Byron: The Dark Witch

Prep the First: Premise/Idea

PREMISE (Required)

Urban fantasy in which two unlikely young men with various complexes and a rather more likely young woman unite through their quest to save the world from those who would destroy it.

Protagonist(s). Who is(are) your main character(s)?

Byron Bathory, powerful witch with affinities in Wind and Sun magicks. Dark leanings. Strong belief in freewill.
Aoife Bathory, half-fae with dark witch father.
Jude - Templar, whose lightness competes with Byron's darkness.

Goal(s). What do they want?

Individually: Byron wants Freedom. This means freedom as a witch, rather than persecution at the hands of the church. Being born a witch should not be a crime. He also believes in the balance - magick is essentially about the middle ground between chaos and order. The latter is the Church, the former is the Otherkin. Natural magick, before it leans towards chaos (dark) or order (light) it neutral and thus embodies free will - the ability to chose between chaos and order. Byron wants this to be fully established, protected, respected.

Overall: To correct the balance of light and dark. Someone is messing with the balance of life, which magick embodies, by destroying witch souls. This is a form of black magick that doesn't just upset the balance and skew it towards the dark, it creates a kind of 'void' that magick then tries to compensate for.

Conflict. What is keeping them from their goal?

Initially, lack of information - there's a kind of quest to figure out what is causing the world's leylines to go crazy. Later, it's each other. They need to work together, but both of them have their issues with each other. Even though Byron is very open about his lack of trust in Jude, it's mainly his backstory, in which a group of templars tortured him for information, that makes him wary and bitter. On the other hand, Jude appears to have to be patient with Byron and seems willing to put aside their differences - this turns out to be harder than he expects as Byron really does use the kind of magick he has long been taught to fight.

Antagonist(s). Who(what) is creating the conflict?

The Black Witches - or Chrone Worshippers. In this novel, the main antagonists are a group of witch hunters. Amongst them are representatives of lots of groups - human-Otherkin hybrids, Templars, Church officials and witches. Our characters need to figure out who exactly these people are are why they want to destroy the balance before it's too late.

Leading these groups are high political, religious and corporate leaders, including Aoife's father, who turns out to be one of several ringmasters.

THEME (Bonus)

Free will and Determinism
Central to the whole thing is the discussion of free will and determinism, what it entails, what extremes result in, the good and bad of both. One of the main themes is how characters learn to live with their ability to choose. Light and Dark magick is dependent on the Will of the user, everything comes down to how choices are made and what balance can be struck between them.

Faith vs. Doubt
With half of the novel being told from the perspective of a Church honoured Templar, faith does come into it. But it's also about faith in themselves, in each other, in magick and in their ability to do what needs to be done.

Hazards of Power
All of our characters, protagonists and villains struggle with their relationship to power. This is literal magical power, but also the power to act, and the power to save or destroy the balance.