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edenfallingWhen I said I got bogged down in a tangle of AU worldbuilding details, I really wasn't kidding. By way of demonstration:
This world goes AU when Cimorene, upon her initial departure from Linderwall, remembers that the talking frog's advice was based on her explicitly expressed wish to be eaten by a dragon rather than marry Therandil -- and so she thinks twice about following it and goes into the small pavilion made of gold, surrounded by trees made of silver with emerald leaves, rather than continuing on to the hovel.
The woman she meets in the gold pavilion is a sorceress, who generally enchants questing princes who foolishly disregard their advice. Cimorene manages to disconcert her and win her over the same way she does to Kazul in canon, and the sorceress sponsors her entry into Stokey's Academy while promising to seed a half-dozen suitably extravagant tales of various magical creatures or events carrying Cimorene off to all corners of the world, so as to divert attention from her true location.
Cimorene spends three years learning magic and then, a bit uncertain about what to do with her adult life, decides to look up a handful of the Academy's more non-traditional graduates. She's unable to locate Telemain, gets very little useful from the enchantress in the muddy forest with the invisible night-blooming chokevines (from Calling on Dragons), and visits Morwen for her third attempt. They hit it off famously, and Cimorene promptly settles in the Enchanted Forest to do more or less what she ends up doing in canon while raising Daystar.
Meanwhile, I think Woraug and Zemenar's plan to get Woraug crowned King of the Dragons works out... at least at first. Woraug clearly makes a terrible king, and the dragons are deeply unhappy about his policies vis-a-vis wizards and the Caves of Fire and Night, but assassinating him would be un-dragonish, so... what to do? Fortunately Alianora and the stone prince still exist! She gets him to help her run away from Woraug (which is perfectly traditional in outline, though a bit odd in practice) and they flee to the Enchanted Forest to beg for help.
(Side note: there's obviously been no reason for the wizards to try causing trouble between the Enchanted Forest and the Mountains of Morning yet, given their unimpeded access to the Caves of Fire and Night, so Mendanbar is cheerfully ignoring politics in general.)
Alianora and the stone prince run into Cimorene, who takes them to Morwen, who is, after all, still good friends with Kazul. And they put together Alianora's knowledge of Woraug's treachery, Morwen and Cimorene's magical skill, Kazul's knowledge of draconic traditions, and the stone prince's ability to challenge Woraug over Alianora in a way that Woraug really CAN'T refuse to answer, and... I dunno, some kind of big climax goes down, Woraug turns into a frog for un-dragonish behavior, and Kazul wins the next kingship challenge. At which point the wizards begin their plotting to cause a war between the Enchanted Forest and the dragons, but they're on a much worse footing because Cimorene DID introduce herself to Mendanbar upon formally moving into his kingdom (some behavior patterns are drilled in too deep to erase, you know?) and therefore manages to politely shove him into actually attending Kazul's coronation and getting to know her.
I think the wizards instead turn their attention to Mendanbar's marriage prospects, figuring that if they can get control of the new queen and therefore the heir, they'll have it made for decades. And our story opens with a princess, who's been unknowingly roped into one of their plots, trying to figure out how on earth she wound up in the Enchanted Forest when she was fairly sure she was supposed to be carried away to the land beyond the North Wind instead.
And of course she meets Morwen and Cimorene. :)
This world goes AU when Cimorene, upon her initial departure from Linderwall, remembers that the talking frog's advice was based on her explicitly expressed wish to be eaten by a dragon rather than marry Therandil -- and so she thinks twice about following it and goes into the small pavilion made of gold, surrounded by trees made of silver with emerald leaves, rather than continuing on to the hovel.
The woman she meets in the gold pavilion is a sorceress, who generally enchants questing princes who foolishly disregard their advice. Cimorene manages to disconcert her and win her over the same way she does to Kazul in canon, and the sorceress sponsors her entry into Stokey's Academy while promising to seed a half-dozen suitably extravagant tales of various magical creatures or events carrying Cimorene off to all corners of the world, so as to divert attention from her true location.
Cimorene spends three years learning magic and then, a bit uncertain about what to do with her adult life, decides to look up a handful of the Academy's more non-traditional graduates. She's unable to locate Telemain, gets very little useful from the enchantress in the muddy forest with the invisible night-blooming chokevines (from Calling on Dragons), and visits Morwen for her third attempt. They hit it off famously, and Cimorene promptly settles in the Enchanted Forest to do more or less what she ends up doing in canon while raising Daystar.
Meanwhile, I think Woraug and Zemenar's plan to get Woraug crowned King of the Dragons works out... at least at first. Woraug clearly makes a terrible king, and the dragons are deeply unhappy about his policies vis-a-vis wizards and the Caves of Fire and Night, but assassinating him would be un-dragonish, so... what to do? Fortunately Alianora and the stone prince still exist! She gets him to help her run away from Woraug (which is perfectly traditional in outline, though a bit odd in practice) and they flee to the Enchanted Forest to beg for help.
(Side note: there's obviously been no reason for the wizards to try causing trouble between the Enchanted Forest and the Mountains of Morning yet, given their unimpeded access to the Caves of Fire and Night, so Mendanbar is cheerfully ignoring politics in general.)
Alianora and the stone prince run into Cimorene, who takes them to Morwen, who is, after all, still good friends with Kazul. And they put together Alianora's knowledge of Woraug's treachery, Morwen and Cimorene's magical skill, Kazul's knowledge of draconic traditions, and the stone prince's ability to challenge Woraug over Alianora in a way that Woraug really CAN'T refuse to answer, and... I dunno, some kind of big climax goes down, Woraug turns into a frog for un-dragonish behavior, and Kazul wins the next kingship challenge. At which point the wizards begin their plotting to cause a war between the Enchanted Forest and the dragons, but they're on a much worse footing because Cimorene DID introduce herself to Mendanbar upon formally moving into his kingdom (some behavior patterns are drilled in too deep to erase, you know?) and therefore manages to politely shove him into actually attending Kazul's coronation and getting to know her.
I think the wizards instead turn their attention to Mendanbar's marriage prospects, figuring that if they can get control of the new queen and therefore the heir, they'll have it made for decades. And our story opens with a princess, who's been unknowingly roped into one of their plots, trying to figure out how on earth she wound up in the Enchanted Forest when she was fairly sure she was supposed to be carried away to the land beyond the North Wind instead.
And of course she meets Morwen and Cimorene. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-11-05 03:23 pm (UTC)