nightmarish grin when he agrees to resurrect Raigho, even if he comes out an abomination, so he and his pack can continue playing happy family before the end of the world.
- Sterility Plague: No human babies have been born in the last 3 years.
- Stern Chase: The pack is being chased by humans.
- Straw Nihilist: Sköll is the "fuck the world, it's rotten anyway" variant.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Unlike most other examples of this trope, the Super-Persistent Predator is a main character, though we probably aren't supposed to sympathize with his actions. Said character, the wolf Raigho, doesn't stop attacking the human Seven after he misunderstands and thinks she is impersonating a god like figure. Even after she gorges out his eye.
- Sweat Drop: Raigho, in response to Iki's Growling Gut.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Kaya, the female wolf Iki takes a liking to, had eyelashes for a while, but these were quickly removed after they received backlash.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The black spirits. While they are not inherently evil, they certainly can be sinister and menacing.
- Walking the Earth: Iki's pack is on a long journey.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Said word for word by Seven's father.
- White Wolves Are Special: Played with. There are entirely mundane white wolves in the setting, but white wolf + blue eyes always means you're looking at Skoll reincarnated. Othala is appropriately freaked out when she realizes one of her territory's visitors fits that criteria.
