The (not-so)Secret Origins of Swift

The (not so) Secret Origins of Swift, Blood of Ten Chiefs

Swift first appeared in my head way back in 2001, during a second-year anthropology class. It was Cultural Anthropology, to be precise, and I was suffering through another long lecture about how the West was pure evil and the World Bank was directly responsible for every thing that ever went wrong on the face of the earth. Now, this was two months after 9/11, and it was extremely fashionable to bash Western industrialist consumer-culture. But I was getting sick of it. And I shut down and started to dream about ElfQuest. Images started to appear in my head, based off the preliminary sketches of Wendy Pini's in the Gatherum. The original Leetah "Morninglight" had a shield and sword in that first pic. Hmm... what if she had actually been meant for Rayek? What if Joyleaf had stopped being a battered woman for once? And Cutter... hmm...

At this time my dear friend Erin, aka Sun Girl, was down in Florida taking a term off from school to spend with her family. And so I often spent the two-hour break between the unsatisfying anthro class and the unsatisfying history class sending her emails, updating her on life on Vancouver Island. It was only natural that I tell her about my EQ reverie.

Here's an excerpt from that first fateful email to Erin, on November 9th 2001:

"I've got a scheme for some elf fan charas I want to draw.... While musing what Leetah might have been like if she had said "Make me strong like you, Rayek," back when she was like seven, I got an idea for yet another really weird Worldpool thing. These'll just be pictures... now's the time to see if I've gotten any better at Wendy-elves.... Consider: what if from conception, "Morninglight" was meant to be Rayek's mate? What if a certain blond elf had killed Bearclaw long ago and taken over as Chieftess? What if Bearclaw and Joyleaf's son had been cute? What (god help us) if it had been a girl? I don't know which of these half-baked and sacriligeous [sic] notions I'll actually try to draw."

And here's part of Erin's reply from the same day:

"I know you're probably trying to challenge yourself, or something, but have you maybe bitten off more than you can chew? Are you really going to use the worldpool to try and salvage Cutter and Leetah? I mean, that's a bit more than I think anyone could handle. But good luck to you, I admire insane ambition. Sometimes."

My initial "these will just be pictures" assertion didn't last long, as you can all plainly see (snarf!). But how was I to know that Cutter as a Girl would edge out Cutter as a Wuss? I'm a little sad sometimes to have lost that chara: he was going to be called Weaver, which struck me as the furthest from "Cutter" one could. While cutting separates, weaving draws together. Get it? Augh, bad attempts at symbolism. But no, Cutter as a Girl was the one that stuck, and before I knew it, Swift was staring back at me on the page. I didn't know what to make of her, at first. I darkened her hair from Cutter-blond to golden-blond, because I was afraid of making her too fair-haired. I wondered whether it might be sacrilegious to actually have her wearing Rayek's collar. Would Rayek fall in love with a Cutter - even a female Cutter?

My cold feet didn't last long, however. Swift became my new alter ego, and "Her Secret Soulname is Tam" became my newest writing project. Joyleaf wouldn't kill Bearclaw, as in my original notion, but she would kick him out of the tribe and take over as chieftess. And Leetah would be kicked out of Rayek's fantasies forever the day a young Wolfrider rode into Sorrow's End. The story literally exploded onto the emails between B.C. and Florida.

Here's another reply from Erin only one day after the first email.

"I want to know details about what happens in your universe, as compared to the EQ universe, for books 1 through 4.... For instance, One-Eye presumably survives the palace war, yes? And... maybe Dewshine decides to be Tyldak's lifemate and tells Scouter to shove it? .... Send me a little narrative overview for whatever you've got figured out so far.... I am just having such a ball thinking about how thoroughly we are fucking up [the canon universe]."

The only problem was, where to showcase it? It didn't really fall under standard fanfic catagories. Do I just post it next to "Blood of Ten Chefs" on my Archive fanfic page? No, it seemed the only option was to create... (drumroll please) The Swiftverse!

Another from Erin, dated November 11th:

"I can't think of a reason, apart from occasional hate-mail from the Cutter's Fanclub members, why we shouldn't put this little venture out on the web. Except that I don't know what kind of format it would take... fics and historical overview from you and artwork from the two of us? Speaking of artwork, I've started a pic of Swift. It'll probably take a few more hours to finish, but I might have it ready to send by this evening. It'd make a great entrance page logo -- "Welcome to the Elfquest Alternaverse"

Yep, that is the now-infamous Swift portrait that became the definitive picture of the new Wolfrider chief. And of course, Erin wanted her share in the fun. If I got to Recognize Rayek and give birth to the new Promised Children, Suntop and Venka, then she wanted her chara Savin in there, Recognized to Skywise and bearing the third of the Promised Trilogy, her own Quicksilver. By November 11th Savin and Quicksilver were landed residents, and Erin was scheming for Quicksilver and Suntop to hook up.

After some gnashing of teeth, I decided it was too cruel for Rain to die. And if Rain survived, then naturally he had to have his chick with him. I had already been a firm advocate of the "Clearbrook's Daughter" hypothesis which you can see dotting the Archive, so it was only natural that Erin's envisioned version of this mysterious elf - Moonsbreath the Tanner - should find residence in this concoction as well. Add Savin's birth tribe of pirates, dilute the "Now of Wolf-thought" for all it's worth, simmer, and serve. Congratulations - you have the EQ Alternaverse!

Swift approved, and soon the story ideas were running rampant. After some deep discussions mostly revolving around the colour of Suntop's hair, Erin and I decided to pair him up with Quicksilver to unite the two bloodlines and allow for the prophetic procreation of Weatherbird, the ultimate Chosen One. The Alternaverse's history unfolded in a pattern deceptively similar to the original canon ElfQuest, but just skewed enough to cause a shudder or two. A shudder of horror or eminent satisfaction? Depends on who you ask.

PS: I survived the anthro class and wrote a scathing class evaluation that would have made Rayek proud.

Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts.