A world in which there is a “forbidden art”. There is something that, for completely legitimate reasons, is fully forbidden and everyone who comes into contact with it is immediately tracked down and imprisoned. (It may be that this has two sides: there is also a good variant that people are allowed to do?)
This could be magic, but that is too cliché and general, I think.
As always, you follow two people:
- The detective who must track this down. You are constantly searching for clues, learning new things and uncovering them, new sides of this “forbidden art”.
- This detective has a sidekick who at some point secretly turns out to be from the other side!
- The people who practice it. Of whom some are good and some are bad.
It must become a story that …
- Is a mystery, a detective story, something in which you search for clues and solve things.
- Shows how almost everything can be used for good and for bad -> the people you first track down with pleasure turn out more and more not to belong in prison at all.
IDEA: In one kingdom this practice is therefore completely strictly forbidden. But in the kingdom next to it it is actually fully allowed and they even use it to become stronger.
And then they start fighting. And that other kingdom is much stronger (because they are allowed to use that advantage and can handle it better), but also more chaotic and less stable.