MotetTale

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**MotetTale** is an unreleased Undertale AU (Alternate Universe) created by **Mandaryne** that is parallel to the main story of the original game.

One of the most prominent changes this AU has that differentiates itself from Undertale is the fact that all the characters are unable to directly conjure magic, unless they play a special musical instrument that is specifically assigned to their given SOUL.

## General Information

Every monster has a unique instrument assigned to them in order to grant them the ability to channel their SOUL’s magic, along with being able to wield their magic powerfully in battle. The better the monster plays their instrument, the better they’ll be able to use their magic. The magic often takes in the form of visible sound waves that are capable of damaging the opponent, but can also be used in other forms as well.

In order to avoid being injured, the main character has to synchronize their instrument’s music with their opponent’s and create a harmonious melody that matches the two of them.

A Monster’s SOUL; once the Monster is above the age of six, activates a certain gene that would generate that Monster’s assigned instrument. This specific gene is able to regenerate the latter’s instrument (if it were somehow damaged or destroyed) automatically, without the user’s knowledge.

Frisk, upon descending into the Underground of Mt. Ebott, had no knowledge of playing musical instruments, but gained the ability to do so after having Chara being awakened and teaching them how to. Frisk specializes in playing an old, damaged violin that initially belonged to Chara.

When a pair of monsters play music together, their magic appears to become stronger; especially when the music of the two’s instruments match one another. If they create a harmonious melody with their instruments that both like, it creates a strong connection between the two. Along with a satisfying melody, it can also create a better relationship, greater understanding, respect, and empathy among the pair. An example of this would be the duet Chara and Asriel played with their violin and flute, synchronizing with each other and creating a lovely tune.

Although, the opposite is true as well. When two monsters don’t harmonize with each other’s music, a thinner connection is formed between the two of them. This is usually applied to the concept of battles, and the distaste between two beings. Conflicts like these are otherwise known as music duels, while a synchronized, resolved battle is called a duet.

### Slight Changes

* The items of the seven predecessors to have fallen to the Underground are replaced with instruments instead; the items the humans use don’t have any magical properties within them.
* Along with monsters turning to dust when defeated, their instruments will also be physically damaged, or worn out to the point where it’ll be unusable. The severity of the damage will depend on how much pain is dealt to the monster.
* Instead of Undyne being the captain of the Royal Guards, Undyne will be known as the conductor of the Royal Orchestra, a battalion that is skilled in playing instruments in amazing feats. They are usually powerful.

## Main Story

### The Utopian Legend

Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: Humans and Monsters. The monsters, and the humans, co-existed peacefully together, and not once did they have a dispute between each other. They all lived in harmony, and played beautiful duets with their musical instruments that made their bonds stronger. One day, the two races discovered that monsters were capable of channeling their SOUL’s energy into magic, while humans were unable to do so.

This discovery eventually made the humans fear the monsters, who had never once even dare to hurt them. This imbalance of physical power led to the humans and monsters having violent disputes against each other, with humans fighting with weapons, and the monsters fighting with their instruments. Animosity grew between the two, until the humans had finally declared war against the opposing nation.

After a long series of battles, the war ended with the humans being victorious. The winning nation decided to confine the monsters into the Underground, and had their greatest inventors and scientists create an immovable barrier, which would prevent anyone with a monster SOUL from escaping their prison. This barrier, however, was not perfect.

### Falling into the Underground

Many years after the war, a human child climbs Mount Ebott to see if the rumors they’ve been hearing about were true: that faint, harmonious music would play within the Mountain at any given time. The child encounters the rumored cave, and hears the faint music playing below. Wanting to hear more, they carelessly fall into the Underground, and their story begins.

Frisk wakes up on a pile of golden flowers, pillars with overgrown vines surrounding them. They soon find an old, damaged violin that, when picking it up, awakens Chara, the previous user of the instrument. Chara, wanting to show Frisk their thankfulness, teaches them how to play the violin. Soon after, the two are met with a sentient golden flower named Flowey, who is revealed to be a vengeful being that attempts to kill Frisk due to seeing their deceased friend’s instrument in their hands.

He’s then defeated by a new monster named Toriel. Toriel acts as a motherly figure to Frisk, along with teaching them how to solve various puzzles and resolve conflicts in the Underground. In a duet battle, Toriel wields a purple lyre that is capable of blasting fire towards the child. Once defeated, she allows the child to exit the Ruins, and has them proceed to a wintry forest area, to which they essentially meet a monster named Sans, a mischievous skeleton who initially pranks them with a whoopee cushion on their hand.

Frisk eventually meets Papyrus, the younger brother of Sans. Papyrus continuously tests Frisk with a variety of puzzles through their journey in Snowdin Forest, while Sans somewhat guides Frisk and sometimes helps them with the puzzles; he also talks to them about the certain abilities monsters have when playing their instrument. After evading the last puzzle that Papyrus throws at them, they finally enter Snowdin.

When Frisk starts to leave Snowdin, they encounter Papyrus once again, and are challenged to a music duel. During the duel, Papyrus plays a red accordion that grants him the ability to summon bones of any length and turn Frisk’s SOUL blue. Once Papyrus is defeated, Frisk is now able to depart from Snowdin and enter the next area, Waterfall.

When entering Waterfall, Frisk passes through Sans’s sentry station, where Sans offers to talk to them at Grillby’s, if they had not killed his brother. They soon meet an energetic monster named Monster Kid, who is a fan of Undyne; they unknowingly save Frisk from Undyne a couple of times. Undyne is the monster who continuously pursues Frisk while they travel through Waterfall. She is seen standing upon a looming mountain that Frisk comes across; with the path within the leading to Hotland. Undyne forces Frisk into a music duel, and is seen playing a red snare drum that allows her to launch glowing spears towards them.

During the start of Frisk’s journey through Hotland, they enter a dark building that’s revealed to be the Laboratory of Alphys. Shortly after, however, a robot named Mettaton presents himself and has Frisk contribute to a quiz show. Alphys helps Frisk answer the quiz show’s questions, and after the event, they continue to guide them through the areas of Hotland. Alphys communicates with Frisk through a phone, and helps them with puzzles, battles, and get them to the CORE to defeat Mettaton.

Upon arriving to the CORE, Frisk has to duel with many excess monsters, along with dealing with the main elevator not working. Some time after solving all the puzzles and resolving with the monsters, Frisk yet again meets up with Mettaton in a dark room, the robot challenges Frisk to another music duel. In Mettaton’s EX form, they are capable of playing a hot-pink keytar, which has the ability to shoot out mini bombs, control mini robots based on its pitch, shoot lasers, and can even fire long volts of electricity.

Once Frisk has defeated Mettaton, they begin to take the actual elevator to New Home, the ending of their journey is nearing. While looking around New Home, the come across an old home with a structure that looks rather similar to the one back from the Ruins. Soon after, they stop in front of a large corridor, the Last Corridor. From there, they meet up with Sans again, only to realize that they will be judged by him for their actions.

### True Pacifist Route

Sans is not present in the Judgement hall when the protagonist decides to go on the True Pacifist Route.

### Neutral Route

In the Neutral Route, Sans has a conversation with the protagonist, explaining how they will be judged through EXP and LV. However, if the protagonist has killed Papyrus on this Route, Sans will suspect Frisk of having some “unique power” and questions them on whether or not they would use that power for the right purposes. Regardless of Frisk’s answer, Sans will remind them of his deceased brother, and will end the Judgement after.

### Genocide Route

Instead of passively allowing the protagonist to proceed through the corridor, Sans will instead prevent the protagonist from moving on, and battles them in a music duel to gain vengeance for his dead brother and deceased friends. In the music duel, Sans is seen being able to play a blue electric guitar, which grants him the ability of creating bones of any size, turning Frisk’s SOUL blue, applying directional forces onto the SOUL, and summoning skull-like devices known as Gaster Blasters, which shoot out large beams of energy.

After making it past Sans, Frisk is now able to head into the Throne Room, the final room of the Underground. Within the room, they meet a monster named Asgore, the ex-husband of Toriel. Initially starting off with a kind debut, when leading the protagonist to the barrier, they surprise them with one last music duel. Asgore specializes in wielding a large cello, one that allows him to channel bright, harmful flames and making waves that damage Frisk depending on their movements and the type of wave; this attack is channeled through Asgore’s bow.

## Main Characters

### Frisk

Frisk is the main protagonist of MotetTale, along with being the 8th human to have fallen from the Surface. They wear a blue vest that is adorned with two, big stripes of purple that horizontally run across the center, along with having a white short-sleeved dress shirt underneath it. They also have brown shorts, black socks, and brown shoes. Frisk’s hair is dark brown, and has an olive complexion, with eyes usually being seen closed, but are brown in color when opened. Frisk specializes in playing the violin; a damaged violin that had initially belonged to Chara.

* Main Theme: https://youtu.be/nggErKfmlDo | DETERMINATION

### Chara

Chara is a one of the deuteragonists of MotetTale, as well as being the first human to fall into the Underground. Chara wears a green sweater with a large yellow stripe across the middle; with sleeves rolled up, brown shorts, black leggings, and short brown boots. They have brown hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion, with their cheeks being rather pinker than usual. Chara specialized in playing a violin that was gifted by Toriel and Asgore, which is now in possession of Frisk.

* Main theme: https://youtu.be/amUlt8o9oBY | Megalo Strike Back

### Flowey/Asriel

Flowey is the antagonist of MotetTale, and is the reincarnation of Asriel; without a SOUL. Flowey is a small, sentient golden flower that is capable of mimicking the expressions of others, such as Toriel, Frisk, and his old self, Asriel. Flowey is capable of playing the flute.

Asriel is Flowey’s old self, and was the son of Toriel and Asgore. Asriel has green eyes and the physical structure of a goat, and is seen wearing a green sweater with a large, yellow stripe running across its center, along with wearing brown pants and brown shoes. Like Flowey, Asriel specialized in playing a flute.

* Asriel’s Main Theme: https://youtu.be/X2Vn0BOx7OI | Hopes and Dreams
* Flowey’s Main Theme: https://youtu.be/Rxa29PSFgsQ | Your Best Friend

### Toriel

Toriel is the adoptive mother of Chara, and the biological mother of Asriel. She has the physical structure of a goat and wears a long purple robe that displays the delta rune on the center. She acts as a motherly figure to Frisk along their journey through the Ruins. Toriel’s assigned instrument is a purple lyre with golden accents.

* Main theme: https://youtu.be/X1YsYB3daJw / https://youtu.be/zB3\_M-ObysQ | Fallen Down

### Sans

Sans is a deuteragonist in MotetTale, and is the Judge in the Last Corridor. Sans has the physiology of a skeleton, with white pupils that float in the center of his eye sockets (his left pupil may turn into a blue and yellow rimmed one when using a large amount of his magic). He usually wears a cropped blue jacket with black accents on the sides, a black long-sleeved shirt, black pants with two vertical blue lines, and blue boots with speakers built into the upper parts.

He also wears black fingerless gloves, and cobalt blue headphones that usually just rest around his neck. Along with having two blue triangular marks on the lower left side of his face. specializes in playing a blue electric guitar in music duels.

* Main Theme: https://youtu.be/dy6YawDDGRM | Megalovania

### Papyrus

Papyrus is one of the deuteragonists of MotetTale; one which Frisk is able to befriend, he is the younger brother of Sans. Unlike Sans, Papyrus is much taller, and skinnier than him. He usually wears a white chest plate with gold rims, red gloves and matching boots with gold ends, and a red bandana around his neck. His assigned instrument is an accordion with red and orange accents.

* Main Theme: https://youtu.be/3FvmvEI9gnc | Bonetrousle

### Undyne

Undyne is a deuteragonist of MotetTale, along with being the main pursuer of Frisk during their time in Waterfall. Undyne is a fish monster with blue scales as skin, eyes with a yellow sclera that have thin, black pupils; their left eye being covered with a black eye patch, and long red hair that is often tied into a high ponytail. Undyne is usually seen wearing many layers of gray armor, with their helmet having a red accent to it on the back that looks similar to her own red hair. Undyne specializes in playing a red snare drum.

### Alphys

Alphys is a shy reptilian monster with the physiology of a dinosaur(?), along with being guide of Frisk during their navigation through Hotland. She has yellow scales, claws, and wears a white lab coat with round glasses. Alphys knows how to play a Launchpad, but isn’t fully efficient at wielding it and channeling all her SOUL’s energy, making it almost useless to use in battle. Though, her skills are good enough to send small shocks towards her opponents.

### Metatton

Mettaton is one of the deuteragonists of MotetTale, and is a killing robot that dreams of being the main star of the Underground. In their initial form, they are seen as a large, rectangular box with a pixel screen depicting their expressions. In their EX form, Mettaton has a humanoid robotic body with black hair, pale “skin”, metal shoulder pads above his metal-segmented arms, black legs, and bright pink boots. They also wear a pink chest plate with a matching heart-shaped core on their stomach. Mettaton is capable of playing a hot pink keytar when in the form of Mettaton EX.

* Main Theme: https://youtu.be/oXKSkdHVUzs | Metal Crusher / Death by Glamour

### Asgore

Despite not being ill-natured and malicious, Asgore plays as one of the main antagonists of MotetTale, and is the ruler of the Underground. Asgore is large monster with the physiology of a goat, having white fur and large, curved horns with golden hair. He wears a long purple cape with golden pauldrons, along with wearing a white dress shirt and black suit. Asgore is known to wield a large cello in music duels.

* Main Theme: https://youtu.be/2vHERvHx26A?t=3433 | Bergentrückung (57:13)

### Launchpad Flowey

The ultimate version of Flowey in the Neutral Route, also known as Photoshop Flowey, Launchpad Flowey is a machinery-based hybrid, consisting of a multitude of modern music players; launchpads, speakers, etc.) They have a large Novation Launchpad as their face; the 8x8 grid of buttons being able to glow individually to display a face. There are countless of AUX wires that support Photoshop Flowey onto the ceiling, with two large pipes attached to the back of the Launchpad.

Below the Launchpad is a set of two synthesizers that are vertically opposed to each other, with only the keybeds of the synthesizers showing; they may act as the mouth of Omega Flowey. There is a group of five tines underneath the large pipes of Photoshop Flowey that sort of act like his fingers. Finally, around the Launchpad are an arrangement of six, relatively large stereo speakers that have its diaphragms illuminate the color of its assigned SOUL. These speakers act as the containers for each of the SOULs Flowey has absorbed; a speaker happens to glow in order to warn the protagonist about an incoming attack.

Due to having so many instruments in this form, it is no doubt that Launchpad Flowey would be one of the most dangerous, and overpowered monsters that the protagonist would have to face. Launchpad Flowey would usually use the buttons of its face in order to attack the protagonist, the buttons being able to let out a variety of sounds. Since Launchpad Flowey does not focus on only playing one instrument, along with not having any arranged pattern of beats, it will be harder for the protagonist to defeat them.

* Main Theme: https://youtu.be/vqIdplBr7GQ | Your Best Nightmare + Finale

## Side-Characters

### Muffet

An amazing baker and musician in Hotland, Muffet is an anthropomorphic spider with lavender skin, choppy black hair; side-swept to the right and having a low-ponytail that goes down to her elbows, and a group of six glistening eyes, two in the center of her face, another pair of eyes above the lower eyes that are slightly leaning, and one vertical eye on her forehead. Muffet can be seen wearing a white dress shirt with a red ribbon tied underneath the collar, with a matching ribbon tying her hair back, a black skirt that goes down to her calves, white socks, and black loafers. She also happens to sport long, black fingerless gloves that start from her elbows.

In music duels, Muffet seems to be able to efficiently play a grand piano on a stage. This stage is also the only platform in her bakery that isn’t latticed with spider webs during the duel. Since she has six arms; two extra pairs being behind her back and one pair being the main ones she commonly uses, Muffet is capable of using these extra arms as an increase in dexterity when playing her piano.

* Main Theme: https://youtu.be/MiTek\_adqkc | Spider Dance

### Napstablook

A wandering ghost that can commonly be seen playing all sorts of music, Napstablook ghost monster with a white body, a set of eyes; black irises outside and around white pupils, and a mouth. Napstablook, while shy and introverted in other when talking about other topics, can be very enthusiastic when someone mentions about music to him. Napstablook specializes in playing a synthesizer, though, the one Napstablook plays is specially made for him to play without the use of hands.

* Main Theme: https://youtu.be/o0tky2O8NlY | Ghost Fight

### Monster Kid

Monster kid is an armless, reptilian monster with yellow skin (scales?), a tail, and spikes that trail along the back of his head. He seems to also have a few markings under his eyes, it’s suspected that they come from the amount of tripping and falling he does when running a lot. They wear a yellow shirt with brown stripes. Monster Kid occasionally plays the kazoo from time to time, but doesn’t attack with it; he doesn’t like to attack others and only likes to use his kazoo for fun.

### Gaster

Gaster is a relatively tall monster with the physiology of a skeleton. His left eye socket has a crack running below it, while his right eye socket has a crack above it, his mouth is also empty and can often be seen as a black smile; or frown. Gaster’s attire consists of a black coat; the ends emitting black particles, a grey vest, a white dress shirt, black pants, and black shoes. Unlike the original Gaster, however, Motet!Gaster has a total of 6 hands; 2 being actually attached to his body, and 4 being external from his body.

* Two of his ‘hands’ hold a bow and violin.
* He uses a lyre in his main pair of hands
* His last pair of hands hold another bow and cello.

Gaster is the deceased(?) father of Sans and Papyrus, as well as being the former royal scientist of the Underground before Alphys. He was thrown into his own creation, the CORE, and had been trapped in an endless space; known as the void, ever since. Since he’s able to use different instruments to conjure his magic, he’s also been called a ‘conductor’; lit. “ a person who directs the performance of an orchestra or choir.”

### Temmies

The Temmies are hybrids that have the physiology of a fused cat and dog; they have dog ears on the side of their heads, and cat ears on the top. They all have black hair and can usually be seen wearing a blue shirt—other than the Temmie Shopkeeper, who has gray hair and a striped blue and yellow shirt.

Unlike the other monsters, the Temmies don’t specialize in any kind of instrument; as they are missing a particular gene that grants them an instrument to channel their magic in. Due to this, the Temmies are not able to wield any magic in battle, leaving them defenseless; unless they have a weapon or something to attack back. Temmies will often use their bodies as a way to make up for the loss of instruments, despite the sounds they make not having properties of actual magic.

## Gallery

MotetTale!BannerMotet!Sans HalfMotet!Tale CoverMotet!Muffet RefMotet!Sans Full
## Trivia

* This AU is heavily inspired by DanceTale! DanceTale is a really cool AU made by Teaandcakes on tumblr.
	+ While DanceTale heavily revolves around dancing, MotetTale will heavily involve playing musical instruments instead.
* The start of the AU’s name, Motet, means: “a short piece of sacred choral music, typically polyphonic and unaccompanied.”
* MotetTale is Mandaryne’s version of the other Musical-like AUs, there are more than one of these Alternate Universes that are waiting to be discovered :D
* The predecessors of those who have fallen also had a gifted instrument as well; despite not having any magical properties.
	+ Light Blue/Patience: Tambourine
	+ Dark Blue/Integrity: Triangle
	+ Green/Kindness: Clarinet
	+ Purple/Perseverance: Kalimba
	+ Orange/Bravery: Acoustic Guitar
	+ Yellow/Justice: Trumpet
* Character Updates:
	+ Since Launchpad Flowey doesn’t have an exact main instrument, his Main Theme is a mix.
	+ **\*\*SHAKES YOU\*\*** MOTET!SANS IS *NOT* A ROCK STAR NO- he’s just chill, a regular Sans, the only thing I added to him was him being able to play the electric guitar fluently for the sake of the AU, *(and also the design :D)*