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My current project (read that as headache) is a high fantasy trilogy, meaning there are several subplots and more characters running around than I care to think about on most days, not to mention huge holes that I'm certain have answers to questions beginning with the word "why".

Here are the basics, and really they are just the basics, I'm trying not to put in too much plot in order to save space and time:

  1. There are two worlds, the one we live in every day and parallel world. These two worlds are interconnected in that what happens in one has some affect on the other. The worlds are connected metaphysically (I suppose that's a good enough word) by what is called "The Road Between" which travels through a shadow land of lost souls. Sometimes people from our "world" accidentally stumble onto the "road" and end up in the other "world", but that's pretty rare. Technology from our "world" doesn't work well in the other one and "magic" doesn't work particularly well in ours.
  2. 20(ish) years ago twins were born to a nobleman of the "other world" during an attack on his estate while he was traveling. The first (Adam) was born and the midwife took him and escaped and managed to get him to his father who then promptly escaped into our world with him where he raised him in relative safety and never told him anything about their past. The other twin (Garrick) was born later and the mother, just before she really died, gave him to the guy who found her and charged him with raising him as his own... which is just what he did. As you may have guessed, these are the protagonists.
  3. Adam's father, Liam, is kidnapped and taken into the "other world" where he is tortured, blinded, etc. by the King (I haven't decided why other than that the king really hates him and is fairly sadistic anyway... although there's probably a better reason that they aren't telling me yet... beyond that I just really need a way of getting Adam over to the other side, which is lame but I'm sticking to it). Magnus (the old mentor type on first appearance) who is an old friend of the family, manages to get Adam over to the other world with his best friend and his "dog". That's the beginning, with the inciting event and all that jazz.
  4. There is one really big and important fact, there is only one story in all of history and it plays out over and over again, it doesn't always look the same but it is the same story... all the elements are there and they all fall into place like a cosmic puzzle. Sometimes the players get it right and then there is a period of balance between order and chaos and sometimes it goes wrong for one reason or another and chaos builds and threatens to destroy everything. Balance is important! With that in mind, the players in this story are the same souls that have to come back again and again to fulfill their destiny (fun, huh) BUT they do have free will... hence things not always going according to plan and things haven't gone right for a very long time.
  5. Logan, who can't die and won't die until the end the world, really wants to end the world.... so he can die but he can't have any direct effect on history (which is part of the reason he can't die). He can't have children, he can't kill anyone with his own hands, mortals don't even have a clear memory of ever so much as seeing him. All he can do is influence people through manipulating their baser instincts and emotions, although he does have some lasting impression on spirits and other such creatures.
  6. The three Fates have similar strictures as Logan, they can't physically affect events, but each Fate gives every mortal born one gift (that's three gifts total), these gifts are based on each of the fates particular role of course so they are within reason and have rules. The fates have been known to break the rules but there are punishments for doing that. Who from, I have no idea.
  7. I look at Logan and the Fates as players at a chess board, Logan is all for chaos and the Fates are playing for order. They can set the pieces up, they can plot and plan, they can influence pieces, but they can't touch because the pieces have free will.
  8. There's the high king, whom Logan has lots of affect on. Putting him on the throne was thought to be a good idea at the time but it turned out to be a really bad idea and now everyone wants him gone and there are lots of assassination attempts, blah, blah, blah. He's actually a well developed character and I do have real reasons but I don't want to go into it all right now. Suffice it to say he is the focal antagonist.
  9. There's the high priestess of the Goddess, who while not an evil person, thinks that she has wasted her life in the service of a Goddess who is dead and is therefore bitter... thus open to Logan's manipulation. She runs a matriarchal country (one of five that are all under the the high king though they each have independent rulers of their own as well).
  10. There is the God, who only acts in the world when the soul whose role it is to play calls upon him through an act of selfless sacrifice. This sacrifice cannot be made for one person, or even only for those the person cares about, it has to be done for the world as a whole, for everyone and it must be a true sacrifice. The God will act through this person and this person alone... BUT the person does not become the physical manifestation of the God, only the Will of the God
  11. There is the Goddess. She is also "sleeping", probably because she isn't being worshiped properly... her truths have been polluted by lies. There is a ceremony done every year that is suppose to bring her back into the world, but it hasn't really worked for generations so it's now just done as a ritual and often to kill people off who the "church" doesn't like or whatever... it's very political and generally seen as superstitious. This time though all the proper pieces are in place and so it does work, of course it doesn't go according to the high priestesses plan.

I think that's all of the really important stuff. The inciting event is the kidnapping and the end of the first book is the king escaping the war on a ship and heading off to his daddy in a more powerful country in the hope of getting help to get his throne back. In between we have the rescue of Liam, the discovery that the two protagonists are twins, bringing the God into Play, waking the Goddess, building an army, dealing with an obnoxious and power hungry trade guild, a girl who doesn't want to marry the guy her dad has planned for her so she becomes very manipulative and screws things up.

The problem right now... the really big problem... after rescuing his dad, why does Adam stay and try to fulfill his destiny assuming it is his destiny (and if it isn't then why bother telling the story, right), why does he care? He has what he came for but, for obvious reasons, he can't just leave. I don't have a clue as to how to go about transitioning the small(ish) problem of a kidnapped father into the bigger problem of two world in danger of becoming nonexistent. I do know that dethroning the king, who has done a really good job of destabilizing things, is the first step in bringing back balance.

Ideas? Suggestions? Questions? Feedback?
 

Reaver

Staff
Moderator
I think that you have all the makings of a great story, Becky. I think that Adam should support the king, maybe have his father try to dethrone the king? Just a thought of a possible way to bring some great tension/conflict into the story.
 
Unfortunately I can't do that because the King is a real bugger. He's the one who tried to have Adam, and his family's entire household killed, before he was born. He's also the one behind the kidnapping.
 
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