The FANON / AU / nostalgia lore / other ideas thread

[NPCMaxwell]

This is supposed to be a thread where people can post their obviously NON-canon (or grey-canon, or just unknown or singleplayer-DS-or-ROG-era-or-SW-era-or-Hamlet-era or other contradictive) headcanons / AUs/ crazy / shipping and so on ideas, without the danger of being told what canon says.

That's all. Just a place to exist and to be curious about other people's creative ideas where canon/fanon wars hopefully won't happen (your of course still allowed to talk about canon, but do it in a way that won't "degrade" other ideas, also don't enforce logic. This thread exists to give people the ability to go wild and think out of the logic or even out of character if they want.). I just thought there should be a place for it, this is no attack on DS/T's canon, just a fun thread (I hope it will stay fun.)

(main motivation for this thread is the fact that during my teenage years when the internet mostly existed of fandom forums like those there often, at least in many forums I have been a member of, been a whole subforum for all things fanon. So since this mostly fits into the ART forum, I decided to put it here. HAVE FUN (or else!) )

 

 

 

 

 

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That being said I'll make a start with random rambling stuff about my current MAIN AU: (don't expect logic this is a random collection of older and newers ideas of mine)

 

Shadow and moon sides still exist, but they are part of the same species, that are ALL referred to as “THEM” no matter if they vote for the “shadow” team or the “moon” team. Shadow and moon here are just different teams of the same event (a mix of sports and parlour game tournament). THEY are testing sentient species all over THEIR known universe. The “sports”/“game” of manipulation is a long part of THEIR culture. It is unknown whether all of THEM are taking part in it, but it is likely that even among THEM there is a group of rebels that sees the cruelty in this entertainment.

THEY have manipulated Charlie enough to give her the hope she can “ascend” to become one of “THEM” (Charlie is unaware that shadow and moon are the same), being half of a shadow creature already. While she is being used as a tool for THEIR amusement and THEIR preparations to spread THEIR influence over a new world (the normal world, where Maxwell and everyone comes from), repeating the destruction they’ve been doing on the insectoid ancient species and countless others before. Basically, THEY are testing if humans (Charlie and Maxwell) are more prone to follow the shadow path, or if they are more prone to follow the lunar path (Wagstaff). Lesser entities and revived / transformed members of former exterminated species that come in the form of creatures like alter, gestalts, the celetrial champion or metheus, shadow creatures, ancient fuelweaver and so on are meant as a lure to make the test-subjects / potential game tokens, who fall for one of the paths appear as if there was something they could “reach” for and gain control over. For example, the ancients were prone to shadow power, so they reached for the technology of thulecite and nightmare fuel. In this case, the game of “THEM” ended with the tournament being decided for the shadow-magic team as a winner.

It’s basically the two sides of the SAME universal destructive power. Kind of their motivation was “making a bet/playing a row of tournaments” on which was the one with the most influence on different existing species and worlds by using different kinds of manipulations. It is literally a game of “gods” that got bored with observing and use what they can find to their own amusement. Whoever they are toying with, it is like “pets” to them (in a cruel way, not treating their pets any better than some humans do by shaping creatures to their will or using them for their amusement). So it may sometimes seem like they pick someone they favour, but as soon as they get bored or consider you useless, they have no problem discarding or replacing them.

It is unknown when those tournaments will finally end, but so far it looks like the “gods” will test every kind of creature/civilization that is arrogant enough to consider themselves capable of “ruling” over what to them seems “lesser” beings. Basically, the gods are giving them a taste of their own medicine. It is unknown whether “THEY” themselves are also unknowingly being controlled by other forces, but considering their behaviour it is either likely, or it is the ultimate doom that (almost?) unlimited power and running out of ideas of what to create/what to explore/what to do comes at the cost of eternal boredom up to the point of boredom leading to a destructive frenzy in the name of “entertainment”.

 

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Maxwell has a chronic illness and a fragile immune system. Therefore, he tries to avoid the “contaminated” items of the Constant, even if they are a byproduct of his own created creatures (basically he should know best what diseases they can carry). So, he either uses his shadow servants or the other people to do the dirty work of collecting those items for him.

Maxwell is still under the influence of the nightmare throne/shadow magic. This brings abilities like being able to use nightmare fuel as a food item and teleportation. However, it also comes with negative side effects like being haunted by independent shadow-Maxwell puppets. His body/mind is constantly between the state of losing and gaining sanity rapidly. This means permanent stress that will never make him fully sane/fully insane unless being provoked by repetitive sanity draining/sanity gaining activities. These activities cause Maxwell more chronic health issues that make him as fragile/even a bit more fragile than with the health problems he got genetically.

Maxwell kept himself alive when being on the nightmare throne by scavenging the world in his monster form and eating telltale hearts (they are created from ACTUAL hearts from freshly fallen survivors), “longpig” and high amounts of nightmare fuel. He still is able to eat those food items because he realized they have an exceptional healing effect on him when being eaten raw. He can’t resist the craving he has developed for those sanity draining food items.

Charlie now owns the throne, but Maxwell is the second in charge (the “king” by her side, but the queen is now in command). She allows Maxwell to enter the former “throne”-room, but gave Maxwell his former Chess and marvel biomes as “independent” lesser kingdoms. There is chess and marvel aesthetic biomes/setpieces representing Maxwell-controlled parts and draught and theater/rose aesthetic biomes/setpieces representing Charlie’s reign. So, there are two antagonists now.

Charlie tempted the freed Maxwell to work with her, promising he too will become part of that higher force. She promised that if he joins her, they will rule over this world together. His reign may have fallen, but in reality, it was all part of “THEIR” offer, about to come to a more powerful future. He had just tasted a glimpse of what “THEY” can offer. “THEY” were just testing if Maxwell during his time on the nightmare throne would be ready and his mind would be able to take the pressure that “THEIR” realm would put on those that follow through with the shadow path. Charlie is the main antagonist, and Maxwell is the secondary who now tries to sabotage the survivors directly/with his shadow magic, while Charlie pulls the strings.

Occasionally, when Maxwell doesn’t manage to keep himself alive properly or fails at following Charlie’s will, he will be “discarded” (since he is mortal like all other survivors now) by Charlie’s shadow-monster form or be attacked by shadow creatures. The survivors of the Constant will be revived until THEY have decided whether humans (and the other sentient species like merms, wortox-species and so on) are more prone to choose lunar or to choose shadow to bring their own destruction upon them.

When Maxwell was first freed from the throne by Wilson, they were changing back and forth several times, trying to find a way to break the nightmarethrone spell of endless replacement, hoping it will open a portal somewhere to finally find a way to escape. Wilson / Maxwell stayed near the base of the "maxwellhome" throne room, trying the different approaches that mainly Wilson came up with. Maxwell when seeing Wilson was really /determind/ of helping BOTH to escape this world one time decided it was time to reveal towards Wilson that this "game" of trying to escape was pointless, and that the only reason he had been staying with Wilson / changing the place with him was the long time of /loneliness/ and being drawn between the strange attraction of having tasted the power of the throne, hoping if he took a seat again it will this time giving him the same feeling as the first time, like some kind of narcotics, and enjoying his freedom and the strange urge of what seemed to follow the path of a different kind of magic.

Finally he admit towards Wilson that he had been trying to escape this vicious circly by bringing so many different people to this world, including his own niece, hoping their "family" bonding would be enough to break the nightmare throne spell that it seemed to him, it was unable for any being to escape this world. He also revealed to Wilson, who wondered how it came that he did never see any other living survivors, that in fact "They" commanded Maxwell that, after Maxwell ran out of ideas on how to shape the world, if he would not want to endager his position as a king, he had to follow the condition to make sure for no survivors ever to wake up on the same island. (The teleportato or trying to sail / use a balloon and so on brings you to another PART of the world, including Hamlet and Shipwrecked part of the world). So Wilson's idea was to find a way to break the rule, although Maxwell tried to convince him there was no way to do so, and he when growing tired of "their" game, feeling his body weaken more and more had been trying to force several survivors to meet, by placing the Maxwell door, thinking there was a small chance of two people dying at the same time on any of the islands behind the door to wake up in front of the door at the same time.

It turned out "Their" condition had been a lie and was impossible to do by the Maxwell door, but only to keep Maxwell in place, making him "collect" more and more test-objects for THEIR goal to see whether they would rather fall for the lunar or shadow path.

In this version trying to find Charlie and "luring" her to the throne was Wilson's plan after they had been trying to make the throne be taken by different creatures of the constant. When Maxwell kept becoming more and more unhappy with changing back and forth between the throne, expressing the longing for his old life, mentioning Charlie and how he witnessed her bit-by-bit transformation into a shadow creature, while finally telling Wilson about his former life. (Wilson used to think Maxwell was a "demon" not a human who was granted exceptional powers, until then, especially since he kept seeing Maxwell in the form of monster Maxwell or in the form of shadow claws or in the form of Maxwell's head observing him before, or Maxwell's ability to "appear" anywhere at will, when Wilson and he were trying out their plans to break the throne's spell, while Wilson found himself unable of any of those powers. Maxwell explained Wilson, he wasn't under the influence of the nightmare fuel enough yet, it would come after the time. And that "they" [at least according to Maxwell using "they" synonymous to shadow beings, being unaware of lunar at this point] seemed to prefer those drawn to illusions and magic over those drawn to science.) So Wilson's plan after hearing about Charlie maybe being immune to the chair's "lock", concluding if Maxwell, being so infused by nightmare fuel being able to seperate an /illusion/ of his body from the throne, Charlie who has being transformed /into/ a shadow creature may have the ability to take and leave the throne at will, was to take the throne and send Maxwell to find a way to attract Charlie closer and closer to the throne even if it may meant to "sacrifice" Charlie by testing whether shadow creatures could take and escape the throne without a problem. Maxwell's shadow puppets, though, weren't able to take the throne by themselves, so Maxwell rejected Wilson's idea at first for two reasons: Not willing to sacrifice Charlie a second time, and because his shadow puppets not being to take the throne independently. But then, the idea of Charlie still having /some/ humanity inside of her, and the shadow throne maybe being a chance to /seperate/ their two halfs from each other, motivated him to take the risks. Charlie did follow Maxwell's attempts to lure her, by a combination of shadow-monster instinct and Maxwell's attempts to build structures, plant roses, and other points in the world that would attract Charlie's human side (early versions of the biomes that Charlie would later enhace into her palasts and marks in the world and expand with her own creations) until she entered the throne room, where her new awoken humanity took pity for Wilson (exactly how planned) and taking over the throne (despite her shadow-warth still killing Wilson in the way).

After finally both being freed, Wilson and Maxwell attempted to build a portal back to the normal world, hoping the spell of the nightmare throne being broken, thinking they have "won" over "them". (At this time, Maxwell and Wilson developed some kind of complicated relationship, with often finding themselves either fond of each other and their "superiority" over "THEIR" trap, getting completely absorbed with each other, completely forgetting their plan to escape, suddenly yearning for settling down permanently, or fighting for ridiculous reasons, even occasionally ending up killing or sabotaging each other. It seems like "something" was toying with their mind, trying to keep them from focusing on the goal of completing the portal.)

At the same time, Wagstaff, over years of "exploring" this strange world with a form of outerworldy knowledge that a mysterious voice had been 'granting' him [and that he outsmarted...or so it had seemed at first] had continuing to open, bit by bit, the path to "THEIR" test for seeing if humans would fall for the lunar lure. (It turned out some of the survivors especially those brought into the world as a /side effect/ of Wagstaff's inventions were more prone to lunar activity or even neutral and drawn to both sides equally, maybe by the way getting into the world not having been caused by actively following one of "THEIR" lures, but by accident. [it wasn't Wagstaff's intention in my version to cause an interference, it was caused by the "forbidden knowledge" [that is "THEIR" increased influence on the human world, starting when Maxwell caught the "lure" that the codex umbra was (parallel a lunar version "lure" was placed in the world but it seems it hasn't attracted enough attention. So if Wagstaff hadn't followed the lunar path, the test phase would have long been decided for shadow site being the force humans were attracted to more and that would be used to bring their destruction. In the case of the ancient insectoids the lunar lure was almost completely ignored, leading to a fast tournament and quick destruction of the ancients in comparison to the what seems eternal pre-tournament of "THEM" in regards of the human, and parallel to it non-human survivors). Maxwell's attempts to draw people into "his" world for entertainment and later out of hope he could find someone to break the nightmare throne's spell lead to an early shadow-affinity dominance, but Wagstaff's activities in the world, drew more lunar-affinity people in the world. But by default, it seems more and more humans are neutral, neither prefering shadow nor lunar forces more.

As the "draw" situation for humans became more and more obvious "THEY" didn't want to lose their progress on them, nevertheless and thought it was time to expand their methods of determining whether shadow or lunar would become the more entertaining doom of humanity, so they finally considered that it was time to use those two fools who had thought they had escaped their grasp to build a more ENTERTAINING version of their game, now seeing how humans would decide if they were influenced by other humans affinities.

(they also considered the influence on humans by seeing if the choice of other creatures like imps or merms would make humans less prone to be a neutral, and therefore not entertaining enough, species. When they noticed, a neutral alignment /increased/ in humans a completely new creature called Wormwood was sent down, particulary created by THEM directly, and primed to serve as nudging humans more into the lunar side (as it seemed at this moment, Maxwell had started to warn survivors of what shadow-magic could make them end up as and revealing more and more to survivors what he had found out about a former civilization he referred to as "the ancients" ) Wormwood, who just geniusly thought he was there to help and to make friends, unknowing he was a tool of "THEM", should serve as an example of the lunar side being "beautiful", full of life and friendly, and the opposite of all the darkness this "horrible" nightmare fuel would turn you into.)

 

While up to this point, the survivors who finally gathered around the successfully portal (that, much to Wilson and Maxwell's disappointed turned out to not serve as an EXIT but as an /ENTRY/ to the world by automatically making every dying survivor without a magical mean of revival waking up next to the portal and even worse, suddenly instead of making you lose your memory after death, your soul suddenly left your body with the urge of what seems magically being drawn back to find the portal....well it had been worth a try...at least they not weren't in need of keeping themselves alive with the power of meat and Wilson's beard anymore....of course Wilson and Maxwell both kept the next few months accusing each other of having made a mistake in the construction by either adding too much science or too much magic to the receipt.)  had been more or less peaceful concluded that their fate was eternal, and the only reason to deal with it was TRULY settling down, now at least not having to suffer (or enjoy) their loneliness anymore.

But obviously it soon became boring to THEM to see that survivors now seemed to be way to obserbed with themselves, neither being repulsed by Maxwell's warnings, nor falling for lunar being the more benefitial and "save" of both, THEY increased their efforts of nudging, appealing to both the mind, represented by the concept of world formular, and appealing to the heart, represented by the chance to gain back what might have been lost with the goal to finally make even the most curious and neutral humans pick a side.

In order to archieve it, they thought it was necessary to make shadow and lunar to take the form of one of humans weakness....the tendency of falling for populist leaders. So it was time to take the influence on the next level and actively approaching the survivors, hiding behind Wagstaff and Charlie as the sides "faces". To make Charlie and Wagstaff serve as the representitives of the different apparent "qualities", it was necessary to lure both with even more specific promises

(access to opening the universal science of the universe, the secrets of changing any creature's biology (including enhancing / mutating the human species) and access to actual non transmission but physical time and space traveling and future unimaginable technology for Wagstaff if he FOUND and analyzed the brain and body of a being called Alter who's outer shell apparently hold the key to "theory of everything" that will grant even more of the forbidden knowledge that Wagstaff has tasted before)

On the other hand offering a more emotional approach for those who yearn for escaping past mistakes and painful memories. (asscend to becoming one of "THEM" via the  and the ability to take everyone she once cared about (that is especially Winona) into some kind of "eternal perfect life she had ever dreamed off and that had been taken from her" for Charlie, apparently being granted by an all-loving-time-reversing being called Metheus.)

 

This is how it came, that Maxwell had turned into an antagonist again, after falling for Charlie's and "THEIR" promise once again, and for yearning to gain back the seat of power, even though on a temporary lesser scale then before and for a different motivation. (Maxwell felt he had to make up for using Charlie as a "tool" to escape the throne, maybe she was right after all and "THEY" would not be telling lies to one of "THEM" or to one worthy to become one of "THEM". Didn't Charlie say him lasting so long on the throne was a sign he was worthy of withstanding the damages "THEY" were using to weed those out, unable to taste the whole potential the shadow offered?).

It seems no matter how much being with Wilson and the other survivors for some time and following what seemed mysterious traces and nods to an opposing power, (Especially Wilson seemed to continue to speak of some old man who apparently offered him even more knowledge if he kept joining his project. How dared he?! How could anyone dare to think what he could offer was supperior to the forbidden knowledge Maxwell possessed. So far he could proudly say, he, Maxwell, had managed to use the nightmare-fuel without ending up like the ancients, because he had deciphered the codex umbra, it was him who had build most of this world, and him who had been the first to explore the ruins. He knew how to use this power, other then the ancients who may have been a proud and developed race, but not posessing the knowledge of a mind probably unique to humans, and the sophistication unique to human civilization, that would make them withstand the negative effects of the nightmare fuel. It was him, Maxwell who was the chosen one......and now, it was him, who had outsmarted the nightmare throne. It was obvious nobody could offer anything Maxwell didn't have.) After all, it was still the shadows, and especially Charlie that he kept feeling addicted to, the thirst of eternal life the shadows could offer.......it was painful to realize that his body was so fragile, a fact Maxwell had almost forgotton during all those years of being tied to the throne and being kept alive by nightmare fuel and the remains of the fallen ones. (He could still /taste/ them on his tongue, it was impossible not to remember all those hillarious deaths he had wittnessed....at times now stumbling over one of his own skeletons made him regrett to let some kind of /hate/ deep within him shape this world so much. In hindsight maybe creating a less hazardous place would be more benefitial to him now.) And maybe there also was some jealousy towards Wilson apparently turning his attention towards someone else...someone who wasn't Maxwell, someone who apparently bragged about being better than Maxwell. Without Maxwell this Wilson would be a nobody. He should be /thankful/ Maxwell brought him here, where Wilson could pretend being someone of use to society. But of course he would never admit that his drawn back to Charlie and the offer of the throne could be increased by something heartbreaking and beyond him like /jealousy/.

 

(Although some survivors assumed it could be another form of "THEM" but that couldn't be? He had been creating this world. It was impossible "THEY" would have used him for "THEIR" game without giving him access to all "THEY" could offer. No, he was a king after all, he could still feel the power of the throne, how it kept tearing on him, wanting him back. It sure must have been the work of a different being. But did this mean "THEY" were in danger, and Charlie being in danger? Maxwell could constantly sense the shadows being near him, and the shadows BECOMING him. Was he in control, or did his shadow puppets start to control him? It was obvious, he took this path, and each time he found himself taking a sip of nightmare fuel he could feel the attraction of the throne calling him back. At first it was just feeling like he did not belong to the other survivors, then he felt more and more disgusted by them, more and more the urge to sabotage them. He did it for Charlie. No, he could not harm Charlies sister or his niece and Abigail, not directly, though he could not withstand stealing and consuming their supplies of nightmare fuel and telltale hearts, It served them right if they weren't following Charlies call, they would be doomed to see the other betrayers fall. Using shadow tools or having sold your soul to shadows did not necessarily mean you were on /Charlies/ side. Charlie alone decided who was meant to stay alive and who was meant to die.)

 

There also seems to be something weird about this "unnatural" portal, making it seem like "THEY" are making plans for a new game, or the earlier mentioned group of hypothetical "rebels" trying to intervene the cruel torture of "tournaments". (but I honestly don't have a headcanon for this yet) I am also not sure about my headcanons for particular the shipwrecked and the hamlet part of the worlds and story and the merms and other creatures that had been there before Maxwell, yet but I keep it this way that those worlds having been created by another species equivalent of Maxwell / Wagstaff (in my version if Wagstaff keeps following the lunar force further, like Maxwell did when searching for a way to escape following the shadow attraction,  he would at the end find a lunar-equivalent of the nightmare throne, it would be called the planar throne [for the lack of a more creative word, I know it doesn't make sense, I suppose but I associate the world planar with the moon stuff more].) before that is, WHOEVER had been taken the lure for the shadow-path / lunar path "THEY" have placed before. About the similarities (animations, build) between the creatures, my headcanon is definetly that whoever had been creating them had have similar ideas as Maxwell happened to have (It's not unusual for archetypes and other ideas to be appearing in different places independant from each other or being influenced by each other) also have already established in my version that whoever was creating before had influence on what Maxwell was building upon, and Maxwell had expanded on the pre-existing shipwrecked and hamlet islands / regions of the world.)

 

I suppose this enough for now, I don't want to spam this thread with more of my stuff. I know probably none of this makes any sense, but I like my AUs sometimes being a bit "chaotic" instead of completely logical.

Anyway feel free to add your non-canon stuff here. I was just making a small start.

Edited August 13, 2024 by NPCMaxwell

[NPCMaxwell]

Although nobody seems to be interested in a thread for fanon ideas here is another random detail from my main AU. (this time only one detail not another text wall rambling from my sleepless overexcited brain)

 

When Maxwell realized he accidently caught a mime via the shadow trap, not his intentended target he kept Wes around near the throne room in hope of some classic "entertainment" (it turned out way to cheerful for Maxwell's taste after some time, but at first it helped him getting distracted from his depression that losing Charlie caused him), and maybe having someone to TALK to [I headcanon Wes to occasionally in extreme rare cases using his voice but only being able to talk in french], or at least someone who would be listening. ONE of the reasons why Maxwell was finally "displeased" by Wes and locking him in a statue near his throne room, was because he, out of feeling lonely, translated the codex umbra for Wes to be able to understand it, so he one day, during one of those days when you're engulfed in negativity and can't stand anything positive around you, Maxwell got so annoyed by Wes's attempts to cheer him up, that he told the mime to go and try out the codex umbra, just ANYTHING but please don't bother me with your cheerfulness anymore.

And Wes, still as an attempt to cheer Maxwell up did exactly this, but other then Maxwell had intended, Wes used the codex's power to create some happy friendly animals for the world. (For example yellow bees. Before Wes introducing a friendly version, Maxwell had created all bees as red killerbees.) Seeing Wes toying with HIS creations and daring to make them /FRIENDLY/ or neutral Maxwell punished him by locking him away, only occasionally teleporting his mind over to the Maxwell statue to laugh at the mime's eternal missery of being trapped behind an invisible barrier. As as reaction to Wes creating friendly version of the bees, Maxwell made plans for the a killer bee (but he didn't have time to include her, which was an idea later picked up by Charlie.), also regular, small, bunnies were a creation of Wes, as a surface addition to bunny man, and because he thought that they would cheer up Maxwell and remind him of his old magic tricks. Displeased about the bunnies, but still feeling a bit nostalgic and not too appaled by this particular idea of Wes, Maxwell kept them, just as he kept the bees, but added a curse to the bunnies to turn into mini version of the beardlords during insanity. After all he doesn't want to admit in hindsight, but he likes /some/ of Wes ideas. (Among them, Wes also created the ability to adopt baby critters from a den, which Maxwell actually still thanks Wes for, but he has never admitted it towards the mime or any other survivors. He did mention it when talking about Charlie though, under the condition that she wouldn't tell anyone.)

So basically Wes knows how to use the codex umbra, but he feels sorry for having angered Maxwell and therefore has refrained from ever touching the book again.

Edited August 15, 2024 by NPCMaxwell