BEYOND THE COMICS
Information on this universe I can't fit into the comics.
Not required reading. Only if you're curious.
BARB
Full name: Doesn't have one.
Nicknames: The Barbarian Hippie, Barb.
Ethnicity: U Living Crystal, appearance of a Hauan.
Age: 27
Place if origin: Sandwall, Gara-Nora
Height: 5' 11''
Special strengths:
- The power of U
- Instant reaction time
- Doctorate in Metaphysics
- Mixed martial arts expert
- Sword, shield and spear expert
- bones and a solid brain as tough as hardened steel
Hunter designation: Barbarian, leader.
After being outcasted by her own people, the Living Crystals, Barb was left to wander alone on Gara-Nora. Broken, Barb wandered the wilderness, almost getting killed by a very strong, and very hungry, animal.
Narely escaping the encounter, Barb took it upon herself to learn how to survive and fight. She tirelessly sought out training by expert warriors and survivalists.
She built her strength and skills, soon discovering by chance the extreme effect her powers had on Crystal Witches.
She would find her place as a bounty hunter and gathered a willing crew, signing up for the Bounty Hunters Guild and find some purpose in hunting down the nefarious witches who kill her own kind.
SKYDANCE
Full name: Spear Hawk of the Lakota/Coast Salish tribe
Nicknames: Skydance, the White Vigelante
Ethnicity: American Indian
Age: 24
Place if origin: Umpqa City, Bellnjuice
Height: 5' 8''
Special strengths:
- Superhuman sharp eyesight.
- Perfect accuracy with guns, knives, spears and axes.
- High level of acrobatics.
- Martial arts master.
- Master gun technician.
- Expert in material sciences.
Hunter designation: Sniper, support.
Her father of the Lakota tribe and mother of the Coast Salish tribe, Skydance is the child of two tribes coming together. Her parents were gun and melee weapon crafters and taught Skydance everything they knew.
When her city started seeing a surge of gang activity, Skydance took the mantle of a vigilante at the age of 17. By age 18, she had eradicated the gangs plaquing her city and was recognized as a hero, though only a handful of people knew she was the vigilante.
But it wasn't long before a new gang moved in. This one had weapons from another world, "Gara-Nora." The weapons were devastating and it took considerably more effort to eradicate them.
After being approached by Barb, Skydance joined on the promise Barb would help her find and eliminate anyone trying to smuggle weapons off Gara-Nora into the wrong hands, a promise Barb has kept.
PEERS
Full name: Unknown
Nicknames: Peers
Ethnicity: Unknown
Age: Unknown, adult.
Place if origin: Wandering in Red Republic sector of the galaxy.
Height: 5' 8''
Special strengths:
- Known to be cunning and dishonest.
- Has shown great skill in martial arts, handguns and knives.
- Has shown masterful abilities in espionage, tracking and deception.
- Information gatherer. Knows more than she lets on about everything and everyone.
- Self manipulation to a degree she can change her accent and walk style in an instant, as well as other secret self tweaks.
- Expert in Gara-Nora technology through masterful reverse engineering.
Hunter designation: Rogue, specialist.
Not a lot is known about Peers. The only one she will confide in completely is Barb and she won't tell anyone what she's heard.
Peers' past is a complete mystery and the heights of her abilities or where she learned them from is unknown. Barb won't even tell anyone how they met.
All that is known for sure, beyond the lies and deception, is Peers trusts Barb completely and devoted to protecting her at all costs. She also has the most hate and savage bloodlust toward Cystal Witches than anyone else on the team.
METALIA
Full name: Sasayaki
Nicknames: Metalia, the terror of West Forest,
Ethnicity: Juren
Age: 23
Place if origin: West Forest of Kult, Gara-Nora
Height: 7'
Special strengths:
- Supernatural skill of innovation and mechanical creation of weapons and armor with extreme intelligence.
- Extremely powerful exoskeleton armor that moves on her like a second skin, has many hidden gadgets and changes color based on her emotion or needs.
- Her armor vastly increases her strength, resilience and speed.
- Vast knowledge about Gara-Nora and its natural properties.
- Self taught expert street fighter.
- Exceptional in arts and crafts.
Hunter designation: Inventor, warrior.
The most introverted of the group, Metalia is also the scariest. Between her insanely powerful inventions and her willingness to destroy anything, and anyone, that stands in her way makes her one warrior people tend to steer clear of.
Before joining Barb, Metalia spent her days in the "West Forest of Kult," growing up alone among the animals. She brought technology she stole to use in her inventions and assaulted anyone who tried to cross her forest.
When approached by Barb, Metalia legendarily almost killed her. She did eventually agree to a bloodied up Barb, believing Barb to be an unwitting champion of "Lady Logic," the being Metalia claims gave her the gift of invention.
Metalia has been known to seek evil corrupted Living Crystals who wander where they shouldn't to destroy them with a feverish hatred.
ABOUT GARA-NORA
WHERE IS IT LOCATED?
One of the closest colonized planets to earth, Gara-Nora is located in the Chara system, 27.53 light years away. In fact, it is Gara-Nora's proximity to earth that motivated the war that broke the planet. It orbits around the Chara star and has a brother planet called "Paul-Mara" that orbits on the other side of the star that has the same exact orbit at the same exact, strangely self-correcting, speed. Paul-Mara is considered uninhabitable and violent. It is uncolonized and generally avoided.
DOES IT EXIST?
The star system it resides in does, Gara-Nora itself resides in a parallel version of our galaxy called "Crimson River." The galaxy is filled with a red dust, coloring the Milky Way into a red hue. It's been that way for as long as the human race can remember.
Gara-Nora is an extra planet in the system that is not there in our universe and it is not man made.
IS IT THE ONLY COLONIZED PLANET?
The whole galaxy is filled with colonized planets and is separated into different overarching governments. Gara-Nora is an independent planet ruled by none of them sitting defiantly inside the borders of the Cognate Sovereignty of Planets.
ARE THERE ALIEN LIFE OTHER THAN HUMANS?
Other than the Living Crystals on Gara-Nora, there is no other life on the level of human kind in this galaxy. Any worlds that has life was mysteriously "manufactured" that way without any discernable natural development. Any planets that could've had such development are graveyards. It's been described as "as if the whole galaxy was killed and only humanity was spared. Then the animals were replaced."
WHAT IS GARA-NORA LIKE?
Much like earth, with a vast array of biomes. Like earth, it is a living planet with tectonic plates, volcanoes and same general planet wide activity. Gara-Nora also has a single moon called "Mist."
However, Gara-Nora differs in very strange ways. A power emanates from the planet crust, which many of the plants and animals (which were there before humans arrived) had adapted to soak up this aura and use it as energy along with the rays of the local sun.
This power has a healing and empowering effect on all who walk the planet surface, making it easy to grow stronger and do hard tasks longer. Wounds heal faster and you regain your stamina quicker.
All who are born on Gara-Nora inherit a "giant gene" in their DNA. Your children will naturally grow much taller. It is known as the Juren gene and all who are born on Gara-Nora are Juren.
Gara-Nora is also in a "time flux." There are underground tunnels, where Living Crystals mainly live, that are similar to wormholes. Traveling these underground caves can aid you in traveling extremely long distances in a fraction of the time. There are hundreds of thousands of these cave systems, maybe more, but only a small percentage of them are accessible from above ground. These caves sometimes change.
The planet surface is also in flux. Every once in a while, the land will suddenly shift. Nations that were nowhere near each other are suddenly neighbors and lakes and mountains that didn't exist appear out of nothing. No one on the surface feels a thing and nothing living is affected, other than plants and some underwater life. Living Crystals send out updated maps of the surface whenever this occurs.
IS THE WHOLE PLANET COLONIZED?
Only half is livable. The other half is taken by a single, recognized as evil Living Crystal called "Selim." He is in constant war with the Living Crystal race, has been long before humans arrived, and is always looking to expand his influence. His half of Gara-Nora is barren, dead, and not in flux. The natural energy of Gara-Nora cannot reach the surface there.
Of the livable half, there are many Juren living in either sizable kingdoms and clans or smaller towns and cities scattered everywhere either associated with a protecting nation or independent. Where people are and who rules them is always changing. There is no central government or one notable super power other than the Living Crystals themselves.
The closest to any global law is the 6 kingdoms code. An unofficial concordance everyone follows in fear of these 6 kingdoms and clans who both hate one another, but also sometimes work together to eradicate anyone who breaks certain "codes of conduct" they mutually do not like. These 6 groups of people are always at war with each other and has made each of them extremely powerful. Their sometimes combined might is what makes them feared and they do not like it when other kingdoms get involved in their conflict.
But no one messes with the Living Crystals. No one dares. The only ones who do are Crystal Witches, which the Living Crystals have put bounties on for humans to take care of as proof of their continued devotion to not exploit Living Crystals. To break that trust is to invite their wrath.