Alright, so I’m writing a murder mystery with a contemporary fantasy setting, and my main murder victim is a unicorn. The body is found in the woods with multiple wounds and with its horn and hair cut. There will be multiple murders, but only a few bodies will be found; the rest only seem to disappear (I do know the reason for this, but I’m choosing not to say for risk of spoilers). Unicorns are really rare, sacred, and near immortal creatures, so these murders are even more unusual. I want to have old wizards and/or elves - who generally disguise themselves and hide among normal humans when in the “real world” - suspected for this murder (for reasons I’m choosing to omit so as to, again, not spoil anything). My problem is that I haven't created these characters yet, so I don't know who any of them are or what role they will play in the bigger plot; I've tried coming up with different ideas but nothing particularly interesting or unique has come up yet. Could you help me brainstorm possible motives for wizards/elves to slay a unicorn? My story world revolves around the coexistence of nature and magic, and some prominent themes the story has are grief and acceptance, questioning faith, age and youth, and good people making bad decisions, so those elements could fit into the murders somehow. I’m not asking anyone to write my story for me, I've got most of that already, I'd just like some help coming up with ideas for possible suspects and their motives. Any help is appreciated, thanks! :>
Could it be possible that the unicorn's parts can be blended up to make Super Important and Powerful Potion XYZ? Maybe that's the only way to save the world, I dunno. High fantasy like this isn't my forte. D:
It's hard to offer much concrete help without knowing much of anything about your setting, but yeah, typically unicorn horns and blood are thought of a powerfully magical items, so that's kind of the obvious one. Are the unicorns sapient or just considered (sacred) animals? Maybe it wronged someone - even if unknowingly/accidentally, potentially when they were both quite young - and they wanted revenge?
Sounds a bit too straight forward. If you want a unique mystery it needs to have a plot that makes the reader think, and can confuse them but still all wrap up nicely at the end. There's a bunch of easy reasons why the wizards could've killed the unicorn. I don't know what the reason could be, but make sure it's not too straight forward or the reader will already know the wizards murdered the unicorn in no time.
Ooh yeah that could work. Thanks! Yes, these unicorns are sentient beings. I think that kind of thing might work as well, a wizard having a deep seated hatred for unicorns since he was a kid. Thank you! Well, technically, the pool of suspects will happen to be wizards, and one of them will be responsible for the unicorns' murders. Not necessarily a bunch of old men/women charging out into the woods to kill some unicorns. Though this is solid and useful advice nonetheless. Thanks!
