Topic Research

The idea I am going to pursue for my storybook is the one that features an arms race for mythic weapons from Indian mythology, mirroring the nuclear arms race. To do this, I plan to have this set in an alternate past, during WWII. There will be clear homages to Indiana Jones and the classic archetype of the Nazis looking for weapons and devices of the Occult for their effort to dominate the world. I'll lay out three different story ideas that I could pursue when I actually get to writing my storybook. 

1. 

An episode from the perspective of an American archaeologist, who is definitely not Indiana Jones (but he is), is tipped off that the Nazis are looking for something in the Indian subcontinent. Through his attempts to thwart them, he learns that they are looking for various weapons wielded by mythic characters from Indian myth. While hesitant, he's seen enough things that are beyond reason to doubt the threat that the Nazis could pose should they get their hands on the weapons. He tracks down the team that is searching for the weapons, only to find he is too late. The Nazis have already found the weapon, the Vijaya, the Bow of Karna. However, he manages to spot something else, something the Nazis hadn't found yet. A message indicating that more weapons existed, spread across the world. With the Nazis soon returning for further digging, he only had so much time to try and hide the message, though they would no doubt uncover it. He only hopes that it will give the Allies enough time to get a head start...

2.

Another episode, this time from the perspective of the leader of the Occult Nazis. This would detail his devotion to the Indian mythos, he would relate the stories of many of the weapons he sought after, and the power they would allow him to unleash. How they would allow no one to stand in his way, not even Hitler himself. The episode would end with him taking the Vijaya and firing an arrow accompanied by thunder and brilliant light like thunder. The arrow would strike the heart of Berlin, engulfing it in a great explosion, leaving only a cloud shaped like a mushroom in its wake. 

The World Laid to Waste (Source pixabay)

3.

Set years into the future, the face of the planet now changed drastically. The scars of a conflict where the power of the gods have been let loose cover the globe. Berlin, Moscow, London, New York, and countless other cities reduced to ash as the desperate survivors of this war cling to life in the face of the apocalypse. The Occult Nazis have secured victory. Using other mythic tools they uncovered, they have built a decadent megalopolis, with technology far beyond what they should have been able to accomplish by this time. Where the people living everywhere else in the world barely survive between the harsh apocalyptic atmosphere created in the fallout of the war and the oppressive boot of the Occult regime, the Nazis thrive in their City at the Gate of the Sun, built in the Indian subcontinent where they believe their connection to the gods is the strongest. 

Elsewhere, the surviving Allies have turned to those gods to ask for their assistance. Vishnu speaks to them, telling them that the gods have been all but erased. Long have they spent in silent slumber, their time having long since passed, however Vishnu cursed the desecration of the planet and the heretical use of the weapons that both the Allies and the Nazis had partaken in. Seeing that the Allies had suffered for their heresy, he gave them a gift. He used the last of his strength to create one final avatar of himself, sending him to Earth to destroy the Nazis, just as Rama had once done to Ravana and the rakshasas.

I used this Wikipedia source for the mythic weapons that I will feature here and there throughout the story, with the only one that I've picked out in particular being the Vijaya.