#others burn themselves up until there's just a powerful daemon made of the scourge they absorved left behind

[laryna6]

FFXV AU where there are two Lucis Caelum lines and ‘King’ is a purely magical/ceremonial position with no actual political power. 

See, Ardyn was pretty busy with the whole ‘saving the world’ thing so he was like ‘I’m never home and someone has to actually like, run the country and set up anti-daemon defenses around towns to stop people from getting infected in the first place, so I’m appointing my younger brother as my Regent and he’s in charge of everything that doesn’t involve healing or dealing with the Astrals.

So Somnus got all the power and respect he wanted and negative reason to betray his brother because then the Astrals might choose him to get jammed full of ten thousand daemons, no thank u. 

Ardyn and the oracle’s kids were very magic, and Somnus taught his kids how to do all the politicking, so he managed to wrangle his line holding on to actual power and hereditary Regents became the true rulers of Lucis, as per Japan having the Emperors’ line remain intact while Shoguns ruled.

In canon, when the kings sucked the people of Lucis were kind of stuck because like, divinely ordained, but since the Regents didn’t have that advantage, eventually a democratic revolution overthrew them (although they hung on to significant power as Dukes of Insomnia) but had no reason to change the arrangement with the kings because ‘if it ain’t broke’ you can keep getting your magical healings and divine blessings (it also threw the traditionalists a bone). 

In the modern times, King Regis (KIng King’s) son is Prince Ignis, named for fire to honor his ancestor Ardyn, and Somnus’ descendent is Duke Noctis. And like, people joke they were switched at birth because Ignis is a great organizer who started politicking young trying to see what he could do to preserve as much of his father’s life force as possible and is hiding that he already controls his magic to make his father’s continued life even more valuable, while Noctis spent a few years with his legs paralyzed after the attack that killed his parents and got very very good at warping to the point that Ignis’ shield Gladio got worried about him and started beating him into actually using his astral-damned legs, so yeah, people joke that the magic talent and political talents got switched. 

Since Noctis wasn’t a prince Prompto wasn’t intimidated and the two of them became friends way earlier and Prompto volunteered as a running buddy to help Noctis’ health but had no reason to give a damn about weight loss? So he remains round and friend-shaped and huggable and the amount of muscle in there means his hugs are Powerful. Noctis appreciates that Prompto can pick him up and carry him when he’s too achy to move~

Chibi Noctis was there for the attack on Luna’s home, and warping her and Ravus to safety was what unlocked his power, but Luna had to return to the empire bc people there needed healing from the Starscourge (Regis handles Lucis) and Ravus went with her to try to help. 

The peace treaty with the Empire is that Ignis marries Luna and the Empire keeps all but one child that’ll be a heir for Lucis, bc the Empire wants their own tame ‘king’ line to hopefully do something re. the wrath of Shiva (and get experimented on...) Road trip happens, with Noctis and Prompto coming along with Ignis and his shield Gladio as friends of his and also to see/meet Luna. Post marriage Ignis needs to build a power base fast in Gralea for leverage to get their children treated like humans, and then they find that Besithia is planning to create new-gen MTs with clones of Ignis...

[blackjacketmuses]

hc; ardyn 24

So I just noted a post that said something about the Caelum family having powers of their own. Okay, I can work with that. And it works with another headcanon I have about Eos, too!

In the time of Solheim and before, there was a phenomenon its people called deus tetigit -- god-touched. The people who were touched by the Astrals, for the most part...it was not a good thing, a double-edged sword that was a blessing and a curse. 

Touched by the Hydraean? The sound of the waves and the frothing surf in your veins, the wild sea in your heart and all the rage of the goddess of death drove one mad. Some strong-willed men and women lasted long enough to do great things with the wild and untamed passion it gave them, the ferocity and the pull of the tides -- but they all went mad, and most ended up consigning themselves to the sea for their Tidemother.

Those touched by the Glacian froze. Their hearts and minds and all else iced over, they could only see with a cruel and clinical eye, could not feel save for logic and the most sensible, most rational path. It calmed their souls and trapped passion and fire away, and they all died of the chill in their veins, despite most being very accomplished scholars and masters of the ice they could command.

Bahamut and Titan drove their touched battle-mad -- the god of war and the god of the earth whipping those they touched into frenzies of combat and battle. They were certainly able warriors, with command of the earth and skin like stone, or light bleeding from their eyes and their veins, but they were berserk, uncontrollable, and lived for combat until combat ended their lives. Some were heroes, but not many.

Ramuh liked his humans, touched only a few, but the spark he gave them was lightning in their veins and a hum of energy in their chests, and Ramuh’s touched were those that built towers high and puzzles complex, engineers and inventors who used the thunder at their fingertips and endless vigor to make great and wonderful things, break all the limits of possibilities --- but breaking those limits almost always led to disaster, flying too close to the sun. He did not touch any after Solheim’s fall, not really, worried that the spark of creation he gave would cause another Solheim.

And then we come to Ifrit’s -- the fire-touched, kissed by the sun, the ones that had flames in their chest and liquid fire in their veins, eyes like embers and passion and will and deep and burning love and devotion. Ifrit’s touched were heroes all, brave and courageous and full of fire and all that the Infernian had once loved in mortals...but fire can burn as well as warm, and the fallen Astral’s blessing can turn to a curse, that fire destroying all the blessed once loved, turning passion to the rage and anger of the the Infernian.

House Caelum was one of Ifrit’s favored -- everyone knew they were, the red of fire being common in their hair. They had magic, too, magic mingled with a marriage generations back between an Ifrit-touched and a Bahamut-touched, and it became something new --- Somnus, the younger of the sons, was best at the more battle-aligned magic, what would become known as warping and the Armiger.

The older brother, Ardyn Lucis Caelum -- the brilliant light of the sky, his name means --- was better at the other sort of magic, one he pulled from the fire in his veins. He loved fiercely, felt passion and burning devotion to his people and his loved ones, had that spark in his chest and fire in his veins, fought with everything he had for the world he loved, the people he loved.

The blending of these blessings in House Caelum was why the gods chose their line, in the end, and in the end it was decided that the one with more of Ifrit’s fire in his blood would be the designated villain, the darkness that would smother his fire. And for a time it did --- the Adagium rotting in the darkness --- but then he made his covenant with the Infernian himself, turned him to a daemon and absorbed his memories, and that spark smothered in the Scourge became a raging fire, blessing turned to curse, and it is this that fuels much of Ardyn’s unstoppable, ever-burning rage against the heavens and earth both, pouring gasoline on the hate and madness already there from his betrayal.

His descendants still carry that spark, too, the blessing of Ifrit still there two millennia later -- Ravus, burning with love for his sister and the passion to do whatever it takes to save her, fire in his veins that was far too familiar for the gods to allow. Luna, her own spark iced over by the Glacian in fear of what she too might be like. And even Noctis, of Somnus’s line touched more now by Bahamut and the Crystal than by Ifrit, still has a spark, a desire to protect, a fierceness in his love.