Plot, Part 3

Most external conflicts involve a clearly defined antagonist. This may range from an individual or monster to an organization to the world itself. Your choice of an antagonist will often define the conflict and, thus, the story. In Shadows & Silver, I know I want a world in which black and white morality is not present, so I should pick a person or organization which is neither inherently good or evil. Conversely, the protagonist should be neither good nor evil. Both serve their own ends, and both think they are right.

I have held in my mind for quite a while now the idea of having a society of mages be the primary antagonist of my first book. Mages, by their nature, are powerful people, and the idea that power corrupts is one that fits into my world. The protagonist, then, is fighting against this corruption. Is this black and white? It doesn't have to be. The corruption of power doesn't require that you be a moustache-twirling eeeevil villain. It simply means you are using your power for your own good and not for the good of society in general. When you look at it that way, everyone does that, right? The protagonist, then, is fighting their corruption not out of some idealistic crusade to rid the world of selfishness but because the mages' use of power has come into conflict with his own interests.

How specific do I want to get here? Well, I don't want to go into too many details, since I haven't settled fully on the storyline and don't want to commit to something that won't be in the story. On the other hand, this blog is here for getting my thoughts out in the open. Consider this part a brainstorm, then, rather than an actual plot synopsis.

The protagonist, I think, should be a normal guy. I see him as a peasant in a kingdom run by mages. Our fellow has seen the abuses of magic and is determined to put a stop to their rule once and for all. He falls in with a society of alchemists, scientists, and what have you and, deciding that their way is superior to rule by mages, tries to bring down the mage-kings and replace it with the enlightenment of science. His position, then, is that power should be harnessed by mundane means so it is employable by every man equally, allowing no one to control another without his consent. This is in direct opposition to the position of the mages, which is that the powers of the universe are too precious to be squandered on lesser mortals, and that those with magical power deserve to be rulers.

Our hero seems like a pretty noble guy, yes? Let's dampen that a bit. There's always not-so-noble reasons for doing noble things. For instance, it's quite nice to patiently listen to the stories your ninety year-old Aunt Sally tells, but if your only reason for doing so is to make sure you are written into her will... I suppose we can all agree it's more noble to simply not listen to her. Similarly, our fellow here is not on this crusade because he wants justice for all humanity; he's doing it because he hates the mages and can see nothing more fitting than to have power equally distributed among commoners. Why he hates them I can decide later (I have several ideas I am sifting through), but this works for a basic conflict.