Lore

This is the outline for creating characters such as Seasonal guardians, monsters, other beings or even crossover characters. You can let your imagination run wild, but not too wild. There are some guidelines required to be followed to make sure characters in their histories are not OP or having obvious existing plot holes.

## Seasonal Guardians

As stated in the Archives, the seasons and their Garden rulers have guardians who protected humanity from the forces of nature and benefited them. The Garden Rulers usually were guardians who lead others associated with the season. Until the War of the Wolves happened, dividing the guardians and throwing humanity into Chaos, and ended when eight heroes arose and defeated the wolves, chasing them to the Wastes Beyond and exiling them there.

In Nature City, an island nation-state, an academy was built to train the next generation of seasonal champions how to use their abilities to protect nature and humanity. For all they know, the wolf kingdom may one day return for revenge, and other evil forces may cause more trouble.

### The Beginning of A Guardian

A guardian’s powers usually manifests at a young age but at the basic level. At pre-teen, they change into their Otherform for the first time, often without warning. This Otherform is a reflection of the guardian’s personality and mental state, and changes as the guardian grows physically and mentally. There are two ways seasonal guardians can originate: Usually, any child can turn out to have superpowers whether his parents are guardians or not, but a child born to a seasonal guardian or both has the higher chance of developing or inheriting their powers. The second happens to children of ordinary parents: the seasonal powers just manifest suddenly in the child’s life.

When that happens, the parents alert the Academy Officials by visiting the school website or calling up the offices. Then, the parents visit the school and have the child sign a form enrolling them as a student of Four Seasons Academy with the teachers and staff. Rarely do the school staff scout potential students, when they do, they usually meet ordinary parents whose children manifested their seasonal powers and/or their Otherform.

Adult Seasonal Guardians though enroll their children in the Academy similar to how most ordinary adults enroll their children in mundane schools. After school graduation, the guardians are required to promise to defend the city from extranormal threats and maintain peace. The government of Nature City keeps tabs on the guardians, and seasonal guardians are subject to the same laws as any ordinary person.

### How Powers Work

Every season is associated with an element, and a Seasonal guardian can manipulate these elements. Sometimes, they manipulate two or more elements. Seasons are associated with certain emotions and concepts such as rebirth, healing or loneliness. Usually, a guardian has a battle aura depicting the petals/leaves of his heraldic flower, his theme animal, or other phenomena such as sunlight, snow, winds, clouds, fogs, and even a rainbow. After guardians do battle with each other or with monsters with their techniques, the traces of their powers linger on the site as Imprints from the guardians, such as the pleasant smell of spring flowers, the area being warmer or colder than its surroundings, or sometimes the feeling of being watched by hungry beasts, a sudden pang of hunger, or being overwhelmed by the feelings associated with the season.

Guardians’ energy though has a limit, so they must not exert their powers too much, lest they become tired and exhausted, and in rare cases, die from using them too much. Those who rarely use their superpowers don't suffer from this exhaustion when they strain themselves, yet they must not risk overuse. Guardians who are emotionally unstable are at risk of their powers going out of control. As seasonal guardians grow older and more experienced, their energy level increases, enabling them to use develop their superpowers further without their risks. Some have at least been trained in combat skills to hone their abilities for instance, in case their powers are nullified.

Powers can be ranked by tiers. Tier 1 powers are what new Guardians start with and are fairly simple. Tier 2 powers form the bulk of the moves of a guardian, and are they end result of practicing and study. A guardian who has trained and survived long enough develops Tier 3 powers that cause major seasonal changes in the surroundings.

### On Otherforms and other Oddities

As stated above, Otherforms, called Surreals by others, are reflections of the guardian’s personality and mental state, and changes as the guardians grows physically and mentally. It functions like a Super Mode for seasonal guardians who are other wise pushed to the corner in a fight. The Otherforms of Seasonal guardians are countless in form and have attributes associated with seasons on them, for example, the Otherform of a Spring guardian has rabbit traits and lilies growing from her body, a Summer Guardian's Otherform has traits of a dragonfly (the wings) and flame patterns, an Autumn Guardian has vines wound around his body and bee attributes, and a Winter guardian has ice growths on his body and traits of a musk ox. Sometimes, they mix and match in ways that make the Otherform of a Guardian beautiful, surreal and terrifying at the same time. A certain Spring Guardian has stoat traits, spiral motifs and the ability to elongate herself at the same time, making her reach great distances...and get tied up by others if they get the chance.

Before guardians transform into their Otherforms, they display Oddities, hints of their nature...

A guardian can summon his trademark weapon in his Otherform or his normal human form. While armor is worn by the city military, some guardians wear armor in their Otherform, though others prefer not bothering with protection at all. Superheroes from other academies display Otherforms, but called by different names unique to the academy in question.

## Artifacts and Other Items

See also: Items and Artifacts

Many artifacts from the War of the Wolves and earlier eras lie waiting to be discovered...or stolen. Artifacts can come in the form of armors and weapons, or utility artifacts useful for everyday living. Even in the modern age, while utility artifacts are commonplace, weapon and armor artifacts are still being made, albeit rarely. Usually, Seasonal guardians have weapons or a weapon associated with them that is either passed down from their family line or given to them at the first day in the Academy, stored in the armory until needed. They can call their weapon to their hands with their powers.

The Wastes Beyond and the Boundary of Rot have their own Artifacts, some of which are buried in their grounds, or dug up and kept by the hostile wolves for an apocalyptic event they call the Last Hunt. Wolven artificers can also forge artifacts of their own, usually weapons, and every single time they're retrieved or stolen by Seasonal guardians, they are turned to the city museum or the military security. In the Four Seasons Academy, there are urban legends about students who have touched these artifacts of the wolves and had various unpleasant things happen to them, be it possession by the ghost of the owner of the artifact, death, illness, going mad, or having corrupted to the service of evil.

On the side note, there are treasure hunting magazines that provide info on the artifacts around the world. Some students carry them around, and are rumored to engage in treasure hunting as a side job to pay the school fees.

## Creatures

See also: Bestiary

Temasek and its surrounding nations have creatures that walk alongside mundane animals. Some don't mind the seasonal guardians, others have been tamed by either them or the wolves. The Wild Areas have a lot of these creatures, some of which are dangerous to mankind.

Be warned: not all are native to Earth. Some are from far off worlds that no one has ever known or heard off. They may be dangerous...

## Around the City

See also: Nature City Locations

Nature City, also known as Temasek, has many places to explore. A place where nature and technology intertwine, it is allied with some nations and allows the resident supers to coexist with humans.

## Rumors

* What if the wolves want the descendants of the Eight for their own nefarious purposes?