Afteran

The Afterans is the collective name for the many races and beings that inhabit the world of the Ever After.

Biology
The Ever After is a realm that exists beyond the world of Remnant, where the laws of physics and nature are wholly different. It's inhabited by many creatures that defy logic:


 * Living Toys
 * Hunter Mice
 * Dodo Birds
 * Living Objects
 * Paper Pleasers
 * Genial Gems

In regards to the origins of the Afterans, its suggested that they are created beings, each given a purpose or role to fulfill by an entity. Afterans do not die, not in the normal sense, and are quite long-lived, but are capable of physical and mental fatigue. Whenever they are damaged in some way or when they fulfilled their purpose, Afterans are recalled back to the Ever After, or the Tree in the center of the world. This process is called ascension by the inhabitants as here they are given a new role and purpose. The call to return back to the tree can be resisted by Afterans, if they do not have the motivation to do so, but doing so can cause them to be in turmoil and somewhat lost.

Depending on what the subject of ascension feels they desire to be, Afterans may or may not return as they were. And neither do they remember their past lives, though there still are lingering remnants of their pasts if their emotions to specific events are strong enough to retain. Afterans can achieve ascension either through finding the Curious Cat who can share their heart to help them accept to be taken by the tree, inhale fumes or drink extracts form the leaves of the Great Tree.

Outsiders from Remnant, especially humans and faunus, view this to be abhorrent, misunderstanding that the tree represents death, that the tree is a nameless horror that feeds upon memories in a cyclical path of death and rebirth. Though repeatedly it is not the case despite attempts by some Afterans, who find it confusing that humans would fear such a thing as the tree in the Ever After has no power over them, and only to the Afterans. However this has caused misunderstandings despite simply the "[Afterans] are not like you".

While death is uncommon to the Afterans, there is however one exception to this rule. Afterans can cease to exist if they are eaten by another native creature called the Jabberwalker which consumes them, preventing an Afteran from returning to the Ever After. Furthermore Afterans made directly by the Gods appear to possess a major design flaw as they have no convention method to ascend themselves, if they become lost and broken, as usual methods such as the drinking or inhaling extracts of the Great Tree have no effect on them. Thus the only way to allow them to possibly ascend would be through destroying their physical forms.

Background
According to the Blacksmith, the personification of the Great Tree and the embodiment of the Ever After, in the ancient past, the Ever After was overgrown, wild and dangerous. In order to build a new world, the Tree created two beings, two brothers who would ready the world that would come after. For their task the brothers were given the power to destroy, clearing the wilderness away and the power of creativity to imagine what and who would replace the wilderness.

Shortly following their clearing of the wilderness, the Great Tree then created the Ever After's newest inhabitants, the Afterans, who were given homes and roles to play by the brothers. Though the brothers did their task, as they matured the two entities began to grow curious. In the utmost secrecy, using the tools and skills they were given by the Great Tree, the brothers designed their own creation.

The first was a being who would later be known as the Curious Cat who they gifted with inexhaustible curiosity. From their success with the cat, the brother realized that their creations could do their own work. The cat was then given the task of locating the broken parts of the Ever After and sharing its heart to comfort them.

The brothers then moved unto a new creation, the Jabberwocker, a creature that would finish what the cat would started by permanently eliminating those broken. Unfortunately the Jabberwalker proved to be too brutal and deadly efficient in its task. Not only would it kill Afterans but its kills would never be able to ascend to the Great Tree and be repaired. The older brother believed that they had disrupted the balance of the Ever After and destroyed the Jabberwocker. This act however put him in conflict with the younger brother, who immediately restored the Jabberwalker to life as he believed they should not condemn their creations for their mistake. This caused contention between the brothers whose rivalry created a never ending battle and began to adversely affect the Ever After.

The Great Tree eventually learned of the brothers experiments and while it was proud of its progeny for their miraculous works and ambitions, it could not bare their disruptions to the realm. The Tree understood that the brothers had outgrown it and their roles, so it gifted them with a doorway that led to the greater beyond where the brothers could try creating world of their own. The door would always be open to the brothers for them to return home to the Ever After and for any of their creations.

Since that then, the brothers would go on to create the world of Remnant, one becoming the God of Light and the God of Darkness. The two would go on to create humanity and the Creatures of Grimm to populate their creation.

The Ever After would not be visited by the Brothers for eons, though their creations would somehow find their way to the realm from Remnant. The first human visitors to the Ever After were Alyx and her brother Lewis who fell into the realm from the sky. Alyx finding herself in a new world, cared little for the inhabitants of the Ever After, and was cruel and cunning against them aiming only to find a way back to Remnant and doing as s she please. Her actions caused a war among the inhabitants, causing much strife.

The two siblings traveled through the Acres of the Ever After, encountering Jinxy the Peddler who stole Alyx's dagger, the Jabberwalker, and the Lively Carpenter. The siblings reached the Crimson Castle where they met the benevolent Red King. Alyx challenged the Red King to a game in which she won by cheating, forcing the monarch to provide the humans resources to help them reach the Tree which they believed could send them home. They met the Curious Cat who acted as their guide, provided if Alyx would take them to Remnant as they wished to seek new answers to new questions.

While exploring the strange world they met with a man named Jaune Arc, who was from Remnant like them, though from the future. Jaune recognized Alyx and Lewis from a fairy tale he heard as a child and believed that his role was to help the duo through the story. Unfortunately the group came across the Herbalist's home, who acted as a sort of counselor for Afterans lost in their purpose and roles. Alyx after inhaling the hallucinogenic fumes of the leaves of the Great Tree, caused her to become more paranoid and bringing forth her more negative qualities to light. Alyx was convinced that Jaune was hindering her and Lewis chances of reaching the Tree and so poisoned him, leaving him for dead.

Alyx, Lewis and the Cat eventually reached the Tree and discover the door to Remnant. Lewis was the first to step through and return home, however Alyx at the moment where she was about to enter, was conversed by the Great Tree. Through their conversation, Alyx had a crisis of conscience, feeling guilt on the damage she caused through the Ever After, and even what she did to Jaune. It was then that Alyx decided that she wanted to remain in the Ever After and repair the pain she caused.

This course of action did not sit well with the Curious Cat, who felt betrayed by Alyx for breaking her promise. In anger, the Cat attacked her, murdering her in spite. Alyx spirit though preserved within a dagger by the Blacksmith, embodying a wish to repair what was broken. It was intended to heal Jaune should he ever go through the process of ascension. However Jaune never did as after he was poisoned by Alyx, he was saved by the Paper Pleaser, and spent decades acting as their protector. Due to the inconsistencies of the fairy tale he was told as a child and the actual reality, he was convinced that Alyx had left the Ever After by sacrificing Lewis. Thus he saw ascension as only a form of death that fed the Great Tree which he saw as a malicious entity. The Curious Cat was left with a broken heart as it could not go to Remnant and held a negative view on humans due to Alyx's actions. Furthermore they could not use Jaune to get to Remnant as despite the years of being trapped in the Ever After, the human refused to break and was committed to being the Ever After's protector.

Alyx’s impact on the Ever After would linger, her mischief leaving scars upon the Red King, who became unsure of his role after Alyx cheated at his game. Originally benevolent and kind, the Red King underwent ascension to change himself, through the assistance of the Herbalist believing his present self was not good enough.

Many decades later the Ever After was visited by Team RWBY who fell into the void between dimensions after escorting the people from Atlas to Vacuo. The party landed in the Jungle Acre where they befriended a talking mouse that Ruby Rose named Little. Little acting as a guide led them to the Crimson Castle Acre where they could perhaps retrieve a stolen item from the Jinxy Peddler. The girls ran afoul with the Toy Soldiers who sought to purchase a item, which happened to be Yang Xiao Long’s robotic arm, from Jinxy. The huntresses then came to realize the remarkable similarities of the world and the fairy tale they were told as children. Initially believing that they were in a story, the huntresses sought an audience with the Red King who had previously aided the main character of the fairy tale Alyx.