if you're seeing this, then that means I've finished this story and I'm uploading the various thought processes that I had during the making of this story cause some people might like to check out what the hell i had going on in my head while writing. a lot of these ideas might be scrapped, and there may be some elements in the story that were never listed here. that means i probably came up with them as i was writing lmao

prepare for the hellscape that is my thought process LMFAO

fallout 4-like setting, except instead of nukes a massive war wiped out civilization

mc is a scientist that helped make the weapons of war that ruined the planet

mc stumbles upon mumei, who takes the form of a dying girl because civilization is crumbling, and being a representation of that concept, is dying with it

at first mc tries healing her with the modern medicine, it just ends up being completely useless. mc tries everything and almost gives up but accidentally drops their PDA which was displaying the Council myths.

mumei reads and remembers who she is. she draws life force from the remaining human tribes and gains enough strength to stand up and switch from owl to human form.

mc bonds with her and ultimately realizes that she's the guardian of civilization and tries to fix it by trying to create a city with the remainders of the world

mc isn't too successful at first because the people recognize him and blame him for what happened to the earth

(later into the story) the remaining people from the people mc waged war against hear about mcs established city and wage war on him again.
the city almost gets ruined and because mc had gathered a big bunch of civilization into one place, mumei almost dies, but fauna takes pity upon mumei and the earth swallows up the city farms along with a few people, saving civilization.

Catalyst: a big, 100 foot tall nuclear powered gun tower, like the G.U.N. in Subnautica. it was supposed to end the war once and for all but a malfunction happens when mc fires it and it explodes, releasing a nuclear shockwave around the world that causes all nuclear powerplants and electricity related things to explode with it, triggering the collapse of the world.
mc is the sole survivor of the blast because the area where he fires the weapon from doubles as an indestructible chamber that's designed to put whoever's inside into stasis in the event of disaster like what happened.

mc wakes up from stasis 200 years later, the world is like the map of Ark Abberation, almost everything manmade has been destroyed along with the ozone layer. At day, anything that gets hit with the suns rays without appropriate protection evaporates and at night radiation affected creatures come out to hunt.

The underground eroded into giant caverns filled with flourishing wildlife, the remains of underground facilities like the subways. Humankind lives underground in a sort of stone age. 

Mumei has a satchel full of notebooks. One of the notebooks documents what happened after MC fell into stasis.

Mumei can switch to her demon mode, doing the jagged teeth, red eyes thing and her knife elongates, turning into a ten-inch blade and she becomes super aggressive, attacking anything in sight wether friend or foe. She hates using it and will only do it when super needed.

Chapter 3 notes:

The village tells mc that the village is half-ruined because "the girl with the cape" brought bad omens.

as the elders tell 

mc tells that the village elder that his name is Leo and the village elder freaks out. The humans who were left from the Catalysts' explosion told stories about him and how he essentially caused the ruin of the planet. the elder exiles him from the village but one of the village youths visits his camp and tells him about the animals.

Chapter 4 notes:

mc sees a frightened owl flying away from the forest guardian.

mumei journal:

day one:

I felt weak and kronii suggested that I go check on earth

it's nothing but wilderness and a few ruined buildings

i wonder what happened here

day two: 

still nothing, I've found lots more ruined buildings

my boots are getting dusty

day 5

I forgot to write in my notebook for the past few days

I fell through a pit and it continued down a tunnel

Under the surface was a big forest

it's pretty down here

A big lizard approached the tree I sleep in and tried to snap at my dangling legs

I need to ask Fauna for help with the animals here

day VI

I found a settlement

The houses are made of wooden huts and stone

makes me nostalgic for the neolithic stone age

day 8

these people are nice

they let me live with them for a while

I noticed they put a saddle on the big lizard that tried to eat me,

bella see rapper, they called it

day eleven

other humans clad in armor and mounted upon gliding creatures dropped from above and burned my little village

I could feel the civilization from that area drain 

i don't like it

i need to stop those people from destroying more villages

maybe this is why the Council sent me down?

day 12

i found berries and monkeys

my cloak has a hole from the burning village

I'm not Fauna, but the nature here seems off

i don't think bananas are supposed to be red

nor do i think wolves should have the horns of a rhino

day thirteen

i fell down another hole

there are little cubby holes in the cave walls that have eggs

when i went closer the creatures that the raiders were riding appeared out of nowhere and chased me off

the water under here is glowing and filled with jellyfish

day 15

i got out of the underground, I'm back in the forest now

the nature is definitely off around here

i have a bad feeling about this

day 16

a little crab spider tried to bite my ankles, now my boots have holes

walking around in the forest here makes me feel like something's watching me

day nineteen

i found a giant ruined building laid on the forest floor

i could see, feel and smell the radiation leaking out from it

a tree definitely moved, i saw it out the corner of my eyes

but i need to study this building further

day XXI

i set up camp near the building

 i placed my hand on it and saw snippets of its history

a war...

The Catalyst was supposed to end it all

and it did, just not in the way it was supposed to

day 22

i was leaving the ruins of The Catalyst when the ground started shifting

trees and moss sunk into the dirt and started churning and quaking

one three-fingered hand emerged from the ground, followed by an arm and a monstrous head with a giant gaping maw, green, glowing eyes like pools of swirling poison, horns of wood and a beard of moss

i turned into an owl and flew away.

Inside mcs Stasis Chamber, the last vestiges of the future remain:

 a solar-powered pair of plasma sabers that could be used as a cutting tool, a weapon, climbing hooks.

metal

grappling hook

food

tek armor 

tranquilizers 

Local tribes worship something called the God of the Forest. Ends up being trees that gained sentience due to the large amounts of radiation coming from the Catalyst.

because of the radiation levels, lizards and birds have re-evolved into dinosaurs.

due to the core of the earth itself being affected by radiation, the deeper you get, the weirder the creatures become.

Thomas: https://ark.fandom.com/wiki/Edmund_Rockwell (base him off of rockwell)

Biomes:

Giant Trees

Plains

Mushroom Trees

Underground Forest

Element infested underground

Jungle

creatures:

Ceratorium Lupus/evolved wolves:

at some point in time, rhinos and wolves merged together into one

mostly look like wolves, but developed rhino hide and have the nose horn

pack animals

T-Rex

big boy re-evolved from a chicken

menace to the humans that live in and around the forest of giant trees

only the stronger tribes can tame it

Argentavis magnificens

re-evolved from modern day eagles

big bird

aerial predators of the forest of giant trees and mountain areas

airplane 

Velociraptors

re-evolved from lizards

spawnkilling mfs

land mount

mounts that accompany you into battle

larger specimens can hold two people

Myrmekes

ants that became bigger

scavengers that steal from food stores and very occasionally pick someone off

killed for their shells to make into armor

cleared out myrmeke nests are turned into strongholds

Queen myrmeke

size of a bus

lays 30 eggs an hour

spits acid

territorial

Baryonyx

re-evolved from lizards

rule the swamp area

upgraded raptor

water mounts

trained for battle

Brachyura Araneae

radiation fused the crabs and spiders that lived underground

literally translate to crab spiders

scavengers

like pinching ankles

Deer

self explanatory

Boars

self explanatory

Cows

self explanatory

Giganotosaurus

re-evolved from komodo dragons

King of the mountains

Big bully

no one except for mc has the means to tame it

Spinosaurus

re-evolved from newts

river boi

Rock Drake

glider

wall climb

MCs creatures:

Spinosaurus named Bennett

Basket next to saddle used to hold mumei.

Rock Drake named Zephyros

Also has a saddle basket to hold mumei

Giganotosaurus named Chad

Doesn't have a saddle bag for mumei anymore, instead she has a mini crossbow tower

mc only resorted to taming Chad because Thomas forced them into war.

After waking up from stasis, mc gathers up his supplies and finds a nearby tribe. He discovers from them that the radiation affected the animals brains in a way that makes them easy to tame and train.

mc follows the river, aiming to tame one of the baryonyx he saw roaming around.

Bennett emerges from the river and knocks him and mc down a waterfall.

MC manages to shoot Bennett with his extremely powerful tranquilizer darts and knocks him out.

Mc starts giving Bennett meat to tame and sets up camp near him.

While Bennett is taming, mc decides to wander off and explore for a bit.

Coincidentally, the spot where mc fell is the old site of the Catalyst. Over time, the ground beneath it had eroded into a giant cavern and eventually the weight of the gun tower caused a collapse in the floor and the gun tower crashed through several hundred miles of earth and created a tunnel to deep earth.

The Forest God emerges briefly before disappearing again, leading mc to assume that because the trees around that area was so close to the Catalyst, the trees had gained sentience and fused together to make the giant wood monster.

Thomas knows about the Council and wants to harness their powers. Tries to capture Mumei, the weakest one, first. 

things to note:

at least four males and four females have to survive for mumei to survive, because from those people civilization can be reborn

https://ark.fandom.com/wiki/Aberration (BASE HEAVILY ON THE LORE, CREATURES AND MAP)

Base Thomas heavily on Rockwell.

Post-Explosion Thomas:

Grew taller and more muscular, result of injecting Element into himself.

His whole body is peppered with burn scars and there're glowing pinkish-purple veins on his arms and snaking up his neck, result of injecting Element into himself.

His left arm is frozen and practically immovable, except for moving it back and forth. Because his Pod was damaged in the explosion and never left the Catalyst, the Pod accidentally administered too much liquid nitrogen on Thomas and the radiation interacted with the ice, causing his arm to become extremely hardened at the cost of not being able to use his left hand.

(Chief eventually ends up smashing his ice arm with a sledgehammer)

Important Plot Moment Ideas:

  Council Backstory.

Irys and Bae play big parts in helping mc.

While the village fends of Thomas' army, Mumei and Mc go off to confront Thomas, however Mumei fades mid-fight.

Calli see mc's despair and helps him, causing skeletal hands to occasionally rise up and grab Thomas' legs and imbuing mc's weapons with Ricky's soul-reaping power.

Soul Reap Imbued Weapons: Glow faintly blue, when cutting someone 

Final Battle conclusion.

My breathing was ragged. The cuts and bruises all over my body throbbed in time with the rhythm of my heartbeat.

Thomas was on his knees, his straw-colored hair strewn about on his face, the icy stub of his left arm glinting in the bioluminescent light.

I shakily drew my blade and approached him.

He did not look up as I slowly raised the blade over his exposed neck.

"Memento Mori." I whispered.

"Memento Mori." A low female voice echoed after me.

As the blade came down upon Thomas' neck, it morphed into a giant bronze scythe.

His head fell to the ground with a soft thump, followed by the rest of his body.

As I watched, Thomas' body slowly melted into darkness that seeped into the forest floor.

The scythe in my hand melted into darkness, leaving behind a note;

My condolences,

                          -Your Mori

BEHOLD! THE ENDING YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN!

 MUMEI WAS ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO FADE AWAY IN PEACE THEN BE REBORN THE SECOND LEO CREATED THE NEW VILLAGE, BUT I CHANGED MY MIND LAST MINUTE!

BLAME @kizanhi FOR THE ENDING YOU GOT LMFAOOOOO

Ending.

As Thomas and his army destroy the city mc, Mumei and the village created, Mumei fades due to there not being enough Civilization.

Mc, enraged, defeats the army singlehandedly and leaves the burning wreckage of the village, bringing Bennett and Zephyros, wearing Mumei's cloak and dagger that was left behind.

Mc, riding on Bennett, finds an encampment of six people and starts his own village.

Epilogue.

A decade later,

Mc is celebrating his 28th birthday, looking down on the city he'd created.

"I wish Mumei could see this." I sigh to myself.

"I can see it." Came a voice from behind me.

I wheel around and my mouth opens in disbelief.

Standing in the doorway was Mumei, looking as if she'd never even faded from existence.

"Oh, hi. Can I have my cloak and dagger back?" She smiled radiantly.

(Details: Bennett's metal leg brace displayed in mcs room, a wreath of Zephyros' feathers also displayed. A pouch of red berries is always on Mc's belt. Mc always wears Mumeis cloak and dagger.)

During the final battle, mc's plasma blades start malfunctioning, fluctuating and morphing into random shapes. Bae appears and tries to turn the tide of the battle, causing everything electronic to malfunction and all creatures except for mcs teams tames to go rogue. She gives mc Gura's trident and sabotages Thomas' army even more, then leaves, stating the "Immortals of this World" can't allow her to interfere with mortal affairs any more than she already has.
Irys doesn't appear personally but raises morale whenever needed.

Even with all this, they still lose due to mc's army being unprepared for war, and Mumei fades.

Cute little moments I can add in:

mc notices mumei singing her demo song and one day starts harmonizing with her, causing mumei to blush and stop singing.