History ComicBook / FiveWorlds

InAGalaxyFarFarAway, [[TitleDrop five worlds]] live in close proximity to each other. On the planet Mon Domani, Oona Lee lives as a student at the Sand Dancer Academy. Her older sister, Tessa, was the ChosenOne who had the Living Fire; unfortunately, Tessa ran away, and Oona still carries the weight of her older sister's betrayal while also feeling the judgement of not living up to Tessa's greatness. When Oona discovers that the five worlds are overheating, she embarks on a mission to save the worlds, which can only be accomplished by lighting five ancient and mysterious beacons that must be lit by a skilled Sand Dancer with the Living Fire.

[[caption-width-right:350:From Left to Right: ''Left to right: An Tzu,Jax,& Oona'']]

* ArtificialLimbs:An Tzu gets one for his right arm and leg due to his Disappearing Illness in Book 3.
* [[BigBrotherInstinct Big Sister Instinct]]: Oona's sister,Jessa.
* CaptiveAudience: Oona is forced to watch [[spoiler:the rest of her classmates and teachers get held hostage by Toki forces in the burning castle. ]]
* BigBad: The Mimic.

* BigGood: The deceased Felid Queen.

* TheChosenPeople: The Toki, the shapeshifters of Moon Yatta, and the Kyojin on Salassandra were all chosen by the Felid Queen to protect the beacons from the Mimic.
* Theme Seasons: Each book is set on one of the five worlds:

* HidingYourHeritage: An unusual example in that the characters in question never had a choice. [[spoiler:Oona and her sister Jessa are actually Toki, but when they were rescued and brought to the Sand Castle on Mon Domoni, [[OldMaster Professor Plum]] hid their Toki heritage, even going so far as to genetically alter them to look Domani.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Tessa uses the black sand of Moon Toki , yet is an ally of her sister,Oona.

* AGodAmI: The Mimic is really [[spoiler:a Felid named Aurinko who believed that he and the other Felids ought to be treated as gods by the mortals on the Five Worlds. His superiority complex led to him being banished from the Felids' home by the Queen]].

* CaptiveAudience: Oona is forced to watch [[spoiler: the rest of her classmates and teachers get held hostage by Toki forces in the burning castle. ]]

-->'''An Tzu''': A city man is lost and asks a Domani farmer for directions to [[ShiningCity Chrysalis]]. The farmer says, "Sure, go back to the crossing... Or no, take that valley road... Oh no, that won't work either." The farmer thinks and thinks, and finally he says, "The best way to get there is to not start from here!" This joke later helps Oona figure out how to reach the Red Beacon [[spoiler: by making a portal directly over the Beacon]].

* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: All three of the main protagonists are orphans [[spoiler: barring An Tzu/Prince Neko, whose father is [[ArchnemesisDad unfortunately]] alive and well]].

* DisappointingOlderSibling: Tessa, [[spoiler: or at least at first]].
* DisneyDeath: Averted.[[spoiler: Jax goes down in a ship crash and disappears on Salassandra at the beginning of ''The Cobalt Prince.'' Oona and An Izu believed him to be dead. However, the third book reveals that he was saved by a [[NatureSpirit Devoti]] who absorbed itself with him.]]

** The magical explosion on [[spoiler: Oona, Tessa, and Vector's hometown on Toki]] is basically a magical version of a nuclear reactor melting down and spreading radiation.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''The Red Maze'', An Tzu plays a tune while Zelle makes a sand portal, and the portal opens up to an unknown place that's not on Moon Yatta. Later, we discover that [[spoiler: An Tzu is actually Prince Neko. The place in the portal must be his birthplace, the Felid Realm.]]
** An Tzu always wears a necklace in the shape of a crescent moon, which is the same symbol on [[spoiler: his mother's]] forehead.

** An Tzu is suffering from a disappearing illness that gets steadily worse throughout the series [[spoiler: with his right limbs dissapearing in book 3.]]

* HidingYourHeritage: An unusual example in that the characters in question never had a choice. [[spoiler: Oona and her sister Jessa are actually Toki, but when they were rescued and brought to the Sand Castle on Mon Domoni, [[OldMaster Professor Plum]] hid their Toki heritage, even going so far as to genetically alter them to look Domani.
* IAmAGod: The Mimic is really [[spoiler: a Felid named Aurinko who believed that he and the other Felids ought to be treated as gods by the mortals on the Five Worlds. His superiority complex led to him being banished from the Felids' home by the Queen]].

* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: Oona, one of only three children who can wield the Living Fire, goes through a lot of trauma. [[spoiler: First, her classmates are kidnapped by Toki forces; then she discovers that her sister is a traitor who's working for the Mimic; after being captured by the Mimic, she learns that she's actually a Toki and that her whole life was a lie; ''then'' she has to deal with her sister's death after Tessa sacrificed herself to destroy The Mimic's Heart; she thought one friend was killed and is slowly losing another to an illness; and on top of all that, the puppets of The Mimic are constantly after her.]]

** [[spoiler: To a much darker extent, the missing and [[DemonicPossesion possessed]] children in ''The Cobalt Prince'']].

* {{Reincarnation}}: It's revealed in ''The Amber Anthem'' that [[spoiler: An Tzu is the lost Felid Prince, Prince Neko, who was reborn as a human in order to save his people]].

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: [[spoiler: Jax, who is an android]], as well as all the [[spoiler: J.A.X. models]] like him.

* TokenTrio: Or at least the equivalent for an AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Oona is a white [[spoiler: later revealed to be blue]] female, An Tzu is (presumably) a white male, and Jax is a black male.

* WhatsInItForMe: Derrick Stoak's stance in ''The Red Maze''.

* Foreshadowing: In ''The Red Maze'', An Tzu plays a tune while Zelle makes a sand portal, and the portal opens up to an unknown place that's not on Moon Yatta. Later, we discover that [[spoiler: An Tzu is actually Prince Neko. The place in the portal must be his birthplace, the Felid Realm.]]

-->'''An Tzu''': A city man is lost and asks a Domani farmer for directions to [[ShiningCity Chrysalis]]. The farmer says, "Sure, go back to the crossing... Or no, take that valley road... Oh no, that won't work either." The farmer thinks and thinks, and finally he says, "The best way to get there is to not start from here!"
This joke later helps Oona figure out how to reach the Red Beacon [[spoiler: by making a portal directly over the Beacon]].

InAGalaxyFarFarAway, [[TitleDrop five worlds]] live in close proximity to each other. On the planet Mon Domani, Oona Lee lives as a student at the Sand Dancer Academy. Her older sister, Tessa, was the ChosenOne who had the Living Fire; unfortunately, Tessa ran away, and Oona still carries the weight of her older sister's betrayal while also feeling the judgement of not living up to Tessa's greatness. When Oona discovers that the five worlds are overheating, she embarks on a mission to save the worlds, which can only be accomplished by lighting five ancient and mysterious beacons that must be lit by a skilled Sand Dancer with the Living Fire. Accompanying her is An Tzu, an impoverished but street-smart orphan who's suffering from a Vanishing Illness, and Jax Amboy, a star athlete beloved by sports fans on all five worlds. Trying to stop them is [[BigBad the Mimic]], an evil god who desperately wants to seize control of the universe via darkness and corruption. Oona, An Tzu, and Jax race to light the beacons before the worlds overheat and the Mimic takes control of everything.

Planned to be a five-part series, it currently has 4 installments out, with the fifth and final book yet to be released.

* ''The Emerald Gate'': Planned to release in spring of 2021.

''5 Worlds'' is a ScienceFantady graphic novel series written and illustrated by Mark Siegel and Alexis Siegel with three collaborators, Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller, and Boya Sun.

->Think Star Wars meets Avatar: The Last Airbender!

''5 Worlds'' is a sci-fi/fantasy graphic novel series written and illustrated by Mark Siegel and Alexis Siegel with three collaborators, Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller, and Boya Sun.

* MixedAncestry: An Tzu has a half-plant mother and a human father. We also meet some other "half-saps" like Flower and Jarth.

This page NeedsWikiMagicLove

** Cat heads—specifically, circles with pointy ears—are all over the place on all five worlds.

* BigEater: An Tzu has a big appetite and can usually be coerced into doing something as long as there’s food involved.

** The lost prince is named Neko, which any anime fan will know means “cat” in Japanese.

* BlindSeer: One appears in ''The Amber Anthem'', though he’s never given a name.

-->'''An Tzu''': A city man is lost and asks a Domani farmer for directions to [[ShiningCity Chrysalis]]. The farmer says, “Sure, go back to the crossing... Or no, take that valley road... Oh no, that won’t work either.” The farmer thinks and thinks, and finally he says, “The best way to get there is to not start from here!”

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: A surprising amount for a kid’s book. The writers [[WriterOnBoard seem to enjoy tackling several real-life problems with fantastic counterparts]].
** Moon Yatta is basically one big stand-in for America. It’s the most technologically advanced of the five planets, the only one to elect leaders rather than have a monarchy, and its capital city, New Yatta City, is heavily modeled after American cities like New York City (it even has the same initials). Its self-centered government, greedy corporations, and rampant capitalism are all direct calling-outs to America’s same problems. To drive the comparison home, the flag is designed to look similar to America’s striped one, its official nickname is “The Superpower,” and An Tzu (who heard stories about it from his father) frequently calls it [[ThePromisedLand “the land of freedom and dreams”]].

*** The way they lost a war, suffered deep poverty, and took to an evil dictator who promised to win back their former glory at the cost of thousands of lives is disturbingly similar to the Germans’ situation post-WWI.
*** The Toki were also forced to take on menial jobs on Mon Domani after the war and are treated like second-class citizens by the Sand Dancers, much like the black people in America after slavery was abolished. The Toki are even drawn as if they’re African-Americans with blue skin!
* FantasticRacism: There’s plenty of prejudice and mistrust between the different races. Just to name a few, there’s the Toki (particularly by the Sand Dancers on Mon Domani), the plant people, and the shapeshifters on Moon Yatta.
* Foreshadowing: In ''The Red Maze'', An Tzu plays a tune while Zelle makes a sand portal, and the portal opens up to an unknown place that’s not on Moon Yatta. Later, we discover that [[spoiler: An Tzu is actually Prince Neko. The place in the portal must be his birthplace, the Felid Realm.]]
** An Tzu always wears a necklace in the shape of a crescent moon, which is the same symbol on [[spoiler: his mother’s]] forehead.

* IAmAGod: The Mimic is really [[spoiler: a Felid named Aurinko who believed that he and the other Felids ought to be treated as gods by the mortals on the Five Worlds. His superiority complex led to him being banished from the Felids’ home by the Queen]].

* JerkassHasAPoint: It’s illegal for the shapeshifters of Moon Yatta to shapeshift, to the point that they’re forced to wear special collars that prevent them from shapeshifting. While it’s obviously wrong to enforce such a cruel and demeaning law, the idea of having a way to identify shapeshifters is perfectly reasonable. Having shapeshifters in a population is pretty dangerous—if you have people who can look like literally anyone or anything and have no way of telling them from the real deal, then imagine how easy it would be for one of those shapeshifters to break into buildings, infiltrate the government, or [[ShapeshiftingSeducer seduce someone under false pretenses]].

* OddNameOut: ''The Sand Warrior'', the first book in the series, is the only book that doesn’t have a color in its name.

* {{Reincarnation}}: It’s revealed in ''The Amber Anthem'' that [[spoiler: An Tzu is the lost Felid Prince, Prince Neko, who was reborn as a human in order to save his people]].
** It’s also implied that Felids are supposed to reincarnate using a “Garden of Souls,” though since the last one was destroyed, there’s no longer a way for them to do this.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids An downplayed in-universe example: An old fairy tale that An Tzu read as a kid was the tragic story of the Queen and The Mimic. He [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by claiming it’s the saddest children’s book ever written.
* WhatsInItForMe: Derrick Stoak’s stance in ''The Red Maze''.

* Magical Native American: There are hints of this with the shapeshifters on Moon Yatta, particularly their leader, Zelle, from their appearance to the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything disturbing parallels between the two races]].

-->'''An Tzu''': A city man is lost and asks a Domani farmer for directions to [[ShiningCity Chrysalis]]. The farmer says, “Sure, go back to the crossing... Or no, take that valley road... Oh no, that won’t work either.” The farmer thinks and thinks, and finally he says, “The best way to get there is to not start from here!”]]

* Magical Native American: There are hints of this with the shapeshifters on Moon Yatta, particularly their leader, Zelle, from their appearance to the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything? disturbing parallels between the two races]].

* MoneyDearBoy: The reason most of the bad guys are working for the Mimic. Eldridge Stoak in particular is this trope to the letter.

* What’s In It For Me: Derrick Stoak’s stance in ''The Red Maze''.

* Magical Native American: There are hints of this with the shapeshifters on Moon Yatta, particularly their leader, Zelle, from their appearance to the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfEverything? disturbing parallels between the two races]].