I had this idea of a corruption/possession story about a queen who lost her king and kingdom. Locked up in a cell, waiting for execution, she then makes a prayer offering "anything" to get her revenge. ...But the prayer is answered by a daemon or some sort of evil god who makes her regret not making her offering more precisely worded. Obviously since the ex-queen is imprisoned and doesn't currently have riches, servants, or any type of power, the things that she can offer are very limited. The dilemma here is that I have multiple ideas on how to take the plot, but can't decide on a specific one. Which eventually reminded me that I could do multiple paths on CHYOA and explore all the possibilities. Does the queen get possessed with a daemon who uses her as a vessel and only fulfils the promise of revenge by destroying the kingdom completely? Does the dark power instead possess a 18 yo prince/princess of the kingdom who had been kept alive to be the spouse of the usurper and now the queen mother has to watch her child corrupt and conquer the land? Or does the queen specifically offer the soul&body of her child to the daemon, so that she can save herself and regain the throne? I'm gonna ponder on this for a while and see if I can actually get the story written.
Love the concept, and it might be really fun to just indulge in a really morally corrupt character - either out of desperation or genuine wickedness. I think a lot of stories like this would probably have the Queen start with pure intentions and go bad along the way - but given some of the potential bargains you have, you could really have some fun with her being a nasty piece of work!
Is turning the queen into a succubus/witch too played out as a trope? Upon further thought, look up Morathi from Warhammer Fantasy. She's a great inspiration for a queen who deals with demons.
Dammit. The World-Building bit of my brain has kicked in. With the assumption that the Queen will have to retake her seat of power, most likely her capital city, in order to reinstate herself as reigning monarch, she would have to offer up the only meaningful resource she has, which are her subjects. So, in exchange for power, she had to condemn the citizens of her capital city to either being turned into demons, or have it be assaulted by demons. Either way, she is now known to the greater world as the Demon Consort or similar title. The conflict would then be her trying to rationalize/justify her actions (ie lie to herself) while also trying to minimize damage.
Point: she lost the kingdom so she can't offer up her subjects ...yet. Which is why at first it would be her body, soul, or the prince/princess that ends up as the offering. Possibly she doesn't become all powerful yet with this meager offering and as she first takes over a village or hamlet, she must offer these new lands or the people within to the dark power so that she can regain the rest of the kingdom. A case of slippery slope where she doesn't realise that she is not the one in control anymore but is willing to do whatever it takes to grow stronger and to feel the rush of magical power and change that are happening to her body.
That could be the structure? Her taking over and sacrificing a series of increasingly larger settlements. Each time she has new challenges, but also new powers to apply to the task? Starts off doing it for “their own good”, till she’s all spooky and semi-daemonic, having her sway over a mid-sized city so she can try out her new dark powers.
Giving the queen semi-good motivations in the beginning would also give more room to corrupt her slowly. Have her keep from crossing certain lines in the beginning and only later succumbing to the desire for more power and committing outright indefensible acts. Many corruption stories have the corruption happen instantaneously, but this would be more fun for me at least.
I am also in this line of thinking. Makes for more interesting stories as you explore that character's mindset shifting from "This is unacceptable!" to "Sacrifices must be made" to just stone cold "It must be so".
Now that I think about it, a story like this needs to have a character just for the part of reacting to how far the queen has fallen and to have increasing panic attacks over it.
Bonus if that character is a Sister/Nun/Clergy(wo)man that is somehow immune but not really to the Queen's growing corruption influence. A Lady in Waiting or Handmaiden would work too, but she'd most likely be her first follower.
Hm... Starting from the premise that the queen's corruption is a slow process, perhaps the other character is the prince/princess. The queen offers herself as a sacrifice to protect her child. EDIT: And now I can't make up my mind on which character should be the POV or if the POV should shift between them. Because losing out internal conflict of the queen would be missing the point of the story, but also an outside perspective now and then would make it easier to show which part of the story is the truth and which is just delusions by the queen who doesn't realise how she has changed.
