#vaonaa

Zhen flag is reference to their planetary animal and planetary colors. Vaonaa’s represents their oneness and connection that the prevalent wind on the planet provides. Koyu is the crown jewels, the planet’s form, and the dark eyes that are characteristic of Koyuvians.

Eraklyan’s don’t technically have a wedding dress, usually they just wear a nice gown, and modern weddings with use a more traditional clothing style. Bloom here is in a royal gown, so the average Eraklyan would have shorter sleeves/dress, a less ornate vest, and no cape. Eraklyan Weddings are heavy on tradition, and have a set structure of courtship, engagement, ceremony, and post ceremony. Courtship isn’t dating, but a declaration of the intent to be married, engagement is the actual contract between the couple, and the ceremony consists of spoken vows and exchanging of personal jewels. Each person on Eraklyon has a gem given/assigned to them at birth, in the past personal jewels were thought to hold a person’s soul. Worn as jewelry( bracelet ring, piercing, everything except a necklace), these gems are given to the other as part of the wedding, if a person is not Eraklyan, they will pick out a gem at the start of the courtship. Instead of wedding rings Eraklyans propose/signify marriage with necklaces(the necklaces are separate from personal jewels, only necklaces can be used for marriage) Bloom has the heart of Eraklyon which is a specific jewel that been passed down through the people who marry INTO the Eraklyan royal family. The average Eraklyan engagement jewel is basically the same shape tho usually smaller. Eraklyan women also put their hair up after they are married or for the wedding, in ancient times sometimes the wedding day would be the first time an Eraklyan woman had tied her hair up in her entire life. Modern times have relaxed this custom but its still pretty common for unmarried women to leave their hair down most of the time and married women to wear their hair up more often than not. Sky initiated their courtship period in the first movie, Bloom(and Domino) misunderstood and thought he was officially proposing. He proposes in season 5 with the Heart of Eraklyon.  

MOVING ON TO ZHEN

History: Zhen is a very rigid planet social customs-wise, but they have a long history of political unrest and war. The planet is divided into small feudal states, and each one is constantly on alert for invasion or offense from the others. Through a very clever scheme, a prince of a larger state convinced another state to send him one of their princesses/princes as a peace treaty. Then claimed the prince/princess never arrived to the palace(they did, were not harmed and  hidden away in the lap of luxury) and propositioned a different state for a marriage peace treaty. Eventually he revealed he had kept the royals safe and alive and had legally binding peace contracts with each of the states he had tricked. Zhenese have an intense code of honor and will follow rules/contracts the way the fae do even if its inconvenient for them lmao. He became the leading power, and forced the other states to send him some of their family to stay at his central palace. Zhen was then at peace for longer than before in their history, eventually developing the central system of government with a central royal family. Local rulers still send a portion of their family to live at the palace complex as a tradition and a safety measure, though the family and their Regent will switch off visiting the hub. Unfortunately, the most recent Emperor and Empress were assassinated and their daughter, the closet heir, disappeared, thought to be captured or killed as well. Leaving the royal families to claim a right to the throne and fight it out. Ho-boe left a week after the assassination on one of the last ships before the rival states set up blockades for each other’s fleets/communications.

Cimate: Zhen is on the cold side and has numerous mountain ranges littering the continents with very flat land in between them. Their coastlines are ragged with a lot of good bays to use as ports. They have a lot of rivers in the mountains which generally combine into one major river across the plains. They grow a lot of grains, and are excellent hunters, surviving on a very high protein diet (it’s theorized that Zhenese evolved their sharp teeth, hearing, and low center of gravity with heavy musculature to become more ideal hunters in their environment) During peace, Zhen exported a lot of unique furs, minerals, and their woodworking skills(they don’t have a lot of forest to use for export but they are master craftsmen) Their clothing is usually wool, from the Zhenese Argali, a sheep/goat like animal with orange/red wool and blue(ish) horns. These animals are the most prevalent species on Zhen and are wild, domestic, used for wool, skins, dyes, meat, household objects, and even their bones are used whenever possible. 

Clothing: traditional dress is still worn on Zhen instead of Magix modern styles. In general: Thick sock/shoes with leather soles tied around the ankle, loose cotton pants, a pleated wool skirt, a shirt with a square stand up collar and long straight sleeves, a short sleeved jacket or structured tunic layered on top, sometimes a wrapped belt. Hair styles are complex and accessorized.  In warmer areas the skirt and sleeves are shorter, and usually only a lighter jacket is worn. In cold weather they wear a wrapped fur hat, several layers of wool shirts and skirts. Royal wear always features the planetary colors, a complex headress, and wide skirts with several layers. and stupidly wide sleeves (usually they cover the hands entirely but if a royal is doing anything they usually roll them up) royal coat/tunics feature a lot of embroidery, usually of geometric patterns, as well as draped tied from the shoulders(usually white). For a wedding Zhenese wear black yellow and white. Black is only worn for weddings and symbolizes the seriousness of the relationship that being officiated. They also have a hat with a bead veil and a pin through the hair with fabric/paper hanging from them onto the shoulders. The beads on the hat are strung in a very specific order, reflecting the planets reliance on rules and order, the veils can taken weeks to make because if a mistake is made all the beads have to be taken off and started over. A braided chord with threads of the planetary colors is knotted around the waist to represent the planet and culture as a whole. Married Zhenese have a short thread of beads they hang from their hats or hair pins.

VAONAA

History: Generally known for their spirituality and rich knowledge, Vaonaa has a fairly standard history. Fighting slowly stopped and the various groups on the planet were united after the incorporation of magic into their culture.(yes i know this is unrealistic leave me and my idealistic alien planets alone) One substantial difference is that Vaonaa developed an electoral system of government as opposed to a monarchy. Consisting of three groups (elders, adults, and youth) they’re all part of a larger group called the Council. Each individual group has to have an equal ratio of men/women/nb. Each county has one person elected and the other person assigned(like jury duty). The council is the main authority on everything and is a full time job. The Vaonaar is like a president/prime minister temporary position, every time a council member is appointed they submit a name of their most trusted person, if the council deadlocks over a decision a name from the list the Council members provided is randomly chosen to resolve the deadlock over a period of a few weeks so they actually have time to hear all the arguments and read relevant materiel. there are also more local officials like police/librarians/parks and rec etc. 

Climate: Vaonaa has a lot of flat grass land, with a high proportion of mesa formations. as a result of these steep valleys Vaonaa has strong wind currents. They coatline is relatively smooth, and they usually have to use rivers as ports because bays aren’t super common. They have many different types of grasses, and are especially known for their high quality textile production. They export their textiles, precious stones, and metal work. 

Clothing: Vaonaaj usually wear deerskin, suede, wool, and cotton. Tunics tied together at the sides, leggings, and poncho styled blankets, and wrapped or metal belts are the basic clothing items. Beaded necklaces and earnings are common accessories for everyone. Hair is worn in either one or two braids. In warm weather, a short tunic and soft moccasins are worn  In colder weather a woven blackets is wrapped around the body or tucked into the belt, leggings are added under the tunic, and wrapped skins are layered over the moccasins and leggings and secured just below the knee sometimes the blanket has a smaller buttoned on hood but i didn’t draw that. Royal Vaonaaj have a longer tunic with stitched details and beaded sections.a more complex belt, and a rectangular blue vest/shawl worn under the belt. For weddings, Vaonaaj wear a loose tunic/dress and wrapped leather around their feet instead of mocasins. strips of fabric and jewelry is in the four colors Vaonaa considers sacred, white, green, blue, and rust red. White and blue represent the wind, blue also represents royalty and honor, green represents the grasses that cover most of the planet and are used in making textiles, the rust red represents a grounding connection to the earth something the people tend to forget because they are so dependent on the wind and all. Married Vaonaaj keep a colored thread woven into their hair, in modern times this is usually done through magic.

(PSA: I almost exclusively based this planet/culture on Navajo native Americans, with some tweaks because fantasy alien planet.  I am not native, if any of this is inappropriate please let me know.)

(second less important psa: its like super hard to find clothing references for native american cultures before European contact so if any one has some good sources pls lmk)  

KOYU

History: Koyu is thought to have begun as a dwarf planet with a highly poisonous atmosphere struck by an asteroid and pushed further towards the sun it was orbiting. This increased the radiation levels which caused the dormant fungal growth on the asteroid to begin growing at exponential rates. The growth also filtered out the toxins in the lower atmosphere but eventually reached a state of equilibrium and was unable to grow any bigger. The outer reaches of the formation are still technically living matter, but the inner reaches have dried and kind of fossilized creating a porous tangle of branches around the planets core.  Koyuvian’s eyes have evolved to be intensely receptive to any light in their environment because the inner tangles are very dark and fire cannot be used as the dried growth produces poisonous smoke when burned. many plants and animals on Koyu are luminescent and are some are farmed and used as light sources. water runs through some hollow sections of the growth like vertical rivers. others are used as highways or roads. especially large knots of tangles usually become cities. spaces that don’t have as many branches of growth are known as the voids and are avoided because its easy to get lost or fall and especially dangerous animal/plant life occupy those spaces.

Climate: The outer reaches of the planet is very hot, and has a lot of dangerous radiation, so people don’t live there. The inner reaches of the planet don’t have direct sunlight and can be pretty cold, but there are still pockets that have a decent amount of warmth due to insulation, being closer to the radiation, or the planet’s core producing some heat.  Koyu exports some of their unique animal and plant life, and Koyuvian mushrooms are some of the most highly sought after produce/garden items in the magix universe but they are almost impossible to grow off planet. Koyu has very small mineral reserves but will export Koyuvian Diamonds for jewelry and technology which are formed in high heat high pressure vent branches of the tangles.