#mumscarian royal watchers au

[bluiex]

A WHOLE TAG?? FOR ME?? FOR MY LITTLE AU??? AAAA!!! /POS

So. Watcher Royal Hierarchy, and courtship etiquette, go!

First off, The Hierarchy. It’s split into six groups: The Seen, The Workers, The Guards, The Servants, The Council, And The Ruler. But, the society can still run with only five of the six present. (This will be important later ;]).

The Seen are basically the Peasants, and they can be anyone from a prisoner, to a Worker or Guard’s child, or someone who simply lives there, typically for some sort of fee. They don’t get any special treatment, and, despite not technically being workers, they can work mundane daily jobs, or create art and writings, or just not work at all. They are typically not permitted to leave the premises of the caverns

The Workers are exactly what they sound like. They are paid usually large sums of diamonds, and any peasant, if not a prisoner or currently a child, can be moved up to a Workers position within a month or two. They are permitted to leave the Caverns on designated days, and typically only for work related reasons.

The Guards are also exactly what they sound like. Typically, they are born into their position, or train extensively for their spot. The Guards both guard outside the Caverns, and inside, typically keeping the Seen and Workers from escaping. They also are allowed to leave the caverns, as long as they promise to return with either prisoners, or some new people. If they don’t return, they are typically hunted down and thrown in the dungeons, or simply killed on the spot.

The Servants Are the highest level that any ordinary watcher can be appointed to. They work within the castle, usually close with the Ruler. They are all promised a room in the castle, and comfy living for their whole families. Servants who work closely with the ruler tend to be the favorites, usually very close with them, and a few always tend to hover around them. Typically, they are fluent in both english and the local watcher language.

The Council. This is the odd one. Being on the Watcher’s royal council is just about the highest honor the royals could give you. These are typically made up of lovers, best friends, enemies, and close family. Now, a Ruler can technically rule without a council. As Grian had no surviving family, close friends, enemies, or lovers, who were available to serve on the council.

The Ruler. The top of the food chain. The most powerful, adored and feared member of the watchers. Typically, if you ask anyone about the watchers, they’ll have a picture of the ruler, or past rulers, in mind.

Now, for Courtship Etiquette. Typically, Watchers will create things for their mates in hopes of catching their attention. Poetry and Sculptures have been common courting gifts in the past. Gifts of vines and plants for the home are seen as romantic as well, handing over a gift of life to your lover. Typically, Watchers who are also hybrids with something else, will have their own species courting rituals as well. Grian is no exception, though his species of bird is unknown. Offers of intimacy and affection, for example, sharing a bed or hugs, are seen as extremely romantic, as watchers tend to keep to their own personal space. Along with jewelry for proposals, they will also give poetry, sometimes sharing things they’ve observed about the other. It’s also a common tradition to go out and do something completely new when trying to court someone, or as an engagement date. [Skydiving, People watching, river tubing, horse racing, etc]. Yeah so, Grian offering for Scar and Mumbo to share the bed with him was 100% flirting, which is why he sent the remaining servants off to bed. :] -bird

OMMMGGG I LOVE THESES

Ough okay imagine they're all in bed, Grian in the middle of the two cuddling him. Grian starts to quietly recite his favorite poetry, or stuff he made himself.. Scar an Mumbo are so in raptured with it-

Ofc they're clueless as to what all the means (as of right now) and they're just like "wow.. That was so beautiful Grian." And praise him deeply. Grian is so flushed and squirming cuz that's a really high praise of a complement from those he's courting

[stitchthesewords]

Here's some fun, non-to-lightly spoilery Rift AU thoughts for everyone!

So Ren in Rift AU is inspired by the faon interpretation [maybe closer to canon? I havent watched s7] of Mayor Scar mixed w the Red King from 3rd Life - Specifically, Ren is inspired by @mochiwrites's Scar in her Good Crimes AU [Which if you haven't read you ABSOLUTELY should]. I just love how she wrote Scar to be publicly one way and Privately another, and while I certainly don't imagine that Ren the King is quite as beloved, the inspiration is there.

Originally, Rift AU was tagged w Watcher Grian but I changed that because I want to mess with the Rift as it's own separate force and leave the Watchers for something else. I think the Watchers [And Listeners! *looks at Martyn*] function more as an ancient, ANCIENT religion, maybe even older than the ancient cities.

Also another original idea that's been put to the side for now is that the Warden was a watcher - I don't know where I was originally going with that idea, but it was my first pivot after deciding Grian wasn't going to be the watcher.

For anyone curious, and because I don't know if I'll name it directly in the stories or just leave it more ambiguous, I'm basing Scar's mobility issues and chronic pain off my own experiences with Cerebral Palsy, among other things. I have a very mild for of Cerebral Palsy that left me with a weaker right side and mobility issues and I absolutely wanted to make sure Scar was still disabled even if he isn't wheelchair bound. I imagine that he certainly has a wheelchair for bad days, but those would be like. Really bad days. The staff - to - cane that he has, made out of the same magical wood as his tree, is probably good for most of the sort of bad days.

Rift AU actually started as a way for me to explore sculk and ancient cities in fiction, which is funny given that we are now 17k in and counting with no mention of either. I have plans for it, but the story needed more work up than I was originally anticipating, which is great! I'm really enjoying returning to my roots with fanfiction, which is the whole reason I started writing Rift AU in the first place

Obviously I'm sort of picking and choosing what elements from hermitcraft [and the life series] I want to include in Rift AU but I am a little bit grumpy that I started writing it before I really fully understood the king plot [When I started, I had only watched Grian and Etho. Now I've caught up on Ren, Impulse, Mumbo, and Cleo, with plans to watch Pearl, Tango, Zedaph, and Doc next. I also really want to watch Beef and Iskall lol] because now I really wanna jam the whole royal council shenanigans in there and I'm not gonna be able to without probably retconning Scar and Ren's relationship which I refuse to do!

Obviously, Mumscarian and Treebark are in the story, and there's also going to be platonic Soup Group and platonic Team ZITS [bc. Skizz deserves to be here. I love him]. I won't tell you ALL of the pairings that end up in the story because a. I feel like we're be here all day but b. some of them are spoilers but I AM planning on having Solidaritek [Apparently team ranchers is only for platonic or something???] and ZedBeef and also Ethubs all make their own appearances. There might even be some like short stories following a few of the other couples in the story because I have attachments to Ethubs in particular. IDK if you can tell but Etho is my favorite hermit and I used to watch him all the way back in 2011 on his singleplayer world. I remember the boat dispenser. My baby girl.

One of these days I will genuinely type up an essay about my latent energy theory but in case anyone else is interested here's a very short tldr version: Redstone, Glowstone, End Rods, debatably sculk [I havent decided if it falls into the same category yet tbh], etc etc all power themselves via latent energy. That latent energy is compatible with electricity in some way, as evidenced by the fact that lightning rods can be used to power redstone machines, but it's different. More in between electricity and magic - either because it actually is or because it's not as understood by the people who work it. That same latent energy is the stuff magic feeds off, like is seen in Changing of the Season to help rejuvenate Scar. Whatever it is is old. Older than the Ancient Cities since they knew to build redstone machines to distract the Warden. It's older than the end cities, too, since end rods exist. Arguably it has always been and will always be around in some way.

Also this might not interest anyone else but thoughts on vampires and elves. Vampires are more closely related to Zombies, whereas Elves [Who are Fae, which means the Vex are included here] are more closely related to Endermen than anything [<- that will come up again] - and then the Warden and sculk are like. Very distant cousins of vampires. Sort of. Their trees connect somewhere.

[bluiex]

YES OMG YOU ARE SO RIGHT WITH THE POETRY IN BED!!!

Also!!! What if Scar attempts to return the favor? But, he just can’t wrap his head around the words, and Grian’s poetry is just so pretty and it genuinely intimidates him. So, He goes to Mumbo and one of the inner circle servants, [If i write this out fully, this could be another one of the hermits?], and recites the poem to them. Mumbo’s amazed, and The Servant just giggles, and Scar’s so confused as to why they’re giggling. They just say, “While the poem is lovely, Clearly you don’t get it. He’s courting you. You respond to a courting poem with one of your own, correlating to theirs.” This is said like it’s common knowledge. It Is Not. Scar and Mumbo are both extremely flustered to know that Grian’s been trying to court them this entire time. They share the poetry with Grian and he just, breaks. He stumbles and stutters for like 10 minutes before anything coherent comes over

[i may have more aus rattling around in my little mason jar birdbrain. so. maybe be prepared for that. and i also apologize that you’re the main target of my rattling, i’ve had this au brewing in my head for weeks and i feed off of praise so it only gets worse from here!]

-bird, certified Attention Whore™️

YEEES SCAR RETURNING WITH A POEM HIMSELF Mumbo helping- Grian would need a hot minute to compose himself cuz wow they're returning the courting back to him-

PLEASE CONTINUE TO SHARE!! I LOVE IITTTT

[bluiex]

ITS DONE!!! THE ROYAL WATCHERS AU BACKSTORY FIC THAT HAS TAKEN ME 4 DAYS IS DONE!!! ITS OVER 4,500 WORDS SO I POSTED IT ON AO3!!!

TW: child hurt/endangerment, abandonment, death mention. [nothing graphic]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45902065

-bird

GASP GASP YAYAYAY

[bluiex]

HI I WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE LACK OF ROYAL WATCHERS AU UPDATES. IM PREPARING TO SEND AN OVER 3K WORD FIC [IK ITS NOT A WHOLE LOT BUT IVE NEVER WRITTEN THIS MUCH FOR A ONESHOT IN MY WHOLE LIFE] THAT IVE BEEN WRITING FOR 3 DAYS. FOR ROYAL WATCHERS GRIAN’S CHILDHOOD AND HOW HE ENDED UP IN THE CASTLE IN THE FIRST PLACE. [prepare to suffer]

hint: listen to smoke signals by phoebe bridgers :]

after i send this fic in, it should be all sunshine and rainbows [and nuclear bombs of angst], from here on out!

-bird

AYOOOOO?!?! YEEEEES IM EXCITED FOR IT!!!