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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24656
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Somebody said once that the right question bears half of the answer within.

Whether you have your story already written or not, it is clearly structured and well thought through. Your characters seemed to be defined and developed, and I have little doubt that your plot is solid. I think that your question is not _how early_ to start your narrative, but _how to deliver_ your story in a most efficient way, keeping the reader engaged and motivated to continue reading.

There is an infinite number of possibilities, and they all depend upon your style and taste, the genre of your story, the length of it—as @KenMohnkern mentioned—and the audience you are targeting. If you see your book as a hard action thriller, do not be afraid to start with a scene where your main character and his sidekick are being chased by the authorities because a random thug they teamed up with for this particular heist, sold them up to save his hide, but not before saying something about their hometown which makes them want to go there and see what is going on. You can then bring all the backstory piece by piece as a series of flashbacks between the action scenes.

If you are aiming at a classic epic fantasy, do not be afraid to expand upon the exposition—epic fantasy readers do enjoy throughly built worlds and beautifully presented settings—but just keep building tension scene by scene.

The choice it yours and only yours, and no one can really tell you what words to type and in what order. For me, you answered you own question when you said

> Main story arc begins

But it is just me :-) Best of luck.

Original score: 3