pkmin3033
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I-Isn't it too early to be using the "<3" emoticon??? *blushes*
Those are both good approaches; I think of the two I'd favour the former over the latter, if only because I find it easier to develop characters based on their experiences with others...not sure why, that's just always been how I've written it. Might be the RPer in me. The one-man journey method is more personal, though, as you devote a lot more time to the character in question...that could be a good approach for the Northerner I was going to include. His ideals would change over the course of his journey - although whether that would be for better or worse I have no idea yet - and delving into his thought processes over the journey would help show that.I think it helps when you either:
1) Have multiple characters travelling together, so you can show a lot of time has passed because of a few isolated incidents and their relationship changing (something that takes time)
or 2) If you only have one character, focus on their mental state and how tired/determined they are. Not every story has to follow the some arbitrary number of words=some fixed distance.
It won't be QUITE that bad; the Empire will just have a very uneven economy and bloody history. There won't be any dark secret to its continued success, although there MIGHT be one in its founding...but that would be telling. And I don't want to nail anything like that down yet in case I change my mind as I'm writing the plot in more detail. xDNo, it isn't bad. It's just that the Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas approach seems to be really popular nowadays. But I'm all for people dying and grey morality! :D
Although I DO need to give the structure of this currently nameless Empire (see how far away I am from being ready? I don't even have place names yet!) some further thought...it's a fairly new - less than a century - creation, established after the Emperor was the first to cross into the Pokemon realm, capture/bond with (leaving that deliberately ambiguous for now) Xerneas and pull a Nobunaga on the continent. He adopted the reigning monarchs as sons to keep them in line (as well as marrying one noble of their choice from each area and having a child by them to cement ties, naturally) and, after introducing some universal policies on places, set everything up...but he didn't name a successor.
One idea I was toying with, to balance things out a bit in terms of the class system (there is always such a clear line between nobles and working class in fantasy novels!) was regular purges of the nobility, with the appointment of ambitious/worthy commoners in their place. Perhaps based on the Talent to call Pokemon, since that's what the whole thing was founded on. Maybe think of it like miniature Gym battles, with the prize being noble titles and lands. Any commoner with Talent could challenge any Noble with Talent publicly for the right to take their position, with a few clauses in place; keeping non-Talented servants in place unless with cause to remove them, etc. That sort of system could get all sorts of people into all sorts of places...an anarchist bent on destroying the system by "legally" taking everything for themselves through this method, perhaps? Without the Emperor in place, it'd be absolute chaos and Civil War, but...Civil War is fun. Eventually, someone would have to win, as well. An equal opportunity Empire of sorts~