You Can't Escape History in Children of the Whales

The past will chase the Mud Whale to the very edges of the Sea of Sand. Now available in digital.

By Pancha Diaz July 31, 2019

Editor's Sidebar: Where we hear directly from VIZ editors about series they're currently working on.

Children of the Whales is an epic fantasy set on the perilous expanse of the Sea of Sands. The people of the Mud Whale live a simple life on their floating island home until the tragic day when their forgotten past violently catches up with them. Now they are fleeing the vengeful forces of the nameless empire in search of a new home and the truth about their own history. And in volume 11, we also start to learn more about the history of Orca, the enigmatic commander leading the assaults on the Mud Whale.

When Orca first attacked the Mud Whale, it seemed like he was there to mete out a final, imperial punishment on the “criminals” of Fálaina. His sister Lykos knows him as a loyal, terrible soldier of the nameless empire and for a while, nothing in the story appeared to contradict that view. But now in volume 11, in the midst of the battle for Amonlogia, Orca’s true motives are finally becoming clear.

Cow131

In volume 5, Orca convinced the Ekklisía to send him on another mission to exterminate the people of the Mud Whale. But now that he has chased the Mud Whale to Amonlogia, Orca has another goal in mind—he is determined to steal the magical guardian of Amonlogia, Kýma.

Cow87

But Kýma is more than just a mindless artifact. She is a Nous projection with her own motivations, like Neri and Aíma on the Mud Whale, and Orca will have to enter the chaotic Nous mindscape in order to convince her to join him.

109cow

Kýma interrogates him about his past, including a previous run-in with one of her kind. At first Orca is melancholy from the memories, but as the questioning continues, he becomes animated with the power of his ultimate world-changing ambition.

Cow111

Intrigued by his daring, heretical plan and bored with her entombed life on Amonlogia, Kýma agrees to leave with Orca. But as we know from Aíma, these strange Nous children don’t serve humans, they use them. Is Kýma going along with Orca’s plan for the chaos of it, or is she following some deeper scheme we’ve yet to uncover? 

118cow

Join the adventure with the Children of the Whales, Vol. 11 free preview here.

And get the whole story, now available in print and digital.