In my game, Chronicles of Hallarmuli, there is a scene I am writing where the leader of the Vikings has a war council where you all decide how to defeat the rebel army. I have an entire written out strategy I want to use, but I was wondering if that would take too much control away from the reader. Would you recommend that I allow the reader to choose a way to do it, but ultimately it’s till exactly the plan I want it to be? Or should I just keep it as is where you simply read your character do a big military battle plan?
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If I remember your story, you are a younger person taken in a Viking raid … and then the warrior guy bought you from an auction … so if the scene is relatively close in time to that, the warrior could bring you as his attendant … he can then ask your opinion but ultimately make the decisions himself…
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Correct. It is implied however that you served in a military somewhere after you left the monastery. I do have an option for you to mention it to him and he takes it from there.
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There is a very good mini-series from Britain about the Danelaw and the fights between Saxons and Vikings in Britain … in it, the Saxons slaves who earned trust were allowed in on the war councils but they only were allowed to advise or give input… that is the only other example close to yours I know off-hand …
Does he know of your prior military service? If so, does he trust you to be loyal to him and his Lord?
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At this point Erland is your only shield against much worse fates, and you are the only slave he owns thus he must bring you with him. I think he feels like you owe him and should trust him, and if you are on good terms neither of you have reason to distrust the other, because he has been honest till this point.
You bring up a good point. I think I will include a scene where he asks where you knew your strategy from and you could further your character’s background by claiming where you served and/or you studied it.
I think to be safe to include that if you aren’t on good terms with either the leader or Erland you won’t be able to contribute, because they will not trust your judgement, thus allowing the scene to unfold.
Thanks this has been a good brainstorming session just needed a few opinions, feel free to keep firing away.
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Trust is a huge deal in the military, no matter what era or period it is. Considering what I have read so far of your story in this thread, the MC is a slave and Erland is seemingly forced to have you along. Depending on how you are depicting slavery in your story, your MCs opinion may not even matter, even if they have a military background. Their experience could be ignored because A) this is a different enemy (country, whatever) than the MC knows and thus cannot be relied to provide feedback, B) they are a slave and need to know their place, or C) people could view the MCs opinion as possibly leading their strategy astray or into a trap.
Are slaves in your world forced to fight on the front lines? Also, if there is a war council, I highly doubt the MC as a slave would have access to it unless there was a STRONGLY compelling reason for their presence.
Hope that gave you some ideas.
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