The Pastkeepers Page

by [5thwitch]



ref:Pastkeepers art contest

Pastkeeper is a story centered on the importance of culture and language, I was thinking about the discover of the rosetta stone and what we learned about the past from the decoding of ancient languages and what more we leave for the future since it was used to leave a sign. So while I was brainwashed by my litterature study I gave birth to this story. After a nuclear disaster (such as the one which distoyed the world in Hokuto no ken XXXDDD joking!) people lived strangely as a primitives in a colony in the middle of the nuclear desert. Why they weren’t try to turn back to normality? Why they didn’t build houses? Why they didn’t move to a better place? Because they forgot. But somebody remembers how was before, they’re called Pastkeepers and they’re whorshipped as precious treasures by the people. You may ask: “but if they know, why they don’t lead the people to a betterlife?” because they live under a blind dictatorship, and they’re not allowed to talk and express their ideas and to tell the people what they know….The dictator keeps them just for his pleasure, but they're like birds in cage. theire followed by servants and controlled by guards. Ok I wan’t bother you more because the story is a little Phiosophycal but I hope this long description would help you understanding it...

I have never started drawing the story from the begin, because I'm still working on it, defining and refining. but i had someimages in my head, some very clear moments that I decided to put it on paper. One is the episode in which Aenima appears for the first time, onother is the one in which Aenima discovers that Gin is following her (that is represented in the illustration above) and the last moment is the story you're going to read now. the're just episodes that can stand alone, because I wanted to focus more on the emotions than on the story.I hope I succeded.


4.3.2.1.

ref:Manga Story Contest

About the 4 pages you've read (or you'll read).
-When does the story starts?
This 4 pages are set in the moment in which Aenima decides to leave the village to find Gior-jo. Aenima leaves with coma her servant (the girl appearing in page 3).
Gio left the village searching for Bruce, because he wanted to know more about his name. the name is very important for them, because the head of the village (a "dictator" in reality) had the people to belive that the name was the only key to find peace ofter death, and people had to keep really clear in mind their name if they wanted to reach heaven. so he told them they hadn't to listen nobody but him, because any other word could erase their name from their mind.

-Why is she leaving?
Aenima wants to find Gio because she discovered that the name he thought of his own wasn't really his real name. Giorjo knew before that he had a different name, he did some investigation and he found that his name wasn't only GIO but Giorjo. In reality Gio and Giorjo are just "nicknames" that the dictator gave him.
his real name was hide on gio's mother tombstone. Aenima found it in the sea and decide to go searching for gio to reveal him the real name.

-But why They're so obsessed with writing it?
Gio and Aenima, as pastkeepers, have remembered that once people could write down everything, and they want to learn it because they want to leave what they've remember to the next pastkeepers to complete the puzzle e rebuilt the knowledge lost ofter the disaster.(they do it in secret obviously).

-And what about the "songs"?
Songs are the only thing they remember clearly, but they're quite sensless since they talk about things they don't know, love, cigarettes, wishes,sex,cars,telephones, work... won't you be courious about something you remember but you cant figure what is?

-Who is this guy called Bruce?
He's a pastkeeper who escaped the village years before. that's why now the pastkeepers have a servant and a guard.
He is a rebel and is searching a way to reunite all the momories of the survivors to create a basement of knowledge to start a new era.

-Who are the other two characters?
Gin and Coma are aenima's guard and servant.
Coma is so moved by Aenima desire to find gio that decides to accompany her in her voyage, even if she will disobey the head of the village, she loves Aenima like a sister. That's why she puts her need before the head's orders.
Gin doesn't want Aenima to leave but he knows that if he stops her from leaving, he will have her in sadness and lonelyness for the rest of her life since he belives (very reasonably) Gio would never come back after have met Bruce.

In facts, when Gio meets Bruce, he completely wakes him up from his mind-sleeping.he convince Gio that all that the head said was shit and reveals him that on the hearth there is still life... and other humans. they have to find them and re-buil the world taking back civilization. Gio decides to help bruce in searching for tthem an continues his travel trough the desolate panorama of their land.

When the head discovers that even Aenima left, decides to move away with the village, the pastkeepers need to be tested before coming back to it, Gin propose himself to go and search for Aenima because he it was his fault if she went away.(do you belive this is the only motive?)

-Why they seems so embarassed when Gin slips and falls on Aenima?
Eh,eh... So, The head, scared about the born of other keepers, tryed to avoid sex between keepers and simples (simples are the one who have no memory) or kepers and keepers by forbidding sex. the head decides who and when has to make children. The simples who are blind-faithfully followers of the head's rules, doesn't have to be controlled, but keepers who have a more free mind have a guard to control and protect them, Aenima who is a woman, has a female servant who Helps her. obviously a guard can't get too close of a female keeper since he's a fertile man too. That's why Coma is so pissed off when she see Gin on Aenima.


continuing...

You can find Pastkeepers also:

-Manga Story Contest
-Pastkeepers art contest
-<http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/art/0/t/5thwitch/pastkeepers.jpg.html>