My story surrounds a human girl on the hunt for her own kind that disappeared when she was a baby. This setting involves the dream world, as it's the only realm where the living and the dead can meet. My Villain (who is now dead) has the power to control dreams, pull people into this world, trap them and do physical harm to them (which is a rare ability). I have no goal or motivation for this character yet as I'm in the early stages. But she targets humans (humans are new to this planet so there isn't thousands of them). Using her abilities she places them all into a sleep that no one can wake them from in the physical world. There bodies are hidden/protected in a set of caves and their physical form is kept alive by magic. Their minds are taken to her dream world, were they are turned into slaves (many die and if they die in the dream world they die in the real world as well). Those enslaved are unaware they are in the dream world and think they've been taken to another planet by the Villain. But once they learn this, they can begin to control the dream world themselves and do things they couldn't in the physical world but it's not an easy skill to learn. This doesn't involve the dream world. Instead my villain has the ability to replica a place and make it into it's own realm. A realm that she controls totally. She found a way to forcefully remove humans from the planet and trap them in her world. This world the villain totally controls and the characters have to use non-magical skills to escape. I'm new to Fantasy so wanted some opinions on these settings. I wanted something that felt interesting and unique (I'm aware the dreamworld has been used before). But I wanted opinions on which setting I should use. Which has the most potential? Either would work fine for my plot and my character. Thanks for any feedback
Have you seen the movie 'A nightmare on Elm Street 3 - The Dream Warriors?' The plot and villain seem quite similar with only the setting being different. It's not a great movie but not terrible, you may be able to draw further inspiration from it.
My advise? 1. Give her a cult. People disappearing kinda gets noticed. Unless there are people in the living world to cover her actions. 2. Have her seemingly random kidnapings be for information gathering rather than revenge. 3. You seem to have the bones done. 3 worlds dream, faux dream and real. She has access to all three if i understand correctly, so the three worlds are connected. Maybe make it implied that this rare power she has is a power that can be gained only after a traumatic event/ death, think harry potter crux's... (every power has to have a source otherwise is seems cheap) That way you keep the option to have a pull a she's actually alive if you want to... but then at the end she has to choose between her by then populated world and going back to live. (if she chooses the latter maybe turn the cult against her since they thought she was a god and she's just x... or whatever. Other than that... i don't know exactly what you would like help with? Setting is a broad term and you seem to have a grip on what races you'll involve, the worlds, the type of power she has. P.s: i'd start thou with taking people from remote areas. Otherwise pesky rulers might get involved early. Missing farmer? Ohh he went out on his own cause he hated his family. The x knights's cobler goes missing? Well he was content with his life and he would never dare offend x... so something must have happened... if you catch my drift.
