Ellcia

• The Legend Begins

• Ghost Ship

• Ironclads

• Ship of God
  [and a Production Portfolio]

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          G-----------PG----------PG13-----------R------NC17

On another world.....

Before this other world existed, the great god Arusu created the Great Eagle and the Great Sea. The Great Eagle turned its back on Arusu and in the battle the followed Arusu's fingers fell into the Great Sea and became four islands known as Four Gods. Their names are Tanoa, Shikisu, Naydo and Eija.

Civilizations come and go and sometimes they leave behind their technology for others to find. In many cases, these are used as instruments of war and conquest. King Nabosu makes such a find and does, indeed, begin a conquest of all the known world.

The Islands are also not spared Nabosu's hunger for conquest. On the island of Eija, he executes their king and queen in front of the population, and takes the Crowned Prince, Elluri, captive.

In King Nabosu's employ is the theologian Ganak. On one particular day, Ganak discovers a prophecy that speaks of the downfall of King Nabosu's nation at the hands of one person, a Chosen One. It also speaks of a powerful ship, Arusu's ship Ellcia, which will help bring it about. This, of course, amuses King Nabosu to no end, and excites his ambitious daughter Crystal, who wants Ellcia for herself.

The Great Sea is filled with many merchants and where there are merchants there are also pirates. One particular group of pirates is led, somewhat informally, by a girl named Eira. Among their other ranks are a number of young humans and a selkie race [i.e. traditionally, these were sea elves or fairies] named Maeyard. The selkie's have the gift of prophecy and are said to hear the word of Arusu.

It was a little unclear to me that Ellcia was ever going to be a series and this made the first volume a little bit of a disappointment. However, taken together the first two volumes have proven to be pretty good, as long as you go on to volume 2 after seeing volume 1.

The story really gets going in volume 3. It is discovered that Eira is the sister of Elluri and, therefore, a queen to her people. It also becomes known that Eira is the Chosen One, the only person who can control Ellcia. Eira and her pirate crew begin to search out the Selkie tribes to get the powers of Ellcia unsealed. Once this is done, they will be able to go under the water, fly and produce a high energy beam. With these powers they will go after King Nabosu and rescue Elluri.

At the same time, Lord Phelkis makes his ambitions known and unleashes his own ship. It was built in secret and is in the shape of a great eagle.

Watching and working in all of this is the evil spirit creature that was unbound in volume 2.

Volume 4 concludes the series. The identity of the evil spirit is made known, and the warning of the Selkie clan is finally understood. That is, If the Chosen One gave themselves to evil, then the world would be plunged into darkness. In the end, Eira resists this temptation, and with a single command, causes Ellcia to disappear forever. It can be said that Eira and the good guys "won", but the cost was high, and in the end, Eira and her friends return to their pirate life.

Ellcia is a reasonable post-apocalyptic horror series. It is quite violent in places, and the body count is pretty high.

The production portfolio included in volume 4 was quite interesting. It contains rough animated sketches of some of the scenes in volume 4, plus the final scene as it was shown in the volume.