Wisher World: Call to Action

Facadia fighting Harbellen

## Summary

Wisher World: Call to Action is a stand-alone Wisher World short story created as an entry for the 2022 Webtoon Canvas Call to Action contest. In a different continuity than the main series, the story follows Facadia and her friend from the future, Vella, as they run into enemies in the forest of Switzerland.

### Plot

The story starts with Facadia and Vella’s introductions as friends. Facadia is being attacked by some strangers for being a wisher. Facadia, is the rambunctious fighter and Vella, the peaceful one, is more interested in her appearance. The two visit a river with pillars erected out of the water. Each with a tree wrapped around it. This is the Dead Corner of Rhine. It is said that anyone who enters it can use it to transport to any place and time. Facadia gives a heartfelt goodbye to Vella. Vella leaps in the water only to narrowly miss an attack from a strange giant snake. In the aftermath, Vella asks why Facadia can’t simply wish her back home. Facadia warns her that it’s not a good idea. It’s revealed that Vella is not from this medieval world. She is a time traveler from the future.

Vella dresses Facadia in a disguise so that she won’t be attacked for being a wisher. They enter a town where Vella’s appearance brings her attention from a crowd. She casually tells the people that she’s from the future. Suddenly man prevents Vella from speaking further. He is Rhine, a respected leader in this town. Facadia launches a punch at him but he takes her out with ease.

Facadia and Vella are captured in cages and taken to Rhine’s tree house. He explains that outsiders are not welcome in their forest, and that Vella being from the future is a problem for the mechanics of their freewill. He wants to feed her to the Rhine river snakes that attacked them earlier, as they are the true transporters of the river. However this plan is dangerous because no one knows if those eaten by the snakes survive the transport.

Rhine hands the key to their cages to his wife, Harbellen. She is a sickly woman. As Rhine takes her to her room to rest, Facadia and Vella break out of their cages. The story cuts back to Harbellen. She leaves her room and walks into the coming storm to look for Rhine. Her body gives out and she collapses to see Vella and Facadia ahead of her. As they are making an escape, she begs Facadia to grant her a wish. She wishes for her husband’s strength. Facadia doesn’t want to grant it but lightning strikes at them from the storm. In a split second, Facadia grants the wish in order to save Harbellen’s life. Rhine runs over to Harbellen and they embrace. Rhine’s strength is leaving his body and powering up Harbellen. He falls to his death.

Harbellen, in anger, knocks out both Facadia and Vella. Now blaming their appearances for this tragedy, she takes them to the Rhine River snakes in order to rid them once and for all. Harbellen attempts to toss Vella in the river first, but Facadia wakes up and saves Vella.

Facadia vs. Harbellen begins. They fight all throughout the rivers water, pillars, and trees. At one point Facadia, Harbellen, and Vella are scrambling on one pillar. The pillar is being cracked by an attacking river snake. Harbellen gets the upper hand and knocks Facadia from a pillar into the rocky river edge. Off guard, Facadia smashes Harbellen into the weakened pillar. The pillar collapses and Harbellen nearly fell into the mouth of a river snake. She is saved by Vella. Vella swings them from flexible tree root to the rocky river edge. Harbellen takes a moment to take in her loss, and what she really wants. Her final decision is to let herself be eaten by a river snake so that she can travel back in time to see Rhine again. Facadia and Vella watch from a distance. Facadia says that miracles come with a price, leaving the story on a bitter sweet end.

## Publishing

*Wisher World: Call* to action was published on Webtoon Canvas on June 26, 2022. It was published as a separate series than the main series. Its original title was *Wisher World [CTA*] during the contest.

### Extras

* Concept sketches
* Q & A

## Concept/ Background

* The main goal of the contest entry was to expose a wider audience to the Wisher World series through the publicity of the contest, and interest them in following the main series. For Wisher World’s current readers, the story would provide a peak of what the main series will be like down the road. To do this, the story repackages themes/scenarios that are currently being explored in the main series: such as a character getting a wish granted with negative consequences and main characters becoming scapegoats. The story also introduces Vella, who will become a secondary protagonist in the main story, with her goals to return to her future. Facadia’s role is more lighthearted due to having a close ally, a side of her that will become prominent later in the main series.
* There was an intention to make the story emotionally charged and make the main conflict personal. One of the goals of this was to make it easy to get attached to the characters and narrative in the limited story time.
* Since Facadia is the only character currently introduced in the main series, the entry heavily centers on her and gives her the big fight scene. This was done so that new readers who head to the main series will be primed for the Facadia centric storytelling that was current in the main series during the entry’s release.
* Harbellen and Rhine’s roles were always intended to be exclusive to the contest entry.
* The season of spring was the design theme for the visuals. The contest event was announced around spring 2022.

### Earlier versions

* Caltrop was originally going to be in the contest entry.
* In the first storyboard of the story, Harbellen and Rhine are having a child. The child dies as a stillborn presumably caused by Harbellen’s poor health. The original story centered this as the focal crisis and turning point for the characters. In this version of the story Rhine does not die. In this version of the story Harbellen and Vella become close friends. Caltrop and Rhine battle together against the Rhine River snakes during Facadia vs. Harbellen. This early draft and many of its contents were scraped in order to write a more condensed story that could fit into a one episode slot. The only unchanged content were parts of Facadia and Vella’s introductions, the Rhine river scene, and the choreography for Facadia vs. Harbellen.

## Trivia

* The "harb" in Harbellen's name comes from harbscht, the German word for autumn. The reference to autumn connects to character's role causing of death in the story. Thematically she is the opposite of the spring setting, and the main antagonist.