Hey guys, up for brainstorming?

[ThinkerX]

Maybe the treaty isn't benefiting everyone, or at least some people don't think it is. Maybe the treaty is restricting trade to between those cities only and the antagonist wants to get in on some trading biz with some other country. He tries to do so illegally, but he gets caught and put in jail for a long period of time and his business goes down the drain and his wife and kids starve to death.

So when he gets out of prison he wants to make a few changes. Taking over other cities would allow him to control the markets a little easier and control the local police and allow him to get into that trade biz with the outside world.

This is the approach I would use. The existing alliance set up is very profitable to a substantial minority in each of these fiefs, but wrecks havoc with the majority - farmers forced to become serfs, laws written so that merchants who don't have an 'in' with the Alliance don't do very well at all, so on and so forth.

 

[Paradox]

Some of this is already written but I will rewrite it so everything makes sense.

Antag takes over the City with the most control over the city states(I will refer to this city as Antag from now on). What if each city state has one thing its better at than all others, its premier export. Food, Coal, Iron, ect. Antag happens to be the largest and located in the center of the continent and thus over the years it becomes the hub of trade, it also is connected by a number of rivers perhaps making goods easily moveable throughout the land from this central port, perhaps it sits on a large lake the rivers feed into and out of.

Now since Antag is where all the goods go for trade and sell it would make sense that most of the skilled workers(smiths, wood workers, painters, ect) have moved here. Thus Antag prime export is that of manufactured goods, namely weapons and armor. You can also have it located in a huge plains and its original premier export was horses. This would make this city very powerful and influential in the scheme of the city state.

Thus the city states could survive on their own but it makes more sense to trade what you are good at for what someone else is good at. If you city state A takes 5 hours to mine 100 tons of coal while it takes city state B 10 hours and it takes City State B 2 hours to catch 10 lbs of fish(cause for example they are a coastal city state) and it takes City State A 10 hours to catch 10 lbs out of the river its clear they should just trade.

I like the idea of making the Antagonist not be a bad guy. The example of him going to jail and his wife/child dieing is a good catalyst for him wanting to the city states to merge into one central government/kingdom is a good start. Perhaps there is a prophecy of some symbol uniting the city states into a kingdom of old which is all but legend today. What if your protagonist has a family heirloom which turns out to be this symbol.

Though it turns out its not the heirloom but the protagonist himself who is the symbol. What if he is the last of the old royal bloodline. Perhaps in the old days the kingdom was shattered when the royal family sacrificed itself sealing some unspeakable evil within themselves and giving up the crown. Thus if your protagonist unites the city states against your antagonist this unspeakable evil will be released. What if the unspeakable evil and his supporters are manipulating both your protagonist and antagonist into conflict which neither really wants.

This could be a good lead up to a 2nd book. The two must unite to defeat this unspeakable evil they released upon the world.

Just some thoughts i'd throw your way.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

Some of this is already written but I will rewrite it so everything makes sense.

Antag takes over the City with the most control over the city states(I will refer to this city as Antag from now on). What if each city state has one thing its better at than all others, its premier export. Food, Coal, Iron, ect. Antag happens to be the largest and located in the center of the continent and thus over the years it becomes the hub of trade, it also is connected by a number of rivers perhaps making goods easily moveable throughout the land from this central port, perhaps it sits on a large lake the rivers feed into and out of.

Now since Antag is where all the goods go for trade and sell it would make sense that most of the skilled workers(smiths, wood workers, painters, ect) have moved here. Thus Antag prime export is that of manufactured goods, namely weapons and armor. You can also have it located in a huge plains and its original premier export was horses. This would make this city very powerful and influential in the scheme of the city state.

Thus the city states could survive on their own but it makes more sense to trade what you are good at for what someone else is good at. If you city state A takes 5 hours to mine 100 tons of coal while it takes city state B 10 hours and it takes City State B 2 hours to catch 10 lbs of fish(cause for example they are a coastal city state) and it takes City State A 10 hours to catch 10 lbs out of the river its clear they should just trade.

I like the idea of making the Antagonist not be a bad guy. The example of him going to jail and his wife/child dieing is a good catalyst for him wanting to the city states to merge into one central government/kingdom is a good start. Perhaps there is a prophecy of some symbol uniting the city states into a kingdom of old which is all but legend today. What if your protagonist has a family heirloom which turns out to be this symbol.

Though it turns out its not the heirloom but the protagonist himself who is the symbol. What if he is the last of the old royal bloodline. Perhaps in the old days the kingdom was shattered when the royal family sacrificed itself sealing some unspeakable evil within themselves and giving up the crown. Thus if your protagonist unites the city states against your antagonist this unspeakable evil will be released. What if the unspeakable evil and his supporters are manipulating both your protagonist and antagonist into conflict which neither really wants.

This could be a good lead up to a 2nd book. The two must unite to defeat this unspeakable evil they released upon the world.

Just some thoughts i'd throw your way.

Thanks for throwing those thoughts at me. You've basically got it spot on with the antag city thing, it is the economic hub and it makes sense to trade with it. I like your idea of giving each of the city states a speciality, I've already made one of them a port town, so that can be getting offshore imports etc.

I also love the idea of a reason for the antag and protag to join together for a while (I mean who would see that coming), and I like the idea of them having a complex respect/dislike relationship. Yeah, a 3 party conflict, thank you.

 

[Paradox]

Glad I could be of some help.

 

[Leif GS Notae]

I'm not sure if this was touched on, I read a few replies and decided I should throw in this idea before it flittered away.

I think the real problem here is that your antagonist isn't a villain. The antagonist's job is to make the protagonist better through obstacles and challenges, but it doesn't always make him a villain. I believe what might work here is the antag is affiliated with a villain (perhaps someone who will benefit from the union through power or money... or both) and the antag is blindly accepting of this due to something that happened in their past.

The ties that could be interesting here is the protag and antag having a common goal seen through different lenses. It can also give your antag sympathy if they find redemption by foiling the villain's goals. Then, with a power vacuum, your antag has a tough decision. Stay on the "righteous" path and be good or fill the vacuum and become the next villain.

Hope that helps, and sorry if I mentioned something already stated! Good luck.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

I'm not sure if this was touched on, I read a few replies and decided I should throw in this idea before it flittered away.

I think the real problem here is that your antagonist isn't a villain. The antagonist's job is to make the protagonist better through obstacles and challenges, but it doesn't always make him a villain. I believe what might work here is the antag is affiliated with a villain (perhaps someone who will benefit from the union through power or money... or both) and the antag is blindly accepting of this due to something that happened in their past.

The ties that could be interesting here is the protag and antag having a common goal seen through different lenses. It can also give your antag sympathy if they find redemption by foiling the villain's goals. Then, with a power vacuum, your antag has a tough decision. Stay on the "righteous" path and be good or fill the vacuum and become the next villain.

Hope that helps, and sorry if I mentioned something already stated! Good luck.

Thanks for the ideas, I'm getting there.