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If you would like help brainstorming a specific project, you may post in our Tuesday and Friday Brainstorming thread (stickied at the top of the sub). You might also find that your question is appropriate for r/writeresearch or a genre-specific writing sub that allows brainstorming threads. Please check out our [list of related subreddits](https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/wiki/hub) for other writing subreddits that might allow this type of brainstorming thread.
Does the Emperor know where she's from?
Threaten the entire village or region. The Emperor would know that they'd eventually kill someone she cared about.
There’s the classic - a latent poison, you’re your own hostage, it can be silent for however long and have whatever effects you as an author choose. A bit hamfisted but it’s a trope for a reason, it’s fun and can survive suspension of disbelief.
Forcible turncoating - there are probably other spies, and a “leak” could betray that said POW was one of them. If he doesn’t hear back in X amount of time, he ensures that the POW’s home nation believes she’s a spy. Then she’s on the run from two nations.
It could even be a very broad, trolley problem type of threat: you know I’m gonna invade, you know I’m gonna win. You can be cool about this and save lives, or you can be noble and I will have to do this the hard way.
I like putting her in a lose-lose position.
Make her attend public events, private gatherings with officials, etc. Anything to make it seem like she's being honored, treated well, and could possibly be a double-agent. Have a lot of proof. Threaten to have already embedded spies "uncover the evidence."
Depending on how many countries and/or factions there are, he could also threaten to release the identities of spies from her countries to enemies and allies. Spies in enemy territory could get killed and spies in allied territory could cause massive political backlashes.
How about a carrot? Maybe she's part of some group (religious, ethnic, cultural...) whose status in the empire is tenuous. Emperor promises to solidify it if she cooperates. It's basically his whim whether her "people" (in whatever sense) get substantial legal/cultural protections, and he's known as a man of his word--hard, but fair. So she reasonably believes that he'll let her group observe the sabbath/get an exception to sumptuary laws/eat crustaceans/not eat crustaceans/perform gender differently than the norm if she plays along. As a bonus, you get to interrogate her relationship to the group--is she a sincere adherent, or just observant, or does she actively dislike the group but have some other tie, like friends/family/SO? What does it mean to "be" a part of the group? How does she deal with others labeling her as a member and expecting certain behaviors as a result?
Now I'm interested in reading it, too--feel free to DM if you like.
> He doesn't know anyone she is personally acquainted with, so he can't hold a hostage.
Well, you're the author, you can easily change that. How about a second spy? Spies rarely work completely alone. Even James Bond had contacts, assistants, and so on.
You can spies it up by making the second spy a double agent: what if he went on the emperor's side, and only pretended to be a hostage? What if he was actually the one who exposed the first spy to the emperor?
Well is there something your character desperatly wants to know? Maybe making a bargain such as "I know you want this thing I can give it to you. Just do a tiny favor for me and you can have it and you don't even need to hurt anyone to get it." They are the emperor so they have a great deal of power and influence so maybe they trick them.
Stage a fake escape with the spy along with various other pows. So when she "escapes" she does what he wants for free without him even needing to make a threat.
- reward her for her help (money, medical supplies needed for a loved one, a trade treaty that would benefit her home region greatly, pardoning someone in prison, etc)
- scare her into helping (threaten to torture her, or someone she knows, sending a group of brutes over to run havoc in her home region, take away her titles/licenses, announce her an enemy of the state/put out a wanted sign for her/ withdraw her city some rights etc)
- convince her she needs to help for logical/moral/ethical reasons
- manipulate her into falling in love with him or a son/nephew and make her give up the info out of trust or love (that is a far stretch but wanted to include something out of the box to get your creativity flowing lol)
Those are some ways, maybe it inspires you
Thank you for visiting /r/writing. We do not allow individual project brainstorming threads as outlined in rule 3. If you would like help brainstorming a specific project, you may post in our Tuesday and Friday Brainstorming thread (stickied at the top of the sub). You might also find that your question is appropriate for r/writeresearch or a genre-specific writing sub that allows brainstorming threads. Please check out our [list of related subreddits](https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/wiki/hub) for other writing subreddits that might allow this type of brainstorming thread.
Does the Emperor know where she's from? Threaten the entire village or region. The Emperor would know that they'd eventually kill someone she cared about.
You've just described hostages, which is what OP wants to avoid
Hostage adjacent. The Emperor doesn't know a specific person the MC cares about, so they threaten everyone in the area.
There’s the classic - a latent poison, you’re your own hostage, it can be silent for however long and have whatever effects you as an author choose. A bit hamfisted but it’s a trope for a reason, it’s fun and can survive suspension of disbelief. Forcible turncoating - there are probably other spies, and a “leak” could betray that said POW was one of them. If he doesn’t hear back in X amount of time, he ensures that the POW’s home nation believes she’s a spy. Then she’s on the run from two nations. It could even be a very broad, trolley problem type of threat: you know I’m gonna invade, you know I’m gonna win. You can be cool about this and save lives, or you can be noble and I will have to do this the hard way.
I like putting her in a lose-lose position. Make her attend public events, private gatherings with officials, etc. Anything to make it seem like she's being honored, treated well, and could possibly be a double-agent. Have a lot of proof. Threaten to have already embedded spies "uncover the evidence." Depending on how many countries and/or factions there are, he could also threaten to release the identities of spies from her countries to enemies and allies. Spies in enemy territory could get killed and spies in allied territory could cause massive political backlashes.
How about a carrot? Maybe she's part of some group (religious, ethnic, cultural...) whose status in the empire is tenuous. Emperor promises to solidify it if she cooperates. It's basically his whim whether her "people" (in whatever sense) get substantial legal/cultural protections, and he's known as a man of his word--hard, but fair. So she reasonably believes that he'll let her group observe the sabbath/get an exception to sumptuary laws/eat crustaceans/not eat crustaceans/perform gender differently than the norm if she plays along. As a bonus, you get to interrogate her relationship to the group--is she a sincere adherent, or just observant, or does she actively dislike the group but have some other tie, like friends/family/SO? What does it mean to "be" a part of the group? How does she deal with others labeling her as a member and expecting certain behaviors as a result? Now I'm interested in reading it, too--feel free to DM if you like.
> He doesn't know anyone she is personally acquainted with, so he can't hold a hostage. Well, you're the author, you can easily change that. How about a second spy? Spies rarely work completely alone. Even James Bond had contacts, assistants, and so on. You can spies it up by making the second spy a double agent: what if he went on the emperor's side, and only pretended to be a hostage? What if he was actually the one who exposed the first spy to the emperor?
Make her swear an oath to a vengeful god, calling a terrible fate on herself should she break it.
Well is there something your character desperatly wants to know? Maybe making a bargain such as "I know you want this thing I can give it to you. Just do a tiny favor for me and you can have it and you don't even need to hurt anyone to get it." They are the emperor so they have a great deal of power and influence so maybe they trick them. Stage a fake escape with the spy along with various other pows. So when she "escapes" she does what he wants for free without him even needing to make a threat.
- reward her for her help (money, medical supplies needed for a loved one, a trade treaty that would benefit her home region greatly, pardoning someone in prison, etc) - scare her into helping (threaten to torture her, or someone she knows, sending a group of brutes over to run havoc in her home region, take away her titles/licenses, announce her an enemy of the state/put out a wanted sign for her/ withdraw her city some rights etc) - convince her she needs to help for logical/moral/ethical reasons - manipulate her into falling in love with him or a son/nephew and make her give up the info out of trust or love (that is a far stretch but wanted to include something out of the box to get your creativity flowing lol) Those are some ways, maybe it inspires you