Pretty Cure Animae Borealis

Pretty Cure Animae Borealis is a fanseries by ameliette. It is set in Finland in 2017, and has themes of Finnish mythology and friendship.

Plot
In the very beginning, when the world was still one ocean, Veine the All-Mother formed the skies and lands from pieces of eggshells. Veine's sister Louhi didn't like the world Veine was creating and sowed discord and imbalance into Veine's ideal creation.

For this, Louhi was banished into the Northland, place of deathly cold and eternal darkness, from where she saw Veine's world blossom and bloom. Even after humans drove Veine and her spirit companions out from Earth's surface, and onto the astral plane of Lintukoto, Veine always had the golden mill of Sampo in her possession.

Time and time again, Louhi tried to get the miraculous Sampo to her kingdom, but was always stopped. But this time, something would happen differently...

Cures

 * Petra Tiainen / Cure Ursa: Petra is a newcomer to Suolahti, having lived in a big coastal city until now. Big, tall, and boisterous, she can appear somewhat intimidating, but inside is very kind-hearted and has a strong sense of justice. On the first day of school, she follows a spirit she saw into the woods next to her school and finds Hongo, with whom she transforms into Cure Ursa.


 * Amira / Cure Alces: Petra's classmate and the class representative, and was indeed the first one to meet her on the first day of school. She too saw the spirit that dashed to the forest, and followed it, meeting Juoni, with whom she transforms into Cure Alces.

If there's ever been anything Saana was good at, it was knowing stuff about Finnish mythology. And she knew that swans were important. So when the just-hatched chick started rambling about Lintukoto being in danger and Sampo being in shambles... Saana listened. With this new info, and her old knowledge, she borrows power from the swan - Koppa - and transforms into Cure Cygnus.
 * Saana Saraste / Cure Cygnus: A rarely-seen person at school, Saana has a reputation of a delinquent, even though her absence is only caused by her fear of the other students. Never fitting in and always being bullied, Saana has sort of given up trying. But just before the last year of junior high began, an egg fell onto her lap from the skies, and a swan chick emerged from it.

Spirits

 * Hongo: Short for Hongatar, Hongo is the ancient guardian spirit of bears. Once considered the queen of forests, she now guards Lintukoto. When Louhi attacks, she protects the Sampo, and follows its shards down to Earth as a bear cub. She finds Petra and helps her transform into a cure.


 * Juoni: Short for Juonitar, Juoni is the ancient guardian spirit of elks. Like Hongo, she once ruled the forests, and now lives in Lintukoto. She joins Hongo on her trip to Earth and becomes a fawn once again, allowing Amira to transform.


 * Koppa: Initially just an egg, Koppa falls from Lintukoto in the disorder that follows Sampo's destruction, and lands on Earth before hatching. She is found by Saana, who takes her in.


 * Nils-Pekka: An old nisse who has lived in Suolahti area for centuries and now inhabits the school the girls go to. He's the spirit Petra and Amira see running into the forest and who accidentally leads them to Hongo and Juoni.


 * Veine: Creator of the world and leader of Lintukoto. A youthful woman with blue skin and a dress made of ocean waves, she's the mother of all living things in the world.

Northland

 * Louhi: Sister of Veine, Louhi was the first to bring faults and imperfection into the world. Banished into Northland, she founded a place for people like herself, lost in the underside of the known world. She has two daughters she sends to Earth to locate the shards of the broken Sampo. Louhi herself cannot physically leave Northland, but can project herself as a wolf made of shadows.

Items

 * Sampo: Mythological mill that makes gold, salt and grain, the wealth that people measured long ago. These days, the mill sits on the center island of Lintukoto. It is destroyed in the prologue and its shards fall onto Earth.

Suolahti
Small town off the side of Äänekoski in Finland. Elementary and junior high schools, branch library, a quiet shopping street mostly inhabited by regular customers (ie. old men drinking at noon). The junior high gets students from a wide area, but Petra, Amira and Saana all live in near the town center.

Lintukoto
"The world above", the residence of spirits in mythology. A traditional Finnish log village built in the middle of an ocean, where the sun is always shining and no one has their needs unfulfilled. In the center of the village is a small island on which grows a tall birch; the North Star is always directly above the birch. The Sampo also sits in the birch's shade.

Northland
Underworld of Finnish mythology, the realm of Louhi. A place of eternal night and deathly cold. A place norther than north, where North Star shows as a faint spot of light on the south horizon.

Trivia

 * Originally this series was based on Finland's four major carnivores - bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine - and was titled Bellua Precure
 * The plot, places and characters are based on Finnish mythology, mixing Kalevala (Sampo, Louhi, Pohjola) and pagan mythology (prey guardian spirits, Veine being a woman). The cure outfits are based on Finnish Iron Age clothes and jewelry.
 * The girls are in 9th grade because that is the year Finnish literature is most discussed, and Kalevala is a repeating subject in the spring term.