Starcatchers

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"To have been able to meet you in this lifetime... I am truly lucky."

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❝They say that the sky is an ocean and that the people who stand on top of this ocean hold lanterns in their hands.

These people are the stars.❞

(below written by both myself and lightningtempest@tumblr)
SETTING NOTES.

INTRO-
The world relies on an artificial sun. The artificial sun is held at the top of a gigantic hugeass, reaches into the skies, tower. The guardian of the sun is the Traitor. The Traitor, is the only one who can handle the sun and is in charge of taking care of it and ‘turn it off’ so the people in the Capitol can sleep. Because the sun is set in a fixed position the amount of sunlight an area gets depends on how close it is to the Tower.

In a circular radius around the tower is the Capitol, where the richest and most privileged live. Outside the belt of direct sunlight is the dawn/dusk lands. Dawn is the part of the land closer to the Capitol as it gets more sunlight. The Dusk lands are under eternal dusk and melt into the Wastelands. The Wastelands start as eternal dusk and slowly melt into eternal night. The Netherlands is the land of eternal night and the Winterlands are located inside the Netherlands

Yeah...
here’s some ideas for you.
w/ area names
The time period/architecture is ~Classical Era? Victorian? Ancient for Moroccan and Asia. Yeah o/ Basically steampunk kind of stuff minus any short of technology....so descriptive mins, so descriptive...

LOL HEY IT'S CAE'S TURN.
The Capitol: "Here in the Capitol, the weather, the light, and the warmth were suspended in time and green house glass. They had a sun, and the Day, and though all around them, the world had fallen to dusk, at the very least, they possessed this fluttering mirage of normality."

The Capitol is at the very center of the country, and forms a ring around a giant lake which holds the sun. In order to keep in as much warmth as possible, all areas in the Capitol are rooved and surrounded by metal framed glass--sort of like a city-wide green house. It is very hot, and very bright, and summer is eternal in the Capitol... But, its fabulously wealthy, fabulously powerful residents take pride in this constant heat.

The buildings here can be likened to traditional Venetian architecture, with its predominant arches and massive buildings. Also like Venice, there are various canals (which walkways and bridges are built along and over), and boats.

The people themselves, as previously mentioned, are fabulously wealthy, and fabulously powerful for residence/housing in the Capitol is near impossible to find, much less afford. Hard work is prized among those who had worked for their positions, lineage for those who were born into it.

IMAGE INSPIRATIONS: buildings | buildings | glass roofing
The City of Dawn; ”when everyday is a siesta”
The City of Dawn is the circular area within the Dawn/Dusk belt. It is always dawn and the buildings are based off Spain. People are carefree and trees grow here! Because of its location and closeness to water supply, it’s a very nice warm city. Most of the middle-class live here.
The Dusklands; "It is eternal twilight in this area, the beginning of the end. They say that once, this place shone brightest and hottest under the sun, that the people here are born brown for a reason..."

There is no night and day in the Dusklands--the first of the areas where this is so. Here, the skies simply oscilate between hues of purple, and though liveable, is noticeably chilly.

Starlight is imported from the Tower via bits of magic stored in bulbs and then strung together on cable. However, due to its distance from the Capitol and the effort it takes to cross the hot sands that lead from the City of Dawn and into the Autumn belt these strings of light are less common than what is optimal. Urban areas have the most light, smaller towns the next, and most villages/rural areas have very, very little if at all.

The architecture is reminiscent of ancient Morocco. Like the Capitol and the Dawnlands, arches are a recurring structure in buildings.

The people usually have tanned skin and that are looked down upon the Capitol (though not as much as those in the Winterlands).

inspiration ;; building
The Wastelands; ”hot sand, cold sand, deep sand, sanstorms, it’s just piles and piles of sand”
The Wastelands lie at the edge of the Autumn belt. This area encompasses parts of Dusk and eventually melts into the Netherlands. It’s like a desert! Except rly cold! The sand will freeze your toes off! You have to walk w/ snow shoes and thick boots. Old Moroccan temples and stuff stick out of the sand. Occasionally there will be a functional alive village but those are few and usually clustered as close as they can to the Dusk/Dawn area b/c it has the most sunlight.
Winterlands; ”they say that the only thing that grows here is tenacity”
The winter lands are located in the Netherlands, the region of the world that gets no light from the artificial sun. The Winterlands encompasses the point farthest away from the Tower and the artificial sun. They are reminiscent of Ancient China and Japan, though now everything is covered under ice and snow. The sky is always eternally night, and there are few stars in the sky. If there are any trees, they should be bare branch and covered in ice and snow.

The main city of the Winterlands is home to a people looked down upon by the Government. These people have found ways to live without the artificial sun. They carry/use fishbowls full of luminescent fish as light. The main city is close to the ocean and is built of snow and ice. They get around on both elk and dog-sleds.

visual ideas; for inspiration!
one

MISC

pact symbols form randomly on a human body. ohohoho. it's most convenient when it's not seen...
vivacious humans are the most sought after by the stars, as they can handle the massive energy needs of a star.

(below written by lightningtempest@tumblr, with minor edits by me.)

BACKGROUND:
Imagine the sky as an ocean and the land beneath our feet as the bottom of the ocean. If we swim through the sky up towards the top, one day we will break the surface of the ocean. And when our heads break through that line, we are in the sky.

In the sky, there live people. These people, while they look the same as us, but they're different. The amount of life-force they contain is so much greater than our own. But these people keep their life-force, their memory, their magic inside a lantern. It is these lanterns that glow, and from where we stand on earth, they seem like stars.
They live on top of the ocean, and we live on the bottom, and in the middle was the vastness of the sky occupied by the sun. But then one day, the sun went out.

Okay, so after the sun went out, a star turned traitor and went to the humans and told them how to steal the lanterns from the stars.
Without their lanterns, the stars went into a kind of hibernation state. Stay that way for a long time, they slowly got dimmer and dimmer as their little fraction of life-force was used up. spoiler: no one notices b/c of the artificial sun.
The humans gathered all of the lanterns and put them together at the top of a hugeass tower. The lanterns fused to create the artificial sun. The traitor star is in charge of maintaining the sun.
Because of the nature of the artificial sun, only a portion of the world is bathed in light. As you get farther and farther away from the Sun, the darker it gets. Eventually, you reach an area of permanent dusk, this is the beginning of the Wastelands. If you go beyond that, the world melts into permanent night and ice. This is the Netherlands (better name plz sob).
The more rich and powerful/influential you are, the closer you live! Capitol city is located closest to the Tower and is built in a circular shape.
After 2OO years, stars begin falling to the earth. Sometimes people will see streaks of light crashing into the world.
During the falling their remaining life-force crystallizes as the fall from the sky. This is because there is more pressure closer to ground and high levels/a lot of life-force gets pressurized into crystals. THIS EXPLANATION MAKES NO SENSE.
Three things can happen. a) the crystal and the star land in the same place and the star is reunited with it's crystal and begins searching for his/her lantern. b) the star and the crystal are separated. If this happens, the star disintegrates after it hits the ground unless there is a human who is willing to form a pact with him nearby. c) they disintegrate in the air, nothing left except for their crystal. oh boy that sucks....
A is the rarest, B the second-rarest and C is the most common. That means there are lots of pieces of crystallized life-force littered all over the place.
ANALOGY TIME, THE CRYSTAL IS A BATTERY, THE HUMAN IS A CHARGER that will eventually die, THE LANTERN IS A BATTERY THAT NEVER RUNS OUT OF JUICE. yeah.
A pact formed with a human results in the star getting to use the human's life force. The human gains a symbol somewhere to signify their pact. The pact is usually to help the star find it's lantern and the reward is a wish that the star will grant w/ their magic.
Because of the pacts and wishes, many people chase after falling stars to try and form a pact.
Humans do not have magic, but they can gain magic by using a crystal. There is a treasure hinting trade now because of this. But there is also a black market.
This is because the government confiscates any crystals it comes upon. Some of them go to the Tower and the artificial sun and some go towards the Capitol's army.
The Capitol's army is strong and most of the soldiers have magic powers due to exposure to crystal. Who knows if it's useful though....

Storyline (INFORMALLY DONE BY ME)

At around the age of 18, Lorenzo is still living at home near the center of the capital. He is an aspiring (WANNABE) writer, and takes to running around making people tell him their story (so as to serve as inspiration). Because he is only interested in people because they provide him stories, he doesn't really have any friends-- just hundreds of acquaintances and superficial relationships.
And then, one day he meets Lucian (who is a high-ranking military woman) at a cafe.

AND HIS MIND PROCESS WENT SOMETHING LIKE "A WOMAN IN THE MILITARY? WAO!"

So, he tries to get a story out of her!!
Except Lucian continually avoids the question!!! And distracts him!!!
And then, over the year they keep bumping into each other!! Until, finally, she concedes to tell him the next day (after she's through with a v. important meeting at headquarters.)
And he is like yessss.
LATER THAT DAY, Luc goes in to get promoted. There, she is told the secret of the tower (that it's made of the stolen lanterns of stars).
And she gets BOMBSHOCKED. So much so that she deserts the army.
Lorenzo is at the cafe the next day, and Luc never shows up.
So he decides to draft a story about a DEVILISH WOMAN who DITCHES her lover....
Except it's trite. And unoriginal. and a horrible story. And every publisher tells him this.
SUDDENLY SHAKEN BY THE REVELATION THAT HE NEEDS BETTER INSPIRATION, LORENZO PACKS HIS BAGS TO GO OUT SEARCHING FOR IT.
And, instead, comes upon Bambi....
Who is covered in nothing but a blanket... And can't pronounce his name right, as much as he tries to correct her....
Along the way, he meets LUC again, but still can't get a story out of her... HUR...

plot spoilurs below highlight for them.

OKAY OKAY SO EVENTUALLY, they go to run towards the tower and LUC runs into MY MILITARY MAN who was her bff. and lorenzo is like MY STORY SENSES ARE TINGLING
but then bambi tugs him away and they hafta face off.... fuck yeah.
anyways, bambi gets her lantern back, and has all her memories returned to her *____* And, she knows how to pronounce her Ls and Rs...
And the last thing she says before going back into the skies is "Good bye Lorenzo."
And then all HE can say is "You're pronouncing it wrong...." And sob.
So, Lorenzo gets his first real taste of friendship and loss and experience. (THE TRULY MOST EXQUISITE TYPE OF INSPIRATION. WHICH WAS HIS WISH ALL ALONG).
LUC finally decides to tell him her story to make him feel better... Except, now that he's experienced true pain and loss, he only sees himself and Bambi reflected in the story.
When he finally gets out of bed, Lorenzo decides to write a book about he and Bambi's adventures and it turns out really, really, really good and beautiful.
And then he gets rich off of it!!
And then one day he hears a knock at the door, and it's Bambi. She gives him her lantern and forfeits her magic and memories of living in the sky b/c being w/ Lorenzo is much more fun than living in the skies.
And then she tells him to buy her cake.
And he's just so happy he bursts into happy tears and holds her all shaking.
And it's a happy ending.
And it turns out that the actual entirety of the novel was the one Lorenzo wrote about himself and Bambi.

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