Drakenwolf

Artfight Results - Part 4

it's time to address the one-legged pine marten in the room.

a couple weeks back in regards to that art post I mentioned that I treat Ashleg's red cloak almost like its own character, and that wasn't much of an exaggeration- part of it is that I just really enjoy playing with the volume and silhouette when it comes to visual art, but part of it is that the cloak requires that kind of attention; it truly is its own entity within the narrative. there's a presence, a weight to it, and I'm not just talking about the fact that it's a big oversized piece of cloth.

the only other character in Mossflower so strongly defined by a single worn item is Martin with his father's broken sword around his neck, and that's more or less what sparks the entire plot. Martin is arrested for possessing a weapon on Kotir territory, forced to watch it shattered before his eyes, sentenced to wear the remnants as a mark of shame, but he continues to carry the useless hilt even after his prison escape and eventually has it rebuilt into a full weapon to bring the fight back to Tsarmina and end the tyranny once and for all. we can see what the sword represents within the story: freedom lost and then reclaimed with perseverance. it's the indomitable will of the woodlanders banding together to save their community. it's the spirit of Mossflower itself forged from a falling star.

meanwhile on the Kotir side of things... you've got an occupation force. you've got a feudal lord and his tyrant daughter squeezing the peasants for all they're worth. and you've got this weird little guy stumping around in this big, extravagant, signature plumed velvet scarlet cloak.

I don't want to tread too far into fanfiction territory here. the story never actually tells us what Ashleg's whole deal is, so we can only speculate as to how he achieved his station working for the Greeneyes family. but he does work for them and has for some time- in the highest serving position, no less, with the fanciest duds out of anyone in the whole fortress, where explicitly only captains are permitted to wear long cloaks.

Ashleg may or may not have earned this distinction from whatever event disabled him, but whether he was ever a soldier or not before all this, he's a noncombatant in Mossflower and is explicitly taking advantage of the big red cloak to conceal his disfigurement. it serves to obscure him just as much as it announces him as Verdauga and/or Tsarmina's right paw.

it's a privileged position to be in, but it's also fraught in Ashleg's case. things weren't so bad when Verdauga was in charge but now his daughter calls the shots and most of Ashleg's scenes in the book are spent either dodging or receiving Tsarmina's wrath as the marten carries out her orders. there's a third angle to the scarlet cloak here: it designates his high position and shields his mangled body from judging eyes, but it hampers Ashleg as well. it's physically used against him when Gonff and Martin make their escape. it paints a bright red target on his back for Argulor, who wants nothing more than to hunt him down.

the longer Ashleg stays at Kotir, the more hazardous his situation becomes, but he seems willing to endure any amount of Tsarmina's abuse and go along with her subjugation of Mossflower as long as his own position is secure. he never resents his mistreatment, he never objects to her cruel orders, he's just trying to maintain the status quo. to put it simply, he's a frog in a pot about to boil.

when Ashleg does eventually reach a breaking point, it's not because he's had a change of heart towards his role in the occupation- he only leaves when it becomes clear that Tsarmina's insane, and his loyal compliance is no longer enough to ensure his safety. (it's also worth mentioning here, and I haven't really ever seen anyone else bring this up, that Ashleg has been quietly in on Tsarmina's murder/framing plot this entire time.) but regardless of his motivation, it's the straw that breaks the camel's back. he abandons Kotir. he abandons his Queen. he abandons everything he's stood for up until this point- and he leaves his signature scarlet cloak behind, all in one fell swoop.

the cloak remains at Kotir long after Ashleg himself has escaped the narrative, but no one who dons it after him survives. Tsarmina cleverly uses it to take out two of her obstacles at once: Bane the mercenary comes in with his own ambitions and Argulor attacks him in a case of mistaken identity, leading to both of their deaths. Brogg the weasel then assumes the cloak as he becomes Tsarmina's new captain. there's almost a superstition surrounding it at this point, but with Argulor out of the way, surely it should be safe to wear now? Brogg enjoys his new position for a while, but he eventually dies wearing that fancy cloak, and the rest of Kotir is reduced to rubble with him.

because the cloak IS Kotir.

if Martin's broken and reforged sword represents the free spirit of Mossflower, then the plumed red cloak represents the oppressive and dysfunctional nature of the Greeneyes regime. it's security and prestige at a price, it's wealth squeezed from violence, it hides the ugly truth beneath, it harms its bearers most of all, it's literally the color of blood.

let's go back to what this implies for Ashleg.

he's not the only villain who gets to walk away from Kotir in the end, but he's the only one who chooses to. and don't get me wrong- he is a villain. his character is not a malicious one, but he's elbows deep in ugly business up until his desertion and this isn't necessarily a moral shift on his part. he does not condemn Tsarmina as 'evil', only 'mad'. he does not seek reparations with the woodlanders he helped to oppress. he's been wrapped in the scarlet cloak this whole time, his wake up call only came when the blood on it happened to be his own.

there were other ways he could have been forced to lose it for the sake of the plot later on. but he chooses to leave it behind him in the end, and that ultimately matters. Ashleg hasn't said sorry for Any Of That yet, but his departure is an optimistic one, as he considers the possibility of a simpler and gentler life. he can't achieve this without consciously shedding everything the red cloak stands for.

I cannot express to you how FAST it has gone. I grew up in a world that does not exist now. We're starting on the path to reverse it, globally. You might not know how much solar has EXPLODED in the last decade or two. It's gone from a side thing, a weirdo novelty that was just Not Viable... to whole countries investing in infrastructure. but we have to keep fighting big oil and fascism everywhere we can in order to keep on this road to a new better less scorching burning earth.

Puerto Rican velvet worm, Peripatus juanensis, Peripatidae

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