A Plague of Fear

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

So I'm putting my current novel on hold and have begun a second story, one I've been thinking about for a while, as a plotting exercise. This is what I came up as a backstory/introduction. It's not the prologue, but it sets the stage. I hope it goes well.

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Spoiler

Her name is Roseline, but who is the protagonist? Let us delve into her past. Her father died when she was two, fighting for the Hierarchy during the War of Sevens. The War ended when she was five. With no husband to support the family, her mother became a seamstress. She would work long hours mending clothing from the neighborhood, going into the night. The Treasury kicked them out of their house when she was three, because they could not pay the rent. Since then, the family of now five found residence in the “nicer” slums of the city. Crime runs rampant there, and the children learned to stay on their toes. Within the first three months, their mother had been jumped in the streets, but nothing was taken. Despite the many gangs, they “look out for” the widow and her children, keeping away from their business and sometimes helping her carry food back from the market. But even then, life wasn’t easy. The children went to bed hungry so they could have something to eat in the morning. The hard life made them hard. They learned the skills of the alleys, how to steal and not get caught, how to pick a pocket, how to best someone in a fight. As the oldest, Roseline was the one to lead her siblings. She pickpocketed on the side and lured possibly wealthy passersby into traps as a living. As she grew older, her skills increased. At ten, she was known among all the major gangs, for whom she would do a little side job here and there. At twelve, she was a class her own, a renowned thief and deliberate enemy of the Constabulary. She carried knives in her boots, seven lockpickers in her braid, and knew exactly where to hit to incapacitate a man.

Then, when she was thirteen, her mother died of dark fever during the coldest winter in a decade. The next year, a new figure appeared on the local crime scene: a terrormancer of unknown identity or origin. And the terror with which they are named filled the city after a body, scorched with web-like patterns, was found in an alley not too far from the center of the city. An eyewitness described bright white-blue flashes of light. There was no doubt: a terrormancer was among them. The Constabulary went overtime. The gangs were nervous. But no one could find the mysterious terrormancer, and the killings, however disconnected they were, continued. The following spring, there was a lull. Not a single attack was reported. But during Solstice, the grandest festival of the year, a man, bearing the telltale web-like scorches, dropped from a building into the center of the festivities. Panic and chaos ensued. The body was identified as Baron Whestler, who had visited the city for Solstice. A noble, killed? No one was safe.

Fast forward to autumn: thirteen more attacks had been made, almost exclusively noble. The Hierarch locked himself and his court inside his Keep, and guards stood watch every hour of the night. The city feared the dark, and no one ventured into the gloom. The gangs, thought once neutral, became fiercely territorial, and tensions among gangs rose. If one strayed into a gang’s territory, one could expect to be beaten and robbed, then thrown out into the street. It was a plague of fear that held the city. No matter what the Constabulary did, what special forces they sent, the terrormancer could not be caught. It is in this reign of terror that we begin our tale.

[Darkness Ascendant]

Hmmm. I sure do hope you don't write the entire story in that prose. No offense, but it's clunky. I'm not going to analyse it until you respond @Hemalurgic_Headshot

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

This is really just a taste of the world and context, not the story itself. I wouldn't write the novel like that, ever.

The purpose of this is to give a sequence of events leading up to the actual story without writing it in, because I haven't done that yet.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Hemalurgic_Headshot

[Darkness Ascendant]

1 hour ago, Hemalurgic_Headshot said:

This is really just a taste of the world and context, not the story itself. I wouldn't write the novel like that, ever.

The purpose of this is to give a sequence of events leading up to the actual story without writing it in, because I haven't done that yet.

Oh, cos you said it "set the tone". I think you meant the premise:P

But anyway. It's a good idea.

So is Roseline going up against the Terrormancer? 

[Faceless Mist-Wraith]

It sounds really interesting. Could you explain the mechanics of terromancy?

Is this story along the lines of a mystery or something similar?

[StrikerEZ]

This sounds really cool. Terromancy sounds cool, as well. Though, what exactly is it? Is this gonna be more mystery-solving, or trying to hunt the guy down and kill him?

[Darkness Ascendant]

Is Terrormancy like the Terror from Traitor Son?

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

The main plot of the story is to hunt down the terrormancer and bring him to justice (which is usually the rope), however, there will be some clues hidden throughout linked to a second mystery. Roseline will be recruited because of her unique set of skills.

I'm putting up a new topic for the mechanics of Terrormancy.

[NamelessThirteenth]

On 26/03/2017 at 0:34 PM, Hemalurgic_Headshot said:

This is really just a taste of the world and context, not the story itself. I wouldn't write the novel like that, ever.

The purpose of this is to give a sequence of events leading up to the actual story without writing it in, because I haven't done that yet.

i think that what you should do with thsi backstory is to hide it from the reader. try to extrapolate the kind of emotions that the cahracter would feel, her behaviour, from her backstory, and make the wy she behaves what you actually show. then reveal her backstory through her interaction with other characters or with flashbacks.

think of Kaladin in Stormlight. what makes him such a good character is the way he behaves, how he refuses to hold a Shardblade, how he feels protective. then , revealing his backstory helped the reader understand him better, and also creates a feeling of i want to know more about him. 

 

[Yezrien]

Sounds pretty cool. A murder mystery/horror story in a fantasy world.

I'm curious about Roseline. The backstory's nice, but what's the story? How does she get involved in the hunt for the terrormancer?