9 Ideas to Use in Creating your Next Epic Fantasy/Dark Fantasy Book

Are you tired of reading the same story every time you pick up a fantasy book? Are you a writer who wants to change that? Here’s some character ideas, monster ideas, and location ideas for you to contemplate. No dragons, elves, or castles included!

Look, we’ve done it. We have both read and/or written books jam-packed with the base fantasy elements that are so prevalent in said genre. Beer-swigging dwarves. A main character who becomes nobility either through inheritance and an unknown genealogy—or because he’s the chosen one. A final battle between good and evil and good prevails because of…love??? Let’s turn it around people. Let’s derail that train. No more of the same drivel. No more political pandering. Let’s shake it up with new ideas. What I’m suggesting is not what has never been done before (you’ll be hard pressed to find a pure novel idea) but it is a series of options that are fresh in comparison to what’s mostly out there. Without further ado, let Rafael help you out a bit:

Characters:

1. I’m not seeing many books where the main character is a tag-along to the big hero. That would be a cool perspective to follow. You’re the dweeb with the book and quill, chasing after the majestic mercenary that chops off heads. Now it doesn't have to be boring and left with you always frustrated with the main character for not doing something cool! If you write him well, write him funny, and give him personality, if you have him overcome his personal struggles, he will be an entertaining lead.
2. Our hero is always being taught by one with wisdom and experience. I wanna instead follow along with the wise old sage who has a training camp for warriors. I wanna see in his head, see what he thinks about these brash fledgling heroes, and see how he deals with a life after his adventuring days. This is the guy that after all the heroes go off on quests or go to bed, he sits back in his office and polishes the training swords, thinking about times long past when an invisibility potion did not cost as much and how one had to go uphill both ways in the snow to get to the lich’s cave of doom.
3. I would love to see a character who is a master tactician, using his forces to duke it out with another master tactician. These guys aren’t front-line material. These guys are the ones who pull the strings and conquer lands through subterfuge and strategy. These guys try to read each other’s minds and always anticipate every option ten moves ahead. This is an ingenious chess match covering vast regions. Now halfway through the this battle, they have to join forces because some god-like being gets involved and they have to outwit it instead.

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Monsters:

1. Give me something cryptic. Something like an SCP monster (search that online when you have some free time. You can thank me later). I want a tall lanky beast that steals memories and desires and sells it to the undead corpse of some other monster. Something like that. Or weirder.
2. I want more frikin’ underwater exploration epic fantasies. I want hulking sea monsters that do not resemble krakens, underwater lizards, or fish. Give me a wide sheet of plankton that envelops a vessel like a blanket and dissolves everything in its path to feed. Give me spindly-legged creepy-crawlies the size of skyscrapers.
3. Something that involves meshing a gorilla and a centipede together. That would be cool.

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Locations:

1. Like I said before, more underwater epic fantasies please! No Atlantis though. I want a Dungeons&Dragons group sitting in some makeshift primitive submarine, questing through a massive, super-deep ocean. No one knows what’s down there. They’re gonna find out.
2. Pocket-dimensions that can change at the whim of their creator. Think like a world that’s too crowded, so you pay a guy to live in his pocket-dimension he created. But he controls everything going on in there, the monsters, the weather, everything. Like he’s an author. You’re an author…he’s an author….author-ception.
3. A world that’s like a cake, each layer its own biome and society and religion. Only one way to travel up to the next layer, or down. The closer to the core you get, the more weight pressing down. Maybe some layers have completely collapsed onto themselves.

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Anyways, there’s some ideas to get you brainstorming. But actually, now that I think about it. Don’t use these ideas. These are mine. I’ll write these books. You go think of something else. Or you can pay me some money or something. At least give me some well-deserved credit and point me in the direction of more money. That would be cool too.

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​Four Elements We Need to See in All Dark-Fantasy Books