The Arcana

*This page is for **The Arcana**, the first book. For the archetypes, see The Major Arcana, for the sidestories, see The Arcana: Sidestories, and for the wiki homepage, see Grimoire of the Arcana.*

## The Arcana (Book I)

### Author

Kath Aguinaldo
Austin Dy

### Illustrator

Kath Aguinaldo
Austin Dy

### Published on

December 16, 2021 (Season I)
December 25, 2021 (Season II)

**The Arcana** (commonly stylized in promotional media as **THE ΛRCΛNΛ** or simply **Arcana**) is the first project **Austin Dy** and **Kath** **Aguinaldo** have written together in 2021. Its' first season was released on December 16th, 2021, and the second was released only nine days later, on Christmas Day. Its plot features a boy's love (BL) that would contrast to that of **After Solstice**, which is **LUNA**'s first girl's love (GL). The story has six protagonists to focus on; Kellan Xalvador, Xylon Lozano, Sapphire Chauvera, siblings Izaiah and Indirah Alnazar, and Lucio Damaris. All of the characters have their own character arcs, with Kellan being **The Fool**, Xylon has **Death**, Sapphire having **The Moon**, Izaiah has **The Hanged Man**, Indirah being **The Magician**, and Lucio is **The Devil**.

In the 2023 revisited and edited version of The Arcana, the epilogue's events have been changed and has now become an announcement of a potential sequel, with Artemus Blackquill joining the protagonists, and his Patron Arcana being **Temperance**.

## PLOT SYNOPSIS

> *"On his 17th "Gotcha Day", Kellan Xalvador finds out that he is the orphaned son of two mages from Astraea, a world similar to Earth, and that he has magical abilities of his own. With the help of his familiar, he started attending Belvoire, a school for the arcane. There, he meets several friends to assist him in learning magic, the truth about his past, and his identity."*
>
>

## CH**Λ**PTERS

#### Book 1 (December 16, 2021)

* 0: The Fool (Prologue)- Third person
* I: The Magician- Kellan
* II: The High Priestess- Indirah (written as *Blanca*)
* III: The Empress- Kellan
* IV: The Emperor- Indirah (written as *Blanca*)
* V: The Hierophant- Sapphire
* VI: The Lovers- Kellan
* VII: The Chariot- Izaiah
* VIII: Strength- Xylon
* IX: The Hermit- Indirah
* X: Wheel of Fortune- Xylon
* XI: Justice- Kellan

#### Book 2 (December 25, 2021)

* XII: The Hanged Man- Izaiah
* XIII: Death- Xylon
* XIV: Temperance- Sapphire
* XV: The Devil- Lucio
* XVI: The Tower- Kellan
* XVII: The Star- Indirah
* XVIII: The Moon- Sapphire
* XIX: The Sun- Lucio, Izaiah, Indirah
* XX: Judgement- Xylon, Kellan
* XXI: The World- Kellan

## TRIVI**Λ**S

* The Arcana's setting was supposed to be in the (Italian) Renaissance period (14th-17th century) before it was scrapped. Because of this, writers have to start writing from the prologue again and rewrite the story without it being in the Renaissance.
* The Arcana would be the first of many projects in **LUNA**:
	+ First (and so far only) story of LUNA to be completely written by only two writers; even the concept arts were all illustrated by **Kath Aguinaldo** and **Austin Dy**. The second story to have only two writers is **Beyond Worlds: Azul**, written by **Parker Trinh** and **Stefen Sanchez**.
	+ First story to be a BL with its direct opposite being **After Solstice**, which is the first GL project of LUNA. The Arcana is also canonically the third story to have LGBT main characters, the first being After Solstice (**Sydney Crimsen**, **Anna Sinclair**, and **Rio Togami**), and the second being Beyond Worlds (**Red Ordonia**).
	+ First shounen-ai.
	+ First fantasy story of LUNA.
	+ First story to not reveal to the reader who the characters are supposed to be after it's being written (although other members have been told who they are).
	+ First story to have a single word as its title (alternate title: **Arcana**) that wasn't a translated literary work (*Dimensiones* is Beyond Worlds' title for the Spanish translation).
	+ First story to be written by Austin Dy.
	+ First story to be written by Kath Aguinaldo in 2021 (she helped with YES or YES' puzzles and Beyond Worlds' locations, but she never wrote a part in both stories and therefore wouldn't consider her as a writer).
	+ First story to have the longest time gap between the start of its writing and the release (1 month and 5 days).
		- First story to have the shortest gap between the first book and the second book (1 week and 4 days).
	+ First (and so far only) story of LUNA to have the release date on a holiday; in The Arcana's case, it was released on exactly December 25, 2021, Christmas Day.
		- This story is also the second instance that the dates of the story's setting is in sync with real-time; the ending of Beyond Worlds was set on Léa Navarro's birthday, and was released on July 9th, 2021- Austin and Kath's birthdays. The ending of the main story of The Arcana is also on Christmas which doubled as Lucio Damaris' birthday in the story.
* Everytime a chapter name is a main character's patron Arcana, that Arcana's beneficiary has the point of view for that specific chapter (*XII: The Hanged Man*- Izaiah's point of view, *XIII: Death*- Xylon's point of view, *XV: The Devil*- Lucio's point of view, *XVIII: The Moon*- Sapphire's point of view).
	+ The only characters who don't follow this rule are Kellan (*0: The Fool* is a prologue where he was unconscious), Indirah (*I: The Magician* has Kellan's point of view, although *II: The High Priestess* is set in hers to make up for it).
* Each main character's combat clothing depicts the color palette of their patron Arcana's colors, and are consistent with having gold in their ensembles:
	+ Kellan (The Fool)- Green, light blue, gold
	+ Xylon (Death)- dark blue, light blue, gold
	+ Sapphire (The Moon)- dark blue, gold, black
	+ Izaiah (The Hanged Man)- black, red, gold
	+ Indirah (The Magician)- pink, orange, gold
	+ Lucio (The Devil)- white, red, gold
* The story features real-world problems and this would also be the first story of LUNA to have this many conflicts solved in a book:
	+ **Racial discrimination**- Astraea's people are categorized either under a mage, familiar, Warlock, or human, with humans considered the lowest of the low. After Kellan retrieves the title as being the "god" figure in Astraea, he and Lucio lets everyone be friends regardless of blood-status.
	+ **Plague outbreak**- Having a plague outbreak in the story as an actual antagonist (and the first story to have some*thing* as an antagonist as opposed to some*one*) is applied in real life, where the *Coronavirus* had an outbreak on March of 2020.
	+ **Gender inequality**- In *II: The High Priestess*, boys are mentioned to be making fun of Sapphire Chauvera for wearing pants instead of a skirt. Dunstan Granville notices this in *Chapter V: The Hierophant*, and at the end of the story, he lets Sapphire lead a an all-female Vortex team as a revolution to fix gender inequality. Blackquill also called Sapphire "Princess" as a mock for her gender, although he only does this thrice before stopping.