(((Ignore any bad quality photos and spelling/grammar mistakes, i'm not a writer i'm a dreamer))) Golden cheese and Rich Cheese doodles and (a portion of) infodump I had rotting in my brain for some months now (more than half a year)
Ok so HC Golden Cheese was originally a lion boy (live laugh love trans GCC) named Cheese Cookie (yeah that basic) that came from a struggling family, so he grew up being told that to be successful he had to be ambitious and perseverant (in my AU GCC holds the Light of Perseverance since I think it fits more, with the fact that she says it's Abundance only to make herself sound more powerful). They rarely had any luxuries, and when they did GCC noted that his family was happier. So he set a goal for himself to never stop until becoming the richest cookie of EarthBread, then under his power no cookie ever would suffer or need anything again, like he did back at home.
That's the reason why when she heard of the existence of a precious treasure deep in the Parmesan Desert (Aka Souljam of Perseverance) she decided to go there. And well, in some point in her journey she met the other ancients. They told her that:
-It was a dangerous and isolated world (White Lily, mirroring Beast-Yeast and the Faerie Kingdom);
-It was one of the places with the hardest of climates (Dark Cacao, mirroring the coldness of the Cacao Kingdom);
-It had a long, hardous road to get there (Pure Vanilla, mirroring the Sugar-Free Road);
-It was a zone filled with dangerous creatures such as the Gorgonzolas [very territorial species], so no cookie would want to live there (Hollyberry, mirroring the Hollyberry Kingdom relationship with dragons)
But like the stubborn cookie she is she went anyways, because in her words: "There's nothing I CAN'T fix! If it's impossible, then i'll make it possible since NO ONE can tell me, the grandious GOLDEN Cheese Cookie, what to do!!" [Renamed herself Golden]
By that time she was already in middle of her transition, which she was able to complete once she got the souljam (grand power that altered her anatomy which i'll amplify later)
The beginning of the Golden Cheese Kingdom went smth like this: She arrived at the Parmesan Desert, with no clue on what to do next, until she found a big fat stupid Cheesebird (Later known as Highpriest Cheesebird, I lov u fat fuck). As anyone would do, she asked for directions, but of course he didn't know or remember about any "treasure" she was talking about, specially in a blank area like that. Almost defeated, GCC turned away to leave and start thinking about where else could she get enough power to build her own civilization. But HPCB took his chance and asked for help, since a monster was threatening and eating his family, leaving almost no members alive.
That monster resulted to be Cheedas the Mole (tattoo that into your brain because she is VERY dear to me. IT PISSES ME OFF THAT SHE HAS AN OFFICIAL MENTION IN THE GAME IN A PAST EVENT, YET NO ONE TALKS ABOUT MY BIG FAT GIRLBOSS.). When asked why she was eating the cheesebirds, she said "What damn cheesebirds are u talking about. I only eat these tasty cheeseballs I find around." Well, guess what. She confused the cheesebirds with actual cheeseballs, and all this time she was eating the poor fellas along their eggs. Why? Moles have TERRIBLE vision, so she couldn't see with her tiny mini eyes and huge winged eyelashes. She also said that it was the only thing she could eat, since the Gorgonzolas kept pushing her away when getting in their way.
Knowing this, her next step was to ask directly to the Gorgonzolas what in the witches name was going on. Here they met the parents of Sweet Gorgonzola and Spicy Gorgonzola Cookie who still were lil babies [I divided Gorgonzola Cookie's concept designs into two people cuz I loved both so much that I couldn't choose one to be the official design]. Their argument: "These dumb birds keep invading our homes and making holes everywhere looking for those nasty beetles they eat, we have to migrate all the time and that mole DOESN'T help by getting in our way!"
With all this information now, what could GCC do? Something was missing and she didn't know what. She thought of giving up and leaving these people to their luck, but she was determined to build HER KINGDOM there despite these cookie's rivalries. You could say she was so greedy and persistent for a kingdom, that she managed to do something deemed impossible: unite those communities. She resolved that the missing thing was the start of the story: It all sounded like a vicious cycle that started out of thin air, but that's not the usual case.
A Gorgonzola added: "If only that giant statue stayed still for a minute, we would've never lost our home and this would've never happened"-, and everything clicked.
-"Well excuse me, what giant statue are you talking about?"-, GCC said.
-"The one in the middle of the desert, it's so big that everytime it moves it makes a earthquake and buries our houses in the sand!"-, another Gorgonzola explained.
-"The Sphynx, you say? Yeah, tried talking to them since they kept disorienting me but the only thing they yap about is those stupid and unnecesarily hard riddles."-, in Cheedas words.
-"A moving statue that talks and makes riddles? I think that I heard that around somewhere..."-, says GCC.
-"Chirp! I remember now! Chirp! That's where the treasure you were talking about is, chirp! The Sphinx is a super old being, believed to be around since the creation of Earthbread, who loves shiny things, chirp chirp. Eons ago found the treasure, and has been guarding it ever since, chirp."-, a wise Cheesebird chirped.
-"O-OH, REALLY?! AND YOU TELL ME NOW?! LEAD ME AT THEM!"-, screamed GCC, both excited and mad by the discovering of this new information.
-"Y-yes, chirp! But the Sphynx is a VEEERY reserved being, and will only lend the treasure it holds to who solves correctly it's riddle, chirp! As a sign of respect and loyalty, chirp!"-, nervously replied the big bird.
-"Well alright, who knows the answer?"-, asked GCC to the crowd of people looking away in embarassment.
-"We used to know the answer, chirp! But we can no longer aproach the Sphynx, chirp. We tried to poke around the statue's hard skin for food once, and now (with good reason, chirp) is mad at the cheesebirds, chirp chirp!"-, finally said a little cheesebird.
-"... And we are kind of scared to get closer to the Sphynx. What if it buries us next, like our nests?"-, mumbled a Gorgonzola.
-"I have no problem doing it myself, but there's the catch: I have NO IDEA where that giant is! If I already have problems making my way around to find food, let's not start talking about finding the Sphynx."-, said the mole, who probably didn't even know the answer of the riddle either.
-"What a... Troubling situation we got ourselves in, isn't it? What's the big solution?"-, questioned GCC.
The crowd looked at eachother with questioning eyes, and then knowing, as they resolved: -"Why don't you go answer the riddle yourself? You're the only one the Sphynx has no issues with"-, said a Gorgonzola.
-"Chirp, and you're looking for the Sphynx's treasure, chirp! Who none other than you could answer the riddle, chirp? It's sounds almost planned, chirp chirp!"-, insisted the cheesebird.
-"Oh- Pardon me, ME? Oh! I sure am wise, but I do TERRIBLY with riddles. There has to be another way... Can't we go all together, like a team? And offer me a helping hand, hm?"-, suggested GCC
The crowd yet again but for the last time, looked at eachother with surprise eyes. A team? Them? "-That, or I could leave this to you to solve. Or to continue, who knows! But I won't stop until that treasure is in my hands, and you have to be there to see it!"-, repeated the now motivated GCC.
If you asked them months ago, the concept of them working together to face those challenges would've never crossed their minds, but it was now a reality thanks to the tenacity of that foreigner cookie.
Sorry for the change but i'm SO tired rn so in short-terms, they did go to the Sphynx together and when it asked GCC the riddle, the rest told her the answer from a safe distance. The riddle we all know about, "What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening?". As promised, the Sphynx submissed to GCC as a sign of both respect and loyalty since she proved to be worthy of the power the treasure holded, not because of the riddle but because she was the only cookie who united all those communities in centuries. And well, the moment she held the souljam in her hands, her body transformed into growing feathers in almost all her body along with some pretty sick wings, as the blessing from the Sphynx. You could said the Sphynx gave his bird part to get GCC on their level, since Sphynxes used to be akin to godly beings (at least in the Ancient Egypt Mythology), and GCC was already half-lion.
I like to hc that those first cookies were the ones who built the crown GCC now holds as a Thank-you gift for helping them reunite. They also built the first temples, too, and eventually Sweet Gorgonzola Cookie grew up to make part of GCC's burocracy as the one who controls the Colosseum (since Gorgonzolas are very aggresive and playful by nature, so Sweet Gorgonzola has a wild time looking over the fights here [hc that they play-fight in a regular basis and no one is surprised anymore, even with all the mess they leave behind])
Sphynx Cookie before the war used to watch over the Colosseum too, but after the Dark Flour War GCC asked them to patrol the Kingdom from outside. That's why now there's GCC Sphinx versions in the Colosseum instead. Fun Fact: they're technically inmortal and kinda powerful but they prefer to lay around and do shi.
And Cheedas? She joined out of pity, since GCC kept insisting on giving her a place in one of her many temples so she didn't have to keep struggling out there. She was promised real cheeseballs, and that's the only reason she is still in the kingdom even after it's fall. She says she is staying just in case GCC comes back with more cheeseballs, but in reality she did became really fond of the kingdom, even if she denies it. I love to think of her taking over GCC's bed despite having many temples free JUST to piss GCC off. She will still try to bully the cheesebirds and "eat" them, but she would be the most angry one if anything ever happened to them (After GCC and Stick Cheese of course). One of the few that survived the horrors.
And now Rich Cheese.
Like most sovereigns, Golden Cheese wanted a heir to her role if anything ever happened to her, and so she had Rich Cheese. Nothing out of the blue. But like expected, since GCC was originally a simple lion, Rich Cheese was born that way, looking like a living copy of her mother's younger self.
This later adds another layer to Rich Cheese's inferiority complex, since her mother seems to be a god in every way, while she is a simple lion hybrid. How could she live up to her mother's throne, without those wings of her? Without that golden light of her? Will she be able to reign over that kingdom as well as her? Will her people admire and love her the way they praise her mother? Sadly the Dark Flour War answered all those questions for her.
Anyways, Golden Cheese was in fact planning to gift her daughter a portion of her souljam on her 18th birthday, and gave her a cape resembling wings when she was a bebe so she could start getting used to them. As we know, the war struck before she had the opportunity.
Rich Cheese was really overwhelmed that day, nervous over the power she was about to be trusted and if she was worthy enough to hold it, and so she tried to leave the kingdom (forever). The moment she paused to reflect and give up, she saw from a distance the cake soldiers already entering the kingdom. She tried to go back but Black Cheese Cookie (servant-adoptive sister-guard of her), who had followed her over the CreamCake Mountains as she knew she would do something like this, held her back and told her to flee as the kingdom needed their princess safe and sound. Really hard to process your found-sister asking you to leave her to die, and the kingdom, so you could escape.
Rich Cheese's crumbs were never found (never crumbled to begin with), and so Golden Cheese thought she died and well. Left it be. She didn't find the enough strength to try and recreate her into the new program, she kind of even tried to erase her from history by not doing so, painting over her face in the hundreds of murals she dedicated to her, and were meant to be for her once she became the new Queen.
She used to have curly, blonde hair like Golden Cheese did, with braids on her left side that were joined together in a bigger braid that resembled the ones Golden Cheese had. Same nose, same lips, same mole under her nose, same ears. The only difference were her hooded eyes, which had blue marks painted on because she didn't have the long, feathered eyelashes of her mother.
Also, I know lions don't have stripes, but I fricking love stripes AND in my au ALL ANCIENTS RESEMBLE THE VIRTUES BEFORE CORRUPTING, elaborating the "other half" and "always meant to be together" part, so it fits with the appearance of Burning Spice. I hc it as an old tradition of Golden Cheese's family, where the type of stripes one had painted on determined which family they belonged to (funny cuz the Herald of Change used to be three different beings who still saw themselves as both one and brothers [Boar, Tiger and Eagle]). It would be REEEAAAALLLYYYY sad if either Rich or Golden Cheese decided to get those marks painted off. Really sad. Don't do that.
Love how my phone took fucking 6 hours to charge for whatever reason and when it was done I was fighting my inner demons to don't fall sleep and finish this as I promised. Anyways I love them sosososo much I can't wait to elaborate on the rest of the cookie's backstories I have so much to share since it's been MONTHS.
But i'll upload my unfinished drawing when i'm done with them first. I hope.
I'm too tired to even bother to re-read this so if there's any mistakes or nothing makes sense at all you tell me and i'll go cry about it. Have a goodnight love u all