Basic story
This was my nanowrimo novel for 2022. I wrote a new chapter every single day!
Summary: The universe is dying. Every century the Lunar god and the Sol god choose two Quasar: champions that do battle to sacrifice one another so that their souls may breathe energy into the withering universe. It is the highest honor, to be marked by the gods themselves for this sacred task.
At least, that's how it's been framed by the gods.
Clover is indifferent to the tales of the Quasar; she only wants to find her missing brother using highly regulated Thauma, the magic that runs the world. She never intended to get swept up in the business of Prince Aspen, one of the chosen Quasar and future ruler of Fern Helion, or Alouette, the most wanted criminal in the country who claims to be a fallen god themself.
Follow six characters in this world as they navigate their own personal struggles and are brought together to do the impossible: free five of the sealed Gods and take down the two major gods to stop the sacrificial cycle.
(Written for NaNoWriMo 2022, a new chapter was written and posted daily in November!)
World Info
None of this is 100% necessary to know before reading, but I thought it'd be fun to add here. :)
Here's the world map. The "sol zone", "twilight strip", and "lunar zone" indicate the level of sunlight each region gets a day. The majority of Fern Helion is in the Sol Strip, and averages between 2-4 hours of darkness and 18-22 hours of sunlight, depending on the season. Lacus Mare is the opposite. The twilight strip is exactly what it sounds like, having a hazy lighting in between of the two at all times.
Here's the calendar!
(open images in new tab to see them full-sized!)
There are four months: Basal, Foreflux, Marrow, and Hindflux.
Basal and Marrow last 125 days each, Hindflux and Foreflux are 25 days each.
Basal is the first month, and Summer for Fern Helion and Winter for Lacus Mare.
Foreflux is Autumn for Fern Helion and Spring for Lacus Mare.
Marrow is Winter for Fern Helion and Summer for Lacus Mare.
Hindflux is Spring for Fern Helion and Autumn for Lacus Mare.
The days are 22 hours long, the year lasts 300 days.
There are 10 days in a week: Solday, Comday, Pheday, Insday, Headay, Proday, Vioday, Harvday, Uniday, and Lunday. They're named after the eight Gods for the most part, two days being exceptions. (These Gods are discussed more in the story!)
and I have a series of lore videos about it + the various gods!
Character Art
River is a famous magic teacher who is a bit of a recluse after adopting Alo and trying to keep the god a secret. She takes on Prince Aspen and Clover as students though. She is a very firm teacher, but she would do anything to protect her children.
Clover, the main character. She's friendly, hard working, and good-natured. She had issues with her mother, and the story was about her going on a journey to find her missing brother Juniper with the other characters. During the story she hosts the god of healing and health, but at the end of the story she becomes the Sol god (sun goddess) and it makes her hair slowly turn white and her eyes turn gold with starburst pupils. You could draw that form or her regular form! She has chronic pain in her hand/arm after her brother did a powerful spell on her to hide the fact she was marked by the Sol god as a child. She has a scar on the back of her hand after the event.
She's in a poly situation with Alo and Prince Aspen. Alo teases her and is very affectionate with her, while Prince Aspen and she butt heads a lot and squabble, often very competitive with each other.
Alouette (Alo), the god of transformation from my 2022 nanowrimo novel, Ekleipsis! Adopted by River after possessing the body of her deceased child, they strive to help humans and free the gods that were sealed by the former Sol & Lunar gods in the story. They are nonbinary (they/them) and end up in a poly relationship with Clover & Prince Aspen by the end of the story.
They have had many forms, but usually are represented by birds. They can be a bit manic but generally mean well, and are very protective over humans. By the end of the story their body becomes their own, so they don't have such a sickly palor, and their wings can have a gold shimmer/become entirely golden or hidden. Their true form is just a mass of wings and golden eyes.
(left) Cassiopia is a princess of Lacus Mare in the Lunar Zone, and she got married to the eldest princess of Fern Helion (the Sol Zone) to strengthen political alliances. Luckily, her and her wife Saros were already good friends and are totally fine with this! Saros appriciated the chance to get away from her home in Fern Helion's castle because she found it suffocating, and has a lot of fun with Cassi. In Lacus Mare the sun rarely shines, so a raver/neon/glow in the dark style fashion is all the rage, and the princesses endorse it! The two of them are not the future Queens of the country, as that duty falls to Cassiopia's older siblings. These two are there for political relations, but they have a mature and loving relationship with each other, and both feel a strong sense of duty to helping their people in whatever way they can.
Saros (right) is a princess of Fern Helion (the Sol Zone) and she got married to the eldest princess of Lacus Mare in the Lunar Zone to strengthen political alliances. Luckily, her and her wife Cassiopia were already good friends and are totally fine with this! Saros appreciated the chance to get away from her home in Fern Helion's castle because she found it suffocating, and has a lot of fun with Cassi. In Lacus Mare the sun rarely shines, so a raver/neon/glow in the dark style fashion is all the rage, and the princesses endorse it!
The two of them are not the future Queens of the country, as that duty falls to Cassiopia's older siblings. These two are there for political relations, but they have a mature and loving relationship with each other, and both feel a strong sense of duty to helping their people in whatever way they can.
She is the elder sister of Prince Aspen and the half sister of Azaleon. She loves both of them but does not know them very well, as she got married and moved off when they were younger, but she goes out of her way to help them in the story regardless because she's a kindhearted person. She does love to gossip and tease them, though.
Aspen is one of the main characters alongside Clover. She is somewhat cagey and stubborn, and does not get along with many people. He and Clover are both River's students learning magic from her. He enjoys plant magic the most and if it were up to him, he would be a recluse with a huge garden, lol. His half brother is Azaleon and his sister is Saros.
By the end of the story he's in a poly situation with Clover and Alo. He and Clover are competitive, but he has a crush on her from the start (although would not have admitted this) He and Alo have a somewhat weird relationship as Alo admires humans and wants to protect the two of them and that grates on Aspen's nerves at times as he wants to protect himself. He does end up endeared to Alo though.
He has a taste for luxury but also strives to be a good prince and future king. He is transgender!
By the end of the story he becomes the new Lunar God, his hair turning black and his eyes looking like galaxies with moon shaped white pupils. You can draw him in either form! (I don't have a reference for that form but the only thing different is the hair and eyes jsdhkf)
Azaleon (left), one of Prince Aspen's bodyguards along with his partner, Kuiper (right). He and Kuiper are dating in secret since castle employees having relationships is generally frowned upon and the king would be against it.
Azaleon is also secretly Prince Aspen's half-brother, and he and his mother receive stipends to keep this a secret. He actually became a guard to get closer to his brother and protect him, and Kuiper followed him to keep him safe. Although he has a friendly outward disposition, he's had anger issues and violent tendencies in the past, making his climb up the ranks at the guard very fast.
In the story he becomes the vessel for the god of war who controls the seas and can speak through fish. While the other gods leave at the end of the story, this god (Seiche) decides to stick around and he and Azaleon share one body. When Seiche is in control, Azaleon looks colder and his eyes glow blue. The god also has a thing for Kuiper, so the three of them are in a weird triangle (Azaleon and Seiche are both into Kuiper but not into each other!)
A character from my 2022 nanowrimo novel! Kuiper is a bodyguard for Prince Aspen, along with his partner Azaleon. Azaleon is the prince's secret half brother, and Kuiper somewhat dislikes prince Aspen and sees him as a brat, and wishes his partner would give up on trying to protect him. But he follows him anyway into the job of being a guard. His ideal life would be having pets and reading books everyday, living a slow and cozy life with his boyfriend. He is quiet and stoic for the most part, but he opens up around Azaleon. They were childhood friends before they started dating.
This is Clover's brother, Juniper, who is absent for a majority of the story. He left after she got marked as the Sol god's chosen to die for the god; he took the mark from her with an illusion and stayed on the run for years, before ultimately getting possessed by the scorned Sol god. He is very intelligent, but reclusive and secretive. The last time he saw his sister was when they were children.
