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.

Quote from: VKiera on December 20, 2018, 03:37:16 AM

He's a leather-clad arachnophobic ex-con living undercover at Ringling Bros. Circus. She's a plucky belly-dancing safe cracker with an evil twin sister. They fight crime!

Haha, maybe a fic with Presea and Sierra in it? But who to play the ex-con...Ferio maybe? haha

No one ever said you couldn't genderswap and make it Caldina/Presea.


I got: He's a fiendish soccer-playing paranormal investigator who hangs with the wrong crowd. She's a provocative green-skinned archaeologist who hides her beauty behind a pair of thick-framed spectacles. They fight crime!

Not sure why I think Ascot could make a good paranormal investigator. Maybe because he likes his spirit beasts, or something.

Not sure who would be green skinned...

Don't know who would be green-skinned either, but I would also be totally down with Ascot being a paranormal investigator. I've also thought of maybe making him a paleontologist in some fic or another, but haven't actually played with the idea much yet.

"He's an otherworldly vegetarian househusband with a robot buddy named Sparky. She's a mentally unstable antique-collecting museum curator from Mars. They fight crime!"

You know what? I can work with this.

*rayearths* Rayearth rayearth, rayearth.

Well, now that you mention headcanons, Down, one of my own seems like it might be relevant to this discussion.

I headcanon Ferio as being someone who’s tried but found they had pretty much zero aptitude for magic. And as such, he doesn’t believe he could be any help to Emeraude. Maybe he even tried a stint in the Guard but found that wasn’t for him either.

So, when the end seems to be coming, well, one has to get through the Forest of Silence to get to the (Weirdo) Fountain of Eterna, he’s got just as much chance as anybody, but even that effort’s kind of half-hearted, as he’s not really sure he could bring himself to kill his sister himself, even though he knows it has to be done.

Imo it's fair simple: the summoners in Cephiro have a bad rep, and like Ascot's they may have given too much freedom to untamed creatures and abused their power, especially before Cephiro got out of control without the pilar protection. Ascot is just one of them (or the last of them, maybe)

Cephiro having a history of bad summoners is another possibility, yes, or perhaps just them being blamed for regular monster attacks. It could also be that summoning lends itself more to abuse of power than other forms of magic, considering that it involves one person directing the actions of other at least semi-sentient creatures. Though, given that Emeraude was constantly praying for peace, I can’t see a bad summoner being able to cause too much trouble, but enough of them being enough of a nuisance to get a bad reputation seems possible. Really, any relationship in which one party holds almost all the control is very susceptible to abuse of some sort.

I like to add elements/stipulations to summoning that give the beasts agency of their own for that reason. For example, while it’s possible to force a beast to do exactly what you want, it takes a lot more energy/willpower, so it’s in a Summoner’s best interest to have them acting voluntarily. In the anime, Vigor and Capella (canine creature who Hikaru ‘adopted’ and armored sea monster who Ascot controlled at the Selece Shrine) were, IMHO, good demonstrations of how an adaption can positively expand on the original source. While you can infer from Ascot’s words in the manga that the beasts are separate entities from himself, in the anime, that’s depicted by those two acting contrary to what Ascot wants and him having to convince them otherwise. Capella especially. After all, there’s no point in taking over a creature’s mind if they don’t have a will of their own.

As such, I like to think that for a good Summoner, their relationship with the ones they summon is a partnership freely entered into by all parties. It’s possible to force the beast into service, but only by overpowering their will, and the strongest beasts tend to have strong wills of their own. In addition, I headcanon that particularly strong creatures can break out of whatever extra-dimensional space the Summoner keeps them in on their own.

Anyway, back to the ‘Too many Summoners gave themselves a bad name’ hypothesis, I’d think if that were the case, it would be something brought up in canon. I mostly dropped the idea of Summoners being the problem because when Ascot’s describing the issue, it comes across like peoples’ problems are with the beasts themselves. Also, in that scenario, Umi’s advice shouldn’t have been “Stand up for them!” but rather “Stand up for yourself!” Doesn’t mean it’s not possible, just doesn’t quite fit neatly into canon as we know it.

Don’t think I’ve seen you around before, so nice to meet you!

Having a few thoughts about Umi today!

Mainly, her relationship with her parents, and how it's really good. In the Spring of Eterna, when the apparitions of her parents attack her and Emeraude asks them if their loved ones would ever want to cause them this much pain, Umi can give a definitive no, absolutely not. She has absolutely no doubt that they love her.

In some ways, Umi comes across as spoiled, but it's not an 'affluenza' spoiled. She's lived a life where she's never had to do without, yet it doesn't seem like there was a faulty degree of indulgence. Her parents seem like the kind that would actually take appropriate action to curb the behaviors if they found out she was bullying someone at school and admonish her not to think lesser of people of lower status than her. They've also allowed her to develop her own personality without too much insistence on following norms.

I also feel like Umi would have a low tolerance for bad parenting, just because, "Well, my parents did great with me, of all people, what's your excuse?"

One interesting thing of note about the story in the first season: The battles against (most of) the villains are almost never won over by the brute force, or when it is, it's all three of them together. So, instead of a DBZ like progression in which the villains just get stronger each time, you have villains that are, at least while fighting individually, all indeterminately stronger than the Magic Knights (indeterminately other than being weaker than Emeraude and Zagato).

This is a little more apparent in the manga, actually. Alcyone? Undone by getting too cocky and not taking the Magic Knights seriously enough. Ascot? Made to realize that what he was doing wasn't right by his friends. Caldina? Convinced it wasn't worth the paycheck (possibly because Zagato decided to pay her up front like an idiot). Lafarga? Accidentally set on fire which broke the mind control. And Zagato and Emeraude were both defeated by all three together.

Just interesting to think about.