Round 1 - Prompts by Century

[historyfestmod]

Here are all the prompts from Round 1, organised by century. Prompts that involve a 'crossover' between two eras are listed under both centuries.

For a list of prompts by country, see here.

15th Century BCE
Hatshepsut, last king of Egypt

14th Century BCE
Ankhesenpaaten (Ankhesenamun); They can force her to change her name and restore the old religion, but she'll always be a daughter of Aten.

13th Century BCE
Rameses II/Nefertari, the reason the sun shines

4th Century BCE
Alexander/Darius, Combat baby, come back baby, fight off the lethargy, don't go quietly (Any rating or genre welcome.)
Alexander/Hephaestion, on his face is a map of the world
Alexander/Hephaestion, ruled by more than Hephaestion's thighs
Alexander/Hephaestion, studying together in Mieza
Alexander/Hephaestion, with wounded lips and salted cheeks
When Hadrian honoured Alexander the Great's grave, Antinous did likewise to Hephaestion's. With this in mind - reincarnation! Flashbacks! (Gratuitous sex!) … [more]

3rd-2nd Century BCE
Hannibal Barca +/ Scipio Africanus, chosen by the gods
Hannibal Barca and/or Scipio Africanus (and/or Hannibal/scipio), they fake their own deaths
Hannibal Barca(/Scipio Africanus), Hannibal takes Rome.
Hannibal Barca/Scipio Africanus, after the war
Hannibal Barca/Scipio Africanus, dinner in Ephesus
Hannibal BArca/Scipio Africanus, don't let your enemies become friends
Hannibal Barca/Scipio Africanus, every victory is a wound
Hannibal Barca/Scipio Africanus, Forgive my thoughts when I'm asleep / Forgive these words I'm yet to speak
Hannibal Barca/Scipio Africanus, PTSD
Hannibal Barca/Scipio Africanus, The desert is calling, the emptiness of space / The hunger of a lion is written on your face

1st Century BCE
Caesar/Mark Antony, Egypt has many new delights to offer, some of which require a second person to indulge in.
Cato - everyone thinks he lives the life of an old man, he doesn't.
Catullus and Roxelana, timetravelling roadtrip
Catullus, modern AU - His twitter account is angry, offensive and utterly filthy. Naturally it goes viral.
Cicero/Atticus, all my deepest secrets... except one
Cicero/Atticus. After the death of his daughter comfort overrules his morales.
Cleopatra VII, A human vulnerability / Doesn't mean that I am weak
Cleopatra/Mark Anthony/Julius Caesar
Clodius/Cicero. Cicero makes one of his many remakrs about Clodius and his sexuality, after it Pulcher wants to show him how exactly he takes to men.
Julius Caesar, The tragic flaw of charming men is exactly as it seems
Julius Caesar/Cleopatra VII, Rome will never truly conquer Egypt
Julius Caesar/Mark Antony, making plans for Parthia
Julius Caesar/Mark Antony, the value of discipline
Julius Caesar/Nicomedes IV, a son of Venus in the role of Ganymede
Julius Caesar/Nicomedes IV, Caesar never let Nicomedes penetrate him. That doesn't mean they never had sex.
Julius Caesar/Nicomedes IV, the sweeter taste of foreign wine
Marcus Tullius Cicero/Mark Antony - In his Philippics, Cicero accused Antony of having been a teenage prostitute. Clearly, the reason he knew this is that he was one of Antony's clients.
Mark Antony, Just give me one fine day of plain sailing weather / And I can fuck up anything, anything
Mark Antony/Cleopatra VII, And baby even on our worst nights, I'm into you
Mark Antony/Cleopatra VII, last night in Tarsus
Mark Antony/Cleopatra VII, Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame / Where there is a flame, someone's bound to get burned
Mark Antony/Gaius Scribonius Curio, scandalous indulgence
Mark Antony/Julius Caesar, reuniting after a long time apart
Mark Antony/Julius Caesar, what if Antony had been with Caesar on the Ides of March?
Pompey/Caesar, we were family once
Soseono, creating two kingdoms

1st Century CE
Boudicca, nothing left but the will to fight
Emperor Tiberius - what's he really up to during his "retirement" on Capri?
Titus/Berenice, something about their relationship (and if it's about her final dismissal, something not too sad, please! I'd like to believe that Titus did mean to send for her later again at a more convenient time :))

1st-2nd Century CE
Hadrian/Antinous, dreams of dark water
Hadrian/Antinous, I fell for you like autumn leaves
Hadrian/Antinous, waking from a nightmare

2nd Century CE
Antinous, unused to such attention, being measured/drawn for a statue. Hadrian watches/teases/encourages.
Guan Yu/Zhang Fei/Liu Bei, the peach garden oath may need a revisit.
Hadrian/Antinous. Hadrian giving Antinous swimming lessons (because as much as I love tragic history, it can be rewritten with fluff, right?)
When Hadrian honoured Alexander the Great's grave, Antinous did likewise to Hephaestion's. With this in mind - reincarnation! Flashbacks! (Gratuitous sex!) … [more]

2nd-3rd Century CE
Gan Ning/Ling Tong, both of them are determined to prove their superior skill with the sword
Liu Bei/Guan Yu/Zhang Fei, as the blossoms fall
Liu Bei/Guan Yu/Zhang Fei, it's easier to coordinate a war than a threesome
Liu Bei/Zhuge Liang, like a fish that has found water
Zhuge Liang/Lady Huang, beauty is in the eye of the beholder

3rd Century CE
Ruan Ji/Xi Kang - something involving their famed menage with Shan Tao, which was observed by Shan Tao's voyeuristic wife (who'd reported afterwards to her husband, "Your ability is in no way comparable to theirs.")

7th Century CE
Pingyang, Then I'll raise you like a phoenix / Bring home the boys and scrap scrap metal the tanks

10th Century CE
Aethelflaed of Mercia, from queen consort to queen regnant

12th Century CE
AU in which Baldwin IV doesn't die from leprosy. Slashiness with Saladin not necessary, but welcomed.
Baldwin IV/Saladin
Eleanor & John I. - The last of her sons
Eleanor of Aquitaine - Being a mother of kings is difficult
Eleanor of Aquitaine meets Anne Boleyn (somehow...) for a chat about the problems of marrying a monarch.
Hildegard of Bingen. Gen and femslash welcome, no historical accuracy besides common knowledge needed. Just take her wikipedia article and run wild with it. Possible prompts for inspiration … [more]
John I - After his brother's death John looks back at his relationship with Richard.
Richard Lionheart/Philippe II. Old friends make the best enemies.
Richard the Lionheart meets Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb. Whatever rating floats your boat - I will be quite excited by filthy, filthy porn, but am also quite interested in gen introspective fic and everything in between.
The common origin of Chrétien de Troyes’ Perceval and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival. Will take anything from a lost script by Guiot de Provins to a love affair between the two.
Wolfram von Eschenbach / Walther von der Vogelweide. Minnesang did not necessarily praise ladies

12th-13th Century CE
Tomoe Gozen, " ready to confront a demon or a god"

14th Century CE
Enguerrand VII de Coucy & Olivier V de Clisson - Anything involving friendship between two somewhat mismatched personalities. Perhaps something in that sliver of time when, after the assassination attempt on Olivier, Enguerrand went to visit his injured friend, who was very glad to see him.
Katherine Swynford/John of Gaunt, even the law must recognise our love
Richard II, Anne of Bohemia, Geoffrey Chaucer. Anything about the (hypothetical) encounter between Chaucer, Anne of Bohemia, and Richard II that inspires the framing story for Legend of Good Women.

14th-15th Century CE
Charles VI, an alterate universe where he really was made of glass

15th Century CE
Catherina Sforza and Lucrezia Borgia, bonding over poisons
Christine de Pisan, turning anger into art
Henry VII/Elizabeth of York, a walk in the rose garden
I really need some Edward IV/Richard III incest fic--angry/angsty fic where Richard fights with Edward about George would be awesome, as would Worried!Big Brother Edward.
Isabella I/Ferdinand II, equal opposites in balance
Joan of Arc, I must become the lion-hearted girl / Ready for a fight / Before I make the final sacrifice
Joan of Arc, she survives the pyre
Joan of Arc, striking up a friendship with the Dauphin
Queen Christina of Sweden & Ebba Sparre. Anything goes and relationship can be either platonic or romantic. Bonus if unrequited love is involved.
Richard III/Anne Neville, I did not dare to hope - yet here we are
Vlad Tepes + Radu Cel Frumos(/Mehmed II), family reunion

15th-16th Century CE
Cesare Borgia at the court of King Louis is told he can't marry Carlotta, daughter of the King of Naples, but Charlotte D'Albret might be available.
Copernicus, space AU
Desiderius Erasmus & Thomas More. I'd be happy with anything, really. Maybe something about either their first meeting in 1499, or about the oddities or difficulties about conducting a friendship exclusively by letter for years.
Lady Anne of Brittany; 15th/16th century France; je suis bretonne et j'en suis fière.
Leonardo da Vinci, "The Medici made me and the Medici destroyed me."

16th Century CE
Catullus and Roxelana, timetravelling roadtrip
Christopher Marlowe/Thomas Kyd -- there are some things even Kit Marlowe can't say.
Eleanor of Aquitaine meets Anne Boleyn (somehow...) for a chat about the problems of marrying a monarch.
Elizabeth I, SECRETLY A CYBORG
Elizabeth I/Robert Dudley, public masks and private smiles
Elizabeth Tudor/Mary Stuart - parallel to their official correspondence, they're having a secret exchange of much more personal letters
Elizabeth Tudor/Mary Stuart - they did meet in real life
Erzebeth Bathory: it turns out bathing in the blood of virgins really does make you younger. Now she's an immortal serial killer out for revenge!
Henry VIII/Anne Boleyn, a dangerous seduction
La Malinche-centric, with an emphasis on Cortés' allegiances with the indigenous leaders and how they basically helped him defeat the Mexica for their own ends.
Leonardo da Vinci/Francis I, your breath on my skin
Michelangelo/Tommaso dei Cavalieri, beauty beyond the bounds of art
Niccolò Machiavelli - his reaction when he hears of Cesare Borgia's death
Raphael/Margarita Luti, the pain of being separated
Shakespeare and Kyd talk about Marlowe. IN BED!
William Shakespeare/Christopher Marlowe, collaboration- perhaps on one of the Elizabethan plays with unknown or disputed authorship? … [more]
William Shakespeare/Christopher Marlowe, the touch of ink-stained fingers

16th-17th Century CE
Beaumont/Fletcher: writer's block
Francis Beaumont/John Fletcher, what's mine is yours
William Shakespeare/Christopher Marlowe, as the candle burns out
William Shakespeare/Henry Wriothesley, Shakespeare fussing over Southampton's incredible hair - staring at it, writing poetry about it, running his fingers through it, tugging on it... anything!

17th Century CE
Charles II/Catherine of Braganza- after the Bedchamber Incident, Charles attempts to make it up to Catherine by being the Best Husband Ever(TM).
Charles II/Catherine of Braganza, when duty is a pleasure
Charles Prince of Wales & George Villiers, their roadtrip across Europe to get to Madrid and impress the Infanta Maria. Can be shippy or not - as you wish.
Christmas, 1618: William Drummond of of Hawthornden and Ben Jonson get to drinking and talking. After quite a bit of drinking and quite a bit of talking, Jonson gets into how he really feels about one of his contemporaries. (With exactly as much attitude as usual.)
James I/George Villiers, public displays of affection
James VI & I/ Buckingham: Anything involving that shared bedroom door.
Johannes Vermeer - coffeeshop AU, instead of painting a girl pouring milk, he paints a girl pouring coffee
Julie d'Aubigny(/anyone), life as a bisexual opera singer/swordsmaster
Queen Christina, Hogwarts AU - who can sleep when there's a whole library to read?
Queen Christina/Ebba Sparre, snuggling for warmth on a cold night
Shah Jahan/Mumtaz Mahal, you above all others
So we all know the Night Watch, right? … But have you ever seen the Meagre Company? … So what about a pose-off? The leaders of the companies snarking at each other that they're better? Hals and Van Rijn headdesking secretly? Give me ridiculous 17th century competitiveness PLEASE. [more]

17th-18th Century CE
Blackbeard, celebrating International Talk Like A Pirate Day
Isaac Newton, the celibacy was a cover for his homosexuality. Alternatively, the celibacy was genuine → ace!Newton
Queen Anne/Sarah Churchill, you must tell me everything

18th Century CE
Alexander Hamilton/John Laurens, I wanna scream 'I love you' from the top of my lungs / But I'm afraid that someone else will hear me
Antoine Lavoisier/Marie-Anne Paulze, we shall make new discoveries together
Beethoven/Mozart, let me study under you
Catherine the Great, the single-minded pursuit of a goal
Catherine the Great, to tempt and to be tempted
John Adams/Abigail Adams or George Washington/Martha Washington, something about how these leading ladies were also kickass and awesome and their husbands knew it!
Karl XII is basically that guy who comes by your place when he's out of luck, asks to crash on your couch, and then never leaves. So, let's have something about the relations between him and Ahmed III during the time that Karl was sleeping on Ahmed's sofa in exile in Ottoman territory.
Mary Read/Anne Bonny
Peter Tordenskjold and Karl XII never met. But what if they did? Open to anything that puts them in the same place at the same time - be it an alternate course of history, or ridiculous slapfights in the afterlife.
Robespierre/Saint-Just, republic of virtue.
The adventures, sexual or otherwise, of Hannah Snell. AKA a woman whose husband deserted her → screw him, she adopts her brother-in-law's identity and enlists → … [more]
Timeslip hijinks. To facilitate an objective of the author's choosing, Robespierre and T.E. Lawrence are forced to go on an impromptu road trip together. Robespierre rides in the sidecar of one of Ned's 1904184981481 motorcycles. Wig loss ensues.

18th-19th Century CE
Francisco Goya, the sleep of reason produces monsters
George IV/Beau Brummell, they met when Beau joined the prince's regiment, so how about some uniform kink?
Horatio Nelson/Thomas Hardy, Hardy comforts Nelson during a bout of seasickness.
Horatio Nelson/Thomas Hardy, how we used to touch
Horatio Nelson/Thomas Hardy, undoing all those buttons

19th Century CE
Ada Lovelace, poetry in the difference engine
Alexander II, AU - he survived the final assassination attempt
Anne Lister, sexual awakening.
Antonio Salieri and Franz Schubert end up accidentally solving a mystery together during the various concerts and parties associated with the Congress of Vienna. Bonus points for all of the buddy cop tropes.
Arthur Henry Hallam, Alfred Tennyson, William Ewart Gladstone; Gladstone's jealousy upon finding out he is no longer Hallam's closest friend (esp. if it involves him fully discovering it at an awkward meeting between the 3 of them)
Arthur Rimbaud and Zelda Fitzgerald, worst party of all time
Arthur Rimbaud/Paul Verlaine, reasons why Rimbaud is no longer allowed under Verlaine's in-laws' roof
Based on this article: http://the-toast.net/2013/09/17/oscar-wilde-and-walt-whitman-did-it/ Doesn't need to be explicit, but I dearly do want the story of this meeting.
Caroline Astor & Alva Vanderbilt. Modern or period Gossip Girl AU; parties and backstabbing and the social elite.
Charles Darwin/Robert FitzRoy, a most marvellous discovery
Charlotte + Emily + Anne Bronte, running wild across the moors
Charlotte + Emily + Anne Bronte, telling stories by the fire
Ching Shih, the greatest pirate that ever lived expands her empire... INTO SPACE
Dante Gabriel Rossetti/Lizzie Siddal, sacrifice and inspiration
Delphine LaLaurie, wealthy and respectable French Créole matron, secret torturer of slaves whom she kept chained in her attic. I'm interested in the relationship between her and her loyal butler Bastien, who protected her secrets until an angry mob tore him apart. Either het or gen is fine; the loyalty is to me the interesting part.
Franz Liszt, modern AU - dealing with paparazzi and tinhats and everything that comes with being a rockstar
Henry David Thoreau & Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau's thoughts towards his mentor pre-Walden Pond, shippy or not.
Herman Melville/Nathaniel Hawthorne, something based on the following: (Melville, writing about Hawthorne): "...already I feel that Hawthorne had dropped germinous seeds into my soul. He expands and deepens down... and further and further shoots his strong New-England roots into the hot soil in my Southern soul."
Katharina Wilhelmine, Princess of Sagan & Princess Dorothea of Courland, sisters at the Council of Vienna solving crime (bonus points for utilising them being on the two sides of the Council, more bonus points if the crime isn't a murder)
Lizzie Siddal, the demands and dangers of being an artist's model
Lord Byron, anything about him keeping a pet bear while studying at Trinity
Lord Byron/John Edleston, the infamous cornelian brooch (origins, procurement, gifting)
Lord Byron/Percy Shelley/Mary Shelley, unconventional spirits
Ludwig II/Richard Wagner, a flight of fancy, a fall from grace
Ludwig II/Richard Wagner, Ludwig is a wereswan
Ludwig II/Richard Wagner, the things we try to deny
Napoleon and Josephine - A last meeting
Napoleon/George IV - hero worship
Pre-Raphaelite Brothercest
Princess Charlotte of Wales/Leopold I of Belgium, dreams of a future that will never come
Queen Victoria/John Brown or Queen Victoria-John Brown. Zup with that? A.N. Wilson says that a respectable cleric confessed on his deathbed to having married them.
Vincent van Gogh/Paul Gauguin, the difficulties of co-habiting
William Ewart Gladstone/Benjamin Disraeli - (either together or apart) anything about them, their rivalry, or their politics.
William II/Duke of Wellington, preparing for battle
William IV/Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, a quiet evening by the fire

19th-20th Century CE
Anything involving Hendrik Christian Andersen. Perhaps an exploration of his romantic and sexual relationship with his older brother Andreas? ... Or, Hendrik/Henry James - the passionate love affair borne out of mutual artistic admiration...and the eventual estrangement over creative ideals. [more]
Harry Houdini/any, bondage - he could escape, he just chooses not to
Nicholas II/Alexandra Feodorovna, a thousand dreams of you

20th Century CE
Anything featuring the early days of the Bloomsbury circle, from when Vanessa and Virginia set up their own place to the outbreak of the First World War.
Arthur Rimbaud and Zelda Fitzgerald, worst party of all time
Bletchley Park steampunk AU. Because what could be more awesome than badass wartime codebreaking, except badass wartime codebreaking with giant clockwork robots?
Dorothy Sayers & Agatha Christie. They're considering a collaboration. They end up collaborating in more than one way.
For years John Maynard Keynes kept a record of his sexual encounters. What were some of his most memorable?
Frida Kahlo, some wounds will never heal
Jack Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier, any time from when they first meet to the 1956 democratic convention.
Natalie Clifford Barney, What they call our sins are our gods
Pablo Picasso/Henri Matisse, a colourful life
Prince George, Duke of Kent; to know and love what you live with
Roald Amundsen and his crew disappeared while flying a rescue mission in the Arctic. The bodies were never found. But that doesn't necessarily mean he died, does it? Amundsen explored both the arctic and the antarctic, and now on that mission he found himself sucked into another adventure. … [more]
Rupert Brooke and Virginia Woolf skinny-dipping by moonlight. Can be based on the actual 1911 event or modern au.
Siegfried Sassoon/Wilfred Owen, we should take the chance while we can
Stephen Tennant/ Siegfried Sassoon, our secret world was wild and free.
Thomas Lynn Bradford - messages from the after life. Bonus points for humor and frustrated hauntings.
Timeslip hijinks. To facilitate an objective of the author's choosing, Robespierre and T.E. Lawrence are forced to go on an impromptu road trip together. Robespierre rides in the sidecar of one of Ned's 1904184981481 motorcycles. Wig loss ensues.
Vita Sackville-West/Violet Trefusis, let’s go away and forget the world and all its squalor