The Darkest Woods

HOOOO BOY THIS NEEDS A GOOD REWORK
THE DARKEST WOODSAn alternative world set in three hundred and sixty years after the events of the first arc, I give you The Darkest Woods. A AU based on Dark Fantasy, Classical Vampire Fiction, gothic tropes, and among other things. This au serves a purpose to fulfill heavy amounts of gothic fantasy elements while remaining within the realm of the books themselves.
This au was entirely created by Helsing. If you have any questions or concerns look to xer for it.
INTRODUCTORY LORE
Carnage, monsters, and tales.
Many exist within dragon culture and dragon mind. But within centuries fiction became fact. The world dragons once ruled became on where they had to compete to survive.
:UNIVERSAL RULES
*Technology has advanced severely far compared to canon.
**It's capped off around the 2nd industrial revolution, but it can exist in fantastical forms such as steampunk. It doesn't include cyber items but anything can exist
**There's no bounds here
*Tribes aren't exclusive to how they appear in the guides, dragons can have features such as fur, feathers, and abnormal colors unlike they are detailed to commonly have.
**There's only a few tribes that look down upon these imperfections. Mutts and Hybrids alike.
**These tribes are: SkyWings, HiveWings, IceWings, and SeaWings
*Animus bloodlines have all but died out by this point.
*Animus is the sire to many magic types, but due to hundreds of years worth of refinement, anyone can learn it if they can get their claws on the items.
*This only focuses on Pyrrhia.
**All Pantalan tribes are now found on Pyrrhia rather than having two continents.
*Scavengers are extinct. Now the species that cause the most threat to dragons are under the monster category to beings.
GEOGRAPHY
*It’s roughly estimated that it would take almost half a year (7 or 8 months) to get across Pyrrhia with the weather and land permitting non-stop flight.
**Much larger than canon.
*It’s angled rather weirdly with the Ice Queendom being the furthest north and the Sky Queendom warped to nearly reach its level on the globe.
*The equator of this planet runs through the center of the Rainforest and the lower areas of the Sand Queendom.
*The shared Poison Queendom sits below the equator for most of its land.
*The Poison Queendom sits in the rebuilt Night peninsula that was rebuilt and redubbed to the Poison peninsula since it mimics the old world Pantala was.
:QUEENDOMS
> Sky Queendom - Found on the wing and the mountain ranges that go through it, begrudgingly shared with unwanted IceWing colonies for over a hundred years at this point. It’s a large expanse of sheer mountain faces and alpine forests. Many villages dot the valleys with varying wealth depending on how close they are to either the palace, Sanctuary, or Possibility. Richer dragons tend to live in secluded mansions and domains higher in the mountains where nice weather couldn’t reach them.
> Mud Queendom - Found surrounded by the Sky Queendom on two fronts and is the entryway to the Rainforest. It extends out onto the tail before it leaves out to islands. For reasons unknown, most of the Queendom has turned into open marshland and bogland with the only signs of forest and swamps being found around the borders of the mainland Queendoms. All of the populations are found along the borders and oceans with the palace being more or less and entryway to the boglands
> Sea Queendom - Coiled in the tail of the continent, the Sea Queendom finally had it’s bounds marked and secured. One large circle in the oceans of the bay of a thousand scales with anything mainland touching it not being theirs. The oceans are teeming with SeaWing structures with their islands being barren and wild.
> Raining Night Queendom - Found between Jade Mountain grounds, the Mud Queendom, and the sea. A large lush rainforest with little to no damage or depletion, just a few towns and settlements inside it. The forest is known to get thicker the further to the center you go. The RainWings and NightWings act and live as one tribe, meaning they're found in every village living together.
> Ice Queendom - Found in the furthest north arctic deserts with the ends of the Queendom hitting a steppe that leads into the Sand Queendom. It’s currently the smallest Queendom and barer than the Sand Queendom itself. Due to this there's chips of IceWings found within the wing of Pyrrhia that was stolen from the SkyWings after it was found to be the only solution regarding population.
> Sand Queendom - Found on the chest of the continent, between the steppe that leads to the arctic and the blossoming jungles below it. It's a waste of traveling scholars and small boom towns around oases and veins of valuable materials like gold. If a dragon isn't situated within one of these small remote oases herder towns then they're found within the slum river valley cities of Possibility and Scorpion Den.
> Poison Queendom - Tribes once divided come together to form their own unique joint Queendom with it being less intermingled than the Raining Night Queendom. It's divided into three separate districts with each of them holding a heavy cultural presence of the three tribes while still allowing the others to come in. The closest to the ocean is dense jungle with housing and buildings built inside the vast trees. The two split halves above it tell another story, one a dense urban area with many treestuff buildings and the other being a mix of the two with heavy amounts of trees and solid buildings away from the trees.
> Jade Mountain Territory - The only land with true neutrality is home to the largest boarding school found on the continent with it carrying 500+ dragonets from every tribe. Various tribes are found within this region for the lack of politics and social ideology it holds. Anyone is allowed to come and live on the land as long as they don't intrude onto marked school grounds. Many villages cropped up around the territory which typically holds the student's parents.
:NOTABLE LOCATIONS
::The Dark Woods
> Found Within The Sky Queendom, Parts reaching into The Mud Queendom, The Sand Queendom, and Jade Mountain Territory
The origin of the monster boom and a large vein of wild magic found in the center of Pyrrhia. This area of particularly thick and diverse woodlands settles itself between the farthest north reaches Jade Mountain Territory and sits on par with the Diamond Spray Delta. It consumes Mountains and valleys, Swamps and rivers, and arid sandstone cliff-faces that are covered in pine trees. In it's bounds lay a few villages huddled around the outskirts since many dragons dare not to go further into the bleak forest. These villages are lucky in location but are still stuck in an unfortunate circumstance with many residents becoming victims to the creatures that roam the night or the magic that built the forest.
::The Jungle Of Shadows 
> Found Within The Raining Night Queendom
A section of the rain forest that the sun refuses to breech. It's found in the southwest quadrant and can be tracked by the RainWings and NightWing directing you away from it's borders. Not much is known on what sits inside it, some rumors speak of a village of monsters and a portal to the afterlife itself. Though what sits inside of it are some elder monsters that throughout nested itselves within the order of the jungle as well as what appears to be a dragon-made gateway that when active can lead to someone on Pyrrhia. Another thing worth mentioning is the spread apart ruins of a once grand dragon city that no one is quite sure what is it or what sits in it.
::Jade Mountain Academy
> Found Near The Coastline Of The Southern Sea
A stone clad academy centuries old and well renowned for the horrible amount of spoiled rich brats that are sent to. It's localized entirely within the mountain Jade and is home to multiple levels of academia and fields of study due to it's age and being the pioneer in academia. The school itself stays within the mountain but is a landmark to travelers and attracts many dragons who wants freedom from the monarchies.
::Possibility
> Found On The Banks Of The Five Tail River
The better of the two largest SandWing cities, but not that far above from where it's partner stands. It's been said as an intertribal city but due to the disparity between its treatment of SandWings compared to its other residents - particularly SkyWings - it's been called a SandWing city by the public. Everything about it speaks SandWing from it's architecture to its culture. Even most of the SandWing aristocracy lives within its walls.
::Scorpion Den
> Found In The Center Of The Sand Queendom
The largest slum to ever exist, and it's called a city. The Scorpion Den was never a cleanly city free of corruption, and no one bothered trying to fix it. Everything wrong about the SandWings can be directed at the Scorpion Den and is used as either the place to go when you've hit rock bottom or a political move to criticize the SandWing royal family for their negligence of their subjects
::Sanctuary
> Found South East Of The Sky Palace
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DRAGONS AND SOCIETY
:TRIBES
::SkyWings
*The militaristic lifestyle of the SkyWings was never ironed out.
*During the 360 year gap between book events and now, IceWings started seizing SkyWing land on the western ocean front that faced the Ice Queendom itself.
**They've been in and out of conflict since then.
*The monarchy lost its social and political power due to traitorous lords conspiring against the queen.
*The tribe is all superstition and paranoia about physical and mystical matters and it's hard to journey in if you're not SkyWing yourself.
*Neighborly love doesn't exist and it's a common fact that SkyWings don't help others.
*Knowledge doesn't get shared it often through literature, knowledge works through word of mouth which makes it all mottled and watered down as it spreads along.
*Systems like rail systems and advance roads are founded across the Queendom as a way to better maneuver the mountains
*Systems like rail systems and advance roads are founded across the Queendom as a way to better maneuver the mountains
**It also assists with sheep herders as the trails lead them home.
::MudWings
*Instead of being spread out in the Queendom, the MudWings are now forced to live on the good land on the borders due to the center Queendom being overrun with infertile bogs.
*They don't really have an active political system and the villages act as independents.
*They do say they have a queen, but she isn't doing much. Making alliances, legislation, ect.
*Mysteriously, whoever tries to visit the queen and her court never returns.
*Monster attacks and missing dragons are a big problem within the Mud Queendom.
*No one truly knows what the queen looks like and she hasn't been seen by the tribe in decades.
*The MudWing villagers are making due with what little land they have and they began moving to work with other tribes or move to the Jade Mountain Territory.
::SeaWings
*SeaWings became more inbounded into a selected area, but there are several groups going around trying to claim the enitre ocean is theirs but the SeaWing royal family calls them extremists groups.
**Although they're looked fondly upon in the queendom and even in the family for their work.
*The Queendom is that of false displays, they appear to be a prospering modest Queendom with no crime, ill-will, bad intentions, or any problem whatsoever and the other tribe's attitudes reflect this lie.
*The monarchy is actually very corrupt with the Queen being manipulated by her own desires and hunger for power and perfection and getting tugged along by the aristocracy and their same intentions.
*Due to Coral having so many surviving sons, nearly everyone in the tribe claims to be royalty making the bloodline confused and the family decdend from the princess grow headaches.
*Many horrid things go on behind closed doors, various sketchy deals, manipulation, and backstabbing both in the metaphorical sense and in the physical sense as the nobles have blood fueds with one another for a place in the Queen’s conscience.
*Magic is throughly outlawed in the Sea Queendom after some unspoken events with Queen Anemone several centuries ago.
**But the queen has a secret court of magicans to make her Queendom run. But it isn't as desirable as the real court as its based around how much will you get used and get used for what based on desirability. Even if you ascend you're still a second class citizen and still not free from being used against your will.
*Sailing is a surprisingly common thing dragons do, as it lowers the risk of being attacked by water-based monsters and avoids most dangers found within the water.
**Upper classes can afford to do it leisurely while lower classes only do it for the sake of travel.
*Towns above water are hard to find as they're usually just major ports for non-SeaWings use and most of the tribes houseing is found exclusively underwater.
::RainWings and NightWings
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::IceWings
*There became a big population boom after the destruction of the IceWing ranks as dragons were finally free of what they could do, but are still bound to classes of wealth.
*It was noticed that the Ice Queendom was never built to hold as many dragons as it did now since the system rankings always kept the population in a neat bow.
*There wasn’t enough shelter, food, or anything to really give to the population.
*In a spur of the moment decision, the queen at the time decided it was best to invade the next best Queendom for the IceWings, The Sky Queendom which housed a great enemy of their being the SkyWings themselves.
*So they began their invasion of the coasts and successfully seized the land to start populating it all.
*They had relative peace occupying the land for a century before the Queen called for an expansion of the territories for more materials for the IceWings.
::SandWings
*There’s been a rise in philosophy and writing within the Queendom
*It’s now not uncommon to meet at least one dragon who claims to be a philosopher spreading their ideas from town to town.
*But the SandWings are still natrious for poor quality of life.
*There’s a big disparity between lower classes and the wealthy and how much wealth regular SandWing civilians have
*Majority of the population are either found in remote and untouched oases towns or within the slums of larger cities.
*Knowledge and education is revered within the SandWings but there’s little push to better standards for anything within the realm of civilians.
*Dragons are mostly stuck between walking with camels or flying with light cargo due to the poverty rates in the queendom.
*Although there is some form of modern transportation making its way into the queendom itself, there's regional laws in place that doesn't allow dragons from certain districts to ride them as a way to "avoid crime".
::HiveWings, SilkWings, and LeafWings
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:TIMELINE
: Pre-canon...
Dragons were originally their own monster, hunted by scavengers like any other creature of the night. But by sheer luck, the veins of wild magic sided with dragons allowing them to evolve, grow, and learn, all the while keeping the magic that allowed predecessors to develop. Soon enough the fields of magic ceased when dragons finally became the dominant species on the planet. Leaving them with the small amount of magic inside of their souls which makes animus magic.
: 2000+ years ago...
By the time that Darkstalker walked on the surface, most of the veins of magic dried up as it was used to steadily support the creatures of the night and prevent them from going extinct. Which soon enough killed off the scavenger population since they couldn't keep up with the ever more powerful monsters.
Animi were the only source of magic for centuries, with their magic being taken directly from the storage in their soul. It was a defect but it was used heavily by whatever dragon who unfortunately bore the defect and pulled the magic from their soul.
Darkstalker's tale went off without a hitch. Born to both Foeslayer and Prince Arctic alongside his sister Whiteout, dealing with the conflicts of his power and the hostility within his home, manipulating his friends Fathom and Clearsight, intended on committing genocide with the start being the public execution of his father, then finally sealed away in the heart of the Claws Of The Clouds. Within his imprisonment, Darkstalker's magic seeped from him and reawakened a long dead vein of magic. For thousands of years the secreted magic grew stronger and found its way into other veins on the continent creating a slow resurgence of magic.
Slowly but surely the belief of monsters changed from purely false to a few theories to their existence and overall rise in superstition and belief in the supernatural as creatures made themselves known.
: 360 year ago...
Alongside the small resurgence of monsters, the events surrounding the Dragonet Prophecy and the Jade Mountain Prophecy occurred. The war between SandWing sisters ended with the crowning of Thorn and Darkstalker rose from his prison, attempted to seize Pyrrhia in a mad magical attempt, then having his evil spirit sent to the land.
Where things drastically change from the original events is time and small choices. It took the dragonets twice the time to end the war and a year and a half to open the doors to Jade Mountain Academy due to traveling time. The events between opening day and when Scarlet's coup happen span across multiple weeks.
Whenever Peril reawaken Darkstalker this was the first shock of magic across the land as it was a wide opening of a vat of untamed magic being opened for the first time in centuries. He stayed within the bounds of Jade Mountain Academy for roughly a months before taking the NightWings of the school back to the rain forest.
: 350 years ago...
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: 110 years ago...
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: 66 years ago...
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: 65 years ago...
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: 32 years ago...
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:Current year...
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MAGIC
:ANIMI
The manipulation of matter and spirits, currently dying if not dead
:MAGES
The control of natural elements of nature or wild magic
:ALCHEMY
The transformation, creation, and combination of matter
:NECROMANCY
The interaction, communication, and resurrection of spirits and the dead
:CRYPTOLOGY AND MONSTERS
Due to the even omnipresence of new magic being harnessed and wild magic running more rampant than ever before. There has been a rise in new creatures of myth. Replacing the scavenger, beasts of all shapes, sizes, variety, and hostile levels took over the land to harass the dominant Dragonic species. Some bat like or moth like, others creatures who appear as pre existing animals but only appear to certain dragons. It's a war between dragons and monsters in the realm of survival.
::Demons
The word 'demon' exists as an umbrella term for the creatures that don't have a well known - or even one at all - identification to them. But demons can exist both as physical, blood-thirsty creatures and as parasitic spirits that attach themselves to objects to find themselves a dragon to leech onto.
Physical ones are known to be fairly large and grotesque with many defining and uncanny features to them. Some with exposed bones, other being horribly warped versions of preexisting creatures. Intelligence ranged from individual to individual, some can speak the dragon languages, others can wield weapons with grace, some are just pure barbaric brutes. Physical demons are never known to have a full dragonic like form but can bear some features of dragons. They have a wide array of abilities and it takes a magic kick to injure them, items like silver, salt, and a few spells and magical properties found within alchemy can be used against them.
Spiritual demons only exist as spirits that can only exist by attaching itself to an object or a soul with a body. Outside of that one necessity they're harmless and unable to do anything but search for a new host. Once a host is found it knows no bounds to the cryptic powers it bears. Parasitic demons are consistently intelligent with them having their own goals and wills, as well as planning and scheming. They can be flushed out via silver and salt touching the host or consumed by said host. An alternative is various rituals that act to be a permanent solution by alchemists that exposes the demons and then kills it.
Known Abilities: Elemental manipulation, weapon mastery, heighten speed and strength, heighten senses, undead immortality, destruction of matter. 
Known Weaknesses:Silver, salt, magic, lethal injury, spiritual purges, removing from host, destruction of item bond to.
::Vampires
Vampires originate from regular dragons, what sets them apart is that one requires to feast off life to "live".
They started as a curse to be a life sucking parasite of a dragon which soon became its own species through the discovery of it's bounds and the fact that this curse can spread to other dragons. A life sucking parasite of a dragon. A vampire can appear as any normal looking dragon, hybrids and all. But some have the occasional distinctive feature to them if you're not keen enough. Older vampires can look as if they were ten years old but have the height of a 50 year old dragon since they too will keep growing slowly. Some are known to have blood red or glowing eyes. The typical feature of vampires across the board is extendable fangs, they're longer than RainWing's with them being half the length of the owner's jaw if in the right circumstances. They can bear the typical abilities as most tribes, but in certain cases they could seemingly have abilities not of their tribe. Vampires rarely have all of their powers upon death/birth, some do other don't, the older the vampire grows the more powers they learn. Those born with their powers from the start tend to be recognized as lords.
Vampires are the true stalkers of the night and can only exist in a world of darkness since they will burn to ash in sunlight. As rules dictate, when there's power there's weakness. They're weak to divine elements like silver, they cannot cross or enter running water, nor can they survive every injury they take.
Known Abilities: Heighten speed and strength, heighten senses, undead immortality, impenetrable healing (Depending on how much they fed), animal transformation, transportation through shadows, turn into mist, immunity to arid and frigid climates, tribal abilities.
Known Weaknesses: Silver, running water, magic, stabbing through their heart, sunlight, lethal injury.
::Were-curses
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Known Abilities: due to their unique nature, all of this depends on the transformation and whether or not they're in it. They assume whatever ability the creature they're cursed to turn into have. Tribal abilities.
Known Weaknesses: Silver, magic, lethal injury
::Ghosts and Hauntings
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Known Abilities: Surreal object movement, dragging others into the afterlife, destruction of matter, temperature manipulation, element manipulation.
Known Weaknesses: Spiritual purges, seances and communication, destruction of item bond to
:UNDERGROUND SOCIETIES
Many creatures of the night do bare sentience, and others just bear a curse upon their body. Due to how the world unfortunately sees them, they either go underground, or stay in the light with the constant threat of death to bestow them. To make their lives simpler they gather up and form their own coalitions to better their chances of survival from the shadows.
Demons works as a nomadic group, more like a group of friends looking for other friends rather than a society. They can know and recognize each other but go off and do what they want unless there is a leader of some capacity controlling them. Whether be a summoner or a demon that has goals and wants that conceived the others to follow them.
Dragons of varying Were-curses go around with the appearance of hunters in order to help remove others inflicted with a similar curse, get away from dragonkind and find a place they can live out their curse without harming themselves or having others harm them. They do everything to teach the newly cursed fellows about their curse, what will happen, and how to live/avoid anything that can rebound back onto them.
Vampires are infamous in their tribal structure. A naturally founded system of clans and loyalty with a pyramid leading up wards to the strongest in the group. The clans have their own politics which sparked many conflicts with eachother over territory and clashing of egos. The lord or ladies of the clan are typically the strongest or oldest member and are known not to be messed with by hunters if recognized.
Of course those who practice magic also gather. There is a larger community of magic users that are divided by what they practice and the smaller groups within those pre-notions. But when push comes to shove the entire world of magic can come together and make a uniform decision. Thanks to their world warping abilities, they're the most well hidden of the societies since they can hide themselves in plain sight and create plains where they can hide, live, and overall thrive with what they want.
:MONSTER HUNTERS
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Category:Alternate Universes
Category:Work in Progress
Category:Content (Helsingvania)