The freedom to choose your own destiny to follow your own path to be your own person. Some characters will do anything to be free and to be the person and live the life they’ve always wanted.
Restriction are like chains, nobody wants to be chained (unless they into some kinky shit) and nobody wants to live a slave never knowing what the world is truly life, what it means to be free.
However, some characters are chained so tightly that when they are given a little bit of freedom, they are freaked out by it. It scares them because being a slave to whatever chained them is/was the only thing they’ve ever known.
So, do you have a character in your story, whether main/supporting/minor who want to be free and forsake the life they are living now to have a life where they live freely and see the world in a different light?
Now, mind you, these characters can be or don’t have to be actual slaves. Yet they are slaves to something else that is keeping them from being free.
Your character will fight to the bitter end to gain the freedom they feel they deserve. They rather live freely or die in chain!
Bonus Questions: What does freedom truly mean to your characters? What does it mean to be chained or to be enslaved by your characters?
Yup, that’s one of the themes for my current wip. The mc lives in a rigid society where people have to live according to the expectations of society. Second sons in noble families, for instance, can only choose from four occupations: law, medicine, clergy, military. What do you do if you don’t like any of those? You spend your life miserable, that’s what. I don’t know why so many readers idealize the Regency era. It was actually damn awful when you think about it, and that’s just for the nobles. Imagine how terrible it was for the peasants at the very bottom of the social order. (♯^.^ღ)
I have a character that is forced to be in a certain place and play a certain role.
Carnifex from Between Roses and The Rat Girl. His role is to be a destroyer that lives between realms. He doesn’t want to have to destroy entire realms which have people living in it. People who are innocent. But Carnifex has to be in this role. It’s his own punishment. So, he makes the best of it, but he struggles mentally. If he had the option to leave, I have no doubt he would take it, even though he might have found a way to enjoy his life.
I also have a character whose story isn’t written yet.
So, biped reptile Stopha was chosen to be a Guardian of Elgana. But he refused it because he had just become a father. The Guardians let him reject it but then they gave him a prophecy to fulfill nonetheless. A prophecy that could one day lead to his death.
Stopha used to be a mercenary, so living in freedom had always been his thing. He lived by his own rules. Being tied to a prophecy made him feel like he’s a slave to it. His mind is a slave to it. Even when he doesn’t want to, it ends up haunting him. But Stopha is also dutiful and, despite the possible death, believes being a part of a prophecy is a big honor. So, even though there might have been a way to break free from the prophecy, he chooses to fulfill his duty instead.
The Death Owls are bound to a Soul Stone which was held by Temulkar… They exist in a limbo of life, never dying, but held in a very slow decay until they are free from it’s curse…
The Curse was put upon them as when Temulkar called upon their might, they did abandon their pledge and fled to Heldredth, the city of the ancients… But Temuklar was wise in his ways, for he insisted that they swore upon an oath of longevity… And this they did approve, but within his hand, and his mind he held the Soul Stone to entrap their souls…
The Soul Stone he did hold onto, and in the long years after defeat it was hidden away deep within the vaults of Astiol. Geldrid and Riona did stumble upon it in the awakening if the powers of old, and the rumour of the Sorcerers return. And it is Geldrid who now has the Soul Stone in his possession…
After a meeting at Heldredth with the owls, he now wishes to break the bonds, but doubts the Death Owls allegiance to any, and their uttermost wish to be free…
Will the Owls assist in the wars of Arillion? Will they flee to safer lands? Will they be consumed by the long decay of their bond in ignorance of the world, and finally vanish into the void of despair?
Geldrid holds all the cards, and the Death Owls release could assist, or be Arillion’s undoing… But it is a thing to live free, or the slow decay to utter ruin in bonds to a Soul Stone… And the Soul Stones are pure evil indeed…