#Zale and Valere does not question who their parents are

[goodshipskypirate]

Oh...

Well, that answers who the Great Eagle is.

Jesus Christ, Resh 'an, you really do have your claws everywhere, sir.

[kyuohki]

27. I'm actually gonna ask the same thing I asked smaller-comfort. tell me your personal SoS lore for your fics. Your headcanons. I want to know your interpretation of characters and worldbuilding!

I have so, *so* many. I apologize now for the length!

I can't remember if this is addressed in game, but headcanon that Aephorul is extremely skilled at traveling through space/dimensions. Also headcanon that he *can* travel through time as well, it's just more difficult for him to do so (doesn't have a Vial of Time like Resh'an does, but has his own way of doing it.)

Contradictory to canon, Dwellers *can* be killed without Solstice Warriors, but it's extremely difficult to do so (and at extreme loss of life and destruction of the surrounding area). After Resh'an figured out that Solstice magic is the best chance at defeating Dwellers without all the immense fallout, he propaganda-ed the hell out of the worlds to make it seem like *only* Solstice Warriors are able to fight them to mitigate the losses; then implemented his Cult for Child Soldiers(TM) to ensure that those Warriors wouldn't question it. (Honestly, the whole thing is Resh'an's answer to the Trolley Problem).

People who are born *close* to a Solstice, but miss the actual day, have a huge boost to their magical potential. Much higher chance for elemental magic that corresponds to the Solstice they're near.

Borrowed from @smaller-comfort, but Resh'an has a system of puppets on the various worlds/dimensions that deal with *most* of the Solstice Born and deliver them to their Mooncradle/equivalent. Those that he sees have an extremely high potential of success, he delivers personally (Valere and Zale, for instance).

Parents of Solstice Born are given advance warning by the Great Eagle Puppet landing on their home, sometimes even arriving before the parents realize they're gonna have a baby themselves. This is to give the family time to come to terms with having to part with their child. If the parents do not name the baby, then the current Headmaster will on their arrival at Mooncradle.

Minor Mooncradle headcanon: The beard that younger Moraine, Brugaves, and Garl sport is unique to Mooncradle. They start growing it out in their 20s (mustache is optional, but is usually started around 40-50's).

Another Minor Mooncradle headcanon, and Trio Headcanon: Kids keep their hair about shoulder length until they hit their teens, then they can do what they want (though most keep it long anyway). Zale *hated* the long hair, and snuck out to chop it all off with stolen shears (a couple of years before they sneak into the Forbidden Cavern). When he got in trouble, Garl did the same in solidarity (though he managed a much neater cut to his hair); Valere never cut her hair bc she likes the length, though would help Zale and Garl keep their hair shorn short (either by standing guard while they cut it, or cutting it herself (it's usually neater when she does it. Zale usually gets impatient and ends up hacking at it. Eventually the adults give up on enforcing the hair rule for them.

Monsters are on the rise, both because of the ones being developed in Aephorul's Lair and sent out to the game world, and the Acolytes also doing whatever they could to boost them (monster farmers?? *snerk*). A lot of smaller villages/towns get overrun and are either completely destroyed, or people end up just leaving their homes and making their way to larger cities for the protections they provide (why Brisk looks/feels so sprawling and diverse; also why some get desperate enough to try for Lucent (not believing the warnings/tales and getting stuck).

All the cyborgs on Serai's world have actually been around for a long, long time. None of them can really remember exactly how long anymore, due to their trauma of being turned into cyborgs along with all the continuous torture from the Dweller of Dread.

Serai is related to the Queen that Was (going for niece, atm), and part of her desperation to fix everything is because of that (though she can't fully remember *why*, she feels responsible for it all.)

The Queen That Was had been a powerless figurehead for the government in the Megacity, and had made a deal with Aephorul or one of his followers, to grab for power for herself and humans against the other races.

Tentative idea is that Cedric (computer aide to Serai) was a scientist whose experiments/designs were stolen and repurposed into the Catalyst. He learned what was happening, and before he could be captured and forced into the Catalyst himself, managed to upload himself into a computer in Repine (saving his soul from the Dweller). As time went by, he became more like a computer/machine himself until it was just assumed that he is an AI when found by Serai.

Songsters were little guys! Look like an anthropomorphic cat, with a very long, prehensile tail (resembles a cougar/snowy leopard in shape.) Broad shouldered, are very strong, but short and stocky (ranging around 3 or 4 feet in height.) Hands are 5 fingered, but feet are broad paws to aid in climbing (so no shoes for these guys). Very large ears, and their faces don't really lose a kitten-ish look; there is a huge variety of fur types and colors. Clothing is loose and draped when not working/building; more for decoration than protection (they wear more when dealing with other races, to account for differing race stances on nudity). They have specific clothes they wear when building, for fur/body protection (PPE, like little hard hats, special boots, etc).

Songster cities were designed to look like they sprung up with nature, as balanced as they possibly could with their environment. They had magic and tech to make life comfortable, even in the smallest villages. Their tech was pretty advanced, and built to blend in and be unobtrusive.

Human cities lean more to high urban and tech, though they do have many pockets for greenery (parks and the like). Essentially like how Star Trek and Star Wars "utopia" cities are depicted? All clean lines or heavy industrial and super integrated with tech and machines (leaning more towards Star Wars. There are still slums and underlying issues that are swept under the rug).

The Birdmen were not necessarily less technologically advanced, but their religion/culture made it look as if they were. Like the Songsters, they built their structures to work with nature, but with as little influence on the "wild" areas as possible. They have technology, but is integrated into their structures to not be as obvious as the other races; and due to their religion, some technology is simply forgone. (In game the Sacrosanct Spires is very heavy on the stone structures, integrated with nature, but the huge root system and cut branches suggests a lot of it was cut down and back? Possibly something that happened during/after Aephorul's influence). Their preference is to keep as much of their history/religion/culture intact, so they appeared to be less advanced. (Birdmen were possibly dissmissed by humans (and even by Songsters?) as being hidebound to their religion and less advanced as a result, and that might have been a driving force as to why they sided with Aephorul).

The Megacity was built as an attempt at strengthening a developing peace between the races, with the Songsters doing a lot of the design, but all contributing to it's development (definitely prior to the Cult getting a firmer stranglehold on the Birdmen.)

Before Aephorul arrived and set up his stronghold, there were a lot of wars between the Birdmen and Humans, as well as civil wars between Humans. In the height of strength in the megacity, there was ultimately a huge grab for power by the Queen That Was to solidify humans as the ones in charge instead of being governed by a congress of all races.

[goodshipskypirate]

I think this is why Zale and Valere never question their parentage. I think the civilians of Mooncradle knew going in with the whole Solstice program that kids born outside of their home and delivered to them would have expectations and questions on their origins and parenthood, so they built and nurtured a society dedicated to community.

I'm sure there are villagers who have parents (Moraine and Yomara had twins, for example), but I think the overall core of Mooncradle is that everyone pitches in to raise the kids and just help each other out. It's actually quite nice, a good and proper demonstration of loving and supporting your neighbors that works as a compromise to the whole baby kidnapping thing (I am still judging Resh'an for that, but Teaks' story seem to imply he nudged Mooncradle in this specific direction, so at least he planned this so the Solstice Warriors do not grow up traumatized.)

This also explains why Garl seemingly doesn't have parents either or at least if he does, he never talks about them. Maybe he's an orphan who, like the Solstice kids, were raised by the community. In Moondcradle, no child ever felt unloved or unworthy regardless of where they came from.

...Is that why it's called Mooncradle? Because the Solstice Kids are born (literally or metaphorically) and raised here?