✧ General Information ✧

"The Six Realms of API Fantasy" is inclusive to characters of all backgrounds. We welcome LGBTQ+, neurodiverse, disabled, and intersectional characters. Entries for the following prompts may be submitted in the following languages: English, Spanish, Korean, and Thai.

Please note it's not required for you to connect the stories of each level together. You can choose to write nine separate short stories. The story provided for each level can be considered as backstory for your entry(s) and is not mandatory to incorporate. However, your entry must relate to your chosen prompt in some way.

Everyone will begin with 1,000 years of cultivation. If you need to buy items to cure any ailments you encounter during either Checkpoint, you must do so before they close to avoid incurring additional penalties.

✧ Level 1: Birth ✧
Explore the Wonder of Chinese Mythology

After years of your parents cultivating your strength, you have finally been born as an immortal-in-training. In the farthest corners of the Heavenly Realm, you are a simple sprite training to ascend to the next level. Fate decides to test you to determine what path you will take once you achieve divinity. Who is this new opponent and how will you pass the test?

Choice A: One of China's Four Auspicious Beasts (Choose one only: the Vermilion Bird of Fire, the Black Tortoise of Water, the White Tiger of Earth, or Azure Dragon of Wind).

Choice B: One of China's Four Fiends (Choose one only: Hundun of Chaos, Taotie of Gluttony, Táowù of Ignorance, or Qíongqí of Deviousness).

Choice C: One of the Four Dragon Kings (Choose one only: Ao Guang of the East China Sea, Ao Qin of South China Sea, Ao Shun of the North China Sea, or Ao Run of Lake Qinghai).

WORD COUNT LIMIT: 1,500 words

✧ Level 2: Destiny ✧

Explore the Wonder of Pakistani Mythology

Your destiny awaits you. Every immortal needs a seer to better prepare them for their fate. You prepare your supplies to journey to an unfamiliar land in the mountains of the Heavenly Realm. Where do your adventures take you next?

Choice A: The land of the Peri (fairies).

Choice B: The mountains of the Chitrali Dragons.
Choice C: A cooking deity's kitchen where you must cook a five-star, three-course meal to a group of high immortals to prove you are ready to learn from them.

WORD COUNT LIMIT: 1,500 words

Restriction: Uh-oh! Your spiritual root has been critically injured. To stabilize your immortal energy, you'll need the lingzhi mushroom. Please visit the Medicine King's Chamber on @APIFantasy and purchase one! If you don't address your symptoms, you will lose 250 years of cultivation for every level of the Heavenly Realm you enter. This condition does stack, so if you encounter this again later, you can lose up to 500 years of cultivation for every Level it persists.

✧ Level 3: Cultivation ✧
Explore the Wonder of Pacific Islander Culture

You search for a place to continue your cultivation in solitude, but stumble across an unfamiliar place that piques your interest. What secrets does it contain? What new obstacles will you face?

Choice A: A merchant stand you've never seen before that appears to contain Polynesian markings on all its products.
Choice B: A hidden portal to Samoa, where you begin your life as a carefree farmer in what the locals call the Forbidden Forest.
Choice C: To the rainforests of New Zealand, where you discover ancient spells that turn food into sentient beings.

WORD COUNT LIMIT: 1,500 words

✧ Level 4: Enlightenment ✧
Explore the Wonder of Thai Mythology

To achieve enlightenment, you must obtain a holy artifact from a creature no one has ever seen before. You search far and wide in the Heavenly Realm until one day, you finally find what you've been looking for. How will you bargain with the magical creature?

Choice A: A feather from a kinnari or kinnara (half-bird, half-human creatures).
Choice B: A scale from a makara (legendary sea creature that is part crocodile, part elephant, and part serpent).

Choice C: A sacred sash from a daivika apsara (a celestial nymph akin to an angel).

WORD COUNT LIMIT: 1,500 words

Restriction: Uh-oh! You've incurred the wrath of a Rākshasa (malevolent being from Hindu mythology). To escape their clutches, you can enchant them with the love potion effects of the Yao Grass from Guyao Mountain. Please visit the Medicine King's Chamber on @APIFantasy and purchase one! If you don't address your symptoms, you will lose 400 years of cultivation for every level of the Heavenly Realm you enter. This condition does stack, so if you encounter this again later, you can lose up to 800 years of cultivation for every Level it persists.

✧ Level 5: Examination ✧
Explore the Wonder of Arabian Mythology

Your test to ascend to a mid-level immortal has finally come. How will you prove to the Heavenly Realm deities you are ready to be promoted?

Choice A: Locate and return with the leader of the si'lat (a malevolent class of djinn).
Choice B: Explore the Arabian Desert in search of the Lost City of Atlantis of the Sands and return with proof of its existence.

WORD COUNT LIMIT: 1,500 words

Restriction: Uh-oh! Your spiritual root has been critically injured. To stabilize your immortal energy, you'll need the Lingzhi Mushroom. Please visit the Medicine King's Chamber on @APIFantasy and purchase one! If you don't address your symptoms, you will lose 250 years of cultivation for every level of the Heavenly Realm you enter. This condition does stack, so if you encounter this again later, you can lose up to 500 years of cultivation for every Level it persists.

✧ Level 6: Judgment ✧

Explore the Wonder of Indian Mythology

After you receive the verdict of the Heavenly Sovereigns about your examination, they present you with another test: you must descend to the Mortal Realm and experience all of life's trials to prove you have what it takes to be an API Immortal. Before you descend, you are given a week to mentally prepare yourself and relax. What will you do on your break?

Choice A: Read the Mahabharata, only to be sucked into one of its many stories. Your only way out is to complete the story with few complications.
Choice B: Search for the Chakora, a legendary bird said to live within the beams of the moon and bring good luck.

WORD COUNT LIMIT: 1,500 words

Restriction: Uh-oh! You've been enticed by a kitsune (fox spirit)! To break her love spell and regain your concentration, you must seek the Yao Grass from Taishi Mountain. Please visit the Medicine King's Chamber on @APIFantasy and purchase one! If you don't address your symptoms, you will lose 500 years of cultivation from your existing total years of cultivation.

✧ Level 7 (Bonus, Optional): Trial ✧
Explore the Wonder of Japanese Mythology

Your trial in the Mortal Realm has finally arrived. Without memories of your life as an immortal, you grow up to be a prominent healer in Ancient Japan. Soon enough, your love trial begins. Who has captured your heart?

Choice A: A magical ningyo (mermaid) who dreams of being human.
Choice B: A mysterious person who lives in the nearby forest, but you later discover they are a spirit trapped in the land of the living and will disappear if you touch.

Choice C: An Ancient Japanese ruler who is determined to make a world where humans and supernatural creatures can live together in harmony.
Choice D: A five hundred year-old fox demon who doesn't trust humans.

WORD COUNT LIMIT: 1,500 words

Buff: You've attracted the attention of a wandering immortal, who seeks to give you a Peach of Immortality for bringing peace to the Heavenly Realm once again. You earn 1,000 years of cultivation and an additional 500 words to your current word count limit for Level 7 only. If you choose to use this item, please include a note at the top of your Level 7 submission.

✧ Level 8 (Bonus, Optional): Assessment ✧
Explore the Wonder of Indonesian Mythology

After your tumultuous love trial, the Heavenly Sovereigns are ready to deliver their final verdict. Proud of your sacrifice, they wish to reward you. However, your heart yearns for the being who stole your breath away. You beg for forgiveness, saying you aren't ready and leave. Hoping to understand what you've learned in the Mortal Realm, you return to the Mortal Realm, only to meet that fated person once more.

Choice A: Your mermaid lover has managed to become human, but is trapped in a loveless family, where her new stepsisters mistreat her and she has only but a magical talking goldfish as a confidante.
Choice B: The spirit has been reborn as an Orang Bunian (a creature invisible to humans, but seen by those with strong spiritual sight), but has been abandoned. You decide to raise them until they can stand on their own once older.

Choice C: The Ancient Japanese ruler has ascended to Heaven and received a title and their own domain, reborn as a Bidadari (celestial maidens similar to apsara and akin to angels).
Choice D: The fox demon who had been searching for you, after many lifetimes have passed in the Mortal Realm, finally finds you again.

WORD COUNT LIMIT: 1,500 words

Restriction: Uh-oh! You've incurred the wrath of a Rākshasa (malevolent being from Hindu mythology). To escape their clutches, you can enchant them with the love potion effects of the Yao Grass from Guyao Mountain. Please visit the Medicine King's Chamber on @APIFantasy and purchase one! If you don't address your symptoms, you will lose 400 years of cultivation for every level of the Heavenly Realm you enter. This condition does stack, so if you encounter this again later, you can lose up to 800 years of cultivation for every Level it persists.

✧ Level 9 (Bonus, Optional): Conferment ✧
Explore the Wonder of Vietnamese Mythology

Having found the answer you sought, you return to the Heavenly Realm, where the Heavenly Sovereigns will confer a heavenly title upon you for your accomplishments. What you rule over will dictate what kind of API deity you will become.

Choice A: Become a mountain snow fairy or a dragon deity of the seas.
Choice B: Become a deity of mortals who is able to live amongst humans.

WORD COUNT LIMIT: 1,500 words

Buff: You've attracted the attention of a wandering immortal, who seeks to give you a Peach of Immortality for bringing peace to the Heavenly Realm once again. You earn 1,000 years of cultivation and an additional 500 words to your current word count limit for Level 9 only. If you choose to use this item, please include a note at the top of your Level 9 submission.