So...I caved and decided to try and write the first chapter (and ONLY the first chapter, I swear!) of my 'next' project. However before I write it, I'm kind of torn about something. The backstory of my fantasy setting features an 'off camera war' between original earth and the elder gods. There are generally two ways I've seen to show this war: Option A: Show the full prologue story (which is more or less just the final battle and earth achieving victory) as a prologue chapter. This gets it 'out of the way' early, but it kind of comes with a potential flaw. Exposing the true might of the Valkyries early, when I kind of want the Valkyrie character to seem harmless (but capable) at first. It also reveals the threat of the Elder Gods out the gate, which kinda spoils the fun of memes being the catalyst a bit. Option B: This option is only an option because the Valkyrie character has lost her memory. (which in and of itself is it's own can of worms) But I was thinking this might allow me to reveal more about the Valkyrie's backstory as it's important to the plot. While this has it's own narrative issues (namely when and where to reveal what bits of that final battle) and is a bit of a cliche' on it's own. I'm kind of leaning towards this one. Both methods have their pros and cons, and I'm sure some of you have seen both of these tropes executed in varying levels of quality. I'm curious which one makes more sense here? Note, when I say 'Valkyrie' I don't mean the Norse goddesses of war, they're bio organic beings constructed by man to repel the elder gods. The reason I'm leaning toward option B, is because I don't wanna bog the reader down with an info dump two chapters in a row. And also I want the Valkyries to come off as mysterious but also obviously powerful beings of legend. Just like the 'angels' (the humans who helped save earth and rebuild earth into a fantasy land) and monoliths (AI supercomputers who helped humans build the Valkyries and serve a different purpose in 'modern' earth) will be.
What does the war mean to the Valkyrie? If the backstory is important to the plot why is it backstory? If the Valkyrie was built to fight elder gods, but has amnesia, why doesn't she take up something safer - like billiards? Why did the elder gods fight a war with earth - rather than exporting calamari to it?
For what 'caused' the war: The Elder gods were angered by memes, they were summoned through a more legitimate ritual and a unrelated meme song happened to be playing at the time. They grew curious and investigated memes further, and like humanity does, decided that was their bane. The humans eventually figured out it was memes that angered the elder gods to begin with, so many scientists used them as inspiration to create weapons (aside the Valkyries) to counter them. It was a war of attrition and humans almost lost before the Valkyries were built. Much of the Valkyrie's character arc is wrestling with solving the immediate threat (the five stages of grief figuratively and literally plaguing the world), finding out her past, or discovering the cause and how to counter the ultimate threat. They eventually kind of start to do both along the way. The 'backstory' war basically equates to one long scene (either way I do it, I only have one scene planned) rather than like, a full proper saga. RPG's do this quite a lot with backstory wars, in fact it's a trope ( thttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreatOffscreenWar) the original war is often 'relevant' enough to be mentioned, but the plot at large is usually unrelated. Other than perhaps the ultimate threat (in this case the elder gods) being able to return. In many RPG's said war rarely a dominant set piece of the overall story. I rather like this approach, because I can have a war happen to serve as a catalyst for humanity to rebuild, but it doesn't need to be the 'main' focus of the plot.
I think I'm going to write the first chapter with option A first and see how it goes, that way if I decide to go with option B I'll have the full backstory scene set up and written already.
