Possible fantasy story?
I started a new project a couple of years ago, but I never got very far with it. I wrote a few episodes/chapters (and I’ve lost one!!) and tried to plan the whole thing, but… I put the whole thing on ice, and turned to other projects, because I couldn’t figure out the details. I’m still thinking about it sometimes, though.
It’s a fantasy story. My problem is that I don’t have much of a plot, or a bad guy; in other words, not much action. But the vague contours of the story are something like this:
It is a world where magic is a part of everyday life; it is considered to be an art or a craft - something that many people can do, although not everyone is very skilled. In this world, they also have some kind of religion, possibly more female/goddess-oriented. They have priestesses, who also runs schools and/or serve as governesses. The part of the world where my characters are based is ruled by a king and a queen. The queen is also the High Priestess. (So far, not very original, but…)
OK. Now about my main characters, or some of them. They are three sisters; they live with their widowed father (who is a duke, count, baron, something like that) on the countryside. As the story begins, the oldest sister (she has no name yet…) is supposed to marry the prince Gavriel - the heir to the throne - for political/family traditions reasons, but she is in love with another man. They elope. Rather than trying to find her and force her, they decide that the second sister, Lara, will take her place. (But the sister will probably play an important part in the not-yet-existing drama/big fight to Save The World.) Lara had intended to seek reclusion in a convent because her fiancé was killed in an accident and she is beside herself with grief. But she is also very dutiful, and she agrees to marry the prince for the sake of the greater good (I’m not sure why the prince has to marry someone in this family).
This turns out to be convenient, because Lara is a much more talented magician than her older sister, and would therefore make a better queen (and as the crown princess, she’ll receive education from the queen and the other high priestess who are just below the queen in ranking - the king is more like a politician and a warrior than a magician, by the way). And the fact that she considers herself to be a widow and has no romantic interest in the prince is also convenient, because the prince is gay.
And so is Lara’s youngest sister. Now, I figure, this is a world where homosexuality is thought of kind of like in real life, but like a couple of decades ago. (There are no laws against it, and many people have no problem with it, but it is in many families thought of as not quite as good as heterosexuality. The prince is not officially “out” and he couldn’t marry a man.) The youngest sister is called Niaya; she’s in her late teens and she’s dying to get out into the big world to see what life has to offer. Also, the “gay scene” (I’ll most likely not be using this vocabulary) is bigger in the capital, so she goes with her sister. Niaya has little interest in magic, although these girls had the best possible teacher (because of their father’s high status). The teacher was Salil, the highest priestess in the convent Lara won’t go to, and Niaya always had a huge crush on her (think elegant and sexy but strict and reserved powerful older woman - of course, because it’s me writing this!). So she’s sorry that she’s out of school, but she knows she has to try to get over Salil, and that’s why she goes to the big city. (They live in celibacy in the convents, by the way - except maybe for once a year …) And eventually, she does meet another woman called Doria who is beautiful and seductive, but elusive, and a lot darker than Salil (the question is: is she one of the good guys or does she belong to “the dark side”… or is she perhaps a little “undecided”?). And she’ll probably have the ability to transform herself to a big, purple/black/dark blue/silver coloured butterfly. (Don’t ask me why, but…)
There are also a couple of other characters, at least a girl called Zeci - from another country - and she has a platonic love affair with a ghost named Lando. And there’s some kind of adventurer-guy called Terdan. And then there are perhaps some dragons and fairies.
So - my questions are: Does this sound like total crap and nothing but blaha blaha? (Which would make the possible “once a year” exception nothing but pwp…) Or do you think that I could make something out of this, if I come up with some kind of plan? (I’ve only got about 30 random pages so far!) Or does it sound like a total rip-off of something else? I haven’t actually read much fantasy the last few years, but who knows what got stuck in my brain… I wrote the first draft of this (and even a map!) almost fifteen years ago…