A Story for the Sun King: Time Travel/Historical Espionage

In the court of Louis the XIV, a Mysterious Stranger approaches the Sun King as an entertainer with a rather astonishing story. As he proceeds, however, the audience comes to realise he's talking about THEIR world in the future as if he was there. In doing so, he stirs up controversy and intrigue. As it stands so far, there are two plots going:

The first is that of the Stranger himself. Right now he is in Louis the XIV's private chamber continuing the story he began in court. he got cut short when he mentioned the French Revolution and now his continued survival depends on whether he can convince the Sun King he is telling the truth. There's also the as-of-yet unanswered question as to why he's telling a historical absolutist monarch all of this, but that will all be explained later.

The second revolves around the intrigue surrounding the arrival of this Mysterious Stranger. A palace servant heard of this man and his story second-hand, and hoping to get some extra money contacted two English spies. At first uninterested in second-hand gossip about some lowly court entertainer, they come to realise how serious the impact of this occurance is even if the man is full of shit (which he isn't) so long as the King himself believes it. And if not, then what eh knows is incredibly valuable to any who can get a hold of him. So they task the Palace Servant with spying on the private meeting. As he walks his treacherous path, the Palace Servant struggles with his own conscience.

There'll also be how the King's inner circle deals with the revelations coming forth from the (mad?)man's conversation with the King. I'll tell you about that later. What I want to flesh out is how one would go about telling the story of the future (from our point of view the past) starting from where I've left off (the overthrow of the French Monarchy). Keep in mind that the story is being told to Louis the XIV.

For the record, he is so far considering the possibility this man could be telling the truth, but is ready to have him excecuted as soon as he is definitively proven a liar. This might change at any point.

How exactly does this Mysterious Stranger gain the king's attention? I'm assuming he'd have to look at least fairly respectable- and not like some random hobo- for whoever controls this sort of thing to even consider granting him an audience with his royal majesty.

Let's see, late sixteenth/early seventeenth century. I'd say you'd tell the Sun King whatever happens in his reign that hasn't yet occurred, followed by events shortly after his death and so on, at least until you get to the Revolution. (He would probably react poorly to that, wouldn't he....) Depending on how diplomatic our Mysterious Stranger is, he would either keep things fairly France-centric, or emphasize that hey, maybe you should pay more respect to England and the various German states, because in the future they sort of beat you out.

All in all, the details the Stranger has to clarify or explain five times or defend himself from accusations of falsehood for would depend on your portrayal of Louis's personality. For example, he'd probably be completely horrified by the low respect paid to religion during the revolution and modern times, being by all accounts extremely pious. I do think this is an excellent idea; I am a sucker for The Cavalier Years in any fiction.

Initially he does so as an entertainer with a story whose setting seems not so different from the world they know. It's when he gets to the French Revolution they start getting VERY nervous, and he reveals that the events he described will happen in the real world's future from which he himself came to warn them, nervousness gives way to outrage, followed by considerations that he might actually be telling the truth. The King decides that the issue is too important to be simply disregarded and too contentious to be tackled in court. So he has the Stranger place in the dungeon, brought out only when the King wishes to meet with him. He'll get better quarters if either he or his word are ever trusted.

I'd given him a rather Crocodile Dundee resemblance, but I suppose that'll have to change for any of this too work.

edited 24th Jan '14 10:43:31 AM by goldenerasuburb

Yeah, that might give him some problems.

So he goes to court billing himself as someone who can amuse the king and his court, then rapidly turns some plausible future speculation into a veritable horror story- at least for the audience- and then reveals that this horror story is all true, or will be? And as a subplot we get a tale of early seventeenth century espionage, courtly intrigue, and tensions between great powers. Alles gut, sounds just fine.

Leading from the above, though, would the Palace Servant have had previous contact with these English spies? He'd have to at least know where to contact them, if not, and it seems unlikely that someone would make their first contact with the agents of another monarch to pass on such unimportant gossip. If he's a petty servant, he probably won't have given them anything too valuable, but mentioning that he's passed on middling sized rumors before might make more sense.

edited 24th Jan '14 12:30:54 PM by Kesar

He's the servant of a mid-ranking noble family who caught wind of the story indirectly but from a source which has proven reliable before when exchanging information for money with spies. This character is certainly unscrupulous, but even he has standards as will become clear. Put simply: as the stakes rise, the odds he'll tell foreigners anything drops to the point where he'll becomes (ant)heroic in his efforts to counter the English spies... something they most certainly did not expect.

A key turning point in the story is the start of the War of Spanish Succession; for which the Stranger not only predicted the occurrence but the course of in his first appearance, as well as how to change that course in one of his private appearances. Whereas before he was just a curiosity, during the war he takes a crucial role as adviser to the King.

As this happens, the English spies decide that given their priorities have changed with the war's start, they no longer have need of that treacherous Palace servant's services. He's become from their perspective a loose end who could get them both hanged. So they go to off him, only to discover he contacted the Spymaster out of guilt after their first few encounters. He's been a double agent ever since. The English spies get their own "Bolivian Army Ending" in very short order. I'll probably have them come back in a later instalment.

There's also another subplot after the war regarding some of Louis the XIV's supporters distrust of the Stranger and the influence both he and the (from their perspective) insane ideas he's infecting their beloved King with. There's also the internal struggle within the King between the deeply held conviction typical to a 17th century absolutist monarch and the news this stranger brings from the future which after his usefulness as an adviser during the war have have gained credibility which they lacked before.

So far does is this plausible enough to work?

edited 24th Jan '14 2:01:40 PM by goldenerasuburb

Definitely. Its effectiveness will be limited only by the quality and manner of its execution. Now go write.

Edit: AND be sure to give me a copy when you're finished.

edited 24th Jan '14 2:46:20 PM by Kesar

I have been. Three chapters in, the end of the fifth will mark the end of the first act. I can tell you'll really love this.

Goodie goodie *rubs hands* I'll wait then.

I sent you the first chapter via Private Message. Please check on it ASAP.