See, Native American woo draws more eyes and there's some neat folklore from all these tribes. If you already have worldbuilding worked out, it's easier to build upon and helps guide others into fleshing it out. Should be neat.
The worldbuilding I'd been working on is based loosely on the Wechuge and the lore of the Athabaskan/Beaver peoples. Inspired by an ancient hero named Saya, boys coming of age would venture into the wilderness, enter a dreamlike state, speak to a medicine animal, and receive supernatural powers as well as taboos that if they willingly broke, would turn them into wechuge. The video that got me down this trail to start with is really informative and I'll link it (
about 21 minutes in is where that info starts) but that kind of process of "accept powers that have restrictions, consequences come from violating the restrictions" so easily applies itself to superpowers/magical girls. It's like the soul gem thing from Madoka.
This was the premise I'd written down first, before expanding on the story-specific lore:
A school takes a camping field trip and sees a recent archaeological find of an old native american settlement, and when 16 of the kids on the trip enter the tribal grounds (because they're 1/16th native each) it awakens an ancient seal and releases evil spirits that threaten the class. The girls are then called out in the middle of the night to the medicine man's tent where he explains they're descendants of the tribe and have magic powers that they can use to fight the evil spirits if they accept it. They do and become the Wendigirls, a group of magical girls with spirit animal powers that fight wendigos and other spirit monsters to keep the world safe.
More accurately they'd be Wechugirls and fight Wechuge, but I just think Wendigo sounds better. Plus, I don't want to 1:1 reference a real native tribe because it's not a documentary and it could be libel, so it'd have to be a made-up tribe in the show anyway.
The idea in-show is that the tribe used their supernatural powers and respected the spirits, but as westward expansion pushed them out and killed their elders, they forgot the proper ways to respect the spirits and took their gifts for granted, which made the spirit world angry. Evil spirits were sent to attack the tribe, and as a last-ditch effort to protect the tribe and everyone around, the medicine man of the main village trapped everything in a sort of liminal space between Earth and the spirit realm so long as nobody from the tribe ever tried to return to the village. Then of course the girls make up 1 native american of that tribe, who is now in the village, so all the spirits are unleashed (as well as the medicine man who would function as a kind of master and guide for the girls.)
The biggest issue is that it's a big cast, so you'll have to figure out how to give them the proper screentime without compromising their characteristics. It's not impossible to do, though.
They don’t all have to show up at the same time, after all! Sailor Moon took its sweet time rolling out all those planets
Maybe it could even go like a running joke… “oh jeez, you’re one too?!”
It
is a big cast, but they don't all need to be together 100% of the time. For big events, sure, but for an average episode they can function with one character as the main focus or in small groups. They're classmates, so they'll still be present and see one another around, but you can focus on individuals and small clusters for storytelling purposes.
Wendigirls concept art needed??
Yeah it is lmao
It's difficult coming up with what they'd look like, 'cause there are a lot of influences and considerations. You want them to look native, but not ridiculous like Monster High's Isi Dawndancer:
And you want "Magical Girl," but it's such a uniquely American story with the indigenous people and the 1/16th thing so you still want American clothing sensibilities, so nothing overly poofy and Lolita-fashion-y. I love these outfits from Lolirock, they're more subdued than typical full-ass magical girl outfit designs and they've got a good amount of coverage for teenage girls I think:
And after all that you still want it to look cool
and marketable AND have not just 3-5 but 16 unique outfits that reflect each girl's personality/spirit animal/whatever but also tie her in as part of the bigger tribe. It's a balancing act, and one that I haven't had much motivation to start since it's only ever been in my head until now.
