Wingtalia AU

So...I have a devious brain...and I like to try to combine as much together as possible without losing the sense of things. However, I wanted to also keep any random evil--er...suggestions (yeah, that's totally it *shot*) for you guys to tweak/make suggestions to as well. This is your new AU also you know!

Few Thoughts So Far

- Keeping the magic of 'healing' (from the original AU) could benefit us/bring about conflict later. It could lead into regular humans hunting the winged ones for their feathers with the belief that they have magical properties, which in a sense is rather true.

(Basically, the 'healing' to my understanding (and please PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, those of you who know the Wingtalia AU stuff better *begs*), each is able to heal himself/herself using energy (small cuts/scrapes take less time/energy), but the healer experiences tiredness/fatigue depending on how much energy they use. One can only heal another person they are close to or have mated with, since the healing is like giving up some of yourself)

- Once the wings of a winged one are cut off, the winged one becomes mortal/the wings have no powers. Again, the 'hunting the winged ones for their wings/magic' comes into play here.

- Toying with the idea of having certain winged ones (e.g. Arthur, who in canon has access to magic) having possibly another minor power connected to magic. This could be determined by age, wing color, a physical trait (e.g. green eyes = stronger healing, gold = clairvoyance, etc.etc). Or it could simply be those that have actual canon basis in magic (e.g. Arthur, Norway, etc) would have stronger/extra magic while others would perhaps simply be better fighters, stronger, etc.

- Another interesting idea would be to take a strong influence from Greek mythology in the following ways:

a) Winged ones are sort of like gods (not necessarily called them), in that they are not understood by regular humans, they have powers of sorts (I'll explain more below) and can be asked for help (not necessarily specified as prayed to here, to keep the AU from having potential religious undertones), etc.

b) Winged ones represent not a nation or state (e.g. Yao does not represent China), rather, they represent something present in human nature. For example, Feliciano represents Creativity (like the muses), Yao represents Wisdom, Francis represents Love, etcetc, with each person choosing his/her own unique thing to represent. Things to be represented can be anything from 'positive' to 'negative'.

Each representative would then be asked for help, or the winged one might visit the humans to share their 'magic'. Example being, if Feliciano represents Creativity, he occasionally visits the world in human form and helps to teach aspiring artists or chefs.

If a war breaks out in among humans, the winged one(s) representing certain things involved in war (e.g. a war against creativity/oppression of art and freedom of expression by the governing body), will either attack each other or be attacked. So for example, if Kiku represented Strength/Honor, and the war was being waged against art/creation, he would be influenced by the humans to attack/try to attack Feliciano (again, Creativity in this example)

Winged Ones are forbidden to love non-winged ones. However, through certain tests/trials a regular human who is proved to be a suitable complement to the winged one who likes them can be given wings. How the ritual happens (e.g. if the person has to die and then be 'reborn') is up for discussion for sure ^^

***

Uh...that's what my brain wanted me to write...and we can use any of this or none of it!

...Imma go hide in the corner of shame now *crawls off*

Sorry it took me a while to reply to this. ^^; Here are my initial responses to your suggestions. If you want me to elaborate on anything, just let me know! I'll also keep thinking of my own ideas to add.

- Keeping the magic of 'healing' (from the original AU) could benefit us/bring about conflict later. It could lead into regular humans hunting the winged ones for their feathers with the belief that they have magical properties, which in a sense is rather true.

(Basically, the 'healing' to my understanding (and please PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, those of you who know the Wingtalia AU stuff better *begs*), each is able to heal himself/herself using energy (small cuts/scrapes take less time/energy), but the healer experiences tiredness/fatigue depending on how much energy they use. One can only heal another person they are close to or have mated with, since the healing is like giving up some of yourself)

I do like the idea of the Winged Race being able to heal themselves more quickly than regular humans (maybe not instantly, since that kind of takes the fun out of things, but at a much more rapid rate than normal). I also like the idea of them being able to heal those close to them at the expense of their own energy. Maybe in addition to feeling fatigued, there can also be another price to pay, such as them starting to lose their feathers. This raises the stakes a little and keeps them from using this power carelessly.

- Once the wings of a winged one are cut off, the winged one becomes mortal/the wings have no powers. Again, the 'hunting the winged ones for their wings/magic' comes into play here.

I agree. I’m not sure if you still wanted to toy with the idea of the government taking away people’s wings if they are unable to fly in order to protect their society. An alternative would be to have them confined to a certain area and treated as second-class citizens or slaves. This would make them a vulnerable target for humans.

- Toying with the idea of having certain winged ones (e.g. Arthur, who in canon has access to magic) having possibly another minor power connected to magic. This could be determined by age, wing color, a physical trait (e.g. green eyes = stronger healing, gold = clairvoyance, etc.etc). Or it could simply be those that have actual canon basis in magic (e.g. Arthur, Norway, etc) would have stronger/extra magic while others would perhaps simply be better fighters, stronger, etc.

I like the idea of having different classes of winged people. There can be the warriors, the healers (who have advanced healing powers compared to the others), and the fairies mages. I like the idea of them being identifiable by physical traits, though that might limit what certain characters can do based on what they look like.

- Another interesting idea would be to take a strong influence from Greek mythology in the following ways:

a) Winged ones are sort of like gods (not necessarily called them), in that they are not understood by regular humans, they have powers of sorts (I'll explain more below) and can be asked for help (not necessarily specified as prayed to here, to keep the AU from having potential religious undertones), etc.

Incorporating this idea all depends on what the relationship is between the Winged Race and regular humans. I don’t see them having a lot of interaction if the winged ones are a very secretive race, but maybe they could come down to the human settlements once a year or only in times of natural disasters. If we give them this exalted or sacred status, that may be a reason for some humans to fight to protect the winged race from the ones who want to hunt them.

The alternative would be to treat the Winged people more like a myth that not all the humans take seriously. This would help protect their secrecy and make the humans who hunt them more of a rarity among the humans.

b) Winged ones represent not a nation or state (e.g. Yao does not represent China), rather, they represent something present in human nature. For example, Feliciano represents Creativity (like the muses), Yao represents Wisdom, Francis represents Love, etcetc, with each person choosing his/her own unique thing to represent. Things to be represented can be anything from 'positive' to 'negative'.

Each representative would then be asked for help, or the winged one might visit the humans to share their 'magic'. Example being, if Feliciano represents Creativity, he occasionally visits the world in human form and helps to teach aspiring artists or chefs.

If a war breaks out in among humans, the winged one(s) representing certain things involved in war (e.g. a war against creativity/oppression of art and freedom of expression by the governing body), will either attack each other or be attacked. So for example, if Kiku represented Strength/Honor, and the war was being waged against art/creation, he would be influenced by the humans to attack/try to attack Feliciano (again, Creativity in this example)

This could be a fun idea, but it might also change the way humans view them. Also, what happens if one dies? Are they replaced with a new incarnation? My only problem with the war scenario that you describe is that it sounds like it takes away the winged one’s free will by forcing them to fight each other based on what the humans are doing. Is it possible for them to resist? Would they even want to? Not saying we can’t do it; I’m just not sure how much control we want to give humans over the Winged ones’ actions or feelings.

Winged Ones are forbidden to love non-winged ones. However, through certain tests/trials a regular human who is proved to be a suitable complement to the winged one who likes them can be given wings. How the ritual happens (e.g. if the person has to die and then be 'reborn') is up for discussion for sure ^^

I like this idea too. It should probably be a secret kept from the humans, though. Otherwise there might be people trying to manipulate the Winged people with the hope of gaining immortality by getting close to them. I wouldn’t say “forbidden” as much as “discouraged” or “looked down on” because if it’s not allowed altogether, there shouldn’t really be exceptions. I guess I just see them as being pretty strict about things like this since following these rules is how they survive and build their community. There should also be a large price to pay to discourage this from happening too often or easily. I like the idea of them having to die and be reborn, or otherwise having to go through excruciating pain as their wings grow out from their backs.

Another related idea that we might want to play with is whether all of the winged race were humans once and became part of the tribe once they proved themselves on Earth. I’d be up for discussing this more if you’re interested.

I tried to keep the main points...but I kept all of your text so I could answer it properly ^^ (I hope I am understanding everything correctly. The intricacies of the Wingtalia AU are actually new to me (though I've heard of similar ideas and concepts), so I'm totally winging it making things up as I go based off of what I read on the tumblr page ^^

Antonio F. Carriedo wrote:

Sorry it took me a while to reply to this. ^^; Here are my initial responses to your suggestions. If you want me to elaborate on anything, just let me know! I'll also keep thinking of my own ideas to add.

- Keeping the magic of 'healing' (from the original AU).

I do like the idea of the Winged Race being able to heal themselves more quickly than regular humans (maybe not instantly, since that kind of takes the fun out of things, but at a much more rapid rate than normal). I also like the idea of them being able to heal those close to them at the expense of their own energy. Maybe in addition to feeling fatigued, there can also be another price to pay, such as them starting to lose their feathers. This raises the stakes a little and keeps them from using this power carelessly.

Definitely not instantly. The idea is that it takes energy to heal, so unless you are like, an energizer winged one (not happening people, but the mental image is amusing) you won't be able to heal instantly. The idea of healing others at the expense of their own energy is taken from the Tumblr/official headcanons of the AU, and the only price there was fatigue (I'll read again, just to make sure I didn't miss anything). This to me does imply some sort of elevated status/demi-god like powers, but I'll get to that later ^^

Quote :

- Once the wings of a winged one are cut off, the winged one becomes mortal/the wings have no powers.

I agree. I’m not sure if you still wanted to toy with the idea of the government taking away people’s wings if they are unable to fly in order to protect their society. An alternative would be to have them confined to a certain area and treated as second-class citizens or slaves. This would make them a vulnerable target for humans.

That honestly is a tricky question. I believe a better way to address that is to ask 'What role, if any, do we want government to play in our AU?' Government can be a helpful force, or (as in many of our AUs), a royal pain/hinder the main race/group of people.

I think already we have several AUs that treat a race not human (e.g. Vampire, mutant) as a second class citizen, so it would be interesting to toy with a new idea if it will work for us. I don't know how everyone else feels about that though, and I'm willing to look at the AU in both perspectives/write up two summaries (with you all the way Toni <3) to see which one, or which aspects of both people seem to like.

I also don't like the idea of government taking away someone's wings if they can't fly. From what I understand of the headcanon (and again, we can stick closely to this or keep only what we like), the only reason a winged one would not know how to fly is if their caretaker (the person who raised them) didn't push them off the cliff to teach them. I think even then a person could still learn, but they would be HORRIBLE at flying most likely XD

However, the idea of separate hunters for the wings (e.g. just random people out for trophies/glory) is a bit unique to our other AUs in comparison...but whichever works (again, government is tricky XD) ^_^

Quote :

- Toying with the idea of having certain winged ones (e.g. Arthur, who in canon has access to magic) having possibly another minor power connected to magic. This could be determined by age, wing color, a physical trait (e.g. green eyes = stronger healing, gold = clairvoyance, etc.etc). Or it could simply be those that have actual canon basis in magic (e.g. Arthur, Norway, etc) would have stronger/extra magic while others would perhaps simply be better fighters, stronger, etc.

I like the idea of having different classes of winged people. There can be the warriors, the healers (who have advanced healing powers compared to the others), and the fairies mages. I like the idea of them being identifiable by physical traits, though that might limit what certain characters can do based on what they look like.  

We could always alter that bit to be something like a tattoo/tribal marking of sorts, if that makes sense. So for example, instead of 'black wings = ___*insert power here*' it could be 'Winged person with a circle enclosing a dot = ____ *insert power here*'. That also gives potential for those winged people who wear more/less clothing to be more easily identified by their marking, and could allow anyone to have any of the classes of powers they wanted (though I'd limit it to one), no matter how many tattoos you get XD)

Quote :

- Another interesting idea would be to take a strong influence from Greek mythology in the following ways:

a) Winged ones are sort of like gods (not necessarily called them).

Incorporating this idea all depends on what the relationship is between the Winged Race and regular humans. I don’t see them having a lot of interaction if the winged ones are a very secretive race, but maybe they could come down to the human settlements once a year or only in times of natural disasters. If we give them this exalted or sacred status, that may be a reason for some humans to fight to protect the winged race from the ones who want to hunt them.

The alternative would be to treat the Winged people more like a myth that not all the humans take seriously. This would help protect their secrecy and make the humans who hunt them more of a rarity among the humans.

I'd go with the latter version of what you said, at least, that's what's in my head at the moment as the option giving us a wide variety of cast members (e.g. winged people, human hunters of sorts, etc.)

Quote :

b) Winged ones represent not a nation or state (e.g. Yao does not represent China), rather, they represent something present in human nature. For example, Feliciano represents Creativity (like the muses), Yao represents Wisdom, Francis represents Love, etcetc, with each person choosing his/her own unique thing to represent. Things to be represented can be anything from 'positive' to 'negative'.

Each representative would then be asked for help, or the winged one might visit the humans to share their 'magic'. Example being, if Feliciano represents Creativity, he occasionally visits the world in human form and helps to teach aspiring artists or chefs.

If a war breaks out in among humans, the winged one(s) representing certain things involved in war (e.g. a war against creativity/oppression of art and freedom of expression by the governing body), will either attack each other or be attacked. So for example, if Kiku represented Strength/Honor, and the war was being waged against art/creation, he would be influenced by the humans to attack/try to attack Feliciano (again, Creativity in this example)

This could be a fun idea, but it might also change the way humans view them. Also, what happens if one dies? Are they replaced with a new incarnation? My only problem with the war scenario that you describe is that it sounds like it takes away the winged one’s free will by forcing them to fight each other based on what the humans are doing. Is it possible for them to resist? Would they even want to? Not saying we can’t do it; I’m just not sure how much control we want to give humans over the Winged ones’ actions or feelings.

(See? This is why we don't just go with what comes out of Keek's cobweb-filled brain *loves Toni forever for this*) I would say if we're going the semi-Greek myth way, aka, 'they are god-like/mythical', then I could see the winged ones pretty much doing as they pleased (so long as they followed the rules of their race). So if for example, a war on creativity came up and Kiku felt the people opposing creativity were in the wrong, he might give them some sort of subtle aid (this would depend on his power as well. For example, if he has the power of honor, he could appear (wingless at this point, because they can hide their wings...if we decide to go that route XD) and speak to the leaders of the troops and inspire them to stick to their cause...something of the like. (It's still an idea in progress, as you can tell x.x)

So it's not a mind-controlish thing (like my horrible above explanation implied) but a choice on behalf of the person doing it. So that would allow RPers to decide whether they wanted to get involved in feuds (if there were any) or to just sit back and watch them happen.

As for reincarnation/who would ascend, I think things like 'War' and 'Creativity' never truly die. However, if the winged one who possessed a power influencing them died, perhaps there would simply be a lull in such activities, until another winged one proved him/herself worthy of taking on the title. (This will be explained lower down in this post, regarding the whole 'how do they become winged' thing)

Quote :

Winged Ones are forbidden to love non-winged ones. However, through certain tests/trials a regular human who is proved to be a suitable complement to the winged one who likes them can be given wings. How the ritual happens (e.g. if the person has to die and then be 'reborn') is up for discussion for sure ^^

I like this idea too. It should probably be a secret kept from the humans, though. Otherwise there might be people trying to manipulate the Winged people with the hope of gaining immortality by getting close to them. I wouldn’t say “forbidden” as much as “discouraged” or “looked down on” because if it’s not allowed altogether, there shouldn’t really be exceptions. I guess I just see them as being pretty strict about things like this since following these rules is how they survive and build their community. There should also be a large price to pay to discourage this from happening too often or easily. I like the idea of them having to die and be reborn, or otherwise having to go through excruciating pain as their wings grow out from their backs.

Another related idea that we might want to play with is whether all of the winged race were humans once and became part of the tribe once they proved themselves on Earth. I’d be up for discussing this more if you’re interested.  

Absolutely! The idea/trial would probably be passed down through myth as well, but no, humans would not be aware of the actual trial unless a winged one told them (which will be a no-no, unless the winged one is in love and wants the other to be with them forever XD) That way, there's no human ability to influence a winged one...though if one were to happen to DO so there might also be trouble (but again, writing up the rules and setting can prevent that from happening).

I think...and I could have read it wrong in my tiredness, the original said 'forbidden'...but I too, a silly romantic at heart who also knows the gods NEVER followed their own rules anyway, thinks that 'forbidden' is like a stop sign in Italy--a strong suggestion, but not always followed *shot* I think 'forbidden' is a good word, with the explanation that one-night stands of sorts with non-winged ones are detrimental to the race/their secrecy (again, some will just screw the rules and do it anyway, and what can one do but reprimand them or worse, take away their wings O.o) and could cause the winged one to be manipulated by the non-winged one...assuming our players who play humans might want to play them smart in that way.

But if the word 'forbidden' sounds too...strict (rather than strongly suggestive), we can either elaborate on it OR simply change to one of the terms you mentioned ^^

As for how the first winged people were born/formed, I have a thought I wanted to run by the particular RPer I thought could be our starting point (hint, probably the oldest nation here XD) and it would go from there. I think in the beginning, the winged ones would be given power to change others who were worthy into winged ones, but as more winged ones started appearing, the trials became harder and so becoming a winged one became more difficult to obtain.

*brain fizzles out* O.o This is totally up for discussion/I have no idea what everyone else thinks of this sort of thing, and I don't want to be like "HERE IT IS PEOPLE LIKE IT, LIKE IT I SAY!" because it's totally not my AU/not my expertise but I want everyone to have fun *babbles off into the corner* D:

TONI OMG *falls in*

We haven't forgotten about this AU, no sirs and ma'ams. It has just taken Keeks and Master Brows some time to gather our brains from mush and mold them into AU-creation mode (aka, not getting murdered by work and school).

I've been reading over the old posts/replies we've been making here, as well as some conversation Arthur and I have had some time back, and we should totally talk about this so we can (no pun intended) get this thing off the ground! (*shot*)

I KNOW YOU'RE STILL AWAY, BUT WHEN YOU COME BACK MAYBE? (*keeps fingers crossed* I know school is coming too x.x)

Hey Kiku~ I'm back now and ready to talk about this whenever you like.

Tooooooooni! Are you freeish this weekend? (If not, I can PM or IM you!)

I should be, more or less~! I can chat via PM or on AIM. ^^

SWEET~! *tackles and loves* I have the weekend off from work, so I should be able to get things settled this weekend. (Besides, I miss chatting with you D: )

SOON <3 just let me know where/when~

TOOOOONI! Imma send you a PM 8D

Alright~