#celestial garments au

So I made another AU...........that I might not finish.....but I have been working on it for a while, so I am somewhat likely to finish it!

I call this AU the Celestial Garments AU, and it is one of those AUs where I am fine filling it with OCs, but I won’t ship them with any canon characters, so don’t worry if you aren’t into OC x Canon shipping. This AU is very lore heavy and will slightly change the plot and lore of the OG series while keeping most of it the same.

The premise of this AU is that there is more objects than just the Sundrop and Moonstone. There are also some other items, and all of these are known as the Celestial Garments. The Celestial Garments each individually fell from the heavens and landed on Earth as beautiful yet dangerous items of power. But they weren’t just trinkets; they were beings. Practically godlike in power and mind. 

Little is known about their true origins or why they fell, but they are believed to be deities trapped in the mortal realm, or maybe possessions of cosmic deities, possessions that eventually gained sentience upon arriving on Earth. Either way, they became important to the balance of nature, and the world accepted this. Religions and cultures were founded around these celestial beings, and they all grew to enjoy the company of mortals. They also gained close bonds with each other, and all were happy.

But some mortals wished to keep the Celestials’ powers for themselves, and tried to kidnap or steal them. To prevent something terrible from happening, each Celestial chose a warrior to protect them, someone they knew would remain completely loyal and true. Someone who would be an ally, a companion, a friend. And so the Celestial Guardians were chosen. They each gave sacred vows to always keep their Celestial safe and never use their power for personal gain.

After death, each of the Guardians’ souls became connected to the Celestial Garment they protected, and this granted them an immortality of sorts that would allow them to protect their Celestial friend for an eternity.

However, something went terribly wrong. A person known as Zhan Tiri managed to incapacitate the Guardians and the Celestial, turning each of said Celestials into their original Garment forms. When the Guardians came to, some of them couldn’t find their Celestials, as some of those Celestials had run off before transforming, some had been taken after transforming, and others had been accidentally teleported to other lands. The Guardians with the missing Celestial Garments searched and searched, and while a few were able to find their missing friends, others have not yet found them.

Out of those who have, most have chosen to hide away with their Celestial Garments or hid the true identity/origin of the garment, while a few have chosen to keep them as the centerpiece to their kingdom and create small armies to help guard the garment. 

While most of the Celestial Garments are still concious, most are still trapped in their Garment form, and can only communicate with their Guardian, other Celestials, and whoever might be wearing said Garment. The Guardian can also translate what their Garment is saying to any who cannot hear them.

Most knowledge about the existence of the Celestial Garments has been lost to time or hidden away, but their are some who still know of it, and the Guardians are still protecting and searching. But new problems just had to arise, didn’t they?

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So since my au has the folks of Old Corona as DK refugees and I introduced their culture in the first “episode” of my fic, I decided to make a post dedicated to the culture of the DK (won’t give context for all of it because spoilers...that I already posted but whatever)

(Sidenote: In my au, the DK is called the Lunar Kingdom, or Lunara, so that’s what I will be calling it here unless I am referencing something from the show. The culture will also be pretty affected by my au, so this is half DK headcanons, half Lunara facts. There’s also a lot of moon themed shit)

Anyways:

- The DK looks cold. The moon is cold and also at night. Which is cold. Lunara is cold. Also a lot of the Brotherhood wear what look like furs & stuff. Conclusion: Lunarans hunt a lot and wearing pelts/furs is a major cultural thing

- Common staples of Lunaran clothing are deerskin shirts/skirts, leather gloves/boots/armguards/belts, fur boots, fur coats/overgarments, animal hats, pelt scarves, and most prominently: cloaks

- In relation to this, cloaks are also seen as important, and when someone reaches the age of 15, they get a special cloak. Even before this, people tend to wear cloaks a lot, just not ones with a special significance. Some people won’t wear their cloak very often, but still have it available for personal and ceremonial purposes. It is pretty sacred and special to a lot of people, even when they don’t wear theirs often

- (On that note, CG!Varian must have felt a certain way when he spent his 15th birthday in jail. Especially without any other Lunarans around. Oof)

- Another major tradition is once a year, on a special day called Heritage Day, all ten-year-olds will go to the palace and see the Moonstone for the first time. This is a very special occasion for each Lunaran, and a day many remember for the rest of their lives

- Houses are almost always made of stone, particularly gray colored stones

- Glass is a pretty big Thing™ in Lunara. A lot of important ceremonial and culturally significant items tend to be made of glass, which is why, for example, they do stain glass windows instead of paintings. Other examples of glass items common in Lunaran culture are glass bowls, glass windchimes, glass lenses, decorative glass, glass moon figurines, etc. etc.

- Lunara is kinda religious compared to, say, Corona, as they have a more direct connection to a god-like force and literally live around it. The Moonstone affects their entire homeland, and in my au, the CG are seen as basically gods. So they lowkey worship it

- That’s why there’s a lot of moon themed stuff in Lunaran culture. The Moonstone started their kingdom, so it is the centerpiece of their culture

- Lunarans are really into art, and artists are an important part of the community for religious and cultural reasons

- Lunarans do not have traditional gender roles, as there are other genders besides man and woman. I will not list them here because they are hard to explain and I would need to do it later

- Most major Lunaran holidays are related to special lunar events, such as blue moons, blood moons, and super moons, as well as solar eclipses. But three of the most major Lunaran holidays are the Winter Solstice, Landing Day, and Moonrise Day

- The Winter Solstice is huge, and involves huge parties, parades, and general festivals in which people stay up all night. Even those outside Lunara find the Winter Solstice to be very important, and preparations for it will take days

- Landing Day commemorates the day that the Moonstone landed on Earth, and people often treat it like a giant birthday party for the Moonstone. They also use this day to remember Lunara’s history and ancestors

- Moonrise Day is a bit more serious, but still hopeful. People will spend a lot of time praying and giving offerings to the moon/the Moonstone. It’s basically a day of people hoping the Moonstone may regain its ability to transform

- I will think of more stuff later when I remember what makes a culture and write the things down

Me: *Makes Varian an mentor/old sibling figure*

(Link to OG Concept Post)

The general plot and characters and stuff shall remain mostly the same as the original show, but I may also change a lot of things in some ways. The second season will be the most different, some character details will be changed, the lore will be tampered with drastically, and there will be so many new characters, your head will spin. I might also cut out some stuff. I shall also be adding a bit more well deserved justice (such as yelling at Frederic and certain OCs wanting at least a little bit of punishment for Cassandra’s actions). I might just go completely off the rails and change the plot drastically while barely managing to remain faithful to the OG story of the show. Who knows. I’m just trying to focus on the lore stuff

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So first off, the first season of the show will remain pretty much the same plotwise, but with some new changes and an additional episode or two. Might even change parts of the main plot or replace B plots with lore related stuff and buildup.

Any time the black rocks are nearby, Rapunzel hears hush voices saying things like ‘come home’ and ‘help, help’ and ‘Sundrop’ and ‘heal what has been hurt’ and ‘it’s me.’ Rapunzel might sometimes even go into a bit of a trance in, which will cause her to start reaching out towards the black rocks, but someone will snap her out of it before she can.

Raps will also have a lot more dreams and visions related to

Now to break things down episode by episode.

Because Varian’s family and village is made up of Lunarian refugees, they were greatly affected by the Moonstone’s psychic attack all those years ago, and it kinda shows. It even manifests in Varian, despite him having not even been born yet. The signs of this will show in little ways throughout What the Hair?!, with Varian and his dad being a bit spacy and confused a lot, and forgetting things really easily. It’s like me when I haven’t had my ADHD meds in a few days. I have no idea where tf I am. It will also be shown that while Varian is smart, he and the other villagers will come to extremely incorrect conclusions about a lot of things. They are slightly paranoid and suspicious of strangers, but relatively friendly.

I would also like to make it so that the people of Old Corona care about Varian, as he is one of them, but still get annoyed with how often his inventions explode. They have a tight knit community and see each other as family, Varian is just kinda the oddball of said family who keeps getting into trouble. I just want him to be cared about.

Another small detail will be the clear difference in culture between the capital and Old Corona. They are practically different kingdoms, but when asked about it, Varian insists that the village is a Coronan one.

At the end of the episode, after Rapunzel and Co. leave, while they are eating dinner, Quirin asks Varian what the princess was even doing. Varian casually explains that she was trying to figure out what was up with her magic hair, but halfway through his explaination, he pauses, excuses himself, and runs off to his study. He then takes out some old looking texts and begins reading a book with the letters C.G. on it, and written by Atlas, and starts at the chapter titled ‘The Sundrop’. Varian skims through it a bit, before putting it aside. He moves onto another book about the Sundrop, but the shot lingers on a section of the C.G. book. A section titled ‘Solaria’. The episode ends.

For Rapunzel’s Enemy, we shall introduce a theme of Rapunzel having an intense need to be liked, and a bit of a temper that not many know about. This is tied to how she is connected to the Sundrop, who was known for being a bit of an attention seeker and could have a dangerous temper when angry (which would come in short, slightly violent bursts). This is also were a running gag will start; every time Raps starts to get really angry, something nearby sets on fire. It will always seem like a coincidence, while still being a gag, but it is actually also foreshadowing.

Monty’s reasons for disliking Raps will also be less dumb. He doesn’t completely hate her at first, he just mildly dislikes her because he remembers the days when the king was more paranoid, and so Monty dislikes her through association. He knows this is slightly unfair, but he just can’t bring himself to get over it at first. She also will not stop tripping over the basket in front of his store and knocking it over. So he just kinda dislikes her overtime. 

But the more she tries to make him like her, the more he dislikes her since he dislikes people like that. It’s just a bunch of little things like small incidents and disagreements that cause him to dislike her, but she pushes it until he hates her.

Anyways, Fizherbert P.I and Challenge of the Brave are basically the same as they are in canon, but Challenge of the Brave focuses more on Rapunzel’s mild competitive and fiery side and how it can get in the way of her relationships. She’s presented as the one who messed up, and Cass calls her out on this. Raps apologizes and the end of the episode makes it up to her.

Cassandra v. Eugene will be skipped and at most be a B plot. The main plot of the episode, renamed A Series of Unfortunate Events (he he, I’m hilarious), centers around the introduction of my first OC, who shall be known as North for the first season. North is a fortune teller and a bit eccentric, which is why a lot of people tend to avoid him. He is always seen wearing a big scarf around his neck and collarbone, almost as though he is hiding something.

Probably not important.

Anyways, Raps sees his little tent one day and decides to try it out, even though she is warned by both Eugene and Cass that it’s probably bad news. She goes in anyways, and meets North. He is friendly and welcoming towards her, and invites her to have her fortune told. Unfortunately, she gets bad news that something bad is going to happen, and she ends up worrying about it all day. Cass and Eugene tell her to not worry about it, as it’s probably baloney, but then something bad happens and her fortune comes true!

Determined not to have that kind of thing happen again, she basically becomes addicted to the fortune booth. This gets slightly concerning over time, and even North gets pretty concerned, so one day, when she comes back for another, he decides to switch things up a bit.

They go through the whole card ritual (I made up my own fortune telling method that is kinda like tarot cards but not). Instead of immediately telling her fortune, North decides to give Raps some advice. He tells Rapunzel that the best time is the present, and that while having a heads up or preparing for things is good, you can’t spend all your time worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet. You need to focus on now. He then asks if she still wants to see her cards. Raps, who is moved by his words, says no, and decides she is going to continue living her life in the present.

However, after Rapunzel leaves the tent and North is alone again, he picks up the cards Raps drew and ominously (but not maliciously) says to himself, “enjoy the present while it lasts, Rapunzel, because the future is gonna be pretty rocky.” It then lingers on the cards, one of which is the reunion card, and the other of which is the moon card.

The next two episodes remain basically the same as they are in canon.

Great Expotations will remain mostly the same aside from continuing to establish Varian’s less stable mental health, but it will also end with Varian going to his study and taking some more notes on things he noticed about Rapunzel. He’ll start wondering aloud “are the two connected somehow? it just doesn’t make sense! There has to be a missing puzzle piece!” as he stares at what is basically a bulletin board with all the artist renditions and writings and threads of yarn connecting everything. There are sketches of hair and chemical equations, as well as notes on different Sundrop related legends and the potential scientifically accurate explainations for each. Quirin eventually tells him to go to bed, and Varian does, but outside, unbeknownst to him and his village, a small black rock pops right outside his house, followed by three more, each bigger than the last.

In Under Raps, when Raps goes to Xavier for help with the crest, North just so happens to be there. When Xavier mentions the Separatists, North pipes up, saying that they suck and are an embarrassment to all Saporians. He then proceeds to rant about them, slipping back and forth between Coronan and a completely different language before storming out while still muttering angrily to himself.

The rest of the episode plays out how it did in canon.

I don’t know what to do with One Angry Princess, but I did end up adding a B plot about Varian’s investigations on the Sundrop and Rapunzel’s hair. Basically, Varian goes around asking fellow villagers about legends and stories related to the Sundrop so he can cobble together some scientifically accurate version of the story and solve the mysteries of Rapunzel’s hair. While each story has its own unique ideas, they all provide a little bit of information to the audience about some of the lore surrounding the Sundrop. It also explores the idea of conflicting perspectives and accounts of events.

Meanwhile, every time Varian talks with someone about the Sundrop, a few small black rocks pop up around the corner, but they gradually grow bigger and bigger, as though stalking him. And the end of the episode, Varian will start mumbling allowed about all the stuff he has learned while he’s walking home, with the rocks still following him. He mentions that it’s good that the princess is so close by, since she is connected to the Sundrop in some way. And that’s when a black rock pops out right in front of his face.

Varian yelps, looks around to see the black rocks all over the place, and runs inside to tell his dad. There is a lingering shot of the black rocks with hushed voices whispering in the background and getting louder and louder as they overlap each other to being almost incomprehensible. But then one voice, louder and clearer than the rest, says “FIND SOLARIA.” Then cut to black.

Pascal’s Story shall stay the same as it was in canon.

Big Brothers of Corona shall remain mostly the same, but at the end, there will be a short scene with Varian and his dad arriving home after a big village meeting about the rocks, which have gotten really out of hand and appeared about 2 weeks ago. Varian asks his dad what they are going to do, but Quirin says that that is not something Varian needs to worry about. Varian takes a break in his room, but looks back at the C.G. book, has a spark of inspiration, skims through it a bit, and stops at a picture with the Brotherhood Symbol on it. He looks up at the scroll on his wall which also has the symbol on it. Varian says “how do you fit into all this?” right before the episode ends.

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(Read this for context)

There are some other parts of the plot of this AU that I couldn’t figure out how to explain in that post, so I shall explain it here. This is basically explaining how the lore of this AU fits into the plot of the OG show as well as adding some background details to specific elements of this AU’s lore.

Basically, when Zhan Tiri incapacitated the Celestials and their Guardians, the Sundrop Celestial tried to flee back home, but transformed back into her garment form before she could get there. She was then found by a woman named Gothel, who decided to use the Sundrop for her own personal gain. And so the Sundrop remained within the grasp of Gothel for the next two thousand years, with the Sundrop Guardian searching constantly.

Unfortunately, all hope at finding the Sundrop was lost when King Frederic decided to use it to heal his pregnant wife but destroyed the flower in the process. The Celestial’s spirit became a part of the princess, who became the new Sundrop and was able to get back a more humanoid form due to having the body of a human now. But this change prevented the Sundrop Guardian from being able to sense her properly because of the drastic changes. This was made even worse when Rapunzel lost her hair the first time, as it left the Sundrop even more dormant than before.

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The Moonstone, unlike the Sundrop, was found by her Guardian after transforming and was taken back home to the place they called the Lunar Kingdom. There, the Moonstone Guardian and the Lunar Queen decided to not hide her away somewhere else or have the Guardian go on the run with the Moonstone. 

Instead, they would do everything in their power to protect it, and they knew that it would be relatively easy since the people of the Lunar Kingdom loved their Moonstone so deeply. It was their protector and their god, they couldn’t just abandon it! So they set up the Brotherhood to assist the Moonstone Guardian in protecting the Moonstone.

Things in the Lunar Kingdom were okay for the most part for the next couple thousand years, until one day, the Moonstone was damaged and had a terrible power burst that had such a drastic negative effect on the Lunarians, they needed to evacuate.

The Moonstone Guardian realized that they needed the help of the Sundrop to heal the Moonstone, and to preserve the balance of nature, all the Guardians began working even harder to find the missing Sundrop, with the Black Hole Celestial even subconsiously using their powers to search for it. This is where the black rocks came from; a desperate attempt to reach out to and find the Sundrop so it could heal the Moonstone.

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So if you know about this new AU of mine, then you may be wondering: what actually are the individual Celestial Garments? I mean, there’s the Sundrop and Moonstone, obviously, but what about the others? Well, my little cosmic curiousity, this is the post were I list all of them off and add links to individual posts about each of them.

The Sundrop

The Moonstone

The Rings of the Planets

The Earth Bracelet

The Meteor Slippers

The Sky Cloak

The Star Necklace

The Nebula Shawl

The Black Hole Crown

The Galaxy Gown

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Those are all the ones I’ve come up with so far, though I might add more and take away a few.

Are ya'll ready for a giant loredump on the history of Saporia, later followed up by another post on the internal politics related to the merge as well as the former government system, then a post about all the other various cultural elements that still exist up to the start of the series?

Whilst this is merely a sketch, I still wanted to show some basic concept art for my boy!

I don’t really have anything for his body yet, but drawing his head was easy-peasy. I loved drawing his dreads, since I love characters who have dreads. Said dreads go down to about his waist, since he is Saporian, and in this AU, Saporians prefer to grow their hair out.

Due to this, I decided to go with a longer beard design, however, I may occasionally draw art of him with a shorter beard, since that was the original idea I had in my head.

one important aspect of designing him is to make him look…comfortable? Generally welcoming, like someone who you’d easily warm up to. He passes the vibe check. But I also wanted him to be able to look intimidating when necessary (specifically when [spoilers]).