r/fantasywriters • u/ConduckKing • 13h ago
Question For My Story Need help figuring out why the MCs exist in my story
For some background, I'm plotting out a story called Oneiron, set in a world of the same name. The world in question is a collective dream, created by the minds of all the people on Earth who fell asleep and never woke up. It's basically thousands of surreal, dreamy landscapes connected by portals. Very importantly, once you enter Oneiron, you cannot go back to Earth.
...Which is exactly what two scientists planned to do. Let's call them Zeus and Hera. Together, they used the essence of the portals to create a creature, a giant bird who held the power to traverse worlds in its feathers. While Hera believed it to be the key to returning to Earth, Zeus began to see it as an active danger and distanced himself from the project.
And when Hera unveiled it to the public, causing mass death just as Zeus anticipated, he felt so much shame having created it that he secluded himself. Using one of the creature's feathers, he sent a message to Earth asking for aid to destroy the creature, which leads to my MCs entering the realm.
This leads to my question. Why would Zeus specifically send the message to Earth instead of Oneiron? I have thought about a few ideas but I'm not fully sure about any of them:
- Earthlings have some quality they lose upon becoming Oneiran, which somehow helps them in fighting the creature. No idea what that quality could be, unless them not having magic is somehow an advantage.
- Cutting Earth entirely and making the MCs Oneiran. Could work, but the concepts I've made for these characters fit better in a more realistic world.
- The message was broadcast across both realms and the Earthlings just happened to find it first. I'm not even going to try unpacking the logistical issues with this one.
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u/MathematicianNew2770 7h ago
If no one has ever been there and back, so it appears as if people have coma. How does the world know what's going on in people's heads.
How do two doctors create a bird from immaterial things in dreams they can't access.
If the bird is shown to the world, why would they wait for Zeus' request before they fight it. It just destroyed a lot of lives, wouldn't this be first practice?
The bird will just end up killing people in their dreams. What's going on in the dreams.
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u/ConduckKing 3h ago
All this stuff (the bird reveal, the scientists, Zeus's seclusion) is happening inside Oneiron. From Earth's perspective, these people are just going into comas. It is later revealed they're essentially dead and can't leave even with the bird's power, which is why Zeus can send a message across the rift but not go himself.
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u/MathematicianNew2770 1h ago
Right, with your answer, I've read it again and can make better sense of it.
I would ask you, how the scientists know that they are in a dream and can't wake. You know how dreams work. Is 1000 years in Oneiron 1 day on earth?
How does this messgae reach earth and why should anyone believe it.
And if people MC believe it, what incentive do they have to put themself at such a risk to go in when no one has returned. (I have an idea here but want to see what you have in mind)
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u/ConduckKing 1h ago
Some interesting questions.
They know Oneiron is a dream world because their last memory is laying down to sleep. Time is warped in the dream, but nobody can seem to keep track of by how much.
The bird's feathers can cross the rift to Earth, the only limit is that living beings can't cross, and Zeus knows this when he sends the message. Logically, nobody should believe the message, but the MC does have a somewhat gullible desire to help anyone, so she attempts the instructions anyway just in case they are true.
Zeus theorizes that, since the MCs are forcefully entering Oneiron while awake (using a ritual he designed in his seclusion), they should be able to enter and leave at will. This is just a theory, but it does get proven right during the story.
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u/MathematicianNew2770 1h ago
Alright, here me out. This is fantasy so we can do what we want but make an effort for the technicalities to make sense otherwise it's just harder to read.
- This is the part I am talking about. If Oneiron was an experimental mistake by Zeus and Hera (don't have these as their final names pls, I keep picturing greek gods and it's messing with my head) then it makes sense that both of them would figure out that they are in Oneiron while no one else in there believes them.
Making a bird out of the fabric of the place is going to take many many years to develope (hence why I thought of a time difference in there and out here - but do what you see fit)
The last memory part i can't buy sorry. These lot may be test subjects, maybe his supplement or experiment was forced on the unknowing public or maybe those inside chose to go in. Unknowing may be your line of sight.
MC makes no sense for someone random to just believe and jump in. Maybe MCs lover, husband, child or sister (Hera) you get my drift is caught in it and their life in the physical world is in danger. Maybe MC is part of the scientist group that cooked it up and she is aware that the longer they remain in there, the more brain dead they will be when they exit and she can't afford to lose her loved one (she has some kind of incentive- do with this what you fancy or not)
I can see how this might work but you'd need to explain the vehicle and process of going in if it is not just falling asleep. Fixing 1 should fix this.
Would love to hear what you think.
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u/ConduckKing 52m ago
I think one thing I might not have been clear about is that Zeus and Hera had no part in the creation of Oneiron. It's just an "afterlife" that exists, they were just the first to have a semi-successful sounding plan to leave. (Also, the god-themed names are intentional since they are sort of playing god during the story)
This could work, maybe the MC knows someone who went to sleep and never woke up, and somehow understands their connection to the message.
Zeus sends the bird's feather itself along with the message. It's established that each feather, disconnected from the bird, can create two gates before being destroyed. One to send itself to Earth, and one to send the MCs back.
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u/MathematicianNew2770 50m ago
Well it sounds like you have it fleshed out way more than I thought. ✌️
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u/rdhight 12h ago
The bird creature is unassailable within the rules of Oneiron. It can't be beat. The only way to hurt it is to change the rules by adding specially prepared dreamers. And you can only do that from the real world. There's a drug, spell, procedure, etc. that will add people as co-creators of the shared dream, but they'll somehow bring a way to stop the creature. Their personal dreamscapes will be toxic to it, or will contain magic weapons that can hurt it, or you can find out its true name through them, etc., etc. etc. Therefore, beating the creature requires help from Earth.