Solaria is one of the major planets and political actors in the Magic Dimension known for having influence over the suns of solar system most of the major planets revolve around. Solaria is the closest to the three suns and receives the most direct light and heat from them with Zenith being the farthest away and only able to see one of the suns. Solaria has always been an influential planet with a distinct cultural identity that other planets are often confused by.
Landscapes
The planet is made up of two biomes referred to as the Sun Side and Moon Side. The Sun Side is warm, with long days and short nights, with Mediterranean climate on the coastal regions and breathtaking deserts with endless stars in the inland. On the Moon Side, nights are long and days are short, lending to a very cold climate most times of the year with beautiful northern lights hanging over the snowy mountains.
Alignments
Solarian people can be split into two (or three) categories:Sun aligned or Moon aligned
Stella happens to be both but grew up on the sun side of the planet.
Those who are sun aligned need ample sunshine to thrive. They do the best during the day, are very prone to vitamin d deficiency, and become sickly if underground or indoors for too long. They have horrible night blindness and tend to turn gray if not able to get enough sunlight.
Moon aligned people do best in the moonlight and tend to grow tired if they’re in the direct sun all the time. Their vision is worse during the day, often causing moon aligned Solarians who are forced to function on day shifts (especially on the day side of the planet) to need glasses when they otherwise wouldn’t need them.
And for the unfortunate few who rarely if ever survive… shadow aligned.
Being shadow aligned is incompatible with Solarian life. These people are born with an intolerance for light and usually die shortly after birth.
Sun and Moon Courts
There is a moon court and a sun court. These are separate governments that work in tandem. Part of what makes Stella so special is she is set to be the first Queen of the Sun and Moon since her ancestor, Marisol the Great. Marisol the Great established Solaria as a kingdom and built the capital of San Marisol where Stella grew up. She is revered as the first queen of Solaria and the only queen of both the sun and moon. Stella’s birth is a historic, almost mythic event because her parents being from both the sun and moon courts bringing a child meant to rule both is unprecedented.
All rulers on Solaria trace their lineage back to Marisol the Great and claim to be the offspring of the Sun and Moon themselves. Solarian religions doctrine claims people are the result of the Great Dragon lying with his two wives, the Sun and Moon, while the royals, who are ordained by the heavens, are the children of the Sun and Moon alone, who lie together in the absence of the Great Dragon.
Other nations like Domino and Eraklyon see this story as heretical and has led to some tension.
Government Structure
Solaria is a peculiar case. They are a monarchy, yes, with the philosophy that the rulers are descended from gods, but they are also balanced by a strong union presence. There’s a power woman called the Union Compliance Officer. It is her job to force the royals to comply with union regulations and personally fix any mistake that harms their citizens.
And I mean personally.
If Radius promotes a policy that would say, cut free lunches for school children, the UCO would come in, grab him by the hair, and force him to not only apologize but to go around personally buying and preparing lunch for the school kids he hurt.
Also, the Union Compliance Officer is Nova’s mom.
Society and Trade
Solaria is one of the more free spirited realms. Very lax, with a culture that appreciates personal freedoms, the arts, and interchanging personal dynamics. Things are not strict in any sense. Solaria was the first of the planets to have no fault divorce, queer and polyamorous marriages, robust rights for workers and reproductive healthcare, and likely a type of universal basic income.
Polyamory is very common on Solaria, that’s why Stella feels comfortable flirting with other people in front of her boyfriend. It’s a cultural thing. Brandon is either highly adaptable or already on Stella’s wave length depending on what you prefer. Countess Cassandra was a part of the original polycule Luna and Radius were a part of, but when they split up Cassandra pursued a monogamous relationship with Radius, something Stella was deeply upset about because it led to Radius’ long term partner, Julio, moving out with Luna and Cassandra moving in her daughter, Chimera, who bullied Stella relentlessly at school and now, at home.
Solaria is considered one of the fashion centers of the magic dimension and exports a lot of jewelry, makeup, and clothing. Solarian clothing is made primarily of lunar tundra cotton, which grows in the mountains regions of the moon side of Solaria. It tends to be more expensive because Solarian laborers are actually paid livable wages. They are also renowned for their intricate mosaics and stained glass.
Death and Burials
Most strikingly, Solarians are known for their elaborate death rituals and burials. Your average Solarian is buried within a large, family mausoleum. Mausoleums are shaped like pyramids and elaborately painted, containing up to ten generations of a given family at a time. For nobility, personal pyramids are built to accommodate the dead and their spouse, as well as any pets and young children. Stella’s grandmother was famously buried in a large pyramid with 50 mummified birds, 2 crocodiles, and a horse, alongside her three husbands and five wives and two children who died in infancy.
Solarians mummify their dead and often visit their deceased relatives within the mausoleums to give offerings and ask for guidance. Mummies are created by draining the body of fluids and covered the flesh in a solution made of solar red clay, various kinds of arcane salts, and intricate cotton wrappings. The body is then left to dry in a sun temple overseen by priests before being brought to its final resting place by the family. Death is not considered a definitive end, as most Solarians believe the commune with the dead regularly. It’s not unusual for Solarians to place table settings for the dead and send invitations to events to their deceased relatives, some even bring mummified remains to important functions such as weddings.
oKAY Brandon actually being STELLA'S guard during the Dark Sky era bc he's been booted from his job for that AND since Stella atm has no title but she has claim, she is gonna be in danger of the whateverhernameis sending assassins after HER so that Chimera has no competition.
My only question is, where the fuck was Stella's mom during all this?? Her only daughter got cursed and banished from her own kingdom. BISH DO SOMETHING.
In my HC, she halts all the divorce proceedings and actually makes it super difficult, prolonging her title as Queen. Stella could even spend a few days with her! We need more Winx parents interactions. By the end of it, not only does she not divorce Radius (not out of love but because she doesn't want a new queen coming along and messing things up for Stella; they still live on separate parts of the planet) but Chimera's mom was and stayed nothing more than the King's mistress.
[image description: designs for winx club characters. Stella’s father King Radius has dark skin and flowing gold hair, dressed in a gold sun crown and golden armor beneath a brilliant gold and orange over gown in Tudor style. Queen Luna is small and incredibly pale, with porcelain skin and white hair. She is covered neck to ankle in a deep navy dress covered in large pearls like stars in a dark sky. On her head a large peineta with phases of the moon, covered by a translucent veil that reaches all the way to the floor. Cassandra is a curvy woman with very white skin and pale blonde head. She wears a dress in silver and gold, tight fitting like a 40s gown but with an Elizabethan ruff dyed golden like sunbeams. She has a necklace in the shape of a moon eclipsing the sun. End description]
Summary: Radius is startled by a visit from Luna that brings to the forefront not only feelings on his recent trauma of being under Cassandra's control but also the lingering heartbreak from their divorce.
Two weeks before the end of the year but I have finally come out with a couple/characters (from Winx) that I haven't written before. A little gift for the holidays to me and, hopefully, the anon who requested this on tumblr (if they're still around).
Read on AO3 | FFN
"Look at me."
Her voice reached him from the sky above, from somewhere beyond the clouds and atmosphere of his realm. He could tame the wind and ride it in pursuit of her but what would be the point? She had left only space – for a spell to engulf his mind, for the ache inside his heart.
Radius shivered at the stroke to his neck. A gentle one, not the magic clawing and burning into his flesh to carve out enough of him and root itself in its place. It was the soft touch of moonlight to his eyelids, to his eyes, to guide him through his otherwise pitch-black room.
It was Luna.
He flinched away, her warmth evaporating from his skin as if it'd never been there, only a figment of his memory. A hallucination his mind had conjured to soothe itself. It was even more unreliable than he'd realized.
She was unchanged from the last time he'd seen her in his bed. Her blonde hair glowed with reflected light even in the dead of night. He couldn't distinguish the blue of her eyes from the darkness cloaking her, had to rely only on her tender–too tender–touch to reveal her intentions. The familiar scent of peaches lingered around her like the ghost of summers long gone when all day he'd tremble with anticipation of the sunset and all the hours after that they'd spent watching the stars and laughing, kissing and sharing their souls.
Instead of reaching for him again, Luna let her hand fall into her lap. "It's me."
It had to be. A dream would be meant to ensnare him, wouldn't sting like salt in his wounds, like tears in his eyes.
Radius threw the covers off, exposing himself further to the cold of his bedroom. It was his only chance to shuffle far enough away from her, to maneuver around her body perched on the edge of his bed and find the hard stability of the floor under his feet.
"What are you doing here? How did you get in?" his eyes didn't leave her.
The alarm in his voice made sense. He had only just been released from the vicious grip of another on his mind. Finding an unexpected guest in his personal space would be concerning on a good day.
Luna sighed as if his wariness weighed on her conscience. "You have loyal friends at your service."
He did. Many had tried to talk him out of Cassandra's will when they hadn't known it'd been forced upon him. They had stood up for his daughter. They had looked out for him as much as his hijacked authority over them had allowed them.
It didn't explain Luna's presence in his chamber. They should have known better than to let her in. She wasn't their queen anymore. She couldn't stroll into his bedchamber as she pleased as if she still had some kind of power, some influence over him.
He raised his chin, squared his shoulders. A crown had made no difference to her–whether on his head or on hers–but he was still her king. She had to respect that, had to be reminded of it.
"What do you want?"
She shifted awkwardly as if she were struggling to slip out of bed as the mattress dipped under her to accommodate her weight. As if she'd never done it before.
He should have called for his guards. They would have helped, kindly escorted her off the premises. She was still his daughter's mother despite all else.
His voice was stuck in his throat.
Once she was on her feet, Luna smoothed invisible creases out of her skirt, almost sifting through them to find her words. "I came to see how you're doing."
"In the middle of the night?"
"I was worried."
She didn't meet his eyes in the grave silence that followed. She didn't let him find something in her to soothe the tidal wave of fury choking him.
"You could have followed the news outlets." He clenched his fists, "Why go through the trouble to visit now?"
Luna crossed her arms over her chest, gaze finally moving to him again. "How long did it take to save you? Despite everyone trying to help you – the king of Solaria?"
Radius bit his tongue. Just in time to sever the questions bursting forth like blood from a wound. The downpour would have drowned them both if her memories were anything like his own.
She would have said if she so wished, if her words hadn't been too precious for her to share them with her king, with her husband.
He gritted his teeth. She'd made her choices. Her mind had always been closed off to him but then she'd gone and done the same with her heart. She had to live with that now.
"None of this would have happened if you'd been here. You're too late." He intertwined his fingers behind his back, forcing as much nonchalance as he could in his voice without suffocating from it, "You've seen me. You can go now."
His nails dug into his own flesh, leaving painful crescents on display where her eyes would find them if he allowed her the opportunity. The preferable option to the bruises he'd force her to nurse away for days if he grabbed her and sank his fingers into her like he wanted to. He was supposed to be free at last.
Luna stared at him like she could see right to the marrow of his bones. The way she used to look at him when he promised they would retire to their chambers after this one last dance or that he'd end his audience early to make it to Stella's tea party. He'd often kissed her just to stop her from dragging his soul out of him to where she wanted him once she walked away.
"You've all but thrown me out," she tilted her head like she was challenging him.
"You'd think you'd take the hint!" he turned his back on her, though he wasn't holding his breath in expectation of the door announcing her departure.
His heart hammered in his chest, its loudness only drowned out by his gratefulness for the darkness swallowing his chamber. It had to be the one thing hiding the redness of his face, the veins bulging in his neck and forehead.
Why couldn't she leave him alone? She'd made it clear she didn't want to be involved in his life, that it was too much for her.
"What has to happen for you to ask for the help you need?" Drenched in pity, her voice gnawed at his throat – as if one of his guard dogs had gone mad and attacked him.
He whipped around, his growl booming in the quiet room, "I don't need you!"
Luna didn't budge. He was the one wincing when the sound echoed off the walls like a slap, a whiplash.
"Stella needed you. And instead she had to fight to save you all alone!"
His face twisted in a snarl. "Now you're concerned with mothering her? After you abandoned her?"
He was all but frothing at the mouth, feral like even the indignity of being made into a puppet on strings hadn't made him. She pushed his buttons with her mere presence, with the way she sauntered through his room like it were the most natural thing in the world, like she were home when she'd fled from it–from him–relieved to put it all behind her.
She was in his face, much faster than he'd expected she could move.
He had to dig his heels in to stand his ground, to keep from yielding even a single inch to her.
She was so close he could taste her breath. The faintest scent of sour cherries tickled his nose. As if she were nothing more than a ghost in front of him, her body ready to let his hand pass right through were he to try touching her. As if he needed her there to be haunted by her.
Her features were set in a hardness that was most unfamiliar to him. "You can push against me all you want, Radius."
The way she said his name was agony. Before it had been like the name of a new constellation she'd found on the sky, a promise of infinitely more beautiful things to come. Now there was only... past in it, the death of their love.
"Just don't forget that if no one else makes you take responsibility for the hurt you've caused her, I will," her voice was sharper than a finger poking him in the chest, sliced directly through his heart instead.
She would be right to. Stella's Princess Ball had been ruined long before both of them had been cursed. He had single-handedly crushed all the joy she'd radiated like a sun upon her arrival. He'd taken her special day and made it all about him. And then her life had become a race against time to save him.
Her hands holding his had been so soothing, a long craved relief. For both of them. It'd taken them hours to let go, both afraid the other would melt away in the dreamscape and they'd wake up back in their nightmare.
"Have you seen her yet?"
Luna's face in front of him was yet another proof that it was over. Stella could use the same certainty.
Luna's eyes dropped to his mouth. To avoid his gaze, not for any other reason.
"I came to see you first."
He didn't need to hear the rustle of fabric to know she was fidgeting with her cape. That tone was seared into his bones, quiet and raspy, jagged from the edge of resignation digging at her pulse point like a blade. It was the same one with which she'd killed their marriage.
Instead of soft his voice just came out broken, "Look at me."
She did, her eyes wide with trepidation like two full moons.
His fists unclenched, then clenched again. He didn't know what to do with his hands.
He cleared his throat. "You will have to face her. She needs you too."
The faint smile she gave him died on her lips so quickly that it gave the impression of a grimace instead.
She nodded. "I know."
He blinked and she was gone, already halfway to the door.
Her name was lodged in his throat like an ice cube that would never melt. He couldn't get it out just like he no longer dared close his eyes to soak up the sunlight caressing his face. The calming warmth always turned into a phantom stroke of her hand that sent his heart into palpitations.
-
I didn't find a viable way to include this in the story so I'll say it here - my headcanon with this fic is that Cassandra definitely did something to keep Luna entrapped. I really love the idea of imprisoning Luna in some kind of liminal space that essentially was a representation of Radius' free will and Luna remained there until Stella broke the spell on Radius and freed him from Cassandra's control. Of course, Cassandra was only able to pull this off because there still be unresolved feelings there. ;)
