Remes (Inktober Day 27)

The Serenading Lizard is a creeper.

The Remes is a type of serenading lizard who harasses the locals in the capital city of ‘Ir Risshum. This nocturnal creature is a creeper. With its guitar and karaoke boombox, it stands outside homes (usually belonging to beautiful women) and screeches until the wee morning hours. Worse yet, swarms of these reptiles often gather to compete for mates and sing the loudest. Naturally, it isn’t long before the city’s night watchguards get an earful of complaints.

This character is based off the רמש shoresh root (ignoring shin and sin distinctions), which deals with reptiles and evening.

Beli Ya’al (Inktober Day 24)

Beli Ya'al leads the Bavel Macrostructure.

Beli Ya’al is the decadent leader of the Bavel Macrostructure. From his low-level office in Bavel’s Migdal Tower, he deconstructs the world’s nations and strangles speech through a censorship regime.

(In many ways, he just *might* have a passing resemblance to certain modern-day tech titans.)

Beli sees himself as a socially conscious dictator. He promises humanity a global jubilee from the burdens of inquiry, debate and truth under the inclusive mission of “one language, few words.” However, his leadership style is lazy, and he often spends his time having trivial fun rather than doing hard work. It’s no secret that his enemies call him the Worthless One.

His typical powers are based on the בלי shoresh root and family. He emits radiation that ages his targets. He corrodes equipment to make it useless. And he can stir up necrotic debris, set his enemies on fire, or cause waters to flood. Rumor says he can transform too, but no witnesses have ever seen it.

Beli is an aging hipster at heart who longs to embody the spirit of the age. He shows symptoms of male menopause. He is negative, cynical and against all ideologies except his own. While he holds the brainwashed masses in contempt, he ironically wears shabby vintage clothing to signal his connection to the common man.

In his free time, Beli is an avid pilot. He owns a wealthy cottage by the watercourse of Yaval, near the mighty Perat River. He plans to make his own Hanging Gardens like the Garden of ‘Eden, where he can put the Syntax Tree in its “rightful” place. But for now, all that grows is devil’s grass.

Alp (Inktober Day 23)

Alp represents the letter Alef.

Alp, the guardian representative of the letter alef (א), is an ox whom Adam named and befriended in the beginning. As one of the 22 Otiyot, he broke his yoke to become a miraculous champion, a military general and a coach.

Alp’s abilities are based on the אלף shoresh root and family. He can easily learn his enemies’ skills and how to counter them. He also can shroud himself in darkness and can astonish the masses with God-given miracles.

Today Alp’s whereabouts are unknown, but rumor has it that his ancient teachings were preserved and passed down. Look forward to seeing more of Alp when the “Milhamah: Fighting Words” comic resumes!

Fattened drunkard (Inktober Day 22)

The fattened drunkard is a fan of the Granary's Trough.

The fattened drunkard is a background character who spends all day swallowing pig slop and chugging booze. He’s a regular at the Granary’s Trough, a tavern located in the Maäbbus sector of ‘Ir Risshum. He’ll always recommend the Working Man’s Bowl to newcomers. Otherwise, there’s not much to say about him, besides his slovenly appearance and his defiled manners.

Syntax Tree Taḥbir (Inktober Day 21)

Syntax Tree Taḥbir offers forbidden fruit.

Syntax Tree Taḥbir stands in a primordial semantic field. And like the biblical Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, could this be the root of all evil in “Milhamah: Fighting Words”?

Based on the חבר shoresh root and its family, Taḥbir is a dried-out carob tree that is covered with voting ballots arranged into parse tree patterns. Destruction hangs over this tree, as blood smears its branches, and multiple swords stab into its trunk. In addition, infected lesions fester the trunk, including several that have clustered into a star.

And worst of all, a suspicious striped snake hangs on this sinful tree, guarding a forbidden magic carob fruit. Keep Adam far away!

What other secrets does Syntax Tree Taḥbir hold? Find out more in the next “Milhamah” comic update!