Every year, we run a challenge called a Matryoshka challenge. Like the eponymous nesting dolls, completing one prompt in the challenge reveals another so that participants build a fanwork progressively, using between two and seven prompts. This year, our Matryoshka challenge comes with a twist, and we need SWG creators' help in making it a success!
May's challenge will be a scavenger hunt. Clues will point to pages on the site, where participants can collect prompts. And what are the clues? Well, the clue can be ... you! If you sign up to hand out prompts to participants, a clue will point to your page on the archive (or a specific fanwork if you prefer), the participant will comment on your work, and you will hand out a prompt for the challenge.
Writing and art can be lonely, so we like to offer the occasional challenge that involves an element of collaboration so that we can discover new creators, support each others' work, and problem-solve challenges together. Furthermore, we hope that members willing to hand out prompts will be rewarded with comments on their work and new readers or viewers!
Maybe you think this sounds like fun but have some misgivings. "What if I'm not good at making up prompts?" No worries! The moderators will provide a list of possible prompts to give out to anyone who requests them. "I'm just not able to be online every day and don't want to leave participants hanging." Likewise, if you aren't able to respond, they can contact the mods, and we'll assign them a prompt. "What if I can't make a fanwork for the challenge?" You can hand out prompts even if you aren't able to participate in creating for the challenge!
If you want to provide prompts for the challenge, you can sign up here. If you have additional questions, just reply to this email!
The Scavenger Hunt challenge will not begin until May 15. In the meantime, our Everyman challenge is running if you missed last week's announcement: create a fanwork about an ordinary character in the legendarium using a quote about an unnamed character as inspiration.
And next week is our monthly instadrabbling session on our Discord server, hosted by the wonderful Anna (IdleLeaves). The session will run on May 2, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone). You can find out more about upcoming instadrabbling sessions here. And if you're not a member of our server yet, you can join our Discord server here.
SWG News
New Challenge: Epic 80s
This month's challenge features hundreds of fresh prompts from the bodacious decade of the 1980s.
Cultus Dispatches: Communities Do Comment
Comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
New Fanworks
Is it raining with you? by AdmirableMonster [Writing]
In the last days of Númenor, two very different men meet in Umbar and fall in love.
(Please note that while this work is heavily inspired by Disco Elysium, no knowledge of the game is necessary to read the fic!)
Read more ...Wrensong and Roses by Isilme_among_the_stars [Writing]
Concerned by his responses to the paraphernalia of healing, Fingon steals Maedhros from his room for an impromptu garden excursion. Maedhros battles with dark thoughts.
Read more ...Bon(e)fire by Fuin [Writing]
On the night before the battle, Caranthir and his ally share thoughts about their peoples' traditions:
Burning bones ward off evil.
Read more ...McShady by Babblecat [Writing]
Melkor has himself a bad time in the Void.
Read more ...
Updated Fanworks
A Thousand Winds that Blow by StarSpray [Writing]
When uneasy dreams bring him back into Beleriand, Daeron finds a pair of twins who have lost their home, and an enemy who has lost himself. The Shadow's reach is growing ever longer, and if they are to survive, they must do it together.
Read more ...Nasyalossë by Lovimmy3365 [Writing]
Erestor lay up against a tree, brown washed to black in the wet of the snow. The black disc of the new moon sailed across the dark sky. Erestor wished it were gone. He had no need to look into dark eyes any longer.
He was dying.
(AKA Erestor unwittingly travels back in time to the days between the Dagor Bragollach and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, meets the sons of Feanor, Thingol and his ilk, many Laiquendi, many Dwarves, and Men besides, and THEN decides to solve the drowning of Beleriand himself. This has nothing to do with his personal problems. Nope. Not at all. Erestor is having regular feelings.)
Read more ...Until the Stars are All Alight by Dagstjarna [Writing]
Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring.
Read more ...From That Rubble by StarSpray [Writing]
Fëanor shrugged, studying the contents of his wine glass. “Something must be done about that house. It will fall down eventually.”
“It does not follow that it must be you that tears it down single-handedly. Are you sure you do not want help?”
“It’s not as though I have much else to do. I need to build something new there,” he said after a few moments. “To do that, I must first clear away the old and broken things.”
Decades out of Mandos, too many things in Fëanor's life remain broken. He can't do anything except wait for his sons to come to him, but he can do something about the old and crumbling house where they once lived.
Read more ...The Mirror Crack'd by AdmirableMonster [Writing]
Rescued from a brutal Angband hunt, an ex-thrall with a strange and powerful artifact embedded in his spine is brought to Himring, for it is one of the only places in Beleriand which welcomes such folk. Though he has no memories of his life before, Anniavas slowly becomes accustomed to his new life and finds he has a queer connection with Maedhros, Himring's lord. As their intimacy grows, however, so do the dangers surrounding them, both without and within. What secrets are hidden inside the depths of Anniavas's lost memories--and how will those with whom he is forging and deepening bonds react, when those secrets are at last revealed?
Read more ...Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael [Writing]
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously thought on the matter who the Ainur are, who Eru is, how he matches our own religious pantheon, and this has been conducted after serious research of many esoteric teachings of our own planet's heritage.
Read more ...Around the World and Web
Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
Scribbles & Drabbles is a fic and art exchange with a minimum word count of 100 words.
Tolkien Disability Pride 2026
This Tumblr event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.
Tolkien Gen Week 2026
Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026 to appreciate all of the incredible characters and relationships within Tolkien’s legendarium that fall under the broad category of “gen.”