DT2 - Outline Preview

This is a spoiler-light post about how I'm planning to approach some of the plotting issues in Demon's Throne 2, particularly given how it's written. If you want to read the early chapters and book completely blind, don't read this. But I won't ruin any of the twists, and probably not anything you couldn't guess from the ending of the first book.

First, I'll reiterate that Demon's Throne is a rewrite of an old story I started in late 2017. The original audience was niche due to its location (I doubt more than a few hundred people ever read it). So it made a good candidate for revamping for a novel - except the original story is in 2nd person, present tense, and is a meandering piece of serial fiction (kinda) that goes off the rails right around where the 2nd book starts.

You don't need to be familiar with the original. If you are, then that's fine (I actually don't know if people tried to track it down), but knowing what type of story it was should help explain some of the problems I'm dealing with.

Story Arc

The overarching story arc of Demon's Throne is actually based on an adult Strategy RPG series I like, where you go from local, to regional, to national power levels. Hence the first book is local, books 2 and 3 will be focused on the entire island, and the rest of the series will deal with the entire archipelago.

Book 2 needs to start the conquest of the island, and the conflict with the Malus League that was brought up at the end of Book 1. Book 3 ends it.

The road to accomplishing this involves a number of other story threads. Dealing with the Kinadain nation of Avolar to the north. The Tower of Black Cognition, with Graem and Mave. The demon lord summoned by Maliah and his unnamed associate. And the Royal Gorgrian Kingdom and their Queen Faeris.

This is a very similar problem to HS3, which is why I mentioned at some point that it would be good practice for this book. I'm going to learn from that book, and not push myself too hard to try to cram too much into this book.

Oh, finally, there are the foxes. Let's talk about them.

Pharos and the Foxes

Mina and Fara are two of the most important harem members in the cast. They undergo massive character transformations over the course of the series, and are extremely close to Rys.

Also, this series will involve children, and both of them will become mothers. As you can probably guess from Fara's interactions in Book 1, this is a huge moment in her character arc. There are other major parts, but those are very spoilery.

The problem with both is that they're also tied to Pharos, the Asiatic continent that is interfering with the archipelago. My original plans for the series involved basically scrubbing a lot of the Pharosian scheming from the series. It appeared to be a huge distraction, and brings a bunch of characters (including a couple of new harem members). Also, given female PoV sections can be problematic in large doses, the series can't actually visit Pharos.

However, while this works for Fara, it doesn't for Mina. Without going into spoilers, her character arc is intrinsically tied to Pharos and their treatment of her. If Pharos never has a physical presence in the story, she never has some of her most powerful moments, and through those, Rys's absolute corruption of her is never actually established. I could rewrite Mina's character arc, but I also really like her current one.

I will probably still jettison a lot of the original Pharos stuff, because it's too complicated and Demon's Throne does not need additional women. But this may be a pain point in some of the earlier chapters.

Also, Mina now has a twin sister that I need to sneak in. She's completely new, but she does technically replace a different character. I might punt her to a later book.

Balancing the Action and Pacing

This book is likely going to have a fair bit more action than last book. Each act will have a major set piece battle. Act 1 has Rys breaking another seal conduit. Act 2 and 3 have war stuff, without going into specifics.

The power of Demon's Throne battles will grow pretty rapidly, and will be seen in this book. Book 1 was largely skirmishes and a duel. This book will feature some genuinely huge battles.

Act 1 does have the problem where its battle is hugely climactic for Rys and adds a ton to the overarching mystery of the plot. I literally can't talk about it without spoilers. It is one of those scenes I really want to get to so I can write it.

The downside is that I need to keep the character and plot development going outside of the action. I kept the Labyrinth exploration very short in Book 1 for this reason, and I expect this to continue.

The Infernals

Demon's Throne has a tertiary character for each of the infernal types. Terry for the noble demons; Margrim for the Ashen; Taras(u) for the Malakin. I feel this gives some personification for otherwise faceless demons. I'm a huge fan of military fantasy, and giving names to random characters is a massive part of how it humanizes minor characters.

The flipside is that it means I will restrict the number of new infernals. I already cut two types from Book 1.

On the powerful end, I'm playing with characters a lot. I brought up Arcas devils a few times in Book 1, and they're obvious candidates to help Rys. Originally, I would use Krisanem's sisters (Kris provides Rys his strength Gift) - but I've already used a lot of twins so far, and a pair of sex-crazed bloodthirsty twins doesn't have the same punch anymore.

Darus needs to remain a constant presence. She's a genuinely crazy yandere.

I'll admit that I'm still trying to work out how to include Asa. She's a succubus, and that... comes with baggage on Amazon that I need to handle with care. She's likely to be punted to Book 3, but mostly to give Mina room to breathe before the big bad succubus spymaster drops on top of her.

Finally, the hardest part of the infernals is that most of the important ones exist by name only. Argran, Araunth, Malusian etc. They're scary names at best, wacky drinking buddies at other times. That's why Darus actually shows up in the flesh, as contrived as her knowledge Gift is.

Slow Burn

I don't know if Demon's Throne actually counts as slow burn harem, given all the girls want him. Maybe? They don't sleep with him the second they meet him, and the romance/interest starts long before the sex (except Maria, but she just wants sex).

Definitions aside, there are a couple of girls who get the goods in this book. I'm still unsure as to how long I want Vallis to fence-sit - given her youth and confusion about Rys (he's her boss, even if she's attracted to him), I might play around longer, but people might get frustrated that he doesn't just bend her over. Dunno. The point of Rys is that he's comfortable enough in his power and charisma that he never feels the need to take what isn't freely given.

The harem in DT doesn't grow too much in the later books, but that's also because there will be three(?) daughters that will compete for Rys's attention.

Evil Stuff

The genuinely difficult thing to discuss, and a harsh topic to end the post on.

There were some fairly broad opinions on whether Rys was evil or not. My view is that Rys is the D&D definition of Lawful Evil. He's also a corruptor. People will do things they once thought they would never do, because he makes them appear attractive to them. Or perhaps he is attractive to them, or he offers them something that is otherwise denied to them. Etcetera.

But this leaves out some objectively evil shit that got cut in the beta reading phase. While Rys never dirties his hands, he originally overlooked some nasty actions by the demons. Most people went "well, he's evil" but there were some extreme reactions. I'm simplifying, but it felt like the sort of thing that would attract some extreme negative attention, even if it is presented as evil in the book (which it was - Rys is supposed to be a sympathetic character, given his circumstances, but not an empathetic character). In the end, I cut it because it wasn't important and I felt he did enough other stuff to be evil.

However, there are a couple of things coming up that are like this (note that they're not sexual), but slightly more important. Partly because Rys does get his hands dirty. One affects Mina, and the other serves as a reminder that Rys isn't called the Incubus King because he fucks really well. Both involve non-graphic, non-sexual torture. The second one is actually likely to be ditched for pacing reasons, but I can't see myself skipping the Mina one.

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Anyway, I hope this was interesting to those who read it, and that I kept it pretty light on spoilers for what I'm planning. This is the point that I need to start heavily modifying the plot of the source material, particularly with new characters and adjusted arcs.