Reflection 10: Another Twist

Allow me to summarize my one large mistakes in a metaphorical (and literal) facepalm: my last idea for a story had no plot. Sure, it had conflict, action, and many of the other stereotypical prerequisites for a novel, but it had no concrete characters. Having just one would offer a limited perspective such that a parallel storyline to the Sengoku Jidai would be useless and not capture the entire conflict, and too many characters would either offer an impersonal experience and narrative or simply be a ripoff of the A Song of Ice and Fire series; as such, I've decided to change the plot, or at least rework it. The war and lore of the universe will still exist, and many of the characters will still be present, but none of those I wrote will actually be narrators; instead, the story will follow the tale of a xenobiologist (one who studies non-terrestrial life) who was laughed out of his field as his desperate search for a specific kind of life form takes him on board the ship of a fanatical madman chasing a millennium-old legend. As stated, the lore (such as the star-worshiping religion mentioned a few reflections ago, or the fact that honor is held in such high regard), but the plot itself will be much more original than that of the previous idea.