Although I've been on 2 month hiatus, I wanted to actually add a few words here. I could give you reasons, some good, some not, as to why I haven't updated. But ultimately, it really doesn't matter. Although I am getting resituated to do webcomics again, I don't feel I have it in me to go on with Schizophrenia Bloom. Given that it wasn't particularly noticed by anyone except a couple of friends, I don't think this is particularly earthshaking.
This is the last completed page of SB I made before my hiatus. My current set up makes it hard to edit so I'll summarize the page as the hulking Baphometian guard is preparing to take Memphis to meet Renault and the Cenobite. Pilli, who's characterization wasn't yet explored by this point, is asking if she can come along to play too. To her disappointment, the guard sneers and denies the request.
Rather than leave things ambiguous, I'll go so far as to reveal how the story was to proceed. Continue reading if that interests you.
From here on, Renault and the Cenobite engage in a series of arguments and speculations over Memphis. Renault tries to impress how she's a completely unknown form of Qliphoth and thus, there is knowledge worth attaining outside the temple walls. The Cenobite looks on derisively and says while a rare discovery does make for an interesting diversion, a lone survivor of a dead race doesn't warrant risking the clan's safety. As the cenobite, it is his job to protect the clan, particularly from needless temptation.
Memphis, meanwhile, grows irritable, feeling objectified. She gets no clear answer from Renault about why she's here, but the Cenobite is happy to inform her of her status as a curiosity to be studied. Asked why she was in chains, the cenobite responds 'If there are truly no others of your kind, a bird is safest in its cage'. Memphis soon feels Renault has sought to use her, rather than consult. Aaris' warning seems appropriate. Renault, for his sake, looks on sheepishly, like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar.
Aaris, meanwhile, uses the diversion to rescue Pilli and Kasdaye by slipping through a stone duct. It turns out these Qliphoth were under her direct protection when she was once an enforcer for the Baphomet clan. She grew estranged from their increasing hermiticism, however, and since they knew of her battlelust, her friends would be kept at the temple until said time Aaris would bow to the clan once more. Unwilling to risk her friends being harmed, she reluctantly allowed herself to be exiled. She reveals no love for the Baphomet and only tolerates 'a snake' like Renault because he made the effort to get her out. She surmises he planned she would cause chaos while back in the area, proving his point about the outside world and being ready for it. She later finds that was only half true. He also wanted to know if she was a legendary Qliphoth warrior he read about in legend, which she denies. (It turns out to be a fallen member of her clan.)
Aaris, despite knowing she's playing into Renault's hands, realizes she can't get the other 2 Qliphoth out the way she came and proceeds to mow down any guard brave enough to oppose her. She decides to rescue Memphis from the Baphomet as well.
Meanwhile, Memphis is asked to prove her status as a harpy. She explains she cannot; only when dropping from a high distance can she manifest wings. The cenobite, unimpressed, condemns them both as irrelevant distractions to be put to death. Aaris, however, has caused a frightening commotion in the hall. The other Baphomet investigate but are plowed aside as Aaris makes for the Cenobite and beheads him with the terse words of "No one can completely control a force of nature, no matter how smart." Caught deep in battlelust, she turns to impale Renault after a brief struggle, but Memphis intervenes with diplomacy. Aaris comes out of her haze asking why. With a shocked Renault looking on, Memphis replies although he used her, he exploited only what she seemed to be, not what she is. She knows Renault realized she wasn't part of this world and for whatever reason, didn't try to make an issue of it. Renault looks on with a guilty expression, broken of his usual scowl and can only say, "There are things I have come to know. But I never had anything I could believe in until now."
Bitterly, the Qliphoth leave together to make headway from the shambled temple. Inside, the Baphomet regroup around their fallen cenobite, only to find his referencing book of vast knowledge was completely blank except for bored doodles. They come to accept Renault as being correct, although he had to teach them a painful lesson for it. The Baphomet are left to their own devices at this point.
The story goes on with the Qliphoth, lead variously by Memphis (to understand Maya and how it relates to her world) or Aaris (to survive), across the land as they have adventures with strange cultures and begin to learn of the complex melded design of Maya (it harbors qualities from the current and previous 'gods', changing the Qliphoth's memories as they change). They eventually meet the true conquerors of Maya, a militant and numerous ant people called the Siafu, who are ruled by queens. The Siafu intend to instill peace of the grave upon the land and surgically annihilate all the remaining Qliphoth from the last war which they participated in.
Meanwhile, the Bloom is raging in full effect on Earth. A fungal parasite that has been traveling in the brains of most creatures since prehistory (revealed to be the reason why most everything died and there was an actual fungal spike in the archaelogical record thereafter) has come to claim all life in a long term reproduction period, much like cicadas. Some, like Kelly Morgan, are a little more resistant to it. Others, like Hamilton, succumb quickly and are driven insane by it. In time, Kelly is forced to keep leaving Maya to hide herself on the real world. She realizes death is coming for everyone, but Maya is a false afterlife which is claiming the newly dead souls and making them into Qliphoth. (All the flowers in the strip actually represented a newly born Qliphoth). Even Renault, Aaris, and the others, are just transformed ghosts from Daghda that got swept up in the Yogi's vengeance. The Siafu are not true Qliphoths, but representations of unresolved neuroses and mindless angers that plague people.
Eventually, Kelly succumbs to Bloom, unable to fully tell earth from Maya anymore. Her harpy form as Memphis grows unstable and monstrous. Realizing she hasn't much time anymore, she struggles through hallucinations with the other Qliphoth's help and draws herself entirely into Maya, being the last 'god' remaining. From there, she ejects all the true Qliphoth/human souls back out to earth and closes Maya behind her. Out of her mind but experiencing a bravery she didn't know alone before, the Siafu fall upon her and with her destruction, collapses Maya upon itself.
The result is Pyrrhic. Souls, qliphoth or otherwise, are free to go onto their true end, free of the yogi's influence, and Maya is annihilated. Of course... everyone's deceased at this point. And in the annuals of dust, it becomes forgotten as the greatest war never waged. But plants regrow and simple creatures still exist. The Schizophrenia Bloom, of course, exists this way. Scouring a planet clean of complex life, ready to reintegrate through the consumption of lesser creatures and plants, the spores sit idle for another several million years before complex life redevelops. And who's to say how many times this has happened? The Bloom doesn't care. And by the time someone knows, it's too late...
Oh yeah, something else I wanted to mention. The barcodes were indicative of an actual Qliphoth, first that only the reader could see, and later, Memphis as well. All the inmates in Daghda were listed in a larger record with identifying barcodes next to their names, something Memphis was shown at an earlier time by Dr. Hamilton, but couldn't recall it actively. She later figures this out, allowing her to bridge the Qliphoth's real identities to an inmate graveyard outside the facility. I don't remember what everyone's real names are except these two. And I don't remember any last names.
Renault was a cultured but excessively solipsist British inmate named 'Charles'. (Hence his Qliphoth side being arrogant and later fascinated in 'believing' in Memphis)
Aaris was 'Marie', a lowly cook's daugher with a rage disorder brought on by excessive feelings of powerlessness.
The barcodes also later help Memphis sort out Narakans, who can pose as real Qliphoth, but are nothing more than echoing negative manifestations and phantasmal neuroses from Daghda without actual spirits to make them genuine Qliphoth.
Whenever the 'giant hand amidst spirals' appeared, it let in more. In truth, the hand was a sign that a current 'god' was influencing or mentally trying to change Maya. He/she creates a bridge from the real world to Maya in doing so, allowing Narakans to come to be. Memphis uses this in the end to draw herself in to Maya and pull the Qliphoth back out.
It's a shame to see Schizophrenia Bloom go. I Imagine it would have been quite an epic tale. Thanks for some closure this time around though ;) Looking forward to your next comic whatever it may be.
