The Setting Skirmish

November 2026 round · Entries and voting open until 30 November

Some places we remember better than people. This skirmish is about making a reader feel they have already stood there. Describe a place that feels lived-in — a room, a city, a ruin, a shoreline. Reach past the sight of it: give us the temperature, the sound, the smell, the small detail nobody would think to invent. Make the Guild want to walk through the door, or be quietly glad they never will. Your entry can run as long as you need, up to 4,000 characters (about 650 words). One entry per scribe each month, open to every rank. Here is the kind of entry we hope to see: Lake Dolma sits at the top of the world like a coin someone forgot to spend. At dawn it is the colour of hammered pewter, and the mountains lean over it to admire themselves: white teeth against a blue-black sky, each peak doubled in the still water so exactly that you cannot tell where the world ends and the reflection begins. The air is thin and so cold it tastes of iron and snowmelt. Prayer flags snap along the shore, faded to the colour of old bruises, sending their ten thousand small wishes across the water; the wind carries them off without any sign of having read them. Somewhere above, a yak bell clanks, slow as a heartbeat. Nothing here is in a hurry. The lake has been listening for ten thousand years, and it has not yet decided to answer.

Prize: A free month of the Lorekeeper tier, sent to the winner by email when the round closes.