Let's say you have built a world that undergoes a small global earthquake every 6.5 months. This is a quirk of the world. There is religion that has been built around it. It changes the magnetic field ever so slightly every time it happens, every 6.5 months. There are even festivals on the world to celebrate this periodic event, which has a really cool name like The Global Shake. There are Global Shake parties. And so on.
It's not central to your plot, but it's there.
As the reader, you assimilate the Global Shake and its effects on society into your understanding of the world as you read the novel.
You even know that the planet is due for another shake soon, but you ignore that because it has so little to do with the actual plot.
Now, at the end of the story, the hero is in a deadly serious conflict with the villain. He can't escape. The villain is winning. All hope is lost.
And the Great Shake commences, the magnetic field reverses, all hell breaks loose in all manners, and the tables turn and the hero wins.
Question: Is that a Deus Ex machina? It is not a piano falling out of the sky from nowhere. On the other hand it is a device to solve the crisis.
Thoughts?
It's not central to your plot, but it's there.
As the reader, you assimilate the Global Shake and its effects on society into your understanding of the world as you read the novel.
You even know that the planet is due for another shake soon, but you ignore that because it has so little to do with the actual plot.
Now, at the end of the story, the hero is in a deadly serious conflict with the villain. He can't escape. The villain is winning. All hope is lost.
And the Great Shake commences, the magnetic field reverses, all hell breaks loose in all manners, and the tables turn and the hero wins.
Question: Is that a Deus Ex machina? It is not a piano falling out of the sky from nowhere. On the other hand it is a device to solve the crisis.
Thoughts?
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