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The Less the Merrier?

In one of my projects the different races are direct descendants of the different Gods (they are presumed to be dead long ago) Each race inherits his or her patron deity's magical power. Some have dominance over nature, others have gifts of foresight, and so forth. There is a prophecy that a child will be born with the soul of the enemy God who will bring ruin to the world. But when the prophecised (spelling? sorry on my phone) child is born, he had a twin brother. It's hard to explain but they were separated at birth.


My MC (Theocleed) discovers later on in his life about the true nature of his birth and how he has the power to stop his twin brother from fulfilling the Destroyer God's will and enslaving the world in shadow and ruin. So I need Theocleed to travel to the different kingdoms of the many different races and try to stop the racial tension in the land and unite them together to overthrow his Brother.

My problem is that I'm planning on having Theocleed travel to one place and then go to the next and so on until all nations unite against the common threat. I want Theocleed to have a small party that accompanies him throughout his journey but why not have a whole company of soldiers follow them? Why not have a small army escort him so as to protect him from any threat. I tried thinking of how in Lord of the Rings the fate of the entire world was carried in the hands of one person and he was only accompanied by eight companions. (I still don't understand that either)

Shortly after Theocleed understands who he is and what he must do, he speaks with his city's king and the King has a few characters escort him to go to the next kingdom. Then when they get their and speak they will sort of send a warrior-ambassador to let the next kingdom they visit that they will unite as well. But i can't think of a good reason as to why Theocleed, one who is prophecised to be the one who will save the world, would only have a few characters following him for protection. (I think the LOTR might have been boring if an entire army followed Frodo)

I appreciate any help you can give me. This has been stressing me out like crazy! >:C
 

Saigonnus

Auror
David Eddings did something like that for his Belgariad, Belgarath the sorceror was forced by circumstances to unite the nations against the fallen god Torak, the brother to his master Aldur(who had 5 other brother gods as well) after he stole the orb of Aldur from him. Belgarath himself had the capability to do it and assembled people that would fulfill the prophecy foretold in both the Mrin Codex (evil bible) and the goodly counterpart to destroy the fallen god (force him to ascend to "heaven" as it were)

I would think you are correct in assuming less is more, that way you not only cut down on the travel time (armies move VERY slowly most of the time) as well as being able to focus more on the characters that are there with the MC, allowing more time to add background for them.
 
The reason the Fellowship was small was that it wanted to sneak by its enemies. For that matter, Tolkien did go on to gather armies, once Frodo went on ahead.

It works either way. What doesn't work is trying to do justice to too many people in that army.
 

Jamber

Sage
Hi Androxine Vortex,

Could you make it that his brother the destroyer-god has already co-opted most of the other kingdoms and become influential over them? That he's in effect spent his whole life using his persuasive (or coercive, or corrupting) power to elevate himself and add to his control? Maybe he's even done this in your main character's land somehow (or is doing so now)?

What that would add up to is that Theocleed isn't only having to travel and raise a groundswell, but that he's an outcast and is running up against not only the evil-doer but those non-evil people who've been influenced by him. It seems to me something like this would add to the jeopardy of his mission. And you could have little bastions of 'good' where other outcasts like himself have holed up.

It's just a vague idea, not sure if it suits what you're trying to do at all —*ignore it if not. :)

good luck
Jennie
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
In one of my projects the different races are direct descendants of the different Gods (they are presumed to be dead long ago) Each race inherits his or her patron deity's magical power. Some have dominance over nature, others have gifts of foresight, and so forth.

This sounds identical to the old AD&D 'Birthright' setting.

There is a prophecy that a child will be born with the soul of the enemy God who will bring ruin to the world. But when the prophecised (spelling? sorry on my phone) child is born, he had a twin brother. It's hard to explain but they were separated at birth.

My MC (Theocleed) discovers later on in his life about the true nature of his birth and how he has the power to stop his twin brother from fulfilling the Destroyer God's will and enslaving the world in shadow and ruin. So I need Theocleed to travel to the different kingdoms of the many different races and try to stop the racial tension in the land and unite them together to overthrow his Brother.

Fair enough. But...

Apart from your MC, how many people KNOW who and what he is? Does your MC have something that will convince others he is the 'chosen one'?

If the prophecy is secret, or mostly unknown, and if it is not known that the bad guy had a twin brother to begin with...then your MC is going to have to do a LOT of convincing to get anybody to follow him. Hence, the issue of a large armed retinue becomes moot.
 

WyrdMystic

Inkling
A writer that moves armies very well, I think, is Chris Bunch and the Demon King books. There isn't too much dwelling on the travel time but the writer goes through the plights and the suffering caused by the issues of moving such a large cohort such as weather and supplies - by the time they actually reach their destination the army is shattered, starving and they've lost a large portion of their soldiers (if memory serves).

I would say though, don't read if you don't like explicit sex and violence.
 
A writer that moves armies very well, I think, is Chris Bunch and the Demon King books. There isn't too much dwelling on the travel time but the writer goes through the plights and the suffering caused by the issues of moving such a large cohort such as weather and supplies - by the time they actually reach their destination the army is shattered, starving and they've lost a large portion of their soldiers (if memory serves).

Yes indeed. Bunch is easily one of the best writers for fantasy armies, and a lot of fun.
 
@ThinkerX

The prophecy says that he will exactly resemble the destroyer God and have all his magic strength. Theocleed can prove this with his exceptionally powerful magic. His race has black skin with white hair. Most have red eyes but his are blue like the God

Another thing to keep in mind is that all the nations are very racist against Theocleed and his people and all of the people of the destroyer God live away on an island guarded by fell spirits. It's a hard plot to explain because I have to leave out so much.
 
Bump
(I tried coming up with something by myself but my mind is fried from all the bad ideas)

I was thinking that the MC and a few characters who decide to help take horses from a small village. it would be reasonable to say that there aren't any soldiers here in this small town and they want the horses for quick travel. Is this a good idea?
 
The two brothers look and probably sound exactly alike. That means Theo, if he chooses to reveal himself, will be marked for death by three different groups: His brother's goons, people who assume the two brothers are working together, and people who confuse Theo with his brother.

In addition, with his odd coloring and the racism you mention, it will be doubly difficult for him to do anything at all.

In this situation, a small party would be ideal, because they would have to be sneaky and avoid Theo being identified.

I don't know if you thought of this, but how exactly are the people Theo is trying to turn against his brother going to believe that he has good intentions? All the evidence is stacked against him, and they only have his word that he's the good guy. If I was the king, I wouldn't send a group of my best soldiers to escort him. I would send a group of my best assassins disguised as soldiers, and instruct them to poison him as soon as he was far enough away to avoid damage to my city. And that's assuming that I'm smart enough to avoid locking a powerful mage in my dungeon.

Don't get me wrong, I love stories like this, but you might have a little too much stacked against Theo. If you make his journey a little easier for him, you would have less trouble writing. If you make it too difficult, fewer people will enjoy your story because your main character is so restricted that he never meets his potential.
 
I hadn't thought of that what a very interesting idea! But I'm planning on having a small raiding party of "bad guys" attack where the MC is and they find him by chance and chase him. Theocleed runs into a town he has never been to before and the people that live there see him fight and kill his own people with his gift of destruction magic. At first they bring him before a king or whatever is going to be the central leader and authority figure of this village and they want to immediately kill him. But he questions as to why they were hunting down one of there own kind and then after some dialogue finds out Theocleed is the one from the prophecy this is all subject to change though.


I agree with most everything you said except about him traveling in a small party. Since everyone is very racist against his people that they will try to kill him on sight I think that it would be bad for him to be insmall numbers. If he is caught then he will have a hard time explaining him self if he's even given the chance. But if he was traveling with a company of soldiers then that would raise question as to why they did not kill him and what is going on.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
The prophecy says that he will exactly resemble the destroyer God and have all his magic strength. Theocleed can prove this with his exceptionally powerful magic. His race has black skin with white hair. Most have red eyes but his are blue like the God

Another thing to keep in mind is that all the nations are very racist against Theocleed and his people and all of the people of the destroyer God live away on an island guarded by fell spirits. It's a hard plot to explain because I have to leave out so much.

Not quite.

About all he can actually 'prove' is that he has substantial magical powers and is a member of a despised race. This does not directly translate to him being the 'chosen one'. A reasonably intelligent King (or commoner, for that matter) WILL conclude the same, unless you have a lot of 'idiot balls' bouncing around.

He's going to have to win followers over one or two at a time.

His best way of beating the bad guy would be through indirect means: he uses his spells to discredit the bad guys more competent flunkies and to promote the more decent sorts. He's behind the scenes, not at the forefront.

Also...is the prophecy legit? Who made it? How widely known is it? Keep in mind that if it comes from the chosen ones race, then the members of most other races WILL dismiss it out of hand as pure bunk.
 
About all he can actually 'prove' is that he has substantial magical powers and is a member of a despised race. This does not directly translate to him being the 'chosen one'. A reasonably intelligent King (or commoner, for that matter) WILL conclude the same, unless you have a lot of 'idiot balls' bouncing around.

Good point. One of his best proofs would be his matching face, but in a world without photography or TV, not everyone's seen a good image of even a famous person's face, and official portraits (and statues, coins, etc) aren't always trying to be accurate.

A part of this struggle has to be that some fakes have emerged over the years, probably trying to pass off lesser magic or tricks as the real deal. They might be side characters today or infamous troublemakers centuries ago, and might be doing it to swindle or for political reasons or pure religious fervor-- but if the prophecy's out there, a few people must have tried to match it.
 
As you can see this is a fairly new plot idea and I still have to work on it. Okay it needs a good bit of work. But I kind of like the idea of him having a very hard time influencing others to his cause.
 
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