The Demon King - Balthazar's Backstory

For now, The Demon King exists mainly as a series of short gag comics I’ve written about fantasy-themed office politics. The backstory of the main character, Balthazar, isn’t really relevant to these comics, but I’m going to write it down anyway so that I don’t forget it by the time I finally get around to starting this ridiculous novel.

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When the story starts, then, Balthazar’s goal is to keep Ceres placated while he continues to search for ancient temples and thereby grow powerful enough to destroy her kingdom, at which point he can retrieve the magical artifact he created and hopefully save the world.

The Demon King - Time Travel Mechanics

If there’s going to be time travel in this story, there need to be basic rules. Here goes:

(1) The universe is random.
This means that nothing is ever “fated” to happen.

(2) The universe cannot sustain paradoxes.
This means that there are no alternate timelines.

(3) Time and space are connected.
This essentially means that Balthazar can warp.

So here’s what Balthazar can do:

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The complications involved with time travel are the main reason why there’s so much riding on Balthazar’s preparations to travel back to his original time to stop the initial apocalypse. Once he goes back, the future will disappear, so he really only has one chance.

If he goes back and isn’t successful, the future version of himself will die in the apocalypse, as he won’t be able to return to that specific future, which will no longer exist.

In addition, Balthazar has to face not only the prospect of losing everyone he’s built a relationship with during the story, but also the knowledge that his actions will utterly destroy them. If he’s successful, and if the apocalypse doesn’t happen, none of these people will have ever existed, and the beauty and mystery of the world they live in will vanish. In other words, Balthazar has essentially committed himself to destroying one world in order to save another, and he’s fully aware of how cruel and awful this is.