fantasy

From high to low, from first-world to second-world, these plots are full of magic, politics, and intrigue. Enemies to lovers, found family, and royals who actually do something. War, appeasement, peace, and diplomacy. Eastern and western.

★★★★★

desert queen x highland prince ❦

The children of the desert and the people of the highland have been at war for centuries. At this point, the fighting is nearly a tradition. The highland crave expansion, and they have turned their gaze on the fertile farmlands at the edge of the queen's desert kingdom. But the most recent desert queen is a pacifist both by nature and necessity, and she will not let these wars go on. She sues for peace, promising to take one of the highland's princes as her husband to prove her word. He is little more than a political pawn, and she is desperate to secure the peace between their nations.

Note: This is meant to be a very politically crunchy line as well as an arranged marriage. I've kept some of the details vague so that we can work out the exact nature of the ongoing conflict. Likewise, you are welcome to change "highland" to any biome that pleases you most.

★★★★☆

queen x enemy general

His people are at war with hers, and her generals cannot seem to outsmart him, his king, or their armies. So she hatches a plan to kidnap him, the most fearsome of her enemy's generals. Once he is her prisoner, she will do everything in her power to convince him to abandon his conflict with her people. She hopes to bring him to her side and gain his military insights to protect her people, and she is willing to pay nearly any cost. He wants only to return home, but the queen is more than he expected, and his allegiance wavers in the face of what she offers.

Note: Another political line, but less crunchy than the previous one. This line can focus much more on the dynamic between the queen and the general.

★★★★★

queen/princess x king/prince ❦

Though their peoples were at war for several long years, the two nations are finally at peace. The rulers host a lavish ball at a neutral location, and the wine runs a bit too freely. The two of them spend the night in each other's arms, and when they separate, mortified by their drunken mistake, they agree never to speak of this again. Until she discovers she's pregnant with his child.

Note: Another political line, middling crunch with a princess/prince and high crunch with a queen/king.

★★★☆☆

princess x dragon

A princess desperate to avoid an arranged marriage flees her home in the night. She goes to the local dragon, a notorious shut-in, thinking the old creature will value her clerical work. Much to her surprise, she finds not a wizened old man but a young dragon prince, one who was merely passing through. He, however, is intrigued by the princess and willing to play the role of her dragon captor for now.

Note: As political as you want to make it. I view this one as more adventure.

★★★★★

grieving queen x bed & breakfast owner ❦

After her lover betrays her, a queen spirals into a deep depression. Her guards, not knowing what else to do, secret her away from her queendom during the slow winter months, taking her to a remote bed and breakfast where they hope she'll be able to recover. There, the B&B's owner and chef gives her room for her grief—a grief he shares, for he lost his wife, too.

Note: Essentially a second-world, modernish, fantasy Hallmark movie. Also a lot of focus on food.

★★★★☆

barmaid/barista x seasoned adventurer

When she was younger, she dreamed of becoming an adventurer. She and her friends formed an adventuring party and were quite talented, but after a powerful monster killed most of her party members, she retired. Now, she works in town as a simple barmaid/barista in a major adventuring port of call. He is a famous, seasoned adventurer whose exploits are well-known. Between jobs, he comes to her place of work, and they form first a casual connection and then a more romantic one.

Note: D&D-inspired, likely in a homebrewed world we build together.

★★★★★

djinn x woman ❦

After offending a goddess by spurning her love, a mortal man is trapped in a lamp as djinn. She tells him that he has one thousand years to find a woman who will love him and wish for his freedom. For the last 999 years, he has tried desperately to convince a woman to fall in love with him, but none have given up their third wish in exchange for his freedom. Now, with one year left, she is his last chance. But she was recently spurned by a lover of her own, and the last thing she wants is romance.

Note: Could be urban fantasy, could also be any kind of fantasy world we desire.