Welcome to our story
The Malakhim story is built of a mixture of real legends, fantasy elements, and our own unique brand of spirituality. The overview, our World In Brief, is available to all readers, as a primer for understanding what we're doing here. The World In Brief is mentioned in the comic, it is something written by Nathan to Ben shortly before the beginning of Arc 1. In our opinion, there is no better way to get acquainted with the characters, story, and world we're depicting here than to read the World In Brief from beginning to end. If your reaction to that is along the lines of "TL:DR", well, you've come to the wrong comic. You won't understand anything we're doing here if you're looking for quick and easy fare. While we'd like to reach out to just about everyone out there, we're telling a story that requires attention and heart from the reader. If that's not what you're looking for, we suggest you look elsewhere for your entertainment. We're not going to change.
Character pages are available for a short insight into the cast here-- we're still building the material for this section. Logged-in members will be able to see some of the story material written for these characters in the process of development, usually narratives written from the character's perspective. These are going up as we transcribe them from scattered, scribbled notes, and as new ones are written. Special content such as sketch pages, concept art, and a few spoilers will slowly become available to members who've acquired relevant Easter Eggs or befriended Ophanim over the years here at the site.
Please note that while the angels in our strip are inspired by and interpreted from figures of legend, archetypes, and facets of the human experience, they are not intended to represent any persons living or dead and are not intended to refute or conflict with anyone's real spiritual beliefs. They are pieces of our understanding of the world drawn in terms of a fantasy story, and we mean no harm by portraying them. Readers have, to date, been incredibly gracious in general, and we're very grateful for that.
A rough guide providing clues to some of the Malakhrit language used in the strip, Ben's Notebook, is available to the public, although additional translation information is only available through special Easter Egg content for logged-in members.
The grammar and construction of the Malakhrit language has changed somewhat since our inception, and may continue to change, as it has been salvaged out of a partial work by departed staff. Understanding the Malakhrit language will never be necessary to understanding the comic-- pertinent bits of language are explained later in the story, and the rest is meant to lend an otherworldly element to angels speaking amongst themselves or invoking their commands.
Logged-in members can also access the library, which contains short stories and other companion material to the comic strip. Members-only material, however, will never be necessary to understand the comic itself, and the main story it's telling. It's just a little something extra for our most dedicated readers.
Super-secret story content, such as the full text of the Book of Makhvet quoted on each cover, is available only to logged-in members who possess Easter Eggs. These secrets can sometimes lead to story spoilers, and information about the story world that goes far beyond the scope of what's offered on the page. These Easter Eggs are given to members by Maka, one of our resident ophanim. Although his motives can be extremely capricious, generally he is tasked with rewarding those who keep our staff and our readers happy by contributing in some way. (Please note: Submitting fan art is not a way to get an egg, it's always been important to us to keep fan art free of any quid pro quo beyond a link and a few words of credit.)
