Lunar Crimson Calamity

[Omegazero108]

This was a Lunar-based story idea I had after reconnecting with the series again (complete with watching a playthrough of the Original Lunar The Silver Star)...

But I will straight out say; i'd been intending on using some elements of Dragon Song and Magic School Lunar as nods towards other parts of the franchise...

But the basic setup for Crimson Calamity (as you could guess) is inspired by the idea of the Vile Tribe being banished to the Frontier 500 years before Silver Star.

The whole premise would be... Tensions are rising across the world of Lunar as a result of an unnatural fog called 'Bloodmist' that is affecting the Human and Beast Tribes, causing both no shortage of suffering. Elsewhere, rumors of a Vile Tribe are surfacing with their leader being hailed as a true Dragonmaster. This would be before the official move of the 'Dragonmaster' Mirn*, a man skilled in the art of necromancy reveals himself and openly declares war on Althena and all she holds dear, with the Vile Tribe as his army.

In a small port town on the Honmel Continent, Leonis* and his friend Cyan* would cross paths with a blue haired priest of Althena called Elysia* who'd come seeking his aid in repelling a monster that has hunted her across an entire continent, and through this, get caught up in an adventure he never expected...
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As for the ways the Bloodmist worked... it basically was intended as the Lunar equivalent of a biological weapon designed to poison the ability to use magic and more or less make mages/priests kill themselves on their own power. But... i'd been pondering if using the Black Star (which far as I know was mentioned mainly in SSH via the Dyne segment at the start) as an origin point and implying the Bloodmist was intended as more than that. Part of this has to do with one of the playable characters I had in mind for this being a member of the Beast Tribe, but he underwent a monstrous transformation as a result of prolongued exposure to the Bloodmist.

(*= Will elaborate on the rest of these characters in a separate post)

I will straight out say; Leonis' friend Cyan is intentional, as I figured that if the main Lunar games had a dragon companion of a related/opposing color to what's in the title, Crimson Calamity should follow suit by having the Blue Dragon be his partner for the journey. This'll be shown in a blue dragon bearing the name 'Saphira' as an old dragon...

[Omegazero108]

[Characters]

-Leonis Michten (Leo): One of a pair of half-human/half Vile Tribe twins who could largely pass for human if not for bits of his father showing through. Despite people's suspicions of how he came to be, Leonis holds true to the wish of his mother and lives as a normal human.

(Trivia: Leonis is intended to become a Dragonmaster... but I intend to take a couple small liberties with the armor's design)

-Cyan: a little winged blue cat with fins on his head. Considers Leonis his best bud, while also making it difficult to keep secrets because of how chatty he can be.

-Elysia/Elys Rosebrow: The latest in a line of Priests loyal to Althena. She is considered naturally gifted in healing and chose to follow the Priest's path as a result. Suspicions linger about the circumstances of her birth though, considering her family is mostly brown and blonde haired, while Elysia herself is blue-haired.

(Trivia: Elysia's name is a play on 'Elysium', and was originally gonna be a separate character from the original idea for the Althena Priest/Healer, but condensed the two ideas into a single character)

-Belgarn: A nomadic red-furred beast wielding a pair of axes that originates from the heart of the Beast Tribe's lands. With his borderline feral appearance, Belgarn seems haunted by dreams of a life long lost.

(Trivia: Belgarn here is the reason I was thinking of expanding how the Bloodmist works, as he was intended to have been a member of the Beast Tribe who underwent a severe mutation and took on a much more monstrous form)

-Midori Jadeclaw: A Beastwoman fighter following after Elys, believing her a traitor to her family. (TBU)

-5th Party Member: TBD
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-Carthos: A reptilian monster hatched from an egg Saphira rescued during one of her many trips to the island of Ien. Has largely grown up around the elder Dragon and considers her his mother, while also being able to speak human.

-Ignis: Leonis' twin brother, who as an inverse to Leo, had taken almost wholly after their Vile Tribe father. While Leonis seems to be largely unaware of his heritage, Ignis knows of it and harbors a strong resentment towards humans.

-Swordsaint Gideon: A renowned and feared member of what is now the Vile Tribe hailed as a master of the sword. His current place at the side of the current leader of the Vile Tribe puts him at odds with his history with humanity...
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-Necrolord Mirn: A man who ventured to another world known as the 'Black Star' and learned the arts of necromancy. The feat that allowed him to be called a true Dragonmaster by the Vile Tribe... is that he resurrected the original Four Dragons that first journeyed to Lunar alongside the Goddess from the dead.

[Alunissage]

Just want to say, good on you for including Dragon Song and Magic School in your story.

[Omegazero108]

I'm glad you approve, Alun XD Magic School's the only Lunar story I don't have as firm a grasp of compared to Dragon Song... but I realized some points of the latter game actually explain things in the Silver Star remakes and makes something from Eternal Blue make sense.

(Althena could've started her cycle of reincarnation to recover her lost power from battling Zophar, and the SS remakes give the impression something happened that broke her from it when you consider what happened in a way as her having been in her natural form for so long she may not have been able to do so on her own)

As for Magic School, I do know that the Blue Dragon is involved in that game (The bit of research I did almost makes it feel like each chapter of the game's a self-contained adventure in itself) but... it also helped me with some thoughts for Saphira and Cyan

(Updated the characters post with a few more characters... including Mirn)

[Alunissage]

Well, I'm not a great one for commenting on fanfic ideas (because I tend to be too wrapped up in my own headcanon, heh), but please do continue to raise questions and comments about the various games! It's been ages since we've had some good Lunar discussion here, though as you can see, we keep everything. Don't feel shy about bumping old threads.

[Omegazero108]

Okay... think i'll update this with the second important thing about Crimson Calamity... The Four Dragons themselves.

Quark - Though younger than some of the other Dragons, Quark is considered quite powerful for his time, wielding both offensive magic originating from his ancestor Byakko, and his own newfound power to repel attacks. Considered proud of such, Quark is respectful of mortals, at least until the topic of the Dragonmaster comes up. His trial is uniquely two-fold; Quark would pose the test's first part under the simple guise of finding the Dragon Ring, only to reveal the true trial in the form of soul-searching questions. He seeks to more carefully and thoroughly analyze a potential Dragonmaster, not wishing to repeat Byakko's mistake with the fallen Dragonmaster who ruled the Magic Empire.

Garnet - A witty Red Dragon who had arisen not long after her ancestor Suzaku's demise in the Thieve's Woods. Learning from her time with them, Garnet had adapted to her place in Lunar and would occasionally aid humans in need. Though she does advise the young Quark to be mindful of how strict he is, she could be considered no less strict, due to the nature of her trial. Using an abandoned Fortress as her lair, Garnet relies on its traps and magic flames to prove the courage of those who seek her out. Of course, Garnet wouldn't simply wait in her lair, as to keep herself hidden, Garnet had developed a spell to make herself look like a human.

Tanza - The third of the Four Dragons, born almost immediately after the Magic Empire was washed away. Having seen Althena's sorrow, Saphira would remain by the Goddess for a time to ease an unfamiliar pain in Althena's heart. Though respectful, Tanza values wisdom and sense, having next to no patience for those blinded by ambition or greed. Tanza also visits the Magic island of Ien, once every decade, yet on one of his more recent excursions, he ended up involved in a dangerous predicament. Here he was attacked and captured by two of the Vile Tribe, who sought to use his power for their malicious ends. He senses something in the air, prompting him to return to Ien prematurely, asking the red-haired mage who had helped him for her aid... Finding faint traces of a familiar magic.

Rubeus - Born almost at the same time as Quark, Rubeus could effectively be his twin... But while Quark is mostly trusting of mortals outside of specific circumstances. Rubeus is almost the exact opposite, finding his company welcome among the few humans and beastmen who grew weary of their kind's respective actions. Though he does respect adventurers, Rubeus is almost reluctant to allow them near the Onyx Tower that serves as his lair. His wariness of humans would only grow when one with 'tainted blood' would try to steal the Black Dragon Armor...
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Note: Given Amelia and Cyan in Silver Star Story were seemingly younger in comparison to Quark and even Rubeus, I figured it made sense to do it as a mix; the White and Black Dragons of SSS, but together with a new Red and Blue Dragon. As an aside, visually speaking, all four I intend on a bit of a liberty... each will be based on their appearance from SSS/EB, while integrating some aspects of their Dragon Song counterparts. If this is too much i'll reconsider it and just respect the legacy looks of the Dragons.

[Omegazero108]

One final post on how I plan on doing some stuff for Crimson Calamity... mostly to see how these points sound to others; my intents on referencing other Lunar games

Here was intended to be two; Make the Dragons of my game like a composite of SSS/EB while incorporating elements of DS's Dragons. The intent is to point towards the idea of these Dragons being in the process of 'evolving' towards the SSS/EB Dragons we all know. The second (potentially) would be to use Dragon Song as a reference to expand on a part of Lunar lore. (the Magic Empire specifically) The idea I'm gunning for here... is an attempt at using one to build on the other;

Ignatius would be the one who founded the Magic Empire, Jian ends up leading a rebellion against him, but ultimately fails. Althena witnesses these events unfold as Lucia, only to cause the 'Tides of Sorrow', the event that ends the Empire and washes it away completely. (Note: A basic idea, may revamp it some to build on a third point)

A potential third would be... allow for a potential avenue to give the Dragonmaster's Armor and Althena's Sword an Origin through this, or keep it a separate thing entirely.

As someone told me, there's some wiggle room for MS Lunar here... but on this, Tanza and Cyan kinda depend on it x.x I have two potential forms this could take if it'd be more ideal to let my story do this... my reasoning is basically; Leonis is going to head to the Island of Ien at one point in the story, but I wanted this to be one way. This is... have Crimson Calamity assume for the sake of clarity that the events of MS Lunar occur before Althena's banishment of the Vile Tribe/Mazoku to the Frontier. This allows him to meet an older and wiser Elie (Who, being part Vile-Tribe herself) might help assuage Leonis' doubts over his own connections to them, while also addressing Cyan as a bonus.

The other path would technically remove Cyan and replace him with Rubeus as the baby Dragon instead... but choose to amplify Leonis' concerns by having him meet Memphis and Barua and build on the events surrounding the former of the two going down the path to becoming one of the main antagonists of Magic School Lunar.

Here... one is a visual reference to TSS using an idea from the remakes; when Leonis first becomes a Dragonmaster, his armor is more darker in color, similar to how the gear looked in that game; when he obtains Althena's Sword, his armor changes to a brighter hue more fitting the remakes. The second of my Silver Star references comes... in *how* Leonis gets Althena's Sword. Because of a chain of events that I admit is not fully ironed out yet, Leonis is forced to use his power to save Elysia and Althena, which has the effect of separating the two into their own bodies. Because he is already badly hurt from a prior battle, Leonis is intended to be in really bad shape. Beyond here, his memory is hazy, but what he wakes up to is two different things (Again, some uncertainty on the way to proceed)

The first... is that Leonis got hurled through time about 500 years into the future (a few years Post Silver Star Story) into a debacle concerning the Grindery reactivating, and a wraith of Ghaleon haunting the place. (This thread is similarly unfinished, but involves the idea of Leonis trying to rescue the kid of one of the SSS couples because Ghaleon decides to kidnap them who is also guarding his Althena's Sword, the key to returning to his time) - What he wakes up to is Laike here with some help from a Priest tending to his injuries.

The second... and a bit more fleshed out but otherwise in a similar situation, would be involve Leonis in a situation where he's basically hurled into a rift where time's got no meaning. Here he wakes up to and otherwise meets the Four Heroes (Basically he's briefly involved in one of Dyne's adventures as Dragonmaster) who were given the idea by Eiphel/Aiferun (SSH reference) to enter the rift and look for something to help Althena's condition. (This... was an obvious trap btw...) Ghaleon and Dyne quickly pick up on the particular magic aura a Dragonmaster should have and suggest everyone limit their interactions with him to avoid any consequences. He helps them look for clues while finding that his way back (His Althena's Sword) is calling out to him.

Here... at least is two of my references for Eternal Blue, with a third being a potential byproduct of a particular point of Eternal Blue.

Garnet, as mentioned, will have a human form, done as a means of allowing her to look after orphaned children from the result of troubles in her region. (Similarly, a town ends up rising near a fort she uses as a means of accessing her cave as a result of some kind adults coming to help her out, like Nall in Eternal Blue, only without nearly as much happening)

Finally... Leonis gets to meet Althena in-game (as i'm pretty sure every potential Dragonmaster does in some form prior to Alex who grew up with her as Luna) who has a differing dress design (similarly fitting with the Dragons being different as well) and notes a scar on her stomach while checking on her (There is an intent to this... that being one version of this scene is intended to be him as a child meeting her since... I get the feeling that Dragonmaster potentials (as shown by Dyne IIRC from SSS where he's able to directly meet her eyes, though I concede he's already a Dragonmaster) are supposed to be resistant or immune to the one thing I remember coming up in SSS (either by NPC or Book, more certain of the latter) about how anyone who so much as directly *looks* at Althena falls hopelessly in love)

But I guess, where I admit to the uncertainty and am wanting to see if my ideas hold, i'm just wondering how all of this sounds to you guys x.x