OF THE RIVERS.

administrative sideblog to @fivecrowned.

[fifthcrowned]

𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄.

meles is a european constitutional monarchy, currently going through a crisis of government. just enough of the world’s underbelly has opened up for things to get incredibly dangerous. the displaced government, including the monarch’s family, is in the line of fire and must attempt to escape. the siblings have split into their groups, and elsie and her brother flynn have been granted sanctuary in italy, where they live in hiding with an venetian artist. they’ve been there long enough for elsie to begin establishing herself, settling into their new identities as brightmores. she knows it can’t last forever, but she’s getting to explore who she is beyond her responsibilities and her privileges, and that feels very good. optional inclusion of her magic, if we wanna take it urban fantasy.

[fifthcrowned]

𝐏𝐀𝐋𝐄.𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐂 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄.

the “old stone age” spans ninety-nine percent of human technological prehistory, from about three million years ago to the end of the plei.stocene. people are generally hunter-gatherers at this time; elsie is no different. the clan she belongs to travels with herds across southern europe, making temporary encampments along the way. it is the plei.stocene, what we traditionally call the “ice age”. it will last for tens of thousands of more years, but people have finally begun domesticating wolves. they are an enormous aid. elsie is the daughter of her clan’s leaders, and is being taught by their healer to follow in her footsteps; she was chosen due to her connection to the spirits. this verse is still under development!

[fifthcrowned]

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄.

there is a cave on the coast of meles, the oldest imprint of civilization on the entire continent. its walls and ceiling are covered in layers upon layers of paintings: people, handprints, animals, scenery, symbols... anything you might find in the natural world, and some things no one can identify. nobody knows exactly who it was that lived her; nobody knows exactly what the drawings on the walls of the painted cave mean. but traveling back over 200,000 years, now we can find out. elsie lives in the hearthland - the name given to the occupied section of the continent, the coastal forest contained solely within meles’ present day borders. the hearth she belongs to dwells in and around the painted cave. they are responsible for the spiritual life of the hearthlanders. elsie is one of the godshands, a position that can only be attained by someone that presents with the correct magical abilities - peering through time. she and the other godshands, of which there are almost never more than three at a time, upkeep and add to the paintings on the walls, interpreting their dreams and visions to leave behind warnings & record their own history. 

[fifthcrowned]

𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄.

tl;dr   ...   centuries after one member of the royal scatterflow family escaped death at the hands of the tastoni family, who usurped the throne of their princedom of meles, the surviving descendants lived in hiding on a farmstead in the neighboring princedom. when finally discovered, they split into three groups and flee in opposite directions; elsie and her older brother flynn seek refuge in the walled city of estralia, finding it in an artisan’s workshop. a network of rebels smuggles them to the opposite coast when their location is compromised, reuniting them with two of their three siblings and putting them on a ship that will take them somewhere beyond the reach of the tastonis, where they can train and prepare to reclaim their homeland. at this point, she can travel to most fantasy worlds while remaining within her canon. this is my default for most interactions.

𝐅.𝐀.𝐐.

elsie has never lived as a princess. her family lost their official position during the invasion 800 years ago. she knows her family’s history, however. 

elsie is one of five siblings. her older brothers, flynn and ciar, are twins; flynn is older by a handful of minutes. she has a younger sister, ashea, and then a youngest sister, gemma. when they leave the shores of their continent, ashea is not with them. they do not know where she is or if she is alive.

flynn is heir apparent to the throne of meles, following the deaths of their parents over the course of their story. he is referred to by the title crown prince. 

the rebel network assisting the scatterflows is called “the daughters”. they take their name from a legendary group of rebels in the land’s cultural mythology, and see themselves as a continuation of this same group.

magic exists, and elsie has it! in her world, magic is as common as wind and sunshine and grass, and is embedded into everything about the natural world. harnessing it for one’s conscious, intentional use is slightly more uncommon, but not at all ‘rare’. elsie possesses elemental ( water ) manipulation, precognition and postcognition, and intuitive sensitivity ( referred to as “knowing” ).