Vague fantasy story idea
Something about a group representing an expansionist empire as the protagonists. Diplomats, maybe? One of them is a prince or princess of the empire. The reason for this is that the party's muscle is the only one I've thoroughly thought out, and his deal is this:
He is from a nation that is essentially the Holy Roman Empire except with infighting on the level of the HRE during interregnums and also the nobles are werewolves. They united to fight the expansionist empire when it showed up and voted this dude to be war-leader/emperor. This dude fought but eventually reached the point where he realized that not surrendering would mean everyone on his side would end up dead, because despite having werewolves, they were pretty much outnumbered and mostly outgunned. Oaths are a big deal for these guys, breaking of oaths is culturally forbidden. So he swears an oath of service and total surrender, and the only reason he survives is that the other nobles swore to abide by his leadership for the war.
So he hates the empire's guts, but he won't break his word, and he swore to be their loyal servant. I like the idea of the party having a guy who is simultaneously loyal to a fault who still basically hates the people he's working for. (At least at the start.)
He is from a nation that is essentially the Holy Roman Empire except with infighting on the level of the HRE during interregnums and also the nobles are werewolves. They united to fight the expansionist empire when it showed up and voted this dude to be war-leader/emperor. This dude fought but eventually reached the point where he realized that not surrendering would mean everyone on his side would end up dead, because despite having werewolves, they were pretty much outnumbered and mostly outgunned. Oaths are a big deal for these guys, breaking of oaths is culturally forbidden. So he swears an oath of service and total surrender, and the only reason he survives is that the other nobles swore to abide by his leadership for the war.
So he hates the empire's guts, but he won't break his word, and he swore to be their loyal servant. I like the idea of the party having a guy who is simultaneously loyal to a fault who still basically hates the people he's working for. (At least at the start.)