Fantasy Northern Exposure | An Icy Sort of Isekai Experience

[AlphaBlueWolf]

*Northern Exposure*​

In the extreme north stands a kingdom known as Aurealis. Years and years ago, settlers braved the cold to find a place in which they could call home. They established Aurealis and made it a prominent kingdom in the world's affairs, setting up trade routes and growing a prosperous nation. Now, a thousand years later, they continue to thrive in an otherwise unstable environment.

The royalty of the kingdom are the instruments keeping it stable. They have important roles, from military might to handling the political state of the kingdom, it is their job to handle all aspects of keeping the kingdom running smoothly. And it is a job Muse A (your character) has been learning since a young age as the crown prince. He will one day inherit the kingdom, and all the challenges that come with it. And recently, there have been many challenges the royals need to attend to.

​

There are the matter of the Firehearts, human beings born with magical power. They have such an overwhelming bank of mana that they could heat entire city blocks, and it is for that reason they are sought after in such cold climates. Firehearts will be kidnapped and sold into the black market, their body parts used in disgusting practices. Their blood will be sold in batches, capable of warming up a person’s body upon drinking for the entire length of their snow trekking journey. Their hair could be used to create wicks of ever burning candles. The list goes on for their usefulness, especially in an area such as Aurealis. It has been a long and awful debate for years. Using Firehearts would greatly help Aurealis, but some believe the practice completely amoral even with the great benefits presented. They are human beings after all, capable of thought and feeling like the rest of us. However, some choose to deny that fact so they can look past the amoral aspects and gain the ingredients sought after by many. Recently, Aurealis has started taking in refugees from the surrounding areas. And some have been Firehearts, the crown helping those with such gifts to hideout, even when it's hard, from the smugglers and kidnappers that come to Aurealis. Firehearts are commonly known to have unusually red hair, and those with such traits get harassed and even kidnapped by foreign traders. The docks have been quite full of adventurers seeking out the ingredients they desire in the polar atmosphere, where Firehearts are more likely to reside. Firehearts have an above average core body temperature, so they prefer the cold to cool them down to what is normal for a human. If they’re in a warm atmosphere, they’re temperature can go above what they can handle and they can get extremely feverish and sick. The royals have been trying to crack down on such traders who seek to kidnap Firehearts, and as such their trading has suffered greatly, putting another strain on the people’s relations with Firehearts. Even those who reside within the palace believe that it is a foolish endeavor for those they don’t even believe to be their own people, just freaks and wanderers of the icy plains. To bring strain on the economy, even by a little, just for a minor population? One that is looked down on, too. It is not a popular decision in regard to the populace, or even the royals' closest advisors, and has just brought more hate to the Firehearts as of late.

​

Furthermore, new factions have started to rise up in the north, making themselves known. There is a small tribe of people living in the mountains around Aurealis. They have made a home in a place where the people of Aurealis have tried to and failed because of freezing temperatures and dangerous beasts. They have a strong connection to the wilds, with slightly pointed ears that allow them to hear better and provide a cover from freezing temperatures, as well as a connection to many dangerous beasts that people of Aurealis fear. They’ve kept their existence hidden from Aurealis since the kingdom sprung up, fearing their might and wanting to keep to their corner of the world without the constant bother of other settlements. But that time has passed. People are starting to disappear from the tribe. Children are being taken in the night from their homes. At first, the tribe just thought they got lost out in the snow, but more and more have been picked off since the first and they’ve realized that someone is behind the disappearances. The obvious suspect? The giant kingdom below them. So, they’ve taken up attacks on the kingdom. Collapsing their mines, damaging the crop fields, setting beasts to ravage the towns. They wish to send a message of defiance and warning, that just because the kingdom was bigger than them, didn’t mean they got to push them around and kidnap their people. Finally, the royals have gotten the message out to the young leader of the tribe (my character) that they want to meet and broker peace. Aurealis has no idea what could make the tribe attack them. It is clear that many have mixed opinions on the tribe, some people even despising them, thinking they are savage and just want trouble. The prince of the tribe himself is not at all fond of the kingdom, and deliberations will prove to be tough to work towards peace, especially when dealing with such a young, rash, and radical ruler.

In reality, the kidnapping is the work of a cult rising in power and numbers. They have the means to somehow transport people from another world, the modern world, into this one. And they are using the kidnapped children as hosts for these people. Because of this cult, Muse C (my character) got her dream come true. A sick girl, bedridden and on her deathbed too early in life got transported to this world as a Fireheart in one of the cult’s experiments. Normally, anyone would’ve been terrified of the circumstances, but she was ecstatic. She got to live the fantasy life she’d always read about, she was no longer sick and confined to a bed all the time, and she had a great wealth of magical power. Her sickness transferred over in the new life as her Fireheart nature, but it ended up being a gift rather than a curse. Because of her magic she is able to free herself and runs out into a blizzard that she is able to survive in due to that magic. However, she is thoroughly depleted of her mana, and gets taken in by a group who notices her peculiar red hair. What she once thought were a bunch of nice adventurers turns out to be black market dealers interested in Firehearts, and serves as a rude awakening to the dangers of the world that accompany her new body. But before the group can tote her all the way back overseas from where they came from, the Aurealissan government rescues her and gives her a place to stay on the outskirts of the city, where they situate most of the refugees.

But something isn’t quite right about her, something more than being a Fireheart, and the royals quickly pick up on it. The girl looks exactly like a hero from their history, from when Aurealis first started its reign, right down to the birthmark the hero was said to have. Besides remembering her life in her previous world, she knows nothing of the life she lived here before waking up in the cult’s presence. There has to be something before waking up, she wasn’t in the body of a newborn but a young adult, so she had to have lived some life before she woke up. But she couldn’t remember anything and couldn’t supply them with an explanation as to why exactly she looked like the hero from so long ago, the one that went missing under mysterious circumstances, never to be seen again, and now here she was returned to them centuries later. But the royals can't deny who she is, and soon enough she's plucked out of the refugee homes and taken to stay in the castle where the royals can keep an eye on her and figure out exactly what's going on with her, all the while having to deal with the disappearances that are starting to breach Aurealis’s walls.

So now she's a nobody thrust into the world of politics and riches, some people shaking their heads at the whole thing. Some don’t believe she’s the hero, rather just some random commoner girl, others are skeptical of her strange and foreign speech. She does not act like the stories describe. And others believe she’s hiding something. Something crucial in order to know just who exactly she is. And who exactly is pulling the strings behind her arrival, and the kidnapping of the tribe kids. All of these struggles put a strain on those currently bearing the crown, and those waiting to take over that weight.

***​

The kingdom has a pretty loose structure to start with so we can build it up together. I want to double up, with my tribe leader and Fireheart girl. I would like for you to play the crown prince, and you can get creative with your second character. A knight perhaps? Or maybe even a commoner? A mercenary? Whatever you want.

What I'm looking for in a partner:
Relatively active- A post at least once every two weeks
Literate- Few paragraphs
Ghosting- Tell me if you are uninterested please
Don't be afraid to build up the world with me. It's a blank canvas that we can do anything with.