#rlau info

[crossroadsofchaos]

Retired Leaders AU Info Masterpost

Figured I'd compile basic info about this AU into one big post.

----

THE BASICS:

It's a "Good Uncle" kind of AU, where Belos is a better person. He actually tried to unite the realms, because he believed it would be beneficial for both, but it was doomed from the start and went horribly wrong. He has publicly admitted to and apologized for his wrongdoings and resigned from his position, and the Coven System was abolished. His family occupied leadership positions within his Coven and also left those roles behind, hence the AU's title.

I refer to the family as the Wolf Fam. It consists of Belos, Steven, Hunter and Kiki, along with their palismen. They all live together in a newly built house.

--

THE CHARACTERS:

This isn't a list of all characters that exist, just the Wolf Fam and a handful of others, mostly OCs.

Belos Wittebane (he/him; mid 410s): Former Lord of the Boiling Isles; now a palisman carver; husband of Steven.

Steven Bellamy (he/him; 53 y/o): Husband of Belos; former Head of the Lord's Coven; now a P.E. teacher at Hexside.

Hunter Wittebane (he/him; 17 y/o): Nephew of Belos, raised by him and Steven; former Golden Guard; now mainly focused on pursuing his interest in engineering and tech.

Kikimora Volk (she/her; mid 20s): A sort of adopted daughter to Belos and Steven and adopted sister to Hunter; former Secretary; now works at a history museum.

Crescent (they/them): A floating snow leopard palisman belonging to Belos.

Ash (he/him, they/them): A dark gray wolf palisman belonging to Steven.

Waffles (she/her, they/them): A winged red wolf palisman belonging to Hunter.

Grusha (she/her): A spotted hyena palisman belonging to Kiki.

Jasper Tholomule (he/him; 44 y/o): Younger half-brother of Steven; father of Matt; husband of Cass.

Cassidy "Cass" Tholomule (they/them, she/her; 44 y/o): Spouse of Jasper; stepparent of Matt.

Matthew "Matt" Tholomule (he/him; 13 y/o): Biological son of Jasper and stepson of Cass; nephew of Steven.

Leslie Bellamy (she/her; 80s): Mother of Steven and Jasper; grandmother of Matt; wife of Opal.

Opal Bellamy (she/her; 80s): Wife of Leslie; stepmother of Steven and biological mother of Jasper; grandmother of Matt.

Ren Kanemaru (they/them; 53 y/o): Steven's childhood friend; former scout.

Valerie "Val" Durand (she/her; 54 y/o): Best friend of Steven and Ren, who they met after joining the Lord's Coven; former scout.

Petra Barany (she/her; mid 20s): Best friend and former assistant of Kiki.

That's about enough I think, I won't be including the rest here. One thing to note is that the Collector doesn't exist in this version.

And you may have also noticed that "Steve" is a little different. I created this version back when we only had one scene with Steve and had no idea he was going to get a face reveal and more canon info, and I just chose not to change the name after that happened. So Steve technically exists, but it's not canon Steve. They do have some similarities though.

--

THE STORY:

Back in the 1600s, Philip did not kill Caleb, and reluctantly gave the Boiling Isles a chance. Though resisting it at every turn, he ultimately fell in love with it. He developed the belief that uniting the two realms would be beneficial for both, combining the less dangerous climate of Earth with the more open and progressive culture of the Isles. After Caleb died in an accident during the search for one of the ingredients for the portal door, Philip only became more committed to the idea.

He began to do extensive research into magic, digging for as much information as he could find, which included looking into lost and forbidden magic. The latter is how he discovered both Grimwalkers and a way to extend one's life by consuming palismen. As he formed a coherent plan for how to enact his goal, he began trying out his messaging on small groups of witches to see what works, as well as testing out Coven sigils on the earliest ones until they worked as intended. He also took the name Belos and began to wear a mask.

Slightly over 50 years ago he took power as the Lord of the Boiling Isles, becoming the chief religious figure and a sort of constitutional monarch, with his fourth Grimwalker nephew, Anthony, by his side as the Golden Guard. There was an elected government responsible for things like deciding on budgets and passing legislation unrelated to the Coven System, however Belos had ultimate authority and could override any decision. He largely stayed out of their affairs unless he thought what they were doing would undermine his ultimate goal.

However, his plan to unite the realms was doomed from the start. When he attempted to do it on the Day of Unity, it went horribly wrong and shattered his hopes. The Unification Spell didn't work and was simply draining people of magic. It ended abruptly once Belos's staff, through which the spell was channeled, exploded. He, Hunter and the Hexsquad barely escaped the blast by leaving through the portal door. They ended up stuck in the Human Realm for a time, before finding the same way back as they did in canon.

Belos publicly admitted that he had lied about speaking to the Titan, and that the plan to unite the realms was his own doomed idea. He apologized and resigned, with Steven, Hunter and Kiki following him. The Coven System was abolished, and the Isles became more of an actual democracy, without a single individual with ultimate authority being able to override the decisions of the elected government, which also became more transparent.

Belos helped with restoration efforts where damage had been caused on the Day of Unity, and he later took up palisman carving and caring for palismen in general to make up for consuming them to extend his own life. He also released many palismen souls that were previously trapped inside him, and is now aging at a more regular pace. Though some remain, in part because they have fused with his curse - he was cursed long ago, in a similar way to Eda, and his curse is a wolfcat. Both conditions have physically affected him, giving him scars, catlike pupils, sharp fangs, ability to purr, and making him much bigger than he was originally.

--

EXTRA:

spirituality on the Isles

Belos didn't invent a religion from scratch, but rather built on and expanded - or, to put it more harshly, exploited - already existing spiritual beliefs related to the Titan in order to achieve his goal of uniting the realms.

Before Belos, the Titan was rarely (if ever) viewed as a higher authority who, through messengers, gave witches rules to live by. He was mainly seen and respected as the origin of the Isles and all life on it. People thanked him for their existence, their magic, their harvests, etc. and payed tribute to him, but that was largely it. The prevalence of spirituality/religion has gone down over time.

Belos's rise to power with the claim of him being "the Titan's messenger" caused a resurgence of spirituality/religiosity, with him being seen as the authority on the matter by his followers. It has declined again once it was revealed that he hadn't actually spoken to the Titan.

glyphs

They were in frequent use by ancient witches, in part due to them having weaker natural magic and having to rely more on magical tools than modern witches. Over time, they fell out of common use and were limited to specific spiritual/religious rituals, and then only became more rare over time.

Disabled witches who had weak or no natural magic would simply rely on their staffs, due to which they wouldn't rediscover glyphs out of necessity. On top of that, when knowledge of glyphs was still more common, it may have been taboo to use them for non-spiritual/religious purposes.

Covens

There have been a number of different Coven systems throughout history. Some Covens were based around familial ties, some were based around what kinds of magic people specialized in, some were simply regional, etc. Though sigils had not been used before, and it was possible to move between Covens, with the level of difficulty depending on the type of Covens in question. Whether it was legal to be Covenless may have varied as well, with it being illegal in some places at some points in time. When Belos rose to power, he chose to use the specialization-based model of Covens to sort people into.

With Belos's system gone, the concept of Covens wasn't completely abandoned, but rather became non-official and based on voluntary participation, as opposed to a legally mandated system that also restricted what types of magic people could use.

the structure of Belos's government

As mentioned previously, it was a sort of constitutional monarchy. Belos was the Lord of the Boiling Isles, it's main religious figure and ultimate authority, but there was an elected government, responsible for things like budgets and passing legislation. Belos could override any decision they made.

The Head Witches of the main nine Covens were originally appointed by Belos alone, but after Terra turned out to be a disastrous choice and had to be pushed out, he handed the appointment process over to the elected government, and would now simply confirm or deny their appointments. Those officials could be bribed, though, to appoint someone who shouldn't necessarily hold a position of power, like Adrian. Belos tried to keep an eye on such issues - or more so tasked others with doing so, but some still slipped through.

The Lord's Coven was a separate branch of government, entirely under Belos's control, though he tended to be somewhat reclusive, so day-to-day coordination and such was largely handled by other high-ranking members of the Coven.

The top leadership originally consisted of three positions: the Lord (Belos), the Secretary (first Winston, later Kiki) and the Golden Guard (first Anthony, later Hunter). The third position was later split into two, the Golden Guard and the Head of the Lord's Coven (first Lilith, later Steven), with the latter taking on some of the former's responsibilities, which allowed Belos to keep Hunter in the castle more for his safety.

The Lord's Coven was the Isles' military, and they performed other tasks and missions for Belos as well, such as finding abandoned palismen for him to consume as "medicine" - something he agreed was unfortunate, and claimed he was looking for an alternative to - and searching for Titan's Blood. Regular law enforcement was typically done by members of other Covens, though some scouts, mostly newer ones, could get the assignment. Usually, experienced scouts were only brought in for emergencies, or to deal with particularly powerful criminals.

the basilisks

The basilisks were not tortured and were generally treated better than in canon, but they were made to do things they didn't like, and were still kept in captivity, in part out of concern that they'd start attacking people if released out in the wild, and they were unhappy with their lives, so they still escaped.

The basilisk that attacked the schools in season 1 had always had behavior problems, possibly a combination of being the earliest and thus least correctly created, as well as being mishandled by those responsible for their care. They have since been treated, and are no longer dangerous.

Vee had complicated feelings about Belos, but was not terrified of him when she saw him in the Human Realm, especially once he made it clear he had no intention of forcing her to return to captivity.

[aroacemisha]

Okay, so I don't really do stuff with my TOH AU anymore and don't think much about it, but I got an idea I really like-

Belos installing a sort of constitutional monarchy as opposed to an absolute one, where there was still some elected government that did the bureaucracy, like deciding on budgets and various legislation, but Belos had special status as a monarch and "Titan's Messenger", and while normally he stayed out of the elected government's decisions, he could intervene if he saw it as necessary, and his word was seen as final. He chose to stay out unless there was risk of them going against a few specific things he needed to fulfill his plan to unite the realms.

This is canon now. And this is part of why having political power didn't completely corrupt him/turn him into an irredeemable bastard - he never had too much of it, it was never absolute.

--

For those unfamiliar with the AU, in it Belos didn't kill Caleb and actually came to like the witches and the Boiling Isles, and he also developed the belief that uniting the realms/bringing the Isles into the Human Realm would be beneficial for both, which intensified after Caleb died in an accident while they searched for a portal ingredient. Belos believed the united realm would be the best of both worlds, combining the less dangerous climate of the Human Realm and the more open-minded and progressive culture of the Boiling Isles.

His plan was never realistic though, it was doomed from the start, but the more he tried to achieve it and the more questionable things he did to get there, the more he convinced himself that it had to work. The Day of Unity and how disastrously that went shattered his hopes.

(Also just fyi the Collector doesn't exist in this AU, Belos learned things from ancient texts instead, and the Unification Spell stopped by just failing)

[crossroadsofchaos]

[Retired Leaders AU]

I've been thinking about things that existed/were in use before Belos showed up on the Isles, and weren't discovered by him (or Caleb or Luz) or invented by him, so here's some:

the Titan having spiritual/religious significance

He was rarely (if ever) viewed as a higher authority who, through messengers, gave witches rules to live by. He was mainly seen and respected as the origin of the Isles and all life on it. People thanked him for their existence, their magic, their harvests, etc. and payed tribute to him, but that was largely it. The prevalence of spirituality/religion has gone down over time.

Belos's rise to power with the claim of him being "the Titan's messenger" caused a resurgence of spirituality/religiosity, with him being seen as the authority on the matter by his followers.

the glyphs

They were in frequent use by ancient witches, in part due to them having weaker natural magic and having to rely more on magical tools than modern witches. Over time, they fell out of common use and were limited to specific spiritual/religious rituals, and then only became more rare over time.

Disabled witches who had weak or no natural magic would simply rely on their staffs, due to which they wouldn't rediscover glyphs out of necessity. On top of that, when knowledge of glyphs was still more common, it may have been taboo to use them for non-spiritual/religious purposes.

(Staffs, unlike glyphs, were also a fairly stealth disability aid, since a witch using one wouldn't inherently imply they can't cast naturally - all witches have staffs. This is at least part of why no one realized that the Golden Guards were magicless without being told they were)

Covens

There have been a number of different Coven systems throughout history. Some Covens were based around familial ties, some were based around what kinds of magic people specialized in, some were simply regional, etc. Though sigils had not been used before, and it was possible to move between Covens, with the level of difficulty depending on the type of Covens in question. Whether it was legal to be Covenless may have varied as well, with it being illegal in some places at some points in time. When Belos rose to power, he chose to use the specialization-based model of Covens to sort people into.

With Belos's system gone, the concept of Covens wasn't completely abandoned, but rather became non-official and based on voluntary participation, as opposed to a legally mandated system that also restricted what types of magic people could use.

[crossroadsofchaos]

[Retired Leaders AU]

Some info about Evelyn's family:

Evelyn had a twin brother named Jonah. They were identical twins and were both born female, but Jonah ended up being a trans man (also, he was aroace). They remained close their whole lives. He was friendly towards Caleb from the start, and him being an identical twin of Evelyn also helped Caleb realize he was into men too. He playfully teased Philip after he arrived to the Isles, which Philip was irritated by, though they did eventually become friends.

Evelyn's mother Judith initially didn't like Caleb and was critical of Evelyn for being friends with him and later dating him, but she came around eventually, a major reason for it being his decision to permanently stay on the Boiling Isles. It took longer for her to warm up to Philip once he came to the Isles, though it was fair in that case, since he started out aggressive. While she grew close with Caleb, she never got that close with Philip, and her feelings towards him soured again after Caleb's death.

Evelyn's father Leonid didn't mind her relationship with Caleb from the start, but he also just didn't take Caleb very seriously due to him being a magicless human. He similarly didn't take Philip seriously, despite Philip's aggression, seeing him more as a nuisance than a threat. It took him some time to begin taking them equally as seriously as he took witches.

Evelyn and Caleb had a daughter named Rosalyn, nicknamed Rose or Rosie for short. She had pointed ears, but the tips were rounder than witches' ears typically are. She was still a little kid when Caleb died in an accident.

Following Caleb's death, Philip gradually distanced himself from the Clawthornes and eventually lost contact with them altogether.

Rosalyn, Evelyn and Jonah were sad about his absence. Leonid was disappointed that Philip had left his niece behind like that, meaning she effectively lost an uncle as well. But Judith preferred that he was gone. Philip blamed himself for the accident, and she agreed with that, even though Jonah, who was there with the brothers, didn't think so and insisted it wasn't Philip's fault, and Evelyn didn't blame him either.

[aroacemisha]

[Retired Leaders AU]

Okay okay some AU things-

Firstly, I like the idea of the Isles being damaged, so when Belos's staff exploded on the Day of Unity and the Unification Spell abruptly stopped, the blast from that partially ruined the Titan's skull (which was already the case before) but also shook up the whole island and caused structural damage and some things even outright collapsed. People were largely unharmed, but it's gonna take time to rebuild everything that broke.

Secondly, we now know that the Titan was indeed directly trying to stop Belos from discovering the light glyph to protect the Boiling Isles-

In this version, due to Belos's different motivations, actions and end goal, the attempt to prevent him from finding the last glyph was not just to protect the Isles from potential harm, but to also protect Belos himself, because the Titan understood that along with planning something that would put the Isles in danger, Belos was also very self-destructive.

He witnessed Belos lose Caleb and spiral afterwards, watched him cause harm to himself in hopes of accomplishing an impossible goal that he convinced himself would be a "great good", and hoped that if he didn't let him find the last glyph, he would eventually stumble upon someone who could help him, and perhaps years later, when he's in a better state of mind and has given up his grand plan, he could learn the last glyph.

Though it didn't work, as Luz time travelled to the past and gave him the light glyph, as well as helping him find ancient texts he learned artificial magic (or the basis for it) from.

Thirdly, Eda's prosthetic. I love the hook and it fits her perfectly, so I'm thinking either she chooses to have it over anything else despite having another option offered by Belos, or she has both the hook and the prosthetic arm with artificial magic technology, and switches between them depending on how she feels.

[aroacemisha]

[Retired Leaders AU]

I just had the perfect idea...

Belos taking up palisman carving to make up for all the palismen he has killed to extend his life. It happens after he makes peace with the curse beast that's now a combination of his two curses, one of which is the self-inflicted palisman curse.

He probably wouldn't carve a palisman for himself, though. I'm not sure if he'd adopt one either. I'm leaning towards not.

[crossroadsofchaos]

[Retired Leaders AU]

Thought I'd do a list of my TOH AU OCs with information about them. I have a few more that aren't listed here, a portion of which are from the 1600s era. I mostly included OCs that are currently alive, with only two dead ones.

Steven Bellamy (he/him; 53 y/o):

He was originally my take on Steve, created before season 2b, but since the face reveal he has become more like an OC inspired by Steve. Their personalities are somewhat similar, but Steven is older and has a different design. He's too old to be Matt's brother, but I liked the idea of them being related, so he is Matt's uncle instead.

During the tryouts for the Lord's Coven, he and his childhood friend Ren had a duel in which they performed very well for two teenagers without professional training and ended in a tie, which impressed the then Golden Guard, Anthony. Both were accepted into the Lord's Coven.

While being in the Coven since age 17-18, Steven didn't meaningfully interact with Belos until he was 40. When Belos fell asleep, 4 year old Hunter took that as an opportunity to explore the castle and snuck out. Steven was the first and only person he met outside before Belos woke up and took him back. This was how Steven found out about Hunter's existence.

Belos offered him a job as a part-time babysitter/nanny for Hunter, because he knew Steven was a friend of Lilith and was thus inclined to trust him, and because Hunter liked him so much. Steven loved the job, in part because he had wanted to be a father for years, but hadn't managed to do it yet, and this was the closest he got to it.

This job also brought him closer to Belos, and the two developed romantic feelings for each other, with Steven being first and Belos following later. Their relationship developed and deepened over the years, and recently they finally confessed and got married.

After Lilith was expelled from the Lord's Coven for betraying Belos, Steven replaced her as Head Witch and remained in that position until the dissolution of the Coven System. During the months where Belos, Hunter and the Hexsquad were stuck in the Human Realm, Steven was the de facto leader of the Boiling Isles.

Jasper Bellamy (he/him; 44 y/o):

He's the younger brother of Steven and the father of Matt. When he was young, he wanted to join the Lord's Coven, like Steven, but failed. He joined the Construction Coven instead. He also grew distant from Steven, feeling a mix of envy and abandonment. In recent years, he was gradually becoming more anti-Coven System, and he eventually joined the CATs.

He had Matt with his first spouse. He married them despite the warning signs, and the spouse became increasingly toxic. They eventually got divorced and cut ties, with Jasper becoming a single father to Matt. He went through a few brief bad relationships before ending up in a happy and stable relationship with his current partner Cass and marrying them a couple years ago.

Cassidy "Cass" Tholomule (they/them, she/her; 44 y/o):

They're the current spouse of Jasper and the stepparent of Matt. They encouraged Jasper to go to therapy, which helped improve his mental health. Despite negative past experiences with Jasper's exes, Matt accepts Cass as his parent and calls them "mom". They were aware of the CATs and supported Jasper's participation, but didn't get involved personally.

Until the dissolution of the Coven System, they were in the Bard Coven. They also enjoy making potions, and they got more into it after the Coven System was abolished.

Leslie Bellamy (she/her; 80s):

She's the mother of Steven and Jasper. She had Steven with her previous partner, and she became a single mother when he was still little. Opal helped her with caring for Steven, and in the process, the two fell in love, got married and had a second child, Jasper. During the existence of the Coven System, she was in the Construction Coven.

Opal Bellamy (she/her; 80s):

She's the stepmother of Steven and the biological mother of Jasper. She had already known Leslie before she became a single mother, but the two only became close after she offered to help Leslie raise Steven. In the process, they fell in love, got married and had a second child. During the existence of the Coven System, she was in the Potions Coven.

Ren Kanemaru (they/them; 53 y/o):

They are Steven's childhood friend, becoming close with him despite studying at a different school. During the tryouts for the Lord's Coven, they had a duel in which they performed very well for two teenagers without professional training and ended in a tie, which impressed the then Golden Guard, Anthony. Both joined the Lord's Coven and served in it until its recent dissolution.

Valerie "Val" Durand (she/her; 54 y/o):

She is the best friend of Steven and Ren, who they met during their training after they joined the Lord's Coven. Initially she was a bit competitive with them, but became a friend, forming a trio with them. She uses a lot of Abomination magic, and she's proficient with several weapons. She has a romantic partner.

Petra Barany (she/her; mid 20s):

She is the former assistant and bodyguard of Kiki, and her current best friend. She is a sheep-like demon. While she is bigger than Kiki, she is still under 150cm/5ft tall. She uses a lot of Construction magic. She was patient and supportive towards Kiki, who struggles with opening up and tends to be closed off, and Kiki gradually became more comfortable telling her a little bit about her emotional issues.

On some occasions, Petra realized that a problem Kiki was having could be solved or at least helped by speaking directly to some specific person and telling them about it, but if Kiki didn't want to do it herself and didn't agree to Petra doing it for her, Petra kept quiet, because she refused to violate Kiki's trust.

Laura Tran (she/her; late 60s or early 70s):

She is the former Head of the Plant Coven. She became Head Witch after Terra was removed from that position for her abuse of power, and for that Terra despised her and wanted revenge. Terra tried to assassinate her in broad daylight, and the two had a battle, from which Laura emerged victorious.

One of the reasons Laura was chosen was that, along with being a skilled and powerful witch, she was willing to fulfill harsh orders, but didn't go out of her way to cause pain or terror and didn't derive entertainment from it. Out of the other Head Witches, Laura got along best with Hettie, and the two are still friends today.

Alyssa Snapdragon (she/her; 70s):

She is the widowed wife of Terra. She met Terra in the years after her attempt to assassinate Laura. They became romantic partners and eventually got married. Alyssa was an ordinary woman and wasn't thrilled by Terra's activities, but cared about her and wanted to support her - and if possible, set her on the right path.

The relationship was mediocre, perhaps a bit toxic on Terra's end, but Alyssa was committed and stayed by her side. Her hope for Terra choosing a better path gradually faded the longer it wasn't happening.

Following Terra's death, Alyssa grieved her, but she understands why Belos did it - she would've probably lashed out too if someone had killed her child. They just agreed to leave each other alone. She spends a lot of her time caring for her and Terra's garden.

Diana Voskanyan (she/her; early to mid 60s):

She is the queerplatonic partner of Anthony, the previous Golden Guard. Due to that, she is somewhat close with Belos, and she knew of Hunter's existence when he was still little. She had always been humble and didn't think she was particularly remarkable, so she was surprised when Anthony showed interest in her.

When she was younger, she had her hair in long braids, but she has cut it short in recent years, in part so it's easier to take care of. She specializes in Healing magic and was the person Belos tasked with providing medical care to Hunter when he was younger.

Anthony Wittebane (he/him; mid 40s at time of death):

He was the Grimwalker before Hunter, the previous Golden Guard, Darius's former mentor and the queerplatonic partner of Diana. He was by Belos's side during his rise to power. During his time serving as the Golden Guard, he was widely respected and admired, leaving behind a legacy Hunter worried he couldn't live up to.

While he was grayromantic and his relationship with Diana was queerplatonic, he enjoyed performing traditionally romantic gestures, such as flirting or kissing Diana's hands.

Winston Khan (they/them; 80s at time of death):

They were a friend of Belos, the former Secretary and Kiki's former mentor. While Kiki was at a physical disadvantage, she demonstrated some nascent strategic and tactical skills during the tryouts, which caused Winston to take an interest in mentoring her for a more leadership-oriented position as opposed to a direct combat one. They passed away several years ago, with Kiki replacing them as the Secretary - and doing so earlier than expected.

[aroacemisha]

[Retired Leaders AU]

A little change: the Titan had no influence over when or how Luz or Belos found glyphs, since I think that works better.

So 1) Luz finding the glyphs was due to the way she chose to go about learning, appreciating the Isles and thus being able to connect with it.

And 2) same with Belos, though it took him much longer.

The Wittebane brothers found the glyphs in the reverse order from Luz - fire, plant, ice and light (with only Philip actually getting light, and getting it from Luz rather than finding it on his own)

Caleb and Philip both found the fire glyph independently at some point before they reunited. Although Caleb already liked the Isles, he was still more hesitant than Luz and thus didn’t connect with it as quickly and easily. After Philip showed up, he also interfered with Caleb’s ability to properly connect with the Isles, in part since Caleb had to focus on keeping him out of trouble, and that’s on top of already having a kid to take care of.

It took Philip time to open up and accept the Isles, so for a while he didn’t even try to connect with it, and then later he also expected it to just hand him another glyph. He only connected with it once in a place that reminded him more of home, which is how he got the fire glyph.

After his disliking for the Isles went away, his struggle to connect with it became more akin to how he struggled to form social connections with others, like friendships, since childhood. Though he was also just being stubborn and wanted to do things his way. But eventually it was both him and Caleb putting effort into connecting with the Isles and learning to do it, and they found the plant glyph together.

Evelyn participated in their glyph studies, and told them about how natural magic works. Her explaining how witches cast different spells, specifically about the different kinds of phlegm in their bile sacs mixing to create different spells, is what caused both her and the brothers to realize that maybe there’s some way to combine glyphs as well. She didn’t need to use the glyphs to cast spells, but she did occasionally use them, and she spotted the known ones in nature a couple times.

They found the ice glyph some time later when visiting the Knee with a group of friends. The time gap between the plant and ice glyphs was also shorter than between the fire and plant glyphs. They found it faster than the previous one, though still taking longer than Luz would.

But then, not long after that, they traveled to the mines on the Knee to find Eclipse Lake and get Titan blood for the portal. Caleb died in an unfortunate accident, and Philip spiraled after that.

Similarly to how he struggled to maintain relationships with other people after the accident due to the stress and trauma, he struggled to maintain a connection with the island, which is why he couldn’t find the last glyph. It all became more difficult. He could still find more combinations though, since those didn’t require that connection. He suspected there was another unique glyph he hadn’t found yet, but wasn’t entirely sure until he was given the light glyph.

[aroacemisha]

[Retired Leaders AU]

Wanted to give a little timeline of how Caleb and Philip ended up in the Demon Realm, having seen one theory that I like and taken a couple things from it.

When Philip was a teenager (probably around 16-ish), Caleb (who’s a few years older) met Evelyn and started to occasionally sneak out to spend time with her. Philip eventually found out about it. Afterwards, one of two things happened:

a) Philip kept it to himself, hoping to talk Caleb out of it and then capture the witch together with him, but Caleb was discovered by the other witch hunters and was going to be put on trial.

b) Philip was actually the one who told the witch hunters about Evelyn “bewitching” Caleb, hoping they’d help him “save” his brother (didn’t really think it through), but instead they arrested Caleb and were going to put him on trial.

In either case, he went to try and save Caleb (in the latter option also to make up for his mistake), fully prepared to run away with him if he had to, but Evelyn got to Caleb first, and they ran away together. I’m thinking Philip followed them into the portal last second, and either he was far enough behind that he didn’t catch them, or they exited in different locations, hence their separation.

Caleb and Evelyn would’ve also probably used their staffs (or just Evelyn’s staff, if Flapjack didn’t exist yet) to fly to Evelyn’s home right after they entered the Boiling Isles if they came through Eclipse Lake, making their departure from the portal faster.

[aroacemisha]

[Retired Leaders AU]

Given how one of Belos’s special interests/hyperfixations is mechanical engineering and he’s quite skilled at it, I’m thinking back in his preacher days, when he was going around and trying to convince people he was the Titan’s messenger, he eventually built a mobile home for himself (and gradually improved it over time), and that home was like a combination of a medieval caravan house sort of thing and a modern travel trailer. He probably got some assistance in building it, but he did a lot of the work on his own.

It was a small, largely wooden house on wheels, where he (and later also Anthony, Hunter’s predecessor) lived, and it also had a front cabin with two seats from which Belos drove the whole thing.

The caravan truck was powered by artificial magic, with Belos’s staff functioning in a similar way to a car key, where he had to insert it in a specific place to start the vehicle, though in this case the inserted item also powered the thing.

The vehicle was still around during his rule as the Emperor, it was brought into the castle and kept there, possibly used as a museum exhibit whenever the Emperor’s Coven gave tours of the castle. It’s still around now, probably still as a museum exhibit, depending on whether Belos (or someone else in the Wolf Fam) wanted to keep it, or if he was fine with just leaving it in the castle/a museum as an exhibit.

[aroacemisha]

[Retired Leaders AU]

If Kiki got a palisman, it’d probably be a hyena.

They are intelligent animals that, while being classified under the same suborder as cats, also have similarities to dogs in several elements (which would make a hyena another cat+dog combination along with Belos’s wolfcat curse), and when I looked up the symbolism for the animal, I found “humor, cunning and resourcefulness”, and that’s fitting enough. The last two in particular are very fitting.

[aroacemisha]

[Retired Leaders AU]

I’ve said Hunter and Belos share a special interest in technology, but I wanna add that they’re specifically into mechanical engineering.

While they’re stuck in the Human Realm, they’d be watching long MewTube videos explaining how stuff like cars, washing machines, etc. are made and how every detail in them works. Since Belos showed up weeks later, Hunter would just show him videos he has already seen, and then they’d watch new stuff together. If they can get their hands on some kind of engineering book, they would devour that too.

[aroacemisha]

So, Belos sees ghosts (or he's hallucinating, but ghosts is more interesting). Does your Belos? And if he does, has he ever tried justifying himself to Caleb, and does Caleb respond or just glare at him like canon?

Belos doesn't normally see ghosts or hallucinations of Caleb or the Grimwalkers, but I could see that happening maybe once or twice when he's at a really low point and possibly under some kind of influence as well.

His trauma and guilt mostly manifested in nightmares, in which he saw an injured Caleb covered in blood silently glaring at him. This is part of why he struggled sleeping. I wanna try to draw it later. I've had this idea since way back, when I still wanted Belos to have a gem on his chest like Eda and his curse was different.

Rather than reminding him that deep down he knows he's wrong like in canon, in this AU the nightmares reinforce what he already consciously believes: that he's a horrible person, that it's his fault Caleb died (he killed him by accident, though it was a result of him starting a fight in the mines), that he failed to protect the previous Grimwalkers.

Btw there were only a handful of Grims (about 5, counting Hunter), since they're more than just empty copies of Caleb to him, hence him not making them as often and not being the one to intentionally kill them. I'm know how Hunter's predecessor Anthony died, and I'm thinking maybe one of the previous ones died from poisoning.

And then more recently, Hunter dying and Flapjack nearly dying and then actually dying to resurrect Hunter would definitely mess with Belos's head. Until the Day of Unity and then this, he was starting to get better and be able to sleep alright, but this led to nightmares again.

He JUST agreed to stop being so overprotective of Hunter after talking to him in the Human Realm, and then Hunter DIES? And only comes back to life through sheer luck that Flap could save him? That is bound to make Belos become overprotective again, at least for a little bit.

And this situation was so similar to Caleb's death too - Caleb and his clone/son died, and their palisman Flapjack got injured. It ended differently, with Hunter alive and Flapjack dead, but the similarity is still there, and one of them is still dead.

If Terra was the one who tried to kill Hunter, Belos would additionally blame himself for letting her live all those years ago despite knowing she's dangerous.

[aroacemisha]

[Retired Leaders AU]

As mentioned before, Hunter plays the gui-scar and the flute, and I’ve now decided he also plays the violin.

[aroacemisha]

[Retired Leaders AU]

Hunter still has a few stuffed toys and occasionally sleeps or just sits hugging them, particularly if he had a bad/stressful day.

[aroacemisha]

The whole “Collector was supposed to be morally gray” thing and how they’re very much not made me think about how like, my AU Belos is much closer to being morally gray (in the past), because he actually knowingly did bad things if he thought they were necessary to accomplish his ultimate goal, and even that goal itself was questionable at best, if not outright bad.

Even if the Unification Spell went as planned and with minimal damage, he still tricked the people of the Boiling Isles into helping him accomplish his personal goal that they may not have otherwise agreed with, by using a tactic that was used on him when he was a kid - claiming that it’s the will of a higher being, and that he’s just a messenger for it.

And the unification of the realms/bringing of the Isles into the Human Realm is something most of them wouldn’t have wanted, or even would’ve opposed, if they knew that’s what Belos was trying to do, and that it’s something he came up with on his own rather than something the Titan told him to do.

He was in denial about the goodness of his ultimate goal, and wasn’t fully honest with himself about why he wanted to do it, or what he would do in certain post-unification scenarios, but when it comes to the bad things he did on the way to his goal, he understood that they were bad, though he justified them with the idea that they were sacrifices he had to make for a greater good. The ends justify the means, basically.

And it also became a cycle the more it went on, because the more bad things he did, the more he had to believe his ultimate goal was good and something that should be done, and convince himself that it would turn out great, otherwise it would mean he did all those terrible things for nothing, or even did them in service of another bad thing.

The creation of Grimwalkers was also not an innocent process, since it required Selkidomus scales and Stonesleeper lungs (and thus required those creatures to be dead), and it involved stealing bones from his dead brother’s skeleton. And he didn’t even need the Grimwalkers for his plan, he just wanted to have them. There’s no argument he could make to himself about how their existence would benefit the Isles, the creation of them was purely selfish, even if he treated them kindly.