I need some help with my plot

[Androxine Vortex]

I appologize in advance for my essay-long post. please forgive me

I really hate asking someone to basically help me with ideas for my books but this has really stumped me for sometime now. My story revolves a lot around made up mythologies that I invented and so let me explain the story, and be aware I am omitting a lot of details to keep it short:

(and im still working with names so bear with me while I use these substitutions)

The Gods all wage eternal war with each other and the cities of Man are divided, each city having its own pantheon of deities. The Gods demand that Mankind worship them and threaten with damnation. One city is betrayed by their gods as they allow their enemies to slaughter everyone in the city as a blood sacrifice. The priests and survivors escape and flee to the arctic mountains north of their home.

During their journey they seek shelter and refuge from their attackers and the blizzard in an old stone building carved into the mounting. Once inside, the priests realize that they are in a Shrine of Demons. (A long time ago, one of the Gods and his followers were banished from heaven for using and seeking knowledge of forbidden black magic. The armies of Man lead a crusade to erradicate all shrines and teachings of this so that it would be removed from the Earth)

There they discover a bound demon trapped inside a cursed ring. The priests just saw their families butchered and burned while their gods abandoned them and allowed it to happen. They have hatred in their hearts against the gods but fear damnation to oppose them. The demon uses his deceit and guile to persuade them to sign a pact with the Dark God, tempting them with the allure of forbiden magic and life eternal from oblivion. And so to ensure their loyalty to the Dark God, they perform the ritual of Possesion. basically, the mortal allows his soul to be host to demonic influence. The demon latches itself onto the soul of the mortal and a bond is formed. The demon can now be in the mortal plane while the mortal's soul is linked to an eternal being, allowing them life eternal.

(There is a few year gap in between here, to allow the characters some time to become powerful with new sorcery)

The main character, Kreymar, becomes a servant of the Dark God and the demons. But during his searches to find other demonic artifacts and scrolls of perverse magic, he finds a book of Necromancy. This magic is very similar to the black teachings of their Dark Lord, except instead of using invocations to draw upon power, it shows that the power can be drawn upon from the Earth. Bbasically in this world, the only way to use magic is from the gods, but now Kreymar finds this book that will allow him to feed on souls to keep him away from death. Eventually he and his small cabal of followers will leave from the services of the Dark God, renounce their oaths of fealty and leave to unravel the secrets of immortality. They hope to one day become masters of death and lead an army of deathless warriors to eradicate the world of all religion.

Here's my problem:

I'm not sure how to make Kreymar and his followers learn the secrets of necromancy without the demons knowing. The magic is directly forbidden even from the Dark God himself and is the

 

[Androxine Vortex]

sorry bout that lol

The magic is directly forbidden even from the Dark God himself and is unforgivable. I jsut cant think of a way to have them practice this art of magic without the demons knowing. I want the demons to have great influence and intelligence but they have to be blind of this magic, at least until they are discovered and are forced to flee. It is of great importance that Kreymar has used teh ritual of possesion because most of the story in the sequel is him trying to find the secrets of immortality while battling his half demon-cursed soul.

So any ideas? Again, they have to use this forbidden magic (at least for some time without being discovered) without the demons knowing, but I don't see how if Kreymar himself has part of his soul possesed by a demon.

Sorry about the super epic long thread

 

[Butterfly]

I think the characters could probably find the answer in that book they found. Some sort of soul split spell, so your MC will only have half a soul while the other half is locked in blindness and deafness while still attached to the demon. Surviving then could become an extra issue, how to sustain his body's energy. Maybe by combing another soul to himself. Also consider how this book has survived so long, has it been protected by ancient magics that the Dark God cannot pierce? Could it have a Guardian - a human soul, or paranormal angel-type protector? Or could it have simply been kept in a warded vault? You have a cursed ring, that the demon could not escape, maybe the book was protected by a similar ring?

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I really like your ideas, soul splitting might be very interesting to work with althought hard to write properly haha
The book was written by one of the Dark God's followers who was given great insight to dark magic. He discovered this secret magic of soul harnessing while exploring the vastness of dark magic. He thought it would benefit his master greatly is he used this magic and so he began practicing it and teaching it. However, the Dark God did not approve of this and so tried to destroy all copies of the book. This one managed to survive. I think I'm going to have the spirit of the original author be a pivitol character sort of as a guardian as you mentioned, just not sure how to yet.

 

[Butterfly]

Why?

Have you researched necromancy? If not read this, it might give you inspiration and is a starting point if nothing else.

Necromancy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Why?

Have you researched necromancy? If not read this, it might give you inspiration and is a starting point if nothing else.

Necromancy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh trust me I did a lot of research. The odd thing about Necromancy is it is only meant to be comunication with the dead to tell the future, it was never meant as a means to conjure souls. Not sure how the image of Necromancy changed so much from it's original inception.

 

[hppavmx704]

I would have to say that your MC finds a simple spell within the book that will hide what he is doing for a short time. Maybe something like a concealing(SP, my work PC doesn't support spell check while online.) spell. You could possibly have the MC learn different things through the book that will help him increase the duration of said spell. Maybe, the only way to increase the duration is through the gaining of knowledge from the book and the only way to gain knowledge from the book is through actual use of the magic from the book.

So, through the use of the concealing spell and the actual practise of said magic from the book the MC gains knowledge on how to increase the duration of the spell while learning the secrets of the book. If you go this route though how long until the Dark God finds out what your MC is doing?

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I would have to say that your MC finds a simple spell within the book that will hide what he is doing for a short time. Maybe something like a concealing(SP, my work PC doesn't support spell check while online.) spell. You could possibly have the MC learn different things through the book that will help him increase the duration of said spell. Maybe, the only way to increase the duration is through the gaining of knowledge from the book and the only way to gain knowledge from the book is through actual use of the magic from the book.

So, through the use of the concealing spell and the actual practise of said magic from the book the MC gains knowledge on how to increase the duration of the spell while learning the secrets of the book. If you go this route though how long until the Dark God finds out what your MC is doing?

Well I don't have all the details finalized but Kreymar and his small cabal of followers only begin to dabble slightly into these arcane practices and before too long are in some way or another discovered and the demons iinstructs the rest of the dark priests to kill them for their treachery of using the forbidden magic. Kreymar tries to explain that with this magic they will be the masters of their own fate and will rely upon the divines no longer, but the other priests are too corupted and try to kill them. The necromancy cabal uses a spell that basically teleports them away. Then the rest of the book will have them trying to unravel its secrets while keeping the demons inside them away from corrupting their already stained souls. It's a pretty dark novel.

 

[Voldermort]

I'm not sure how to make Kreymar and his followers learn the secrets of necromancy without the demons knowing. The magic is directly forbidden even from the Dark God himself and is the

For all plot construction, I usually refer to Kal Bashir's Hero's Journey / Transformation / New World model.

In short, you'll need to take Kreymar and his followers into a New World where they go through the learning and change process, somewhere that the demons cannot access in some way for a short while at least.

 

[Butterfly]

Oh trust me I did a lot of research. The odd thing about Necromancy is it is only meant to be comunication with the dead to tell the future, it was never meant as a means to conjure souls. Not sure how the image of Necromancy changed so much from it's original inception.

Oh, Okay.

I suppose you have all the information to answer your own questions then, you just need to think how best to use it and which bits of it are relevant.

I suppose its modern image evolved from other fantasy writers tapping into the material as a resource from which to work from. They based it around the original template - communicating with the dead and tailored it to their own needs. D&D probably took it from one incarnation to another. So that's what you need to do, write your own laws around it, establish your own rules so to speak, and go from there - make it your own version of necromancy, and see where it leads your characters in their own world. I think those rules are the most important things you need to about, exactly how the magic works.

Just a note though - if the new source of magic comes from the Earth instead of the gods or the dead, then it isn't really necromancy at all but could be another form of magic.

 

[Butterfly]

Oh trust me I did a lot of research. The odd thing about Necromancy is it is only meant to be comunication with the dead to tell the future, it was never meant as a means to conjure souls. Not sure how the image of Necromancy changed so much from it's original inception.

Oh, Okay.

I suppose you have all the information to answer your own questions then, you just need to think how best to use it and which bits of it are relevant.

I suppose it evolved from other fantasy writers tapping into the material as a resource from which to work from. They based it around the original template - communicating with the dead (isn't that what psychics do nowadays?) - and tailored it to their own needs. D&D probably took it from one incarnation to another. So that's what you need to do, write your own laws around it, establish your own rules so to speak, and go from there - make it your own version of necromancy, and see where it leads your characters in their own world. I think those rules are the most important things you need to about, exactly how the magic works.

Just a note though - if the new source of magic comes from the Earth instead of the gods or the dead, then it isn't really necromancy at all but could be another form of magic.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Oh, Okay.

I suppose you have all the information to answer your own questions then, you just need to think how best to use it and which bits of it are relevant.

I suppose its modern image evolved from other fantasy writers tapping into the material as a resource from which to work from. They based it around the original template - communicating with the dead and tailored it to their own needs. D&D probably took it from one incarnation to another. So that's what you need to do, write your own laws around it, establish your own rules so to speak, and go from there - make it your own version of necromancy, and see where it leads your characters in their own world. I think those rules are the most important things you need to about, exactly how the magic works.

Just a note though - if the new source of magic comes from the Earth instead of the gods or the dead, then it isn't really necromancy at all but could be another form of magic.

Good points. But even if I change how the magic works and stuff like that, I want to make the demons blind to the practices and the characters are allowing the demons to partialy posses their mind and soul. I don't want it to be lame and the demons just like "woops, guess i just missed them doing all this stuff." It's important that Kreymar and his followers are in direct invlovment with the demons because later when they leave and try to learn all the secrets to this new magic, Kreymar gets tempted by the allure of power of darkness and welcomes back the demons to his mind, hoping that he can subdue and control them.

Perhaps I can just make them not possesed while they find the books and stuff. That might work, but I still need a way to keep the demons blind from their actions. I love to write and add lots of details to my works, but I am such a very indecisive person lol