Random Headcannon

Random Headcannon

KC edition

Warning: Angst

When Dante married KC she had dreams of having a large family. Dante managed to ween her off of the idea of 8 to 10 children and decreased it down to 3. The couplw was ecstatic when KC found out she was pregnant! However her pregnancy was not an easy one, and Nekoette's birth was strenuous at best and life threatening at worse. The labor left her unable to conceive again. To make matters worse their daughter was not the healthiest baby, and Ru'aun is known for a tragically high infant mortality rate, so Dante and KC were faced with the very real fear that the only child they'd ever have might no survive through infancy. But luckily their little girl made out okay. They quickly proceeded to spoil her rotten.

Because of this experience Dante and KC decided that it may be best that they only have one child. Although KC still longed to see at least two more little feet crawl around, to have a home filled with children's laughter, scattered toys, and sibling squabbles. She was so grateful that Dimitri joined their family, for Nekoette's sake, but he would always be Nicole's son first. She'd always grieve over the lost of the family she never got to have.

Meet Equinox, a late night design, he's made of empty space and dark matter, you can usually see stars against that empty space but, (I ran out of glitter) they don't show up on camera :')

Ru'aun Culture HCs

Charms

Charms are a common practice in which a small trinket that symbolizes status, character, and accomplishments is worn by the receiver as a symbol of their growth.

All of Ru'aun as well as all of Galruk have some association with charms in their society.

Tu'la does not have any culture involving Charms specifically.

It is not uncommon for a Ru'aun local to be covered in jewelry.

Charms are usually expressed as an accessories (commonly jewelry), but can also take the form of a tattoos or (in the case of the more unhinged) carved out skin. These are referred to as "blood marks", these kinds of charms are considered to be more permanent, and are well respected in the region. A Blood Mark is considered sacred, an intimate vow under the religion of The Matron (Irene), and are heavily encouraged to be upheld by the reciever, often under threat of scrutiny.

Most people only recieve am average of five charms in their lifetime. They are VERY expensive to make, and can be extremely time consuming if you decide to make one yourself.

The idea is to be as unique and identifiable as possible.

Occasionally Charms will be the marker to an unrecognizable body.

Blood Marks and Charms are not always chosen by the reciever. Occasionally a charm will befall a reciever as a punishment and are purposed to bring shame. In the worse cases Blood Marks will be put upon a reciever via forced tattoos or permanent incisions into the skin. Unfortunately despite the nature of a Blood Mark the "vow" is still expected to be honored, regardless of the receiver's sentiments they too will be under threat of scrutiny if they fail to comply to the conditions of their charm.

Occasion for Charms:

Personal Accomplishment - if a reciever or anyone feel that the reciever has overcome a feat worthy of such a gift. Common for milestones, recovery, and aging. However this depends on the receiver's access to martial to make such trinkets. Wealth, energy and time all go into Charm making, it is not to be taken lightly.

Baby Bands - Baby Bands are the most common Charm. It is to celebrate mother and child after labor and ward off disease and malicious spirits from the vulnerable new mom and her babe. Traditionally, lord, guard, farmer or otherwise it is the duty of the father to personally craft this Charm as a show of his loyalty to his family. Baby Bands are made to be bent and trench so that babies can wear them into adulthood.

Familial Charms - These are Charms that represent the family you are either born into or adopted into. Blood born children are given their familial Charms at an age where they are less likely to kick the bucket. Adopted members are given their Charms immediately upon their adoption ceremony. If siblings, cousins, uncle/aunt, or any other familial unit feel like they have a significant bond with the reciever then that would also facilitate a Charm. Sibling Charms are traditionally facilitated and commissioned by the parents, but siblings can make all sorts of Charms between one another.

Casual Charms - low steaks Charms. These are usually inexpensive, and resources conscious. Can be simple trinkets repurposed into accessory. Common among children.

Relationship Charms - similar to familial Charms, but between relationship that aren't defined by a familial bond. Common in dating/exes, between mentor and student, between familiar and witch/warlock, between close friends, and guardships of a village.

Marriage Charm - Instead of rings married couples wear golden or sliver bands around their neck in a choker like fashion. This is the only Charm worn in this way. This, in the majority of the population, will be the most important Charm in a receiver's life. Some, if they are truly committed to their partner have the permanence of their bands tattooed around their neck. This is very serious, and the practicer of Blood Marks will not tattoo young marriages, the couple has to be able to stay together for life (under threat of tarnishing their vows), and after the passing of their spouse they cannot seek a new lover.

Examples (angst)

Travis cannot get Blood Mark. They refuse to appear on his skin.

Travis only had two Charm when they found him. A necklace of beads from his mom. And a baby band, made to celebrate mother and child after birth. It wasn't gifted from his mother. And it wasn't gifted from the Enki Warrior Tribe either.

Donna and Logan have their bands tattooed.

Aphmau adult adopted him and, because she also didn't start out with many Charms or show of affection she then continued to shower him in as many Charms as she could get away with.

Vylad got very few Charms before his death. He keeps pieces of the ones he did get on one gaudy looking chain. He never wears it. But he has it.

Vylad does not have a Baby Band

Malachi only recieved a Baby Band as he did not grow past the point in which he would recieve a familial Charm.

When Aphmau was found she had no Charms of any sort. The "MCD Rebirth" markings are assumed to be strange tattoos. Maybe of religious origin?

For a while she goes without any Charms. Even her ceremony to lordship was skipped because of the urgency of the situation. So the concept of a Lord's vow ceremony was absolutely knew to her.

Charms had to be explained to Aphmau, like all things usually are. She very quickly became completely enamored by the idea and very badly wanted Charms of her own.

In the earlier days when she met someone with very flashy Charms she became very invasive/obsessive/jealous. (Insert Laurence here) *poke, poke, poke*

Laurence, has an unusual amount of Charms when they first meet. The children of lord's usually had more than their peers, but Laurence was out of the norm even for that. Comparing the size of Meteli and O'kasis, Garroth had 17 Charms, Laurence had 20. Bracelets, necklaces, earrings, hair bands, even an ankle bracelet. Our boy was bedazzled.

Aphmau then proceeded to ask about EVERY SINGLE piece of jewelry on his body. He doesn't mind the very throughou attention

Lords are tattooed with Esmund's sigil of protection on the day of their ceremony, vowing them to protect their people against all threat

Aaron was given a similar tattooing, his failure to uphold his end of the vow leaves him as a social outcast, assumed damned by Irene herself (ironic). This also led to the immediate assumption that he murdered the entirety of his village.

Guards use a smaller scale tattoo when they knighted, usually on the wrist. A simple form of the symbol they serve under (I'll get into that in a later post).

Laurence's Knighting Charm was the sigil of Irene. A symbol of love in this case.

Laurence had a mysterious plain silver band around his tiny fist as a child, this is assumed to be a hastily made Baby Band.

Laurence also received a Personal Charm from his superiors who all chipped in to buy him a set of earrings. The gift was made fondly out of respect for Laurence's advanced progression and his achievements as a remarkable protegee. But also it is a departing gift from his time in the achedemy, as Laurence was always a class favorite. The symbol is that of the two brightest star in Kul'zack's Constellation (I'll get to that in another post also).

He recieved this symbol because of his adventurous young spirit, and reputation as a desired Casanova. But also it was a symbol of insisted encouragement for Laurence to travel and invest himself farther than the little village of Meteli as he "could well be a candidate for the jury of nine". This insistence was in opposed to Laurence's desire at the time of his graduation, then he wanted to be grounded, close to his family, and settle...eventually. This teenage sentiment was very quickly scrapped as Laurence along with his ego grew outside of the predicted small shell of Meteli.

Laurence saw Garroth wearing only one earring once, and thought it was a fantastic fashion statement so he copied it with his own.

As a joke by the fellow Meteli guard Laurence was given a Charm with a chicken design to symbolize his relationship with the Chicken Shaman. He unironically loved that thing.

Laurence, in his bond with Ungrth created a Charm. It was the first he'd made himself, a milestone of high esteem, especially for a loved one. Luckily the wyvern understood the importance of this human ritual, and was kind enough to help. Ungrth's magicks eased the struggle of the craft, and it actually ended up being quite the looker. A sliver band with give rubies enfused which each face, Ungrth's favored treasure, between each ruby was a square of designs, small gaps that were supposed to make up the shape of thorns and roses, but ended up being pretty little swirls....and what was supposed to be a bracelet ended up being a ring, and Laurence wasn't a big fan of wearing rings, but he was very proud of himself. He proceeded to show off the Charm for weeks... on a chain of course, because he did not like to wear rings.

Cadenza is VERY jealous of this piece of jewelry. And she insisted that Laurence create a similar charm for the both of them...despite their already established Familial Charms. He tried, but he could not create the same flawless look. Cadenza was disappointed, but still, after nearly twenty years she wears her gold bracelet with messily scattered emerald stones.

In his transformation to a shadow, under Gene's order Laurence was stripped of his Charms. This is a common practice in The Nether, but usually is done of free will. But Gene knew that Laurence wouldn't follow this practise. And he knew that the forced removal of the physical symbols of the young guards humanity and former life would cause the man great distress. So Gene not only took Laurence's Charms, but he melted them down in front of him with his blade (shadowknight metal is HOT guys). He made an ugly looking dagger out of it, and returned the distorted Charm as a gift for his "rebirth ceremony". Laurence cried.

Warning - Sadness: After his return Laurence tried desperately to restore his ruined Charms. He tried all sorts of methods to repurpose the jagged gold tinted metal. But nothing he did could even dent the dagger. He cried. He cried a lot. He still held on to it, obsessively, like one day it would suddenly change back and grant him his hard earned humanity. (He eventually did get rid of it - left it at the foot of the nether end of season 2)

Gene allowed Laurence to keep Ungrth's Charm. Not for any particular reason other than the fact he thought, "the color looks pretty" on Laurence. But because Gene is- Gene he ruined that too. He didn't melt the sliver, but he heated it enough to permanently char the ring black, distorted to match the black and red colors of The Nether.

When Laurence buried Ungrth, unlike his dagger, he buried that ring with him.

Laurence is now Charm-less. He's made many more achievements, relationships, and has risen in status and title multiple times. Occasions that would warrent the recieving of a Charm. But he outright rejects new Charms, or the suggestion of them. He's been fairly honest about why, Laurence has always been able to give the closed case answer of "The Nether" as an explanation, and has never been asked to elaborate further. But he'll never really get into how watching as his identity was destroyed before his eyes and simple it down to... a weapon. It was all too symbolic, too close to a truth he didn't want to see. In Phoenix Drop, alongside companions and family he knew he was allowed to live under the illusion of picking his old life back up, and has been able to ignore the fact that in summary, like his Charms, he had to start all over. And that is a reality he refuses to accept.

He jokes that he'll finally accept a Charm when he and Aphmau get wedding bands. This is a half truth.

Laurence's shadowknight body is too resistance to keep tattoos. His initiation tattoos had long fizzled out of his skin, to his dismay. And he recieved a knighting tattoo for his guardship in Phoenix Drop, but to his disappointment it soon faded as well. He could no longer use his body to show human commitments. Nothing he did would be permanent in that intimate way again.

Laurence has recieved only two Charms since his transformation. The first was a mear ribbon, an uncommon form of Charm, it is his guardship Charm between himself, Garroth, and Dante before the Irene Dimension. This Charm was tied around his sword. The second was from Levin. The young lord never asked if he wanted one. After being in the Yaggdrasil forest for so long he wasn't completely accustomed to the unspoken contract of Charm-gifting. But he was desperate to finally get to practice the culture of his people (he'd already covered Malachi in whatever metal he could bend into a bracelet in their childhood and teens). He was so excited, Laurence couldn't bring himself to tell the boy "no", so he took the Charm with grace. He made matching ones for himself, Dante, Laurence and his mommy because Levin is a sweet boy 😊.

The Chicken Shaman himself gave Laurence a Charm... of sorts. The Shaman was not too unfamiliar with the practice of Charms, but he saw it as lowly and pathetic... so perfect for Laurence. He was given a green dyed Chicken Feather. A VERY unique taste. Laurence didn't wear this item a lot, like one would other Charms, but he'd rock it on occasion. He'd thought he'd lost it after he went to The Nether, but in reality Cadenza has it in her inventory. She was so proud of herself when she found it. An untainted Charm from her brother's past, one he could touch and feel and look at without the remainders of The Nether. And with any luck he'd wear it. And with even more luck he'd move past this refusal to create new Charms. She'd planned to return it to him. To surprise him. And she waited to do so, for the perfect moment. And she waited. And she waited she waited. And she waited. She's been starring at it blankly for the last 15 years.

Garroth was given the tattoo of his family sigil placed at his shoulder. He was "gifted" the charm at an unreasonably young age (7ish) in order to ensure his obedience to his family. This did not work. When Garroth started a new life his first course of action was to remove himself from all previous vows. This resulted in Garroth having to remove the Charm on his shoulder....

Secondly Garroth removed all of his other charms as well. Both to hide himself from O'kasis, and as a show of guilt of being now unable to fulfill any of his vows, or live up to any of his previous characteristics as a son of O'kasis (but he had more fun removing his Charms of Status). He ended up having to sell the majority of them in order to fund his undercover journey from O'kasis to Phoenix Drop. Out of all 17 of his Charms he kept only three.

Garroth's Charms:

One of which was a personal gift from his mother, a necklace of Irene's sigil, intended to keep The Matron's love close to his heart (ironic). It's not too special as this is a common charm, set apart only by the encrusted Lapis Lazuli, he was given the charm as a child, just after his tattooing, not for achievement or status, but for simply existing. He now where's it under his armor.

The second was from Vylad... an earring his youngest brother had forged himself out of steel in their teen years, it was originally a pair but Vylad messed up the other in his amateur attempt. It's the terrible design of The Wanderers sigil, and it looks more like an ugly snowflake, but it showed how much Vylad knew his brother, as he knew he wanted to be free of O'kasis. In his grief Garroth dare not wear the charm, even after Vylad was revealed to be alive, to him this charm is a symbol of brotherhood, and after Vylad, then Zane, and Zenix... that too has become an identity he feel too distant from to claim. He wore it for a short while when he became closer with Laurence, but even that was squandered when he was so rudely reminded of his past when Zane waltz in like the Queen of England. He wore them again for another brief period after his return from the Irene Dimension, but after Laurence left.... he felt alone. He felt farther from the brother he was once raised to be than ever. He truly considered throwing the thing in a river never to be seen again to which he broke down in sobs :'( he now wears it consistently as a symbol of failure and shame.

And lastly the third. Another personal gift. From Zane... this was the only sentimental gift that Zane had ever given him. Ever. It was truly thoughtful, and seemingly unprompted. In their childhood whilst playing they manged to completely shatter their mother's expensive porcelain vase. The decor meant a lot to Zianna, she never disclosed why. But in a desperate effort to stray from disappointing or even worse upsetting their mother (something they commonly tried to avoid since Garte had picked up that hobby ten fold) the two brothers collaborated to repair the vase. It was terrible, they did not succeed. When Zianna found out she was distraught of course, but seeing what her normally estranged sons had done together was a far greater gift than any ancient vase. She showered them in praise, but in no uncertain terms lecture them to stop running in her personal chambers. But she was happy, very happy, possibly the happiest she'd ever been. In their teens, like Vylad, Zane gave Garroth a unique charm, though he had it commissioned instead of making it himself. It was a sliver ring, encapsulated in glass covering was in fact a shard of the long discarded vase. A piece Zane had kept. Behind the shard was a single petal to an orchid, the flower housed by the shattered vase. Their mother's favorite. Garroth was stunned, he's still stunned. The gesture confuses him to no wits end. When he looks at it makes him angry. It makes him sad. It makes him sick. When he looks at that accursed ring he feel so unbareably lost and alone. An once good memory now turned cold and lifeless...But he wears the ring. Everywhere he where's the ring. He has never once taken it off. Not once. He's never mentioned it, nor it's importance, and he never plans to. It's of no purpose to him, not a reminder of shame, nor honor, nor duty, or even happiness. It brings him nothing, and if he somehow lost it he wouldn't bat an eye. But he has never put himself in a position to lose it, or got rid of it himself. It has been years now... too many years. The Ring itself was grimy, dented by battle, the smooth surface now rough, crevices filled with unknown crust, but somehow, after all these years the orchid petal never seemed to wilt...

Bonus:

If you asked Zane about this charm now he'd claim that it gesture of severance. The final 'piece' of his childhood removed from himself. But not even he I truly certain of that answer. In truth he cannot say why he gave Garroth such a gift. The action confuses even him, and frustratingly he can't recall the sentiments he had at the time.

So no one really knows the intentions of this gift. An neither brother can truly identify its meaning.

I don't know if these hcs will be anything more than implied within my continuation, but I've thought about them enough to post them somewhere. But y'know...don't go and read it or anything 👀...

"Minecraft Diaries: Sons and Daughters"

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46724815

This is so interesting!! As a kid I LOVED discovering the new Divine Warrior drama. Any depth to these characters at all is a blessing and I think that the complexity of Irene was built up but ultimately unexplored. I wish we got the chance to see more of the four outside of Irene tho! Especially Enki an kul'Zak, they seem like they got a lot secrets and lore behind them! Thank you for thissssss 😩

Another thing to help me characterize my Divine Warriors - Vices

Shad: Bloodshed - After becoming the Destroyer he was always hungry. He craved to consume and destroy everything in his path, whether it be people, animals, or towns.

Irene: Attention - While attention in itself isn't bad, too much of it can be bad. Irene was subscribed to "Any attention is good attention" and was how she became the most worshipped god. She encouraged it so more people would come to her for help. She was a fixer.

Enki: Power - The man was a hoarder of knowledge, and in this world, the quote "knowledge is power" is directly inspired by Enki. She was the Keeper, and they constantly wanted more.

Menphia: Booze - She was the fury, the one who constantly got into fights. The definition of a warrior, but as a warrior, she often killed people in her bouts of fury that she never meant to. This led to her taking moments to... calm her mind with a stiff drink.

Esmund: People - This man was a self-sacrificing maniac. He desperately wanted people to love him and, more specifically, Irene to love him. He wanted to wrap everyone in his big strong arms so no one would ever be unsafe again.

Kul'Zak: Smoking - After becoming immortal against his will, he took up the habit so he could at least feel like death. After all, a smoked fish is a dead fish.

Wrong!

The not-so-fun-part

I think that ultimately the reason Aaron's character comes of as so insufferably out of place in both MCD and Myst is because his only character trait is "I luv Aph" and 🎆trauma🎆 but I think this is to cover up a greater problem. And I believe this issue Originates from Jesson, or their relationship, or how they choose to portray their relationship- whatever. I don't want to get to deeply into them as individuals, but it does need to be stated how their dynamic is because Aarmau at the end of the day is a reflection of Jesson. Their view on what interactions are romantically okay in their writing stems from their interactions with eachother irl.

I won't go into detail in this post, but if you know, you know.

And so it is interesting, intended or not, how this relationship comes across. I need to make it known now that I do not claim to know the intimate relationship between Jess and Jason. But again, it is hard to ignore. I would not be surprised if some of the stranger aspects of the Aarmau relationship were normal for the Jesson relationship.

And a pattern I have noticed is that, throughout the years, even into Myst, Aaron STILL seems to only be characterized by his trauma or his love for potato-wife. And if Aphmau and Aaron are truly only the persona to Jess and Jason then why not characterize Aaron more like his irl counterpart? It's almost as though they are trying to hide him behind the loud trauma and loyalty to Aph. Like they are trying to hide Jason behind Aaron?

Idk. I can't say much more than that. But I do think it would be irresponsible to bring up the topic without mentioning it.

I just came to a angst realization....

(Thank you to @shirazens for allowing me to use their comment)

I literally just came to this conclusion in a comment threat under my "Aaron Needs Friends" post with @shirazens .

In summary Aarmau comes off as unnatural

I think the main issue is how rushed and force the relationship was in the series, and the fact that it change key elements in the story to make a place for itself.

The Aarmau agenda also had to down other characters to build itself up, which sucks. A lot of character assassination stem from Aarmau. Including the way Aphmau interacts with her support. But I'd like to focus on how unnatural (and frankly problematic) this relationship comes across if you actually pay attention to how they interact with eachother.

And their relationship is certainly off.

@shirazens

THIS is why I've always disliked his character, he felt so disconnected.

also he continues to constantly mourn his past wife WHILE getting closer to aphmau which feels like to me he was just using her if that makes sense?

Their relationahip has always come across as strange.

In my former post I address a portion of this problem with Aaron not having any relationships outside of Aphmau. It is odd.

Aaron- despite being so closed off and mysterious and (quite rude in some instances), CONTINUED to follow her group around for months...but NEVER take an interest in ANYONE??? Except Aph. That is mad weird. If you like her so much to risk your life for her consistently why avoid her Support System so adamantly???

It makes the relationship seem very strange. Almost like Aaron is isolating Aphmau from her friends when building their relationship. They only really talked about his trauma or her stress-

Aaron and Aphmau are TRAUMA BONDING...

It hit me like a train! It isn't romance, it isn't a love story. It is codependency!

Aph ONLY goes to Aaron when she is stressed about her responsibilities. "Because he understands". And in turn Aaron's only personality trait is trauma- and he only really opens up to (or talks at all) to Aphmau. Think about it, this man is FOLLOWING her- for seemingly NO REASON by time the Post-Irene-Dimension arc roles around! "Having nothing" isn't really a logical reason anymore. He had NO motive to be present. He's made no connections, no character growth, no earthly ties, so WHY are you following the 🎆"magical friendship woman"🎆 if you don't want to make friends???

And I think this is great writing potential. This makes sense for the storyline in season two, as Aph was extremely overwhelmed, and the steaks had just risen from village quarrels to Armageddon. And I definitely can see where @shirazens was going with the how Aaron saw Aphmau, as a stand in or familiarity to his wife, or that he was using Aphmau to get a semblance of his late wife, Lily.

Personally I'm not amongst the re-write clan of aph-fans, (I prefer to progess with the shit show we were given). But this is a juicy narrative to explore for both, especially if you don't want to throw out Aarmau all together.

If you want to get angsty, you could argue that Aaron being so distant to Aph's support group was to isolate her from them. Again, this fits, and I am well aware Jesson did not intend this BUT Aphmau DID become a lot more distant to her companions for Aaron's sake. She became dismissive of their concerns, argued with their suspicions, and lowkey berated them because "she trusted him" and expected everyone to follow suit (fr a lot of them were so real for that, homie was acting up- ahem- Laurence- ahem- Katelyn). She put Aaron on a pedestal out of nowhere, and vouched for him undeservingly. You could argue that this was a result of isolating her, you could argue that this was just Aph blindness to Aaron's faults.

And this also really REALLY fits well with the Irene VS Shad motif and how that entire mess went down between them. I can totally see those two being codepent with one another as well with their similar struggles and pain. I can see them relying on one another too heavily. I can see that leading to suck strong feelings of betrayal. Especially if Shad was as isolated as Aaron. In fact I'd say Irene and Shad damn near prove this idea.

Fun right?

I doubt Jesson intended it but... why do I keep running into this really heavy theme throughout mcd.

Hear me out:

Children turning out to be monsters despite their parents efforts.

Let's start of with the obvious red flags

Zenix.

It is implied that he was very young when he was taken in by Garroth. It is also said outright that he was a shadowknight even before that. The dark implication of this is that Zenix became a shadowknight at a young age (children becoming shadowknights is rarely mentioned within mcd, it notably is only implied with Zenix, and Alexis.) Garroth took Zenix under his wing, so much so the kid was literally described as like a son to Garroth. But despite his efforts Zenix betrayed Phoenix Drop. The way they address this issue stands out to me as multiple characters seem to describe Zenix as "already gone" from his arrival to Phoenix Drop. Even Laurence. Now one could chalk this up to Jess being unable or unwilling to truly address Zenix as a tragic character, and simply paint him as the conniving villain the series needed at the time (before Zane). And i think there is some truth to that. However the fact that Zenix' motives have remained notably undefined and his actions seem to contradict from what we are told about him so insistently. Even for Jessica this is a clear sign that something is up. "Already gone"... because my writer brain loves parallels I automatically connected it to (again) the only place that this idea is brought up in the series: Zane.

Zane.

Zane in mcd is evil, his motives also seem a little unclear at times, but this is because he characterized to be power hungry, unpredictable, and- undeniably evil. But was it always this way? Zane would prefer to watch the world burn than rule it. He seems to just hate people, so what terrible event caused such a terrible person? Nothing apparently. As said by Zianna, he was "always that way".

Zenix' "Already Gone" hits far too close to Zane's "Always That Way" for me. And the parallels don't end there, Zenix and Zane mirror one another in interesting ways. Both have familial-like attachment to Garroth, and their nature/motivation seems to torment and confuse him endlessly. They both became shadowknights (both were chosen by the shadow lord despite being outside of his usual "type" - Zane:At twink, Zenix:A child.) And they both seem to be obsessed with power, yet both have some kind of trauma surrounding people in power (Zane:Garte, Zenix:Implied to have been wronged by a lord in some way.) All this being said I have to point out Zenix and Zane both start with Z. They are the only ones aside from Zoey with a Z starting name, and since they already share so many qualities I can see this being a way for Jess to foreshadow this.

Garroth, like he did with Zenix, he questions what led Zane on his path but Zianna seems to put this idea to rest entirely, and her word is taken as fact. Which is fair the idea isn't too shocking, considering the kind of person Zane was. But the fact that even Garroth thought to question the cause of Zane's nature and is immediately shut down by Zianna, and then it is never mentioned again. It's just to reminiscent to how Garroth compartmentalized Zenix' downfall and never mentioned it again. It's just too close.

Zianna at the end of the day is Zane's mother, which one could argue that she knows him best, however parents can be blind to the trauma that young children might face and the results that this may cause. Important to note is that Zianna is likely a victim. A constant state of fight or flight could absolutely block her from realizing or addressing the effects of prolonged trauma in her children. In her mind she was taking the blunt of the rather, a shield between harm and her children, but as in most cases, and as shown in both Garroth and Vylad this was not the reality, so it would be easy to connected that this would be the same with the middle son, Zane.

But in the misfortune of her situation Zianna did the best that she possibly could. But Zane ended up the way he did anyway. The way that Zianna is characterized in her short time on screen really encapsulates the backbone of this concept. Her guilt, and her grief are so compelling, and the manner in which she rationalize her traumatic experience is very believable... but identifying a child who was raised in a household that actively encouraged cruelty as just "always like that" is very suspicious to me. And the strong thematic intersections aligning between Zenix and Zane makes me believe that there is something going on here.

Brian

Last but not least.

This reveal was unexpected but impactful. It was shocking because of this concept. Despite Molly's best efforts Brian became a traitor anyway.

It came alongside Zenix' in a way which I think is interesting. It was implied that they had some kind of relationship. And they both ended up betraying Phoenix Drop.

I wonder where this guy is now...

But some honorable mentions since this concept is interesting to me. (Most of the arcs were put aside so it is interesting to think where they could have gone considering the circumstances, so I'm connecting it to this mini-theory.)

Season 1, when Baby Alexis was turned into an adult SHADOWKNIGHT! She was returned to normal of course but still... is that a possible destiny for her to be weary of?

Leona. Kiki is so sweet, and a great mom, bit... there is too much mystery and unanswered questions surrounding this child of her's. (Why did Zane even do this?) She is somewhat implied to kinda-but-not-really be Zane's? Regardless of the reality one way or another she is a result of Zane, a pawn in his plot, maybe one that died with him, maybe one that returned with him, we don't know.

Considering this thematic presence throughout MCD I wonder where this would have led in season three. It would be interesting if this heavier side to the series continued. Especially since Aphmau is raising the heir to a destroyer's relic. If this theme is to be believed then where would that lead to in Alina's destiny?

"Minecraft Diaries: Son and Daughters"

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46724815