Context:

This character story came about with the sketchbook design of Liri in i think 2018? It’s directly inspired by webtoons Four Leaf, Your Letter and the show Hilda. I wanted to make a story in a fantastical world. The plot is really wishy washy and not fully developed, but, I’ve had a lot of fun making characters and doing worldbuilding with this one. I think this would be fun to see as a webcomic with lots of details, inspired by witch hat atelier or an animated series with studio ghibli level detail.

firstTimeline:

• Liri arrived home from school. It is very warm out and the sun is shining brightly. There are those really puffy dark clouds making cool shapes in the sky (it looks like it will rain some time in the afternoon). Liri spends the afternoon doing homework in her room. Her window faces the street and she can see people pass. The window has a wood gate covering and they put up bars when necessary. She then goes to the yard (her mom told her to cover(tarp) the chickens cuz the storm is coming). Dinner and vibing under the storm that night

• The city they live in is very large, having parts that are historical with walls ( one of the areas Liri lives in). A large part is farmland and naturey(area in one direction before the forest). Liri kind of lives in between that ( closer to the outskirts of the city but still in a historical area right next to one of the walls). Her school is a little far out but still near the forestry area of the city. Basically, this city is crazy big (and it's a city state).

• The next day, It is the 2nd day before summer break. Liri wakes up. The streets are wet(smell of rain on the moss, grass, pavement, and the greenery outside the wall). She goes out through the gate and pulls open the wooden door in the wall. She walks some ways through the wall (does this to avoid busy roads in the morning market). It takes a while to get to school. The school (inspired by the school in Your Letter), is again in a “forestry” section, or at least the property is very foresty. It probably has all grades going from kindergarten to highschool on the same property and the “park” section reminds me of Wabaunsee lake park (the memory of).
• Liri is not treated the best at school. She’s not heavily bullied, but people kind of just ignore her in her grade (more like she’s invisible). This is because she landed in a more “wealthy” school because of their house location (they are right on the border of that district). Liri’s family is like working class or something (her mother sells garden stuff and eggs at the market. Her dad is a carpenter). The other reason is because her “power”test came up negative for the healer class(which is what her mother is, her father is not her biological father). This means she has a rare situation of not having any ability, which manifests around 10y/o (prob different for everyone and sex). Despite this, she’s still required to take the healer class, but just ends up sitting out and having to clean the class after. Combo of this leads her to spend her lunch and recess alone in a hidden spot in the “forest”.
• On this day, something probably happens with a pretty well known girl (popular, powerful, and from a wealthy family) named Saphira. It is the first time anyone notices her, and its not good attention. (since it's the second to last day, it can be something drastic and Liri is grateful that she managed to go the majority of the year without causing this big of an issue).
• The next day (last day), she skips most of her classes and hides out to avoid issues (honestly nobody cares on the last day anyway). During lunch, she heads to her spot and notices someone is already in the field below. (more like she has a view of this tiny field that nobody goes to. It's this guy that she has probably seen before but doesn’t know. He is shooting a bow and arrow and looks really cool. (she gets one of those admiration crushes because he looks really confident, probably thinks about what would have happened if they had met at some point in the year and become friends).
• School is over and she heads home. When she gets home, she finds her mom bustling around the house. She notices Liri and goes up to her. She tells Liri that she just got a letter from their aunt in another town (on the other side of a certain large mountain and forest). She tells Liri that they want her to go there and deliver medicine. They had been planning this for a while. The aunt also said there was someone near the town who might be able to help Liri with her power issue (honestly, i don't actually think they spring this up on her, maybe it's been planned for awhile). Anyway, Liri is going to her aunt’s for the summer. Or uh.. That was the plan. (also medicine is for grandma)
• Next morning, her mom helped her get ready; bag, food, and a token for safety. (this city has a protection barrier that the people pay for with taxes. You can rent a bit of that barrier to follow you outside of the city for more time and more charge. The token has some rules but the one she got for Liri is one of like good fortune or something. Liri’s mom also told her that she must get through the forest as soon as possible before the evening. She was explaining there is a storm forming around the forest/mountain but is interrupted by a neighbor stopping by. So a little later, Liri leaves, buying a ride on a wagon that is leaving the city.
• At some point she gets off because the wagon is diverging and she begins making her way through the road. (she’s probably halfway through and it's probably noon meaning she’s at a good pace to make it through before the storm. BUt… not exactly sure how this happens, but she might fall and the token gets a crack. If the token had broken/shattered completely, it would have just nullified the barrier. But the crack (dunno how this works), sets up an opposite barrier (going down instead of up)(causes misfortune instead of fortune yuh).
• The next things are filled with trips and falls, one fall is pretty bad of the ledge. She definitely hurt her leg and her bag fell into a river. Her map falls out and gets wet, and she doesn’t notice the medicine falling out with some of her food. She retrieves as much as possible and starts climbing up and walking slowly down the road. She hopes maybe someone will stop by with a wagon and help her.She made an educated guess as to which direction to go but didn't realize she was heading back in the direction she came. Dark clouds are starting to blow over and it's getting darker in the forest.
• What her mother failed to tell her is that the storm forming over the forest is something that happens every couple of years. (they are new to this city(moved in with the dad) and never had a reason to travel through the forest before which is why Liri didn't know). The storm is viscous, it traps people in and kicks people out, and it rages all summer. Spans the whole mountain.
• So when she finally realized she was heading the wrong direction, it was too late. The heavy rain came down suddenly, and all at once. It's the kind of rain that looks bright white and you can’t see, but the sun was beginning to lower so it was getting even darker. She tries to find somewhere to hide and stumbles around the forest. At some point she sees a light coming from above in the mountain. She makes her way there and sees a little building covered in a tarp, flapping violently. She peeks through and climbs in through an opening. It's a greenhouse, there are also tarps above the plants. She pulls her things through and notices a shed connected in the back with a cupboard. She opens it and there are tiles folded in the back. She uses one to dry herself and climbs in, closing the cupboard door. She ends up falling asleep on the towels, she's wet and cold. The wind and rain outside is loud and violent, she sleeps cold but soundly.
• Next day waking up, she climbs out of the cupboard. Her things are still damp/wet. She immediately notices how warm it feels and the sound of the birds. She walks out to see that the tarps have been removed and the sun is spilling in, illuminating water droplets.
• She picks up the towel she used that walks out to the front of the green house, opening the screen door. There is a stone path garden with plants creating a path(maybe like a dome path?). She walks through and on the other side there is an opening into a room past a red curtain. She enters the kitchen. Filled with plants and things, it seems like it's not used for cooking. She calls out meekly, she wants to return the towels and hopes the house owner can point her back to the trail. She hears people talking in the back and walks through a patio room? With dark green tiling. The tables are filled with beautiful plants and there is a pretty lamp dangling from the ceiling. The walls are windows, also decorated. She sees two people, a little girl with pigtails(juniper) and a boy. Her eyes widen, it's the guy from school. He’s aiming a bow and arrow and when he shoots it makes a loud whoosh sound(pretty loud). She jumps.(his name is Axel btw). She steps back, too nervous to approach them and she bumps into someone who puts two hands on her shoulders. Prob jumps again. Turning around she's a woman. Woman has black hair(dark green undertone) with dark green puffy pants and a yellow top. Has brown sandals. Her hair is up in two buffy buns and her bangs are straight and almost cover her eyes.
• Ok not fully figured out how the interaction goes from here…
• Also as for Liri’s aunt and medicine, it gets to her by sheer luck. Animals, wind and water pick it up and drop it right on her front door with a stack of letters from Liri’s mom.

Info:

• KOA .

• The woman’s name is Koa (prob not real name). is in her early 20’s. She doesn’t really like people/ is pretty isolated. She is clever and resourceful. She gets frustrated when her regular routine is messed with. When she finds lost travelers in the nearby forest, she enjoys playing pranks on them.
• Koa’s family has a bounty for some reason or another and she’s been living alone since she was young.
• Found this house in the mountain and renovated it while she lived there. The house has a greenhouse, library, two kitchens, fish tanks, and a lot of plants/terrariums. When she first arrived here, she made an agreement with the forest’s deer creature(still working this out/peacockdeercreature(something of the old world)). So she lives in harmony.
• When Koa saw that the storm would be arriving this year, the day before the storm, she traveled around the forest to the anchors (decorated round stones on the ground) and “set them up” with the help and permission of deercreature. She waited at home with Axel(who she mentors, she’s that person that the aunt was talking about btw) after securing things like her greenhouse. Once the storm is at full force, she heads out to the final anchor behind her house, stands on it with deer creatures, and activates them all. Sending a beam into the sky and evaporating the storm above the house. The storm begins circulating around the open area and doesn't fill it in. The moon and stars are bright in the sky.

• Deercreature:

•  several kinds of “nature” in this world. This particular forest is watched over by the deer creature. In the past, the deercreature agreed with the early people of the city that they would only cut down and harvest a certain number of the mountain. It worked for a while but a new generation brought on excessive levels of deforestation. The deercreature prob raged war on these people. (nature fights back, humans are not the apex predator on this planet, they can’t live everywhere). After this happened, the deercreature told the people that they would rage a storm to keep the people out once in a while, this is to restore the forest once in a while. THe people forgot about this again but they still can’t travel during the storm.

• JUNIPER .

• Juniper is around 8-9 y/o. She had brown hair and tan skin. She usually wears her hair in two sections ( like bubble pigtails idk). She has a bold personality and can get frustrated easily. She is sometimes quiet but can be cheery.
• She lives with her mother and father ( could be a grandfather or grandmother or just father). They live in Bell’s forest in a bell tower. Liri is outside the forest because she often travels out to the market to sell rare plants they grow at home. Her boldness comes in clutch while selling in the market because people sometimes think they can swindle a little girl. She travels with two large fluffy dogs (wolf shaped yuh) for protection. She probably is out looking for medicine for either her mom or grandparent.

• Bell’s Forest: 

• another method to live with “nature”. In Koa’s case, she lives in harmony as one with them. Bell’s forest is more, “nature allows you to live here as long as you contribute musically and do not touch the forest”. Bell’s forest is a musical forest. All of the plants and creatures make music together. Also very large forest, the farther from the center, the fainter the music. The trail on the edge can’t really hear the music at all.(even the edge is a ways in already). The center of the forest is The Vine, the protector of the forest, and connects most of the plants of the forest through its roots. It's also basically connected to the bell trees at the center of the forest and(inspired by my singing monsters), provides the “beat”(light deep hum) for the forest. Music starts around 10:00 am with the sounds of the bells and ends at 10:00pm.
• People can not travel through the forest freely without contributing appropriately to the forest music. The vine will kick you out, kill you, or send some creatures after you (plenty of predators in the ecosystem). The appropriate way is by wearing bells made out of a specific material. Juniper’s travel outfit has bells tied all over it and in her hair. The dogs also wear a bell on their collar( they are not originally from the forest either). They don’t need to wear those outfits while at home and in their garden because the bell tower does the job for them.
• The trip through Bell’s Forest is like 2 days long and there are various sections to pass through. Several parts are dense, luscious temperate rainforests. There are also prairies and fields. The Vine likes to create and remove paths to reroute travelers, even those who wear the bells, but it will never intentionally get a traveler lost if they are contributing appropriately. If they are not, you could very well get lost for a while until The Vine decides to kick you out, kill you, or leave you there to become nutrients for the forest.
• The Honey Fields is Juniper’s favorite part to travel through. It's a field with long wispy, golden colored grass. There’s these gorgeous orange and white butterflies that have the effect of making things float. So when Juniper passes through, she wears her cloak like a cape and speedily flies down the hill. There is however a deadly predator that stays around these fields. Honey deer are kinda creepy, they have those glowing white eyes, but they usually watch from a distance.
• Bell’s Forest used to have a few villages living there. Juniper travels through them on her way out. As of now, I’m not sure why they were abandoned. Juniper’s family probably descended from one of those villages.
• Ends up on “Koa’s” mountain because she was traveling. Koa finds her crying loudly in the storm and scoops her up. Helps dry her and sleeps in the house that night.

• THALIA .

• Thalia is 14 y/o. She is probably the most rambunctious kid. Very energetic and excited. Likes to see the good in the world. She has bluish hair (hilda ah). She wears a bright orange cape and boots. She's a nomad from a “Fishing village”.

• The fisher village:

•  (yet to come up with a name) is another way to live with “nature”. The people have the belief of respect for it; meaning they “must only kill for using, and they must use the whole thing”. Their culture is based around fish and the creatures in the water. The village is built above a mountain crater, swamp lake. The village has some leaders, uh.
• Thalia’s family is an “explorer” family. Every generation sends out the eldest child for a decade to explore and document the changing world around them. They are supposed to focus on water and water creatures around the world. Document it all in a book they are given, bound by the “explorer” before them. She spent her first years studying her father’s book (he explored before her). Then in a specific year, there is a ceremony and they are all sent out(4 kids), each going in one of the four directions. Before the ceremony, her father gifted her a craft fishing rod, and her mother, the orange cloak. She can return if she wants to visit after 5 years. Once the 10 years are up, she must return, get married and continue to have a family. Isn’t required to stay forever, but she has to fulfill her duty of raising the family before (if she wants) to head out and continue exploring. (so she leaves at 13-4 and returns at 23-4 y/o).
• The summer before this summer(where LIri gets stuck on the mountain), she met Axel in a different city. The city is very watery. People travel around on boats a lot (like Venice?). She met him because his family told him to pull up these water “weeds” (an invasive water plant). While he was pulling them up, Thalia stops by, she was “nomading”, and asks him why he’s doing that. He tells her that they are invasive and she explains that they are not. The people of the town think it is because when they tried to “use it”, it crumbled and turned black each time they tried to open it. Turns out, it's a very resourceful item, you just need a special knife to open it.(knowledge Thalia has from her learned knowledge about water stuff).
• The plant makes a delicious juice by squeezing the pedals. Inside the “pulp dust” there are these beautiful seeds that can be fashioned into jewelry. The dust can be used for medicine.
• They spend the whole summer setting up and selling the items as “rare commodities” and having fun. Also, their supply comes from this old abandoned garden place (inspired by that one movie with fountains (latias latios)) owned by Axel’s grandparents. He was supposed to clean the place out (who knows maybe he was there for a punishment), but instead started harvesting the plants.
• Thalia ends up on “Koa’s” mountain as well because she didn't know about the storm.

• LANDMARKS . 

• This planet is much larger than our Earth. (forgetting science and gravity for a bit :0  ). The planet is maybe the size of Jupiter or bigger (inspired by hunterhunter zoom out map and monumentality). The world is not fully explored. Maps are very segmented. Even forests right next to major empires or city states have not been fully explored. The world is not built to scale for humans. 
• There were “intelligent beings”, not reminiscent of humans who lived on the planet before (or that's at least a theory among some scientists). The planet builds Landmarks: rigid structures at a larger and heavier scale that are naturally generating. They seem to be sometimes left behind from an “old world”. Their purpose is a mystery (to many) and they do not function at a human scale. (inspired by Laputa and mincraf lore).

• OTHER THINGS .

•  there are many cultures in the city

• Societies
• Powersystem (what's up with Liri) : Speaking of which, Liri is actually a high rank(her father’s family) but it's not something they tested for.
• The academy
• The several ways of “living with nature”. Ethical and unethical, safe and dangerous
• The several ways to avoid “nature”, major cities and empires. Because humans are “not the apex predator”, nor is a large portion of the world even scalable, many humans on this planet favor sticking together and expanding existing cities rather than conquest and exploration.Images:

Inspiration Board