Pawn (the chess and card fanatic MC)

MMC is a guy who is an absolute chess and card fanatic. He can beat anyone at chess with only a few simple moves and he can do all kinds of different tricks and illusions with his many limited edition card decks. However, one day he begins to notice something odd happening with his chess sets and card decks. It appears that almost every time he wins at chess, all the pieces are in the exact same spots and even one time, when he drops them on the ground by accident, they all land on the board in those positions. Every time, it is the king, queen, bishop, and a single pawn set off on their own in the middle. The rest are either captured or (in the case where he dropped the chess set) fallen on their sides around them.

And his cards -- the royals in his decks, especially one in particular, seem to be taking very life-like faces. The jacks in every deck rather resemble himself. And the jokers in each deck stare back at him with mysterious, chilling faces, and even once, he could have sworn that the eyes had moved and stared at him in a sinister, mocking way. What is happening to his chess pieces and cards? MC Googles these things for lack of any other form of action to take and discovers that there is a very ancient prophecy in which four major figures play a role. A King, a Queen, a Bishop, a Pawn. A King, a Queen, a Joker, a Jack. A President, a First Lady, a shifty Ambassador, a young school boy who only ever wanted to just play chess and cards.

AAP by avidfantasywriter

twins: one is a thief, the other a detective

Jonas Quinn was a master thief, working for a crime boss known only as The Shadow. Neither knows the identity of the other, communicating solely via the internet. Terrence Quinn was Jonas' identical twin, but in every way his polar opposite; while Jonas was content to steal his way through life never holding a steady job, Terrence had studied hard to become a police officer, quickly getting promoted to detective. Jonas steals for The Shadow, while Terrence is put onto The Shadow's case, given the job of tracking him down. Neither aware of the other's job.

One day Terrence and Jonas are both in the same bank at the same time, just as a gang comes to rob it. The brothers act heroes bringing down the gang together, but not before Terrence is shot, dying shortly after in Jonas' arms. Almost immediately after, Jonas learns that the robbery was only a farce to kill his brother, The Shadow having ordered the hit on the one person with a chance of catching him. Swearing vengeance, Jonas sets out to finish what his brother started, assuming his identity as a detective in order to find and kill The Shadow.

AAP by TheBlade07

City of Ice (Atlantis)

Atlantis was a city on an iceberg. They got around on ice-skates, lived in rooms like those awesome ice-hotels, and grew strange plants whose roots gave off heat to melt the ice, and drank that way. They preserved their dead in caves far below the water line, so that you could still see the old kings, frozen forever.

They traded with Egypt, Greece and Turkey, and one of the protagonists is a youth from one of these cultures who once stole from the trading ship of the Atlanteans, and was taken back by them as an indentured servant. Along with another youth, who is dedicated to a career in magical science, they uncover a plot to research powerful magic/science that will enable them to move the city into warmer waters, without it melting. They're growing too big, and they're after a nice fat empire with slaves and such, and they're going for the protagonist's homeland.

So yeah, the end is kind of a given :P The city melts into the ocean -- never to be found, because it moved in the first place so how anyone's meant to locate it...or as a twist, it doesn't melt, they manage to steer it into colder [is this supposed to say warmer?] waters, give up their ideas of conquest, and gradually abandon their magic and science in favor of being able to feel their toes. Yeah, I never really got further than the setting, but hey, if anyone's after a basic premise like this, please do plunder it.

AAP by jessymay

magical realm within the forest

A young woman has always been kept locked away in her family's old keep on the edge of the forest "for her own good". She lives with her older relatives and is bored out of her mind listening to her maiden aunts discuss their knitting over bland soup at dinner.

They cannot allow her to leave because of her "condition" -- she is able to enter the magical realm within the forest. (They found out through an unfortunate incident when she was a young child.) Her whole life it has called to her, and she tries to pretend to be normal so that her family may one day let her leave.

Then, one day an old man arrives and stays as a guest. He flirts with her aunts at dinner, but after the meal he gives her a small hand mirror and tells her it is time to go into the forest.

AAP by 27Frogs

first boy in magical academy

A story about the first boy to be admitted into a magical academy - normally only women have strong enough powers, and men have little if any.

AAP by laura.c.h

wizard needs to protect artifact

A 2 part story:

Young Blood

A young wizard-in-training takes it upon himself to protect his school -- which stands above of the greatest magical artifacts of all time -- from the agents of darkness who want the artifact. When a young girl from his class sees him in action and declares that she will help him, he is not only forced to protect her, but he has to struggle with his growing feelings for her because feelings like that have been known to compromise wizard powers. During the climax, he sacrifices some of his powers in order to save the girl, powers which flow into her and make her a wizard as well. And together, they save the day.


Possible sequel: Dark Blood

After successfully keeping an important magical artifact out of the hands of dark agents who would use it for bad, the novice wizard is given the charge of guarding yet another magical artifact. The only difference between this one and the one under the wizard's school is that this one has a sort of consciousness, a mind of its own. Unbeknownst to the wizard, this artifact is
an ancient evil that has been contained.

The wizard's girlfriend, who is also a wizard now, is drawn to the artifact. While visiting her boyfriend when he is on duty, she asks to see it. As soon as they are near, the artifact draws the girl towards it and when she touches it, the evil is released into her and it controls her body. It leaps towards the wizard and manages to mortally wound him before others come and it escapes. The wizard, despite his wounds, sets out to bring the evil back and contain it once more. But in the end, he will have to choose between saving the girl he loves or saving other innocent lives.

AAP by avidfantasywriter

peace leads to overpopulation

Peace has ruled the world of Lednik for too long. The gods realize that soon, there won't be enough souls for every human body that will be born. The only way to compensate this would be if more people die, so there will be more souls one can recycle.

Eight of the nine gods meet and work out a plan. They would allow fifteen people to return from the dead and give them one order: Kill as many people as possible. Especially pregnant women, babies and children, because they have a more "pure" soul. To ensure their survival, the gods would give them magical powers. Three are allowed to control fire, another three control water, others control earth, air, and lightning.

The ninth god, however, opposes to this idea. So he decides to descend to the earth and stop the destruction.

AAP by vulture