# Fantasy's core features



## Kenthos (Jul 29, 2013)

Hello everybody, I'm Kenthos and new around here. I've been mulling over a idea in my head about a year now. I have other projects to finish but though I'd do a bit of research anyway. 

I want to write a fantasy that both parodies and is a decient fantasy novel. That kinda sounds crazy but that would take a long time to describe what I have in mind. So on to the question I thought I'd try asking a writing community is, what is the cores of fantasy? :cheese:

What makes a book fantasy in your mind? What elements are really fundamental or would be found in most books? I guess what is fantasy's goals?

What comes to mind myself are... a story that is literally fantastical and a adventure. The keys are the journey and how it changes the characters. But maybe I am simplifying things. I know lord of the rings really brought the unlikely hero really to the front and set a lot of what fantasy has become.


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## Outiboros (Jul 29, 2013)

I could give you a really long answer about the broad spectrum that is fantasy, but I'll give you the short one:

Magic.

That's what makes a book 'fantasy' to me. It can come in many forms - Lord of the Rings magic is wildly different from, say, A Song of Ice and Fire magic - but it's what makes a story fantasy to me.
That, and fantastical creatures. Who isn't familiar with the Dragon or the Orc? As for the rest, a common fantasy trope is medieval-level technology.

Do you simply want to make a parody or do you want to make a humoristic parody? Have you ever read Discworld?


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## Charlaux (Jul 29, 2013)

^ yep.

A struggle against a more powerful entity or force. Grim-looking odds of success.


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## Kenthos (Jul 29, 2013)

I'd gladly read a long description of fantasy if you wanted to write it. :distracted:
It's been a long time but i did read a little of the Discworld books. Since I am still in the planning so I am not sure where to draw the comedic and non-comedic line. 

I was planning on it being not flat out comedy but more self aware of what it is. Slowly going from what I might describe as dungeon and dragonish to more of the modern dark fantasy style that is in now. 'Not that i am knocking either of these styles. I've read plenty of both.'


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## Outiboros (Jul 29, 2013)

Kenthos said:


> I'd gladly read a long description of fantasy if you wanted to write it. :distracted:
> It's been a long time but i did read a little of the Discworld books. Since I am still in the planning so I am not sure where to draw the comedic and non-comedic line.
> 
> I was planning on it being not flat out comedy but more self aware of what it is. Slowly going from what I might describe as dungeon and dragonish to more of the modern dark fantasy style that is in now. 'Not that i am knocking either of these styles. I've read plenty of both.'


The earlier Discworld books are very high on the parody scale, and light and humoristic, while the later ones tend more to a darker theme, mostly the Watch books, though the humour is always present.

So, are you looking for elements of fantasy to parody?


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## Apple Ice (Jul 29, 2013)

Another element that I despise is that the goodies always win. Haven't come across a fantasy where the goodies lose. I'm guessing you knew that already. But yes, the goodies should win if you want to reflect


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## Kenthos (Jul 29, 2013)

Well I guess I should try to sum this up. In the beginning its dungeon and dragon style. A party of heroes, a knight, elf mage, half orc who is not very intelligent and of course a wizard. I was going to open with them in the middle of stopping a evil warlock guy. I am feeling really silly explaining it :crushed: 

So they stop the bad guy and they return home, establish the characters. Want it to really feel aware that it is a fantasy right in here the most. Then starts the real quest as well as the hints that this world is kinda not what is seems. Slowly the world seems to be degrading and these places they vist are plagued by not just a evil but are suffering of their own accord, becoming a much darker book.


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## Kenthos (Jul 29, 2013)

I guess what I am saying is its kinda parodying the light questing style novels and then taking these characters into a more darker settings over contrasting their idea of the world.


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## Nickleby (Jul 30, 2013)

The best definition of fantasy I know is, while science fiction is about the possible, fantasy is about the impossible. Putting aside Clarke's Laws, a fantasy story has some element that can't exist in our universe. What genre of fantasy a story falls into depends on how much the setting differs from our world. An urban fantasy, not much. A high fantasy, quite a bit. Low fantasy, somewhere in between.

My two cents.


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