Aether Aevran - Summary & Info

  Aether Aevran is the product of a childhood drenched in fantasy and a lot of Asian media exposure. 

Overall summary: Princess Kamides and Prince Raijin, royals of the Agon Empire, are joined by their Naamsnuinn partners in their attempt to right the wrongs of the previous generations, as well as bring prosperity and happiness to the people across the entire universe. They face many challenges along the way, but none of these people are average or willing to give up on helping mankind and beyond no matter what terrors and trials they face. 

- Aether Aevran has many story arcs, and we see the characters change and grow over many years of their lives, so it's difficult to summarize it all at once since there are many different antics they get involved in at wildly different times in their development. I encourage you to visit the summaries for the invididual arcs as well for more information. 

Sidenote: my grandfather loves watching movies and TV Shows, and he shared that with us as well. His step father was Filipino, and his other step father lived in Japan after WWII, which caused this love of certain Asian cultures that my grandpa later expanded to include all Asian cultures (except North Asia, which I took care of myself with my interest), which he shared with my siblings and I. Also, did anyone else realize there was this weird wave of Eastern culture-inspired stuff in early-mid 2000's cartoons? I didn't recognize that until I was older, but now that I know, I can't stop thinking about it. 

Background Info on Aether Aevran: 

Aether Aevran is a unique universe created by the universal constant, the Aether. The story of Aether Aevran takes place in the fifth era of existence since humans were created by the spirits, the deity-like beings of this universe. In this era, the Agon Empire is the dominating nation of most of the continent of Yativ, a very large continent which has an archipelago along the tropical region which have all been colonized as well to some extent. 

Yativ is not the only continent either. There is also Amatt in the east, across an ocean. To the south is a smaller continent of Jandakko. To the North Pole and South Pole there are land masses (Inunna in the North, and an seemingly uninhabitted mass to the South) that surround the most powerful and spiritually active Aether Portals. These are the only Aether Portals that are truly stationary, since most other Aether/spirit energy just aimlessly roams. 

Technologically speaking, the people of Aether Aevran are elementalists, which means they can use the powers of an element to their advantage, however humans are limited to only one element. It is a biological-ish trait as well. It is not something that can be learned by just anyone, it is something one is just born with or without. This has changed the way technology advances. In some places, there is running water for example, and in some other places, there is no need for running water because of the high concentration of water elementalists. That being said, the general technology levels are as follows:
* Firearms utilizing projectiles with gunpowder have yet to be created (So we're about pre-14th century, at least). 
* Mechanical clocks are not used/created. 
* Soap is used. Medical practices are rather advanced and sterility is important for healers. 
* Admore (horse-like creatures) are the main mode of long-distance transportation. Carriages have wheels.
* There are coal-powered ships (About 1870s). Windmills and water-based power sources are also common in different areas (12th century).

There are reasons that technology has advanced differently here than in our world. The ability to manipulate the elements to create fire and other projectiles has made firearms unncessary for nations who value elementalism above non-elementalists to put money into research for new weapons. However, fire elementalists who cannot swiftly pass water, has put a need on travelling through large bodies of water -- and with their fire abilities, they have a sorce of heat to ignite coal should they need it. Herbalism is an advanced skill for many people, as well. Honestly, the people are quite advanced despite not having (or needing) a Scientific Revolution as we have had. 

Religion is a factor in this, I believe. There are really two kinds of religious folk in Aether Aevran -- aethiests or agnostics and panthiests. There are no Gods (not like we know); they have spirits. These spirits are essentially deity-like beings created by the Aether. However, due to the history of humankind, spirits have retreated into the Aether for the most part, and do not involve themselves with humans. Because they do not interact with the Material World (where humans live) and/or because empires (such as the Agon Empire and Rodinia Empire) forbid or limit the exposure and ability to worship said spirits, they are not well known and are often written or spoken about more like fairy tales. Spirits, I believe, are very interesting because there are so many types and really, everything comes from them, including humans. Spirits also have ways to become mortal, and give up their immortality (which all spirits are blessed with upon their creation), and there are more interesting things spirits can do. They are also the only type of people that can manipulate Aether energy, and many of them can manipulate all the elements under certain or all circumstances (they're my favourite part about my own universe, can you tell?). 

I should probably get into content warnings, because it is going to be quite the ride... 

Aether Aevran includes many sensitive subjects including: child abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, intersex characters and other gender/biology stuff, some homophobia, irregular circumstances of pregancy, in-depth dragon biology, violations of autonomy, torture, murder, war, colonization, religious persecution, polygamy, entrapment... 

I'll add more as they come up, but I figure these are just the topics that people seem to really care about, sometimes avoiding them, and I don't want anyone to read anything and be surprised or whatever but something that really squicks them out. That being said, I do think I handle most of this pretty carefully, but it's also fiction and a whole different universe, so it's not reflective on real life thoughts, opinions, or anything like that in some cases. Obviously some of these topics are going to be handled poorly by the characters, but historically (looking to real life history here) these topics have been handled poorly because of ignorance and a lack of education and understanding, which can be seen in similar situations in Aether Aevran. 

While there are lots of rough subjects mentioned, there are lots of themes as well gearing towards hope and changing for the better. These things are mostly situations the characters find themselves in, and are not the end of their development, or that of the antagonists. They are just ways to further grow as a society within Aether Aevran and as individuals in some cases, and most people are punished if they commit crimes, of course.