SkunkyArt | Zakanuva — I regret nothing!

Zakanuva the Badger < sta.sh/0whxkvcp4ir > is no longer a Knight of Mobius, nor even a soldier of any kind; he makes a living as a freelance math tutor, taking up odd jobs to supplement his income. He no longer has JARVIS, his enchanted diamond sword, that Creeper-face mark on his chest fur, any natural link to the Chaos Force, nor any memory of those things, his former friends and family, or his banishment from the Kingdom of the Sky; in fact, he doesn't even remember anything before waking up outside of New Mobotropolis an undetermined amount of time before his first appearance in Icy Beginnings. His only way of defending himself and others (as well as his only clothing besides his shoes and socks) are two magic-based Power Rings, and he has next to no idea how to use them (and none whatsoever about where they came from or how he got them on his wrists). Instead of a wife and a family, by the time he first appears in Chapter 9, he has an adopted daughter who literally appeared curled up and asleep on his doorstep one day and a comparably ordinary girlfriend < fav.me/d82zi60 >. To top everything about him off, while his Power Rings can sense Zircon's Icist powers, he doesn't possess the mastery over the Rings to truly notice this; regardless, he is concerned for both his current and former pupils' welfare, and although he has no idea what kind of threats await Zircon, he will do everything in his power to protect her as if she were his own kin...

Queen Aria Ivyheart < Her appearance in Icy Beginnings: fav.me/d6y3vg8 > had originally hired Sir Zakanuva the Badger to serve as a mortal palace guard during the infacy of her fourth child, and he, his friends, and his family would become heavily involved in her battles with the Destroyer afterwards; however, for reasons that are never clearly specified, the Queen's "favorite guard" and everyone associated with him (except Tezel av'Flamman < fav.me/d7c5rsu fav.me/d7d78jq fav.me/d7tcv48 >, who was adopted by Zakanuva's apprentice) was kicked out of the Kingdom of the Sky somewhere between Chapters 13 and 15 of Freezing Darkness, an event which sparked the timeline shattering into myriads of other storylines (including Got a Secret and A Slice in my Heart) and dooming the original to a very slow collapse, which spawned Aetherstuck (a big Homestuck-themed collab project I'm working on) which in turn created the universe Icy Beginnings is set in (The full details on what exactly caused the banishment and shattering is a closely guarded secret, so do not ask either me or Aria for the details about it); in this new storyline, Zakanuva and Aria have never met (and probably never will), and the Queen is only aware of his existence by Zircon mentioning her tutor in Chapter 10.

The High Spirits of the Aether < fav.me/d7bqmbo >, having been associated with Zakanuva in the old timeline, no longer interact with the King and Queen of the Angels or even set foot in the Kingdom of the Sky in the new universe, focusing instead on Zircon by saving both her and her brother as infants, disguising themselves as mortal Mobians to stay close to her, and even indirectly leading Zakanuva to her. Skugga vehemently blames Aria for the timeline's shattering and inevitable collapse, and he set into motion the events of both Aetherstuck and the new universe to fix the perceived damage inflicted by the "failed" embodiment of love and beauty; Solara, on the other hand, believes the old Aria was only the pawn in something beyond the storyline and couldn't have caused the timeline's shattering, and she therefore works in even more subtle ways to protect the new universe from the wrath her brother dealt upon the old one in its final eons...

A key part of the old storyline are three other-worldly spirits originally invented by OrionDaBoss : the Creator, the Balancer, and the Destroyer < This is the Destroyer: fav.me/d6na9xm >. Originally, these beings weren't supposed to enter the new universe, as Skugga removed them from an unknown point in time towards the end of the old timeline and literally destroyed them, believing that they would only bring the same fate upon the new universe; however, these spirits survived the attack and somehow found the new universe. The Destroyer, the most deserving of the Archangel's wrath, was ironically the least affected by Skugga's attack, reforming quickly and hiding itself in a completely new enemy well before Icy Beginnings starts; the Balancer was a bit slower to recover and did eventually enter the new universe closer to the story's start, but was still too broken to speak anything other than ancient Dwarvish or find its original host, having instead to inhabit a young mortal on Mobius; the Creator, the spirit that originally dwelt within Aria, took the brunt of Skugga's attack and never really recovered, having to be literally carried into the new universe as several shattered fragments which sporadically whisper ancient Elvish.

There are actually two Space Colony ARKs in this universe: the "real" ARK orbiting Mobius, and the ARK from the old timeline which was carried over by Solara into the new universe, in the same plane of existence as the Kingdom of the Sky but on the opposite side of Mobius; serving as the site of JARVIS's backup memory storage and the home of the exiled Dersites and Prospitians left over from Aetherstuck, this other ARK, or "Neo Prospit", is ruled by a hidden being called "the Grey Queen" and defended by a mass-produced army (improved and regularly updated versions of the E-121 "Phi" < vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/s… >) which is led by both JARVIS and a Mobian Biolizard called "the Punishing Bruiser". Neo Prospit and its army serves as the hidden protectors of both the mortal and "Upper" planes, keeping Eggman and other Mobian threats in check and out of Kingdom of the Sky.

As stated before, JARVIS is no longer with Zakanuva in this universe; in fact, for quite a while, JARVIS actually had to hijack one of Eggman's factories to build a robotic skeleton that JARVIS could form around and control as a substitute "user". However, eventually JARVIS would come upon a young Mobian that he could team up with and even befriend < sta.sh/01phb5hta0jk >; they work as mercenaries (usually for the Kingdom of Acorn, G.U.N., or Neo Prospit), and neither of them will cross paths with either Zakanuva or Zircon unless something like the Destroyer attempts to come after the Icist...

The Players from Aetherstuck < Here's some of them: fav.me/d7judm2 , fav.me/d82ouxl , fav.me/d7jzxp6 , fav.me/d7qjj1g , fav.me/d7qnmpj , fav.me/d7qopra , fav.me/d7tafz1 , fav.me/d7td3bh , fav.me/d7ru58t , fav.me/d7wtpgy , fav.me/d7ydc1r , fav.me/d80mn2q , fav.me/d81vcow > will play varying roles in this new universe as "Architects", the trolls primarily overseeing the new Alternia and the humans mainly overseeing Mobius (some like Yaebii may cover the other or even both worlds); the Architects overseeing Mobius (however many there are) will be more prominent in this story (albeit probably not in Icy Beginnings), with their first major contribution being hunting down the first People of Darkness under Skugga's direction and bringing the blood line of Korosu to extinction before it can even begin...

Andrea and Flames < fav.me/d79fnr2 fav.me/d76l0yn > ceased to exist when the old timeline shattered and had to be "reborn" as a Prospitian and Dersite respectively in Aetherstuck; in the new universe, instead of living in Neo Prospit, they live with an adopted baby crocodile < vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/m… > on the Land of Trees and Clockwork (LOTAC), the human Time Architect's Sburb world, which was brought into the same plane as the Kingdom of the Sky to serve as the future Kingdom of Time.

For reasons that aren't fully clear, a dark being calling herself "the Destroyer of Sanity" < fav.me/d86nxjq > has been rumored to have been taken or cloned from the old timeline and entered the new universe seeking to bring it to the same end as the old one; if these rumors are true, a new incarnation of the Wanderer (who knows the dark secret behind the timeline's shattering) would seek to stop this threat (which is the part that he would put that White Lantern ring on the Imaginator and ask for his aid in getting to this universe, Joseph-Joeclone )...

Finally (and perhaps most importantly), although Kyoki and Crescent have been prevented from being born, there are rumors that Tezel av'Flamman, the King of Time, may have survived the old universe's inevitable demise and could even be working with Neo Prospit to ectobiologically bring his half-siblings Koki < fav.me/d6xpax3 > and Yang < fav.me/d7ayvgo > into the new universe. The last time he is mentioned in the old storyline is attending his sister-in-law's coronation in Chapter 12 of Eternal Darkness, he's not listed among the Ivyheart's corrupted children in Chapter 2 of Destroying Darkness or among those who entered Alternia in Chapter 15 of New Beginnings, and he would have foreseen all of these tragedies in addition to the timeline's final moments as the King of Time; therefore, it would be logical for him to have "abandoned ship", so to speak, to seek out a more stable timeline or perhaps even try to find out why the timeline shattered in the first place, especially considering what happened to his dearly beloved when Noroi took over.