Candar, a large continent in a Realm known as Psevon. In recent years, the Emperor Supreme has declared the open-faith of Sha’aoh the official religion of the Land, a decision followed by an era of peace without militaristic coercion. Across the nation, though the wilds can be dangerous, this peace has been enjoyed by all, facilitated by the Genfon. However, a sudden entanglement with Zemya across the Pierden Sea brings war, and with it, tension. This tension heightens a social illness that had plagued Candar for decades before the kindly faith of Sha’aoh: witches.

Once true betrayers of sanctity for life and arcane, witches have since become fearmongered propaganda, deemed such for little more than stepping out of line with the Ward. Umbra and Nero are two such perpetrators, and this is the beginning of their story.

*Note: this is the first comic in a 10 comic series.

This is only the first part of a 10 part graphic novel, the beginnings of something grand. Every part of the graphic novel is written and in the storyboard phase, but the first part is already done. So I'm launching it in the hopes of finding an interested audience to grow with! If this goes well enough, we'll do the whole rest of the graphic novel in one go, rather than spacing out the parts in numerous Kickstarters. Each part will be 20+ pages, so the whole graphic novel will be over 200 pages when it's done!

Themes
The story in the graphic novel is LGBTQIA+, and does feature several mature themes, but not graphic sexual depictions. It will explore hate, prejudice, familial trauma, organized othering, and other such elements of life and its various oppressions. But it will also contain love, beauty, found family, magic, and anarchism. Hopefully, many of you can find a home with these characters, as I have over these several years.

Characters
This first comic will introduce Umbra and Nero, the protagonists.

Umbra is studious, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. She plans, prepares, and prefers nonviolence when possible.

Nero is stubborn, with a dislike for Genfon. They have a knack for seductive methods in equal measure to their knack for pyrotendency.

Both are witches. Both care about people. And both are doing what they can to survive in Kir'a, unwillingly unaware of the increasing tension throughout all of Candar, a fear that's yet to infect their small town.

This whole thing started with a D&D setting. I know, the bandwagon. But it started nearly 6 years ago, and has grown far beyond the constraints of the system it started in. I only mention this to give the whole picture, and to state that I've been making stories my whole life. It became more than an idea when I got into my first polyamorous relationship, and wanted to give healthy representation I'd not yet seen. Since then, it's spiraled into a grand world, a script for which has been in the works for the better part of 4 years. The whole of this story is broken into 4 parts, each comprised of 10+ comics. This truly is just the beginning of everything.

I’ve done everything but the actual art for this project, which was done by the amazingly talented Yuki. They’ve worked tirelessly to bring to life the rough sketches and childish scribblings I’ve sent them, transforming them into images more beautiful than I could’ve imagined. Without them, this wouldn't exist.

I wanted to keep this part simple. There's a PDF-only option, but if you plan on getting a sticker, I recommend going with any of the other pledges, since those all include the physical comic and will make shipping the stickers essentially free.

Shipping will be calculated right before product is actually moved to get the most accurate costs. I know, shipping is expensive nowadays and I'm sorry.

Once we reach the goal, the next steps are pretty straightforward. We'll finish the comic, get it properly formatted for e-reading, and then send the files to print! We'll be using Mixam for our printing, since they allow small batches at affordable pricing. 

Shipping

As with most projects now, shipping will be calculated as close to the ship date as possible. You'll get the digital content and shipping address taken care of through Backerkit. I'm trying to keep shipping costs as low as possible, especially being a team of essentially 2.

Ideally, shipping to the US won't be in the double-digits.

The plan is to get this in your hands by October 2024. 

The Witchweave is the name of the strange multiverse that KTW: Runa exists in. I have numerous projects in the works within the Witchweave, including comics, short stories, poems, ttrpgs, a board game, and music. If you want to read a bit about how Candar came to be where it is, this article I wrote will give some insight.

Follow along. Theres much more to come.