Music track UPDATED: NIGHTWISH — THE POET AND THE PENDULUM, WITH LYRICS.

DogDay: A mischievous fire mage with a bright smile, a great mind, and some questionable ideas. Stupidly smart [or smartly stupid?] in his own right, he comes up with some very unconventional methods to solving problems, winning battles, etc. Graduate of Alabaster Arts & Magics Academy.

CatNap: Well... he's a big bag of bad luck sometimes. A traveler from a small village of an unknown name, he was often shunned for whatever reason. Your guess is as good as mine. He carries with him the following: a broadsword, a bow (+ arrows), and a shield.

Bubba Bubbaphant: A strategist, blacksmith, and archer all in one. He is renowned for his beautifully crafted blades and ornaments from his shop. He's often a step ahead of his opponent (a mortal enemy, sparring partner, random heckler, etc.) and won't hesitate to put an arrow through a threat's skull.

Kickin’ Chicken: A talented swordsman with a lanky yet powerful build that harbors enhanced flexibility. He is very acrobatic; can be seen jumping and flipping to dodge attacks. He's rather flashy, redolent of his big ego and big heart.

Bobby Bearhug: A healer from Rose Zephyr City. She is a quiet and motherly figure all while being serious and a tad elusive. She also has magic that controls certain plants (vines & trees of different types). She's seen some shit, like, she's SEEN some shit and it was really bad.

Crafty Corn: A kind-hearted mage who likes to create little sculptures. She wields ice magic, which produces crystals in many colors. She can occasionally manifest her sculptures into legitimate objects and/or weapons when her magic is comfortable to.

Hoppy Hopscotch: An energetic wielder of lightning/plasma. She wields a large hammer or battle axe (depending on her mood), which she coordinates almost too perfectly every time. She is very competitive, often trying to one-up Kickin’ Chicken over who's the better fighter.

Picky Piggy: A good shot, bowmaker and cook. She is defined by her snark and occasional cynicism, which is her brand of comedy. She means well, which almost always is shown through good food and the occasional side-eye of disapproval.

Two Forces of Good and Evil

Poppy: Archsage of Elements and headmistress of the Alabaster Arts & Magics Academy. She is solemn for the most part, a very stern woman with no room for careless mistakes. Since the rise of the Spires, she has been on the move. She was forced to abscond the Academy after a disastrous attack — which was the day of DogDay's graduation*.

*Thankfully, DogDay's entire class graduated and left the area before the attack.

Experiment 1006 — The Prototype: A paracausal construct made manifest, it is a being born from pure evil. It is the creation of a renowned illusionist who fled for the mountains after being exposed for the murder of one of the Royal family's heirs. It embodies sadism and psychopathy, two forces which, in the wrong hands, can be cataclysmic for the Dimensions.

The Alabaster Arts & Magics Academy

It is a beautiful marvel of Gothic architecture in white and gold, surrounded by gigantic ice crystals that never melt. It is the best magic academy in the region, introducing new sorcerers and sorceresses yearly. The campus is set up in four quadrants:

North Quadrant: House of Fire, Dormitory One, First Light Training Field, Arcane Library One.

East Quadrant: House of Water, Dormitory Two, Tourmaline Fountains, Arcane Library Two.

South Quadrant: House of the Wind, Dormitory Three, Gallery of the Arts, Theatre, Flying Circuit (for practices in self-levitation and flying)

West Quadrant: House of Nature, Dormitory Four, Gardens of Gaea*

*Gaea is the Greek goddess & personification of Earth, so “Gaea” means Earth here.

The Junction of the Quadrants

The Quadrants’ Junction houses:

The Monolith of Enchants, Mess hall, the lounges, Headmaster's Office, The Duality Emblems (fire/water, earth/sky), Archives of the Alabaster

The World — Asternia

The world is set in a fictional land now named Asternia, split into 11 regions between two continents. Each region has at least one major town specific to it, and various villages per region.

REGIONS:

Taiga

Deciduous Forest

Prairie

Far Mountains

Lowlands/marshes

The Deep Caves

Chaparral

Great Gaean Coil

Pale Heart's Woods, formerly the Verdant Heart

The Crater

Rosewood Valley (Home of Rose Zephyr City)

These are biomes/regions for the creation of an eventual map. The continent(s) are to be constructed to have natural shores, topography, proportions, geography, etc. The goal is a well-cartographed and detailed map, easy to read and understand, and to eventually be applied to the AU as needed. Several versions of the map will be drawn, and the best interpretation of the two continents will be selected for further improvement. This process will guarantee the best possible map for the AU.

The Spires

The Spires are massive Gothic towers of black and red, each containing a concentration of pure dark energy housed in massive teal crystals found at the top of each spire. The spires have Gothic windows near the top, have four points at the corners of the summits, and a massive base that has a staircase that would take tens of minutes to ascend.

The Regions in more Detail

The regions in the world are dispersed naturally to create a well-produced map of the land.

The Taiga, a forest filled with conifers and beautiful glowing lichens, is home to several villages that are situated in clearings where the sun shines in abundance and the world is green. It houses three great Spruce trees that are a very popular tourist attraction, considering they are of unusually immense size and sport vibrant green needles that glow with golden light at night. The region’s newly acquired spire is situated in the northwest of the Taiga, with the Prototype’s Imperial army checkpoints along the path there. The spire, like all the others, is essentially an outpost that siphons the aether from the world and concentrates it into a tangible form for the Prototype to use.

The Deciduous Forest is home to the City of the Ironwood Wreath (long name, I know), which is known for its abundant street markets and the citizens’ ability to weave even the strongest branches into tools and appliances. It is home to a beautiful gorge that has twin waterfalls, a community meeting site frequented by outsiders who desire to swim in the gorge’s crystalline waters. The Deciduous Forest’s spire is located terrifyingly close to the city, which was recently besieged by 1006’s forces.

The Prairie, a place of lush grass and wildflowers, is home to a set of villages around a gigantic circle where flower festivals were once held. It is known for having the stunning backdrop of the Far Mountains in full view and its intense blue skies. Since the rise of the region’s spire (which was erected in the center of that massive circle), the sky has been a dull grey with red flecks, and constant rain has been essentially torturing the region’s prized wildflowers. The Prairie was captured a month after the Taiga, a testament to the might of the Prairie’s resolve.

The Far Mountains are a region that rests closer to the outskirts of the North Continent, a beautiful place to paint the sunset or a place to scheme invasions in 1006’s case. A specialized tunnel connects the Far Mountains to the Pale Heart’s Woods, giving 1006 an escape route should the Pale Heart’s Woods fall to another force. The mountains boast snowy peaks and an extinct volcano that seems to watch over the region. The Alabaster Arts & Magics Academy is located on the east side of the mountain range, where the ice crystals serve as the borders of the beautiful Gothic campus. The region’s spire is on the southernmost mountain.

The Lowlands are a place where the Crystal Delta of the local river dominates tourism in the region, sporting a unique rhombohedral delta that feeds into the sea. The City of Swords sits here, curling around the delta and placing bridges over each stream in the delta. The grassy “islands” in between the streams house shops and entertainment hubs. The region fell to 1006 a year after the Far Mountains and its spire is now located off of the coast.

The Deep Caves are a massive cave system that has many entrances/exits and hides away massive crystals of ruby and sapphire, is shaped from limestone and obsidian, and is home to The Subterranean Metropolis, which is decorated with glowing crystals that serve as street lamps. The Deep Caves’ spire is outside one of the region’s entrances. It fell at the same time as the Lowlands.

The Chaparral is located around a “mega-lake” with several peninsulas pointing inward. The Main de Terre Peninsula is the home of the great Sunstone City. Sunstone City is the city of the fire-eaters, who train in fire magic to perfect the craft and send professional teams to perform across the continents. Their performances were shut down since the rise of its spire, which is situated in the southern corner of the continent.

The Great Gaean Coil is an unusual island in the shape of a swirl, located just Northwest of the South Continent, with gorgeous sands and shells in abundance. The main city out there is the Ocean’s Citadel, named after a beautiful fortress that once dominated the region. The fortress ruins, from nearly a thousand years ago, are very curvy and free-flowing while still maintaining structural integrity and circular aesthetic, but are now in disarray, save for some of the largest parts of the old citadel. The region’s spire sits off of the coast by the old citadel.

The Crater is exactly as expected — a crater. This crater was once a gargantuan caldera now extinct. It was originally a shield volcano before the thing exploded several hundred years ago. It now has several waterfalls and river basins that flow to a central lake where the water is evaporated by the world’s aether and returned to the sky, a natural flood prevention. The Crater is also the name of the city built by the lake, which is famous for hosting sailboat races (more on this later). The spire appeared in the center of the lake, where a battalion of 1006’s guards now keep watch over the unfortunate city.

Rosewood Valley is a gorgeous place of granite walls and flora of unknown origin — giant mushrooms glow at night, massive trees provide shade for the summers, the rivers spiral around a central moat (which houses the castle & palace), much like the familiar design of a mosaic rose. The walls of the valley are draped with roses of many colors, creating a beautiful background for beautiful lives... but not anymore. The region’s spire sits behind the castle.

The Pale Heart’s Woods are a wonder of their own, a colorless mass of trees and terrain, choked and shrouded by an unnatural sedative that seems to bleed from the air’s gaping wounds like blood. Two spires flank the main entrance of 1006’s palace, which is a behemoth of architecture in its own right. The Pale Heart’s Woods was originally the Verdant Heart, a place where green plants and golden sunlight blessed the area with eternal beauty. Fireflies could be seen at night, dancing through the air to a jig no one heard. It is not that beautiful world that we’d like to remember.

The Eventual Plot

The plot has not yet been thought of, but the main objective of the Smiling Critters is to liberate the Spires and reach the palace of 1006, eventually to defeat 1006 in its newly weakened state. The spires are dispersed throughout the world, one spire per region (except for the Pale Heart’s Woods, which has two. This makes for a total of 12 spires, as the two in the Pale Heart’s Woods dominate the main entrance to 1006’s palace).

IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS OR IDEAS, COMMENT ON THIS GOOGLE DOC: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XQP2wRuEEOKcNLL7nRDiuKihjPpQsn4AI2eYgJRSbt0/edit?tab=t.0