Cephiro

So, on my tumblr recently, I had thoughts about what might’ve happened in Cephiro immediately after all the shenanigans and goings on of the series, and figured I might as well add it here. Feel free to share your thoughts on it or any of your own theories and headcanons.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever made more than a passing reference to this before, but here it is. My headcanon for the immediate aftermath.

Right after the old pillar system is abolished and the new system comes into play, the world of Cephiro is in flux. The castle’s still there, but the world around it is reshaping itself according to the will of the people there. Slowly, new permanent geology begin to emerge.

First comes many of the world’s old prominent features that the majority of the world recalls. The ocean, the floating mountains, and the volcano, for example. Next, specific areas resembling the collective memories of those who’ve lived in those places for decades, even centuries, crop up, and people eager to go back to their old peaceful lives hastily seek those places out the moment they understand that’s what’s happening. Unfortunately, this leads to some casualties, as some perfectly stable land masses can be surrounded by fluid ones, and they quickly learn not to travel to these new places by foot or cart.

Thus, one of the first priorities of the new Cephiro is to map out the new world, to determine which areas have solidified and which areas are still deciding just what they want to be, and to figure out how they can consciously change the process themselves. As time goes on, the more the world settles into a strange mishmash of the old they remember fondly combined with the aspirations and influences of the new.
~
Autozam is the first of the other worlds to have a presence on Cephiro. They set up a research station in permanent orbit around the world to constantly collect data, just close enough that the abundance of magic doesn’t interfere too much with their technology. It starts out being run entirely by Autozamian scientists and military, but after concerns from the others about the possibility of a takeover if left unchecked, an agreement is reached to allow other world’s scientists to join their efforts.

Chizeta is the first to have immigrants settling on Cephiro. It starts with an unauthorized ship chartered by an opportunist who convinced several hundred people to give up their life savings with the hopes of a better life on a new world, which prompted emergency meetings between Cephiran and Chizetan officials to hammer out some semblance of an immigration agreement. The immigrants live in the castle at first, and then find their way out. Some decide to join some nice communities already there, but most band together to settle on a new fixed landmass that’s begun to form. It’d be a lie to say the transition was entirely peaceful, as Cephirans as a people are extremely unfamiliar with outside cultures, but some form of understanding is eventually reached. They come up with a perfectly good name for their settlement, but it’s still often referred to as ‘Chizeta Number Two’ in jest.

Fahren has no immediate need for Cephiro’s research or land, but they are the first to come to a trade agreement. At a time when Cephiro is trying to devote as much willpower as possible to the land development, it seems prudent to import many goods that would otherwise be created by will, and Fahren is the country best able to provide. It’s an investment on their part at first, until the world forms enough of its own natural resources and materials to allow them a true bartering system. Though Fahrenese immigrants are uncommon compared to Chizetan and Autozamian ones, Fahrenese merchants are a very regular presence.

I was going through old posts in the Wailing About Writing channel on the Discord chat and came across a discussion that Milieva thought would be useful to have posted here, so here it is (some edits made for clarity):

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Also, I seem to have Ascot and Umi having a bit of a chat about elemental magic and would welcome other thoughts/ideas on the topic.

Down-12/01/2018
Ooh, what sort of conversation?
I have MANY THOUGHTS on magic in Cephiro and some are even coherent (most not XDD) and I have about five ways I write it, heh.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Basically it came up that Ascot’s never been all that great with the elements, and Umi’s remarking on how hers has always felt intuitive.

Down-12/01/2018
Mmm, because his magic is originally rooted in a different pathway?

His magic at the base as a summoner I normally take as being basically made of 'communication-and-creation' in equal parts, so try to have those be the types of magic that come easier to him.

So better at making chairs and tables and the kinds of communication-with-animals things than something intended at the heart to destroy.

The lightning magic seems to be Clef's default he ends up teaching the people who need something offensive but are rooted in non-elemental magic, because it's /his/ default and he knows it.

But also it's about creating the spark of the lightning and then just directing it, rather than gathering something that's there.

Which is how I have Ascot finding his way into it.

But SOMETIMES I go five-elements system and have the central one be 'spirit/void' and in that
instance, that's Ascot's element.

I think I did go with aether for it once.

But then it's fun if Cephiro is four (or five-with-aether) and then you have other people turn up with different belief systems who get Cephiran power and it expresses itself through THEIR elemental theory INSTEAD
and this is why Tarta is a metal element user.

Which she thinks is SO COOL and Clef - is slightly bewildered but ACTUALLY THAT'S REALLY COOL and then Umi shows up and is going 'what the - SERIOUSLY how is she allowed to MANIPULATE ALL HER WEAPONS NOW THAT'S NOT FAIR.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Huh. So much fun today. Yay!
Do you have thoughts on Umi’s relationship with her own magic?

Milieva-12/01/2018
Besides thinking it awesome?

Down-12/01/2018
My thoughts on Umi tend to devolve into SHE IS THE OCEAN PERSONIFIED AND RAGE AND GRACE AND UNFORGIVING AND A GODDESS. snickers

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
... Yes, that would work well with the conversation.

Down-12/01/2018
MORE COHERENTLY I don't know, I tend to go with 'magic is pulled into someone through their connection with Cephiro and stored within them after being converted through that process into power that is ~theirs~ as in it resonates with their element.

And in Umi's case that turns into an intuitive kind of sensing of the water physically around her because it's aligned with the power that's in her.

(So it's stronger in Cephiro when the magic is being constantly fed/refreshed but there's still a slight sense there when she's back on earth.)

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Like, “Ascot, you can’t just cast a water spell! You’ve got to BE the water! BE the sea!”

Down-12/01/2018
So when she learns to do it, or when she's reaching for a spell, she's literally reaching to manipulate the water in the area - pulling it from the atmosphere to form it into a dragon.

And part of that manipulation is essentially (at least for Umi) inhabiting the element, so yes! being and channeling the water~

You have to FEEL it, have an understanding which goes beyond facts and into an emotional kind of sensing in your heart.

And that's what gives you strong intuitive mastery.

You can force it with just straight factual understanding but without the kind of emotional connection it's not as strong or flexible or responsive~

And the 'feeling', the connection, is tied into your underlying (and cultural) understanding of the element, so someone who say grew up knowing only little lakes and gentle rain would have a different notion of it than someone who has grown up with typhoons and tsunami.

Not necessarily STRONGER, because if the connection is solid you can ask the water to be whatever, ask it to take on your anger and rage to do the same as if you believe that the water has its own anger and rage
but it's DIFFERENT in the way the mage experiences it?

And Umi's expression and understanding is very 'RAGE AND GRACE AND UNFORGIVING AND THOSE MOMENTS OF SUDDEN PEACE'?

Whereas the other naturally-water-aligned character I have that I write more, HI MIURA, is a water-based healer, and for her water is more - support-of-life, and the force that will not be stopped, it is the slow wearing away of the stones and you can direct it but you cannot halt it.

And she works through sensing of her patients bodies through the water that's inherently part of them, so her healing is actually attached in to her elemental understanding.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
That would also lend itself well to Umi fucking things up a little while later, just being so caught up in being the sea and the storm and the Goddess and forgetting her current surroundings. (Especially since she’s been so frustrated with being stuck on scrollwork and being annoyed with Clef that that’s kinda coming out too)

Down-12/01/2018
And they share a number of characteristics (both are stubborn as fuck and pretty much will not back down) but are very different too. (Umi is more confrontational and will act almost before there's a reason to, Miura doesn't get confrontational until there's an obstacle in her path - like an idiot Guru who won't take care of his own health and keeps scaring her healers - and then she'll Do Something About It.)

Umi is ALWAYS so quick-to-the-point-of-over-reacting and it's GREAT FUN because she's RIGHT so much of the time about the fact there's an issue but her reactions are so often slightly too much, or in the wrong direction, because she's still learning! and it all goes horribly wrong. XD

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I love them all so much.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH UMI IS GREAT

I WANT TO GO SEE THE SEA WHILE IT'S STORMING.

My own understanding of the sea is rooted in the North Sea so I'm well aware I don't think of it the way
someone who lives in, idk, the Mediterranean would. XD

I have a running, um, terrible theme of lightning mages being attracted to water and often drowning as children if they get their magic too young.

Milieva-12/01/2018
Clef is very attracted to the sea.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
snork

Down-12/01/2018
*hides under a cushion* IT IS A TERRIBLE THING AND I HAVE HEADCANONED IT it's one of the reasons there aren't many of them around and IT CAME OUT OF THE FACT IT IS A TERRIBLE PUN.

UM ANYWAY, that combined with the lack of natural storms in Cephiro most of the time explains why there aren't actually many mages with elemental lightning magic that is natural to them - of the kids who have the right understanding that that's how it expresses itself, not all of them survive (also because it's one of the more dangerous forms to use as your first)

But there's a fair number who end up knowing it as their second BECAUSE it's one that Clef finds easier to explain, AND, that lack of a strong connection makes it a pretty safe second power because they're not likely to develop such a strong sense of it that it becomes natural in the same way.

And one of the reasons I do actually think that Clef probably did come into his power young and in the middle of the fall of the Pillar of the time, he was at the right age and had the opportunity to form that feel for the stuff breaking the sky apart and it felt like the scream in his own head that he couldn't let out because everything is going wrong and people are VANISHING and no one will tell him anything but he's not THAT young he's old enough to help if they'd just TELL HIM WHAT'S HAPPENING.

(He's probably about seven. I remember being seven and thinking JUST TELL ME SO I CAN HELP I'M NOT A LITTLE KID LIKE MY BROTHER and looking back it's 'oh. Um. Yes, yes I was, I was seven.')

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
(And now I’ve also got a bit of Ascot admitting he’s probably just as responsible as Umi for the whole magic fuck-up because he decided to try more of the ‘feeling the magic’ approach and it ended up working too well. “Wow, Ascot, I’m just a bad influence on you, aren’t I?” “No, you’re the BEST!”)

Down-12/01/2018
Ascot I headcanon as having been ALONE and in trouble with a definite emphasis on the 'alone' which sometimes falls down to the idea that his village/family was just destroyed in some accident and he was on the margins and is now like five and lost in the woods and his magic expresses as communication-manifestation because he just wants someone to come find him and help so he's calling out
at which point his parents and his village might have been okay but his magic's in before anyone else finds him - and it may have been a while - and from that point on interactions with people Do Not Go Well.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Sounds like as good an Ascot headcanon as any.

I've heard imgur is pretty decent for hosting.

Spoilers

a couple that are on mine!


Pompeii (Bastille)
this one especially reminds me of Clef.

We were caught up and lost in all of our vices
In your pose as the dust settled around us
And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we love
Grey clouds roll over the hills bringing darkness from above

But if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like
You've been here before?

Oh where do we begin?
The rubble or our sins?

Better Days (The Goo Goo Dolls)
very post-MKR2

So take these words and sing out loud
'Cause everyone is forgiven now
'Cause tonight's the night the world begins again

The Call (Regina Spektor)
very much suited for MKR2

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before
All you can do is try to know who your friends are
As you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon
And follow the light
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye

City of Angels (30 Seconds to Mars)

Lost in the city of angels
Down in the comfort of strangers, I
Found myself in the fire burnt hills
In the land of a billion lights