This is a fanfiction for Wings of Fire. In my story, dragons come to a new continent that few have heard of. There are two tribes there, made up of dragons from tribes of the original continents. One group is characterized by strength and the other by strength of mind. Now, the main characters are students sent to finish their education in this new land. But they need to be sorted into the tribe that best suits their abilities and interests. But HOW? I don't know how to create a big test that both challenges the dragons and determines their interests. Should it be like Divergent testing with something that will judge your actions or like my high school Aspire stuff and you just straight up tell your interests. I already know what the main characters' outcomes are, just not how they get them.
i'm not familiar with Wings of Fire.... but what is the end goal? like, why have they been divided into tribes? what is the purpose of their education? For example, in Naruto, they were training the new shinobi because they were in a time of unrest. there had been multiple ninja wars, and Konoha still had enemies in the surrounding lands. The purpose of the Chunin Exams was to test their battle readiness, their strategy, their survival, and their over all abilities in the face of danger/war. One of the reasons why Boruto is so boring is because, without the war and conflict of the first series, these challenges seem pointless. There is no tension, no purpose, no reason to be a shinobi anymore. If you look at Hunger Games and Divergent (more so Hunger Games), the purpose of those challenges is to, ironically, keep peace and order. In both series, people were divided up in to groups, because individual groups are easier to control. In both series, the main characters go through a coming of age test (Katnis's world, its by chance, Tris' world its mandatory) that determines the course of their lives. In all of these examples... there is a why. why should they do this in th first place? What happens if they dont? In Naruto, if they dont become shinobi and fight, people die, Konoha may be left open to be attacked, other lands become stronger, etc. If Katnis chose not to do the hunger games, they would have taken her sister. If she had chosen to do nothing in the arena, she would have died and Peta would have died and she would have never have become a symbol of hope and resistance. If Tris would have refused the, what was it, aptitude test or something? Or refused to be sorted, there would have been consequences. If you want your story to have challenges, you have to think about what would happened if they DIDNT do those challenges. What would be the consequence? if the answer is "well, nothing really happens. they can just go and do something else", then whats the point of it? And they dont always have to be life or death challenges. All of these characters have personal goals and personal challenges that they need to overcome. So even if there is nothing like war or peace, for example, that drives these challenges, does your character at least have his own purpose for taking the tests? I think once you figure those things out, the KIND of test/challenge you want them to take will be a bit easier to see.
