I am writing a story that revolves around the concept of heroes and the battles they face. These battles range from physical confrontations against antagonists, battles against their inner demons and pasts, to even battling their morality when faced with hard decisions, simple right.

I want to portray various common tropes of heroes in a realistic way that may seem plausible in a realistic standpoint while at the same time showing the idea of how heroes are still mortals even when they possess great power, hence the name I chose for it, "War of Mortal Gods"

I don't want to go at this half way and want to know what others think are some good ideas about how to write heroes that carry baggage that weighs them down such as their past mistakes, traumas, or tragedies.

Also what do you say is a tragic backstory, is it one big tragedy or a continuous chain of small tragedies that slowly break down a character, I'll like to know.

If you want good reference read the Iliad and (if you manage to find some good ones that you like) stories about recent wars written by veterans.

'Oinos' pid='820613' dateline='1484678610' Wrote: If you want good reference read the Iliad and (if you manage to find some good ones that you like) stories about recent wars written by veterans.

Thank you for that advice. While I read the Odyssey, I never read the Iliad even though chronologically it comes first, but I did have a general idea what the Iliad focused on, but I never had the chance to read it in depth like I wanted to.

Also with the advice about stories about recent wars by veterans. That is a good idea because I am planning future arc's and one of the ideas revolves around a massive world war that takes place, but I couldn't figure out how to go about it on a massive scale while conveying the emotions of the character and heroes that are having to fight in it and the choices they have to make.

Hmm, since we are already looking into stories outside of royal road, I would recommend "The Iron Druid Chronicle" for how to deal with "moral gods" and other variations. The main character becomes a godslayer, and there are many different levels of powers for gods in that setting (and the one he killed was on the low end). The lower end ones would fit your criteria, though they may have some characteristics to give you problems there. The main character is semi-immortal, but faces the threath of dead quite often in the stories.

Concerning the Illiad, it is kind of a different story than the Odyssey. The Odyssey is a type of adventure story, while the Illiad is more of a war tragedy. I only read some extracts from it, while I had the Odyssey read for me when I was little. I dont recall the Illiad being all that good at the character building, and it had some somewhat weird story telling focuses.

A Hero in public views would be someone who had something great or awesome for the society. He would be the manifestation of dreams. People would often look upto them. From readers, a Hero who they can look forward to could be someone who is about to begin their journey (Joseph Campbell's Hero's journey).  It would be best if our Hero goes through 'the journey' in the actual story.  This idea could be  handled in many beautiful ways.
We can make the Hero a people's Hero, like he achieved many things before without actually starting the Journey during which he had done many wongs, not  huge atrocities, but wrong still without much consequence, but one day he faces a great tragedy because of past misdeeds (like Karma) which sets him on The Journey.
Or it could be like he had already completed a Journey during which he had faced 'temptations' and losses. The hero would gain fame and appreciation from the masses but he is still yet to make peace with his losses and mistakes. In this process he is kicked into action where he has to start a different journey during which he is forced to confront and accept or make peace with his ghosts.
Or we could combine both of them or something entirely different.

In general, any hero is going to have things he regrets or fears. You don't need to spell them all out in detail, though. A famous modern example is Indiana Jones saying, "Why does it always have to be snakes!?" Just show the hero balking and hesitating at a particular kind of challenge, and you have a hero who isn't invincible and perfect. Consider also that different things scare different people. I'm thinking for instance of learning to scuba dive, which involves (1) deliberately losing your mouthpiece underwater and (2) swimming unassisted to the bottom of a deep pool. When I trained, item 2 scared me but 1 didn't (much), while other people were scared by 1 but not 2.

You can also just pick a common type of weakness or sin, and have that be linked to what the hero does well. Robin Hood prides himself on being a master archer, so his enemies know they can bait him by holding an archery contest. Superman's a goody two-shoes, so his enemies know he'll come running whenever there's some obvious danger to the city. King Arthur is committed to honor and justice, so when his best friend cheats on his wife he's morally obligated to try punishing him even if it causes disaster. Problems can grow out of the very things that make a hero great.