On this, the day of the Winter Solstice, the eve of the longest night of year, I present the theme for January-February 2026 Contest. "Chaos Dwarves/Chaos Dwarfs" The Rules -We would like you to try to keep your story between 500 and 2000 words. I am requiring that entries do not exceed 2400 words. This is counting title, poems, quotes, any add-ons. If I get a submission that exceeds 2400 words, I will trim it till it meets the limit, and you may not like what words I choose to cut. Even prepositions are not safe... -Your name must appear nowhere with the story. There is no point in having an anonymous competition based on skill if we know whose entry is whose. -You must send your story via private message to Scalenex before by early morning February (4:00 AM, US Central time) on February 1st 2026 -The story must be new. No dragging up a story you wrote months or years ago. -No plagiarism. This means no stealing a story verbatim. You are free to use characters or settings from other works including other writer's fluff pieces and past short story contest entries. -It bothers me that I have to say this but it's current year, so no AI writing. -The story must involve Lizardmen (or Seraphon or Salamanders or Saurian Ancients or Rangos), at least a little. -The story must stick roughly within the theme, at least a little. -No comics or illustrations. This is a short story contest. Visuals are limited to fonts and text colors. -Only one entry allowed per person. Once again, the winner of this contest has the honor of choosing the next contest theme if they so choose. If you want to talk about the theme or your eagerness to write or read something. Please do so below!
well, this kinda even the field... but this theme is an extraordinary win for @NIGHTBRINGER ...and it kinda undermines my will to challenge a chaos dwarfs' story with a non-CD story.
Hmm... I shall peruse my library of ideas and see if I can work something out. *Ponder pose activate*
There is no escape from the Chaos Dwarfs. They mark us all! It appears that fate has stepped in to spare you from certain defeat. An interesting interpretation. I read the "Chaos Dwarves/Dwarfs" topic as Chaos Dwarves or Chaos Dwarfs, rather than pertaining to vanilla Dwarfs. @Scalenex likes the alternate non-Warhammer spelling written as "Dwarves". I did not write it though, so you'll have to ask @Scalenex . Plus, choosing to be the only story not to include the Chaos Dwarfs would be literal competition suicide. If all the stories contain Chaos Dwarfs, then I can't derail (unbalance) things with my antics. I could choose Chaos, but that would sully the victory that the Chaos Dwarfs have achieved on this day. For the first time, I will read all the stories and rate them purely on literary merit. Of course I say this and watch someone release a story about a Chaos Dwarf born from the unholy union of Hashut and Slaanesh, who names himself the NIGHTBRINGER (all capitalized of course). Such an obvious attempt at flattery would admittedly erode my resolve. So for once, let's not and have a fair contest. May the best Chaos Dwarfs story win! Hashut awaits your offering!
That's not what I meant, so for clarity I rewrote it as Chaos Dwarves/Chaos Dwarfs. I was making a joke about sticklers who care about the plural form.