#awkwarddropslore

Now the lore:

Mers age in a few specific periods. The earliest at 5 which is also when they get named by their parents.

At 5 a mer gets the colors in their scales (they’re bright white until then so they aren’t lost). These colors give the first idea of how big they’re gonna be

From 18-22 they hit their first massive growth period. 

The next is usually from mid twenties to early thirties. This is also when scales, fins, and claws change to match the depth a mer is expected to live at (this is the growth period I’ve written about for both Kyrie and Byssal)

Now for Kyrie actually meeting Byssal and Pelago as a mer

The tldr (because now that I’m doing this I do want to write the story) Kyrie was five his parents saw his colors and grew terrified for themselves and Kyrie’s siblings (yup mer Kyrie has siblings). They knew a mer big enough to see Kyrie and treat him like food hunted in a specific area so brought their unnamed pup there and told him that the big mer here would care for him and not to search for them.

Byss did actually catch Kyrie in his mouth by accident, but only because a school of fish hid the maybe 2-3 foot long child mer. He wound up swimming back to Pelago because he was scared he’d hurt the kid trying to pull them past his teeth. Plus he didn’t smell anyone nearby so he assumed that the parents were hurt or killed.

After taking Kyrie home and managing to talk to him, Byssal and Pelago decided to take him in. They knew exactly what his scales meant and the danger it could mean for them, but they couldn’t abandon a child.

As for raising him, Kyrie actually stayed smaller than Byssal until that first growth period. He only reached about 30-40 feet long before then. The bonding was pretty quick. He had two mers that were big enough to hurt him that played with him and kept him safe. It went really fast when some mers who were hoping to mess with Pel found Kyrie swimming in the open. Pel used magic to scare them off and Byssal chased them away. He felt a lot safer. In this AU he’s a lot more comfortable with his size, until his first growth period. He dreads it after that since he didn’t want to be much bigger.

Now the knight AU is pretty different. Except there is still some lore that needs to be dropped.

Giants range from roughly 50ft to an absolute and rare maximum of 100 ft (most adult giants are around 80 ft tall)

They do eat differently than humans. On average they’d hunt about once a month. They only need to drink a few times a month to stay hydrated.

They live nomadic lifestyles to keep hunting areas full.

While there are many groups they keep the areas they hunt in well defined.

Werewolves don’t have magic. It’s unheard of and makes any that do a prime target for black markets

It’s common for wolves to use size changing spells they get from black markets or those they’ve threatened to sneak into human villages

For meals both wolves and giants have a history of eating others. (humans especially since they have the most visible and open living spaces)

That history was abandoned a long time ago (There are reasons but that’s spoiler)

Kyrie is an only child in this one and at first his parents (both considered tall at about 85ft) were happy when he was growing faster than the other children. When it didn’t stop they got scared along with other adults who decided to abandon him in an area that didn’t yield good hunts hoping he’d starve. (Giants don’t get taught how to hunt for themselves until about 16 in this world he was abandoned long before that)

He was on his own struggling and found Byssal as a big green wolf. After some events Byss realizes he was found by a kid and decides he can’t abandon a literal child even if the child is a giant. He uses the magic he has to give Kyrie something that will make him smaller. It’s harder to make Kyrie as small as a human for Byssal, but he’s small enough to look like a tall wolf pup.

Pelago comes in when Byssal decides to hunt down some black market dealers who were looking for him, but set out fae traps just in case. She stayed for a while and learned by accident about Kyrie due to spoiler things. She leaves with a promise to come back because she needs some things from near her home to improve the spell on Kyrie and Byssal (at the time Byss walked around as an abnormally tall human which was how a lot of black market hunters pin pointed him)

Both Byssal and Pelago used magic in the hunting ground Kyrie was abandoned in to improve the growth of fruits and vegetables native in the area. This spread to animals so they grow larger than they do in other areas from the food. There were spells used to increase the rate animals grow so more exist both in the lakes of the area and just around the forest. It’s been kept contained with spells to stop the bigger and faster aging creatures from spreading out of the hunting ground. (it took a lot of time, components, and money to do all of this)

AO3 Link because tumblr formatting make me mad

World of giants and humans living semi equally

Town this takes place in is run by giant mafia families and humans are used by them for a number of reasons

Using their smaller size to commit certain crimes

Threats of if they’ll do this to a human what would they do to a giant

To look unhinged and threatening

humans can get to a place that’s a lot safer, but it’s super expensive

It’s super far even by giant standards

They have to have pay the family that owns the exit they’re using enough to leave

It’s easier if giants help them leave since it’s just the cost of travel

humans sell themselves and each other to bars and mafia families to get the money to leave

Some do it willingly to save their families from the risk of catching any of the giant mafia’s eye others get tricked so some folks can get the money to escape

This doesn’t exclude younger folks either unfortunately and at least a few of our cast would have been sold through a trick of other people.

If any human is known for a skill or talent they’ll get an offer, refusing will backfire on their family if they have one. If they don’t have a family they don’t get a choice

This is a world of giants eating humans although it’s been considered a treat in most of history

It’s been considered wrong for a long time by normal society

Mafia families are known to flex their power by using humans like this

Tl;dr humans are illegal to eat/buy but the mafia gives 0 shits.

Bars have humans working in them and specifically cater to the mafia families

Those bars will sell the humans or give them as ‘treats’ in certain drinks if a client pays enough

It’s not an uncommon thing for the heads of families to share drinks like this and it’s something horrifying for the small people who have to see it

Pretty common for the people trying to suck up to a stronger family by offering a human like that.

humans bought can be taken home and some people in these mafia families keep them as trophies, ‘treats’ for later, or stress relief

This excludes ones purchased for their use. If they have a skill the human can be treated almost like an equal. They get kept on a short leash and will be punished for attempts to escape.

Now who is our main family? God crew aka the Kamia family. I won’t list all the roles here but pretty much everyone except Fate is involved….Fate may be the prior head before Vitus took over.

Vitus is head of the family and has been for some time. Has a reputation of being ruthless including biting down on the ‘treats’ in drinks. Still taller than the average giant and keeps a stoic face which keeps almost everyone intimidated

Never actually hurts anyone if they can’t switch out the person he uses ice to make it seem like he’s hurt them and makes use of his already quiet nature

Alessia is his daughter and works as a bouncer at a bar that fronts selling and serving humans, but actually helps get them out of there

She has a lot of skill in combat and guns. If she gets involved most other giants will stand down.

She intercepts a lot of ‘gifts’ that were supposed to make it to someone in the bars she works at. No one wants to tell her no.

Rhys is his son who works on keeping the truth of the bar and how their family works from the public eye.

Known to make a thinly veiled threats pretty often

Controls information tightly, if he wants something kept secret it’s kept secret

Felix is his son known for lavish spending and goes around buying humans he knows aren’t going to survive long.

He also uses his skills with creating things to make small look alikes/body doubles of humans.

Frequently uses those skills when someone shows up with a ‘gift’ for his ‘ruthless’ father

Ryder is an adopted son, he’s human and helps them with planning for getting others out without raising suspicion

Felix bought him under the guise of his family enjoying training hard to control humans

They offered to get him to one of the safer towns, but he liked what they were doing and wanted to help.

He sometimes helps planting the body doubles

There are more humans than Ryder, but he was the youngest they’d saved as well as grew attached to Felix and Rhys quickly

Dabria is Vitus’s wife who (when I finally write for this) has been missing for about ten years.

Had been a terrifying figure if she got involved

Nicknamed Goddess of Death for her role in handling situations

This was for both humans and giants since the giants would be dead and the humans they had gone

Random other giants are part of the family.

There’s smaller families considered part of the god crew family.

They didn’t like what’s going on with humans, but didn’t have the power to do anything.

The head before Vitus used their skills to bring their own family to a strong point and recruited the smaller families that didn’t like humans getting treated so badly

They don’t know all the tricks the main family uses, but they know that a human brought to them doesn’t die.

The main family isn’t stupid. If the tricks got out they’d lose their position and it would turn into all out war in the city

There’s some pretty torturous tech that can turn a giant human rumored to exist

It’s traumatic both from pain and their drastic change of view, so they usually lose their memories and potentially go insane after

The most the average person remembers is their name and glimpses of the people they used to know

It’s a good way to trick them into thinking they’ve been saved or sold

It’s rumored to exist

It completely exists

Most people even the big and powerful families don’t know if it’s real

It’s known specifically by the people who were thought most likely to use it

This means sadistic and cruel assholes

There’s no way to undo it, if you’ve been made human that’s it

There is a lot unknown so maybe someday, but at the time this takes place it’s permanent

There are a lot of unknowns on how this can change the health of the subjects long term

They usually don’t live long enough for it to matter

The Kamia Family often works with a bar they know that’s good people and keeps humans safe

Vitus is a bartender

Alessia a bouncer

Rhys just someone who’s there to control information spread

Felix hides in back if he’s there to prepare doubles for anyone they need to get out safely and can’t risk them being seen getting taken away

Ryder acts as a server

The God of Nature before Ash was overwhelmingly kind to nature. He would happily force plants of all kinds well past their natural limits. He ignored their voices as much as the voices of the creatures this hurt. He relished in seeing how his work could overrun the ways mortals had destroyed it. Frequently taking the displaced mortals to give to the other gods for their own amusement. This god, while terrifying, was easy enough to appease. Respect nature and don’t call on it for yourself in any way. There used to be witches of nature who could help guide harvests and other smaller things. Slowly but surely each practitioner disappeared or one day all that was left was a tree that looked eerily similar to them.

The God of Prosperity before Felix eventually became more akin to the God of Greed. He was a cruel man that enjoyed giving others riches when they had vile souls. He’d watch the corruption forming in them and one day, he’d take them. At first he enjoyed just toying with them, begging for their lives with promises of offerings to a god who could have anything he wanted. One day he played a game with one and discovered they made a fun snack too. He became feared, but was also one of the only gods to receive…living offerings. He was also the most excited when they’d gotten bored of having to be careful how many mortals they could take, he was a god he should have what he wants.

The Gods of the Skies before Luna and Sola both looked much older. They fit in more in a way, since currently they are the only two who appear as children. They both were somewhat bored. They would play with things to feed their boredom. The old Goddess of Night would rework the stars or change the phase of the moon as she saw fit. Sometimes she would cover portions of the world in darkness and see how things changed. She would only let in light when a god requested. The God of Morning was just as bad. Playing with clouds and the light of the sun. He’d take rain away for months at a time and laugh as the drought caused problems. He’d purposely interfere with the darkness his other half cast for fun. It would turn into small wars between the two and torture for mortals of all kinds caught within the zone. They never really had mortals directly unless the others were bored with ones they took. When they did, they’d get localized versions of their games until they grew bored and abandoned the mortal to waste away.

The prior Deity of Love enjoyed toying with the strings of bonds. They would cut them as they pleased and rebind ones they thought could cause the most drama. They would steal away mortals who had strings they couldn’t cut. Testing and experimenting with ways to finally undo the bonds that fate deemed necessary. They’d try a lot of horrible ways to destroy it, none worked. When finally they got sick of it they’d always split the bonded up. They’d give half to Prosperity and half to the sky gods. If they couldn’t have their way then they wanted the insubordinate mortals to die in ways they knew wouldn’t be kind.

The goddess of protection and guardians is new for this cycle. Sadly that didn’t free her from the stigma. Stories of beings three bodies tall spread quickly. Each one followed by a person who disappeared. It didn’t help that while people forgot Delphia, no one could ever explain the strange woman twice as tall as most men who massacred a portion of the king’s army.

The god of war before Ryder was almost an exact opposite. That god was cruel and vindictive, planting reasons for war between kingdoms. If it wasn’t enough whole armies would be spirited away in order to fight for his own amusement. He’d make them fight until they hit exhaustion any that argued would be crushed by his own hand or offered to another god. If the majority of the army refused he’d let the deity of love pick first, followed by the sky gods, followed by prosperity. He built coliseums and cages to house people he’d steal while seeding the wars mortals would wage. He loved when he’d find large non-human mortals, he’d used them for a long time as the monster they had to defeat. He had no mind for strategy and would just guide someone to an act he knew would spark anger. He was usually helped by the others who knew they’d get a prize out of it.

There were a number of other lesser gods. They’d numbered in the hundreds at one point. They had domains no one thought were needed. Gods of murder, of cruelty, of torture, the list goes on. They formed to follow the wills of the gods that had existed longer at the time. They were crafted as supposedly perfect embodiments to maintain the domain. They didn’t have any soul to guide them at the time, just blind instinct and wants. They had no reasoning to see mortals as anything more than playthings. At least that’s how they thought.

So this brings a fun dilemma, why weren’t Vitus, Dabria, and Fate like this. It started with Fate, they were so intrinsic to mortal lives that the threads of Fate picked a mortal soul to become the guide. The soul was young and learned from the things they witnessed. It’s part of why Fate’s form shifts as well. Vitus and Dabria were two of the youngest among the old gods, life and death needed guides as the gods grew more selfish and cruel. To try and help them, the threads of fate picked souls that would have been bound to Fate the deity. They formed and were actually some of the shortest gods at the time too.

Of course they just did their jobs at first, maintaining life and guiding souls. It was as they lived their lives as gods they became more pained over time. They hated how the others treated mortals, but every attempt to change their minds was ignored. Dabria would spend years in their study crying silently as she guided souls. Vitus would just hold her, he couldn’t force more life into the world. Even if he could, it would end just as painfully.

This went on for a long time, Fate knew they could grant stronger abilities to the others. They never thought they should until almost all the threads they guided met a torn and tattered end. The others, the gods with no souls, were planning something awful. Fate gave Vitus and Dabria the power to end a god with the rule they all had to be in the mortal realm when it happened. They understood, but hated the idea and hoped it would never come.

When the day did come they were horrified. The dates and names in the registry of life faded. Every name in the registry of death had the same date. They already knew the gods were all gone, it was something they could always tell. They used the power fate gave them and wrote the date of death for every god but the three with human souls. They watched in horror as each died, including one they had never even met.

Now as for her home community, it’s existed for a very long time and used to have connections with two others. These other communities were partly used to make sure that the bloodlines were spread out decently. Collin had only recently taken over as leader when there was a bad storm that hurt the little forest they call home badly. They sent out a number of groups to try and reach the other communities. A lot of the members who left didn’t come home. This started a kind of panic in Collin. He didn’t want to be the leader that brought them to their deaths.

They do actually live longer than humans and Collin’s been alive for a very long time even by the standard of his kind. He was terrified and that fear grew every year. Each time there were less births, or a new illness he would start to panic. The community as a whole began to regress. Everyone had roles to fill and if you could naturally carry a child you were expected to stay near home. Some fought that because they didn’t like it, but the fear Collin would feed to everyone didn’t leave many upset with the change.

By the time Mira and Kaya were born his way of handling things was solid. No one had many complaints since things were getting done. Kaya is a little older than Mira, not too much. They were only about two years older, but they were training as a scout first. When Mira was born Collin wanted her dead. He said she was cursed and a bad omen because the communities they’d lost contact with had children like her born just before that storm. They start training at about five years old for their job within the community.

Two years into Kaya’s training as a scout their parents made a choice to sneak out and see if they could reach the other communities. Unfortunately there was a storm and they didn’t survive. They were found the next day. Collin took it upon himself to try to raise Kaya so they’d ‘finally fulfill their role’. Something that may not be clear yet, Collin's anger is tied to Kaya's refusal to fill the 'male' roles in the community. He took them out of scout training and put them in scavenger training with Mira. This was overseen by Richard and Anna since they were the next leaders and Collin didn’t trust Mira being alone with others. He wanted everyone to believe she was a problem child.

Mira was quiet and closed off at first. Kaya was angry. They would talk with other children and talk about how they’d just marry Mira so they didn’t have to have kids. They liked marriage, but knew Collin would say they had to be a 'father' and join the scavenging team. When she came to their defense for talking about her it was the first time the two really spoke. Kaya became part of her family after and she brought up what they’d been saying about marrying her. She said they could, it sounded fun as long as Kaya was nice. It was a child’s promise and would have been followed through if Mira hadn’t been sent away.

In the following years Mira was treated like a problem. She embraced it though. She’d sneak out and find things no one knew about. Each time she couldn’t really explain her path out she just had one and knew where the thing she wanted was. She’d be met with sneers and cruelty often. As she got old Collin got angrier at her existence. He convinced others who were as scared as him she was the cause of everything. Storms, trouble with food, others nearly getting caught, and more were because of her. The slap Corus witnessed was one of many times the adults would punish her like that.

By the time Mira was seen there were arguments happening constantly about her and Kaya. She was pushing for them to be put back on scouting. Collin was pushing for them to pick a partner other than Mira. Another woman they could have kids with. When she was seen Collin was pushing to abandon her in an open field to die. He wanted to make sure they were rid of her curse. While most of the community agreed she was a bad sign, the majority didn’t like the idea of leaving her to die. She had been a large help at times to everyone. No one besides Collin and some of those he’s closest too would actually want her dead. She never knew there was this debate over her life.