*Spoilers* Thog and Nale's first meeting

[MReav]

Inspired by some of the commentary from the Start of Darkness thread, I was curious on what other people thought on the subject. How do YOU think the gruesome twosome first got together?

My idea? Nale father gave him Thog as a present. Kinda like a pet attack dog.

[Fawkes]

I thought that the Linear Guild wasn't going to be in SoD.

[factotum]

They're not, which is presumably why he's not putting this speculation in the SoD thread...

As for how they met, the idea of the Linear Guild is it's supposed to be the exact opposite of the Order of the Stick. Considering OotS only met up a couple of days before comic #1, that doesn't leave a lot of time for Nale to find Thog and the others...

[Nazzo, the 102nd]

It's very likely that the Giant will publish the origin on the Linear Guild too, just like "On the Origin of PCs" and "Start of Darkness". We'll get toknow how Nale met with Sabine and Thog, what really happened with Hilgya before she hooked up with the Linear Guild, the history of Yikyik's family, Nale and his father, etc, etc, etc. :smallbiggrin:

[Icewalker]

Actually, I'd say it is rather doubtful as to whether we learn of Nale's father. Elan's mother isn't in On the Origin of PCs, just Elan serving some paladin before meeting Roy.

[Dakmor]

Think about it. Thog and Elan are comparable, as are Roy and Nale, albeit Thog is supposed to represent Roy. Elan found Roy by helping him to recruit members; so it is likely that Thog and Nale met when Nale was having difficulty finding polar opposites (somewhat like the search for Pompey), and Thog popped up out of nowhere, as Thog is wont to do. It is unclear whether Thog actually helped Nale out, as he does look nice and buff; however, like Elan, he is incompetent, compared to his leader's intelligence, so it is likely that he would not be allowed in unless he helped Nale. He probably just bashed some peoples' heads together or something.

[Icewalker]

He probably did just about what Belkar tried to do to get in with Roy.

[skinkatlarge]

Think about it. Thog and Elan are comparable, as are Roy and Nale, albeit Thog is supposed to represent Roy. Elan found Roy by helping him to recruit members; so it is likely that Thog and Nale met when Nale was having difficulty finding polar opposites (somewhat like the search for Pompey), and Thog popped up out of nowhere, as Thog is wont to do. It is unclear whether Thog actually helped Nale out, as he does look nice and buff; however, like Elan, he is incompetent, compared to his leader's intelligence, so it is likely that he would not be allowed in unless he helped Nale. He probably just bashed some peoples' heads together or something.
I'm pretty sure Nale didn't recruit the original Linear Guild by consciously looking for evil opposites of a group that he didn't even know existed. He knew he had a twin brother named Elan, but nothing about him since their parents split. He had no way of knowing anything about the OOTS until they met in the Dungeon of Dorukon - it was just blind fate that made them all correspond to each other. Or Narrative Causality, if you prefer. It wasn't until later that he took the whole evil opposites thing as a conscious theme.

[Legendary]

Except he was hired by Xykon to do the job, so it is likely he got enough information to go evil opposite theme.

I mean, I refuse to believe that of ALL the elves in the world, Nale got one that has an uncertain gender, JUST like Vaarsuvius.

[Bogardan_Mage]

Actually, I'd say it is rather doubtful as to whether we learn of Nale's father. Elan's mother isn't in On the Origin of PCs, just Elan serving some paladin before meeting Roy.
Yes, but despite Nale's best efforts, the Linear Guild aren't perfect mirrors of the Order of the Stick. Thog and Hilgya were not the first two members of the party to meet (Hilgya was part of the guild because she was commanded to steal the Talisman from Nale (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0074.html), so she would have joined only after Nale decided to quest for it), and it doesn't seem Sabine and Zz'dtri were especially close. A Linear Guild origin story would show what was relevant, whether or not it had an Order analogue. And now for something completely different. My take on how Nale managed to organise his evil opposites so soon after his twin joined the party on which they were based:

1: Nale has been following his twin for some time. At this point, Nale would have been in contact with the skeleton of the guild, such as Sabine and possibly Thog and others.
2: Nale discovers that his brother has joined an adventuring group which is going to slay Xykon. Nale strikes a deal with the Lich and goes to recuit his own party. Noticing parallels between Elan's party and the help Nale already has, he happens upon the idea of "evil opposites".
3: The Linear Guild sets out for the Dungeons of Dorukan. Not having to face any of Xykon's monsters because of the deal, and not concerning themselves with discussions about "level", they make it to the same level as the Order with great speed.

This gives Nale a day or two to recruit his party. We know that Sabine and Hilgya were sent to him by various powers, and he may have already had one or more of the others, so I think that's somewhat reasonable.

[BisectedBrioche]

thog was thrown out of Barbarian camp '86 for failing a philosophical question and met Nale who had been thrown out of overcomplicated school for threatening a teacher. Nale failed to stab thog and so they became friends.