Fascinating! I have long wondered the fate of Mongrel after watching the marvellous Spine Of Night. Where did Mongrel originate? Is he a roleplaying game character or did he arise as a piece of conventional fiction?
Thanks! The idea for Mongrel came about when I was re-reading the Conan story The Frost Giant's Daughter, and I thought that he really could have avoided a lot of trouble there had he been less driven by his passions (let's say...), so the idea of a castrated barbarian just kept coming to mind, for a while, and it sort of grew into a character that I envision as being defined by surviving and adapting to failure and bad circumstances more than conquering through force of will (and, perhaps, Crom's favor). That sort of perspective - of persisting despite failures and bad breaks - to me, is central of the world of The Spine of Night's characters and non-heroes (and goes back to Camus, and that his Sisyphus derives grim pleasure from spiting the cruel gods that cursed him to keep pushing the damned boulder). No doubt somewhat attributable to my Dad, I'm sure.
Thank you for your detailed response; that's very interesting. Is there anywhere that we can read more about the Spine Of Night world and/or do you intend to release more media in that setting?
No, there's not really anything out there with much more info (besides the two Mongrel shorts and Exordium), but I've written a ton that I'd love to animate, someday - there's a sequel script that's finished, a couple of shorts scripted, a lengthy 'old Mongrel' script outline, and we've been experimenting with animating a non-rotoscoped Mongrel adventure which will surely show up on here, eventually (I'm working on the foley sound now).
Okay, I actually do have one, even after reading the description I'm still confused about the chronology. I would think that the Prelude comes before Wrath of the Ape King, except that in Prelude, Mongrel mentions to Dennen "you owe me after that mishap with the Ape King" which seems to allude to the botched heist and capture depicted in the second film?
Good question! In 'Prelude' they are referring to an as-yet-unexplained encounter with The Ape King that occurred 3 years prior. I haven't really pinned down exactly what that was - my timeline entry reads simply 'Mongrel defies The Ape King and lives.' at the moment. We have been sketching out what a new series of Mongrel shorts might look like (you can see a couple of clips in the Etch trailer, even), and I think depicting that event could be a pretty fun angle to explore!
Fascinating! I have long wondered the fate of Mongrel after watching the marvellous Spine Of Night. Where did Mongrel originate? Is he a roleplaying game character or did he arise as a piece of conventional fiction?
Thanks! The idea for Mongrel came about when I was re-reading the Conan story The Frost Giant's Daughter, and I thought that he really could have avoided a lot of trouble there had he been less driven by his passions (let's say...), so the idea of a castrated barbarian just kept coming to mind, for a while, and it sort of grew into a character that I envision as being defined by surviving and adapting to failure and bad circumstances more than conquering through force of will (and, perhaps, Crom's favor). That sort of perspective - of persisting despite failures and bad breaks - to me, is central of the world of The Spine of Night's characters and non-heroes (and goes back to Camus, and that his Sisyphus derives grim pleasure from spiting the cruel gods that cursed him to keep pushing the damned boulder). No doubt somewhat attributable to my Dad, I'm sure.
Thank you for your detailed response; that's very interesting. Is there anywhere that we can read more about the Spine Of Night world and/or do you intend to release more media in that setting?
No, there's not really anything out there with much more info (besides the two Mongrel shorts and Exordium), but I've written a ton that I'd love to animate, someday - there's a sequel script that's finished, a couple of shorts scripted, a lengthy 'old Mongrel' script outline, and we've been experimenting with animating a non-rotoscoped Mongrel adventure which will surely show up on here, eventually (I'm working on the foley sound now).
Morgan here - if anybody has any Mongrel (or Spine) lore questions, feel free to ask!!
Okay, I actually do have one, even after reading the description I'm still confused about the chronology. I would think that the Prelude comes before Wrath of the Ape King, except that in Prelude, Mongrel mentions to Dennen "you owe me after that mishap with the Ape King" which seems to allude to the botched heist and capture depicted in the second film?
Good question! In 'Prelude' they are referring to an as-yet-unexplained encounter with The Ape King that occurred 3 years prior. I haven't really pinned down exactly what that was - my timeline entry reads simply 'Mongrel defies The Ape King and lives.' at the moment. We have been sketching out what a new series of Mongrel shorts might look like (you can see a couple of clips in the Etch trailer, even), and I think depicting that event could be a pretty fun angle to explore!