@Cassiopeia
Hello, reader!
You probably know me already, but let me introduce myself just in case you don't! I'm L.C, you can call me that or Lei, either/or is fine.
I'm writing a story– the current title I might change later– that's called Portraits of Strangers, which follows the story of a noble's son as he uncovers secrets about his family's history that will destroy the ideals that he has fabricated in his own mind. There's a mystery!! A smidgen of romance!! Action!!
Anyways, now to actually introduce my problem, I'm unsure of what the best starting point for the story is. There are a lot of spots where I could start, and I would like your opinion on where to kick off the story! So I'll walk you through a short timeline of what immediately precedes it. :)
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In the spring of the year 3115, traders came to the port city of Esaroa with livestock, looking to sell them to essentially anyone who would buy them, but primarily farmers and butchers. What these traders didn't know was that the food that they had been feeding the animals on the voyage there was contaminated by a certain kind of bacteria that… well basically could be spread not only to other animals but to people. Some of their animals were bought, but not all of them. The few they did buy were enough to infect most of the animal population by the end of spring.
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The Summer solstice, which is in the third month of the year's nine, is a large festival when coming-of-age celebrations are held for the children who have or will turn 16 during that year. A common practice is for the child in question to both kill an animal the child was tasked with the care at a young age, clean it and prepare a meal for their caretakers as a sort of thank you for their efforts. But uh… you cross that with infected animals and I'm sure you can guess what happened afterward. 💀💀💀
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Come to the end of summer, the number of originally infected was 34,800, the plague can be spread by ingestion which originally infected 20% of the population, and skin-to-skin contact which, and I'm just guesstimating here, is another 20%, which makes the growth rate like 40%… Which makes just by the end of summer, 53,760 people are infected. Which makes it about 5% of the city's 1,000,000 population infected.
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Autumn comes, and the people are granted a short respite from the disease. 13,977 people have died by this time, and no new cases were reported. The respite ends after about two weeks.
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By mid-autumn, it is discovered that the water supply is contaminated. 114,332 cases of the disease have been reported by this point, 26,277 have died and the Lord of the Area (A.K.A Pierson) declares a state of emergency, or whatever the equivalent is.
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Doctors of the area find that the crops that had been planted during the spring of that year can infect small animals. They are working on preventative measures, but in the meantime, Lord Pierson makes the decision that it's too risky to keep it, and asks the people to refrain from eating anything from this year's crop and to instead eat things from the storehouses or their own stock.
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Winter begins. As people begin to stay inside most of the time, the spread of the disease slows. 15% of the population have either died or been infected. The doctors are close to finding something to stunt the growth of the disease.
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Lord Pierson attempts to help a servant boy who had contracted the disease within his own household and ends up contracting it himself. As he is bed-ridden, his 16-year-old son Oliver must prepare for the grim possibility that his father will not survive the winter.
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The end of the year comes, what is normally a celebratory time is dark and dreary as most have lost someone to the 'Atras Plague', as the people have dubbed it. (Atras being the goddess of death.)
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Lord Pierson dies. His household mourns.
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No new cases have been reported. The doctors have found a cure and do their best to give it to as many as possible, (which ends up being 83,463) however, with there being no crop that year (an essential ingredient is something they would have grown), many still die.
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The final death toll is 40,500. 20% of the population was infected, and of those people, 5% died.
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Oliver's father's funeral is held, Oliver is officially dubbed Lord by a representative of the Queen.
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As the summer equinox approaches three months later, the head maid (and Oliver's nanny when he was young) encourages him to try and participate in the festivities, since the people have not seen him since his father's death.
That's it! So, where do you think would be the most interesting to start the story? As a side note, I hope the math isn't too shoddy I'm not the greatest at it. 😂😂😂 As a side note to the side note, what do you think of this concept in general? I've put a lot of work into developing this timeline and world, I hope someday to create a series of nine stories within this universe :)
Anyways, thank you for reading! I'll see you around! :)
–L.C.
