Graelenncia Collective

Content Warning: this page contains mentions of deaths of many members of the previous collective.

## Overview

### Founder(s)

* Kendra
* Talia Annemieke

### Mission Statement

To look out for Kendra's wellbeing and survive primary school

## Details

### Leader(s)

* Kendra
* Talia (academic)

### Goals

* Keep Kendra safe (Failed)
* Bring Kendra back to her senses (Failed)
* Defeat Kendra (Failed)

### Allies

* House Annemieke (Talia's family)
* Various governments in Graelenncia who owed their lives to them

### Enemies

* Neglectful family members
* Irresponsible school faculty
* Fake friends
* Other kids
* Kendra herself in 2009

## Chronological

### Coexisted with

None

**The Graelenncia Collective** was a collective of advisors and friends to the ruler and overseer of the continent of Graelenncia. This collective, while made of individuals, functioned as if it was really one person; that one person being the name of the Conduit, in name only. Onthe outside, they were covert from teachers, classmates, and family alike, whilst on the inside, there was a distinct feeling of individuality, it was never dwelled upon nor did anyone consider each other sentient beings. Rather, everyone felt more like an extension of the other's imagination, whether it was day dreaming or "playing a character."

## History

### Two Friends Meet

While no one would be faulted for believing that the founding was when the bridge between the two worlds would be formed in 1999 in Earth time, it wouldn't be until 2004 after The Ancients dissolved that the world would give rise to the future founders of the first real collective. At the equivalent of five years old, Talia was the oldest between her and Kendra by a few months as far as historians are concerned.

While many historians tell the story differently, the major elements stay constant through each retelling: Talia finds a little girl in the forest not too far from the Sandstream Flatlands who is in danger thanks to nightmare entities, and saves her life using her newfound supernatural speedster abilities. Talia brings the girl, introduced as Kendra, home to her family to give her a place to stay while they figure out her origin, but nobody knew where she came from. Kendra gets a certain calling to go to a place just north of the Sandstream Flats, a feeling that couldn't be shaken off. Regardless of the many protests Kendra received, she went off on her own to figure out what was drawing her in. Talia set off to join her to keep her safe.

### Discovering the Ethereal Bridge

Kendra's calling took her to a cottage up north, a cottage that started out as the size of a small cabin big enough for a person and a couple of animals. While the aesthetic was rustic and humble, there was a computer equivalent in appearance to the ones seen in the alternate world at the time. The set up was advanced for its time, but looking at it in the present proves it to be primitive for today's standards, although it did its job fine at the time. Kendra had a feeling about turning on the computer in the room to see what it did, only to find herself looking through different eyes in another world. The experience was so otherworldly that she believed it to be a dream, but as Talia and Kendra would discover, the alternate realm was just as real, if not more grounded by physics and law, than Synaptum.

## Members

* Kendra - the leader of the group, Graelenncia's existence depended on her being alive *and* being stable enough at a young age to control her destructive abilities.
* Talia - a tuxedo cat and the brains of the team. Known for being a bookworm and aspired to be a librarian when she grew up. She was Kendra's best friend and sought to support her when she could.
* Daisy - the heart of the team. She was mute reptilian, but her eyes were full of life and laughter, and she was often in charge of keeping the leader entertained and happy despite her life in the alternate world leaving a lot to be desired.
* Chrysalis - The fighter. Although she too was mute, her sense of justice was oft loud during periods of injustice via her passive influence. Chrysalis didn't know how to put together well thought out arguments even during times of duress, but she knew how to protest until the other party got tired of fighting, for better or worse.
* Sheldon - a reptilian friend and ally, he preferred to be away from the action. Brother to scales.
* Scales - another reptilian friend and ally, brother to Sheldon. He was an active observer.
* Levin - Talia's childhood crush, Levin is the first known recorded vehicular being, although he was arguably more organic than mechanical in some ways. Levin was known to be a trusted friend and ally of the Graelenncia Collective.
* Hans - a posh butler from House Annemieke; a close ally of the Graelenncia Collective.

## Disbandment and Individual Fates (Content warning: brutal fates ahead)

Following an incident in 2009, the Graelenncia Collective was disbanded when the continent that hosted it fell into ruin, despite the collective's best attempts to help Kendra in any way they could. The disbandment came in the form of cumulative betrayals, hidings, and deaths among what were arguably the youngest team members in recorded history that acted in a system with no adult members involved whatsoever.

Kendra came into her own destructive abilities and scourged the land, killing thousands and displacing millions, obliterating villages and wiping whole cities off of the map as the continent became possessed by Nightmare Energy - an energy that causes nightmares when it comes into contact with someone. Kendra was neutralized by the world blacking out in response to general anesthesia, waking up again washed up on the beach of another continent, alive but in critical condition. Had she not been found by two bystanders, she would have succumbed to her injuries and dry drowning.

Chrysalis was among the first to try to stop Kendra from destroying the world, but her protests led her to have to do battle with the destructive being. As she was a sentient insect, there wasn't a lot that she could've done physically, a lesson that was learned the hard way as she was coldly stepped on by her boot.

Daisy's enthusiasm couldn't help her cope with seeing the crushed body of one of her best friends. She snuck attacked Kendra and fought valiantly against the human girl, craving justice for her fallen friend. While Daisy's larger size and stronger claws, as well as her unpredictability aided greatly in her fight, her life was ultimately lost when she was thrown off of a cliff and into an inferno that scourged the wheat field below.

Sheldon and Scales went missing, and were never found or heard from again. While they had been presumed deceased, multiple reptilians have been spotted years later that uncannily look like the two of them. Best case scenario is they kept their lives and are living in secret, whilst also raising families of their own. Given how far away they were from Kendra relationship wise, they would have been the least likely to end up in combat with her.

Hans, one of two surviving members of House Annemieke, did battle with Kendra as well. He held his own against her destructive abilities via his hand-to-hand combat skill; however, his malnutrition from being locked away for too long took away his only chance to win or escape with his life.

Levin, being vehicular, had a substantial advantage over Kendra when she sought to take his life during an ill-fated attempt to convince her to spare the world. Fueled by his fury and grief over his lost friends, he engaged in battle with Kendra. Kendra's destructive abilities made Levin vulnerable to the terrain as driving on it could've resulted in injury; however, brute force was enough to shake off her defense and offense. After taking critical damage to his drivetrain, he was about to lose his life when Talia rushed to his rescue and fought on his behalf. Whilst Graelenncia had fallen, he had gained the ability to Badge and attain a humanlike form somehow; his fate left him alive and well after the fall of Graelenncia, finding himself in Etheridge manipulating Kendra to usurp the monarchy.

Talia stayed behind to avenge her home and friends, engaging in a battle with Kendra hours before she was set to undergo a major event in the external world. In the end, Talia lost her battle with grievous injuries. Kendra attempted to take her life, but the general anesthesia saved her life and preserved it in a deep slumber as she was sealed away for thirteen years.

## Framework

Throughout history, every collective has had a technological view of itself, shaped by a collective upbringing around technology in their daily life and in the media consumed since the earliest days. As such, the Graelenncia Collective and current generations refer to the way interacting with the alternate world as a computer framework, as the ethereal bridges were and are considered to be computers in appearance and function.

The Framework for the Graelenncia Collective was reminiscent of a 2000's CRT monitor with physical peripherals, like a keyboard and mouse, headphones, and a clunky CPU tower all on one desk. The set up was suitable for its time, but quickly became outdated, receiving rare "updates" that hardly fixed any of the main problems. While historians theorized it was just because of the age of the users at the time, as of 2023, it remains primitive, outdated, and highly not recommended for use in daily life as it can cause confusion.

The earliest Framework was referred to as Earthnet, its latest "version" being Earthnet v1.0.

### Why it was suitable for a time

* At such young ages, there weren't high stakes, if primary school wasn't one of them

### Main problems

* The Framework was unsuitable for most of primary school, as it led to information being lost easily and had a lackluster foothold in the present moment, something that was tested in 2023 by the current generation, leading Kodachi Tsurugi to become uncharacteristically confused.
* It could not and still cannot support more than one person in control at a time, and attempts to add a second person to the controls leads to outright resistance, or it just cannot happen.
* Imposition causes lag, as the Earthnet 1.0 framework does not have the brainpower to balance alternate world interaction with imposition.
	+ This can make the user feel slower and not take in information as well.
* Passive influence has been and still is faint or nonexistent.
* Using this Framework, it is almost impossible to switch users with it directly.
	+ The Graelenncia Collective could only use Kendra's profile at the time. The Etheridge Collective's experimentation with it has led to the discovery that her user profile can still be accessed. Curiously, one does not take on her traits, memories, or personality by using it. Switching users can be done indirectly, but it's convoluted and agreed upon that it's not worth it.

## Trivia

* The Graelenncia Collective was made up of several people who were sourced externally as well, but had either died or escaped, never to be seen or heard from again.
	+ The Graelenncia Collective was the second shortest collective on record, second only to the Etheridgeon Rebels.
	+ It was the first collective to have Kendra in the host role, a permaswitch done after The Ancients had passed on.
* Scales and Sheldon supposedly have descendants; however, they are still considered missing.
* Kendra was the only human in the collective.
* Due to the personalities Chrysalis, Daisy, and Hans possessed, there are a few members of the Etheridge Collective who genuinely believe that Zeph, Makibishi, and Ledger are their respective descendants or outright reincarnations.
* When Graelenncia fell and its collective was ripped apart, two members' statuses remain unknown to this day, and of the three members that were confirmed to be alive; the surviving leader passed away after the fall of Her kingdom years later, Levin remained, and still remains, uninvolved with collective matters, and Talia remains to be the only person from this group to be part of the Etheridge Collective.
* This collective was most likely formed as a response to a lack of support in the alternate world at such a young age for each of them to deal with.