DEATH TO THAT RACE OF EMETIC LIQUID, BORN OUT OF THE POND SCUM, WHO DURING THE ICY-GREEN SEASON SEND OUT THEIR WICKED SPELL AGAINST OUR ELDERS AND OUR CHILDREN!
LET US PURGE THIS WORLD OF FROSTKIN FREAKS, OF THIS FILTHY RACE THAT NEVER HAS DESERVED TO LIVE...
Death to the frostkin! DEATH to the FROSTKIN!!
Propaganda Rally at the start of a flamekin military campaign
So the plot of StrixAlluka's latest AU/crossover is inspired by the Neo-Romantic 1980s aesthetic, the Spandau Ballet song "Through the Barricades" and by this Franime (French animesque) film called Les enfants de la pluie / The Rain Children by Philippe Leclerc and a Franime Moby Dick series episode "Le gouffre aux chimères / The Chasm of Confusion" (ep 29) and some episodes of fellow Franime series Le Petit Prince 2010 (the third of my main inspirations: mainly the planets of Coppelius, Ludokaa, Wish-Trees, Music+Flowers, Ashkabaar), but with some Potterverse and ASoIaF, Waterfire Saga and A:tLA and Lakmé elements, as well as some Stevonnie/Salmacis genderqueer fusion stuff. Basically fuse the best of all these worlds and the plot of the first-mentioned Franime sources together, then add inspiration from the swashbuckling genre and from Victorian middle-grade literature with counterpart cultures of France and Prussia and the obvious ensuing conflict counterparts (Laboulaye's Gobemouches vs. Coqsigrues, or Maurois' Patapoufs vs. Filifers). Now add the cast of Les Mis (and a few cameos from other Victorian fiction and gaslamp fantasies), set the timer for a Shakespearean five-act structure... and what comes out of this?
Ever since the old gods (some whimsical child-gods who finally came of age as soon as the sapient species they had created developed beyond their control) left these two humanoid races to their fate, a militaristic steampunk fire nation (no, not that militaristic steampunk Fire Nation but more westernised and still pretty close) that worship light in spite of their clouded skies persecute their helpless, aesthetically inclined ice counterpart of a more twilit realm under colour-changing polar lights (think Ondalina sans militarism, fused with Ludia and with something of the Water Tribes), and devastate the dark "enemy" lands, thinking that the cold and the excess of liquid and plant life in their realm will quench their internal source of life. For the frostkin, heavy rain or snow and darkness mean breath, while intense heat and light mean death; whereas, for the flamekin, intense heat and light mean breath, while heavy rain or snow and darkness mean death. Two elemental races, both alike in dignity, lead pleasant lives (more austere for one, more self-indulgent for the other), during a decade of respite provided by armed peace... everyone still more or less unaware that their respective worlds are about to collide and fall apart at the seams.
On one side of the frontline, three cadets, orphaned by execution ever since their parents discovered some dark secrets about the government, knit close bonds with one another and with the firstborn daughter of their drill instructor and the cook-lady at the military academy (for of course the Thénardiers had to be there). Within a few years, all four of these siblings-in-arms graduate - Éponine Thénardier as a sergeant like her dad (she thinks it's unfair), the inquisitive Combeferre and the irreverent Courfeyrac as lieutenants like the rest of the class, and class ace Enjolras as the youngest colonel EVER in the history of their military (also attracting the envy of Théodule Gillenormand, the Draco-Malfoy-flavoured jerk jock du jour, who got to graduate as a lieutenant as well). Shortly after, all four of them (and the homeschooled civilian servant Marius Pontmercy, a translator from an industrialist family on his mum's side, whose renowned military father went missing in action) are sent as the leaders of a forlorn hope on a suicide mission across enemy lines. They are all eager to prove themselves to the establishment that persecuted their elders, but little do they know the government's real intentions.
Across enemy lines, the gentle Cosette and the unusually cynical Grantaire, both orphans, are raised as siblings by a polar bear of a gentleman, ever since the war tore their families and their childhoods apart. For as long as they can remember, their gruff yet loving gruncle figure M. Fauchelevent has never told them of his past or his real name. Other artistic and peaceful underage-young people, like the reserved gardener-poet Jehan Prouvaire or the dollmaker Feuilly, come to live at the idyllic improvised orphanage for similar reasons and, as they all learn and play throughout their daily routines, most of them dream of a future where their descendants will live in peace with the Others for more than two decades straight (ie, forever and ever). Alas, the light-shy frostkin and the light-adoring flamekin seem to be, though the ostensibly calm armed peace, doomed to confront one another in a conflict as old as day... and that it will soon awaken, earlier than they could ever expect, from ancient grudge to new enmity, then close in on their unprotected home, shattering their unity and scattering them throughout the realm.
During that fateful raid, paths cross, destinies entwine, skins and hearts burn, convictions are put to the test, and truths revealed, as flamekin take to arms and frostkin struggle with the dilemma of whether they should fight for the first time in forever or attempt to parley with a stubborn enemy, while a resistance movement brews in the twilight of light and darkness and its ranks increase, tying all walks of life of both ice and fire together...
Only impossible love will someday overcome the Great Sundering.
Then, the One shall at last recover their Unity -
- the cosmic order shall be restored -
- and all people shall drink the light of the sun...
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