Bloodline 468
on August 11, 2026
at 12:59 am
Bloodline buffer pending!
This is the first time Ember has had a chance to be heard by Flint in a long time.
Hey, big news! A Kickstarter for Bloodline Volume 4 is in the works! keep your eyes out for it very soon!
Poor girl still thinks of him as her dad. Trauma runs deep.
She never called him Dad before in the comic. He had been lost to the darkness for so long that she thought of him as Flint and didn’t remember him ever being Dad. She knew he was her father, but she did not consider him family until seeing his real face reminded her of what he used to be.
Well, technically, he is. But she also started by calling him Flint, then with a “…” first said “Dad”. That could be an indicator that she was hesitating/thinking before saying that, like she’s deliberately using it to try to grab his attention. Only w0lfmare knows for sure. 😁
With a capital D even
To w0lfmare and anyone else interested: about two weeks ago I began the process of trying to decipher the Runic in Bloodline. With a hint from w0lfmare on deviantart, I think I have been able to make translations for most pages with legible Runic. I don’t know that all of it is fully accurate, but I’m fairly certain I’ve gotten close on most pages.
I’ve had my translations ready for a bit now, but I wanted to wait to confirm with w0lfmare: is it okay if I post the translations to the comments of each page with legible Runic? I have no plans to translate the names of the patrons written on the page borders (privacy and all that), but I do plan to talk about generally how to translate from Runic to English.
If okay-ed, I will post a reply to this comment detailing where to find legible and illegible Runic in Bloodline up to this point, and then I’d start posting my translations + explanations.
Either way, I’ll say this: if my translations are correct, most of the Runic in Bloodline is… not really that interesting. Mostly just incantations that unsurprisingly reflect exactly what’s happening visually. Fun as a translation puzzle, though.
Sure, I don’t mind if you post your translations.
Thanks! Significantly legible Runic appears on the following pages: 4, 84, 105, 141, 148, 153, 177, 178, 216, 307, 308, 316, 418, 437, 465 and 466. Go to 166 if you want a translation of the Runes on Cormac’s sword.
Illegible Runic is sprinkled throughout the comic, made unreadable because it’s of an older script or is nonsense, there’s not enough characters, or the text is too small. Such is the case of Ember’s Journal on pg 2, the Grimoire before pg 100, the Demon-Blood Gauntlet that Flint/Cole wears, Veera’s Armor, Tavara’s rings… etc.
I’ll post my translations over the next few days. To start, the repeating Runic that’s used as a background for the website reads (drum roll): “Bloodline.”
Awesome work! I’ve also been working on a translation, but when I presented my findings to w0lf, he said I was only half way there, even though I thought it was a full translation. I have a theory on what that means, but haven’t been able to progress on it. I’m trying to figure out what spoken runic sounds like, as opposed to English-equivalent translations.
Would you happen to have a translation for the name of the King Isolde is addressing in her throne pic? Or the runes used by Elaine in the picture of her enchanting? These seem to be unique sets of runes I haven’t been able to translate in the same way as everything else in the comic, which might lend credit to the theory I’ve been developing. There’s also a set of runes on a gravestone that didn’t spell anything out, which might be of relevance, or might not. Ive been kind of stuck with anymore progress for a while, so I’m hoping some collaboration might spark some insight
Thanks. To answer your questions, I unfortunately haven’t gotten any farther than you on some of these external translations. Out of the Isolde pic, I get “KING [name]… APPROACH/ACCROACH.” Out of any other pic on Deviantart though, I get nonsense (including the enchanting pic, which has one rune seen nowhere else). The gravestone you talk about I assume to be on 369; I found this to be nonsense too.
I would be interested in hearing more of what you have to say about Runic, but I’d like to avoid turning this comment section into a forum about it. I’m not in the Bloodline discord, so when my Picarto account is old enough, I’ll PM you on there and we can continue this chat if you want. I’ve also seen you mention having a “wiki,” but I’ve been unable to find it myself; this I’d also like to see.
For now though, I’ll mention: I lean towards the belief that some of w0lf’s Runic is probably just untranslatable. Bloodline IS meant to be read without understanding it. So, for external art that isn’t critical to the comic, I think it’s entirely likely that w0lf voids pulling out his Runic dictionary and just puts some characters down. And as for spoken Runic… well, I respect w0lf, but I have my doubts as to whether he’s Tolkien-level language-crazy.
Cool, feel free to message me on Picarto then! Sounds like we’re pretty much at the same spot, and I’ve been stuck there a while. I don’t know if I can post a link in the comment itself, so added the “wiki” link as my “website” for the comment system here. It’s just a google doc where I’ve been keeping notes of the comic and opened up to the public
Damn… I don’t have any word other than that’s really sad.
Wow. This is the most emotional page in a while regarding Ember. And Flint comes off more like an addict when he doesn’t have access to shadows. Embers power however makes me think back to page one or two when she said she believed magic was dieing in the world. Maybe it isn’t, maybe she just kills it when she’s around.
I don’t think she’s “killing” it. She has symbols traced on that hand explicitly meant to absorb/tranfer.
Is Flint getting some of the darkness back already or just getting into normal shadow?
It’s interesting to see that there might be some of Flint the father left, buried under and squashed underneath Flint the monster.
The parts of Flint that touched Ember are (mostly) the slowest to get their shadow back. Interesting detail.
“I need it”. My first thought is I can really only hear that phrase in Tom Kenny’s voice.
…But the second one is, a little more relevantly, what is “it”and why does he need it?
Probably whatever spell is giving him his shade form. Whatever power Flint gets from the voice may be addictive. It’s been stated that many greater demons are just straight up insane so maybe it’s like how an addict will scramble for whatever they’re addicted to even yhough it’s destroying their minds.
Flint wasn’t afraid of dying but is terrified of Ember stripping away his dark magic? What’s his real motivation? Spite, an end to his own pain, or actual love for his children that’s been twisted by trauma?
Reread this comic again, and I loved seeing how your art changed and improved! Always looking forward to what happens next!
Thanks!