Ulla was a passionate scholar of science and a thaumaturgy enthusiast; so unlike the rest of the brotherhood, she had a rather open-minded fascination towards the moon opal. During one of their class sessions, she once shared to little Eugene that she had a theory: she believed it is still plausible that the moonstone can be good, can do good, can be used for good…if people only took the moment to try and give it a chance by putting the effort to understanding it, if…the right person learned to connect with it. Her wonder and curiosity influenced little Eugene’s understanding of how to perceive the moonstone, his father the king and the brotherhood always painted the moonstone in a rather negative light to him growing up but her perspective gave him hope—hence why when she passed away from childbirth and baby Varian was born sickly to the point that doctors could not guarantee if he’ll ever make it—the young prince had an idea… and did the unthinkable.
King Edmund was reluctant to apply any drastic punishment towards his very own son for obvious reason—and besides, he couldn't really blame nor resent the child for just wanting to help. He knew the little one was too innocent to grasp the dangers of the opal. However, he also understood that at the end of the day, it all comes down to the fact that young Eugene cared a lot; that he was just as scared as everyone else was of losing his little baby brother-cousin too soon in life because baby Varian was the only remaining remnants of his leya Ulla, she worked so hard until her very last breath just to bring this bundle of joy into the world, he remembers how excited she was for him to eventually meet him and he doesn’t want her sacrifice to be in vain.
And Quirin was forever grateful to the little prince for saving his child’s life so he vowed to serve him with utmost loyalty to show his undying gratitude towards the royal family of Umbra. As a father himself, King Edmund empathizes with Quirin and now he can see that his son’s action did came from a place of love and acknowledges it. Admittedly, it was unprecedented but truly was a miracle that the baby was back to health with the help of the moonstone; the young prince took a risk and it surprisingly paid off so King Edmund was willing to take a further look into this phenomenon, no matter how wary it makes him feel.
Though they still have a duty to uphold, to keep the peace in their kingdom as the royal family and to keep their people safe as the brotherhood; therefore in order to keep a close eye on this rather exceptional situation the king has come to the decision that they will treat baby Varian as one of their own from then on—with the moonstone becoming a part of the family, and by extension a royalty.
im not too fond of what i did with the starshard, but im pretty proud of the lighting on this one because this was when lighting first started to click for me :>
nuru... since some people were asking, i will talk about her. I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS. for all the characters, really, so i can do another yapping post if there is interest.. thank you for all the nice comments 💕this is literally just me braindumping below so it's so much text i am warning you now
first thing i want to blab about is choosing to make her 19.. 16yo nuru is fine -- young genius prodigy, diplomat for her people, and the kind of princess that doesn't mind getting her shoes dirty and maybe is dying to get out into the world and do that. i just think that considering where she's from (a kingdom plagued by an ongoing natural disaster) and the dynamic she could add to the group, i wanted her to be older, to have had a few years to lead her people and to have had a history of loss and hardship. i think she should have a story before joining the others and while she can certainly have that at 16, i just wanted to give her more time. 19 is still relatively young, anyway. in my mind, nuru is a young lady with so much pressure on her shoulders, to be a leader and a queen and a diplomat, that i felt her being 19 would better showcase that burden and her experience. i could even picture her older, but i think 19 allows her to mesh with the other adults in the group well. i love her a lot!
i see her as being raised in constant crisis: her home, constantly under attack either from falling stars or surrounding kingdoms looking to invade koto for its coastal ports (i made this up); her family, trying in vain to stick to the traditions of the past generations but in need of a new approach; her people, jaded with the monarchy and restless. she had an eldest sister, a war general who fell on the battlefield, and an older brother, a medic in training who was killed performing aid during one of the meteor showers. her mother the queen is assassinated by unsatisfied rebel parties, giving nuru an inherent wariness of "commoners" and fueling her & hugo's conflict a lot more. varian's past actions would also hit close to home for her. bc the queen was the real power behind the throne, nuru's father is currently declining with the grief of losing most of the family.
nuru is only 13 when she becomes next in line for the crown, so for a good while, she is puppeted by a council of six. when she is 16-17 she defends koto from another invasion so soundly that her people begin to respect and believe in her a little more. she's worked very hard to be the figure she is by the time varian &co come visiting, and public opinion of her is still improving, not perfect. her father is pressuring her to marry into the neighboring kingdom to end the invasions peacefully; this is one act of sacrifice that scares her bc aside from the fact that i 100% agree she likes women, she knows koto will always come second if the two kingdoms choose to unite, and everything she has worked for and people have died for will be for nothing. i think this is what motivates her to go on this journey for some magical library that may not even exist -- she doesn't want to resort to allowing her kingdom to be annexed just yet, and she's also kind of running away for once, from her obligations and duties. she sees it that way, anyway, and grapples with that guilt along the duration of the trip. is she doing this for koto or for herself type thoughts. why not both! (she hasn't really prioritized herself before)
im sorry this is probably not what u guys wanted when you said headcanons.. sniffs. here's a more fun one i think girl can't swim. i think she is trained in fencing. she's proficient in self-defense. hugo teaches her how to shoot a gun and she's a natural deadshot. i think she deserves at least 20 outfit changes throughout the trip. she doesn't make a sound when she cries. because of all the war and politics she's experienced, she is actually the most understanding when hugo's exposed as a double agent; she's excellent at reading people and can tell that he's distraught by the reveal, and she picks up on the massive power imbalance between him and donella right away. she can certainly empathize with making decisions that hurt others because someone with more authority than you said so. (she is still upset with him, but she understands). i think in the finale battle, ulla initially targets nuru because nuru has a such a strong reason to want the library's contents.
... if you read this far thank you :> (throws a nuru page at you)
