#glade lore

basically, Murfy was the first creature that Polokus dreamt after the Nymphs. The first one, prototype for most other living beings in the Glade, and with way more power than they first expected. I wouldn’t say he’s as strong as the Nymphs or Polokus, but he’s surely way more OP than it seems and that OPness comes to his connection with the Glade itself, actually. Whenever Polokus dreams of something or someone, everytime a plant blooms and dies, everytime a child is born, Murfy immediately knows about it.

It doesn’t hurt nor he notices, most of the time, but if anyone asked if a raindrop fell in the middle of the Valley he would reply honestly without even having to think about it. Like Polokus he has his limits, since he’s unable to properly “track” Nightmares and their surroundings (so he wouldn’t know about Dark and would lose track of Ales too once he’s near him), creatures from other worlds (like the Pirates) or creatures created in unortodox methods (like Ray or Polokus himself, generated by the Lums of the Heart itself), but he’s still able to remember anything he learned about them

Of course, noticeable or not, OP or not, having to remember and know most things that happen in the Glade in real time would be too much for anyone - and this is why the Manual is important. Just like Murfy, it recollects the same knowledge and memories he knows, and constantly updates itself, almost serving as a “backup memory” for him once he gets overwhelmed with too many news and thoughts. The pages number remain the same, and anyone who isn’t Murfy would likely be unable to read it properly.  It’s a mystery how it truly works, but Murfy manages to always open it at the right page, no matter what he might look for. Sure, he has to read until he finds the line he was interested in, but it’s usually just a matter of a few seconds.

Unfortunately they can’t stand eachother. The Manual can “talk” only to Morf, and most of its comments are nothing but annoyed remarks or insults. Considering nobody else can hear it... it’s kind of hilarious.

hardly

consider that most things that are made with technology by the bad guys is something that the population of the glade can usually solve with magic, so most of them already feel it reduntant

most people in the Glade have two moods towards it then

the scared majority: pirates, hoodlums, the rabbids and ales use technology. pirates, hoodlums, the rabbids and ales are bad, so technology bad

the bad racist minority: people who use technology are because they can't use magic therefore theyre losers

there ARE some people interested in it, and i like to imagine that especially the younger people in the glade have at least a little bit of curiosity towards it, but for many its still a little too soon to fully start trusthing this new thing.

mostly the game really works with a lowkey environmental message especially in r2, and while i agree and PROTECT EARTH GODDAMNIT at least in IOH AU i dont want to risk to fall in the "NATURE GOOD TECHNOLOGY BAD" trope too much, so i sprinkle it here and there a little more often

OHOHOHO I’M SO GLAD YOU ASKED because. eventually i want to at least WRITE something about him like. no joke, while most of the headcanons that i follow for the human au are born shortly after Legends came out, the Magician’s lore is something that I have in mind since I first discovered about him, more or less around the time I got Revolution!!

he’s the real First Hero of the Glade! A guy who started off as a normal Dream, not even particularly great at most magic if not illusionary ones - yknow, general magic tricks like pulling out rabbits out of a hat or guess someone’s card - and is generally what in the work we call An Anxious Mess he was born shortly after Polokus went to sleep after creating the Glade, he’s more or less Spes/Dark’s age, and witnessed first hand the chaos and death Jano’s army brought to the Glade... and he got in the Nightmare’s black list when he accidentally stumbled in the first of Polokus’ four Masks.

I actually imagine that the Masks and the Temples are moved around whenever they’re used, and that if found they can grant Polokus AND the person who found them the absolute most powerful power of all - of course, other than waking up the frog god gradpanfasdmg,, at first he was Not Really Into It, but Betilla knew that if he found a Mask, by accident or not, he’s likely been chosen by the Spirits to find the other three.

it’s the usual hero’s journey, yknow - the one with someone starting off weak and scared and confused and helped out by someone who don’t particularly think much of him, but that soon enough finds confidence and strenght and finally fights off the bad guys to protect those dear to him, using all the power of the Masks to personally defeat Jano when he was at its very peak. Most of his magic is kind of nerfed again now and actually had to study it to return to be pretty powerful, but he has some of that Ultimate Power still sealed in, but he promised to let it out only if truly necessary

................still, his favorite kind of magic

i mean... the king was nice to one of his sons. selah was shown to have potential to become a great leader and magician from the very beginning, and the king and queen of the glade loved and cared for him very much despite how strict they could be.

...but the king and queen had another son. they had ales. and while at first they had hopes for him, too, they realized that it wasnt really worth spending much time with him once he didnt show any sign of controlling magic even in his early teenhood. they kind of... pretended he wasn’t there. how embarassing could be for the royal family to have a prince who can’t even make the tiniest of spells, and who can’t even turn on a candle with magic spells after years spend in the magic academy? 

at some point they simply dropped him to the magician in hope he could fix him and left. they didn’t say goodbye, they barely looked at him before leaving - and when he ran away in hope to find mr dark, they did nothing but give up the throne out of shame.

like hear me out - i think it’s pretty much proved rayman was hyptonized during the entire time, right? but what if the cave isn’t exactly like the one we saw. in a way or another, comparing it to the hellhole the tomb of the ancient, or even the sanctuary of rock and lava is, it’s very tame overall, except for like, one or two parts

(read as: that one escape seen from the pov of jano’s mouth, like what the hell, i’m still shaking)

overall, i always found it very childish, in some way. the skulls all around, the cartoony ghosts, the cobwebs... it’s what a child’s idea of a haunted house could be. so uh. what if what we saw is what rayman thought a cave of bad dreams could be? a dark and spooky place, filled with any baby first horror movie archetypes?