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How do you create a sense of threat?

Amanita

Maester
As it says in the title. How do you show to the readers that it's absolutely necessary that the protagonists succed? (If you're writing a story where this is the case.)
Harry Potter for example does this well in the beginning while Voldemort hasn't turned up yet, but doesn't really manage it when he does. (Because he has to seem weak so Harry can escape.) Some stories go the obviously easy way that the opponent wants to destroy the complete world but that won't be the case in my story.
There, the opponents are mainly like a terrorist group but at the moment they don't seem to be threatening enough.
For my story to work probably this should change however, not least because people in powerful positions need to be motivated to agree to things they usually wouldn't agree to.

So, got any tipps? How are you doing it if you do it?
 

Ghost

Inkling
It would help to know about the setting and about what the opponents have already done.

When I think of an act of terror, I think of something particularly cruel or something I can't predict. People who can strike anywhere at any time in small numbers are frightening. You don't see them coming as easily. I'd feel threatened if they committed a few large-scale attack or several smaller attacks. The sense of helplessness is what frightens me. Maybe you can cause tension by showing the group infiltrating places they shouldn't be able to, by attacking or by placing a plant there. The main character(s) might distrust people he should trust if the opponents were able to sneak an agents into the protagonists' groups.

Like in Harry Potter, one way to show that the protagonists must succeed is presenting the antagonists' track record. Voldemort had power once, and it didn't go well for many groups. Only one group (purebloods who weren't nice people) seemed to benefit. Having people around who know what the opponents do with power (even things done within the opponents' organization), helps hammer home that these guys aren't the ones who should be in charge.
 
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Ravana

Istar
The opponent doesn't need to start out threatening: the threat can grow with the story. The threat doesn't even need to be recognized at first… in fact, one of the best ways to get people in powerful positions motivated to agree with–or even talk to–one another is to present them with a growing danger that has completely blindsided them, and which they can't so much as identify without comparing notes. (And, in the process, eliminating one another as possible sources of the danger.)

A lot of that will depend on space considerations. The above strategy won't work very well in a 5k word story. Take a cue from horror writing, though: the less your antagonists are actually seen, the easier it is to make them appear threatening.

If you want to see a real-world example of a group that made a little go a long way, look up the Nizari Ismaili sect led by Hasan-i Sabbah. It's not every organization that can go in a single generation from nonexistent to providing a synonym for terror that's still in use nine centuries later.…
 
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Amanita

Maester
Thank you so far.
It would help to know about the setting and about what the opponents have already done.
The opponents believe that people with power over the elements should rule the world and that the existing governments all trx to put them down in different ways. They also believe that this applies to elemental magical people of all countries and that they shoud all work together.
They're started out within a secret underground organisation in a country where elemental magic is actually banned and managed to take over this organisation before spreading further to others countries.

They're trying to:
- Show their power to the world
- Get rid of people they see as their enemies including politicians, law enforcement leaders but also elemental mages who support the existing system.
- Destabilise the existing governments and "prove to the people that they're doing things the wrong way.
 
I have a terrorist group as antagonists in my WIP and I try to show their threat by demonstrating the illusive yet insidious nature of their actions. People who inform upon members of the sect are found dead. Magistrates who take a stand against them are murdered. They target any symbol of the authority of the Empire they fight against. The part that, for me, makes terrorist antagonists so threatening is that there's nothing you can do about them since they look just like everybody else, and so you've no idea who they are until they come for you.
 

DameiThiessen

Minstrel
It helps if the enemy has strength in numbers, such a king with a large army or government control. In the Harry Potter series, I thought the biggest threat was in book 5 when the Ministry of Magic was taking over the school. The enemies were the faceless mass of government support and the newspapers spreading lies. They gained support against the heroes. I find that to be more threatening than Voldemort alone, because with the masses distracted and unbelieving he could then do anything and get away with it. It also frustrated me as a reader, as I felt the time crunch was illuminated by the other characters' unwillingness to believe Voldemort had come back.

So I guess the biggest sense of threats, for me, come when the hero is outnumbered not only by their enemy but by unwilling bystanders as well.
 

Ghost

Inkling
They're trying to:
- Show their power to the world
- Get rid of people they see as their enemies including politicians, law enforcement leaders but also elemental mages who support the existing system.
- Destabilise the existing governments and "prove to the people that they're doing things the wrong way.

If they want a show of power, they need to go big. Smaller, more frequent attacks are frightening and create a sense of chaos, but larger attacks are more impressive. To hit all three goals, they could strike at government buildings. Perhaps they could weaken the foundation of a government complex. There'd be a large number of casualties, and civilian deaths are likely. The death toll and destruction of property could simply be collateral damage. Perhaps they could disrupt a courthouse with a break in a sewer line. Or they can create havoc in the corrections system by making sinkholes in a prison, letting inmates escape. Hordes of criminals roaming the streets makes law enforcers look bad, which may be one of the goals.

I'd just look at the places that are the hub of activity for the government or locations that symbolically represent the state's power. The group can destroy landmarks or handicap the government's efficiency.

Also, it would help to have a few people who aren't elemental magicians support their cause. There could be a movement calling for dissolution of the government because they believe the magicians are best. The law enforcers and intelligence agencies have to wade through all the useless information and tips about small fries before they get relevant leads about the guys pulling the strings. Having misguided, regular people as a buffer between the law enforcers and the opponents makes the opponents harder to deal with.

Ah, you can use the groups supporters against the government. The law enforcers get tips that the magicians meet at a certain place. The enforcers go there to make arrests, meet with resistance, and kill many of them. The tip was false, and the people killed were normal people who support the magicians. The opponents can use the deaths to rally their followers, and the event could make citizens doubt their government. Maybe it was a plan by the opponents or just an opportunity they took advantage of. Either way, it sucks for the good guys.

Ooooobviously, I'm having a field day with this. I'll stop now! ETA: I hope some of this was relevant. It looks like I strayed a bit.
 
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Adding on to what Ouroboros said, you could start it out with the group not really being a threat and then they take over one government and the threat builds as they take over more and more territory/gather supporters. The best way though is an over-the-top display of power and cruelty. Maybe slaughter a family or neighborhood of non-magical people. That would turn up the heat.
 
Don't go too over-the-top though. Don't make it so powerful and cruel as to make it unbelievable, or even doubtable (Which isn't a word, apparently. Oh, well. I'm still using it. :p). Keep it realistic and in character.

In fact, depending on the specifics of your group, it could even be something as simple as completely ignoring the citizens they wooed to get the power now that they have it. (At least, at first. :p)
 
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I have a terrorist group as antagonists in my WIP and I try to show their threat by demonstrating the illusive yet insidious nature of their actions. People who inform upon members of the sect are found dead. Magistrates who take a stand against them are murdered. They target any symbol of the authority of the Empire they fight against. The part that, for me, makes terrorist antagonists so threatening is that there's nothing you can do about them since they look just like everybody else, and so you've no idea who they are until they come for you.

Well, any terrorist group can be infiltrated. If they look just like you, then you look just like them, and an agent can feign allegiance in order to sneak in and uncover the ringleaders, then communicate that to the authorities, who come in and massacre the terrorists. Of course, the terrorists will set up a cell network, limiting the knowledge about who else is in charge or responsible for the network. Of course, that makes them somewhat less effective, since it makes it harder for them to coordinate. Of course, if the terrorists don't have the support of the people, they'll be very limited, because everyone is an enemy, and if they just start marauding and murdering in the open, they'll eventually get outnumbered by a real army... etc.
 

Amanita

Maester
Thank you. I knew I'd get helpful feedback if I asked here. ;)
I'm definitly going to let them rule one country. The country in question has been suffering under a corrupt and injust government for a long time and the people have good reason to put their hopes into the elemental magicians. (If already planned to have some troubles there but I didn't think of the obvious myself.)
Some of the other counties' leader believe that it's a good idea to support the "rebells" in the beginning but later realise that the people in charge there now are exactly those who've caused so much trouble to them before. After this, they stop supporting them and the people from the country in question believe that they've been betrayed a belief the opponents gladly fuel.
 
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