So, a change in the plot of my story has given me a bit of a problem. You see, I have 24 characters in my story (well, 24 are stated to exist, but we only see about 10 at first) who, at the same time everyone in the world suddenly became able to use magic, were suddenly gifted with their own unique magical powers that no one else can use, in addition to the common pool of magical abilities available to everyone else. And for the purposes of the narrative I need there to be a solid year of time in which the existence of these 24 people is hidden from the general public. Which I found difficulty narratively justifying, given that these 24 people were selected almost completely at random from the entire Earth's population and have drastically varying motivations, from the noble to the self-serving to the utterly vile. It just didn't make sense to me that they would all independently make the exact same decision to not tell anyone that they or anyone else have their own unique powers. My original solution was to have the main villain, through a stroke of luck, team up with the nearest members of the 24 and combine their powers to strong-arm the remaining 21 into keeping quiet under threat of the deaths of them and their families, but the sheer scale of reach and power those three of the 24 would have to have quickly became ridiculous and demanded powers that were really incongruously overpowered compared to the ones the others had. So I'm trying to explore other alternatives to justify this. The main character I think I might have covered. His motivation is selfish but sympathetic, in that merely having his power (the ability to remotely access the five senses of the last few people he's touched) would turn him into a social pariah pretty much indefinitely if the general public knew he had it. Unsavory rumors and paranoia would almost inevitably follow. And if upon writing more I find that's not enough, then the main villain's power trio can still threaten a few people. But it just seems to me that plenty of types of people, especially the noble and the fame-hungry, would tell everyone immediately, long before it's remotely feasible for the main villains to figure out they exist, much less exert any kind of leverage on them. Does anyone have any suggestions for justifications I could use for why nobody tells anyone?
One way is to make the chosen one's code or rule to remain discreet. If you want to keep the Main Villain plot thread. You can have him be a master manipulator holding hostage most of the chosen one's family members in secret or causing a witch Hunt against people with powers. Like let's say someone with powers did come along but it's common knowledge that the first guy to do it got killed by the government or somebody else so it's a rule to keep it a secret.
If they let people know they're different, they put themselves in danger. Make one tell the world and get killed for doing so.
Easy. Have a lead in mechanism to build the drama of their fate. Create that one mystery character whose only power, other than his considerable wisdom, is to know the 24 even before they know. Perhaps he knows about the magic or created it. He can find them at any time and influence them, but not overpower or defeat them. Thus his only function is to bring them together, knowing that the nature of their powers will decide their fate. He can be seen in the story, or just establish his existence through myth. Kinda like the Greeks, where the old man is Zeus in disguise. Or bad guy holds him prisoner and he calls them together cause that's all he can do. That's just some examples of some kind of catalyst or gravity that pulls them together. Baktun, artifacts, moons, talismans can all provide draw or breadcrumbs.
My instinct would be to have there be an explicit rule against coming out, and then create a couple of additional "chosen" characters who break this rule, upon which they are discovered and stripped of their powers. Additional cover-up efforts optional. New recruits are then welcomed on board to bring the number back up to 24.
You're already using the most logical reason. Why make yourself a social pariah? everybody keeps the secret because it's to no one's advantage to divulge it.
They don’t, immediately, but one of them has the ability to essentially “google search” the human race by physical traits she visualizes, searches for people like her, gets drawn in the direction of the main villain, who uses her help to seek the others out.
There could also have been fame hungry people faking special powers for attention, and once they were exposed as fake it would make it a lot harder for any of the real chosen ones to convince the public of their extra powers even if they wanted to.
