#chimahaven

Our favorite fearless (or sometimes fearful) heroes have found themselves on the plane of Arcavios, transformed and disconnected from their home and peoples. They've decided to play along for now, remaining at Strixhaven University to understand their new (or not-so-new) magic and bide their time while they search for a way home. The amount of willingness to conform to the first-year dress code varies between each of them, with some being more agreeable about the white-and-grey than others.

Cragger Ponteid

Transformed from a Crocodile into a Croc-like lizardfolk, Cragger's found himself wielding water elemental magic upon his mysterious arrival to Strixhaven. He's decided to study to get into the College of Witherbloom and keep an eye on things alongside Emily Zephyras. His water magic manifests as swamp water due to his homesickness.

Eris Notus

This isn't Eris's first extraplanar rodeo - unknown to the other Chimans, Eris is a planeswalker, bearer of a spark that allows her to travel to other planes in the Multiverse. This is her first time waking up on a different plane as an elf instead of an Eagle, though, so she's just as confused as the others. She's already got a strong connection to her wind magic (to the point where she can summon wings with her magic), but she's currently working on understanding her new fire powers as well thanks to her mysterious connection to the Phoenixes. She's working to get into the Quandrix College, trying to find a solution to their transformation through the mathematical magic practed there.

Laval Vestalia

Of all of the Chimans, Laval changed the least - from Lion to leonin. His magic manifests as the element of fire due to his desire to make sure the others are comfortable even as they search for a way home. He's aiming to join the Lorehold College to use that as his own stepping stone to a solution that will get them home.

Razar Pheletes

Razar is actually having a great time, despite being transformed from a Raven into an elf. Strixhaven University is home to its own underground methods of acquiring goods, and he's found himself with powerful spoken magic that helps with persuasion and talking people in circles. In order to better this new skill, Razar is aiming to join the Silverquill College - mostly to see if he can gain secrets other students or faculty therein may have that will help them get home.

Scorm Imperator

Well, I decided to be a lot more intentional from the get-go when it came to mythological and religious references in Chimahaven, starting with the surnames of our protagonists:

Emily and Onyx Zephyras: Derived from Zephyros, the Greek god of the west wind and one of the Anemoi. This gives them both a connection between the two of them to all four classical elements (with Emily having earth-as-plants and Onyx using steam magic, a combination of fire and water). It also gives Onyx a stronger connection to their elemental Prismari college.

Dennari Areia: Derived from the epithet Areia, meaning "the Warlike", used for the goddesses Aphrodite and Athena in ancient Greece. This emphasizes Dennari's combat magic specialty and ties her more into her Lorehold college. Her first name is also a reference to the denarius, the standard Roman silver coin introduced during the Second Punic War.

Eris Notus: Derived from Notos, the Greek god of the south wind and one of the Anemoi. This gives her a connection to both her air/wind elemental magic and the fire-based powers granted to her by her strange connection to the Phoenixes.

Scorm Imperator: Unlike the others, Scorm's surname isn't derived from a Greek or Roman god. It's instead derived from the scientific name for the emperor scorpion, Pandinus imperator, because that's what I've clocked the Scorpion Tribe as. This has nothing to do with his magic in this setting, he's just here.

Cragger Ponteid: Cragger's surname is derived from the Greek primordial ocean god, Pontos, who was the biggest ocean guy on the block before Okeanos showed up (and then later Poseidon). This ties Cragger back into his home swamp and into his water elemental magic.

Razar Pheletes: Razar's surname comes from an epithet for Hermes (Φηλητης, Phêlêtês, of which he is the only bearer) that means "Thief", "Robber", and "Rustler". It felt quite fitting, especially since Razar's magic is vocal instead of elemental in nature.

Laval Vestalia: Derived from the ancient Roman festival of Vestalia, which ran from June 7th to June 15th and honored the hearth goddess Vesta. Since Laval has the most prominent fire elemental magic of our protagonists (besides possibly Onyx), I felt that depicting it as the fire of the hearth was a pretty neat idea. There's a lot of focus on fire as destroyer in element-based media, so I wanted to take a different angle with Laval's magic.

Upsides to posting on AO3: can continually update the tags, it'll be in line with when I write my other big projects and their connected smaller stories, it will exist on an archive, I can make a post linking them that can be reblogged

Downsides to posting on AO3: I don't know whether to lump them all in as a pre-game story or make them individual stories (though I'm airing on the side of the latter because that's what I do with my Songbirdverse and Tales of Chima series)

Upsides to posting on Tumblr: easier to post and reblog

Downsides to posting on Tumblr: I will forget a lot of tags, will get long (and I don't like using the Read More feature), will most likely not show up in the fandom tags due to one fandom being hugely popular (MTG) and the other having a rennaissance right now (LOC)

This crossover is in desperate need of its own masterpost, considering how big and spirally the ideas are.

Chimahaven

Dennari Areia

Emily Zephyras

Onyx Zephyras

The Displaced Chimans (Cragger, Eris, Laval, Razar, and Scorm)

n/a so far

Surname Symbolism (Cragger, Dennari, Emily, Eris, Laval, Onyx, Razar, and Scorm)

Women in STEM (Emily)

Describe WIP in 2 sentences or less (the author)

I lied to you (MATURE) (Laval to Scorm)

Polyamory blast! (pretty much everyone)

Onyx Zephyras is a human from the plane of Arcavios. Their prodigal magical speciality lies in the beautiful combination of fire and water magic, something they refer to as steam magic, making them a perfect fit for the college of Prismari – much to the dismay of the rest of the historic Zephyras family, who have nearly always attended Witherbloom. It’s unclear where their magic comes from, as the Zephyras family has traditionally only used plant, death, and wind magics.

To further their status as the black sheep of the family, Onyx came out as nonbinary, told the family matriarch to essentially kiss their ass, and then left for Strixhaven University to attend Prismari College. Once Emily joined Strixhaven herself two years later, Onyx took their baby sister back under their wing to protect her from the rest of their family. In return, Emily shared the secrets of tapping into the magic of the Chi she brought from her studies in Chima to Onyx. Onyx would kill someone to protect their sister (please let them kill someone) and finds themself adoring the displaced Chimans that their sister has befriended yet also feeling incredibly stressed about making sure they stay safe.

Quick Facts

Species: human

Color Alignment: Blue-Black-Red (currently), Black (center)

Pronouns: they/them (nonbinary agender)

Sexuality: quasiromantic asexual

Physical Traits: light-colored skin, black hair, brown eyes, red carved facial tattoos, 6’ even

CAUTION: even more down for shady shit than their sister, cannot be detected by divinations, predisposed to violence

Relationships

FLORA: Flora is Onyx’s human planeswalker grandmother who attended Witherbloom in her youth. Onyx has always clashed with Flora, refusing to become a pawn to carry on the family legacy of power. They protect their sister Emily from Flora’s manipulations as best they can.

EMILY: Emily is Onyx’s younger sister who is a first-year Strixhaven student, and thus doesn’t have a college affiliation yet. The two siblings are very stable parts of each other’s lives, with Onyx doing what they can to help keep Emily under the rader. Onyx finds Emily’s friendship with the transformed Chimans to be stress-inducing for them, but they do what they can to help anyway.

DENNARI: Dennari is Emily’s girlfriend, and thus, a close friend of Onyx’s in their goal to keep their sister safe from the rest of their family. Dennari will often confide in Onyx when she doesn’t know what to do to help Emily.

SCORM: Scorm was the first one to befriend Emily, much to Onyx’s increasing stress. They’ve warmed up quite well to the former-Scorpion due to how much he reminds them of their sister. Out of all of the displaced Chimans, Scorm finds Onyx’s presence (and predisposition towards violence) the most comforting and familiar.

ERIS: Onyx and Eris respect each other, with Onyx picking up a little faster than others that this isn’t Eris’s first extraplanar rodeo. They consider Eris to be a bonus younger sister and will be the first to step between Eris and Emily when they get to arguing.

CRAGGER AND LAVAL: Onyx has taken both Cragger and Laval under their wing as apprentices as they get used to their new elemental magic. They don’t miss that the two remind them greatly of Emily and Dennari, and trusts them the most to protect Emily when Onyx can’t be around. The two look up to Onyx as a trusted mentor, even though they’re both a little put off by Onyx’s violent first reactions to something.

Emily Zephyras is a human planeswalker from the plane of Arcavios. Her prodigal magical specialty lies in plant and death magic both, making her a perfect fit for the college of Witherbloom, of which her historic family nearly always attended.

Her planeswalker spark was purposefully ignited by her mentor, the planeswalker Kasmina, under the watchful eye of her planeswalking grandmother, Flora. Her first planeswalk was guided to New Capenna, where she made a connection with a high-ranking Broker, before she was brought back to Arcavios to be brought by Flora to Chima.

Due to Flora previously working with Ewald during her own trips to Chima, she entrusted Emily’s care to him during her training. This led to Ewald, father of a planeswalking daughter himself who was around Emily’s age, realizing just how fucked up Emily’s family and mentor figures were, so he brought in Rawzom to teach her how to sneak and keep quiet so she could experience personal freedom. The visiting human planeswalker is a secret that the two Chimans share.

While there, Emily began studying Chi and tapping into it magic-enhancing abilities. She brought some of it back to Arcavios with her in secret, which she later shared with her older sibling Onyx and her girlfriend Dennari, along with an Eagle staff gifted to her by Ewald after finishing her training.

Emily draws on Chi to enhance her already-powerful magic, just to see how far she can go. Due to Onyx and Rawzom both being strong influences on her, she’s down for some shady shit, which leads to her being more than willing to make friends with villainous or antagonistic characters (or wannabe ones) such as Scorm and Razar.

Quick Facts

Species: human planeswalker

Color Alignment: Black-Green (center)

Pronouns: she/her (cisgender)

Sexuality: lesbian (dating Dennari)

Physical Traits: light-colored skin, red hair, green eyes, green arched facial tattoos, 5’6”

CAUTION: down for shady shit, has 3 warnings on her medical files

Relationships

FLORA: Flora is Emily’s human planeswalker grandmother who also attended Witherbloom in her youth. She chose Emily specifically out of all of her grandchildren to carry on the family legacy of power due to Emily’s spark and natural magical inclination towards Witherbloom-based magic. It’s a toxic and unhealthy relationship, with Emily trying to break away from her as much as she can.

KASMINA: Kasmina is Emily’s secondary mentor who runs a group of planeswalkers, of which Emily was inducted into. Emily doesn’t like her and does everything she can to avoid Kasmina’s attention.

EWALD: Ewald is Emily’s mentor on Chima, who took her in and kept her safe and hidden while Flora demanded that she learn about Chi. Because he is the father of a planeswalker daughter around Emily’s age, he intervened a little and brought in Rawzom to help her. Emily hasn’t seen him in a while, but remembers her lessons with him fondly.

RAWZOM: Rawzom is Emily’s secret other Chiman mentor, who was brought in by Ewald to help hear learn a more sneaky skillset. Rawzom had two reasons to accept this term and keep Emily’s existence a secret from Chima: the first was to have Ewald owe him, and the second was that he had a son around Emily’s age and didn’t want to think about someone treating his son like Emily’s grandmother and mentor treated her.

DENNARI: Dennari is Emily’s girlfriend who is a year ahead of her in Strixhaven University. The two are very much in love, and Emily is more than happy to help her girlfriend or tend to her after she gets into a fight.

ONYX: Onyx is Emily’s older sibling who is a third-year Prismari student. The two siblings are very stable parts of each other’s lives, with Onyx doing what they can to help Emily keep under the radar. Onyx finds Emily’s friendship with the transformed Chimans to be stress-inducing for them, but they do what they can to help anyway.

SCORM: Scorm is possibly the main Chiman that Emily considers a friend, much to the increasing stress of Onyx. The two have a similar shitty attitude and clash in a way that makes them get along more. Emily enjoys having someone who doesn’t just bow down to her thanks to her magic and lineage, and Scorm likes arguing.

ERIS: Eris and Emily clash – they’re both incredibly intelligent, but Emily’s more willing to do something shady than Eris is, and Eris is generally more concerned about the wellbeing of others than Emily is. There are certain, unspoken lines that they don’t cross with each other, and they’re more than willing to put their dislike of each other aside to help their shared friends.

CRAGGER: Cragger and Emily get along like a house on fire – in that they probably set it on fire themselves. They commiserate over having significant others who are way too willing to jump in the way of danger, and they work together to study to get into Witherbloom.

LAVAL: Laval reminds Emily strongly of Dennari, so she generally feels fondly towards him. Between that and her friendship with Cragger, she has no problem using her magic to patch Laval up or empower him in whatever fight he might pick.

Dennari Areia is a kor from the plane of Arcavios. Her magic is middling at best, but focused on combat – so she can very easily supplement it with her expert swordsmanship. She comes from a strong military family, but is the first in recent memory to attend Strixhaven University. She’s a second-year student of the Lorehold College. She comes from a relatively small branch of her family – her mother, her older brother, and her two younger sisters are the only ones she is in contact with. Her father died in the line of duty, leading Dennari to focus on enhancing her skills with magic to avoid meeting the same fate, were she ever to enlist.

While studying in her second year, she met and started dating Emily Zephyras, and soon befriended her older sibling Onyx as well. This dragged Dennari into the complicated matters of the Zephyras family, the usage of Chi to enhance magic, and the matter of the displaced Chimans. And Dennari wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Of the Arcavios trio, Dennari is the one with the strongest set of morals, keeping Onyx and Emily from doing too much shady shit.

Quick Facts

Species: kor

Color Alignment: Red-White (current), White (center)

Pronouns: she/her (cisgender)

Sexuality: lesbian (dating Emily)

Physical Traits: light grey-blue-colored skin, white hair with a streak dyed lavender, red eyes, some facial scars, 6’7”

CAUTION: extremely tough in physical challenges, extremely loyal to Emily and Onyx

Relationships

EMILY: Emily is Dennari’s girlfriend who is a first-year in Strixhaven University. The two are very much in love, and Dennari is more than happy to protect Emily from bullies (or her own family).

ONYX: Onyx is Emily’s sister and Dennari’s best friend. Dennari will often confide in Onyx when she doesn’t know what to do to help Emily.

SCORM: Scorm and Dennari often clash, though they both begrudgingly respect each other at the same time. Dennari just doesn’t want to see Scorm get hurt because of his own stupid actions, and Scorm thinks Dennari is too much like Laval (which, I mean, he’s right).

ERIS: Eris and Dennari became fast friends. They often discuss things like military theory and strategy with each other, swapping study materials and even starting a book club together.

CRAGGER: Cragger and Dennari are really only incidentally connected through the rest of the group, remaining on good yet distant terms with each other. They will both still protect the other in a pinch, but respect that the other can protect themselves.

LAVAL: Laval was Dennari’s first friend among the displaced Chimans due to their similar natures and morals. They can work together in near-perfect sync to protect each other or their shared friends.