thoughts on this idea?

[Jason von Evil]

I've had this idea for a story rolling around in my head for a while now and I wanted some opinions on it before I try writing it.

The backstory is that back in the 19th century, rifts in space started opening in different parts of the world. Out of the these rifts came creatures that looked alot like demons. Of course, people freak out and start killing them, but eventually stopped after a few are captured and interrogated by governments of the world. Its revealed that these "demons" are from a alternate dimension and aren't demons per se, but they are the inspiration for our concept of demons. It turns out they had traveled from their world to ours throughout history, which explains where monsters from mythology and folklore came from. Anyways, their leader explains that the "demons" that came through the portal are refugees from their own world, which is under the rule of teh standard evil regime.

The "demons" are given sanctuary from the US, Brits and a couple other countries, but are put in secured locations, with plenty of soldiers watching them. Eventually, as time passes and as a result of WWI, "demons" are let out of the camps so they can fight in the war and are later allowed to intergrate into society. The war helped with this alot, since it people were able to actually get to know them. Anyways, jump forward to the 21st century, "demons" have become more or less fully intergrated into human civilization. They're cops, soldiers, members of congress, bishops and possibly even pope. ( )

The story would follow a member of the Department of Inter-dimensional Affairs, a government agency founded to hand matters between our dimension and the other, as he investigates a crime of some sort.

I've also come up with another version of this, which remains the same, except other portals open, leading to the introduction of elves, orcs, dwarves and other fantasy races into our own world. In this version, the main character would be an elf.

Thoughts? Which one should I go for?

[Ford Prefect]

I like the concept, but prefer the first story idea as opposed to the second. This has nothing to do with the fact that the second story idea would have an elf as the main character.

It's potentially quite interesting, especially if you spend a fair amount of time working on the distrust and integration aspects of it. Do the refugees come with any spiffy abilities or the like?

[Jason von Evil]

Demons come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and so some due have spiffy powers and others don't. Some look like gorgans, others look like red skinned humans, not to say they're all red skinned.

I'm considering reducing the Department of Inter-Dimensional Affairs from a government agency to a division within the FBI.

I might also make the main character part (about a quarter) demon. He looks like a normal human, except for some scales on his left shoulder and a reddish tinge on his skin. He can see the "fingerprints" left by demons.


Oh and he can also breath fire. He doesn't do it often because 1. He's rarely in situations where he has to set people on fire. 2. He's not exactly proud of his lineage. 3. In the story, he'll tell another character that it tastes like he's been eating charcoal after using his fire breath. Plus he has to brush his teeth afterwards, because the flames blackens them.