About a year from strip 1. Give or take a couple of weeks. Here’s how I figure it.
Book 1 took 3 days. They rested twice to heal/ regain spells.
Book 2 - the starmetal quest, and the journey to Azure city took an unspecified time, but it doesn’t seem to be longer than two or three weeks.
They arrived in Azure city right before New Year.
And it’s about three or four weeks to New Year again.
Are we still in book 5?
This raises the question of what they need the soul FOR. Especially since under the agreement, they only keep it temporarily. Also, does V have to die in order for them to get the soul?
V assumed that the soul transfer would be after his/her death, but the fiends never actually stated that. It seems pretty likely that they’ll be able to borrow his/her soul before then. As to why? It’s likely that they’ll be able to take V’s soul out of his/her body and replace it with something a little more to their liking.
I believe so.
How would one know? I don’t really care, but “book 5” is in this thread title, so are we still there three years into the thread?
Well, there is no 5th volume available to buy yet, so I’m assuming we’re still reading it first-run, as it were. The natural stopping place for this one seems to be after the whole Girard’s Gate arc is wrapped up, so we’ve probably got a bit to go yet, especially with Burlew’s update rate.
Thanks, jayjay. I’d asked the same question here, 13 months ago, and I was still wondering how the thread title made sense. But that’s okay, I can deal. 
It’s always been pretty explicit when a book ends.
Book 1 - “it’s the end of the story arc. Gotta give them a good panel for the end of the trade paperback”
Book 2- “Ooh splash page” “must be the end of a story arc”
Book 3- “The order Of The Stick will return September 17th”
Book 4- “The Order Of The Stick will return August 31st”
Based o9n the number of updates, I’d think we’re pretty close to the end now.
Thank for this, Peter Morris. “What a Long Strange Trip it’s Been”
And then two more to go!
(It’s going to be seven books, right? Nobody writes a series with six books).
Burlew has said the fourth book contains the halfway point in the story, so it looks like seven books in all (not counting side books).
Interestingly, the number of strips per book is increasing pretty close to linear. Excel is being very annoying, of course, but based on that projection Book 5 should indeed end very soon. Book 7 will end around strip 1250.
I don’t buy that. Book 1 had 120 strips, and each of books 2-4 had about 180. That doesn’t strike me as a linear increase.
Nice! The title’s true, too. (I roared when I figured out what he meant.) And that’s why the Order’s so lovable.
What are the odds that all of these conjurations they’ve triggered are illusory?
Hmmm…I’d normally say pretty good, given that Girard LOVED illusions. On the other hand, we’re talking about Burlew here…having all the traps be illusory would be too obvious. And the most effective use of illusion when you’ve got the homeground advantage is to make the dangerous REAL traps look like harmless things…
Are all strips going to break the fourth wall in some way from now on? It’s getting less and less funny.
That’s kind of been a feature of the strip since the beginning, actually. The characters are aware they’re in the world of a role-playing game, and also aware that they’re in a comic strip.
Belkar finally got his mount.
I predict he’ll try to keep it, not kill it.