For the love of fantasy.

Greetings mythics!

Welcome to the first Edra Scrolls blog. I’ll be rambling on (but in a good way) about various topics, themes, and subjects all under the guise of fantasy and folktales. But what do I mean by fantasy and folktales?

As a child I fell in love with Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, Lord of the Rings, Knightmare, Dungeons & Dragons, Talisman and a plethora of folktales, each sparked my imagination and gave me a life-long love of fantasy. Be it TV show, board game, film, I didn’t care as long as it was fantasy. I spent hours pretending I was a knight on a valiant quest, or a rogue who risked his life trying to steal treasure, or a wizard casting spells to ward of evil. Whatever the fantasy story, I was immersed and happy.

According to my dear friend Wikipedia, “Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and usually inspired by mythology or folklore.” A pretty good summary as you’d expect. But fantasy, to me, is so much more than pixies, elves, dwarves, and magic! It’s about the characters who live and breath in these fantastical realms that keeps me there as I live and breath their every step with them.

You could say that about any genre of fiction, and you’d be right. In order for myself to become immersed in the story, I need to be emotionally attached to its characters regardless of genre. However, what draws me into a story is the fantasy elements. I love magic and mythical creatures. I love the bizarre and unusual. I love the strange and the unknowing. Well written fantasy and folktales combine all these elements as well and having emotionally engaging characters and storylines.

Another definition of fantasy is from the Gotham Writers website, “While science fiction draws on and extrapolates from what we know about reality and science, fantasy invents what does not (and likely could not) exist in our reality.” Whilst this serves as a solid broad description I would add that there are many subgenres of fantasy that do draw upon what we know about reality and science. However, fantasy gives the writer the freedom to bend those realities and science to suit their particular world of fantasy.

One huge ‘advantage’ for fantasy authors over others comes from the world building aspect. This allows the writer to create and invent aspects of their fantasy world that do not exist in our normal reality and shape a new reality that has its own laws of physics and science. This is where the joy of creating magic systems, creatures, and cultural histories occurs that isn’t found in other genres.

Like all good genres, there are many subgenres contained within, and fantasy is no exception. According to the website Master Class there are 18 fantasy subgenres:

• High fantasy

• Low fantasy
• Dystopian fantasy

• Magical realism

• Sword and sorcery

• Urban fantasy

• Paranormal romance

• Dark fantasy

• Grimdark fantasy

• Fables

• Fairy Tales

• Superhero fantasy

• Fantasy of manners

• Crossworlds fantasy

• Steampunk fantasy

• Arthurian fantasy

• Sci-fi fantasy

• Wuxia fantasy

Obviously I’m not going to define every one of the subgenres but merely point out that fantasy offers the writer and the reader of fantasy a rich seem of worlds to dip their magic wands into, each with their unique attractions.

Maybe it was my young introduction to fantasy that ‘did the damage’ or the era I grew up in, whatever it was, I’m glad the damage was done and proud to write and read fantasy, in all its genres. What about you? Let me know in the comments.

May magic be with you, always.

Loquacious McCarbre
Storyteller Extraordinaire

References:
Subgenres of Fantasy:
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-complete-overview-of-fantasy-subgenres

Wikipedia on Fantasy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy