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Published: 2018-05-07 13:58:50 +0000 UTC; Views: 975; Favourites: 52; Downloads: 0
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Hmm...for this page I actually drew some hens. There is a first time for everything apparently. Anyway, blocks of text again. If the writing is too small, let me know. As usual, thank you for reading!
Historical note: Blood-letting, or bleeding, was a very common medical practice in the medieval period. It was usually preformed by a specialized barber-surgeon who would drain the blood at specified times. The belief was based on ancient Greek medicine which revolved around the 'four humors' theory. In fact bleeding usually did more harm than good, but that didn't stop people from requesting it. It was very popular among brothers in the Military Orders, and both the Hospital and the Temple had regulations forbidding the knights from being bled too often because it weakened their fighting abilities.
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Comments: 60
Well, the placement of the Night Brothers is strategic in the sense that most of them are either sent to the Holy Land, or to Spain which is currently in the process of Reconquista. The Night Brothers in French commanderies however are just there to train and be watched and would, at some point be sent to the locations I listed above. As the Hospitaller Order did not take part in war between Christians (not usually anyway) the brothers in France don't see any serious military action until they are sent overseas.
As for bloodletting, it was partly because of the four humors theory, people just thought it's healthy in general. But it also was supposed to ehm...help control the libido... which is why people in religious Orders would do it quite a bit. But they were aware that it weakens the body and the knights in Military Orders had to receive their commander's permission to bleed themselves (and to fast)...
Sebastian DEFINITELY wishes he could eat normal food, both for its taste but also the social function of shared meals. But he can't, it makes him sick. As long as he doesn't use any powers than small amounts of blood from time to time are enough for him. But when he starts using his powers he will need more.
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Oh boy...I hope Sebastian isn’t completely unable to take the Eucharist, or if the small amounts involved there are something where he can manage the adverse effects. I know how I felt when I had a boss that mostly forbade me to take off work on Sundays to go to church for a whole year...and I’m not even Catholic or Orthodox. If I were Sebastian I would feel absolutely heartsick if I got physiologically banned from the Lord’s Supper.
That makes sense if the Reconquista was already underway that the border between Europe and the various taifa in al-Andalus had been pushed back a ways from Poitiers. I have a fairly good grasp on the history of Iberia, but not so much for the rest of Europe and I sometimes have trouble aligning the two.
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Gosh, you make such great points! Thank you! Yes indeed, he can take the Eucharist, thought it is...a bit painful for him...so it's something he wants to do, and does it, though it also always reminds him of his changed nature and the constant question of what this nature really is...
No worries, I know exactly what you mean, one can have a good grasp of one region but not knowing another one makes mapping them onto each other, so to speak, tricky. I think Poitiers is currently the domain of the King of England - though to be honest, French history of this period is pretty confusing because of the complexities of the feudal system. Rulership of regions overlapped between monarchs, barons, lords etc. So, for example, you could have a Margrave who was French, and was the vassal of the King of France in terms of some of his lands, but was the vassal of the Holy Emperor in terms of one of the properties he ruled. Would you call that property French or Holy Roman Emperor's then? It's really confusing...Luckily, this sort of stuff isn't important for the story. I try to keep things accurate, but not to the point of making it tedious to read...
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Glad to know that he can handle the Eucharist even though it’s difficult. That has to give him some spiritual comfort, given that it’s not impossible. After all, if he were damned, then he wouldn’t be able to withstand it at all. Often in medieval Catholicism there was considered to be virtue in suffering. Suffering for the sake of the Lord’s Supper...I imagine that would be pretty dang virtuous.
I unfortunately missed European history in school because I moved around so many times growing up, so I am mostly self-taught in that area. The only exception to that is that as part of earning my Spanish degree in college, I took a course in the history of Spain. And of course the history of Spain was always alluded to in all of my Spanish textbooks even before I got to my university-level courses. Hence Iberia has always been a lot more familiar to me than the rest of mainland Europe. I also know some about the UK given that America started as a British colony. But again, not as much about the mainland.
And wow, I did not know it was possible to be a vassal to the King of France and the Holy Roman Emperor at the same time without getting into deep shit for conflict of interest or even treason.
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Looks like I missed out a lot of pages since the last time I was active, so imma check through the comics now! Always a pleasure to return to your comics
Drinking blood from blood-letting seems kinda gross to me since I associate it with sickness. On that note, would a vampire be affected by diseased blood? As a supernatural being I'd guess not, but as a creature, well, it can't be healthy
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I know what you mean! Yeah, I imagine it is sort of gross. And I'm sure all the other vampires think so too...But no, they can't get sick from diseased blood. Some blood diseases can be carried by vampires though so that they spread it on the people they drink from (if they drink directly so to speak). But they wouldn't feed that sort of diseased blood to them...In fact most of the time the blood isn't bad at all - bloodletting was often used in the middle ages as a precaution by healthy people. Or to 'help' things like headaches!
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Huh, I see. I guess it's seen the same way as, I dunno, vitamin pills taken by healthy people today. Being female I'd say nooo thank you to blood-letting. I already do my own once a month lol
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Not a pleasant situation for them either, but at least they're still human. So that's how they get fed! I wonder, do your vampires prefer human blood over animal blood? If so, the meals from blood-letting would be a treat ^^ Besides, it's good there's a permanent supply of that even for the fasting periods where brothers wouldn't eat meat for days on end. Also, I always found the practice of blood-letting interesting! I guess they didn't really understand how it functioned so they often overdid it, like people nowadays would do with weight loss pills or stuff like this, so that's why they had to set up a maximum number of bleedings they were allowed to do xD
Awesome page, I love the first panel especially!
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Good questin! Yes, they do, indeed, prefer human blood overr animal blood in general. Human blood is also more nourishing. So they need to drink larger quantities of it than of human blood.
Yes exactly, they overdid it often eith the bleeding. That’s why the Hospitaller Order actually had regulations abOut when and how often brothers can be bled (obviously it weakened their fighting abilities...)
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I see, I thought they might be the case. Poor Seb, I wonder how easily he got used to giving up food and drinking blood. I guess the thirst also "helped", since he didn't have any other choice...
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This just keeps getting more and more interesting. I imagine being a vamp would be a great inconvenience to a noble friar or monk...
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Thank you!
Yeah exactly. Well, he'll have to make the best of it I suppose...
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On the one hand: immortal. On the other hand, no more pizza.
Rough life.
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i love the first panel, to be honest. this feels like a sort of "breathing out" release of tension scene. the arc of this story works so well.
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I'm so glad you say that. That's exactly what I had in mind!
I think the story is nearing the end - I think another 6-8 pages...Thank you so much for following all this time! I really appreciate you reading and taking the time to comment! Thank you! 
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i've enjoyed following the story so much, so also thank you.
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Ha! the fan who made the crack about the vampire chicken should only see what happens when a flock of chickens gets hold of a live mouse! Vampires are tame by comparison!
It's an odd thing about bloodletting- true that at this time medical practitioners used it as a cure -all, but it seems that once(perhaps in Greek times) it had a sound practical basis for certain complaints: www.livescience.com/36420-bloo… It seems you have come up with another possibility- of course, why waste it when you have a cadre of worthy Brothers who might object to drinking the stuff on moral grounds.
Query- 'He doesn't have any yet...' ? Meaning vampires as a species only develop certain powers as a result of ...need? Personality? Experience? I have a reason for asking, something to do with a new character I've been working on.
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Woah, that sounds pretty drastic! I never imagined hens to be vicious. Except for roosters. I have an irrational fear of roosters. When I was little I visited some relatives in the countryside and their rooster chased me around. I've been scared of them ever since.
That's article you linked is so intersting! I've always thought that bloodletting was one of those weird ideas that have no grounding in any fact what soever, just in crazy theories (the four humors). But perhaps tehre was a rationale behind it! It would explain why it survived so long...
Ah, well, as usual with me, there are many answers here. Generally vampires become more and more powerful with time. Some powers come pretty naturally depending on the vampire's nature/personality/needs/bloodline: these are the 'simple' ones like unnatural strenght, speed or stamina (in the case of the prisoner it was clearly stamina.) Other powers can only be acquired after being taught and training them a lot. These are the more unusual ones - the shapeshifting, necromancy, becoming invisible, reading minds etc. These more spectacular powers depend on time and practice, natural inclinations, natural talent, and again, bloodline (whether such powers were present in previous generations - thus Sebastian's natural 'powers' are necromantic in nature, just like those of his sire, but he won't be enthusiastic about that.) However the bloodline doesn't always work. For example Chlodvig's bloodline is deeply connected with shapeshifting and communicating with animals and he's a prime example of that, surpassing most other shapeshifters in talent and ability, but Rhode whom he turned, can't really do these things because they are so not inline with her personality. And finally some vampires come from such weak stock that they can only get the basic powers without the really special ones. One like that will be introduced soon.
Actually I was thinking of having a 'Rhode explains' series where Rhode explains all the technicalities of the world because it's become quite complex by now.
Now I'm really curious about who it is you've been working on! A new story?
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Oh, hens (and roosters, I'd imagine) are pretty cold blooded - until you go to your first faculty meeting you won't have encountered anything like a bunch of hens ganging up on a weaker member of the flock. Actually, a rooster is supposed to keep order!
Yes- I have read that a lot of medical knowledge that the Greeks (Pythagoras et al., I suppose) had discovered (remember all those medical texts you mentioned when we were discussing what books Hephastia's father might have preserved?) were passed on to the Arabs after several attempts to expunge 'Pagan texts' (eg en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_bur… ) - so that what survived might easily have been merely bits and pieces and random observations by ignorant bystanders.
I'd love to see 'Rhode explains' if you ever write it!
I'm working on several stories at the moment, one of which involves a troope of Medieval mummers who are joined by a mysterious stranger who has the ability to influence other's minds, which begins as merely a talent for assuming any of the 'masks' used in the troupe's productions - without an actual mask. At first disorientated and confused, as his power grows he becomes a danger to everyone around him. I thought once I would never write a vampire story, but after working with your characters Chlodvig, Rhode and especially Theodosios I've had a notion to try to create one of my own. I've named him Caligari after the eponymous Doctor in the 1930's horror film. You are, as I've said before, hugely inspiring!
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Ah, wow that sounds brilliant! One of my problems is showing the more destructive aspects of vampirism, and from the sounds of it, you will be touching on that very issue! And that mask idea is just perfect! Gosh, I really look forward to reading it when you finish!!
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I am at present on the dreaded page one, but I've been mulling this one over for some time, and it is just taking shape- you have no idea how much it helps to have you say , 'I really look forward to reading it'!
I was thinking how insidious it would be to be able to assume the appearance of anyone at all- whether it were due to actual shape shifting or to mass hypnosis. Or even a kind of transference with a victim...suppose one were constantly on the move, part of a mummer's troupe, and one's victims did not seem to 'disappear' until long after the troupe had left town...
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Having all the plot points/world building elements neatly tied up and addressed like this really shows both the fluidity of the dialogues and the solidity of your script! I had quiet a few interrogations over the last few pages and they've been all answered!
There's always a thin line between having people being incompetently irresponsible and just, well... human, and you managed to justify all the mistakes made very fairly to the characters.
Also, I'm a big fan of Conain's ironic and almost mean-spirited tone here.
Ah yes, pre-XXth century western medicine, one of the many reasons why I'll never understand how people can tend to get nostalgic of historical periods
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Gosh, that is such a great thing to hear (read)! Thank you so much! It really means a lot to me!
And I'm glad Conain doesn't seem too incompetent. I never intended him to be, yet the story was sort of based on his mistake so I was worried that's how he might appear. He was intended to be a person with a very limited ability to 'read' people and not very emotional. For him it isn't obvious that not explaining things will make people naturally curious. He also didn't expect the gossip to spread so quickly or that someone might feel sorry for a prisoner who isn't visibly being particularly mistreated. He's more of an 'orders and duty' sort of man and expects everyone else to be too...
I agree! It's always made me shudder. Also, I'm happy to notice you say western - things were a bit better in Byzantine xenons, weren't they?
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Personal weaknesses are very different to incompetence or carelessness, as long as you see the character doing all he/she can do to prevent a catastrophe, you can't say that the character got what was coming for him/her, so as a reader, you don't face palm when something bad happens to them (which would defuse the impact of the consequences of their actions), that's why it works here.
And, I just realized: the reason he kept it a secret (blindly fulfilling his mission) resulted in all the bad things that happened, so basically, he created the situation he wanted to avoid because of his attempt to prevent it. Now, isn't that the perfect definition of a Greek tragedy!
I think byzantine scholars tend to idealize byzantine medicine just to show how "superior" it was to the franks but when you look at numbers like life expectancy, it wasn't that higher compared to western Europe. For most people, life expectancy was about 40 (which is actually lower than in classical Greece! although there weren't as many exchanges and thus diseases spreading back then). Of course, for the aristocrats it was different, on average, the macedonians, komnenians and paleologians emperors died in their 60s which isn't that bad. Some aristocrats turned monks even reached 70 or 80 years old. But all those numbers aren't that far off from their western neighbors (albeit a tiny bit higher).
But for medicine itself, they followed mostly Greek traditions mixed with christian superstitions which ranged from common sense to random to completely counter productive.
The saints and ascetics, who the people addressed when they were sick had mixed feelings about doctors, some said that they were charlatans and that the only hope for a cure is praying to God and hope for a miracle but most of them recommended those who went to them to a doctor they knew (I think that's what Symeon the Stylite did).
All in all, yes, things were a bit better in Byzantium but simply because of contacts with the Arab and Persian world (especially in the last few centuries of the empire). Thanks to that, they at least understood that containing the sick was important to prevent the spreading of a disease.
The main difference with the western world was simply hygiene. Although, after the Arab invasions, only Constantinople kept a service of (sort of) public bath running. Most were attached to monasteries and churches and not free (except for the poor) while the aristocrats had their own in their palaces, keeping with the roman tradition that clean means healthy (well except if you're called Romanos III Argyros). That goes along with the hospitals in the capital but the biggest one had only 80 beds, certainly not enough to greet all the sick, wounded and diseased who lived in the streets of the capital. I wouldn't be surprised if life expectancy for commoners was lower in the cities than in the countryside to be honest.
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So that’s how he will be fed! Btw why do some brothers practice bloodletting?
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Hmm...to be honest I'm not sure why they did it. I've read in a number of places it was very popular. I guess for one thing it was generally considered very healthy. So they were maintaining their health (or rather, they thought they are, obviously we know it's not true now). For another, I suppose some might have thought of it a bit like fasting maybe? You know mortifying the flesh and all that stuff? Dunno.
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I see. Do they know why or ask why the blood is being taken away (and that it’s being fed to vampires?)
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Well, I think that it's not that surprising that it's taken away, I mean, they wouldn't just let it go all over the floor, is it? So it's only nautral that it gets poured into a basin or something and taken out. As for whether the knights know what it's used for, as usual, I think it differs case by case - in the commandeires where they have a few of the Night Brothers and the humans are familiar with them, yes, most of the knights know. On the other hand, I doubt Guillaume will tell the men in Montpellier what Sebastian eats now. You know, to avoid freaking them out more than they already are.
Also the Hospitaller Order runs hospitals - a couple of small hospices in Europe and a huge one in Acre. That's actually where it got its name from. With my co-author we decided that the blood from the hospital also gets handed out to the vampires, but I'm pretty sure the patients don't know that. I think it would decrease their sense of safety and comfort if they knew...
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I wonder what the vampires generally think of drinking blood. Do they enjoy it or do they just do it because they have to do it to survive? Generally speaking is it something they enjoy drinking?
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Hmm...I assume most do enjoy drinking it. Sebastian definitely doesn't though, and does it only to survive.
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He hates the taste and what it represents?
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I think he can't get over what it actually is and finds it a bit repulsive...
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What does Humphrey think of it?
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Actually, Humphrey is extremely unusual here. He doesn't think this at first, but with time he starts thinking that vampires drinking blood can actually be better than humans because they don't have to kill (some vampires kill when they drink blood and that's awful, but they don't need to - they can just take a little and leave the person/animal alive, just slightly weakened.) However humans who eat meat (and that's almost everybody back in his day) kill animals for food. Humphrey is really fond of animals and while he eats meat, he kind of wishes he didn't have to. I'm pretty sure if he lived in the modern age he would be a vegetarian...
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Ah, I see. That's an interesting perspective.
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Ohh now that is a very clever suggestion with the blood letting! It's a good thing they live in a time when it's regular practice! Smart thinking Conain!
Aw does this mean we won't be seeing Bevis anymore? Now that Seb is going away?
Those chickens are sweet, and look quite happy at the generous donation being given to them
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I'm glad you think so! I was pretty proud of that idea - medieval religious communities were pretty big on blood-letting, isn't it just the perfect source of food for vampires. And how efficient too...
Yeah, I'm afraid so. They do meet a couple of years later, very unexpectedly though!
Now I wish I drew more of the hens. You know, to truly merit being called a 'swarm'! 
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Honestly I never even thought about it (despite knowing they practised it), so your solution is pretty genius! And they'd only have thrown that blood out anyway.
Awww noooo, will Seb get a chance to say goodbye? Or will he just 'vanish' and leave Bevis thinking he died for convenience of keeping Night Brothers a secret?
Lol the other hens are hiding elsewhere, waiting to swarm
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Thank you for checking it out!
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Your welcome and I hope u watch me I make comics too
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Great first hens! I think the white hen is actually a vampire (contemplating going after that tasty finger rather than the bread it's holding). Vampire hens are extra dangerous because their thick covering of feathers protects them from the sun.
This peaceful sunny scene is a nice contrast to all the dark, sinister, dungeon shots that went before.
The writing is a good size. I wouldn't make it too much smaller with this particular font though.
Ahhh bleeding...It's one of those weird things like phrenology (only with a much longer history) that people seemed so keen on. There's something morbidly fascinating about all the strange things that went on in the history of medicine.
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Thank you! They were tougher to draw than I expected. As a person who has always been a bit afraid of roosters, I must admit a vampiric one would be a scary thing indeed! :scared:
I know right? The history of medicine is fascinating and so odd. Like, how could people think this was a good idea for so long??? Thank goodness for the medical revolution of the XXth century!
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Now that you've revealed your weakness to me I will surely exploit it with my army of trained roosters. :0 I shouldn't laugh though; I have an irrational fear of hummingbirds suddenly zooming towards my eyes and stabbing them out.
Ahhh...the good old days, when a soothing cow dung poultice or a dead frog were used to tread ailments instead of these silly antibiotics people seem so fond of these days. I particularly love the early medical/anatomical illustrations where you wonder if the artist had eve seen a human or was just working off a loose text description.
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I don't mind the talking too much, and the chickens are very good!
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Glad the talking isn't too tedious!
Thank you! It was my first time drawing chickens!
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