A magi-tech post-post apocalyptic society, solarpunk.
Backstory:
In 2016, global warming, increased CO2 in the atmosphere, and pollution caused all the plant-life to start dying. Not only did plant-life stop dying, viruses that were once frozen and considered long-gone thawed and began to spread worldwide. The vast majority of humanity and animal life were wiped out by this, but after several years of trying to fix what had broken, humans and animals began to exhibit nature-based magic that had very rarely been seen before. Though it took years to reverse the damage, plant life was restored to a state even more flourishing than it had been before.
The survivors of the crisis, of which there were few, came together to begin create a new way of life.
The world now - 50 years into the future:
Societal attitudes toward environmental issues changed drastically. Cities are now overgrown with a variety of plant life, many buildings going unused or re-purposed. Due to the crisis, humanity as a whole learned better, and began to rebuild themselves with nature in mind. All power sources became wind, solar, and hydroponic. Tree-house cities and towns have become normal.
The modern technology that existed in 2016 however, didn't stop being a thing. If anything, the world is a more technologically advanced place due to being able to improve on current technology with magic.
Waste is stigmatized, and recycling where-ever possible is considered mandatory.
Due to the changes of the world, social norms themselves shifted drastically, due to the fact that SO many people died. Survivors have since gotten together to create new communities,
The community:
No community is exactly the same, and there are many dotted around the world with different attitudes and customs within them, but the one the hero and villain live in has existed for 30 years.
In this community, children are valued, because they'll grow up to impact the Earth. Because so many people with so many different kinds of qualifications have died out, and the importance of education, as well as the increased emphasis of child well-being, children are raised communally.
It's very rare that a biological parent will become their offspring's permanent family. What happens instead, is often the biological parents will take care of their child in the first few months, while the other people in the community do what they can to help. The child is then often passed from family unit to family unit, until they ultimately choose who they want to live with.
As they grow, they're taught magic, as well as whatever sciences, literature, math, art, etc, that the adults can provide.
It's very common and very accepted for people to simply switch out of family units to find a new one. Polyamory is also a societal norm.
The bad thing:
No society is perfect, and this particular society highly stigmatizes disabilities. This is because absolutely everybody is expected to work and contribute a certain amount to keep the community going! The disabled people are forced to preform to a standard that taxes them greatly or else they're perceived negatively and much less likely to be accepted into family units. The disabled are considered defective, or wasteful, and this breeds a lot of resentment for an already vulnerable group.
This is especially hard for the mentally disabled as they're considered simply lazy or faking. This conflict is what will largely influence the characters of the hero and villain, who are both disabled.
Magic:
Is almost entirely nature-based. Both humans and animals can use it, albeit it manifests in different ways from person to person, and animal to animal. Some people are better at it than others as with any skill- and there are different areas of magic to learn.
Air based- able to direct and manipulate air and wind. Often used to power windmills or to move clouds.
Heat based- able to generate heat and sometimes even fire.
Water based- able to direct and manipulate water. Often used in fishing, or to redirect streams or create rivers.
Ice based- able to create long lasting ice and ice formations.
Plant based- able to speed the growth of plants and help them to thrive, even in less than favorable conditions. Can prolong their life and even maim them without permanent damage. May sometimes involve communication with plants.
Earth based- able to move earth and dirt.
Animal based- able to commune with and control animals. Often used to kill them for food, or to redirect them, or aid them. On the flip side, some animals can commune with YOU.
Healing based- popularly the doctors of the society. At their best, they can repair a broken bone, or vastly reduce the effects of an illness. However they can't fix or cure everything, and they can't simply rely on magic alone to treat their patient, as being a doctor is a highly complicated job that takes a lot of study and understanding of the human body.
Our Villain: Dashiell
She, like Skye, has a difficult time fitting in and finding a family unit happy to have her. Growing up, she was always considered eccentric but talented, and she often exceeded the expectations of the adults learning science and math based subjects. Even as a child she was very fussy about her surroundings and liked everything to be in a very specific way, and loathed to change family unit when she was just getting used to her current one. While brilliant academically, she never managed to understand social cues or even the point of them, to the frequent ire of those around her. She speaks very bluntly, considering it better than lying, and expects the same in return - very rarely does she expect people to lie to her.
Because she was good mathematically, she was expected to be good with everything, and growing up often heard "you're smart, so act like it" in response to her difficulty understanding social things that seemed to come so naturally to others.
Due to being good with math and sciences, and due to being expected to over-preform, she grew up anxious to 'fail' and eventually came to give up entirely. It had gotten to the point where she could never feel satisfied with her work, so why even try? The things she could do well never seemed to be enough- her problems remembering things, fitting in, clumsiness, and being able to even go out most days impacted many people's view on her very negatively.
She now prefers to stay by herself, and explores the abandoned city buildings so that she can examine and fix up what technology she can find, and has developed something of a mean streak. She can be very spiteful. When she's nice, she's very nice, but when she isn't she REALLY isn't. Due to being belittled so much, she's not trusting and doesn't dare share her feelings with many people. Skye is an exception.
Her interests include history, old technology, astronomy, physics and (secretly, teen ya novels). She often flat out refuses to talk to strangers, but when she makes a friend, they become her perma-pal. Somebody she'd do anything for. Including over-the-top petty vengeance on their behalf.
She rarely uses magic, but when she does, it's ice-based. She creates structures and is extremely good at it due to her solid understanding of mathematics.
Our hero: Skye
Skye has a lot of similarities to Dashiell. Like Dashiell, she has a very difficult time finding a family unit that would like to keep her, and was also considered talented but eccentric. Unlike Dashiell, however, she has a difficult time understanding and adapting to math and science based subjects. Instead, her talents lie in art and literature. As well as this difference, where Dashiell had difficult time showing how she emphasized and was prickly around her her confusing peers, Skye was -- and still is -- prone to being over-affectionate and oblivious to when she might overstep her boundaries. Same as Dashiell, she doesn't understand social cues very well, and speaks very bluntly because she knows people value honesty.
Because her talents weren't considered as important as math and science, she wasn't considered smart even if she was considered talented. Where Dashiell is serious, Skye is more of a dreamer, and often has her head in the clouds. This meant that she didn't have the same pressure to conform and do as well academically as Dashiell, but it made her determined to prove that she could be smart-- and by extension, worthy of having a family.
Knowing that she's perceived as unintelligent and knowing this perception is what makes family units less likely to want her around has given her issues with self esteem and abandonment. She has a need to be liked, and to a degree would be willing to do very questionable things for acceptance, and is often very clingy around those she trusts to stay.
When she isn't having fun in the forestry, enjoying nature, and being an airy hipster, Skye is writing essays about works of texts and studying linguistics to try and translate texts from other languages. Her hobbies include openly loving ya novels, astrology, fantasy literature and mythology. She often tries to guess people's sign and give them advice based on her, usually incorrect, guesses.
The magic she uses is air and water based. She uses air more commonly, and is powerful enough to be able to fly.
The hero and the villain's relationship:
The two met when they were both very young, and became childhood besties, on account of being able to relate to each-other so easily. The pair share many of the same problems, and help to keep each-other grounded and relatively confident in a society that doesn't feel they're meeting the correct standards. Dashiell's fierce loyalty and protectiveness of Skye helps Skye to feel that she'll always have Dashiell to rely on.
They both enjoy ya novels, and Dashiell helps Skye to be more assertive, whereas Skye makes sure that Dashiell isn't too insulting towards other people. As they grew up they developed romantic feelings for each-other, and decided to be girlfriends.
Dashiell isn't a bad person, or an evil person, but her villain-arc presumably begins when Skye is harmed by somebodies action's and Dashiell goes much too far in defending her, causing the situation to escalate and forcing Skye to try to either:
Side with her, keeping the one person she KNOWS would do anything for her, in her life.
Side against her, trying to talk her down and reason with her, and upon failing try to defeat her in spite of fearing losing the one person she cares most for.
Somehow manage to keep both their relationship and her morals in tact.
Dashiell, however, has a lot of repressed anger. Not only is she treated poorly, so is her girlfriend, it's wrong and by this point she wants vengeance for everything against the community itself. It goes beyond her girlfriend at this point. She'll either have to:
Go against her girlfriend completely, conflicting with her loyalty, but earning her some kind of retribution. She'd have to fight her loved one for the cause.
“Lapis’ Flight” from Same Old World.
Thank you to Jeff Ball for his lovely string performances, Jesse Knowles for his bold trumpet, and Kristin Naigus for her lyrical clarinet and flute playing. We’re excited to work with our friends from the videogame music scene!
The gorgeous concept artwork is by Ricky Cometa.
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