105 Historical Romance Prompts (Includes Victorian, American Civil War & More)

Writing historical romance can feel like an endless loop or a trap. You spend months researching a specific era to find nuggets of romance.

The end result? You get stuck, orbiting the same drawing room or dugout.

Or worse, the history itself becomes so big that it swallows the romance whole, leaving you quite lost on where to begin.

What’s needed is a human problem, a starting point that doesn’t just decorate the story. But it creates the very conflict that makes the romance gripping.

That’s what this list is for. I’ve created these prompts to break you out of that rut, helping you write a romance that feels true to its time. 

You’ll find ideas here that bloom on forgotten battlefields, whisper in defiance of glittering ballrooms, and find hope in the face of immense suffering.

How To Turn These Prompts Into Your Next Story

So, what comes next after you get the prompts?

A great historical romance doesn’t just happen in the past. It feels like it was born from it. Here’s how I would approach these prompts to craft a narrative out of them.

Find the Personal in the Panorama

The magic of historical romance is showing how huge, impersonal events of the era create small, deep personal connections between two people.

The key isn’t just to zoom in on your characters. The gist is to show how the grand scale of history forces your characters together in a way that feels intimate and undeniable.

The panorama provides the pressure, whereas the personal interaction is where the romance sparks.

To give you an example, don’t just write about the war. Write about the quiet moment when a nurse sees a soldier’s hand tremble around a chipped teacup, and instead of offering pity, she offers a piece of her own saved sugar ration.

The war is the panorama. The shared, unspoken moment of dignity is the romance.

Your story lives in that connection, showing how history isn’t just a backdrop, but the very force that pushes two people together.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Limitations

Many writers tend to avoid historical romance because of two reasons –

1. It needs too much of research.
2. There are too many don’ts.

Research is inevitable. You can’t conjure a romance which is totally out of the context of the era.

However, what I find sad is writers take the limitation as shackles. The most common point they make is that it hampers creativity.

To me, it doesn’t.

Every historical era comes with a strict set of rules about class, honor, and duty. These are the bedrock on which the romance occurs.

So, instead of taking them as a hurdle, take them as an engine that drives the plot forward.

The heart of historical romance is watching two people find a way to love each other not just in their time, but in spite of it.

Focus on Collision of Values, Not Just on the Vocabulary

You don’t need to be a history professor to write an authentic historical love-affair. Instead of worrying about getting every word perfect, focus on their core values.

What did a person in that time truly value? Was it security? Honor? A good reputation? A moment of freedom? 

The key is a great historical romance is born when the core values of two people collide.

Let me show that with an example.

What happens when a soldier who values honor above all else is forced to protect a woman who values survival at any cost?

That journey begins with a crack in their prejudice, a moment of grudging respect for their enemy’s strength or integrity. 

The plot should then force them into a shared vulnerability where the labels of their world fall away, leaving only two people. 

The romance ignites when they start to see the world through each other’s eyes, realizing their opposing values might just be different paths to the same truth.

Or what if both characters secretly share a value their society forbids, like a desire for personal freedom in an age of strict duty?

Their quiet conversations and shared glances become a secret rebellion. Their love story becomes the ultimate expression of that forbidden value.

By grounding their connection in the beliefs of their era, the romance becomes more than just the core of your story. It becomes a powerful statement about what is truly worth fighting for.

The Final Question is Your Plot

You’ll notice every prompt here ends with a question. (That’s a hallmark of TaleCue). Think of that question not as a starting point, but a question that you story must answer.

However, the answer isn’t found in a single event. It’s forged in the space between your two characters.

Your plot is the series of arguments, shared secrets, and vulnerable moments that force them to challenge their own beliefs because of each other.

Let the plot be their discovery. When they can finally answer that question honestly, their story has found its end, and their transformation is complete.

Regency Romance

These romance prompts give a vibe of 19th Century England. They mostly revolve around the ton (British High Society) and the marriage market.

The prompts will have the themes of ballrooms, scandal sheets, social constraints, witty banter, and in some cases, restrained longing.

1.
Lady Evangeline has spent three seasons dutifully ignoring her childhood friend, now Duke of Bramhall, until he begins courting her rival.

He sends flowers, dances, and scandalously long glances… all meant for someone else.

Why does it feel like she’s the one losing something, when she swore she never wanted him?

2.
Viscount Ashcombe’s name just appeared in The London Register under “Confirmed Bachelors to Watch.” The problem? He’s been secretly engaged for a year.

Their private agreement was meant to protect her reputation, which could crack like glass under public scrutiny.

Now all of London is watching him. How does he protect the woman he loves without destroying her in the process?

3.
The dowager duchess promised her companion a quiet, well-paid position. Nothing more.

But after a single waltz at a masquerade, she’s caught the attention of a marquess. Now the ton believes she’s someone she’s not… and he won’t take no for an answer.

You could confess who you really are. But would he still want you if he knew?

4.
Colonel Hastings returns from war with medals, a limp, and a reputation that makes mothers hide their daughters. Only one woman dares speak to him without fear and that’s his late brother’s fiancée.

She offers tea. He offers honesty. And something unspoken starts to grow. How do you grieve one man… while falling in love with another?

5.
Miss Lillian Browne has read every scandal sheet for five years. And never once been mentioned, until now.

She’s just been named “The Season’s Most Unexpected Prospect,” and no one knows why. Not even her.

You can’t trace the rumor’s source, but marriage proposals are rolling in. Who benefits from putting your name in the spotlight. And why now?

Medieval Romance

The time period set for these romances is from 500 to 1500 AD. The prompts will cover the crusade era conflict, feudal loyalty, and mystical elements like prophecies.

These prompts will make you write romances involving knights, castles, arranged marriages, and courtly love. Some of these prompts have a backdrop of conflict involving honor vs. desire.

6.
Lady Isolde is promised to a nobleman she’s never met. On the eve of her departure, she’s struck by a vision of a burning keep and her own death inside it.

The castle in her vision is unmistakable. It is her betrothed’s home. How do you prepare to marry a man when you know his home is destined to be your tomb?

7.
Sir Aldric has never failed a mission. He was sent to escort a holy relic but returned with a wounded enemy healer instead.

The monks say she bears the mark of a witch. She says she knows who betrayed them.

What do you do when your sense of honor demands you protect the very person you were taught to hate?

8.
When her father dies without a male heir, Lady Alinor disguises herself as a boy to train in the fortress her family once ruled.

But the knight she serves under starts asking questions. The kind that could unravel everything.

How long can you play a part before someone sees the truth. And what happens when they do?

9.
After ten years in the Crusades, Lord Rowan returns to find his lands seized and his bride remarried. Only the steward’s daughter recognizes him. She’s the only one who kept his memory alive.

Now, she is his only ally in a home that is no longer his. How do you help the man you’ve always loved reclaim his life without admitting he’s already claimed yours?

10.
The court bard spins songs of dragons and chosen ones, but Lady Catrin never believed them, until her younger brother starts seeing visions.

The prophecy says a sister must guard the Chosen until his quest is complete.

Can you protect your brother and keep your heart from falling for the knight sent to guide him?

11.
She’s the daughter of a Saxon rebel. He’s the Norman knight sent to occupy her family’s land.

They should hate each other. But when a winter storm traps them alone in a crumbling outpost, something shifts.

What happens when desire makes betrayal feel like mercy? (enemies to lovers)

12.
On her wedding night, Seraphina discovers her new husband, a feared warlord, was cursed by a dying priest to forget every face he loves.

Every morning, he forgets her. Every night, she tries to make him remember. How do you build a life with someone who forgets you by dawn?

Victorian Era Romance

If you’re looking for prompts that depicts romance involving a panoramic conflict then Victorian Romance is the best you can get.

The Victorian era England has a subtle, yet intense, tension going on between industrial progress and traditional values. And the prompts will make you think about the context before you can write about the romance.

Themes of repressed desire, social hierarchy, and clash between propriety and passion run deep in these prompts. Enjoy!

13.
Miss Eloise Martin runs a secret photography studio beneath her father’s respectable haberdashery. No one knows until a titled client requests a second sitting.

He says he wants a portrait. But the way he looks at her says otherwise.

He could ruin you with a single word. Why does part of you want him to?

14.
Graham Whittaker invented something useful. But he never intended to become wealthy off it. Now he’s eating with dukes and being measured for silk cravats.

The only person who treats him the same is his former employer’s daughter… who’s still firmly below his new station.

What if you finally belong, but not with the person you truly want?

15.
Mrs. Finch keeps a spotless reputation and a weekly salon where nothing improper is ever spoken. But one day she hires a widowed ex-sailor to repair the greenhouse.

He’s younger, improper, and too observant. And she hasn’t felt truly seen in years. How much does reputation matter when no one else has touched your heart in a decade?

16.
Raised on books and etiquette, Henrietta is hired to catalogue a reclusive naturalist’s library. She finds locked drawers, strange sketches of impossible flora, and, tucked within a botany folio, a packet of letters addressed to her.

The letters are dated years before she ever met him. How does a stranger know your deepest secrets before you’ve even spoken?

17.
Lady Rosalind is engaged to a marquess. Her brother’s new tutor is a former revolutionary, his dangerous ideas hidden behind a quiet demeanor.

Their conversations begin as debates, then shift to stolen moments in the garden. He says the aristocracy is a cage.

She’s starting to believe him. What happens when the man you’re supposed to marry represents your duty, but the man you shouldn’t know represents your freedom?

18.
When her sister falls ill, seamstress Ivy poses as a lady’s maid in a wealthy manor to send money home. The master of the house returns early and recognizes her from a past encounter.

He’s promised to someone else. She isn’t supposed to be there. You can leave tonight. So why are you waiting in the corridor, listening for his step?

In the Victorian era, propriety often meant that love began with quiet companionship and restraint. For more ideas that capture how friendship can gradually deepen into romance, see our writing prompts where companionship turns into love.

Highlander Romance

Do not overlook the rugged side of highlander romance. The era is 16th to 18th century in the Scottish highlands where tough warriors, clan feuds, and forbidden cross-clan love ran deep.

All the prompts are brimming with loyalty and vengeance in passionate and primal love.

19.
You watched him slit your cousin’s throat on the battlefield. Three weeks later, he shows up wounded at your doorstep, claiming exile from his own clan.

You should leave him to die. Instead, you’re hiding him in your barn.

What part of you wants to see him live, and why does it scare you more than his sword ever did?

20.
Elspeth was promised to the laird of MacAlpin. But the wedding never happened because he vanished before the vows.

Seven years later, he rides into the village during a funeral and calls her “wife.”

What do you do when a man you mourned walks back into your life like no time has passed?

21.
During a cattle raid, Kieran takes a healer from the enemy clan as hostage to ensure his escape.

Now she’s patching up his wounds while scolding him for his recklessness, and his men are starting to listen to her.

She is his prisoner, but she is somehow in charge. How do you command respect when your captive has already stolen it from you?

22.
To settle a blood feud, two rival clans agree to a political marriage. Isla is the bride. Her brother’s killer is the groom.

No one expects her to be loyal, especially not to the man whose hand still bears her brother’s ring.

But what if loyalty isn’t what keeps you up at night anymore?

23.
Each year, the MacLeods choose one girl from the village to serve the chieftain. Most come back, but some don’t.

This year, they chose you. You are forbidden to look at him, but you can feel his intense, curious, and anything but cold eyes on you.

He’s already breaking the rules for you. Are you brave enough to find out why?

24.
You married a Highlander in the Lowlands, believing his talk of home and honor. But now that you’re here, his clan calls you an English spy, and every shadow feels like a threat.

Your husband is torn between his blood and you. You didn’t come this far to be a bargaining chip. How do you prove your loyalty in a land that wants you dead?

25.
Moira finds an outlaw unconscious near the river, wrapped in a tartan that was outlawed years ago.

She hides his colors, lies about his name, and lies again when he wakes up asking for vengeance.

How do you stop a man bent on blood when you’re starting to want him for yourself?

26.
The prophecy said she would marry the man who carries the mark of the boar. That man just burned her village to the ground.

But when she’s captured and brought before him, he spares her and demands her help in ending the war.

What if fate got it right and you were meant for the monster?

Western Romance

These prompts depict love blooming in the lawless lands of the American frontier of 1800s where cowboys, settlers, outlaws, and mail-order brides were the norms.

27.
You agreed to marry a man you’ve never met to save your family’s land. The train to Texas feels like a one-way trip to someone else’s life.

But when you arrive, he’s not the gruff stranger you imagined. He’s young, wounded, and hiding a secret. He asks you not to tell anyone he’s not who he claims to be. What are you supposed to do now?

28.
You run the telegraph office in a dusty Montana town where nothing ever changes. Until he starts writing.

Every week, a Union soldier sends coded love letters, but they’re not for you, you’re just the messenger.

So why have you started answering them, and why does it feel like you’re the one falling in love?

29.
Ten years ago, he promised to return, leaving you with nothing but a crudely carved wooden bird. Today, a hard-eyed U.S.

Marshal rides into town to enforce the law; it’s him. He looks right through you, no flicker of recognition, just the cold weight of his new authority. How do you remind a man of a promise he seems determined to forget?

30.
Your fiancé died on the Oregon Trail. That should’ve been the end of the story. But months later, you’re living under his name to claim the homestead you both dreamed of.

You’re doing fine, until one day a U.S. Marshal shows up asking questions. He seems too kind to be trouble. So why can’t you stop lying to him?

31.
You’re the only schoolteacher in a cattle town full of stubborn men and dusty kids. Then a widowed rancher offers you his barn as a classroom.

He won’t talk about his wife. You won’t admit why you really left the East. But somehow, you’re both drawn in.

What happens when the town starts whispering, and your secrets stop being just your own?

Georgian Romance

32.
You’ve spent six years in the countryside, tending your father’s debts and ignoring society’s whispers.

Now your once-fiancé has returned, a decorated war hero with a new title and a marriage contract to your rival. He calls you “old friend,” but lingers too long by your window. What exactly is he hoping to see?

33.
Your sister married a viscount and became a duchess by mistake. You were just meant to chaperone.

Now a scandal is brewing. And the Duke, who is quiet, unreadable, and annoyingly punctual, asks for your help. Why does he seem more interested in your opinion than in his own wife’s?

34.
As a lady’s companion, you’ve learned how to stay invisible by listening, smiling, and disappearing.

But tonight at Vauxhall Gardens, a masked man calls you by your full name, which is not the one you gave him. How does he know who you really are and what does he want?

35.
Your late husband was twice your age and cruel in private. Now his distant cousin, who was banished for dueling, has returned to claim the estate you inherited.

He insists he’s only staying until Christmas. So why does he already know exactly where the good sugar is kept?

36.
You agreed to pose as his fiancée for one month to save your family’s estate. But the Marquess of Ridley doesn’t act like a man playing a part.

He remembers your favorite flower and dismisses your suitors with a jealousy that feels far too real. What happens when pretending starts to feel safer than the truth?

37.
Everyone in the ton says you’ve trapped the Earl of Thornewood, calling you too fast and too desperate.

You know the truth that the engagement was his idea. It was a proposal whispered in a garden that you were never meant to accept.

If he’s the one hiding something, why does it feel like you’re the one who’s going to get hurt?

38.
A sealed letter arrives at your Mayfair townhouse with no sender, just your name in familiar ink.

It’s from the man you almost married, the one who was presumed dead in Spain two years ago. The note is simple, asking you to meet at the old chapel tonight. What if he never left the country at all?

39.
You’re engaged to a baron you’ve never met. That’s just how things work.

But his sister, who insists on vetting your character, your manners, and your true intentions, seems far more curious than critical.

Why does her opinion matter more to you than your own fiancé’s?

Colonial Romance

Set in the British Colonia era where love blossomed in pre-revolution America, India under the empire, and in colonies of Africa and Caribbean.

The prompts will show the themes of cultural conflict, rebellion, exploitation, and discovery are the bedrocks where the romances took place.

40.
In a Massachusetts port town, you rent rooms above your father’s tavern. One evening, a French privateer offers a month’s gold for a bed and your silence.

He’s wanted by the Crown, and every day you lie to the local magistrate feels easier than the last. Why does protecting this dangerous stranger feel more honest than the quiet life you’ve been living?

41.
Born in Calcutta and raised by British missionaries, you straddle two worlds. Your new employer, a soldier, insists you teach him Bengali.

He calls you “Miss” in public, but uses your real name, Amara, when you’re alone, his accent softening with each lesson. What happens when the language you share starts to feel like a secret you can no longer keep?

42.
You swore you would never help the colonizers who killed your father. But now one of their map-makers is stranded in your village, sick and alone.

The elders demand you let him die, but your conscience demands otherwise.

You agree to be his translator, but only to guide him away. Why does every step you take with him feel like you’re leading your own heart into exile?

43.
Promised to a merchant’s son, your life on a Saint-Domingue sugar plantation is set. Until you find a revolutionary hiding in the cane fields.

You bring him water, then bandages, then books he uses to teach you about a different kind of freedom. Your wedding is on Thursday. How do you walk towards a gilded cage when you’ve just been shown the key?

44.
You are the daughter of a Boston bookseller suspected of printing sedition. He is the British officer who should be your sworn enemy.

You meet at a poetry reading, sharing a single glance before leaving.

Now he keeps appearing at your shop, asking for books he never buys, his questions lingering on politics instead of prose. How long can you pretend he’s only interested in literature?

45.
As the governor’s niece, you are tasked with “civilizing” a captured pirate before his trial. He’s clever, infuriating, and already knows the language.

Instead of conjugating verbs, he uses his lessons to ask about you, watching you like a man with nothing but time and a puzzle to solve. What part of you is starting to believe his only real crime was being caught?

46.
In a Rajput palace annexed by the British, you’re the colonial botanist. Your assistant, the rani’s cousin, was a scholar before the empire “renamed” him.

Forbidden to speak after hours, you meet in the gardens where he teaches you the true names of the plants, their medicinal uses and place in poetry.

How do you continue to serve an empire when you’re falling for the history it’s trying to erase?

Pirates And Sea Captains

Want something from the high seas of the 17th-18th century? Well, these prompts have it all.

The following prompts will steer you towards the direction where love across enemy lines reveals itself in swashbuckling danger and treasure hunts,

47.
You’ve hunted the pirate known as the Ghost of the Sea across three continents.

Today, she boards your naval vessel disguised as a diplomat, spares your crew, and winks. “Tell your king I’m faster”, she says, before vanishing. What part of you hesitates to report that she spared your life?

48.
His pirate ship attacked at dawn. Instead of looting, he offers a deal: your cargo for the crew’s safe passage.

As a captain sworn to the crown, you know accepting a pirate’s fair offer is still an act of treason.

What do you do when your enemy shows more honor than the king you serve?

49.
Your crew captured her with barely a fight. Now the infamous pirate is chained below deck, her smile unnerving your men.

Alone with you, she asks, “Ever wonder what it’s like to betray everything for someone who truly sees you?” How do you maintain command when your prisoner starts rewriting your own rules?

50.
You swore to kill the outlaw responsible for your brother’s death. Today, he stands on your deck under a white flag, holding your brother’s compass.

He says he was there at the end and gave him a warrior’s burial, an honor your own navy denied. How does your quest for vengeance survive his act of respect?

51.
She’s the infamous pirate of the Spanish coast. You studied her tactics for years, only to be captured yourself.

But instead of a ransom, she offers you wine and her private, hand-drawn map.

“A story for a story,” she says, her eyes holding yours. What happens when you realize you’d rather navigate her world than escape it?

American Civil War Romance

The backdrop is of 1870s. A divided nation that had loyalties, betrayal, and racial tension running deep. These prompts show how love can blossom out of deep emotional stakes, losses, and human resilience.

52.
You’re a Union nurse. He’s a Confederate prisoner under your care who refuses morphine, saying pain keeps him honest.

Each day he asks for your name, a question you’re forbidden to answer. He’s your enemy. So why does the thought of him dying without knowing your name feel unbearable?

53.
Her family’s estate now houses your Union outpost, and she makes no secret of her disdain for you.

But when her younger brother is injured by a stray bullet, she swallows her pride and turns to you for help.

How can the woman you considered an enemy look at you with a gratitude that feels dangerously soft?

54.
You’ve posed as a Confederate soldier for months, passing secrets across enemy lines. Then you meet her, a courier with eyes that seem to see right through your deception.

She hasn’t turned you in, not yet, but she watches you with a knowing silence. How long can survival and desire share the same dangerous space?

55.
He was your childhood friend, but now he wears gray and you wear blue. At the riverbank where you once skipped stones, he kneels with his musket and simply lets you pass.

No words are spoken. What is left of a person when war has stripped away everything you once knew of them?

56.
She reads to wounded soldiers in the church basement, always avoiding your section. You’re the only Black officer in the room, and her silence feels louder than any insult.

But today, she wordlessly hands you a book of poetry. Was her silence meant to be a wall, or was it a shield?

57.
He’s injured, delirious, and hiding from his own Confederate patrol. You find him in your family’s barn, clutching a silver locket with no portrait inside.

“They think I’m dead”, he mutters before passing out. What happens when keeping him alive feels more important than knowing which side he’s truly on?

58.
She runs a printing press that publishes fiercely anti-war editorials. As a Union officer, you’re under direct orders to shut her down and seize her equipment.

But her eyes hold more conviction than the army you serve. How do you follow your orders when you believe her cause is more just than your own?

59.
You’re both spies, though neither of you has admitted it. She flirts like it’s a harmless game, and you pretend not to recognize her coded signals.

Last night, during a crowded ballroom waltz, she slipped a sealed letter into your hand without a word. What would it cost to open it for reasons that have nothing to do with the war?

60.
He carries a Bible and a bayonet. You carry medicine and the memory of a brother he may have killed.

Yet every Sunday, this Confederate soldier sits at the back of your makeshift church, listening like your words are the only peace he has left. Could you ever offer grace to the man who represents your grief?

61.
You’re the courier, delivering letters from a colonel to his fiancée. At first, it was just a duty.

But now she waits for you, asks about your journey, and keeps your travel logs tucked away with his official letters. You’re only delivering his words. So why does it feel like she’s falling in love with you?

62.
The Civil War has turned your Virginia high school into a battleground of loyalties. He was your childhood friend, but now he’s a Confederate officer’s son and you’re a Unionist’s daughter.

During a debate, the headmaster demands you condemn all traitors. Before you can speak, he stands and quotes a line about honor from one of your own father’s letters.

How do you choose a side when your oldest friend stands on the other?

Gilded Age/Edwardian Romance

Romance doesn’t prop up only in suffering and opposing ideologies. In the gilded age, when there was opulence, yet crumbling aristocracy and suffragettes, romance still raised it’s head.

Use the prompts to craft your romantic tale in the period of late 1800s to early 1900s when class differences, unseen prosperity, rising feminism, and the old world fading were shaping the society.

63.
You’re the daughter of a steel magnate. He’s the son of your family’s butler, recently returned from university abroad.

When your engagement party is announced, he sends you a quiet note asking for one last dance. Could a single waltz unwind the entire life you’ve been raised to accept?

64.
He’s the celebrated editor of a popular political paper. You write scathing critiques of his views under a male pseudonym. He has publicly challenged your anonymous author to a debate.

Now he’s asked you, his rival’s daughter, to help him prepare. What happens when he finally connects your sharp words to your face?

65.
She’s a suffragist who speaks in secret salons, a woman your family’s political party actively opposes. You’re the heir to a London estate that funds half that opposition.

At a charity ball, she “accidentally” spills wine on your glove and smiles like it was a planned attack. How do you forget a woman who dares you to question everything?

66.
You were raised for diplomacy and trained to make yourself agreeable. He’s the brash American investor who called you “decorative” during negotiations.

Now your father has tasked you with charming him into funding the new railroad. Could your required persuasion turn into something that disrupts both of your plans?

67.
She plays cello for aristocratic tea hours, her music the only honest thing in the room. You’re the younger son of the estate, recently returned from a failed diplomatic post in disgrace.

She has avoided your gaze for weeks, until the final song, where her eyes never leave yours. Could one unspoken melody ruin what’s left of your duty?

68.
Your engagement was arranged when you were children. Now he’s back from a long post in Kenya with new ideas, a sharper wit, and a casual smile that wasn’t there before.

At your first formal dinner, he leans in and says, “We don’t have to follow the script, you know.” What if an unwanted match becomes the only one that feels truly yours?

69.
You run a fashion house that caters to the city’s wealthiest women. He’s the powerful financier who publicly claims your dress designs are “too bold” for respectable society, but he never misses one of your showcases.

When he unexpectedly offers to fund your next collection, how do you separate his curiosity from his control?

70.
He was your brother’s tutor, dismissed years ago for reasons your family refuses to discuss. Now he’s a radical political candidate drawing crowds your father despises.

At a rally, he catches your eye from the stage and later finds you in the crowd. “Still memorizing other people’s rules?” he asks. How much of your own past are you willing to rewrite?

Ancient Romance Prompts

How about romance in a historical period that is ancient than history? The prompts cover the periods of ancient Rome, Egypt, Greece, and Mesopotamia where concepts of fate-driven love, power dynamics, and divine omens were the veins of the society.

The prompts include gladiators, priestesses, and royalty to help you capture the mythic passion from different angles and perspectives.

71.
He’s a captured Thracian gladiator. You’re the Delphic priestess who read the stars and saw his death, then saw your own in the same vision.

Now, your rituals falter when he is near, and the high priest has warned you. What happens when your sacred duty and your own survival are tied to the life of a man fated to die?

72.
You serve as a royal scribe in Babylon, trained to keep your head bowed and your heart silent. But the young queen has begun writing coded verses in the margins of her scrolls, poems of longing and rebellion that only you can understand.

She’s sharing her soul in plain sight. How long before you write back and betray you both?

73.
She was promised to the Nile god by ritual and blood. As a Temple Guardian, your only duty is to protect her during the final moon.

But tonight, she touches your hand and says, “The god only speaks to me when you’re near.” What do you do when a divine prophecy starts to feel like a confession meant for you?

74.
You’re a Spartan soldier recovering in a healer’s hut. She tells you that you carry a death-curse and should never have survived the battle.

Yet each time she treats your wounds, they vanish faster than nature allows, a secret magic in her touch. Is the real curse the one on your life, or the one that says you must leave her behind?

75.
He’s the exiled son of a minor king, returned in disguise during the festival. You’re the temple dancer chosen to crown the sacred guest.

But when he kneels before you, you feel a spark of raw magic in your palms and a sudden, deafening silence from the gods you serve. How do you honor the ancient rite when your own power tells you to choose him instead?

76.
You’ve served the goddess Inanna since childhood, swearing vows of chastity and truth. He’s a traveling merchant who offers you a relic no one should possess, a small, perfect statue of the goddess that bears your own face.

Now your temple dreams feature his voice instead of ritual prayer. What part of your vow has already been broken?

77.
As a commander in Pharaoh’s guard, your loyalty is your life. You have never questioned an order.

But when you are sent to retrieve a runaway oracle from the desert, she laughs instead of running. “I have seen your death, Commander,” she says, “and it is not in service to your Pharaoh.” Could you still follow your orders when fate offers you a different path?

World War I/II Romance

Deep themes of trauma, duty, sacrifice, and hope run deep into these prompts. The prime of human suffering and upheaval can give rise to connections that can transcend the borders.

That’s what these world war love prompts are about.

78.
You’re a field nurse in France, patching soldiers who never return. He’s the radio operator you only know through words, smuggled with each supply drop.

His notes are blunt, poetic, and addressed to “the one keeping us breathing.” When a broken man arrives with your name tattooed on his arm, how do you face the person who only knew you through faith?

79.
You’re a Jewish pianist hiding in Warsaw. He’s the German lieutenant who finds you, listens to you play a single, forbidden song, and then tells you to run.

You disappear. Two years later, a package arrives at a refugee camp. Inside is your sheet music. He remembered. Why you feel different towards the enemy?

80.
She gave you a fake passport in Paris, then vanished into the shadows of the occupation. You’ve joined the resistance just to find her again.

When you finally do, she’s leading an operation and pretending not to know you. “You were safer without me,” she says coldly. What if the only way to prove her wrong is to risk dying at her side?

81.
You were engaged before the war began. Now it’s been three years and twelve letters.

When he finally returns, you barely recognize his silence or the new tattoo on his wrist he refuses to explain. What part of love can survive when it’s tied to a version of someone who doesn’t exist anymore?

82.
An enemy soldier arrived in your village with a rifle and orders to stay out of local affairs. You’re the baker’s daughter, leaving notes in bread loaves for starving families.

When he starts delivering them for you, pretending not to see, something shifts. How can an act of quiet kindness from an enemy feel more powerful than your own rebellion?

83.
You’re a Black nurse in a segregated WWII unit in Italy, a place no one tracks or acknowledges. He’s an injured Tuskegee pilot who refuses to speak to anyone.

Then one night, he hands you his journal, your name already written on the inside cover. “Figured you’d read it anyway”, he says. How do you handle the words he’ll only trust you with?

84.
She was hired to translate intercepted Soviet messages. You are her quiet guard.

But when she decodes a message that implicates her own commander in treason, she brings the proof to you instead of him.

“I have a feeling you’re not the type to follow every order,” she says. What do you do when trusting her means betraying your country?

85.
You met him during evacuation drills, barely speaking over the sound of marching boots. Years later, you find his name on a transport manifest, with yours as the assigned medical escort.

He’s missing a leg, his memory, and the arrogance he used to carry. Could the man you’re falling for now ever forgive you for loving the person he no longer remembers being?

86.
The war ends on a Wednesday. You wake to silence, and receive a letter written months before. It’s from her, the nurse you danced with once before shipping out. “If you’re reading this, I hope I was wrong about us”, it says.

The return address is a field hospital that no longer exists. What would you risk to find someone who already believes you’re gone?

Dark Historical Romance

Are you looking for inspiration to write romance in the face of death set up in history? Or romances rooted in the eras of the great plague, genocide, and witch trials? Then these prompts won’t disappoint you.

87.
She was sentenced for witchcraft, to be hanged at dawn. You’re the town’s gravedigger, ordered to bury the body.

But when the rope breaks and she breathes again, you hide her instead of reporting it.

She speaks your mother’s name in a dead language and calls you “marked.” Could protecting her mean the gallows were never meant for just one?

88.
He wears a mask of polished bone, bringing medicine to the dying of the Black Death. You sweep the monastery floors, one of the few untouched by illness.

When he removes his mask, he isn’t a doctor or a priest. He is just a man, hoping someone will remember his face. What do you risk for a man who wants nothing but to be seen by you?

89.
You’re a boy posing as a man in a WWI training camp, your uniform too large and your age too young. He’s the officer assigned to your unit and the only one who seems to notice.

Instead of reporting you, he quietly sharpens your aim and starts asking about the scars on your hands. How long can you hide your truth from the one person trying to keep you alive?

90.
A mysterious woman arrived under a false name the night your sister burned as a witch. She has the same eyes, the same quiet strength.

She hums the same lullaby under her breath. You should have turned her in.

Instead, you offer her shelter in your barn and the knife you carry for protection. Could vengeance and forgiveness grow from the same bloody soil?

91.
You’re the son of an apothecary, delivering cures that fail against the plague. She’s the masked thief stealing your herbs and returning them as remedies that actually work.

When you cross paths in a locked city gatehouse, she knows your name. “I’ve been stealing from your future,” she says. What kind of hope survives when death has already taken everything?

92.
He’s a prisoner in a pre-WWI camp. You’re the translator hired to decode enemy plans, plans he’s been accused of writing.

The problem is, the incriminating letters match your own handwriting, not his. It’s a frame-up, and you’re the final piece. If you stay silent, he dies. How do you save the man you’re secretly falling for without taking his place on the gallows?

Check out our Romantasy Prompts here to find out more romance prompts with fictional historical settings.

1920s Romance

This section covers the 1920s so well! Jazz age decadence, flapper rebellion, prohibition era, glamor, speakeasies, and ideas of freedom vs. consequence encapsulate the characters involved in the connection.

93.
You sing torch songs in a Harlem speakeasy under a name no one questions. He’s the white detective assigned to shut you down, but he’s been here three nights in a row, always requesting the same sad song.

Tonight, he leaves a hotel address instead of a warrant. What if the most dangerous line you cross is between verses?

94.
She’s the mayor’s daughter with bobbed hair and a boyfriend who supplies half the bootlegged gin in Chicago. You’re the rookie journalist assigned to cover their wedding announcement.

She pulls you into a supply closet, kisses you hard, and says, “Write about this instead.” What do you do when the real story feels like the one that will ruin you?

95.
You used to serve drinks in a smoky basement club. Now you wear diamonds and host parties where no one knows your real name.

When he crashes your gala, bleeding and calling you by the name you buried with your accent, you pull him inside. He was your first love and your biggest mistake. How do you unlearn the safety of pretending?

96.
He’s your boss’s son, always lounging near the office typewriters with a smirk and a flask. You do your best to remain invisible.

But then you find a note in your coat pocket, in his handwriting, that says, “You look better when you’re not trying to disappear.” What happens when the one person who truly sees you is the one you can’t afford to look back at?

97.
She dances on tabletops, a flapper who lives on champagne and trouble. You’re the saxophonist hired to play at her favorite club.

She never remembers your name, until you rescue her from a bad situation in the alley one night.

She looks at you, really looks, and says, “So you do exist.” Could this be anything but a fling when her entire life is built on forgetting?

98.
You’re a thief who has worked your way into a black-tie party to rob the host’s safe. You finally get to the study, only to find a flapper already there, picking the lock with a hairpin.

She looks up without missing a beat and says, “You must be the distraction. I’ll split it with you.” What happens when your perfect plan is interrupted by a much better one?

99.
She teaches etiquette at a finishing school but drinks bathtub gin behind her students’ backs. You’re the chauffeur who’s driven her home for years, a silent, constant presence.

Until tonight, when she pauses before getting out of the car and asks, “Have you ever danced in the rain before dawn?” What happens when she finally breaks her own rules?

Great Depression Era Romance

The period of one of the biggest financial collapse in human history took it’s toll on millions. We’ve used that era to come up with solid romance prompts that depict the realities of great depression, and how love blossomed despite it.

100.
You meet him in a breadline, his coat too thin and his eyes too tired, and hand him the roll you waited two hours for. A week later, he shows up at the soup kitchen where you volunteer, wearing a borrowed suit and asking for work.

He remembers your name. Could something real grow between two people who started with nothing to give but kindness?

101.
She used to be a piano teacher. Now she plays for pennies at a silent movie house where you fix the projectors. You’ve never spoken a real word to her.

But lately, she’s been improvising songs that match your moods too perfectly. What does it mean to fall for someone when your entire life is borrowed?

102.
You rent a bunk in a boarding house shared with six strangers. It’s the girl who sews near the window who feels the most unfamiliar.

She hums while stitching but always stops when you look.

When she returns your patched shirt with your initials embroidered on the inner seam, something shifts. How do you love someone when neither of you owns anything but your silence?

103.
He travels from town to town, a stranger offering to fix radios for food. You haven’t heard music in months. After he gets yours working, he refuses payment, instead just sitting on the porch with you, listening.

The next morning, he’s still here, claiming your roof needs rewiring. What if the real reason he’s staying is a secret he can’t afford for you to know?

104.
Your father’s farm is failing. She’s the daughter of the banker who foreclosed on half the county, now forced to work as a domestic.

She calls you stubborn but tells you which crops are dying. When her job disappears and you offer her shelter, she agrees too quickly. What happens when survival is no longer the only thing you’re fighting for?

105.
He showed up in the boxcar with nothing but a tin harmonica and a busted shoulder. You were just looking for someone to split coal money with.

But every night, he plays the same aching, familiar tune. When you finally hum the forgotten words, he looks at you like he’s been waiting a lifetime to hear them. Could that song belong to both of you?