ARCHMAGI: so about elain's parents

Elain's parents were actually depicted once before in this but, as you can see, they've come quite far since then! In their original incarnation, Elain's dad was a rowdy genki boy and Elain's mum was his kuudere reluctant bodyguard due to some kind of magical shard guy dude cliche, leading them into some kind of bodyguard romance. Elain was also supposed to be the spitting image, physically and mentally of her father-- i like daughters who resemble their fathers more, because let's face it, girls who "look like their mothers" are SUPER BORING because it's been done so much. Not that I don't cherish the mother-daughter relationship in works of fiction, but imo there are better ways to show it than in physical appearance!

Post-reboot, Elain is a definite mix of both, which I sorta like more. Her parent's names are Ceridwen (nee Pritchard) Ainmuir and Aedan Ainmuir.

Ceridwen's named after a Welsh mythological enchantress/goddess/lady who is related to the rebirth cycle. She's mostly named Ceridwen because it sounds like Cervid (Latin for deer, duh) when Elain's name is fawn. HAHA?! I DID A FUNNY?! Her name is actually of ambiguous translation; the most generally-accepted translation is "cerdd" (poetry) and "gwynn" (fair, blessed), a rather pretty solution, but another scholar has speculated that Ceridwen means crooked one. A name that goes two ways appeals a lot to me so HA HA.. HA HA (pritchard is just a generic welsh surname, btw). Ceridwen is a druid lady, and is primarily taught her craft by her mother and grandmother before her formal schooling. She's a shapechanger animal lady with links to Cernunnos or the Horned God of Wiccan fame.

Aedan's name is actually spelled Áedán, from the root word Aed (?) meaning fire. As per his name, he's basically a holy priest fire guy-- rather than being an Actual Druid like Ceridwen, his magic centers around sixth century Christian mysticism and is very Celtic Christian-based (he's actually Tuatha Dé Danann, an Irish mythological peoples). He's also a direct descendant of Cormac mac Airt, a legendary High King of Ireland, contemporary of Finn McCool, and converter from Druidism to Christianity. Aedan's a bit like Elain's shallow persona, in that they're both bad-mouthed and use ridiculous slang (Aedan moreso, I think; doubly offensive), but her father is a little... hot-blooded with the rash and unquenchable thirst for power. Whereas Ceridwen is the prudent mediating force, who doesn't take risks and bides her time. In this way, they make a delightful pair in that kind of "be patient, my pet" sort of way. I guess.

Design-wise: Aedan is supposed to look like an early Medieval drawing of a pretty-boy angel or High King, with flowing ginger-blonde curly locks and baby blue eyes and Speckly Doughy Britishface Syndrome (me too aedan, me too). I wanted to make Ceridwen very dark with earth tones, and she inexplicably ended up looking like me, according to ~bori-cha and ~Zhlink. Which is awkward, needless to say. i wish i was as hot as ceridw/SHOT

Their rehauled story resembles something from the Irish Mythological Cycles; in particular, they're rather inspired from an incomplete Irish myth floating around Wikipedia about a boy who steals a treasure and runs off with the girl while a king's in hot pursuit (or something? I couldn't find it again, despite digging around in my history for an hour). Afterwards he promptly marries her, because what else are you supposed to do? yeah.

In this sort of vein; plot.

Aedan and Ceridwen are classmates/colleagues in London who slowly go from rivals to tentative friends through awkward puberty, bonding over their joint ambition and enjoyment of spewing racial slurs about the other's country of origin. Shortly after their wobbly friendship is established, Aedan steals the Book of Kells in secret. He's determined to track down the Four Treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and he's convinced the map to them has been embedded in the Celtic Christian manuscript. Aedan believes that he already has spear of Lug, embedded in his crosier; in particular, he wants the claiomh solais, or Sword of Light-- a relic that requires a woman's touch to receive, according to the legends. Ceridwen goes along with it after some persuasion, and they sweep across the island of Ireland in the 1980s. Along the way, they have close shaves with the Kells monks who predictably want to get their fucking book back, and the violence occurring along the Northern Irish-Republic of Ireland border, which get in the way of their horcrux hunt magical oirishy quest.

(can you tell that i intended this to be a prequel story at one point... whoopsadaisy)

Ceridwen has Elain's wing charms. This is because they were passed down to Elain from her mother. They are a Plot Point. Won't say no more here.