Major character who has only appeared on 1 page in the entire OOTS saga

[Ron Miel]

The Blond archer appeared in at least one other page.

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0160.html

Edit - so did the halfling.

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0169.html

[locksmith of lo]

The Blond archer appeared in at least one other page.

Edit - so did the halfling.

ah zut! i thought i looked far enough! good catch!

[Ionathus]

It's insane enough to actually be plausible: The Holey Brotherhood!

Connection to the gates: check
Knowing the location of at least one gate (so why not the others?): check
Interested in keeping the gates from falling into the wrong hands: check

Heck, they might even be the mysterious voices from the end of UD. Their weird fondness of the rifts to be unsupervised could mean they expect the possibility to stop existing when the rifts start to spiral out of control.

This...dang, this could actually be it.

[Riftwolf]

This...dang, this could actually be it.

Yet weirdly when I suggested it ten pages ago everyone poo-pooed me.

[Ron Miel]

I don't think it's the Holey Brotherhood. The character is supposed to be an ally, and the Brotherhood, if it still exists, would be trying to unseal the gate. They would be enemies. I do like the idea of them returning, though. But they would have to be antagonists.

[Metastachydium]

New idea: Nyr-Azul, Priest of Tiamat. Has a name, serves Tiamat, only comes up once.

[DapperWarlock]

New idea: Nyr-Azul, Priest of Tiamat. Has a name, serves Tiamat, only comes up once.

Seeing his name in a magic book definitely doesn't count as an appearance.

[KorvinStarmast]

Popcorn is the Elder God. And the gods quake at the mere mention of his (its? their?) name. They merely hope and pray that he sleeps on...

while this is appealing, deities mostly have to be hands off.

Popcorn will be a god over my cold, dead body, I tells ya!

Popcthulhu can probably arrange that ... how are you with slime and tentacles?

Holey Brotherhood
Cons:
Girard said they were the dumbest villains he'd encountered

And probably dead, given that Girard and Lirian were taking him/her down.

Wisdom buffed Belkar.

Heh, that would be kinda funny.

New crackpot theory: Redcloak sacrifices his life to defeat The Snarl by throwing the Crimson Mantle into the rift, thus sealing it with purple quiddity and instantly aging himself to the point where he dies of old age.

While I'd like that, it doesn't fit Rich's issues with goblins being hosed.

Seeing his name in a magic book definitely doesn't count as an appearance.

But there's a chance that the high priest of Tiamat is on screen for a single strip, here, in strip 0999, as one of the high priests standing there to send Veldrina the vote.

Not sure which one that would be, but given the connection to Malack, maybe that lizard green one on the left.

[DapperWarlock]

But there's a chance that the high priest of Tiamat is on screen for a single strip, here, in strip 0999, as one of the high priests standing there to send Veldrina the vote.

Not sure which one that would be, but given the connection to Malack, maybe that lizard green one on the left.

But their Macebook just says "priest!" I can't buy that Malack's friend could be the High Priest of Tiamat and not have that title plastered all over their social media. No way is the priest of an evil five-headed dragon goddess THAT humble.

... also, all the high priests are stuck at their Godsmoots.

[KorvinStarmast]

But their Macebook just says "priest!" I can't buy that Malack's friend could be the High Priest of Tiamat and not have that title plastered all over their social media. No way is the priest of an evil five-headed dragon goddess THAT humble.

... also, all the high priests are stuck at their Godsmoots.

Hmm, since the Western and Southern have cast their votes without the nonsense the Northerners did, aren't the priests now free to go?

(Good point on the Macebook handle, though).

[Rogar Demonblud]

Well, what would be the most annoying, rules-lawyerly way to do it? Yup, everybody is confined at their respective Godsmoots. Plus, to be fair, you can't tie down one pantheon's worth of High Priests and let the other two lots run amuck.

[DapperWarlock]

Hmm, since the Western and Southern have cast their votes without the nonsense the Northerners did, aren't the priests now free to go?

I'm not inclined to assume so... the idea that the other two continents' high priests can just go about their business while the question of whether or not the gods are going to destroy the world is still up in the air strikes me as odd. If, say, the Western gods were the ones deadlocked instead of the North, I don't have much doubt that the Northern priests would be sitting there waiting for when Veldrina could communicate the final tally.

Edit: Ninja'd by Rogar, with less than half as many words as I took to say it.

[KorvinStarmast]

Well, what would be the most annoying, rules-lawyerly way to do it? Yup, everybody is confined at their respective Godsmoots. Plus, to be fair, you can't tie down one pantheon's worth of High Priests and let the other two lots run amuck.

Which would be consistent with the story so far, in re the Northern Pantheon's issues ... so maybe he'll change it to not repeat that gag.
Who knows?

[Goblin_Priest]

To think of it... seems kinda silly that the whole thing would be vulnerable to such a basic filibuster.

[Rogar Demonblud]

The fix for that is that they seem to only call a Godsmoot to deal with a cosmically significant time sensitive matter. The kind of stuff nobody really wants to dally on for long, although 'long' is relative given a deity's lifespan.

[Peelee]

The fix for that is that they seem to only call a Godsmoot to deal with a cosmically significant time sensitive matter. The kind of stuff nobody really wants to dally on for long, although 'long' is relative given a deity's lifespan.

Source? Because so far we have a sample size of one, and I don't think we can extrapolate too terribly much from that.

[Metastachydium]

Source? Because so far we have a sample size of one, and I don't think we can extrapolate too terribly much from that.

In fact, Wrecan who's been to a number of 'moots before does not expect anything shockingly big to come out of it. Of course, a matter that requires the attention of all three pantheons must be of a cosmic or near-cosmic scale, but that does not mean it cannot be something boringly trivial at the same time.

[ebarde]

It's divine judge duty

[KorvinStarmast]

In fact, Wrecan who's been to a number of 'moots before does not expect anything shockingly big to come out of it. Of course, a matter that requires the attention of all three pantheons must be of a cosmic or near-cosmic scale, but that does not mean it cannot be something boringly trivial at the same time.

Given the number of times that they have done this, the destruction of the world, from the PoV of the gods, is a trivial decision to make. But some would rather see this version (OoTS world, V 3.7million or whatever) progress than scrap it and start over yet again.

[DapperWarlock]

After today's strip, I can't help but notice that Quippie was only on one page before now.

Technically more of a tool than an ally, but it's the sort of misdirect that I could at least get a good chuckle out of.

[Argis13]

Lurked for a while, but I made an account to get this idea out of my head:

Do crayon pages count? It's generally accepted, AFAIK, that crayon pages aren't literal depictions of what happened. If we accept that they don't count as "appearances by a character"-on the same level as the wanted posters of Nale that the bounty hunters had when they captured Elan, Haley, and V- then I can think of two characters that may fit this description- Drukon's Dad, Tenrin, who appears in non-crayon in 1129, page 2, panel 6 and the Snarl, who appears in a non-crayon on page 945, second-to-last panel.

These ideas both have weaknesses. It's arguable weather or not Tenrin is a "major character." He's more important than, say, That guy with a Halberd, but we are looking for a major character that's only seen on one panel, and, also, it is a sequence that is exclusively in Durkon's head.

The Snarl is more of a plot device than a character, but it's still worth considering.

[Bohandas]

Weren't some of the gods only seen during the vote?

(And on a similar note, I think Giggles the Clown also only appeared on one page)

Gods are major by virtue of being gods, right?

[Metastachydium]

Lurked for a while, but I made an account to get this idea out of my head:

Do crayon pages count? It's generally accepted, AFAIK, that crayon pages aren't literal depictions of what happened. If we accept that they don't count as "appearances by a character"-on the same level as the wanted posters of Nale that the bounty hunters had when they captured Elan, Haley, and V- then I can think of two characters that may fit this description- Drukon's Dad, Tenrin, who appears in non-crayon in 1129, page 2, panel 6 and the Snarl, who appears in a non-crayon on page 945, second-to-last panel.

These ideas both have weaknesses. It's arguable weather or not Tenrin is a "major character." He's more important than, say, That guy with a Halberd, but we are looking for a major character that's only seen on one panel, and, also, it is a sequence that is exclusively in Durkon's head.

The Snarl is more of a plot device than a character, but it's still worth considering.

Technically, it doesn't have to be a major character. If you check the original Word of the Giant, you'll see that what we are looking for is just about any random one-shot character who will become an important ally.
(Mind you, I don't think crayon appearances do not count, though.)

[Argis13]

Technically, it doesn't have to be a major character. If you check the original Word of the Giant, you'll see that what we are looking for is just about any random one-shot character who will become an important ally.
(Mind you, I don't think crayon appearances do not count, though.)

Totally forgot the original Word of Giant .

I think the drawings don't really count primarily because of the distinction drawn with Tenrin's appearances: most of the time, he's seen only in crayon, it may or may not have happened in the way we see it. However, when Sigdi is saying "I NEVER LET GO," we see it in stick figure, to show us that this really happened. Stick figure is "objective," crayon is "subjective." At least, that's my interpretation.

Why do you think the crayon drawings count?

[HalfTangible]

Lurked for a while, but I made an account to get this idea out of my head:

Do crayon pages count? It's generally accepted, AFAIK, that crayon pages aren't literal depictions of what happened. If we accept that they don't count as "appearances by a character"-on the same level as the wanted posters of Nale that the bounty hunters had when they captured Elan, Haley, and V- then I can think of two characters that may fit this description- Drukon's Dad, Tenrin, who appears in non-crayon in 1129, page 2, panel 6 and the Snarl, who appears in a non-crayon on page 945, second-to-last panel.

These ideas both have weaknesses. It's arguable weather or not Tenrin is a "major character." He's more important than, say, That guy with a Halberd, but we are looking for a major character that's only seen on one panel, and, also, it is a sequence that is exclusively in Durkon's head.

The Snarl is more of a plot device than a character, but it's still worth considering.

.... Come to think of it that description would also apply to Serini since she only appeared as a drawing in her own diary and all her other appearances were crayon

[Metastachydium]

Totally forgot the original Word of Giant .

I think the drawings don't really count primarily because of the distinction drawn with Tenrin's appearances: most of the time, he's seen only in crayon, it may or may not have happened in the way we see it. However, when Sigdi is saying "I NEVER LET GO," we see it in stick figure, to show us that this really happened. Stick figure is "objective," crayon is "subjective." At least, that's my interpretation.

Why do you think the crayon drawings count?

I prefer to err on the side of caution, especially since the Giant did not specify what, exactly, are we to understand by „appeared.” Subsequently, whenever someone is visible on a page or panel or whatever (be that in crayon, as an illusion conjured up by Thor or in a hypothetical situation someone is merely thinking about), I'll consider that an appearance. Heck, as illustrated by a post above, I am ready to count such things as a namedrop.

[Gurgeh]

Weren't some of the gods only seen during the vote?

Almost none of the gods were seen during the vote; in almost every case, we only saw their high priests. Loki, Tyr, and Hel had summoned proxies, but the rest of the Northern pantheon did not appear at all during the Godsmoot.

[Ron Miel]

But they all spoke through their priests. Speaking offscreen counts as an appearance.

[DapperWarlock]

But they all spoke through their priests. Speaking offscreen counts as an appearance.

Eh, debatable. I personally wouldn't count it--speaking and appearing are two different things. Just because their speech bubble made an appearance doesn't necessarily mean the character also did.

[Fish]

I think I have it.

He's on this page. It's Belkar's conscience. After all, we just got a telepathic link hooked up, so now people might get to hear what's going on inside that head of his.

And heck, maybe it's even the guy on this page.