In a city where shadows can testify in court, one witness arrives without a shadow.
18 Fantasy Writing Prompts Prompts
These prompts create a starting constraint, question, or situation. Use one as written, combine two, or change the audience, setting, objective, or limitation to make a new exercise.
A river grants one truthful answer but permanently changes course after every question.
Apprentice mages discover their exams are actually treaties with forgotten beings.
A mountain opens a new pass only for travelers carrying something they stole.
A ruler cannot lie, so the entire government is built around strategic silence.
Every spell creates a small physical object that must be stored somewhere; the oldest city is drowning in magical debris.
A family inherits a house whose rooms rearrange according to unresolved arguments.
A courier delivers messages between the living and dead but is forbidden to read replies.
A sword chooses the person who should not wield it.
A village festival reenacts a myth until one year the mythical antagonist attends.
Magic can repair anything except an object broken intentionally.
A kingdom measures age by memories rather than years, creating a market for stolen childhoods.
A school teaches students to summon doors, but one door opens to a classroom that no teacher recognizes.
A healer discovers the kingdom’s sacred cure works by moving illness into a hidden population.
A mapmaker notices a forest is expanding only on maps, then finds roads disappearing in reality.
A dragon offers to protect a city if citizens stop telling stories about dragons.
A god answers prayers in alphabetical order, so language reform becomes a political movement.
A rebellion’s secret weapon is a magic system everyone considers too boring to study.