Building Middle-earth

While Tolkien is known for his vast natural landscapes, those expanses are populated by people—and the buildings they construct. Whether a cottage tucked into the forest or the soaring spires of a grand city, the architecture of Arda can send the imagination adventuring through settings ethereal and astonishing.

This month's challenge uses architecture to inspire fanworks. Participants will receive a prompt from the challenge moderators; you can choose if you'd like to receive an architectural style, a location on Arda, or both. As usual, if the prompt you are assigned isn't working for you, just let the challenge moderators know, and we will draw again. You can request a prompt by emailing us, sending us an ask on Tumblr, commenting on our Dreamwidth, or requesting a prompt on the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord.

You can use your prompt however you want to inspire your fanwork. While setting and architectural descriptions are one approach, this certainly isn't required!

Thank you to Sallysavestheday for this month's stamps!

This challenge opened in July 2026 .