Flashes of Wonder #3: Sorcerer as Secret-Seeking Protagonist

  

UKA THE UNDYING, the zombie sorcerer, is experimenting with flashes of dark magics to blast the minds of bards! Illustration provided by Mustafa Bekir.

"Flashes of Wonder" will be posted every week. It will feature a sword and sorcery flash fiction prompt. Share your "flash of wonder" on social media. -JRC

Sorcerer as Secret-Seeking Protagonist: Sorcerers, thaumaturges, and dark-priests are frequently the antagonists in S&S fiction. But what if they were the protagonist? Write a 500 word S&S story that focuses on the sorcerer as the secret-seeking protagonist, an outsider, who desires eld lore rather than blood-stained coin. How does this change the role of the barbarian figure? How does this change the setting focus? What elements of typical S&S take prominence, and which ones take on a more secondary role?(500 words)

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Flashes of Wonder #1: The Undead Monster and the Return of the Past

UKA THE UNDYING, the zombie sorcerer, is experimenting with flashes of dark magics to blast the minds of bards! Illustration provided by Mustafa Bekir.

"Flashes of Wonder" will be posted every week. It will feature a sword and sorcery flash fiction prompt. Share your "flash of wonder" on social media. -JRC

The Undead Monster and the Return of the Past. In the Gothic literary tradition, the undead and undying--e.g. ghosts, zombies, vampires, and other spectral forms--often represent haunted memories that should have been forgotten, horrible sins that should have been punished, taboo traumas that should have been confronted. For this flash fiction, write a sword and sorcery story that features a protagonist who encounters a hostile undead monster... but charge this encounter with the weight of a sin unpunished, a trauma returned, a weregild yet to be paid. In Gothic horror, the typical protagonist might flee this ambush of horrible revelation. How does sword and sorcery proceed differently? Is it fair to say that the blades at hand steel the nerves? Perhaps foolishly? (500 words)

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