Oké, so I want to write a miniseries of short stories for my blog placed in a sort of dystopian world. The law enforcers/ army are called the Reapers and divided into squadrons with varying power, importance and slinking size towards the top.
I've come to the point that I'm stuck coming up with titles for this system. do any of you have suggestions or improvements on the list below?
- Kings: Hades-(diplomat, extern)/ Lucifer-(diplomat intern)
- ………………..
- Grimm (brute force, power)/ Angels (rescue, power)/ Soul (lawyer/media, no power)
- ……………….
- Hell hound (ground soldiers)/ Harpy (airforce)/ Nightmares (communication battlefield)
- Gorgons: Medusa (volunteer, no power)/ Euryale (forced, no power)/ Stheno(power)
- Spirits: Fae (wild, free-spirited)/ Rumplestiltskin (intelligent)/ Whisp (natural leaders)
Could you explain a little bit more about how it works? It seems like you have general categories for some (like how the Fae and Whisps are both part of the Spirits category) but not for others. And the various duties aren't clear to me either. What's the difference between a hell hound and medusa? Why are medusas and euryvales above fae if they have no power?
Ah yes, I have updated the list since I posted this with some help of friends. Here is a link to the universe: Dystopian empire
The current list is listed below from the highest rank to the lowest rank. The idea is that the government takes children who show promise and moulds them to fill a specific role within law enforcement. The titles are based off of mythical creatures and the general role they fulfil. An elaboration: Spirits are the new trainees that haven't developed any specific skills yet, they're meant to be onlookers that have little interaction with the outside world.
The Gorgons are the next stage, they're trainees who get their first fieldexperiences. In the legends, Medusa was born as a human and the only one of the three Gorgons who was mortal. (more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon)
The next tier is the soldiers that guard the borders, here they develop real battle skills and probably bloodlust. From there the survivors are promoted to the special forces named after the legendary monsters of the deep sea.
Out of those only the very best are promoted to the ranks of Grimm, Angel or Soul. I'm not entirely sure on what those latter two are supposed to do yet, I just wanted something that could balance the Grimm ranks.
-Kings: Hades-(diplomat, extern)/ Lucifer-(diplomat intern)
-Grimm (assasin, power)/ Angel (resque, power)/ Soul (lawyer/media, no power)
-Kraken (Black ops)/ Charybdis (interogators)/ Scyla (investigators) [fear aura]
-Hell hound (ground soldiers)/ Harpy (airforce)/ Nightmares (communication battlefield)
-Gorgons: Medusa (volunteer, no power)/ Euryale (forced, no power)/ Stheno(power)
-Spirits: Fae (wild, freespirited)/ Rumplestilskin (inteligent)/ Whisp (natural leaders)
ps. I also feel like there should be a step between the kings and Grimm/Angel/Soul but have no inspiration whatsoever for that. and there's probably a better alternative for the Rumplestilskin title as well since he is an individual and not a group of beings like the other two.
Perhaps the Angels or the Souls are people the military respects for their cunning, or communication not just their bloodlust? Because a military needs soldiers on the inside, to do the actual dirty work, but they also need spies to ferret out information and technicians to develop new types of weapons and coordinators to run the whole thing and make sure that if Squad A and Squad B are in the same area they don't shoot each other up or consume each other's souls and start a false battle of the same side against the same side. And there's always paperwork needed. PR is an important aspect of a regime as well, though it seems you have that covered with Lucifer and Hades, being diplomats. But diplomats need protection, and symbols of status such as always being accompanied by the best soldiers in the army to discourage rebellion. Especially if powerful magic costs a lot of life force or blood. You don't want to be accompanied by someone who is expendable the whole time in case you need to cast magic. It sounds like it's also not a quick process to do spells. So a guard is probably a better idea. Souls follow Hades, Angels follow Lucifer and Grimm enact their will upon the earth? It also fits the mythos pretty well since Lucifer was originally an angel and was banished to hell with some angel followers of his who then became demons. Coyotes were known for being cunning in Native American mythos, so perhaps you could replace Rumpelstiltskins with that?
Oh those are very good suggestions, I could indeed make it in a way that Hades and Lucifer command a specific group and the Grimm are just kind of in-between and do whatever is needed. Also, your impression of my idea is much scarier than I was planning and I love it. That way it actually makes sense my main character wouldn't really go against the order of the empire since she has gotten so far removed from normal citizens.
Coyotes would probably work better then Rumplestiltskin, but I'm looking for something that inherently belongs to the spirit realm and isn't a real creature. Maybe I should indeed take a look at other cultures for myths, most of what I have now is based on western mythology but we have a habit of adopting and rearranging the stuff others come up with.
Thank you! I've read a lot of fiction with the government being a Big Bad and how to effectively convert that. Lots of people focus on the military aspect of it which is important, because you do need to suppress resistance, but if you have a news system that is just reporting things exactly as they are, the people are just going to be more and more horrified and outside nations might get involved which will just get messy for your dictatorship. So you also need to control your image because if people don't want to revolt, then they won't. If you've read Prodigy, that's kind of a good example. There's mad propaganda going on there.
