See? He does it just to spite me. Pity, as it would have brought some of the “moral” themes and “plot” themes together.
My take is that the Hobgoblin capital was in the ass end of nowhere, with barely enough farmland to support the Hobgoblins on a subsistence diet, and bupkis in the way of natural resources. The had nothing to trade, no room to expand, no trade routes to levy a tax on… basically, they got the crappy land nobody else wanted. Azure city has the natural resources, excess crops, and trade routes to be a major player. Now the goblins have those too.
Also, you can see in the comic Alessan linked to that the continents are completely different - also, the northern polar ice cap seems to reach almost to the equator.
Hmm. Interesting theory, but I don’t think that’s the case. Didn’t the same thing happen to Blackwing?
It looks like his eyes turn the same pink as the rift in this strip, but in the flashback to the same scene, when you can see his head much more clearly, they’re normal.
On the other hand, Laurin’s eyes aren’t a solid pink, they’re a swirl of pinks and purples, just like the snarl itself.
Also, her eyes were previously in glowy-yellow psion mode, not her normal black, and she still had her active telepathy aura going. Her eyes should have continued showing her IME, but they didn’t. The switch to the swirls was pretty dramatic.
Blackwing’s eyes are normally depicted in white and non-glowy. It’s a little odd that they’re white, but black obviously wouldn’t work for contrast reasons. We could interpret it as his eyes being very reflective, and the white is light gleaming off of them, in which case it would make sense for them to reflect the color of the rift when he was close to it.
For a second there I thought you said Goobtopia. Although my home city playing Civilization was always Goobopolis.
Burlew has been answering questions on Twitter - I’ll try to winkle out the questions and answers and post them here for those not on Twitter (or without the patience to deal with it). No spoilers, a few teases, and some generally amusing comments to follow.
Okay - here they are. I’ve roughly sorted them into three groups for ease of reading, and have spoilered them just to avoid exploding the size of the page. Sorry if I missed any or you don’t agree with the groupings - this took longer than it should have as is.
All about the characters and the world (including a few juicy bits):[spoiler]
Q: Was there originally an intent to keep Durkon as Malach’s thrall a while longer (hence, the 100 strip comment)?
A: No, it was always intended to last only a short time. Thralls aren’t interesting characters.
Q. any chance of another strong lead female character joining the group in the next arch?
A. Depends on your definition of “lead.” If you mean equal to core 6, no. Otherwise, yes. One is already here.
Q. was Thog KIA in his match with Roy or will there be more of him in the future? (or neither?)
A. Those are not mutually exclusive scenarios.
Q. do you actually have a set answer to “the big three” questions.
A. I might, if I knew what they were
Q. V’s gender and The monster in the dark’s identity I forget the third…oh right Belkars death
A. Yes, I know all three.
Q. What class is Tarquin?
A. Upper
Q. Did Tarquin’s adventuring party have official name like Order of the Stick and Linear Guild do?
A. Vector Legion. TWITTER CANON
Q. What’s the snarl taste like?
A. Acrimony
Q. Is the MitD more a plaid kinda fellow or a polka dot chap?
A. Paisley, obviously.
Q. What’s the Snarl’s alignment?
A. Pulling slightly on the left front wheel. They should rotate its tires soon.
Q. I don’t know if its ever said, but is Elan’s mother still alive?
A. Yes, absolutely.
Q. I’ve always wondered…will we ever see Belkar’s history?
A. I did a short w/ some of Belkar’s history for KS backers which will eventually be printed. Probably not more than that, tho.
Q. We’ve been reading OOTS for 945 strips (plus print-only extras); isn’t it time to see under the hello kitty umbrella?
A. Nope.
Q. Nope? lol the more time you stretch the plot on and on the more people will bore out and quit reading
A. If it’s boring you, stop reading. No hard feelings. But I’m not changing years of planning to appease anyone else at this stage.[/spoiler]
About writing and planning the strip, the books and Kickstarter material:[spoiler]
Q. First off, love your comic! Brilliant. Second off, do you know how the KS stories are being put in print? One book or dispersed?
A. That will depend on their length and whether or not I have a better place for any given story. So, no idea yet.
Q. What percentage of the story would you estimate we’ve seen by now? How close are we to being done?
A. 71.34502%
Q. So how much more time does that give us? Three more years? More?
A. No less. Maybe more
Q. Any time table for rest of kick stater stories?
A. As soon as I can. I want nothing more than to get them off my plate, but I can’t let regular strip be any slower than it is.
Q. are there any arcs or storylines that in hindsight you wish you’d done differently in some way?
A. I wish I hadn’t left “Haley retrieves Roy’s body” for the books. I wish I had broken this arc into two, so it’d be easier to print.
Q. Where would you have split this arc?
A. When they left the Empire, before the pyramid. But there are too many threads that go through both to split now.
Q. I love that you’ve incorporated dinosaurs on this continent. Is that something you include in your D&D world-building? How?
A. In a sense. There are no bad monsters, only monsters you can find a niche for and those you leave for your next world.
Q. Are you planning anything special for 1000th OotS strip?
A. Posting it shortly after 999 and not long before 1001, hopefully
Q. Should we expect a break of a few months between the end of current arc and start of next one?
A. Few months? No. Less
Q. I love Redcloak. Who’s your favorite villain to write?
A. Mine too. Though Tarquin and Malack were fun, too
Q. Are you still having fun writing OOTS?
A. Mostly, yes. It’s hardest when I’m not feeling “funny” and need to think up a punchline anyway. The drama is always fun.
Q. Any ETA on the next A Monster for Every Season?
A. Won’t start until I finish at least one more story PDF. May-ish? Maybe?
Q. Will the compilation book for the super-sized current arc also feature bonus strips?
A. Yes, definitely.
Q. Which character did you have the most fun evolving for OotS?
A. Geez, all of them. Maybe Belkar, simply because it was such a challenge.
Q. How different is the story now from what you plotted day 1?
A. I didn’t plot ANYTHING on Day 1. But once I did plot it, it’s expanded or rearranged since then more than it’s changed.
Q. How long does it take to go from “Let’s make an OOTS compilation” to it actually going to press?
A. More than you’d think. Extra strips to draw, commentary to write, then a lot of strip formatting to get it ready for printing.
A. This time, more than usual, because I have to recreate 5 strips that got eaten, then re-letter the whole book for reasons.
Q. Was that the final panel of the book?
A. Future unclear. Ask again tomorrow.
Q. Don’t Split the Party ended at 672. Another book in the works?
A. Yes, but not yet. Lots of prep work to do before printing
Q. So which of the #OotS characters is you? Or any?
A. None of them. And also, all of them.
Q. What artwork in OotS have made you most pleased with the results?
A. Mostly the recent stuff I’ve done for the KS. The wallpapers, and the Monster for Every Season. And the dino chase.[/spoiler]
Other work and stuff about Rich:[spoiler]Q. Any ideas for projects after OOTS? Other than OOTS 2: Order Stickier, of course. 
A. Many, many ideas. None that I can share now. Some are already in the works (tho shelved while I finish Kickstarter work).
Q. do you get much chance to actually play D&D anymore?
A. No, but that’s OK. I’ll likely check out 5th Ed when it’s done.
Q. What do you think of D&D Next?
A. I’ve deliberately avoided it so far. I’m not planning on spending time playtesting, so I’d rather see it when it’s done.
Q. you have any ideas for post oots projects
A. Yes, many. Not all will wait that long
Q. Thumb all good now?
A. It’s complicated. As good as it’s getting, but there’s permanent loss of mobility + feeling. I just need to work around it.
Q. Did you ever get that Cintaq?
A. No; thumb injury made it less priority, since holding a pen is harder than using a mouse now.
Q. Would you ever, at the end of the comic, make a OoTS campaign book with stats?
A. I was working on one in 2007, then they announced 4th Ed and I shelved it. Now? Probably not.
Q. How did the release of 4e change your mind?
A. I was uncertain whether I was using 4e in the strip—or whether there would be a market for 3e after 4e was released.
Q. Think you’ll finish that series on world building?
A. Probably not. But I may write something else on the topic someday.
Q. What’s your favorite colour? And how could that possibly be connected to oots?
A. I like every color for different reasons and in different situations, and how that applies to OOTS should be self-evident.
Q. any plans for another Adventure Game expansion in the somewhat near future?
A. Near future? No. Someday? Maybe[/spoiler]
That was a great read, Gyrate, thanks!
The bits I thought were interesting were the implication (without commitment) that we’ll see Thog again “posthumously”, the note that a strong female character (Bandana?) will continue to be part of the action, and that Tarquin’s group are the Vector Legion.
And that the gap between books will be less than a “few months” long. Which is nice.
Maybe Thog and Belkar assault the Snarl in the afterlife.
Anything is possible.
Did anyone else notice that his three favorite villains are all Lawful Evil? I’ve always thought that that’s the most interesting villain alignment.
Lawful Evil and Chaotic Good come with their own built-in contradictions and complexities which always makes for good character development. The bad guy who follows rules and the good guy who doesn’t - those are the ones worth watching.
I find Lawful characters in general to be interesting (well, maybe not lawful neutral, bureaucrats are not so interesting). The villian who won’t cross certain lines, a hero enjoined to do something distasteful by an oath he’s taken, either side using ‘techincally true’ to hide something. It just makes for deeper storytelling than “welp, I’m chaotic, time to do whatever I feel like”.
True Neutral is also an interesting one (note that TN is not the same as neutral neutral), but too frequently that’s played out as “well, I did a good thing, time to do a bad thing now”
I’m playing around with that in a setting I’m fiddling with. In it, balance between Good and Evil isn’t just a philosophical point; a supernatural force actually compels it. If a great evil arises, a champion of good will appear to fight it–no matter how unlikely. Conversely, if a champion of good manages to kill their evil counterpart and survive, new evil threats will keep showing up to fight them. As a result, actually killing the Big Bad Guy only leads to more fighting, and against unknown opponents. Large portions of the populace could be argued to be a rather fatalistic brand of True Neutral; they will actually support an evil tyrant because they feel better off living under the tyrant than being caught in the middle of constant fighting. On the other hand, they will (secretly) work to undermine efforts by the tyrant to expand his power, because that will also draw more fighting down on them.
Fortunately, the Good guys have figured out a way to cheat.
Excellent post/username match, BTW. 
Interesting - that’s basically the premise for Final Fantasy 3. I think it’s an interesting idea.
I think I remember an interesting character who was Lawful Neutral: he’d challenge you to a duel if you questioned his honor – or otherwise got on his bad side – but for all his conceited swagger, he wasn’t evil, though he sure wasn’t good; he was just big on keeping his word, especially when it came to the rules of a contest.
I had a Lawful Neutral character once, too. He was a professional treasure-hunter, and worked by the terms of his contract. He was big on observing the niceties of society, but wouldn’t bother with any good deed unless he could be seen doing it.