The Magnificent Art of Worldbuilding.

On Tropical Fantasy:

I’m tired of temperate forests, alpine mountains and stone castles, and every fantasy setting looking like Average European Woodland With Magic. There is so much beyond that:

And this is just barely getting into the cultures and religions of each region. From Latin America to Africa to Asia to Australia, you can find so many cultures and civilizations, each one with their own unique environment and history. Go beyond what has been done in every other setting. Leave the old temperate forests behind. Embrace tropical fantasy.

Potatoes and "medieval fantasy":

People get mad when I ask why are there potatoes in "medieval fantasy". It's a made up world, they say. It's not literally Europe. And yet, you see the tropes of medieval Europe all around. Worlds that look 90% like Medieval Europe, except for the fact that there are products from the Columbian Exchange. How convenient. Isn't there a Fantasy Andean Civilization out there? I would much rather read about that....

But fair, maybe I'm being too annoying about it, it's just fantasy. "It's just magic! I don't need to explain everything! Potatoes are there because I like them, and it's magic!". So, why are potatoes such a big deal to me?

It's not just about them.

One thing about the European Middle Ages (that were a thousand years long period with many changes and transformation bla bla bla) is that they were very isolated and honestly, poor. Yes, the Silk Road existed and there were even European communities in Persia and China (but they also decayed), yes there was lots of art and culture and such. But Europe was still a rather isolated and poor part of the world, no matter if we now understand the Middle Ages were more complex.

(and in the early dark ages, yes, it WAS that bad, with cities shrinking to the size of old Roman amphitheaters and the overall quality of life for everyone diminishing with trade routes severed everywhere and literacy and infrastructure dropping. Don’t think that just because it wasn’t a completely dark time and things still went on, it wasn’t bad)

ANYWAYS, my point is that most of the things we associate with “medieval” fantasy and worlds are actually from the Renaissance and Early Modern Age. Those worldbuilding pedants (and my friends) focused on military matters point out the plate armor and weapons, others point out the availability of books and literacy and architecture, I point out the food and luxury items that you just couldn’t find otherwise…

And that does imply something. It implies a connected world, one that is very much more modern. It implies trade networks to bring a whole host of exotic and luxury goods (transoceanic networks, if we are talking about things only found in the tropics, since virtually all modern fantasy is set in temperate areas but I ranted about that elsewhere), it implies printing press and increased literacy, it implies an increase on wealth to afford all those things, and places where those goods and wealth came from… specifically colonialism (but we don’t wanna talk about that, right? you don’t want me to go quoting Eduardo Galeano right?).

And those things also imply MORE; social and religious conflict, the dawn of modern science, trade networks, intercultural contact, and again, colonialism and imperialism.

And that clashes with the general fantasy plot of good and evil kingdoms in a mostly static world (still from the classic view of the European Dark Ages), where technology, society and even individual dynasties don’t change for centuries or millennia. All with the trappings of a society in full change. People love their princesses with silk dresses eating chocolate, their knights with plate armor eating potato stew, and wizards with huge libraries in cities that can allow enough wealth to employ them, but don’t want to think that this might not be signs of a static theme park world, but a world that was increasingly interconnected and changing, like our early modern age. (and thus, an interesting story)

And why don’t you want to learn about those changes that built our modern world? The cultures where most of the things you take from granted came from? (some, in my opinion, could be more well known in the west…) Why the boring coup-out of “it’s just magic XD” when you could think a little more and create something interesting?

So no, it’s not just about potatoes, but it’s a good question to ask first.

More coming soon

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