#or something like dragon age origins but the wardens you didn't pick get axed as a result

[alteredphoenix]

I have this idea for a WoW/BNHA fic where instead of accepting Endeavor’s invitation to go train at his agency, Shouto gets mentored by either Jaina or Kael’thas (or both) when they wind up on Earth (because reasons).

I thought it simple at first, until I came across a problem. It was originally going to be about Alonsus Faol learning how if Shouto can learn how to use both his ice half and fire half of his quirk, then it should be possible for a priest - and even a paladin - to use the Light and the Void without suffering heavy repercussions. But then, a couple days ago when this idea first germinated at work, I stopped and thought Get real, Grand, no one’s going to read a fic about Alonsus Faol because he’s connected to Calia, and you KNOW how people are with her, so I stepped away from it. After all, Alonsus Faol isn’t really a character that stands out beyond being ‘that man of the cloth who created the first human paladin order, died, was raised as Scourge, regained his free will and broke away, went under the radar for 20+ years, and resurrected the princess of a fallen kingdom into lightforged undeath’.

Then I thought What about Jaina? and it seemed like I had something going at first: BFA-era!Jaina teaching Shouto fire magic.

Until I suddenly remembered KAEL’THAS! and considered replacing Jaina instead with him, perhaps a version of him not manipulated and driven mad by the Burning Legion, or reborn into HeroAca as a foreigner with the Quintessential Elf Ears and a fire quirk that lets him conjure phoenixes, or a pre-WC3 version of him, or even an AU version of him where the Quel’dorei never experienced the Fall of Quel’Thalas or the defilement of the Sunwell.

Then I thought But what about Jaina? and. Well. You can kind of see how I waffled from there lol. I just couldn’t decide on one or the other, especially since their last canon interaction was soured by the love triangle Arthas and Kael were in pursuing Jaina, and AFAIK Kael’thas’s only other interaction with someone from his mortal life is Vashj from TBC; he hasn’t had the luxury - if at all - of having the opportunity of talking to Jaina again, and Jaina herself has gone through plenty of hardships and trauma herself that could have put her on the path to Knight Templarhood gone too far (we’re not going to talk about the dreadlord memes, and that’s a whole other can of problematic worms I won’t open here).

So this puts me at an impasse: Either I throw in a Fire Mage!Jaina to fill in the quota (and there is precedent for an AU, thanks to Hearthstone), put in Kael’thas from one the above mentioned states, or plop both Jaina and Kael’thas pre-WC2/WC3 (or an AU where both live a.k.a Kael’thas doesn’t defect to the Legion/stays Horde as Sun King of Quel’Thalas/becomes an Alliance subfaction) into the setting of HeroAca and they can teach Shouto how to use both sides of his quirk (or, in Jaina’s case, how to reinforce his ice half, whereas Kael’thas would help with his fire half). Or, if I really want to take it that far, make it a Reincarnation Canon Divergence AU where they regain their memories, angst, and teach him.

Honestly, it could go any of these ways.

I just wanted this to be a simple one-shot but I guess I’m not getting that right away lmao