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Definition: Fantasy World |
Fantasy WorldNoun1. A place existing solely in the imagination (but often mistaken for reality). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A fantasy world is an imaginary place or time in which magic or other similar powers work. The world may be a parallel realm or dimension tenuously connected to our world via mystic gates (like Narnia and The Dreamlands); somewhere in our mythical past (like Middle-earth and Hyborian Age) or future (Earthdawn, Dying Earth); or the story may have no reference to our reality at all.J. R. R. Tolkien created Middle-earth, one of the better known fantasy worlds, and he wrote at some length about the process of creating them, which he called "subcreation". Most of the commercial fantasy writers like David Eddings and Robert Jordan write close copies of his tale.
Dungeons & Dragons, the first role-playing game has created several detailed and commercially successful fantasy worlds, with established and recognizable characters, locations, histories, and sociologies. The Forgotten Realms is perhaps the most extensively developed of these worlds. These elements of detail can be a large part of what attracts people to RPGs.
Many established fantasy writers have also derided Dungeons and Dragons because new writers tend to read the D&D Monster Manual instead of studying original mythologies from which the fantasy literature has sprung.
Due to the fuzzy boundary between fantasy and science fiction, it is similarly difficult to make a hard-and-fast distinction between "fantasy worlds" and planets in science fiction. For example, the worlds of Barsoom, Darkover, Gor, and the Witch World combine elements of both genres.
Pseudo-medieval fantasy worlds
This is the most common type. Social conditions are modeled on medieval Europe although many stories have numerous gods and goddesses that suggest polytheism. They include Forgotten Realms and most other fantasy worlds connected to Dungeons and Dragons RPG. See also High fantasy.
- Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
- Forgotten Realms - Dungeons & Dragons' default setting
- Harn - RPG world
- Middle-earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
- Midkemia - Raymond E. Feist
- Mystara - Dungeons & Dragons
- Narnia - C. S. Lewis
- Prydain - Lloyd Alexander
- Yrth - GURPS Fantasy
Planetary Romance
Planets with fantasy trappings and usually magic and/or a pretext why swords and other melee weapons are necessary. Barsoom tales are close runner. Many of the earlier tales were fantasy thinly disguised as science fiction.
- Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
- Darkover - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Multidimensional fantasy worlds
Some stories take place in a series of connected universes (see: multiverse). Noted for this include:
- Roger Zelazny, see Amber (fictional universe)
- Guy Gavriel Kay, see Fionavar
- Everway of the roleplaying game of the same name
- Michael Moorcock, see Eternal Champion
Sword and Sorcery and heroic fantasy worlds
Other fantasy worlds include:
- Earthdawn - FASA roleplaying game
- Glorantha, world of RuneQuest, Hero Wars and HeroQuest roleplaying games
- Hyborian Age - Conan the Barbarian stories
- Jaconia - Fantasy world of Finnish Graphic artist Petri Hiltunen
- Talislanta of the roleplaying game of the same name
- Tekumel of Empire of the Petal Throne
See also contemporary fantasy, juvenile fantasy, and urban fantasy
- Athas of Dungeons & Dragons's Dark Sun background
- Bas-Lag - China Miéville's Perdido Street Station and The Scar, major city New Crobuzon
- Beklan Empire - Richard Adams's Shardik and its sequels
- Discworld of Terry Pratchett, parodies fantasy cliches
- The Dreamlands of H. P. Lovecraft
- Fantastica - Michael Ende's The Neverending Story
- Flatland - Edwin Abbott's Flatland (a two-dimensional world inhabited by geometrical figures)
- Hybernia
- Kingdoms of Elfin - Sylvia Townsend Warner
- Lyonesse - Jack Vance
- Neverland - J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan
- Oz - L. Frank Baum
- Taemoe
- Viriconium - M. John Harrison
- Witch World - Andre Norton
- The World of Two Moons/Abode - Elfquest
Books
- Diana Wynne Jones: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland explains and parodies the common features of a standard fantasy world
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Fantasy world."
Synonyms: Fantasy WorldSynonyms: fairyland (n), phantasy world (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Fantasy World |
| English words defined with "fantasy world": fantasy life ♦ phantasy life. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Lyrics | I'm a blond single girl, in a fantasy world (Barbie Girl; performing artist: Aqua) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Fantasy World Cup (1998) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-d-f-l-n-o-r-s-t-w-y" | |
-4 letters: aardwolf, fanworts, flatways, foldaway, frontals, lanyards, loadstar, nowadays, roadways, sandwort, tanyards, tardyons, towardly, trolands. | |
-5 letters: alastor, analyst, aroynts, astylar, daltons, daystar, drylots, fantasy, fantods, fanwort, frontal, frowsty, ladrons, lanyard, lardons, narwals, onwards, roadway, sandfly, sandlot, synodal, tanyard, tardyon, towards, troland, yantras. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)46 61 6E 74 61 73 79 57 6F 72 6C 64 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000110 01100001 01101110 01110100 01100001 01110011 01111001 00100000 01010111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)F a n t a s y   W o r l d |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0046 0061 006E 0074 0061 0073 0079 0057 006F 0072 006C 0064 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4067808667859125781847870 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Anagrams 8. Orthography | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
