I've been working on a project for quite a long time now, and while I don't want to share all the details, I am happy to give relative context for why each character dies and what it means to the story. I intend to keep the original post brief, but if anyone wants specific examples, I can give them.
I'm writing a fictional novel that takes place in a high fantasy setting. I've had a lot of influence from pop culture, namely: Mass Effect & Dragon Age, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Attack on Titan, and Studio Ghibli.
The overall tone of the narrative is dark, gritty, and serious. I want there to be high stakes, warfare, espionage, political intrigue.
I have a current running total of 24 characters so far who play varying roles of significance in the story, with about 2/3rds being pretty fleshed out. Out of this total, only 9 survive to the end. Am I killing too many?
I would say pry not. GOT has a ton of characters but they are not introduced all at once. Are you focusing on 3-5 main characters? Or does the POV pivot between all 24 characters? Is it a series or standalone book? Unless each character is completely flushed out and all have their own personalities, it can be difficult to write. Not saying you can’t but it can be cumbersome.
Series/long-form. If I finish it, it would play out over several books. I would say 3-5 is pretty accurate for the number of main characters, although some of the supporting characters also undergo significant arcs. I am trying to avoid any characters being one-dimensional, but that means giving them enough room to show complexity and growth. Some of the characters are relatives of other characters whose roles are minimal.
A few of the deaths also occur in prologue/backstory and serve to explain how/why certain antagonists ended up the way they did. (They do not exist simply to be killed; its just an unfortunate consequence)
Then I think you should be good then. If it’s stretched out between multiple books then it will be easier to track each character.
24 characters is ambitious, finding a way to connect them to each other and the world is going to be some very heavy building. That said, never use a character as a plot device. The death has to be built into the structure of the story. Look at it this way: Star Trek, Wrath of Khan--Spock dies saving the ship, the people walking out of that theater saw him die. You left with that as an image burned into your mind that this major character was killed. Star Trek, Into Darkness shows Kirk die saving the Enterprise, and get saved by magic blood 10 minutes later. One of those had the death built into the story, the other was a plot device so Spock could get into a fist-fight with Khan.
What separates a death from being structural vs plot device? The example I think of that comes to mind is Isha from Arcane. And while I absolutely love Arcane, her death was exclusively to drive Jinx forward.
Part of what I really liked about the older seasons of The Walking Dead was how unceremonious it was with character deaths. Sometimes it served no purpose at all, it was just tragic and preventable; a harsh reality of the world they were living in.
George R.R. Martin has said that IRL people die all the time, usually for no apparent reason except that everyone dies. Take that for what you will.
🤷🏻♂️ Seems to match the tone, and therefore the expectations you’re giving readers.
There is no answer to that question outside the context of your specific story. Some stories won't support any deaths. Some only one. Some quite a few. In still others, only one character survives. It all depends on what makes sense for your story.
I think how many you kill doesn't matter but how valuable is important, for instance if a group with 10 members doing some nasty work, when few characters die due to the group activity means it impacts the next decision. Dying of a character should be in inevitable suitation ,But never kill a character for the sake of an audience to be heartbroken.
In a narrative, the dying of a character, or many characters, is okay, but what matters most is what those deaths mean, how do they drive the story? It can be shocking to lose a main character (Gandalf, Obi Wan, Boromir) but what do those deaths mean and how do they impact the story?
Be prepared to have another character step in as the new protagonist.
Don’t kill just for shock value - it rarely works.
If you have 24 main characters reads will be expecting deaths. If you have 3 main characters, they won’t.