#aethenea

PAGE ONE: No transcript remaining. Astraeus writes on a piece of parchment, hands it to a hawk/eagle, who flies off with it. He is pictured stepping forward to face Steinheart, his eldest children/knights, and Aethenea. Aethenea is perched on top of a hill/rocky rise that mimics an amphitheater. The basic gist of the original transcript is Astraeus reflecting on the fact that he has no regrets for his approaching death, more that he regrets he can’t be there to see Gaea grow up. But he knows she’ll outlive those who’re about to put him to death.

PAGE TWO:

ASTRAEUS: Live, Gaea. Live for me. My legacy. KISHI: Oh, Ancestors... Astraeus, no. No no no no no no no no no! STEINHEART: Astraeus Firestone, former General of Warfang...you stand before this Council charged with heresy. How do you plead? ASTRAEUS: Guilty, Honorable Patriarch. STEINHEART: ...very well, then. You are convicted of high treason. To disobey the Matriarch’s High Laws...is to ask for the death penalty. Do you accept these terms? ASTRAEUS: I do. STEINHEART: Do you have any last words? ASTRAEUS: ...I pity you.

So this was originally how Astraeus’s death was going to be potrayed and how it went down. Much of it will still remain the same and those aren’t really spoilers, so I’ll discuss those here:

Matriarch (Aethenea) does not approve of her oldest surviving child mating with Astraeus when word reaches her, and demands that Kishi return to the clan to present herself and her mate, if only to part on good terms. Kishi does so, and Astraeus follows. The two are treated well enough, though Aethenea makes her displeasure known that Kishi ‘did not ask approval’ before choosing Astraeus. Kishi further adds ‘insult to injury’ by announcing she is with egg. When the egg hatches, out comes Gaea, which will eventually lead to similar events as these. In the end either Steinheart or Aethenea will be the one to land the killing blow, with Kishi arriving only just in time to try and stop it. And by ‘just in time’ I mean just in time to see Astraeus die.

Yeah. Gaea’s story is real, real dark, y’all. B)

TRIVIA:

Astraeus was originally going to be Terrador’s father, with Kishi as his mother. Eventually I decided this was too ‘Mary Sue’ for Gaea’s story and changed it.

Originally Kishi wasn’t the one from The Deep Vale; she was born in Warfang. Astraeus was born to one of Kishi’s sons and a wandering Fire Dragoness, resulting in a hybrid who’s egg killed the mother. Astraeus was originally able to breathe fire AND manipulate earth, making him one of the Untouchables in the clan. He fled to Warfang after his father was killed ‘during a hunting accident.’

Before leaving he had built a small hoard in a cave only he knew about, and Gaea found it during her youth. She would hide here for days at a time to avoid the clan.

As mentioned above, Astraeus was also originally supposed to be a General of Warfang’s armies. That was scrapped and he’s now instead the Smith of Warfang; he drafted the original design for Ignitus’s Armor, which was intended for Infernacus, but never finished. (As he was executed before he could begin building it.)

Instead, Gaea takes over, and builds Ignitus’s Armor, and creates a way to mass-produce the armor for the Knights of Warfang.

One of the members of the Council was the original Terrae: Gaea’s adoptive mother from The Deep Vale Clan. Terrae, from what I remember, was either supposed to have been Astraeus’s original would-be-mate, with Kishi stealing Astraeus’s heart, or something to that effect. In the original story she ended up picking the name ‘Terrador’ for the egg that would hatch into the Earth Guardian.

Terrae was a horrible adoptive mother, though she did show some concern from time to time over Gaea’s whereabouts, if nothing else than the fact that she knew Aethenea would be pissed if she got close to any of the purebloods.

Steinheart was originally supposed to be as villainous as Aethenea. He still does some shitty things for her, but as of Arc 1, Aethenea barely speaks to him, and vice versa. He was really cold and bland originally, now he’s a snarky old man with a soft spot for Gaea and her best friend, Fio.

MOD: Titus and Aethenea would probably hate each other because they have so much in common with each other, in that they want perfection and power and are willing to be pretty cruel in order to get it. But they both also fancy themselves above killing other Chroma unless they’ve defected from the Chroma, and while Aethenea still follows some of the old ways (keeping her clan mainly Earth Chroma and forbidding cross-breeding), she’s still technically very loyal to the Chroma in the capitol of Wohrfayn. Meanwhile Titus doesn’t kill female Chroma who aren’t warriors; it’s less a matter of respect and more disrespect as he views females who don’t participate in wars as lesser beings and breeding vessels.

Put them into a room together and they’d be like old grand parents with thinly veiled insults posed as compliments. Something like this:

 "You’re still alive, dear old girl? Well done." Titus’s smile was all teeth, and as far removed from the flat gaze he gave the old matriarch as possible.

“I see you’ve still managed to convince the people of Wohrfayn that ancient artifacts that have outlived their usefulness can still hold value. Congratulations, General.”

With curt nods, the two old Chroma went about their business, both shooting the other a glower out of the corner of their eyes and snarling under their breath in tandem.

“Nasty old bitch.”

28. Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth? 31.  Who are they the most glad to have met?

28.Cooly, the Matriarch stared down at her grandson; his questions were beginning to make her scales itch. He had always been too clever for his own good. Something he’d inherited from Ivona.

“Of course you don’t have her eyes,” she said, her lip curling upward in a sneer. “Like the rest of her looks, they were unforgettably colored. And what does your appearance or similarities to Ivona matter? Care more about getting your chores done, boy.”

The crestfallen drooping of the boy’s crests and wings would have made any other dragon in her clan feel for him. He’d never known his dam, only heard stories about her, and even those were short and vague. In a clan that placed so much importance on the relationship between dam and progen, it would have tugged at the hearstrings of anyone else.

But not Aethenea. After she was finished speaking, she gave him her back, and only half listened to the lad as he shuffled off. Not soon after, she dozed off, and dreamed of him staring up at her from his eggshell...reliving the moment he hatched and while, during the hatching thinking, quite plainly,

He looks just like his mother before she died.

31.“Well?” Aethenea’s claws scrabbled through the crystals in the hollowed out shell, eyes darting between the colors and the golden form half-dragging himself through the cavern opening. When she held two of the red gems in her claws, she almost threw the shell from herself in her haste to reach her mate. The gems came within inches of the deep wounds along his neck and shoulder when he flinched away, the pale gems along his shoulders and sides began to glow.

“Get those useless things away from me, vile woman,” he hissed, his large paw gently pushing her claws away. Aethenea turned to watch him as he brushed past her and further into the cave, falling heavily onto her haunches as the silence stretched on.

“Is,” she finally pressed, swallowing heavily at the dryness in her throat, “is it done, then?”

“Is what done? The task you forced on me has reached it’s bloody end, or do you not see me bleeding yet still?!” As he spoke his words reached a snarl, and she told herself that it was more to do with his pain than any misplaced anger at her. It had to be done. There was no other way to keep their secret safe. There wasn’t any other way...exile, cutting their tongues out. This had been the only way.

Years before, when she’d been alone for years after The Mountain Lord had cast her out, she’d silenced many voices that hadn’t been her own that constantly belittled her decisions and thoughts. Eventually the only voice she listened to was her own, and of course her dear Steinhart’s. And she listened to her own inner voice reassuring her as she helped her wounded mate into their nest, and for the first time she began to silence him too. For she could not bear to listen to him weeping. Simply stared out of the cavern’s mouth, stroking his broad neck as he wept into her chest, trembling as he asked her again and again ‘why.’

She did not answer. And she did not listen. But she remained by his side, for the dark act she’d forced upon him had bound them together.

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