"Why? What does it do!? Will it turn me invisible!? Turn my thoughts into green reality?... Remind me to always drink my Ovaltine? Running out of things for a ring to do here, boss."
Zelfia
is an Urban Fantasy Webcomic currently hosted on ComicFury. It chronicles the story of a young Asraan named Mayy who, along with her multispecies friends, seeks to know the truth about the ring she wears around her neck and why she was left to be raised in the human world. On Hiatus since 2015.
Zelfia provides examples of:
- Arc Words: "And she shall bear witness to the End."
- Anyone Can Die: Up to and including the protagonist.
- Art Evolution: The comic has gone from this to this to this.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Mayy is not the task-oriented type.
- Author Appeal: The author has blatantly admitted that Mayy's visual design, from her bleached bangs down to her combat boots, is "basically all my visual fetishes all rolled into one."
- Badass Longcoat: Que'v has one when it's not his wings
- Big Damn Heroes: Que'v's entrance in comic #78. It's even called out by name in the comic's title.
- Blatant Lies: During the one-year recap: "After a night spent on board where I totally didn't snore..."
- Doubles as a Suspiciously Specific Denial
- The Cameo: Hoggle from Labyrinth and Link from The Legend of Zelda appear in the background of Comic #113
- Chekhov's Gunman: Dremen has shown up a few times in portraits and alongside other seemingly-random Eternals before he was ever mentioned by name.
- Clip Show: Comics 172-174 feature art from previous comics interspersed with Mayy's running commentary.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: An Asraan's "aural trail" will indicate what type they are. Mayy, a Wood Sprite, has a green trail. Jun, being a Water Sprite vampire, has a blue one. We've also seen orange and pink trails.
- Continuity Nod: Will almost always be pointed out in The Rant or the Alt Text.
- Cryptic Background Reference: The Contact Wars, the Gates Beyond, and to a lesser extent, the Zelfia itself.
- The Eternal Tower was this for a while, too. Naturally, this was pointed out in The Rant before being explained in-universe.
- Doorstop Baby: Spoofed. Mayy's birth mother leaves her infant daughter on the doorstep of a human florist... who promptly calls Child Protective Services and puts her into the foster care system.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: So far, the series has included Elvens, Asraans, Demons, a Demon/Human hybrid, a minotaur, several made-up species, and vampires.
- Fantasy Pantheon: Que'v has sworn by the Gods, Jun swears by the Goddess, and the Elvens seem to worship "Sky." Whether that's the name of a deity or if they worship the actual sky has not been explored.
- Mayy has also said "Oh my god" once or twice, but generally in a figure-of-speech type of way.
- Fourth Wall Psych: Mayy's apparent fourth-wall-breaking recap of the first year's worth of comic turns out to be her explaining her situation to Dremen.
- Game Face: Jun has one. So does Cloud in the flashforwards.
- The Ghost: We've never actually seen a Galen.
- The Glomp: Que'v gives one to Mayy in Comic #83. The Alt Text assures us that it's a baddass glomp.
- Mayy returns the gesture thirty two comics later.
- Mayy returns the gesture thirty two comics later.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Mayy's a fairy who loves the bottle.
- Hulk Speak: Minotaurs don't use pronouns, which can lead to this.
- Humans Are Special: They're the only race without an Eternal. Their realm is also where Mayy was hidden for most of her life.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Que'v gives this speech to Cloud.
- In Medias Res: We have yet to see how Que'v and Mayy met, or really anything from before she crossed over.
- Insistent Terminology: Cloud and Raven are Elvens. A relatively minor running gag consists of Mayy calling them "elfs," someone immediately correcting her, and Mayy either not noticing or not caring.
- Line-of-Sight Name: The Asraan inscription on Mayy's ring looks a LOT like the English letters M-A-Y-Y.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Mayy is a literal example of all four.
- My Nayme Is: Mayy Storm.
- "The second Y is silent."
- Our Vampires Are Different: Apparently, water sprites aren't immune to vampirism.
- Scars Are Forever: Mayy gets bitten by a vampire at one point in the story. The wound heals, but she's left with two puncture marks on her neck.
- Secondary Character Title: Asraan legend notwithstanding, the actual character of Zelfia has not yet appeared beyond the flashforwards
- Ship Tease: Originally Mayy/Cloud, now leaning towards Mayy/Que'v.
- Sigil Spam: Dremen puts his leaf symbol everywhere.
- Splash of Color: Color in the comic denotes magic.
- Shout-Out: A whole slew, usually from Mayy herself
- As of Comic #90, Mayy wears a CM Punk shirt full-time
- YES THANK YOU LESLIE NIELSON
- Mayy makes herself sad when no one gets her Ghostbusters reference.
- Because "if you’re going to have grafitti in a comic book, at least ONE of them HAS to be a cut-off-or-otherwise-obscured 'Who watches the watchmen?' It’s the law."
- "Fantastic. I've died and gone to Hook."
- As of Comic #90
- Theme Naming: The Asraans: Mayy, Jun, and Juli.
- Lampshaded when Mayy asks aloud if the next Asraan she meets is going to be named "Aughust." True to form, almost a month later, we meet Augustine.
- Finally averted with Dremen...
- ...And resumed with Apryl.
- Translator Microbes: New Angeles comes with a citywide translation casting spell. Outside the city, you need a personal casting.
- Unsound Effect: A small sampling includes "TRAVERSE!" "LAND!" and "CRACKLE OMINOUSLY!" These have largely been discarded in later comics.
- Vampire Hickey: Mayy gets bitten by a vampire fairy early in the story. While she doesn't turn (due to not having did a blood exchange), the bite marks never fully heal and she goes from that point onward with two faded marks on her neck.
- Webcomic Time: In almost two years of real-world time, less than three days of comic time has been chronicled.
- Lampshaded in the Alt Text for Comic #106
- Lampshaded in the Alt Text for Comic #106
- Wingdinglish: The various graffiti on the walls are usually important omens for upcoming events in the comic. Other times they're just shoutouts.
- You Can't Go Home Again:
- Played With. Mayy isn't actually FROM the human world, but it's where she was raised since infancy. After crossing over to New Angeles, she can't go back.
- Cloud and Raven, meanwhile, are Elvens in exile, being able to physically return home, but unable to do so politically.
