Note: The deadline has been extended to midnight UTC of December 16th.
In a few months, Stoic will be publishing an anthology of stories. It will collect several old tales and a few new ones within the Banner Saga universe. But of course, who better knows the ins and outs of the world than our own fans? So today, Stoic is announcing a special open call. We’re seeking short stories from our very knowledgeable fans to expand our forthcoming volume.
Are you ready to carve a few runes of your own?
Submission Details:
The ideal story length is no more than 5,000 words long. Please submit stories to in RTF, DOC, or DOCX format. Only one submission per author please, and be sure to format your story in William-Shunn guidelines. Stories must be in English (US preferred, but UK is just fine). You may use a few Old Norse words if you want, but don’t overdo it. The deadline is midnight UTC on December* 16th, 2018.
Compensation:
Because of the franchise nature of the stories, we’ll be looking for long-term or indefinite publication rights. Selected authors will be given both an ebook and print edition of the anthology, and a Banner Saga t-shirt of their choice (pending availability). If selected, we’ll work with you on publishing rights and compensation therewith.
What We’re Seeking:
We want original flash fiction and short stories that highlight the wider Banner Saga world. Stories should illustrate a conflict, be it personal, survival or combative. Stories should also be canonically possible (so no killing Rugga for example). Ideas could include:
- Original characters, either before or during the events of the Banner Saga.
- Supporting characters like Sefa, Sven or Holfi.
- Myths about the gods.
- The legends regarding various, unique items like Betrayal or Farthingjord.
If you haven’t read The Gift of Hadrborg, the sun stopped moving a few weeks before the events of the first Banner Saga game. So anything earlier than that still had day and night cycles.
Resources:
We highly recommend you at least play the original Banner Saga game. The Gift of Hadrborg is a good read for information about Strand. Likewise, you can check out Only Bjorulf Knows for more details— it’s available for free at the Stoic Store. And don’t forget to checkout out the Banner Saga wiki and consult the map if needed.
What to Avoid:
- Stories outside the realm of canonical possibility. So Ekkill holding Iver’s severed head isn’t ideal.
- Vanilla Viking stories. We’ll figure out quickly that it’s not really set in the world of Banner Saga.
- While myths about the gods are welcome, please don’t submit stories where the gods are clearly still alive.
- No stories with a dredge or horseborn as the central protagonist.
- We also recommend avoiding menders.
- Anything in which the technology is pushed passed the Viking era (No Iver with a boomstick, please).
- No gory violence or sex. You can hint or allude to it, but we don’t need to see it.
- No new races please. Though you may jest about the existence of dwarves.
- Please no “Choose your own adventure” style stories.
- No excessive cruelty. We don’t need another Ramsay Bolton.
- If you want an original location, a tiny village not on the map should be fine. Nothing bigger though— we don’t need to discover Banner Sagamerica.
- No mention of third-party brands, no matter how many dunks Ekkill scores in those sweet, sweet Reeboks.
Finally, we really recommend focusing on original characters. You can have folks found in your roster as support cast but the less entangled they are, the better. If your story is selected however, we’ll gladly hear any other pitches you have in mind…
We look forward to reading your submissions. Good luck!
*— Formerly November, see update.
