Ideas for An opposing Force in a fantasy novel

meagher43 · 04-04-2012 10:35PM #1

Hi All,

I have got a really cool world designed. it will have magic etc. and all the magic users are part of brotherhoods who are situated in different places such as citys (ninjas), Forests (elvish), Castles etc. Basically they are all at war and the overall progression of magic is diminishing. This allaince of people join the borhterhoods together to fight an opposing force. My problem is the opposing force. I want Him ( or even better her) to be a person readers can relate to but has an extremely morphed sense of morality. Also i want him/her to be like super bad. like try to come up with the most evil sick things you can think of.

Many thanks in advance
meagher

pickarooney · 05-04-2012 07:51AM

You want something extremely evil and sick but that we can relate to? Like a traffic warden or something?

Antilles · 05-04-2012 07:56AM

pickarooney wrote: »

You want something extremely evil and sick but that we can relate to? Like a traffic warden or something?

Someone like Elpheba in the novel version of Wicked? She's relatable but evil.

Toasterspark · 06-04-2012 03:09PM

Well it's important that you have a clearly defined reason for all these brotherhoods to be at war in the first place - it has to be believable for the reader to invest their time and interest in their fighting.

The easiest way to make this person (we'll say she's female) and her opposing force easy to relate to, is to have a clear goal for that person. Why is she coming up against these brotherhoods? What makes her think that she can beat them all? Has she been planning this attack for long?

There are things to think about beforehand as well - why would the brotherhoods suddenly join forces? Why would they trust the other brotherhoods, even with an opposing force attacking them? How can they trust that a brotherhood isn't tricking them and luring them into a trap?

Although it's called fantasy, the story has to be believable for the reader to invest their time in it. I've read Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series of six books, and the opposing force was basically an insectoid race that tried to expand and take over the whole continent.

Despite the clear destructive threat, the humans remained at war with one another, regional divides were upheld for the main part, and other races of creatures either didn't help or created temporary (distrustful) truces. There was no everyone-join-forces mentality, even when things were pretty dire. Which was wholly believable, because things just don't work like that in real life. And it made me love the world he had built up.

So, maybe you should scale back and focus on the world you've already built. Ask yourself - why are these brotherhoods at war? Is it to maintain their territory? Are other brotherhoods trying to expand their lands? Why?

What about the magic these brotherhoods wield? You say magic progression is diminishing - do you mean it's not as strong as it once was? How strong is strong? Can an elf hover on the wind with his powers, or can he uproot a big tree with a tornado? Can a ninja become invisible, or just camouflage himself temporarily? Can someone with earth magic open a hole in the ground, or cause a massive city-wide earthquake? Have you sat down and thought about the magic they possess and what it can achieve on a daily basis for them?

It might be something you've done, but creating rules around the magic helps. And it might give you more of an idea of what brotherhoods are more powerful. Are the Elves encroaching on the humans' land because they are more adept in the forests? Are the humans wielding earth powers more capable of withstanding ninja attacks because of their rocky castle defenses?

Perhaps instead of bringing in a new threat, you could use one of your own races as the opposing force. Maybe an Elf discovers a rare source of magic that increases their powers? Maybe a weather-wielding sub-brotherhood of humans learns how to control the rain and sun and wreaks havoc on enemy crops? I know you probably want an alliance of races so you can make a team with ninjas/elves/humans/etc all together, but you can still have that through spies and turncoats. Maybe that one brotherhood uses this weather-power to starve the other brotherhoods and use their poverty to take control, and from this an alliance of brotherhoods emerges?

If you've built a good world, don't be afraid to use what you have already. Building a hierarchy of the brotherhoods and a structure to your own world is important. Maybe then, in book two or three, you'll be able to introduce an outside party to upset the balance!

Memory Of 98 · 08-04-2012 01:29AM

You seem to be aiming towards the fact that this character is terrifying due to the fact that he/she is inherently evil. To cause fear through brute force or reputation of gruesome past actions is very basic. More things than brute force can have a terrifying effect on the minds of men. Take intelligence for example, one person in the majority of cases will be subconsciously afraid of another person who they deem to be far too wise. So, what if, let us say your character was feared for being incredibly wise and all knowing, rather than for being incredibly ruthless. It is always good to think outside the box as in this way the readers can relate to the character, as we all at some time have envisaged ourselves as being superior to at least a few people, yet readers will not be able to relate to the act of carrying out a genocide.

Toasterspark · 08-04-2012 11:33AM

Judith27 wrote: »

Also i want him/her to be like super bad. like try to come up with the most evil sick things you can think of.

Are you Meagher43 as well?

If you're focusing on shock value over everything else, your story will not be that appealing. Your antagonist has to have a reason for doing what she's doing. 99.9% of the time, people act badly for a reason - maybe it's flawed reason, but they have a reason nonetheless. Having a clear reason for her attack means readers can relate to her, and that makes a great story.

Creating a world is easy, making it believable is the hard part.

PurpleBee · 08-04-2012 08:48PM

how spiders eat seems about as evil as you can get but at the same time they gotta eat. maybe you should go down that road, evil driven by necessity and forget about morality, that's a system for people trying to be good.

pickarooney · 09-04-2012 06:00AM

PurpleBee wrote: »

how spiders eat seems about as evil as you can get but at the same time they gotta eat. maybe you should go down that road, evil driven by necessity and forget about morality, that's a system for people trying to be good.

They eat crap like mosquitoes though, and those pricks deserve the kind of horrid death only a spider can provide.

Fuzzytrooper · 10-04-2012 11:58AM

I can't remember who said it but most of the time evil people don't see themselves as evil. Even Hitler thought he was "good". So maybe the villan had a bad experience with magic users in the past - whole villiage burned down when they were a child, parents turned into newts etc. They might now see anyone who would ally themselves with magic users as already past redemption and must be destroyed like amputating a foot that has gangerine. In their eyes they are the hero saving the world from the brotherhoods,

meagher43 · 10-04-2012 02:05PM

they are all really good thoughts on the subject. But who is this bad girl/guy and how are they bad. What are they doing that is going to force the brotherhoods together that's the bit i am stuck on. What does the bad guy do that he can force all the brother hoods together into one fortress which they end up having an ultimate battle with him/her...

The idea i have is that there are these 5 or so brotherhoods and there are five people who have power in the brotherhoods to varying degrees. However they are not the ones in control. They join together and rebel. They pull as many people as follow them together into an ancient city and they establish a school, an army and a society of magicians. They do this as they see this opposing force and something that needs to be dealt with which there leaders do not.

What I cant come up with is what this opposing forces is and how it opposes???

Many thanks for replies to date

Toasterspark · 10-04-2012 04:15PM

With respect, what you're asking us is basically "I built a world, I need a story for it", which is like an artist asking "What should I draw?".

Creating a story is what makes you a writer.

Fuzzytrooper · 11-04-2012 08:19AM

Essentialy they try to wipe out the "gangerenous" brotherhood nations - put the non magic users in what are basically concentration camps as a source of cheap labour and work them till they drop? Has very obvious links to a certain Mr Hitler. I'm not sure if that is too generic but you can't get much more evil than that.

me-skywalker · 13-04-2012 03:42PM

You have a world with a basic premise but no characters. Fantasy is driven by the characters in that world you need to focus more on the characters generic background, family history, personal history, personality, traits, strengths & weaknesses, physiology, religion. Then his history of events that shaped them; their arc to where they got to now and their arc through your own story.

If your character has no past how can you explain their actions. You need to dissect these yourself nobody can do this. Maybe read some more fantasy to understand how writers build their universe and their characters place in that universe.

Ideas for An opposing Force in a fantasy novel

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