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| characters = [[Stacy]], [[Abbey]], [[Sue]], [[Amaya]], [[Mike]]
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'''SwordsVale''' is an online fantasy role-playing game that a small guild of [[Roseville High School]] students plays together every night. First glimpsed on [[Stacy|Stacy's]] computer screen in [[Local Area]], it has resurfaced every few years since as convention cosplay, as a lunchroom scandal, and as a guild meeting in [[Mike|Mike's]] bedroom.
'''SwordsVale''' is an online fantasy role-playing game that a small guild of [[Roseville High School]] students plays together every night. It first turns up on [[Stacy|Stacy's]] computer screen in [[Local Area]], and it has kept resurfacing every few years since then, whether as convention cosplay, a lunchroom scandal, or a guild meeting crammed into [[Mike|Mike's]] bedroom.


== Description ==
== Description ==
[[File:Loc SwordsVale c82 p10 panel2.png|thumb|The character-creation menu.<ref name=":c82p10" />]]
[[File:Loc SwordsVale c82 p10 panel2.png|thumb|The character-creation menu.<ref>{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p10}}</ref>]]
[[File:Loc SwordsVale c82 p8 panel8.png|thumb|Guild avatars gathered in the game world.<ref name=":c82p8" />]]
[[File:Loc SwordsVale c82 p8 panel8.png|thumb|The guild's avatars standing together in-game.<ref>{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p8}}</ref>]]
SwordsVale is a PC MMORPG, played at home in the evenings. [[Sue]] describes it plainly as "this MMORPG" that the group plays every night.<ref name=":c109p4">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p4}}</ref> On screen it is a rather pretty watercolor fantasy world of green fields and mountains, and its player characters are elves and other fantasy folk instead of the comic's usual cat-people.<ref name=":c82p11">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p11}}</ref> Sue plays a blue-haired male elf named Yearrug, Stacy a red-caped warrior with spiked pauldrons, [[Amaya]] an armored figure in blue and gold, and [[Abbey]] a brown-haired bovine humanoid.<ref name=":c82p8">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p8}}</ref><ref name=":c82p11" /> Mike plays a female flower mage in a green dress with pink flowers in her hair, on the grounds that he "really liked her design!"<ref name=":c82p11" />
SwordsVale is a PC MMORPG, played at home in the evenings. [[Sue]] describes it plainly as "this MMORPG" that the group plays every night.<ref name=":c109p4">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p4}}</ref> On screen it is a rather pretty watercolor fantasy world of green fields and mountains, and its player characters are elves and other fantasy folk rather than the comic's usual cat-people.<ref name=":c82p11">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p11}}</ref> Sue plays a blue-haired male elf named Yearrug. Stacy's character is a red-caped warrior with spiked pauldrons, [[Amaya]]'s is an armored figure in blue and gold, and [[Abbey]]'s is a brown-haired bovine humanoid.<ref name=":c82p8">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p8}}</ref><ref name=":c82p11" /> Mike, for his part, plays a female flower mage in a green dress with pink flowers in her hair, on the grounds that he "really liked her design!"<ref name=":c82p11" />


The comic shows the game in bits and pieces. There is a character-creation menu,<ref name=":c82p10">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p10}}</ref> nightly quests,<ref name=":c82p12">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p12}}</ref> and a server list that separates the public servers from the group's own "serious server where we remain IN CHARACTER."<ref name=":c82p8" /> Guilds come with a working /gkick command,<ref name=":c109p7">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p7}}</ref> and the raid system is "actually very simple for newcomers," according to Sue.<ref name=":c109p4" /> Meeting talk runs to raid schedules, an upcoming expansion, PvP sign-ups and an event calendar.<ref name=":c120.1p10">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c120.1/p10}}</ref> There are also in-game events like the Crimsonflame Festival.<ref name=":c109p1">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p1}}</ref> In the planning for that one, Abbey wants to save Forestgale for the 2.11 patch, once the bugged Hellfiend spawns are fixed.<ref name=":c109p3">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p3}}</ref>
The comic shows the game in bits and pieces. There is a character-creation menu,<ref name=":c82p10">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p10}}</ref> there are nightly quests,<ref name=":c82p12">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p12}}</ref> and there is a server list that separates the public servers from the group's own "serious server where we remain IN CHARACTER."<ref name=":c82p8" /> Guilds come with a working /gkick command,<ref name=":c109p7">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p7}}</ref> and the raid system is "actually very simple for newcomers," according to Sue.<ref name=":c109p4" /> When the guild gets together in person, the talk runs to raid schedules, an upcoming expansion, PvP sign-ups and an event calendar.<ref name=":c120.1p10">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c120.1/p10}}</ref> The game also has its own events, like the Crimsonflame Festival.<ref name=":c109p1">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p1}}</ref> In the planning for that one, Abbey wants to save Forestgale for the 2.11 patch, once the bugged Hellfiend spawns are fixed.<ref name=":c109p3">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p3}}</ref>


The guild itself is Sue, Stacy, Amaya and Abbey, with Mike recruited in Local Area and [[Daisy]] offered a trial copy years later.<ref name=":c82p8" /><ref name=":c120.1p9">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c120.1/p9}}</ref> Sue runs things, from festival planning to disciplinary kicks.<ref name=":c109p1" /><ref name=":c109p7" />
The guild itself consists of Sue, Stacy, Amaya and Abbey, with Mike recruited in Local Area and [[Daisy]] offered a trial copy years later.<ref name=":c82p8" /><ref name=":c120.1p9">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c120.1/p9}}</ref> Sue runs things, from festival planning right down to the disciplinary kicks.<ref name=":c109p1" /><ref name=":c109p7" />


== History ==
== History ==
[[File:Loc SwordsVale c82 p6 panel5.png|thumb|Stacy's screen reveals her SwordsVale character in Local Area.<ref name=":c82p6" />]]
[[File:Loc SwordsVale c82 p6 panel5.png|thumb|Stacy's secret SwordsVale character revealed on her computer screen.<ref>{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p6}}</ref>]]
[[File:Loc SwordsVale c82 p13 panel1.png|thumb|Mike's flower mage among the group's avatars.<ref name=":c82p13" />]]
[[File:Loc SwordsVale c82 p13 panel1.png|thumb|Mike's flower mage debuts among the group's avatars.<ref>{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p13}}</ref>]]
SwordsVale debuts in [[Local Area]], where Mike bumps Stacy's mouse and wakes her computer, revealing her secret character.<ref name=":c82p6">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p6}}</ref> Stacy is mortified and insists that nobody needs to know.<ref name=":c82p9">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p9}}</ref> Mike learns that Sue, Amaya and Abbey all play too,<ref name=":c82p8" /> makes his flower mage, and is soon questing with the group every night.<ref name=":c82p11" /><ref name=":c82p12" /> The chapter ends with Mike venturing onto a public server alone and getting an eyeful of how the rest of the player base behaves. Sue is horrified: "You joined a PUBLIC server?! Oh my '''god'''."<ref name=":c82p13">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p13}}</ref>
SwordsVale debuts in [[Local Area]], where Mike bumps Stacy's mouse and wakes her computer, revealing her secret character.<ref name=":c82p6">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p6}}</ref> Stacy is mortified, and she insists that nobody needs to know about any of this.<ref name=":c82p9">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p9}}</ref> Mike learns that Sue, Amaya and Abbey all play too,<ref name=":c82p8" /> makes his flower mage, and is soon questing with the group every night.<ref name=":c82p11" /><ref name=":c82p12" /> The chapter ends with Mike venturing onto a public server alone and getting an eyeful of how the rest of the player base behaves. Sue is horrified. "You joined a PUBLIC server?! Oh my '''god'''."<ref name=":c82p13">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c82/p13}}</ref>


The secret takes its first hit in [[Guest of Honor]]. Stacy, Sue, Abbey and Amaya attend a convention in SwordsVale cosplay, in costumes that match their avatars right down to Yearrug's gold pauldrons. [[Paulo]] catches the group in full regalia.<ref name=":c89p30">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c89/p30}}</ref> Mike comes along without a costume, which Sue finds a bit disappointing,<ref name=":c89p31">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c89/p31}}</ref> and the group eventually heads off to a panel together.<ref name=":c89p42">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c89/p42}}</ref>
The secret takes its first hit in [[Guest of Honor]]. Stacy, Sue, Abbey and Amaya attend a convention in SwordsVale cosplay, in costumes that match their avatars right down to Yearrug's gold pauldrons, and [[Paulo]] catches the group in full regalia.<ref name=":c89p30">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c89/p30}}</ref> Mike comes along without a costume, and Sue makes a point of telling him she'd like to see him in cosplay.<ref name=":c89p31">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c89/p31}}</ref> The group eventually heads off to a panel together.<ref name=":c89p42">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c89/p42}}</ref>


Abbey later points to shared membership as his reason for staying around the group after his breakup, telling Sue that, differences aside, "we DO share the same guild, Yearrug."<ref name=":c98p14">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c98/p14}}</ref>
Abbey later points to shared membership as the reason he can keep hanging around the group after his breakup. Differences aside, he tells Sue, "we DO share the same guild, Yearrug."<ref name=":c98p14">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c98/p14}}</ref>


[[Popularity Contest]] hands the guild an entire chapter. It opens with lunchtime planning for the Crimsonflame Festival, where Mike wants two scavenger hunts and a rehearsal run still needs scheduling.<ref name=":c109p1" /><ref name=":c109p3" /> The trouble is Stacy, who has decided her new popularity is worth more than her guildmates and disowns them in public.<ref name=":c109p2">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p2}}</ref> Sue answers her in the computer lab with the game's own vocabulary: "Consider yourself /gkicked!"<ref name=":c109p7" /> Stacy folds by the end of the chapter. She still loves SwordsVale and doesn't want to lose the guild, and she is let back in.<ref name=":c109p7" /><ref name=":c109p14">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p14}}</ref>
[[Popularity Contest]] hands the guild an entire chapter. It opens with lunchtime planning for the Crimsonflame Festival, where Mike is thinking two scavenger hunts would be fun and a rehearsal run still needs scheduling.<ref name=":c109p1" /><ref name=":c109p3" /> The trouble is Stacy. She has decided her new popularity is worth more than her guildmates, and she disowns them in public.<ref name=":c109p2">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p2}}</ref> Sue answers her in the computer lab with the game's own vocabulary: "Consider yourself /gkicked!"<ref name=":c109p7" /> Stacy folds by the end of the chapter. As it turns out, she still loves SwordsVale and doesn't want to lose the guild, and she is let back in.<ref name=":c109p7" /><ref name=":c109p14">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c109/p14}}</ref>


By a 2024 side chapter, the guild has a standing monthly meeting, and this month's lands in Mike's bedroom after he forgets about it.<ref name=":c120.1p3">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c120.1/p3}}</ref> Paulo has been ribbing Mike about the game for a while by this point.<ref name=":c119p6">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c119/p6}}</ref><ref name=":c120.1p3" /> He ends up hiding in Mike's closet for the entire meeting, grumbling about "these fucking nerds."<ref name=":c120.1p11">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c120.1/p11}}</ref> On the other side of the door, the agenda covers the raid schedule, the next expansion, PvP sign-ups and the event calendar.<ref name=":c120.1p10" /> Sue also offers Daisy a trial copy of the game, and Abbey volunteers to help her make a character.<ref name=":c120.1p9" />
By a 2024 side chapter, the guild has a standing monthly meeting, and this month's lands in Mike's bedroom after he forgets about it.<ref name=":c120.1p3">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c120.1/p3}}</ref> Paulo has been ribbing Mike about the game for a while by this point,<ref name=":c119p6">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c119/p6}}</ref><ref name=":c120.1p3" /> and he ends up hiding in Mike's closet for the entire meeting, grumbling about "these fucking nerds."<ref name=":c120.1p11">{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/c120.1/p11}}</ref> On the other side of the closet door, the agenda covers the raid schedule, the next expansion, PvP sign-ups and the event calendar.<ref name=":c120.1p10" /> Sue also offers Daisy a trial copy of the game, and Abbey volunteers to help her make a character.<ref name=":c120.1p9" />


== Trivia ==
== Trivia ==
* Veronica has said she is "NOT an MMO player," and that SwordsVale suggestions are "an INSTANT rejection" when she picks ideas for commissioned comics, since the game "requires research and asking MMO-savvy friends" to draw properly.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bittersweetcandybowl.tumblr.com/post/808211372836061184/|date=2026-02-11}}</ref>
* Veronica has said she is "NOT an MMO player." SwordsVale suggestions are "an INSTANT rejection" when she picks ideas for commissioned comics, since drawing the game properly "requires research and asking MMO-savvy friends."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bittersweetcandybowl.tumblr.com/post/808211372836061184/|date=2026-02-11}}</ref>
* The game went unnamed for six years of publication: it is on screen from Local Area in 2014, but the first character to actually say "SwordsVale" out loud is Stacy in Popularity Contest in 2020.<ref name=":c82p6" /><ref name=":c109p7" />
* The game went unnamed for six years of publication. It is on screen from Local Area in 2014, but the first character to actually say "SwordsVale" out loud is Stacy, all the way in Popularity Contest in 2020.<ref name=":c82p6" /><ref name=":c109p7" />
* Oliver's commentary greeted Mike's flower mage debut with "<nowiki>~~~~magical girl maishul-chan~~~~</nowiki>".<ref name=":c82p11" />
* Oliver's commentary greeted Mike's flower mage debut with "<nowiki>~~~~magical girl maishul-chan~~~~</nowiki>".<ref name=":c82p11" />
* The alternate-continuity side story [[Grave Concern]] gives the flower mage a cameo of sorts, with [[Lucy]] laughing over Mike's shoulder at his monitor while he splutters "A FLOWER MAGE?!"<ref>{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/graveconcern/p10}}</ref>
* The alternate-continuity side story [[Grave Concern]] gives the flower mage a cameo of sorts. [[Lucy]] laughs over Mike's shoulder at his monitor while he splutters "A FLOWER MAGE?!"<ref>{{Cite chapter|url=https://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/graveconcern/p10}}</ref>


== See also ==
== See also ==

Revision as of 00:27, 13 July 2026

SwordsVale
First appearanceLocal Area, page 6
April 9, 2014
GenreMMORPG
TypeOnline game
Related charactersStacy, Abbey, Sue, Amaya, Mike

SwordsVale is an online fantasy role-playing game that a small guild of Roseville High School students plays together every night. It first turns up on Stacy's computer screen in Local Area, and it has kept resurfacing every few years since then, whether as convention cosplay, a lunchroom scandal, or a guild meeting crammed into Mike's bedroom.

Description

The character-creation menu.[1]
The guild's avatars standing together in-game.[2]

SwordsVale is a PC MMORPG, played at home in the evenings. Sue describes it plainly as "this MMORPG" that the group plays every night.[3] On screen it is a rather pretty watercolor fantasy world of green fields and mountains, and its player characters are elves and other fantasy folk rather than the comic's usual cat-people.[4] Sue plays a blue-haired male elf named Yearrug. Stacy's character is a red-caped warrior with spiked pauldrons, Amaya's is an armored figure in blue and gold, and Abbey's is a brown-haired bovine humanoid.[5][4] Mike, for his part, plays a female flower mage in a green dress with pink flowers in her hair, on the grounds that he "really liked her design!"[4]

The comic shows the game in bits and pieces. There is a character-creation menu,[6] there are nightly quests,[7] and there is a server list that separates the public servers from the group's own "serious server where we remain IN CHARACTER."[5] Guilds come with a working /gkick command,[8] and the raid system is "actually very simple for newcomers," according to Sue.[3] When the guild gets together in person, the talk runs to raid schedules, an upcoming expansion, PvP sign-ups and an event calendar.[9] The game also has its own events, like the Crimsonflame Festival.[10] In the planning for that one, Abbey wants to save Forestgale for the 2.11 patch, once the bugged Hellfiend spawns are fixed.[11]

The guild itself consists of Sue, Stacy, Amaya and Abbey, with Mike recruited in Local Area and Daisy offered a trial copy years later.[5][12] Sue runs things, from festival planning right down to the disciplinary kicks.[10][8]

History

Stacy's secret SwordsVale character revealed on her computer screen.[13]
Mike's flower mage debuts among the group's avatars.[14]

SwordsVale debuts in Local Area, where Mike bumps Stacy's mouse and wakes her computer, revealing her secret character.[15] Stacy is mortified, and she insists that nobody needs to know about any of this.[16] Mike learns that Sue, Amaya and Abbey all play too,[5] makes his flower mage, and is soon questing with the group every night.[4][7] The chapter ends with Mike venturing onto a public server alone and getting an eyeful of how the rest of the player base behaves. Sue is horrified. "You joined a PUBLIC server?! Oh my god."[17]

The secret takes its first hit in Guest of Honor. Stacy, Sue, Abbey and Amaya attend a convention in SwordsVale cosplay, in costumes that match their avatars right down to Yearrug's gold pauldrons, and Paulo catches the group in full regalia.[18] Mike comes along without a costume, and Sue makes a point of telling him she'd like to see him in cosplay.[19] The group eventually heads off to a panel together.[20]

Abbey later points to shared membership as the reason he can keep hanging around the group after his breakup. Differences aside, he tells Sue, "we DO share the same guild, Yearrug."[21]

Popularity Contest hands the guild an entire chapter. It opens with lunchtime planning for the Crimsonflame Festival, where Mike is thinking two scavenger hunts would be fun and a rehearsal run still needs scheduling.[10][11] The trouble is Stacy. She has decided her new popularity is worth more than her guildmates, and she disowns them in public.[22] Sue answers her in the computer lab with the game's own vocabulary: "Consider yourself /gkicked!"[8] Stacy folds by the end of the chapter. As it turns out, she still loves SwordsVale and doesn't want to lose the guild, and she is let back in.[8][23]

By a 2024 side chapter, the guild has a standing monthly meeting, and this month's lands in Mike's bedroom after he forgets about it.[24] Paulo has been ribbing Mike about the game for a while by this point,[25][24] and he ends up hiding in Mike's closet for the entire meeting, grumbling about "these fucking nerds."[26] On the other side of the closet door, the agenda covers the raid schedule, the next expansion, PvP sign-ups and the event calendar.[9] Sue also offers Daisy a trial copy of the game, and Abbey volunteers to help her make a character.[12]

Trivia

  • Veronica has said she is "NOT an MMO player." SwordsVale suggestions are "an INSTANT rejection" when she picks ideas for commissioned comics, since drawing the game properly "requires research and asking MMO-savvy friends."[27]
  • The game went unnamed for six years of publication. It is on screen from Local Area in 2014, but the first character to actually say "SwordsVale" out loud is Stacy, all the way in Popularity Contest in 2020.[15][8]
  • Oliver's commentary greeted Mike's flower mage debut with "~~~~magical girl maishul-chan~~~~".[4]
  • The alternate-continuity side story Grave Concern gives the flower mage a cameo of sorts. Lucy laughs over Mike's shoulder at his monitor while he splutters "A FLOWER MAGE?!"[28]

See also

References

  1. Chapter 82: Local Area, page 10
  2. Chapter 82: Local Area, page 8
  3. 3.0 3.1 Chapter 109: Popularity Contest, page 4
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Chapter 82: Local Area, page 11
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Chapter 82: Local Area, page 8
  6. Chapter 82: Local Area, page 10
  7. 7.0 7.1 Chapter 82: Local Area, page 12
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Chapter 109: Popularity Contest, page 7
  9. 9.0 9.1 Chapter 120.1: [Unknown Title, page 10]
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Chapter 109: Popularity Contest, page 1
  11. 11.0 11.1 Chapter 109: Popularity Contest, page 3
  12. 12.0 12.1 Chapter 120.1: [Unknown Title, page 9]
  13. Chapter 82: Local Area, page 6
  14. Chapter 82: Local Area, page 13
  15. 15.0 15.1 Chapter 82: Local Area, page 6
  16. Chapter 82: Local Area, page 9
  17. Chapter 82: Local Area, page 13
  18. Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 30
  19. Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 31
  20. Chapter 89: Guest of Honor, page 42
  21. Chapter 98: Moments Apart, page 14
  22. Chapter 109: Popularity Contest, page 2
  23. Chapter 109: Popularity Contest, page 14
  24. 24.0 24.1 Chapter 120.1: [Unknown Title, page 3]
  25. Chapter 119: New Year's Resolution, page 6
  26. Chapter 120.1: [Unknown Title, page 11]
  27. . 2026-02-11 https://bittersweetcandybowl.tumblr.com/post/808211372836061184/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)