Full transcript
0:00Welcome to another genre guide video.
0:02And in this one, I'm talking about a
0:04grim dark fantasy adjacent genre.
0:08Doesn't have to have all of the things
0:09about grim dark fantasy, but one that I
0:12have affectionately titled the dark
0:15rogue epic fantasy. This is something I
0:17kind of stumbled upon as I was
0:18researching epic fantasy that there were
0:20a lot of these things that had like an
0:22assassin or hooded figure on the cover
0:24that I've just come to call the dark
0:26rogue. Now, my name is Jason Hamilton.
0:28If you don't know me, I'm a fantasy
0:29author myself. I spent three years
0:31working at Kindlepreneur, researching
0:32exactly how books succeed, but mostly
0:36I'm just the most storyobsessed
0:38storytelling nerd that I know. And to
0:40figure out exactly how this genre works,
0:42I did not just guess. I did a deep dive
0:44on actual bestsellers in this specific
0:46subgenre, books with over a thousand
0:48reviews and at least a 4.2 star average
0:51rating. and I picked them apart scene by
0:53scene using a mixture of my own analysis
0:55and AI to find the specific patterns
0:58that keep readers hooked. And what I
1:00found completely changes how I look at
1:03the rogue archetype. And in this video,
1:05we're going to get into all of the
1:06different tropes of this character. So,
1:08let's start with the main character that
1:10drives the entire ship. Now, if you drop
1:12a traditional heroic archetype into a
1:15dark rogue epic fantasy setting, you're
1:17going to be breaking the suspension of
1:18disbelief immediately. Likability,
1:21honor, and selflessness are death
1:23sentences here. If you write a
1:25protagonist who relies on chivalry to
1:26solve problems, the reader knows that
1:28they shouldn't survive the first
1:29chapter. The world is too corrupt and
1:31scarcity is too high for playing fair to
1:34work. Instead, you need an anti-hero.
1:36And this is not an edgy version of the
1:38hero. This is just a character who
1:40actively rejects traditional ideals
1:42because they have to. They embrace moral
1:44ambiguity and self-interest. They don't
1:46use brute force or open warfare. They
1:48use deception, theft, and assassination.
1:50But most authors make the mistake of
1:52creating a villain with their anti-hero.
1:55And if your character is just a jerk who
1:57kills people and steals money, readers
2:00will check out. You have to give them a
2:01redeemable trait to keep us invested. In
2:03this genre, that trait is almost
2:05exclusively a fiercely loyal dedication
2:07to a found family of misfits. The
2:09conflict isn't about saving the kingdom.
2:11It happens when you force this cynical,
2:13reluctant character into
2:14worldthreatening stakes they want
2:16nothing to do with. and they don't want
2:18to save the world. They just want to
2:20survive it. But be careful not to make
2:22them too sympathetic too early. If they
2:24refuse to do the dirty work like
2:26betrayal or torture to get what they
2:28need, you don't actually have a rogue.
2:30You have a traditional hero in a black
2:31cloak. So, let them be gray. Let them
2:34compromise their own morals. And that is
2:36where the real story lives. This leads
2:38us directly to how you handle the
2:40morality. And the trope here is the
2:41slippery slope of corruption. You cannot
2:43have a clear battle between good and
2:45evil. If you have a faction that
2:46captures the moral high ground, you have
2:48failed the genre. We need gray and gray
2:50morality. Every faction must have
2:52justifiable goals yet use absolutely
2:54ruthless methods. Maybe one group wants
2:56to overthrow a decaying empire to end a
2:58famine, but they enslave their rivals to
3:01do it. Another defends the tradition,
3:03but brutally purges anyone who
3:04disagrees. Your protagonist has to
3:06navigate this mess, and you must force
3:08them to choose between bad and worse
3:10options. This brings us to the concept
3:12of the slippery slope. Corruption should
3:14not happen overnight. It feels cheap if
3:16a character touches a cursed ring and
3:18suddenly turns evil, for instance.
3:20Instead, show the slow, agonizing
3:22erosion of a character's moral code.
3:24Start with small, justifiable
3:25compromises. For instance, they steal
3:27from a jerk to feed a starving child.
3:29They lie to their found family to
3:32protect a secret. And in a world of
3:33scarcity, these choices make sense. They
3:35are pragmatic. The danger comes when the
3:38rationalization becomes a habit. show
3:40how these small wins eventually lead to
3:42major atrocities. If the magic of the
3:44political power gives them a short-term
3:46victory, they will be tempted to use it
3:48again, regardless of the ethical cost.
3:50Don't make them power hungry for no
3:52reason. Make them desperate. Let them
3:54start viewing people as assets and
3:56victims and as acceptable losses. The
3:58most tragic fall is not when a hero is
4:01pushed off a cliff. It's when they walk
4:02down the mountain willingly, one
4:04justified step at a time. The next
4:06aspect to this genre is the functional
4:08decay of the world. You can't just throw
4:09in some fog and rain and call it a dark
4:11fantasy setting. In dark rogue epic
4:14fantasy, the world is the primary
4:15antagonist. So, you need a setting
4:18defined by systematic corruption and
4:20extreme scarcity. So, I'm talking about
4:23crumbling infrastructure, food riots,
4:25institutions that have rotted from the
4:27inside out. Your governments, guilds,
4:29and religions shouldn't be paragonss of
4:31virtue. Instead, they must prioritize
4:33self-preservation over justice, turning
4:35law enforcement into mere enforcers for
4:36the elite. This functionality is crucial
4:38because in a decaying world, it
4:41justifies your anti-hero's morality. If
4:43the city is filled with plague wards and
4:45black market blood magic, your
4:46protagonist has to be a rogue just to
4:48survive. So, make the decay functional.
4:51Create economic monopolies that exploit
4:53famines. Design sewer labyrinths to act
4:55as only the safe highways for your
4:57thieves. When the system is this broken,
4:58trust erodess faster than the stone
5:00walls, and every heist becomes a
5:02desperate bid for survival. But just
5:04because the world is terrible doesn't
5:06mean the stakes can be small. That leads
5:08us to this next aspect and trope which
5:10is the worldthreatening stakes for
5:12selfish people. Common trap is thinking
5:14that because your protagonist is a
5:15selfish rogue, the stakes should stay
5:17local. Maybe a guild war or a kind of
5:20personal vendetta. But that isn't nearly
5:22enough. This is epic fantasy after all.
5:24You need a worldthreatening epic scale
5:27threat. I'm talking about ancient evils,
5:29returning dark lords, or cosmic
5:31cataclysms that threaten to wipe out
5:33civilization entirely. Why would a
5:35selfish rogue care? Because if the best
5:37way to torture a character who just
5:39wants to be left alone is to create a
5:41problem that they can't ignore. And if
5:42the world ends, their favorite black
5:44market tavern burns down, too. They have
5:46to get involved, no matter how reluctant
5:48they are. This sets up the reluctant
5:50hero trope, but with a twist. Unlike the
5:53farm boy who dreams of adventure, your
5:55rogue actively uses their skills like
5:57stealth and deception and evasion to run
5:59away from the plot. And you have to show
6:02this. Have them fake their own death or
6:04vanish into the criminal underworld to
6:06avoid the call. Eventually, you break
6:08them. Create a situation where their
6:10normal life of self-preservation becomes
6:12impossible to maintain. Maybe a curse
6:13threatens their life or their refusal
6:15leads to the capture of their found
6:16family. You need to force them to
6:18realize that retreat will result in
6:20personal ruin. When they finally step
6:22up, it shouldn't be a moment of moral
6:24triumph. It should be a cynical
6:26acceptance. They aren't becoming a hero
6:28for glory. They have run out of places
6:30to hide. Now, I mentioned earlier that
6:31the anti-hero needs a redeemable trait,
6:33and that trait is the found family. But
6:36don't mistake this for a group of
6:37friends hanging out in a tavern, having
6:39a good time. In this genre, found family
6:41is about survival. These are going to be
6:43damaged characters, criminals, outcasts,
6:45and liars who have been failed by their
6:47blood relations. They choose a new
6:50family out of necessity. And this
6:51dynamic is the only way to humanize your
6:53protagonist. If your rogue kills without
6:55remorse, we don't like them. But if they
6:57kill to protect their feral little
6:58sibling or their raid guard dog, we
7:00cheer for them. And here's the secret
7:01sauce. Don't make it wholesome. To keep
7:03the tone right, let their loyalty make
7:06them worse. Have them commit atrocities
7:08to keep their crew safe. start them off
7:10as a transactionally connected, perhaps
7:13just a heist crew, and slowly build to
7:15that moment when they take an irrational
7:18risk for one another. That is when the
7:20reader knows it's real. And that is when
7:21you can truly break their hearts by
7:23threatening to tear that family apart.
7:25By the way, if you'd like to learn more
7:26about how to use tropes like this
7:27combined with AI as an authorled
7:29productivity tool to help you write 12
7:30plus books a year easily, perhaps more,
7:33without compromising your creativity or
7:35ethics, check out the Story Hecker Gold
7:36Group linked in the description. You'll
7:38get a number of my prompts just for
7:40joining the weight list. Absolutely
7:42free. You don't even have to join the
7:44group later. I would love to see you
7:45there. Let's look at the tools that your
7:47rogue uses. You might think magic is
7:49just a cool system for fights or that
7:51skills are just things they learned
7:52offcreen. In dark rogue epic fantasy,
7:55mastery comes with a cost. If your
7:57protagonist relies on intellect,
7:58deception, and the exploitation of
8:00systems, don't make those skills free.
8:02Maybe their own use of poisons is slowly
8:04eroding their vitality. Or maybe their
8:06training involves a brutal upbringing in
8:08a thieves guild that left them
8:09physically scarred and emotionally
8:11unavailable. And this applies to magic
8:13even more heavily. Because magic isn't a
8:15gift. In this case, it's more of a
8:16transaction. Whether you choose an
8:18elemental, blood, or sensient artifact
8:21based magic, you must codify the rigid
8:23rules that exact a heavy toll. I'm
8:25talking about physical vitality, sanity,
8:27or actual blood loss. If your rogue uses
8:29blood magic to force a lock, it should
8:32leave them anemic and vulnerable. If
8:34they wield an artifact blade of some
8:36kind to survive a fight, that weapon
8:37should whisper dark thoughts that erode
8:39their morality over time. Avoid the
8:41video game mana bar logic. Treat magic
8:44as a desperate, volatile resource.
8:46Establish a rock, paper, scissors kind
8:47of dynamic where a fire mage might be
8:50terrifying but useless against a water
8:52wielder in the rain or something like
8:53that. The goal isn't to make your hero
8:55powerful in this case. It's actually to
8:56force them to decide how much of
8:58themselves they are willing to sacrifice
9:00to survive the night. Now, when it comes
9:01to learning these skills, you need a
9:03teacher. And that's our next trope, the
9:05flawed guide. Forget about the wise
9:07Gandalf figure. In a grim dark rogue
9:09story, that character is dead or
9:11irrelevant. In this case, you need a
9:12flawed guide. This character should not
9:14be teaching your protagonist how to be
9:16honorable. They should be teaching them
9:17how to survive in a world of scarcity.
9:19In this case, I'm talking about stealth,
9:21deception, and the grim mechanics of the
9:23criminal underworld. Make the
9:24relationships transactional. The mentor
9:26almost always has a hidden agenda. Maybe
9:29they are a former assassin themselves
9:31seeking a revenge or a corrupt guild
9:33master using their your own hero as a
9:34pawn. They shouldn't be giving away
9:36their knowledge for free. Put your hero
9:37through training from hell sequences.
9:40And this is like doing push-ups but not
9:42in a safe gym. It's about forcing your
9:44protagonist to pick locks while a blade
9:46is pressed against their throat or
9:47building up a tolerance to poisons by
9:49ingesting them until they hallucinate.
9:50The goal here isn't just to make them
9:52stronger. It's to erode their morals.
9:54The mentor shouldn't be encouraging
9:55them. they should be breaking them to
9:57prepare them for a corrupt world. And
9:59when the time is right, consider having
10:01the mentor betray them or withhold key
10:03truths. In a grim dark world, the most
10:05important lesson isn't magic or sword
10:06play. It's actually learning that trust
10:08is ultimately fragile. All right, so the
10:10next trope is called the art of a heist.
10:12Since we aren't writing a war story, we
10:14need a different engine to drive the
10:16plot. Your rogue isn't going to lead an
10:17army into open battle. Instead, frame
10:19the solution as a job. You need heist
10:21narratives and complex planning. But
10:23perfection is ultimately boring. In dark
10:25rogue epic fantasy, a heist serves as a
10:28controlled detonation of your world's
10:29power structures. And it's not enough to
10:31steal gold. Your target needs to matter
10:33on three levels: personal, political,
10:35and metaphysical. Maybe they aren't just
10:36stealing a jewel, they are stealing the
10:38artifact that holds back a demon while
10:40simultaneously bankrupting a corrupt
10:42guild. Establish a crew with specialized
10:44rules, but incompatible personalities.
10:47Treat magic and security measures as
10:49systems to be exploited. Then make sure
10:50the plan goes wrong, cruy wrong. The
10:53pleasure for the reader is not watching
10:54the plan work. It's actually watching
10:56your characters scramble when the alarms
10:59trip. You must force them to choose
11:00between the objective and their morals.
11:03Do they leave a team member behind? Do
11:06they unleash forbidden magic? In this
11:08genre, a successful heist shouldn't feel
11:09like a victory lap. It should feel like
11:11a survival situation where the win
11:14leaves everyone a little bit more broken
11:16than when they started. Now, speaking of
11:18things that go wrong, let's talk about
11:19trust. You might think betrayal is just
11:22a plot twist used to shock the reader.
11:24In this genre, betrayal is more of a
11:26lifestyle. It is an engine that drives
11:27your cynical protagonist deeper into
11:29their shell. In a world of extreme
11:31scarcity, loyalty is expensive. Most
11:33people simply can't afford it. So, don't
11:35make your betrayer a mustache twirling
11:38villain. Make them a member of the found
11:40family. Give them a logical reason for
11:42turning on your hero. Perhaps they are
11:44being blackmailed or they simply chose
11:47their own survival over the teams. And
11:49betrayal doesn't always have to look
11:51like a knife in the back. Sometimes it
11:52looks like inaction. It's simply walking
11:55away when your hero needs help the most.
11:57This constant threat forces your
11:58protagonist to adopt betrayal insurance.
12:01They should be planting contingencies,
12:03hiding assets, and never fully revealing
12:05their hand even to their friends. When
12:06the dust settles, don't fix the
12:08relationship. Leave the team fractured.
12:10That is how you prove the stakes are
12:12real. Finally, we have to address the
12:14chosen one trope. In standard fantasy,
12:16being chosen is like a golden ticket. In
12:17dark rogue epic fantasy, it is a curse.
12:20Instead of a pathway to heroism, frame
12:22destiny as a burden that your cynical
12:24protagonist is desperate to shed. A
12:26rogu's primary motivation is often
12:27survival and freedom. A prophecy is the
12:30exact opposite of that. It is a death
12:31sentence wrapped in a riddle. So, don't
12:34give them a clear path to victory. Give
12:36them a fragmented ancient text or a
12:37birthmark that marks them as a target
12:39for every corrupt faction in your world.
12:41This allows you to subvert expectations.
12:43You end up with a poorly chosen one.
12:45someone whose morally great skill set is
12:47completely wrong for the job, but who
12:49has to do it anyway? Maybe they try to
12:50heist the artifact meant to identify
12:52them just to destroy it. Or perhaps they
12:54try to manipulate the prophecy, using it
12:56as a political weapon or a distraction
12:58to pull off a job. All of these
12:59elements, the corruption, the heist, the
13:01flawed mentors boil down to one guiding
13:04principle, which is consequential
13:05darkness. The violence and psychological
13:07torment must serve a purpose. to strip
13:09away heroic idealism and force your
13:11protagonist into harsh pragmatism, but
13:13avoid any kind of gratuitous shock value
13:16because that is ultimately numbing. A
13:18victory that forces a character to
13:20compromise their morals that is
13:21compelling. Just don't kill a red shirt.
13:23Show the rogu's resulting paranoia. Show
13:26the disassociation. And whatever you do,
13:28avoid clean resolutions. Every
13:30resolution should spawn a new
13:32intractable problem. And if they defeat
13:34a rival gang, it should disturb the
13:36power vacuum enough that a worse tyrant
13:38steps in. This proves that in a world
13:40this broken, survival is really the only
13:42real victory. To master this genre, you
13:44need to understand the anatomy of these
13:46tropes at a granular level. And I've
13:47published a book that goes into more
13:49depth on the genre of dark rogue epic
13:50fantasy. You can buy that book on
13:52Amazon, but you can also get it at no
13:53extra charge along with many other book
13:55genre analyses by joining the story
13:57hacker gold group. We take you through
13:59the entire process to go from having
14:00nothing to having your book in hand and
14:02all the tools you need to market it. And
14:03we even get into how AI can help you
14:05enhance your process without diminishing
14:07your creativity or compromising your
14:09ethics.