User:Totalnerduk/Erfworld

Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob is a fantasy/comedy webcomic written by Rob Balder of PartiallyClips and illustrated by Jamie Noguchi. It updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. Erfworld is published at Giant in the Playground which enjoys a massive amount of traffic each day (possibly exceeding that of some traditional "print comic" websites, see graph in references section) alongside Rich Burlew's webcomic, The Order of the Stick, and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, ShareAlike license.

The comic's humor largely revolves around fantasy videogames, roleplaying games, popular culture references, and historical references, with frequent puns and sight-gags, as well as letter changes in frequently used names (spidews, dwagons and twolls instead of spiders, dragons and trolls, for example).

Although a very recent arrival on the webcomic "scene", Erfworld has already garnered critical acclaim from no less than Time magazine as well as other webcomic creators.

Characters

 * Stanley the Tool, aka Lord Stanley The Plaid: Overlord of the city of Gobwin Knob, and descendant of the nearly lost Plaid tribe, he is egotistical and has almost no tactical ability. He possesses the Arkenhammer, an ancient and mysterious tool of divine origin, resembling a toy hammer. Apparently other Arkentools exist, and Lord Stanley has declared an ongoing war as an effort to find them. Unfortunately, his inept handling of the war (particularly his promoting of only the handsomest men in his army) led to the loss of all the eleven cities he once owned, leaving only the capital (Gobwin Knob). He had Wanda summon "The perfect warlord" in an attempt to win the battle for Gobwin Knob, which yielded Parson Gotti.


 * In his first meeting with Parson, Stanley declared himself a "tool", due to Parson convincing him that the highest title where Parson comes from is "tool". Drawing a connection between this title and his search for the Arkentools, Stanley happily declared himself a tool.


 * Wanda Firebaugh: a Croakamancer (a necromancer, and possibly a wielder of spells to "croak" enemies, like fireballs) serving Lord Stanley. She is very patient and formal, and highly skilled in strategy, although Lord Stanley's shortsightedness and ego tend to ruin her plans. Wanda tends toward depression and a lack of hope, mostly due to her Lord's incompetence.


 * She is skilled at many magics, but has stated herself that only Croakamancy has any interest for her. She was the one who suggested using the warlord summoning spell, and cast the spell that drew Parson into Erfworld.


 * Prince Ansom: A handsome man and the commander in charge of King Slately's army, in opposition of the armies of Lord Stanley. He is a skilled tactician, but severely lacking in modesty. He appears to like Jillian Zamussels, but she is too proud to accept his proposal. His symbol appears to be a red radish. He carries the Arkenpliers, though he is not attuned to them, and thus can not use their special abilities.


 * Jillian Zamussels: A female barbarian and warlord, fighting for the army of Prince Ansom. She is very proud and independent, rarely follows orders and obviously likes slashing, chopping and destroying everything on her way along a mission. She has an unrealistically oversized sword, recalling similar weapons featured in Final Fantasy and other videogames.


 * Parson Gotti: Author of the webcomic Hamstard, and an archetypical "hardcore" gamer who spends months at a time designing strategy games for his own amusement. He is overweight, slovenly and sarcastic but a gifted strategist and designer. He was summoned to Erfworld by Wanda on Lord Stanley's orders, called by a spell meant to summon "the ultimate warlord". Despite being a slovenly gamer, Parson actually fulfills many of the requirements Lord Stanley asked for, such as: physical size, dietary and linguistic constraints, willingness to plan wars and "[kill] his foes for fun" (strategy gaming), and the desire to be summoned. Parson said he'd teleport into a fantasy world in a minute if he could, and was promptly summoned away.


 * Parson stands roughly twice as tall as Wanda Firebaugh, making him nearly three times Stanley the Tool's height. This fulfils another of Stanley's requirements, in "make him big". Parson has also adapted surprisingly well to his circumstances, possibly believing that he's having a "Wizard of Oz" moment (or that he's in a coma) and thus is simply dreaming.

Known Arkentools
Arkenhammer: Owned and attuned to Stanley the Plaid/Tool, the Arkenhammer has the power to control dwagons, and apparently can also turn nuts into birds. Arkenpliers: Owned but not attuned to Prince Ansom, they apparently have the power to turn any "uncroaked" (presumably meaning "undead") enemy to dust.

Trivia

 * The Titans of Ark, divine entities who forged Erfworld, are represented as giant Elvis Presleys.


 * When Parson was originally summoned, the word "Plot" appeared as the sound of his teleportation.


 * "Parson Gotti" is an anagram of "Protagonist."