Use this template for an enemies-to-lovers fantasy built on one simple magic rule. Sera Nightingale steals runes for a living. Tonight she's after the gold circlet of Prince Caelan of Eryndor, worth enough to buy her brother out of the mines.
She gets it. She also gets the rune hidden inside, which burns into her wrist and ties her life to the prince's. If he bleeds, she bleeds, and if he dies, so does she.
The twist that carries the series: Caelan doesn't want the bond broken. He's crowned in forty days, and the crown is cursed to kill whoever wears it. A girl who shares his wounds is the only proof he's got.
What viewers expect from a fantasy drama
- A magic rule you can say in one line. "Shared wounds" fits on a phone screen. Complicated magic systems don't.
- Enemies to lovers: a thief and a prince, forced to stay within a few hundred feet of each other.
- Spectacle in small doses. Floating castles and crystal forests look great, but every wide shot of a fantasy world takes time to generate. Use them like punctuation, not wallpaper.
- Clichés worth twisting: the chosen-one reveal. Sera isn't chosen. She just grabbed the wrong circlet, and the story is about what she does with an accident.
Series structure at a glance
Aim for episodes of 60–90 seconds. Use the shared-wound rule for physical cliffhangers (the hook at the end of an episode). A cut on his hand shows up on hers, and viewers instantly know something happened off-screen.
The table maps each block of episodes. The "Ends on" column is your list of big cliffhangers.
| Block | Episodes | What happens | Ends on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hook | 1–3 | The heist, the bond, the arrow | Caelan offers her a deal instead of a cell |
| Escalation | 4–9 | Forced proximity in the citadel; escape attempts that hurt them both | The royal mage says the bond can only be cut by killing one of them |
| Paywall beat | 10 | Caelan takes a blade for her in public; she bleeds from the same wound | The king sees the rune on her wrist |
| Forty days | 11–30 | Training, a court that wants her gone, her brother in the mines | Caelan admits the crown is cursed |
| Midpoint reversal | 31–40 | The curse was made by Sera's grandmother, a rune-smith executed by Caelan's grandfather | The bond rune is her family's design |
| Into the crystal forest | 41–60 | Quest for the original rune forge; betrayal by the royal mage | Her brother is the mage's hostage |
| Dark moment | 61–70 | Coronation day; the only way to save Caelan kills her | She puts the crown on herself |
| Finale | 71–80 | Her family's rune protects her from the curse; the curse breaks | She leaves the citadel as royal rune-smith, not a thief |
Episode 10 is the paywall beat, where many apps start charging. It has to be the moment viewers can't walk away from.
Beat sheet
The beat sheet is the story in order, one moment per line.
- Ep 1 Sera on the citadel ledge with the circlet. The rune burns into her wrist. An arrow hits Caelan, and she bleeds.
- Ep 2 Captured. Caelan notices the wound on her shoulder matches his.
- Ep 3 He offers her a deal: stay, and her brother walks free from the mines.
- Ep 4–6 She tries to escape. Every time she runs, he gets dizzy. Every time he spars, she bruises.
- Ep 7–9 The royal mage, Orrin, explains the bond. The only way out is a death.
- Ep 10 (paywall beat) An assassin at the feast. Caelan blocks the blade meant for her. The king sees the rune.
- Ep 11–20 The court calls her a witch. Caelan's sister quietly takes her side.
- Ep 21–30 Night lessons on the battlements. He tells her about the crown.
- Ep 31–40 The curse is her grandmother's work. The bond rune carries her family mark.
- Ep 41–50 The crystal forest and the ruined forge. Sera's hands remember things she never learned.
- Ep 51–60 Orrin betrays them. He wants the crown cursed so he can rule through a regent.
- Ep 61–70 Coronation. Sera takes the crown herself, betting her bloodline protects her.
- Ep 71–80 It does, barely. Curse broken, Orrin exposed, brother freed. The bond stays, by choice.
Sample Episode 1
Screen time is about 1:40. The timestamps in brackets show where each part should fall.
EPISODE 1 - "SHARED BLOOD"
[0:00–0:03 HOOK]
EXT. FLOATING CITADEL OF ERYNDOR - OUTER LEDGE - NIGHT
SERA NIGHTINGALE (19, silver-white braid, worn moss-green
cloak) hangs one-handed off a stone ledge above an endless
drop of cloud. In her other hand: a thin gold circlet.
SERA
(grinning, to herself)
Don't look down. Down's for amateurs.
[0:03–0:30]
She swings, catches a gargoyle, pulls herself up onto a
balcony. The circlet glints. A tiny blue rune inside it
starts to glow.
SERA (CONT'D)
No. No, no, no. You're decoration.
The rune leaps from the gold to her right wrist and burns
itself into her skin. Glowing blue. She bites back a scream.
[0:30–1:00]
INT. ROYAL BALCONY - CONTINUOUS
The balcony doors fly open. PRINCE CAELAN OF ERYNDOR (25, dark
engraved armor, storm-gray eyes) stands there, bare-headed.
CAELAN
That's mine.
SERA
Finders keepers. It's the law.
Look it up.
CAELAN
I wrote half the law.
GUARDS (O.S.)
Thief! East balcony!
Sera backs onto the railing.
SERA
Nice chatting, Your Highness.
She jumps to the next roof. He lunges and misses.
[1:00–1:25]
EXT. CITADEL ROOFTOPS - CONTINUOUS
Sera runs across tiles. Arrows hiss past her. On the balcony
behind her, a GUARD draws, aims at Sera, and fires.
Caelan steps into the shot to stop him. The arrow takes
Caelan in the shoulder.
[1:25–1:40 CLIFFHANGER]
Mid-stride, Sera cries out and stumbles. She grabs her own
shoulder. Blood blooms through the green cloak, in exactly
the same place.
She stares at the wound. Then back at the prince, who is
staring at her across the rooftops with the same face.
The rune on her wrist pulses once. Blue.
SMASH CUT TO BLACK.
Adapting it to AI video
Plan on about 13 generations (one generation = one clip the model makes).
Fantasy is where AI video saves you the most compared with a real shoot. It's also where you waste the most, if every shot tries to show the whole world. Make two or three hero location images, then stay close to faces.
Use the table as your shot list. "Try" is the model we'd start with for each shot.
| # | Shot | Length | What happens | Dialogue | Try |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wide | 3s | Sera hanging off the ledge above clouds, circlet in hand | yes | Kling |
| 2 | close-up | 4s | "Down's for amateurs." | yes | Seedance |
| 3 | tracking | 5s | She swings and climbs onto the balcony | no | Kling |
| 4 | insert | 4s | The rune glows inside the circlet | no | Hailuo |
| 5 | insert | 4s | The rune burns onto her right wrist | no | Hailuo |
| 6 | medium | 5s | Caelan in the balcony doorway: "That's mine." | yes | Veo |
| 7 | over-the-shoulder | 6s | Banter over Caelan's shoulder | yes | Seedance |
| 8 | tracking | 5s | She runs across rooftop tiles, arrows past her | no | Kling |
| 9 | medium | 4s | Caelan steps in front of the guard's shot and is hit | no | Kling |
| 10 | close-up | 4s | Sera stumbles, blood through the cloak | no | Seedance |
| 11 | establishing | 4s | The floating citadel at night, two figures on far roofs | no | Wan |
| 12 | insert | 3s | The rune pulses once | no | Hailuo |
Make these reference images first. A reference image is a picture you give the model so it keeps copying the same look.
- Sera with the silver-white braid and moss-green cloak. Add a separate close-up of her right wrist, with and without the rune. Write "right wrist" in every prompt, because models flip it.
- Caelan with and without the circlet. Once it's stolen, he's bare-headed for the rest of the episode.
- One master image of the floating citadel at night. Use it for every establishing shot so the buildings stay put.
- The blue rune as a flat graphic you can lay over the footage in the edit. Glowing marks drift and change shape between generations.
Prompts to start from: Kling fantasy prompts, Hailuo fantasy prompts, Wan fantasy prompts.
Related guides: Writing a micro drama script · Storyboarding with AI · Character consistency · How to make an AI micro drama