Happy spring equinox, everyone! As Nunangat recovers from its frost and Aria continues to heal, I am happy to welcome spring! Where I live, the crocuses and daffodils have already come up, and they're very beautiful. Here's to a new year!

Anyways, I wanted to share some facts about this story, from its inception to the inspirations behind the main cast. Here goes:

- I started ATIS two years ago, but abandoned it, because the character-development wasn't gelling. I revisited it in January 2019, and started working out the plotholes and creating the new characters.

- At the inception of this story, Aria was supposed to be an entirely different character. She started out with clinical depression, social-anxiety, and had been bullied throughout her childhood. However, I realized that I couldn't make Angéle and Aria too similar, especially if they were going to be lovers. I thought it would be more interesting to make Aria a narcissist, to make her character three-dimensional.

- Angéle's role was also meant to be entirely different. She was supposed to be with Darius and Maire, searching for Aria alongside them. Dreamix was also supposed to play a much more prominent role; Angéle was supposed to acquire it as a means to save Aria. Again, I thought this wasn't a good role for Angéle to have, especially since her character is so fragile.

- Maire was also meant to be a lot preppier and shallower. I didn't like that, though, because I don't think her fierce, combative nature fits in with shallow comforts. Therefore, I did a lot of rewriting to make sure she was used to the rigors of life. In an original draft, she was actually bullying Aria (as opposed to Aria bullying others), which didn't seem right for her character, either.

- Many of the names of the cast were all inspired by various mythological characters and historical legends. Here they are:

= Akna – Inuit goddess of childbirth and maternity.

= Atete – Ethiopian goddess of femininity and fate.

= Bloodaxe – both Ragnar and Bloodaxe were ruthless Viking men who conquered and killed many people. Given Bloodaxe's character, the names seemed pretty accurate.

= Cixi – Empress of the Chinese Empire, a woman who many historians perceive as cruel, but whom others argue was merely scapegoated by the Communist Party of China.

= Darius – King of the Persian Empire. He ruled the empire at its peak, stretching all the way from present-day Egypt in the west to the then-Indus Valley in the east.

= Isolde – a mythological princess who accidentally drinks a love-potion, falling hopelessly in love with Tristan, her bodyguard (while betrothed to the King of Cornwall). Tristan is murdered by the king, and Isolde dies by his side.

= Leif – a Norse explorer, Leif Eriksson. He was the first known European to set foot in continental North America, in present-day Newfoundland.

= Saraswati – inspired by the Hindu goddess of knowledge and learning. Since she is very wise, this name suited her perfectly.

= Sedna – Inuit goddess of the seas and mother of all sea-creatures. One of the most revered deities in the Inuit religion.

= Sharzad – means "bringer of freedom" in Farsi. When the Arabs conquered the Persian Empire, their literature included a character named Scheherazade (a variant of the name Sharzad), a queen who tricked her husband into providing freedom for herself.

- All of the fairies' Enchantix dress-styles are inspired by a different Winx's dress. Aria's is inspired by Stella's, Angéle's is inspired by Flora's, Maire's is inspired by Layla's, and Sharzad's is inspired by Bloom's.

- Dreamix, in this story, has nothing to do with the first transformation of World of Winx. Its powers are not about the hidden talents of others; instead, it is all about the subconscious and mind. An ancient power, it gives its bearers the power to look into other people's minds and communicate with them via dreams, as well as heal them of mental afflictions. The design is very angelic.

- Freezix was inspired by Elsa's power in Frozen, and provides its bearers the ability to freeze enemies, create large-scale blizzards, and take control of one's essence. It goes beyond Icy's normal ice-powers; it allows its bearer to freeze one's internal organs. The design is partially inspired by Elsa's dress and partially by Tynix.

- The Quintet of Elements was also inspired by northern European pagan beliefs of the four elements. They believed that air represented springtime and youth, fire represented summertime and adolescence, water represented autumn and adulthood, and earth represented winter and old age. Spirit, often known as aether, was the all-encompassing element of divinity. They used these elements to explain the stages of life and the passing of the seasons. They were also used in relation to their locations; the east had the dawn, the south had hotter climates, the west had the Atlantic Ocean, and the north had cold, barren climates.

= The House of Night series by P.C. Cast takes this concept further, using the elemental circle. Whenever they face trouble, the characters invoke a circle. Instead of jewels, they use candles; a yellow candle for air, red candle for fire, blue candle for water, green candle for earth, and purple candle for spirit. This circle is used for purification spells in times of need. I modified this concept and brought it into this story.

- Many of the events that occur in this story are inspired by other works, mythology, or historical events.

= Isolde's character was inspired by two works: the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer and Frozen. The first work features an evil queen, Levana, whose jealousy of her sister leads to her mental decline; in that series, however, Levana's sister is just as evil as she is. Her character is also inspired off of the original inception of Elsa; the creators initially meant for her to be evil, like the Snow Queen in Hans Anderson's tale.

= The stories of Fulgur were inspired by Iranian myths and the Persian Empire. Shahanshah was an honorary title granted to the emperor, meaning "King of Kings". The yakand-gal was inspired by the significance of pomegranate juice in Zoroastrianism; they are believed to be descended from Heaven itself.

= The stories of Nunangat are entirely inspired by Inuit mythology. According to the Inuits, the sea-goddess was born when Anguta (god of death), in the midst of a storm, pushed his daughter off their boat in order to save himself. As she holds on, he cuts her fingers off, one-by-one; each becomes a different sea-creature. The girl transforms into Sedna, goddess of the sea. The Nunangat storyline is basically the same, except that when Anguta cuts off his daughter's fingers, they turn into the first selkies of the five original realms, a male and female each: Summa, Linphea, Nunangat, Earth, and Domino. The Axe of Anguta was a creative liberty I took; its power comes from the rage the sea-goddess felt at being abandoned by her father.

= The fall of the Gate was inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall. However, Glacia was not a communist regime; its rule was modeled off of Francisco Franco's rule of Spain. Although Franco was a dictator, he was not like Hitler or Mussolini; he more-or-less left the other nations alone. Its isolationism was also partially inspired by Japanese isolationism.

So that's it for this story! Please let me know what you thought – I'm happy to hear it!

Anything else? Oh yeah, check out my other story, An Unlikely Pair (AUP)! It's a story about Flora and Tecna's friendship throughout Season 3. It'll make me feel happy that my work is being read. Let me know what you think!

Happy spring, everyone! I'm excited to move forward into this new year!

~ilovewarriorcats123