How to Write a Prompt for a Detailed Fantasy City
Give a fantasy city a working geography before asking for more towers.
A fantasy city becomes memorable when its shape reveals how people live there. Before prompting, decide why the city occupies its site. A hill fortress, river port, and volcanic refuge should not share the same street plan.
Begin with a city plan
Name the terrain, water source, main route, defensive edge, and three districts. For example: “a sunlit limestone citadel on terraces above a river; a lower harbor, an artisan middle ring, and a beacon precinct inside the upper wall.” This gives the image model relationships to render. Add a viewpoint that reveals the route between districts, not only the tallest building.
Add an epic focal point with human scale
Use one landmark—a beacon, bridge, observatory, or hall—then anchor it with gates, stairs, market awnings, carts, and figures at consistent scale. Ask for streets and walls to connect plausibly. Specify where the light comes from and which surfaces catch it. Repeating “ultra-detailed, epic, majestic” adds little if the city has no structure.
Make a companion set
Once the establishing image works, create an outer-gate view, a street-level market, and a night panorama that preserve the same landmark and district layout. Compare walls, banners, terrain, and skyline silhouettes across the set. If a building jumps across the river, correct the continuity rather than calling it a new angle. Keep symbols and architecture original; a general strategy-game feeling does not require copying a recognizable game town.