A lot can change in a decade. People grow up, places change and life goes on. So many things can happen in a decade, let alone a year, that it can be very hard to keep track. Take our heroines, the Sea Princesses, for example - in one year, they saved a shark from Drylanders, helped many animals on the day when the morning did not come, pursued the mystery of old letters from a Dryland girl and stopped a dangerous king from taking over Salacia. Or maybe their year was different; they met a Drylander while helping Leia save a beached whale, they broke into an aquarium to save some dolphins being held captive by Drylanders, investigated the mystery of the lost Barracuda Kingdom and met a healer who could understand every animal in Salacia. How can these two conflicting histories exist? Well, a year can be quite a long time, whether in Salacia or on Dryland, and it is possible that events could have progressed in a way that both histories could be valid. But you can decide what interpretation you prefer.
Who are the Sea Princesses, you might ask? In case you didn't know, they are Polvina, the Octopus Princess; Ester, the Starfish Princess; and Tubarina, the Shark Princess. But wait, there's more - there's Marli, the Swordfish Princess; Tata, the Turtle Princess; Elektra, the Electric Eel Princess; Isa, the Penguin Princess; Delfi, the Dolphin Princess; and Bia, the Abysmal Princess. It's okay if you don't remember all of them; Polvina, Ester and Tubarina have so many adventures that most people forget that other princesses exist. There are Sea Princes in Salacia as well, along with a dozen other characters we didn't know the names of or didn't know existed.
Although the people who live in Salacia are known as Salacians, that name is basically used in the same vein as describing someone's nationality on Dryland. Though Salacians are of different races just as Drylanders are, they are in fact of a different species known as the salines. While they appear, behave and live their lives like us Drylanders, the main difference with the salines is that they can breathe underwater, making for some interesting discoveries that Drylander science can't explain.
A common misconception of Salacia is that it is a kingdom when it is, in fact, a whole world made up of many kingdoms. So why is this the case and how come we Drylanders haven't heard of it before? Allow me, as someone who knows all under the heavens, to elaborate. In one version of the story, the Drylanders, who were the descendants of a Salacian who was the first to discover Dryland, originally lived in peace with the Salacians, sharing their knowledge and wisdom with each other. Eventually, the Drylanders began exploring Salacia uncontrollably, causing an imbalance and threatening the lives of millions of fish and marine animals. This led the goddess Salacia to use the Staff of Oblivion to wipe any trace of the Salacians' existence from the Drylanders, leading her people to establish the five Laws of Salacia to honour her sacrifice.
Another interpretation of Salacia's origin story is that Salacia was actually what we know now as the lost world of Atlantis, which sank into the ocean thousands of years ago. The Salacians then proceeded to create the Laws of Salacia to prevent their kingdom from being discovered by the Drylanders. In either case, Salacia divided her realm into many kingdoms and appointed couples to act as their kings and queens. As generations passed, the royal families flourished and passed on their titles to their descendants, eventually reaching the era of princesses like Polvina, Ester and Tubarina, who attended the Sea School with Miss Marla as their teacher and grew into mature princesses, but still with the same drive for adventure they had in their childhood. Princes also existed in Salacia as well and while not all of them are as adventurous as Polvina, Ester and Tubarina, their lives are driven by the same powers they have.
The most important law out of the Laws of Salacia is the First Law, which stipulates that a Salacian must never be seen by a Drylander. Other laws, previously unknown outside of some on Dryland, include practising good, goodwill and generosity, taking care of one's kingdom, taking care of the other kingdoms, and treating all kingdoms as if they were their own, because they are all part of an enormous oceanic realm. Although Polvina, Ester and Tubarina (alongside some others) have or have come close to breaking the First Law, it was normally in an emergency and they have wondered if any exception applied in those cases.
Over a decade had passed since the story began with the princes and princesses going to their first day of school. Whether they were on the verge of finishing or had already finished school, the princes and princesses enjoyed their youth while observing their duties to their respective kingdoms, knowing that one day, they would become kings and queens and bear all the responsibilities that came with being the head of a royal family… or at least they would be, if Salacia and Dryland weren't at war with each other.
The events of the war were causing anomalies to the fabric of time. Scientists on Salacia and Dryland tried to find out what exactly was causing them, but they were never able to do so. Those anomalies could be the reason why two conflicting histories ended up being compatible with each other, because some details, like the exact placement of events in the timeline, were changed in a way that nobody would ever notice. Maybe they were also the reason why the surprise party was actually for Delfi and not Elektra; that Angelica embarrassed herself during a school dance show alongside Tubarina; that Marli and Ester argued about copying each other's ideas for the school mural instead of babysitting days.
Those anomalies could also be the reason why different universes were converging on one; universes where the Salacians were at war with the Drylanders; universes where the princes and princesses had an active role in the war as officers fighting with swords, spears and guns; universes where the princes and princesses fought as masked warriors using card decks or musical instruments; universes where certain kingdoms and royal family members existed or not; and universes where the princes and princesses found love interests amongst each other's companies.
There are an infinite number of universes in the multiverse and with them come infinite possibilities and outcomes. Naturally, certain things go differently depending on the timeline and this story that I am telling you about takes place in one of those timelines.
Salacia predicted that one day, her world would make peace with the people of Dryland and coexist just as they did long ago. Nobody could ever predict when exactly that day would come, but unknown to both the Salacians and Drylanders, that day was closer than they thought…