'25 Summer Camp Prep

I do actually have a pile of fantastical recipes eaten in Empirica Sin that I've been meaning to write an article for but never got around to doing. So there's that.

Unfortunately I already did Beelzebub, so I can't do the royal chef but I could do an article about his cookbook, or the book of drink mixes that he wrote for Grigorius Bieloskytes.

The most famous library - and the most famous school - in Empirica Sin is Parnassius, a city-state in Astrum... and there is nothing more deliciously nourishing for the mind than a massive city-that-is-a-library-and-a-school.

So I could do something with Parnassius, whether it's the city itself or any of the places inside it or, of course, it's great founder/leader, the great sage Eiryen Nesaleen.

The sum of a person's power and potential - this probably shouldn't be considered nourishment... but consumption of the Lumen of others is how Demons enhance their own natural strength. Which means it often becomes "food" for those who aspire to greater heights.

Forms of therapy? Treatment for conditions like Void Madness? Treatments in general? Just an idea...

Things like specific novels, plays, songs. Musicians and sages and writers - people who create culture and art or educational material, and the things they create. Nourishment for the mind!

I haven't really gotten into the religious aspects of the world yet, mostly because they aren't highly relevant to the primary "story" I'm building... but it's still interesting to think about, especially in a world where the gods are as much characters/players in the game as anyone else. So like how do the Dei interact with this world?

There are some religious things that I've already got semi-plotted like the Hand of Restoration, the order dedicated to Neem, but of course I could go farther into this, not just with religious orders but with religious figures, texts, rituals...

Certainly the most prominent family in the CC world is... the House of Asther - the dynasty that controls Amaya, where the story largely occurs. It's a long and storied history, as are the tales of most dynasties, with a lot of interesting lore to look back at.

For example, there's the truth behind the myth of the Guest's Uprising! There are also a lot of characters that could be explored, for example...

Imael Asther, the warhero Dominus that was uh, "deposed" by Gorgo Asther.

Parents - like Isis Asther, which is Samael Asther's mother - or indeed Isis's native bloodline!

So, the focus of the story is in Amaya - in Ruavine to be specific - but not every character is from Ruavine or even Amaya. Grigorius Bieloskytes is from Astrum, for example, although I went pretty deep into his issues a while back.

But Leviael Kythien is also from Astrum - and from a very different background than Gri.

Dagon is also from Astrum, and... well, he's definitely different than the Aurali types featured here.

That said, Cain Amortus is from Gaean, and specifically from the largest city-state in Gaean, Atria, which is also where Samael's son Eamon Vaerick Asther is "from." All good options!

So we know how the Archdemon subspecies came into being - basically self-imposed eugenics, I'm not making excuses for them. But there are other subpecies, too - and subtypes of those subspecies.

For example! Herusin Cubae! They are part dragon so... that sure happened, how did that happen?

And, of course, the most mysterious (and significant) homeland is just... the The Otherworld. That's a big project I may not be ready for this soon, but it's there.

Not just for characters, but for anything, really.

For example, how did Eiryen Nesaleen and Birchin Tansea come to found the Order of the Silver Tree together?

What about Mastema Amarandos's pirate fleet? Where'd they come from?

Blossom would also be a good person to explore - how did this gargoyle become the gardener and what's he doing there, also why is he called Blossom (that's not his name, lmao)? Well that's probably self-explanatory.

OR IS IT?

This includes more modest locations than say the homelands. For example, the specific orphanage where Dante Savoy grew up. The Inn where a young Cain usually rented a bed when he was destitute and living on the streets.

Also things like the specific place where the Dei's First Generation were Awakened.

This also seems like a good place to start building up the Families of Empirica Sin! I already talked about investigating the Asthers, but they aren't the only great family in the world, after all.

And of course, the things people believe - where they came from, what brought them into being. This includes stuff like religious rituals, myths, superstitions, etc.

The key to wrapping these into the roots theme would be tracking where those things came from as well as what they are!

The way the governmental system changed in Astrum has some potential here. It is currently something of an overly rules-based society but it wasn't always that way. This is largely fallout from the previously mentioned Caelestise-Sura war, which really was a tuning point for both Astrum and Incaendium as these two mega-powers reacted to their mutual realization that there is something out there that is a genuine existential threat to them.

But there had to be a process for that - changing from the laid back golden age of sorts full of nature deities and chill fairies to the current society where the ruler of the entire Realm is Nindinva, who is literally the deity of rules and law. Things like the Astrumi Naming Laws do kind of hint that Astrumi culture has those tendencies, but it didn't really go all in until post-war.

Going back to our primary focus, we have our most consequential currently (known to be) living citizen, Samael Asther. He gets namedropped a lot because of his massive and wide-reaching impact on the world, so I could of course look at what that impact is, and why it occurred.

This includes questioning what happened to him - why he changed, because he also has changed a great deal over time... having been everything from a hero to a tyrant, a victim and victimizer, an ill-treated child and a king... among other things. Certainly he's a very complicated person with a complicated impact on the world.

One of the big things that I haven't had a chance to dive too deeply into yet is the cycle of the Chosen - which is linked to the Birth & Death of the Realms myth. Or "myth"? Or something. It's mostly focused on Gaean, and is central to the secondary story, Destiny's Feast. But in essence whenever a Chosen falls to save the world, the Gaean calendar is restarted/renamed and Gaean embarks on a new era. So...

What's going on with that? And what is the latest era? How was it started, who fell to start it, and what is coming next? That latter bit comes back for the Fourth theme, bwahha.

Incaendium in particular has a habit of producing many intrarealm wars. We have the Three-Cycle War, the Endless War, and number of smaller conflicts...

And intradomain conflicts like wars of succession and the toppling of dynasties. One of domains in Incaendium, Cras, is even ruled by a Fallen Celestial! That is Zecien Anlain, who is a former Sword of Paradise so, you know, what's going on there?

There are a couple of characters I could do this kind of thing with - the origin story, as referenced for the Roots week. But the one that really sticks out in my mind is Blossom, because he's a character I've had in mind and largely designed as far back as my first character lists, but because he's a minor character I haven't had the chance to do much with him. Kind of like Beelzebub, which turned out to be one of my favorite articles.

The most obvious thing for the Tomorrow/expectations theme for me is to go back to the Cycle of the Chosen. Because the next Chosen's identity is already known, there is a certain expectation about how that whole thing will go... but is that really how things turn out?

Generally not!

So, who is the Prophecied chosen, what are they expected to do, what is the world that people assume will come into play as a result of their presence? All good questions for this theme.

I mean, Astaroth is always plotting some bullshit; there's no doubt room for talking about what he's plotting, where he intends to go with it... does it work out for him? Who knows, but usually.

Anything in this area would probably be pretty soapy, it could involve Daily Drama! stuff, or any number of prominent Hari Suum or Courtiers...

Okay but this is the other big one for Tomorrow where Crimson Court is concerned: the entire basis of this story, the primary story, is that there is this webnovel that was read by Jason Duck, and he ends up being dropkicked into the world in that webnovel, right?

A look at the A Certain Webnovel article will tell you, though, that in pure Isekai trope fashion, the webnovel is farther along the timeline than the world that Jason, aka Gabriel Shaen, finds himself in! So he has all these understandings of the future - of tomorrow - that may or may not be accurate and may or may not be in line with what actually comes to pass in the world actually being inhabited by Gabriel/Duck!

So, you know, a perfect thing to explore for the theme if any of the prompts allow it!