I have a bit of a situation. The story I'm writing is fantasy based, but I've had the idea of adding some sort of time travel sub-plot kicking around in my head for the longest time.
Here is the premise of my idea: In my story world there are five immortal beings called Reapers. No one knows where they came from, or even what they are, but they have been appearing in the world from time to time ever since civilization first began, and everytime they do they kill someone, or something. They all hold strange magical powers, and some of them weild weapons unlike anything the people of that timeframe have ever whitnessed.
The truth behind the Reapers: They are actually human beings from far into the future, each from different timeframes (modern times, mediaval times, futuristic times with fighting robots, etc.) who have been blessed with a strange power by a legendary sword. They became agents that work for five powerful beings that reside in a plan of existance after the universe is destroyed, and through this sword they are able to communicate with these beings. They use the power of the sword to transport themselves from their own time to the timeframe of my story in order to take out certain key targets in an attempt to prevent catastrophic events from taking place.
In the first series of my books they sometimes come after the main character and try to kill him, but in the second series where the main character turns evil and the new main character is his son, the son finds this legendary sword and rips a hole in the space-time continueum that thrusts him into modern times, where he meets one of the Reapers before he ever became one. But, through his actions the person comes in contact with the legendary sword and gains his Reaper powers.
My question is, with the use of proper foreshadowing would I be able to stick a time-travel plot into a fantasy setting, or do you think the whole idea of time travel would make everything convoluted and confusing? I know in the past lots of people got upset when franchises tried to retcon themselves by plunking the main protagonist from the past into the future or introduced aliens or something. This is especially true for movies from the 90's, such as the Highlander and Beastmaster series, and this caused nothing but rage within their fans. I don't want to introduce the concept of time travel into my story if it's going to ruin the story in anyway, yet at the same time the opportunity to bring it in is presenting itself so clearly that I can't get it out of my head. I need to know if I should or shouldn't do it before introducing the Reapers in the second book, and I was hoping I could get some feedback from all of you. Should I do the time travel thing, or should I stick to the fantasy plot and focus on the world's current history and setting?
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