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As I mentioned a while back on my twitter (@rosenritter42), my goal is to have at least one chapter per month. And because my last chapter was on January 1st, that means that there was a chapter in January! Haha... ha... hhhhhhh.
But I mostly kid. Beating myself up over delays is what got me into a writer's block funk with Dies Irae. I'm trying not to get down on myself if I take a while to get a chapter together, since doing so seems to make my productivity worse. But that's enough of that! Let's get to the nitty-gritty with some notes about the previous chapter!
Witches
In the original His Dark Materials books, Witches appear to only live in what we in this world would call northern Scandinavia. They're all female, and new Witches are born when a Witch has a daughter with a human man. If a Witch gives birth to a boy, he is a normal human. They can live for hundreds of years (sometimes over 1000 years if I remember correctly). They have some magical capabilities, such as being able to fly with the use of the bough of a specific tree (the cloud pine), some weather controlling powers, the ability to become nearly imperceptible and move about undetected, and a few other things. At a certain point in their life, they undergo a trial that allows them to travel far distances from their daemon (more about THAT coming up in future chapters, so I won't be touching it here). They're pretty cool, and seem to be criminally under-utilized in daemon/HDM AUs.
Now, I'm keeping a good chunk of those things, but I have also altered them in order to fit both the Omegaverse stuff and for my own personal gratification. They still have certain magic abilities and an incredibly long lifespan; those are the things I've touched the least. But instead of being located entirely in Scandinavia, there are Witch clans scattered across the world. Every continent has at least a handful of clans, and they all have their own unique beliefs and cultures. Some clans are more open-minded while others are insular.
In this story, Witches exist outside of the Alpha/Beta/Omega system. We'll get more into the ramifications of that in a specific chapter later on. Witches can't sire children, but they can give birth to children sired by either Alphas or Betas regardless of of the sire's gender. If a Witch-born baby is assigned female at birth, they will have the abilities of a Witch and will lack an A/B/O dynamic. If assigned male at birth, they will not have Witch abilities and could be an Alpha, Beta, or (extremely rarely) an Omega. Because His Dark Materials never even acknowledges that trans and non-binary people exist, that is something I'll be dabbling in as I show more about how Witches work. Like Calanthia mentions in this chapter, some clans will allow a trans woman daughter to join her mother's clan. We'll also see how things can be for trans men born to Witches.
Omega boys born to Witches are incredibly, incredibly rare. Several decades can go by without a single Witch-born Omega alive on the planet. More on what that means for Will later.
On Specific Daemons/Characters
Calanthia/Ambrosios - I enjoy making utility OCs. When I write OCs in fanfic, I want them to be enjoyable, but not distracting enough that they take away from what the canon characters are up to. So, like a trash can at Disney World, my job is make something that is there mostly to serve a purpose and blend into the scenery. I hope I'm able to accomplish that with any OCs that I drop into the story. Anyway, Calanthia is more or less a magic cop with a snowy owl daemon. The name Ambrosios comes from a Greek name meaning "immortal". She might not be immortal, but she's been kicking around for a long time.
Clarice/her daemon - First off: fret not, folks who are not interested in Clarice/Hannibal, Clarice is not going to be playing a large role in this story. She's mostly here as a wink because I am a monster who thought the last name "Starling" was just too juicy of a pun to let slide. I like the idea that she'll grow up to be even more interested in the FBI than Calanthia is, and will be a world-class, grade-A magic cop. Because she's a kid here, she is unsettled, but I'm pretty sure her daemon's preferred form of a Hildebrandt's starling will be a keeper. I haven't named her daemon yet, but if she shows up later down the line, maybe I'll get around to it.
But I mostly kid. Beating myself up over delays is what got me into a writer's block funk with Dies Irae. I'm trying not to get down on myself if I take a while to get a chapter together, since doing so seems to make my productivity worse. But that's enough of that! Let's get to the nitty-gritty with some notes about the previous chapter!
Witches
In the original His Dark Materials books, Witches appear to only live in what we in this world would call northern Scandinavia. They're all female, and new Witches are born when a Witch has a daughter with a human man. If a Witch gives birth to a boy, he is a normal human. They can live for hundreds of years (sometimes over 1000 years if I remember correctly). They have some magical capabilities, such as being able to fly with the use of the bough of a specific tree (the cloud pine), some weather controlling powers, the ability to become nearly imperceptible and move about undetected, and a few other things. At a certain point in their life, they undergo a trial that allows them to travel far distances from their daemon (more about THAT coming up in future chapters, so I won't be touching it here). They're pretty cool, and seem to be criminally under-utilized in daemon/HDM AUs.
Now, I'm keeping a good chunk of those things, but I have also altered them in order to fit both the Omegaverse stuff and for my own personal gratification. They still have certain magic abilities and an incredibly long lifespan; those are the things I've touched the least. But instead of being located entirely in Scandinavia, there are Witch clans scattered across the world. Every continent has at least a handful of clans, and they all have their own unique beliefs and cultures. Some clans are more open-minded while others are insular.
In this story, Witches exist outside of the Alpha/Beta/Omega system. We'll get more into the ramifications of that in a specific chapter later on. Witches can't sire children, but they can give birth to children sired by either Alphas or Betas regardless of of the sire's gender. If a Witch-born baby is assigned female at birth, they will have the abilities of a Witch and will lack an A/B/O dynamic. If assigned male at birth, they will not have Witch abilities and could be an Alpha, Beta, or (extremely rarely) an Omega. Because His Dark Materials never even acknowledges that trans and non-binary people exist, that is something I'll be dabbling in as I show more about how Witches work. Like Calanthia mentions in this chapter, some clans will allow a trans woman daughter to join her mother's clan. We'll also see how things can be for trans men born to Witches.
Omega boys born to Witches are incredibly, incredibly rare. Several decades can go by without a single Witch-born Omega alive on the planet. More on what that means for Will later.
On Specific Daemons/Characters
Calanthia/Ambrosios - I enjoy making utility OCs. When I write OCs in fanfic, I want them to be enjoyable, but not distracting enough that they take away from what the canon characters are up to. So, like a trash can at Disney World, my job is make something that is there mostly to serve a purpose and blend into the scenery. I hope I'm able to accomplish that with any OCs that I drop into the story. Anyway, Calanthia is more or less a magic cop with a snowy owl daemon. The name Ambrosios comes from a Greek name meaning "immortal". She might not be immortal, but she's been kicking around for a long time.
Clarice/her daemon - First off: fret not, folks who are not interested in Clarice/Hannibal, Clarice is not going to be playing a large role in this story. She's mostly here as a wink because I am a monster who thought the last name "Starling" was just too juicy of a pun to let slide. I like the idea that she'll grow up to be even more interested in the FBI than Calanthia is, and will be a world-class, grade-A magic cop. Because she's a kid here, she is unsettled, but I'm pretty sure her daemon's preferred form of a Hildebrandt's starling will be a keeper. I haven't named her daemon yet, but if she shows up later down the line, maybe I'll get around to it.
