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.
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2 Planetary Romance 3 Multidimensional fantasy worlds 4 Sword and Sorcery and heroic fantasy worlds 5 Books |
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.
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