Fairy Tale League - 12th Century
No one, not even his most loyal of followers, had any idea who, or even what, the man in the moon was. Some say he was an alien, orphaned at a young age by the king of nightmares and raised by the moon's native creatures. Others say he's actually a culinary loving rabbit, or a wise lion from a far off kingdom. Still others say he is the moon itself, a living organism that feeds off the very wonder it inspires. Regardless of his true origin however, one thing was abundantly clear: the man in the moon had a soft spot for children. He loved all humanity, after all he often made sure the moon's silvery light helped illuminate the path for weary night travelers, but in his heart he knew his highest calling was to protect the innocence of youth.
And so he formed a team, one that together and apart would bring joy to all the world and protect the hopes and dreams of children everywhere. This assembly consisted of the Shaman of the North Santa Claus, interstellar warrior and chocolatier E. Aster Bunnymund, the King of Halloween Jack Skellington, hummingbird-like fae Toothiana, and one of the first guardians of dreams Sandy. Together they defeated and sealed away all but one of the Guardians of Sabbat, who the man in the moon considered the greatest threat to children's well being. They were a cabal of ancient spirits who brought fear and despair to children in order to "toughen them up," no matter what trauma they left behind in their wake. After vanquishing their foes the Guardians all went their separate ways to attend to their specific duties, which led the man in the moon in a bit of a predicament. He created the Guardians to protect children, but if each member had a specific function for that goal, there was no one left for the miscellaneous missions. Europe at the time, while not nearly as chaotic and barbaric as previous centuries, thanks in no small part to the efforts of the Guardians and previous leagues, was still rife with danger for both the young and old. Thus, the man in the moon created a new team, one that would be wholly dedicated to stopping immediate threats to innocent peoples safety, from rampaging monsters to malevolent witches. His team would consist of
Elsa of the North, aka the Snow Queen. Regal and dignified yet quiet and intensely distant even to those who were supposed to be her closest allies, Elsa had the type of personality which combined with her powerset brought to mind a million clever wordplays. While she always fought for a better world, the way she sought to do so.was often heartless, caring little for the people that needed to be sacrificed for the greater good. While she used to be quite the opposite in terms of mannerisms, the immortality brought up on by her powers lead to her outgrowing everyone she ever loved, hardening her heart to never allow it to break like that again.
Prince Adam, former Beast of the Black Forest. Once cursed to take a hideous and fearsome form due to his heartless denial of shelter to a stranger, Adam had grown tremendously since then. He became much more compassionate and finally learned to put others before himself, to the point he was able to break the spell binding him via the power of true love. The man in the moon needed his raw strength however, so he used his mysterious mystic powers to grant Adam the ability to transform between his human and bestial forms at will. Adam wasn't exactly thrilled with his arrangement, which caused him to be somewhat grumpy and temperamental while in beast mode, but his desire to build a world his love would be proud of drove him onwards.
Jack B. Nimble, Slayer of Giants. This young man gained notoriety across all of Europe when he came across some magic beans that allowed him access to a kingdom of Giants situated in the clouds, and accidentally killed one in his escape. Mischievous and cunning, Jack milked this newfound fame for all of its worth, partying it up and telling elaborate tall tales about his exploits. All this changed when the giant's friends tried to get their vengeance, and Jack knew he had to learn how to actually fight to both keep the respect of his peers and survive into the future.
Puss in Boots. Bounty hunter, adventurer, and all around thrill seeker, this feline cavalier was by far the most skilled fighter on the team, which was greatly impressive due to how much smaller he was then most humans. Not only was he a master with the blade, he was also quick on his boots, able to use the environment to his advantage to take down even the largest and toughest of foes. While he had a good heart and spent most of his time helping the poor and downtrodden, he was also completely full of himself, basking in the endless praise and admiration hero work awarded him.
Prince Philip of France. The absolute picture of the perfect prince, Philip was kind, chivalrous, courageous, heroic, and never looked down upon anyone despite his standing. All this made him the perfect candidate for leader of the group, which doesn't even factor in how, with some magical assistance, he managed to battle and slay the most infamous and demonic of all dark fae, Maleficent. While he often has trouble juggling the League often. disparate and extreme personalities, Philips empathy and composure made him excellent at his crucial position.
Relations between members were mostly positive. The princes connected over the stress of their duties and the joys of true love, while Puss enjoyed teaching Jack swordplay due to the friendly battles of wit they would have and their similar personalities, though the two never seemed to pick up on the latter fact. Jack was also an incredibly quick learner and rapidly became a skilled fighter, impressing his teammates who originally thought he was nothing more then a charlatan. Jacks and Puss's efforts to alleviate Adams' grumpiness would often be met with annoyance and eye rolls from the Beast, but never to the point where he would seek to permanently stop them, suggesting some hidden appreciation. Phillip meanwhile, while often critical of the twos obsession with glory, was lighthearted enough to play along with their antics to a point. Only Elsa never truly connected with the others, despite Phillips best efforts at including her. She would only ever watch the group's conversations and antics from slightly afar with an utterly unreadable expression plastered upon her face. Together their missions included
Handling the influx of witches and warlocks during this period, often rumored to be caused by the machinations of the escaped member of the Guardians of Sabbat, the Baba Yaga. These malicious magic users include a cecaelia who attempted to trick a mermaid princess into a life of heartbreak and endless torment, an ancient abuser who kidnapped and gaslight a magical princess so that she could use her powers to gain everlasting life, and a cannibal who lured lost children into her oven with the promise of endless sweets, who the man in the moon despised almost as much as Pitch the Nightmare King. The most prolific of all however was the deal making Dark One Rumplestiltskin, who not only manipulated desperate souls with the promise of magical solutions to their woes seemingly for his own amusement, but also attempted to hijack the roles of benevolent wish givers, such as the Fairy Godmother and the Blue Fairy. For example, he gave the former's magic wand to Cinderella's wicked stepmother who used it to almost rewrite history.
Traveling to several of the countless number of magical realms contained within the Blazing World to aid their own battles against evil. The man in the moons league was one of the first to do so, as the man understood the importance the realm of pure magic had on the psyche of all of humanity. His league repelled several invasions of Toyland by the vicious Rat King, stopped a potential war from breaking out between the neighboring kingdoms of Wonderland and Oz, and stopped baking guild head Jack Horner from raiding Equestria to gain even more baby unicorn horns.
Driving back the Great Giant Invasion accidentally caused by Jack's intrusion into their realm. Defeating them nearly always involved using their massive size against them, as most of the League dealt critical blows to their ankles while Elsa froze the ground below them causing them to slip. Those that didn't crack their heads against the surface had their faces quickly skewered by Elsa's ice spires or heads ravaged by assisting armies. While at first seemingly endless, the war was brought to a close in a most unlikely way. The Pied Piper, a mercenary sick of being refused payment, made a deal with Rumplestiltskin to upgrade his magic flute from being able to control rats and people to being able to take over the minds of giants. Seeking to use this army to gather all the riches he could ever desire, the League was able to defeat him and instead of using the flute to control or destroy the giants, they decided as a group that no one should have that much power and shattered the instrument into splinters. Seeing the kindness and mercy in such an act, the giants decided to leave Earth and return to their kingdom in the sky peacefully.
In what they thought would be a short and easy mission, tracked down the vicious Big Bad Wolf, who while nowadays is known for his encounters with three little pigs and a girl in red, back in the times of yore devoured entire towns due to his hatred for humanity and desire to get stronger. When the league confronted him, the battle was long, fierce, and brutal, due in no small part due to the wolf's ridiculous size and powerful breath, able to conjure up such powerful winds even Elsa had trouble competing with. In the end, the day was one by Puss, who fearlessly dove into the monster's mouth while he was huffing and puffing and tore him apart from the inside, nearly losing one of his nine lives in the process.
Training the heroes for the next generation, such as a rescued orphan match girl, the enthusiastic aspiring knight Despereaux the Mouse, the aqua-magic using Princess Ariel, and the shockingly skilled Cinderella. After Phillip noticed her bravery and athleticism when helping battle her wand wielding stepmother, he personally suggested to the king of the land to have her taught the arts of war. She excelled at the skills needed for espionage so much that after just a few years she was her kingdom's top spies, with a list of achievements and adventures rivaling that of several members of the league.
Despite all of their accomplishments, the man in the moon's league ended the same way it began, with a Guardian of Sabbat. The first witch and only free member of the Sabbat, Baba Yaga, despised the saccharine world this new league was creating, free of the cruelty and dangers that, in her eyes, made people stronger. Thus, she hatched a plan to show both the league and all of Europe the ugliness of human nature, and it all started by forming a new team. She gathered Rumplestiltskin, himself sick of the league constantly ruining his malicious schemes, and with their powers uncovered two artifacts: the book of the Queen of Fables, and a magic mirror forged in Hell itself. This mirror was crafted to show only the worst aspects of whatever it reflected, and after releasing the queen, all three of them conjured a world shifting spell that shattered the mirror into millions of tiny splinters, and spread them across the land. The pieces all landed within the eyes of every man, woman, and child in Europe, causing them all to see nothing but the worst in each other. Immediately chaos began to take hold as families fractured, lifelong friendships were destroyed, and nations prepared for war all overnight as bitterness and hatred became the dominant emotions of even the most kindhearted and optimistic of souls.
This was equally true for the league, as they began to heartlessly tear into each other's flaws and insecurities. Phillip viciously pointed out how nearly all of Adam's problems were his own fault, and called both Jack and Puss fake heroes by supposedly caring more about their own image then the wellbeing of the innocent. Jack, Puss, and Adam all loudly expressed their unspoken hatred for Phillips' picture perfect persona, calling him boring and unlikable as a result. Puss tore into Jack's background as a fraud, Jack mocked Puss' tragic love life, and Adam roared about his endless annoyance at the antics of every single one of them. The only one who didn't get involved was Elsa, who was unaffected by the shards due to the powerful innate magic within her. Partially freezing them to prevent them from tearing each other's throats out, Elsa dragged them to a place where she believed they would be safe from the chaos of the outside world: Ahtohallan, a magic glacier Elsa made her home that contained all the world's memories.
Upon reaching the glacier however, Elsa discovered that she was too late: Baba Yaga and her new Guardians of Sabbat had taken over her home, and planned to corrupt all the happy memories of the world with their magic. Enraged, Elsa attempted to battle the three of them on her own, but despite her vast elemental power she was no match for three masters of the arcane arts. Seeing no other choice, she freed her corrupted companions, but they saw no need to help someone they despised, which at the time included everyone. Defeated, Elsa allowed the Baba Yaga to fire one last bolt to attempt to finish her off, but she instead aimed at Prince Phillip, fatally wounding him to further torment her foe. As the prince died in her arms, Elsa realized that, despite her detached demeanor, she had truly begun to love her teammates as friends, perhaps even family. As her teammates continued to bicker and her enemies cackled in victory, Elsa decided that she could not watch another family die. With the last of her strength, Elsa sang a triumphant and soul-rending ballad that used the power of Ahtohallan to cast a final spell, one that flooded every soul affected by the mirror shards with their warmest, happiest, most treasured memories of their loved ones. The welled up positive emotions would cause all of them to cry magic infused tears, washing away the shards and curing them of their rancor and spite.
As Elsa faded away into nothingness, the rest of the league quickly recovered, much to the vexation and anger of the Baba Yaga and her compatriots. Baba Yaga immediately declared that a cat, a man, and a beast could never best the three of them, but Jack and Puss, already regaining their synch, had a plan. As they battled the warlocks the two tricksters quickly sowed the seeds of doubt between them, asking what their grand plan was for when they had defeated them, who was in charge, and who got what once they conquered the world. All three were securely confident in their superiority, and thus began to argue and trade blows much in the same way those affected by the shards did. In the end, all the mystic beams and offensive spells caused the glacier they were all inside to collapse, leading to the League escaping and the witches disappearing as Ahtohallan sank to the bottom of the sea.
After attending the large and lavish funeral for Prince Phillip and the small and subdued wake for Elsa, both Prince Adam and Puss in Boots decided that they needed to return to their own lifes after such a trauma inducing event, Adam to spend more time with his wife and Puss to embark on some more low key adventures on his own. Only Jack stayed behind, having grown an intense sense of responsibility over his time with the league and wanted to follow his dead mentor Phillips' example. He would go on to lead the next iteration of the league, which included previously mentioned trainees of the past league such as the princesses Ariel and Cinderella, and newcomers such as a scythe wielding Little Red Riding Hood and witch hunting siblings Hansel and Gretel. The Man in the Moon continued to keep a watchful eye over not only over his recruits, but all the world, doing his best to ensure everyone has a chance at a happily ever after.