Guide on Novels and Games - CHARACTERS

Characters are the ones we encounter in stories, this term is used for describe any beings that the author use during the events of the story.

Since a character can be something that is not a person, like an animal or an object, then is wrong use the term "person" for describe a character.

In games the term "character" is mainly used for indicate every single unit present in the project, and this mean the one the player control and not, but is commonly used for indicate mainly every single unit the player control and the NPC that are used in the story.

## How they are divided?

There are various ways for divide the character in a story or in a game and they are based on their role or how much important they are.

> *Role*, the characters are divide based on their role in the story and this roles are:

* Main Character aka MC, the "leader" character of the story. Readers and players follow the event that happen in the life of the MC looking at what happen from his point of view and mainly know what he think of them. In stories events that happen outside the events outside the MC can happen and in this cases is better always keep in mind that the info relative to such events must be kept in check otherwise is even possible make the mistake of have the MC act or talk of them while he/she is supposed to know nothing about them. For example, if MC is in city A and we know events, like a thief that rob a shop, that take place in city B thanks to another point of view, we can't have the MC talk about such events until a character present in city B that saw the events talk about them and inform MC.
* Second Hero/Heroine, the "sub-leader" character of the story. Various time they are the second most important character of the story or is the main lover or interest of the MC but despite this case can be found in various works this don't prevent this role to be assigned to someone that is not related to the MC... in this case is like two lives that move together. Depending on the story and the author, a second hero/heroine can be not present, if such event happen then is most possible that the readers and players "choice" the one that despite seem the closest to that role and unofficially recognized is as the second, if this happen is even possible to change the story based on this recognition but is always better make a specific one for prevent eventual problems or mistakes. For example, MC is a student and we follow his/her life both inside and outside the school. The author didn't planned a second hero or heroine but the girl that he love is recognized as such and then in the time can become the unofficial second heroine.
* Companions, this characters are the one that form a group with the MC and they are divided into 3 different categories:
	+ *Temp*, this type follow the MC for some time and then separate from the MC taking another way. In term of games this characters usually can be found that are part of a secondary quest or that they are connected to a single part of the main story... just think this, MC is travelling from city A to city D and during the travel it encounter someone assaulted by monsters, the MC save the person and this person follo MC till city D and then separate. In this case the traveler is a temp companion from the place of the attack to the city.
	+ *Fixed*, this type of charcter follow the MC from a specific point of the story till the end and usually they stop to follow mainly in the cases of death. Depending on the author's choice is possible that fixed companions can be the main topic of certain arc but let me make an example for make it clear. MC's group is formed by 4 people aside MC and this mean that a single arc can be focused in the grow of one of this 4 people or its evolution... like a companion that have some traumatic past and an arc is used for heal the companion from that trauma.
	+ *Intermittent*, they are companions that "travel" with the MC for some time, part away for who know how much and, if the story and the author say yes, travel again with the MC in the future. A little example of this can be a spy / adventurer that a MC encounter sometimes joining or go on its own depending on its mission. For this category is better make clear that there are 2 variation of it and are the the "true intermittent" and the "fixed intermittent", while in the first case they are really intermittent in the second they are basically fixed ones that have to take some "time off" for various reason but they never really left the group. In modern environment story that involve school life or work, the companions are usually friends, co-worker or schoolmates, normally in this kind of stories the MC have his/her "group" and the word "companion" is applied to all the members of that group.
* Secondary Characters, they are characters that appear sometimes and can have a minimal role in the story and normally not much information are gave about them, an example of them can be classmates that are not part of the MC's group. In some cases such characters are used for fill moments or make small "diversion", for example in a scholastic ecchi story is possible that MC spy in the female changing room and two female classmates, both secondary character, chase the MC.
* Background, they are character that are just there for don't leave empty space, in games they are basically the mobs we see around the places while in movies are all the people hired for walk in a street so that is not empty with only the main actors, it would be strange if the MC walk an empty street when the story don't require a scene like that.

> *Importance*, this classification let know which character is important in the story and which is not BUT keep in mind that just because a character is important don't mean that it's a companion or the MC itself, an example of what I'm saying can be found in detective stories where a casual background character give a proof that will help to solve the case... in other words a background character with high importance.

This is the classification that I use but anyone can make and use its own method.

## Which "components" are used for create a character?

Create a character sheet can be more easy than one can think but the part that compose one usually depend on what function the character have.

The part for a complete character sheet are:

* Name & Surname, the complete name of the characters. While choising a surname please remember that in medieval period only certain type of people had surname and so have one was sign of be a noble, this type of people are:
	+ Nobles & Rulers, usually the rulers have as surname the name of theit nation.
	+ Clan/Tribe, members of tribes and clans used the name of the tribe/clan as surname.
	+ Location's name, can happen that local population of certain area take the name of the place as their own BUT keep in mind that viceversa can happen too. The "rule" that only certain people have a surname can be ignored if that world was advanced and then returned to a primitive stage after a cataclism like a zombie apocalyps, an alien invasion, a global war or whatever.
* Race, the race of the character, this section can be used only if the story provide different races otherwise it would be useless.
* Physical appearance, this section is composed by the character's various physical traits:
	+ *Eye*, the color of the eyes. Since there are cases of people have its eyes of two colors (for example I have grey-green eyes and is not a lie) or heterochromia (one eye of a color and the other of another color) than remember to specific the eventual colors and which eye have each one, if this are not the case than put a single color is enough.
	+ *Hair*, this section it should include not only the color but the hairstyle too. In the case the character have hair of different colors then remember to list the color making clear which one is the natural one and which is the not natural one plus is possible that certain power or skills may change the color of the hair once activated so line this too when filling this section.
	+ *Height*, the heigh of a character. Despite this can seems useless is always better choice one because can help line the height of the other characters.
	+ *Build*, the type of build a character have (fat, muscular, common, thin, skinny, etc.).
	+ *Particular Sign*, not very important in some cases but some particular signs, like birth marks and scars, can be used for give personality to a character or have a story behind.
* Clothes, in this section we mostly put the clothes the character wear and when they use it, for example a school uniform for schooldays and casual for weekend. Normally in games, manga and anime the characters mainly wear the same set of clothes most of the times and the reasons change based on the "platform":
	+ In novels, an author can describe new clothes whenever it want with no problems but is meaningless make thousand set of clothes plus is not really needed say all the clothes one wear since once described one time is natural recall them and new clothes must be described only when they are used.
	+ In games alternative clothes and skins can become dlc... but I saw that in some games you start with a certain appearance that go changing with the progress of the story, for example you start with normal clothes in an adventure story then the character lost the jacket, gain some dirt on the clothes, maybe some bandages on injuries and so on.
	+ In anime there are not much freedom and alterantive clothes may appear only for a couple of episode or in particular situation like a date or a party. The main reason behind all of this is that the production of anything require time and any waste of it will result in a loss so there's always pressure for hurry and finish... so with this you can understand why most characters have only a set of clothes... because they can't waste time on numerous ones or the interest in their product will fade away.
* Personality, the personality of the character, some may fall between 9 classic alignements:
	+ *Lawful Good*, good person that act like one so don't lie, keep his/her word, help without ask nothing in exchange, fight any injustice, etc. basically the "incarnation of all is good".
	+ *Neutral Good*, someone that do the best that a good person can do and help who is in need but his/her act are not at the same level of a Lawful Good so for example say small lie even if they are for good purpose.
	+ *Chaotic Good*, someone that act following its own sense of justice ignoring what the others say/think, it can not respect laws but only when they are obstacles to what he/she think is right, despite act rough is a good person that will fight against punks and anyone act like a bully, an example is a punk like character that KO or scare some guys that molest a girl and escort her till she is safe for then go away like nothing happened.
	+ *Lawful Neutral*, is basiclly a character that act following laws and/or personal codes and that believe that "order" is the best thing.
	+ *True Neutral*, a type of character that do all the things it think it's a good ideas, this character still see "good" better then "evil" but is not personally commited to upholding good in any abstract or universal way.
	+ *Chaotic Neutral*, this type do whatever it want treasuring its own liberty and don't have the desire to protect anyone, the only way a chaotic neutral would act against the authorities is that they will go against him/her, it is moved by good intention (like liberate others) or evil intentions (change things so that he don't have to suffer).
	+ *Lawfull Evil*, they impose their concept of order and law and don't care if they make other suffer, it can seems similar to the Lawfull Good but contrary to it the Lawful Evil act in a dictatorial way and is ready to break rules and any promise for obtain the result it want, normally this character like the comfort of the hierarchy and desire to be the boss but don't have any problem on serve someone like the loyal underling of a tyrant.
	+ *Neutral Evil*, they are similar to the True Neutral but don't have any problem on kill and do whatever it want for achieve its objective, don't like order and laws as much don't like traditions or ethic codes but, on contrary, don't like conflicts and try to don't fight.
	+ *Chaotic Evil*, they are pure wickedness, they do whatever they want for satisfy their own ego and greed, they are violent and inclined to destroy anything using whatever method without giving importance of the conseguence of their actions, they kill and destroy for fun and act only for their own sake. About the alignement one must remember that is not a fixed trait since there are things like corruption, trauma and alternative version, for example a good man lost all he had thanks to the corruption of the local noble and as conseguence become a furious monster ready to kill all the nobles changing from Neutral Good to Neutral Evil.
* Blood Type, in the japanese culture, the blood type can reveal the personality of someone and this is the reason behind them put it in any character card.
* Skills, the abilities of the character. Decide what a character can and can't do is always a good idea because this way you can make limits that make them more "real".
* Titles/Nicknames, the titles owned by a character

This are the basic traits of a character but depending on the story, other may appear, for example in games and certain fantasy stories we can have titles.

Make "characters cards" can be usefull for authors and for game designers are something one have to do, for a simple reason that is "control"... I'm sure that right now some people are wondering what type of control one can have and the answer is simple... when an author write something, it have to keep in mind various things and, depending on the size, mentally visualize a project is very complicated and due to this reason that write all the things help to keep in check all the material.

As characters are something that "evolve" in the progression of the story is always better sign in their relative sheet their change, for example write "beginning" or "From ch X to ch Y", thanks to this we can keep things in check and don't have to control everytime how things went in the previous chapters.

Some fun fact about characters in isekai stories:

* In isekai stories people from other worlds are most of the times called otherworlder.
* The MC is never the first otherworlder and is always transfered into an isolated place.
* Most of the times the MC use his modern knowledge for make big profits.
* Otherworlder character don't reveal their "true identity" for various reasons:
	+ People can not belive them and think that they are crazy
	+ People can belive them and decide to use them for their purpose.
	+ People can think of them as some kind of divine apostle and be a pain.

## Heroes and summoned heroes who and what are them

For this section I'll use the format Q&A

**Q: What is a hero?**

**A:** Normally the definition of hero should be "A hero is someone, that does an act of courage which will or may result in its own death while helping and protecting others."

This definition is genderless so please throw away the concept that an hero have to be a man and not a woman.

**Q: Normally which traits have a hero?**

**A:** The main traits a hero usually have is:

* It's a good person that help others
* Have a special "strenght", not only physical one but other type too, that make it "special".

Despite this 2 traits there are various traits of heroes so their main traitsts change... what I mean with that? Easy answer, you need to know that there are basically 5 type of way for heroes:

1. Pure Idealist Hero The classical hero that want to save everyone using anything that it's in its hands and its actions are know to all. An example of this hero is one that cover a bomb with its body, knowing that it will die, for shield all the people in the surrounding.
2. Idealist Hero This type is different from the Pure Idealist because it try to do whatever it can but is not a fanatic like the pure one that basically go around searching anyone that is in danger... it help anyone that reach him and eventually help if the voice of a problem reach its ears but don't look around in search of problems to solve.
3. Realist Hero They understand that is always not possible save all and , for this reason, are ready to eventually sacrifice some people... in other word "lost less for save more" or "sacrifice 10 person for save 10 milions". In some cases this type is ready to kill villains that can't be reformed. Please keep in mind that this type of heroes differ from the definition of "anti-hero" because the realistic heroes are still heroes that act for the good of others
4. Real Shadow Hero This type think that act and let people know its existence can limit its own action and for this reason hide itself and never let know its identity, if I want to put it in another way you can say that it is a phantom that exist but you don't know if is a myth or is real... it move in the shadows, take action and none is aware of its existence or what it do.
5. Shadow Hero Similar to the Real Shadow but instead it let people know its existence, there can be rumors and "myth" but at least people know that someone take action and is not just luck, fate or simple unluck for the villains. This type of hero is ready too to appear as the bad guy and sacrifice itself for the good of all, for example is ready to appear like a dangerous tyrant so that divided people and nations will join hands against it achieving peace after its defeat.

**Q: There are heroes in real life?**

**A:** Yes and seems stupid that probably there are people that make that question so here some example of real heroes that exist outside movie, novels, manga, anime, comics and cartoons:

* All the type of cops that every day fight against criminals and terrorists and do their duty.
* All the soldiers that go at war or in zones where a war is present.
* All the fire fighters that enter inside burning houses for save trapped people inside them and that are outside for extinguish the flames so that they'll not hurt other people.
* Any doctor that fight against sickness inside hospitals or places where any kind of plague start.
* Any researcher that every day devote its time and life for discover something that will help people.
* All the paramedics that jump in their ambulances and help people as they can leading them to hospitals where doctors will help them.

Sometimes I have the horrible feeling that they aren't respected enough and this is very sad... we are so used to see "heroes" in stories that we forget the one in real life and this is not right.

**Q: What type of heroes we have in fantasy and the various fictions?**

**A:** We basically have 3 types of heroes:

* War Hero They are usually soldiers and knights that are called heroes due to their feats in wars, for example lead a battle that was sure to be lost or that protected a place till the end.
* Event Hero They are people that fought against a dangerous event and survived obtaining a happy ending, two example of this type are an adventurer that repel a monster invasion and an adventurer that go for harvest a material that is used for cure a plague.
* Chosen Hero This type are basically people chosen and titled by a divine being, like a god or goddess, or is someone chosen between many from a human authority like a church or a royalty like a king.

I belive that we can wrap all the type into this 3 categories, anyone is free to think differently, like I said at the beginning and in various parts of this guide I'm not forcing my concepts on anyone since this is a "sharing of knowledge and point of view".

**Q: This can sound stupid but... does heroes have some kind of political impact?**

**A:** This is probably the question that make more sense in all this sections and the answer is yes, heroes have political impact.

When we talk about heroes we talk of military assets, for this reason there is always people that fight for have them... but let's start from the basic concepts.

Let's use as setting a fantasy world where the demon lord lead its army for conquer the world and destroy humans and demi-humans... in this type of environment we normally see that the hero travel with its companions for save the races from their end but behind the scenes we have mainly this political matters:

* The country that lend the strenght of the hero to the world gain a nice position since the hero is a strenght under its control, depending on the ruler of that place or the rulers of the other places the hero is kept under surveillance for evalutate how much a danger can be for them.
* Other countries bear the situation so that they can have help from the hero but once the end of the battle and "ranked" the hero, they see if and how is possible counter it in the case the country that control the hero decide to invade them.
* In terms of internal power, the one that control the hero or have it on its side obtain more power. If the hero is not connected to someone in particular is possible that each noble family, that is part of the country where the hero live or from another country, will try to take it on their side. Normally this "battles" take place after the crisis but sometimes there are sly nobles that already start to make moves while the crisis is already started. The most common way for connect a hero to a country is use marriage, we usually see that the hero marry the princess that travel with him but despite all the sweet talking that is usually a political move so that the hero stay with the country of the princess... in other words, the princess is just an asset for bind the hero to a country. Given this is not impossible found that other nobles try to do the same after all why the ruling family must be the one that tie the hero to the country? Despite all of this is even possible that the hero decide to stay on its own, in this case is possible that every noble that is aware of it will try to control or manipulate the hero for its own beneficts... remember that where there is light there is darkness and for this reason is natural that behind rainbow and unicorns there are demons and monsters.

Remember that what I wrote here are the classical problems but an author can make any other at will plus we usually don't see this type of problems for the simple reason that the classical story where the hero start his journey for fight the great evil end after the defeat and don't really show what happen after that... in fact finish with an happy ending and nothing else.

**Q: After said all of this I wonder what's up with summoned heroes then, are they different from native heroes?**

**A:** Summoning a hero is not different from commit a crime just think well this... every time one or more heroes are summoned they are always took away from their normal life and forced to be in a place where they are nothing more than tools, the "summoning" destroy his/her/their normal life and forced him/her/them to stay into another world for not say that most of the time the summoning can't be reversed and this mean that they'll never go back at home.

First of all we have a division based on the number of people that is summoned:

* Single Summon, a single person is summoned, when this type is performed usually the character is alone on its own for at least 10 seconds, for make an example, a victim walk on a hallway and the magic formation appear sucking him/her away.
* Group Summon, in this case the summon take away a group of people, 4 or 5, and transport them away, but in some case is possible that the group is formed by the selected group plus one that was just passing near there, it already happened in some mangas where the MC was on its own and was summoned too for mistake. Be summoned in group don't mean that the MC have to stick with the group itself as various stories already show that the MC is summoned but then leave the place on its own or is kicked out by the rulers for a reason or another. It even happened that the MC first is kicked out but then the one that treated him/her as trash went back and tried to take him/her back.
* Mass Summon, in this case we have a very large number of people and with this I mean a number can go around 12 or even more, in various manga it happened that an entire highschool class was summoned and I remember that in a japanese highschool classroom there are more than 20 students... I think the number was around 35 but I'm not sure about it... I think that there is a story where an entire school is take but personally don't remember the name of the story.

Despite this, please remember that summoned humans are not summoned beasts and for this reason the one that is summoned don't really have to do what the summoner say... while summoned beasts are binded by some kind of contract, summoned heroes are not and any eventual contract is.

Make a common list of what happen about the summoning of a hero/es is not really smart so I'll talk, step by step, of what happen when a hero is normally summoned:

1. Decision The first step is always the decision of summon an hero or more than one. Depending on the story, the decision and situation influence the number of heroes that are summoned but sometimes they number is not really chosen by the summoner in fact is even possible that they wanted a single person and instead call a group or viceversa. Normally the moment where the decision is take is not shown and eventually is possible that who is summoned know only if someone told him/her/them.
2. Staff & Resources Once the decision is take, the one that will perform the summoning start to collect the resources and all the things that are needed. This resources are normally magical power but sometimes the quantity that is need for perform the summoning is too much and so can result in the death of the summoner or all the people involved are basically dried up to the point of faint, in some cases certain items are used. For what concern the staff involved... well, this changed depending on the story... in some cases I saw that one or more magicians are used by a ruling family, and this is mostly the common one with sometimes the summoner be a member of the ruling family instead of the court magician/s, aside this I saw too that a church can perform this duty and in some cases the summon is performed with the help of a god or goddess.
3. Summoning The ritual for summon the hero/es, normally its held in a big space but this change from case to case infact I saw summoned people into big rooms, small rooms and even open spaces. For what concern what happen on the summoned side then usually we have a "portal" that appear in the air or a magic formation that appear under the feets of who is summoned.
4. Welcome In theory the first person any summoned hero see is the summoner but the situation change from case to case...
	* If the summoner is a god/goddess then is possible that who is summoned will never see it but is possible too that the summoner first lead the hero/es in a place ruled by the summoner itself, like a dimension or something similar, where the summoner present itself and then move the hero/es in another location.
	* In the case the summoning is performed by the church then normally a high rank member welcome who is summoned and in some cases the role of summoner and welcome staff is covered by the same person.
	* If the summon is done by a ruling family than a member of such family, like a prince or a princess, is present where the summoning is done, like in the case of the church is possible that the summoning is done by a member of the ruling family.
5. Manipulation I call this step like that because I basically consider the summoning of people from another world a kidnapping crime... once the "welcome" is done usually various questions are done and the summoner explain the situation and the story is always gave with their point of view, so for example a hero is summoned for fight a war against a race, the one that summon it will tell "they are the ones that started it" and the hero can only take as truth that without know the other side's POV.
6. Decision of the summoned Whoever is summoned now have to decide if help the summoner or not and usually this choice influence the following events... normally who accept to help is keep but whoever refuse is normally left leave the place and set "free" of live as he/she like into the new world with just some money and then on its own... till now I saw both types, the one where the summoned refused and the one where the summoned accepted.
7. Status Check Every hero that stay in the new world is always appraised and this mean that their status and abilities are always saw. If the story use videogame status than normally a status window is used instead of a mage with appraisal skills.
8. Training The summoned hero/es is/are trained by teacher gave from the summoner. In some stories I saw that whoever is recognized as useless is kicked out, probably for don't lower the value of the other heroes... usually this happen in mass summoning.
9. Travel The hero/es start to travel and fight becoming stronger and doing their "job", normally the destination is choice by the summoner or by someone that represent its interest, for example if the "final boss" is the classical demon lord then the destination of their quest is the location where the demon lord live and so the place where the hero/es go are the borders.
10. Final Choice Depending on the story is possible that whoever is summoned can go back or not to its own world, this section is oriented toward the possibility of this choice.
	* If the choice is "stay" then there will be the struggle for obtain the hero's favour and so on since, like said before, any hero is basically a war asset that anyone would want to obtain.
	* If the choice is "go back" than we can have 2 variations:
		+ Whoever is summoned go back in time to the same day of the summoning, till now I saw a difference of some minutes in time so if for example they are summoned at the 14:00 then they go back at 14:03 appearing with the same appearance of when they were summoned... for use an example then a high school student is summoned during lunch break while is on the roof, the student spend 3 years in the new world obtaining a scar on his face and a special armor but when he go back he found itself on the roof with its school uniform, no scar and that he disappeared only for 2 minutes.
		+ Once back to the original world is discovered that the same amount of time passed in both worlds, basically the summoned one/s spent 1 year in the other world than 1 year passed in the original world.

About this decision I have to say that in a couple of stories I saw the summoned hero is forced to go back after it completed its job... basically the summoner decided to throw away the summoned hero for not have to deal with it.

This are the normal points about summoned heroes but like always freedom let people choice different ways about this matter so anyone can decide to ignore them.

Putting aside all of this, every hero have its own "role" that usually are:

* Savior, the hero is summoned for save from a bad situation like defeat a calamity of who know type.
* Guardian, the hero is summoned for keep under control a certain situation, despite the role can seems similar to the one of the Savior we need to see the main difference that:
	+ Savior = the situation is sudden so who is involved was not ready and the hero is called for desperation and save the day.
	+ Guardian = who is summoned don't have to fix the situation but just counter it trying to mantain a balance. Basically while the Savior is a solution to a problem, Guardian is something that is just called for protect without save the day.
* Tool, the hero is summoned for just be a tool of power for the summoner and be used as it wish.

This are just some of the role so, aside the ones that probably I forgot, anyone is free to make new ones.

**Q: You said that a summoned hero is free to choice whatever it want so is even possible that it will go against the summoner, in this case then what type of safety measure a summoner take?**

**A:** This is probably the best logical question that anyone could do, but since basically the 90% of the summoned heroes always say yes than it become useless.

For make it clear I'll just make a list of the "security measures" I think exist, please keep in mind that I'll say if I saw them around or not:

* Soldiers, they are usually the first "defensive line" during a summoning, if you think about it than you'll remember that in various anime and mangas every time a summon is made they are present... some can say "they are there in the case the summon fail and a monster come out", this is a right answer but if you look at it in a cinic way then the guards are there in case the summoned hero/es will not obey, after all when you summon someone you don't know who will come out if you don't summon a specific person.
* Geass, Contract & Slavery Magic, summoned people not always are heroes from the beginning and for this reason is possible that the summoner include in the summoning spell a component that bind the whatever-come-out to the summoner itself and the ways for do this are curses, magical contracts or even magic that enslave the summoned one. In one of the anime I saw there is a system in the summoning that basically make the magic circle into a cage where temporary trap the summoned being, doing so is possible talk with it while be safe and then discover the eventual terms of the contract.
* Threaten, in this case the summoner do a group or mass summoning and keep some of the member as hostages and condition the one that are "free" to do what it want, I personally don't remember a story with something like that, in alternative is possible manipulate the summoned one making it bond with someone and then use that person for the manipulation.
* Back at the end of the job, the one that is summoned is informed that if it survive and complete its task then it will be possible sent it back but not before the job. I saw a story where this is set as fixed rule... basically, in the story is explained that in the past of that world the presence of strong summoned heroes ruined the balance between the countries so for avoid that problem again any summoned hero is sent back without the chance of stay there.
* Send back as betrayal, in this case the summoned one wanted to stay in the new world but the summoner force it to go back for the simple reason that the summoned hero gained more influence to the point that the summoner feel threatened by it. I know two stories that have the "send back as betrayal", in one story was for fear but in the other the king made various promises to the hero but then he sent it back after the hero gave his best for save its world.
* Mind Alteration, be aware that what I mean is not brainwashing, basically this is a method that require a long time application for work were, little by little, one alter some concept in the mind of someone without using spells and curses that can be detected... for example, in the long time I can make someone belive that "the sky is made with water". I saw something similar into a novel that I like... in this novel a "bad guy" basically manipulate a noble family using this method causing various problems in their territory like increasing taxes, causing famine, lowering the quality of the knights and guards to the point that they are more bandits than defenders, etc. and in all of this the nobles were thinking that all were going well so no problem, the taxes weren't increased, there were no famine, etc