Random Thoughts For A Story Plot I Cooked Up

So, story time::

I was watching the Terrible Writing Advice (which, by the way, I really recommend watching) video on Chosen Ones, and when I got to the part where he talked about how the Dark Lord/Evil Emperor will inevitably send his minions to burn down the chosen one's village and kill everyone in it, thus starting the chosen one's quest for vengeance in the first place instead of just, y'know, ignoring the village, and that actually gave me a really cool story idea.

Basically, in the story, a woman has a prophetic vision of a hero rising up and defeating the emperor of the (un)friendly neighborhood Evil Empire.

Unfortunately, in this universe, prophecies aren't set in stone, they're just extremely likely... unless you tell everyone about it, which would cause people who got the short end of the straw in the prophecy to try and change it (which they probably will).That is why the number one rule of oracles in this world is never tell anyone about a prophecy you had unless you want to change it... which the oracle of this specific prophecy does not do, because she's a novice who doesn't know the number one rule of oracles.

Now, the emperor is a smart (albeit cold and calculating) person. As soon as he got word that there was a person prophesied to defeat him, he realized two things: 1) that this Farm Boy was probably going to grow up to be a person of formidable prowess, if he could defeat him and overthrow his empire, and 2) that he should avoid giving this seemingly normal peasant a reason to kill him and overthrow his empire, and instead actually try to harness his power.

So, the emperor personally led a troop of his elite guard to the village the Chosen One called home, and... took him from his parents to offer him formal military schooling of the highest order, offering them financial compensation when they refused to give him to them because even if the military schooling was free (which they expressed their doubts about), they needed every single helping hand on the farm to be able to pay the empire's hefty taxes.

Now. this accomplishes three things almost immediately that didn't happen in the original timeline. Firstly, it causes the protagonist's downtrodden peasant parents, who previously held nothing but apathy and a small amount of bitterness towards the empire and its emperor to suddenly find a reason to like the empire, because not only did the emperor himself personally come to their door offer their son high-class military training, but he also paid them for it. Secondly, it causes the emperor to have what at first appears to be an Ignored Epiphany about Good Feels Good, but is actually something leads to (admittedly slow) character development. Thirdly, and most importantly, it completely derails the prophecy, both in the ways mentioned and in other, less noticeable ways. With the protagonist's parents newly loyal to the empire, they wouldn't become the suppliers for a rebel group. With the example of how the protagonist's parents got rich (and eventually, after much internal struggle on the emperor's part, lowered taxes), bitterness in the protagonist's home village is much lower, which means that a large portion of it doesn't join the resistance movement, and the village doesn't become a resistance base of operations. Without this bitterness and rebellion, the emperor, though still morally ambiguous, never crosses the Moral Event Horizon by sending his troops to raze the village and kill every single person in it. Not only that, but with the protagonist taken away from his home to a prestigious military academy, which, we shouldn't forget, belongs to The Empire, his life is completely turned on its head, and his personality and code of morals and ethics change to reflect that, with him becoming Lawful Neutral (or possibly Lawful Good, but with a lot more lawful than good) instead of Neutral/Chaotic Good. And with him interacting with the emperor on a daily basis, he develops Undying Loyalty to the emperor (as opposed to being his nemesis like he was supposed to be), and the emperor actually develops a meaningful, positive, and fulfilling relationship with a fellow human being, which causes even more Character Development.

And, of course, I could go on and on, but the basics are these: this is a story about Screw Destiny and the Butterfly Effect, which also discusses how even the most irredeemable people can be made a better person. Although the setting, being The Empire, is rather dark, it gets better. I may or may not incorporate an Alternate Universe (almost a Mirror Universe) where the woman who had the prophecy kept it to herself. I will incorporate the typical fantasy races, but they will be a bit different in some ways from how they're typically portrayed, and a Screw You, Elves! will probably occur at one point (from the race that, in most fantasy books, is the least likely to but probably the one that wants to most... the orcs!), but that's kind of beside the point...

Anyways, hope this bizarre, rambling mess interested you, now I'll get to writing the damn thing.

edited 11th Jun '18 4:39:14 PM by SomethingRandom113

Why am I just hearing about this. This is what I get for not going on the forums...

Anyway, if you're hearing this, I hope it come to fruition! It sounds like a really awesome idea!