I don't intend to ever write these, but they are cool food for thought. Especially when I realize how much a lot of the normal plot screws people over 

AU where Shaw and Elijah actually are friends, aka the happier ending Trumpet AU

Ah if only

• Shaw and Elijah meet at Fortissimo like usual, except Elijah doesn't...do the very vague things in-universe that he does in order to set Shaw off, and the two actually become friends
• Elijah either willingly surrenders First Triarch-ship to Shaw, or Shaw just is fine being Second Triarch (It's never really implied he actively dislikes the role beyond not liking being #2, so maybe he'd be fine with being the military leader)
• With Elijah on his side, it's probably more likely the Imperium wouldn't take such isolationist matters due to Shaw's pride. Though William would still get assassinated, Elijah would probably talk Shaw down from war, at least convincing him that they first need to do an investigation
• If things go well the investigation leads them to Kaden and the Orhchestra; if not they are again directed towards the Saxophones but as they have an policy of open trade they are able to have stronger munitions programs and the likes
• Elijah and Shaw also probably are able to let go of the French Horns as Shaw does not need their fight with them as a uniting factor anymore, since he's not as paranoid about his populace preferring Elijah
• Without the French Horns they are able to easily crush the Saxophones in a lightning war and the High King rapidly signs a peace deal, giving them more land and money instead of entrenching them in a long war
• If it is revealed to be the Orchestra, they instead enact a purge of all Orchestra members and rapidly start coalition-building; however, this is pretty unlikely unless Kaden really sucks at his job
• Shaw does not turn to the Orchestra and thus their attacks against the Imperium are much less effective when the time comes
• Without such paranoia Shaw also likely does not take extreme actions against Saxophones within his kingdom or non-Doremi. This may make people like Ellie less...likely to defect under the notion of "not like they care about me anyways" and it definitely makes the coalition more internally cohesive
• Like in the original ending they destroy the Orchestra, and the Imperium is likely dominant over all the other nations 
• Tl;dr Shaw basically partly ruined his nation with his emotional instability

Saxophone Happy Ending AU

IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO EASY, WHYYY

• Blake, Noah, and Calvin all band together and overthrow Sheryl; BUT, in a shocking bout of sense, Blake decides not to backstab Calvin for barely any reason ("I want power and you have slightly more power than me, and you disagree with me sometimes, so obviously you have to die now")
• Even with Calvin alive, they still have to battle against Noah's rebels in a civil war
• However Calvin is actually a competent military leader
• Plus since Calvin's alive, Noah can't stain Blake's reputation by calling him a murderer
• Blake still dies of Story-Important Unnamed Condition, but unlike in the main story, he doesn't have a panic over not having a suitable heir. Since Calvin is a decent leader who isn't just a sycophant like the rest of the High Conclave, he can just run things. And since Blake knows he's dying he can probably dictate a four-year-plan or something for the Saxophone economy.
• Most of the things Calvin wants can probably come to fruition after enough time. Like advancements in munition technology are a good idea and would help against Noah and Shaw (if that is he decided to go to war). Work programs for veterans are just logical and get people working. A pension perhaps would require a few more years of capital building but is still within reach as long as he can win against Noah and make peace with Shaw
• Blake would also tell Calvin that UNDER NO TERMS is he to burn any fields or print paper money without gold to back it up. Which would avert that disaster.
• As long as Calvin doesn't get power-corrupted, things probably go fine. Unless something terribly cataclysmic happens, I mean
• Calvin's also probably wayy more chill teaming up with Elijah and Ellie and Simran and others than Noah is. Since his views are a far cry from "THEY'RE ALL CORRUPT EVIL NOBLES WHO ARE ALL PLOTTING AGAINST ME I KNOW IT THEY'LL KILL ME JUST LIKE BLAKE KILLED CALVIN AND CALVIN KILLED THE QUEEN AND I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN REEE BLOOD FIRE"
• To be fair the Trumpets did do some not-good things against Saxophone citizens
• But as long as they denounce Shaw, Calvin might just have to swallow his pride and accept it
• Also the atrocities might not even be a thing seeing as Calvin and Blake have a 50/50 chance of being like "eh heck it why do war we have a civil war to fight already, maybe later"
• In this AU Noah gets to die like he always wanted. With violence. 

Maddox Wins The Crucible And Is Sad

hey it's unlikely, but. maybe.

• Through some violence and maybe a little bit of Elector finagling, Maddox starts to win
• Eventually he has to physically kill Ellie and Kaetryn and it is very Not Good for his mental health
• He's forced to be king in a role that has lost most of its meaning, he finds out about the Elector conspiracy and is haunted by the ghosts of his friends. 
• In a good ending he abolishes the Crucible and creates a fair voting system of some sort. Since he doesn't want more people to suffer
• The nobles obviously push back against this. It would be cool if he uses some of Ellie's methods to maybe convince them this is best and that they will be better off. 
• He then retires to be sad in a house somewhere, but at least he made the world better. Maybe he goes off on one last mission against the Orchestra and after he dies they elect a fair leader. (Without violent death trials)
• Sad but also sort of nice.
• In a bad ending he just lives the rest of his life convinced that this is tradition and he's just weak and needs to suck it up. 
• He accuses most of the Electors responsible for the conspiracy of election fraud and they are punished accordingly, including Ana. He also throws Brock under the bus solely cause he subconsciously blames him for Ellie and Kaetryn dying which like. Is sort of eh man he wasn't a conspirator. 
• He just spends the rest of his life being all brooding and sad. And he refuses to have children partly cause he doesn't want them to suffer, cause he doesn't want to pass down his "weak" gene, and also "wHo cOuLd eVeR lOvE mE LiKe tHat"
• Wow this is a depressing ending and barely even in a fun way, Maddox literally just turns more and more like his dad. Except I guess not as abusive, but he's still cold and aggressive and has no friends, and goes with tradition just because it's tradition, and doesn't question things.

Kaetryn Wins The Crucible

The Elector Conspiracy works...for now

Maddox probably kills Ellie, and is then struck with guilt and frozen, during which Kaetryn kills him by either literally stabbing him in the back, or slashing his throat

She becomes a puppet queen under the Electors, but is haunted by her friends 

She fights more and more against their grip, angry that she lost both her friends and yet is still as powerless as ever. At least I'm saying she would cause it's wayy more interesting

The Electors think the noble families should have power rather than Kaetryn

Eventually she tries to have them imprisoned for election fraud, but they fight back and soon a full-out civil war begins, the noble faction soon splitting into seperate parts as they infight (like nobles do lol)

In terms of third parties--while the Imperium is relatively seperated from the Isles, any one of the the Clarinets, Tuba-Baritones, or HPE probably can afford to fund certain sides depending on who they think won't compromise Isle trade. It's a bit less likely but the Great Rebellion and French Horns might also fund anyone who has a sort of "noble revolutionary" image too

Ana gets to either be a double agent for one of the two sides here, probably.

House Siren and Kraken would either ally with Kaetryn to try and defend the Crucible honor or fight against her due to long, long grudges. 

In short the Flute Isles just fall into chaos. This is probably the bad ending....Actually any of them winning by killing the others is a bad ending but still

Ellie Wins The Crucible...the traditional way

Ellie for president 210 

Also bullet points are acting dumb so I just gave up

• Anyways idk how this would happen if both of them have to die. I mean Ellie would probably offer Kaetryn peace, and I can't see Kaetryn trying to break that peace. And I can't see Ellie beating Maddox in a fight. Maybe she...poisons him? Or maybe this universe doesn't have her scheme to keep them both alive. 
• She either exposes the conspiracy or subtly gets rid of every single Elector present in the plot and systematically ruins their reputations.

• She facilitates more open trading relationships with the other nations. This also means she gets to meet a lot of the characters and have their storylines cross which is cool.




Shaw doesn't...particularly like Ellie or the Flutes in general and Ellie just subtly insults him. Though she and Elijah are chill cause Elijah's...mostly chill to allies. Elijah probably thinks she is cool and doesn't really see through her exterior shell. Shaw thinks he's dumb for that, and also for DARING to consider that other nations are friends.

Ellie attempts to poke fun at Calvin but he is entirely oblivious. But he probably listens to her and thinks she's super cool and the Flutes r super cool and yeah ofc he'll open up trade! Blake doesn't trust her (obviously, he doesn't trust anyone except himself cause he is sooo great) and says a bunch of cryptic stuff and insults, which she mostly just responds with backhanded responses lol.




Ellie and Alexander/Terell/Spencer are friendly enough once she confirms she recognizes their independence claims and she makes sure to compliment their battle strategy

Ellie and Simran are also probably cool and Simran convinces her to take action against the Orchestra (if she hasn't already). That is unless Gabriela is Clef Head. Then Gabriela condescendingly implies she's too young to know any better and should convert to Andersen. 

Noah would probably burst into ranting and Ellie would just make veiled insults and fire puns. He would probably say something to the effect of "ANOTHER SPOILED NOBLE, I WON'T BE BETRAYED AGAIN, REEE", unless he was High King/Supreme Leader in which case he would "think about it" and kick her out solely to feel like he had the upper hand.




Ellie also doesn't have as much reason to abandon the band coalition; however, if she does, she has no reason to reverse her decision as neither Maddox nor Kaetryn are there to talk to her about honor and kindness and stuff. Instead she leaves them to die and either defends her kingdom or just makes a deal with the Orchestra










Villain!Sheryl AU

Someday I'll write myself as a full on villain but not yet....ANYWAYS

• Rather than dying, Sheryl narrowly escapes assassination by fleeing the country
• Calvin, Blake, and Noah's reigns go as normal with both Calvin and Blake dying painfully

Sheryl begins aNOTHER rebellion with largely pro-monarchist forces, with funding from the Imperium or Kaden perhaps

• WOW BULLET POINTS MAKE ME WANT TO DIE

(Ahem) I digress--