Conflict for a prehistoric fantasy

[Supreme Slayer 6]

I have had this idea for a while now of a "prehistoric fantasy", basically a cave man story like those old movies you used to watch, except that magic exists in a sort of primal fashion, tied directly to the elements, animals, and nature in general. I have a lot of ideas for the lore and how magic works, etc, however, I can't decide on something in particular: What sort of conflict should be driving the story? I originally thought maybe I could make it a diary of sorts to make it more "slice of life fantasy", but I realized that would probably be off-putting, and I also don't think it would work towards my strengths as a creative.

It would be easy to just say that there's a volcano that erupted or another clan attempts to take over, but that feels really played out in the genre. Does anyone have any ideas? I can give a bit more explanation of how the magic system works if it helps, but the main thing outside of the basic idea of elements and animals as the different "schools of magic" is that healing wounds with magic is forbidden. You can use it to help heal wounds, like creating a salve that will keep wounds from becoming infected, but not use it to close wounds/stop bleeding etc. I could make it so that the main character is a healer, but that feels a bit too on the nose to me, and I like the idea of it being a background element which helps keep the world grittier, rather than something up front.

[LordCowCow 878]

So I think the first thing I'm struggling to wrap my head around is the idea of a prehistoric fantasy where they're still advanced enough to have "rules" and a "system" for their magic.

I did have a thought the conflict could come from the discovery of magic and the people of the world having to figure out what to do with it in the first place instead of it just being an established thing but unsure if that's too far off from what you wanted.

[Supreme Slayer 6]

2 hours ago, LordCowCow said:

So I think the first thing I'm struggling to wrap my head around is the idea of a prehistoric fantasy where they're still advanced enough to have "rules" and a "system" for their magic.

I did have a thought the conflict could come from the discovery of magic and the people of the world having to figure out what to do with it in the first place instead of it just being an established thing but unsure if that's too far off from what you wanted.

Well, it is not as if magic is something that is invented. It simply exists as a part of nature to be utilized. So just like someone can learn to hunt or fish and there are certain things which do or don't work when attempting to do so, the same applies to learning magic. There are no elaborate runes, incantations, or magical scrolls. It won't be a very hard magic system, either, but it still won't be used by just anyone. Especially since each person is born with a different attunement to the world which allows them to tap into this magic.

To elaborate further: The elements all have primal names which can be called upon to summon them in various ways (IE, use magic). Oo is Sky. Ha is Fire. Gh is Earth. Ff is Water. These are just the current placeholder names chosen for their distinctiveness, but they each represent the most simple sounds of each element, with 'Ha' being the primal name for fire because it is the sound naturally made when encountering heat. From there, you basically attempt to shift the will of nature to comply with your desire.

[yui 597]

People tend to underrate the value of a literal beast of an antagonist. For a setting like this (or a prehistoric setting in general), some kind of fantastical monster sounds like it would make a great foe for the protagonist and/or their allies. A beast to be hunted, perhaps for its hide and/or meat, or perhaps to avenge some sort of loss incurred by the beast. That's just my two cents on the question of what I would pick as a source of conflict for a story with this kind of setting, anyway.

[Supreme Slayer 6]

12 hours ago, yui said:

People tend to underrate the value of a literal beast of an antagonist. For a setting like this (or a prehistoric setting in general), some kind of fantastical monster sounds like it would make a great foe for the protagonist and/or their allies. A beast to be hunted, perhaps for its hide and/or meat, or perhaps to avenge some sort of loss incurred by the beast. That's just my two cents on the question of what I would pick as a source of conflict for a story with this kind of setting, anyway.

True, that is something I somehow hadn't thought about. A man eater is always prevalent in tribal stories, so it could be effective here as well. I wouldn't want to do something big and cliche like a t-rex, but I do have a monster in my catalogue knows as "That Which Death Fears" which could fulfill the role perfectly.