Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kay12]

(Starting a thread after a derail in MLP thread)
Let's assume that 1000 years in the future, our age will be the most popular setting for high fantasy. What will this retro-contemporary fantasy setting be like?

Our rudimentary science will probably be replaced by magic to some degree. It was also joked that the periodic table would replace the four "elements" common in fantasy, instead of earth, water, fire and air mages you'd have hydrogen, oxygen, sodium etc mages. Just imagine the coolness of two hydrogen mages and an air mage combining to form a water mage!

Ideas for retro-contemporary fantasy are welcome. I might even write short stories based on this setting if nice ideas pop up

[Willfor]

The problem with that assumption is that we're already seeing the collapse of the standard fantasy setting as more and more authors move toward more original places. I don't doubt that medieval high fantasy will continue for some time in the future, especially memeticly, but as the barriers between published authors and self-published authors decreases, we're going to see a rise in the fantasy genre. There's going to be a rise in the amount of crap that's put out, of course, but there will be quality works as well. And as we go into this future, it's impossible to say what the most popular setting will be.

However:

I'd say a giant conflict in the Middle East + mages would be a theme due to the ripe potential for conflict there. Some mages with powers based on their religions, and some given powers based on exposure to biological contaminants. Also, superheroes will likely be blended in for good measure. Captain Syria. It's go time.

[Kay12]

The problem with that assumption is that we're already seeing the collapse of the standard fantasy setting as more and more authors move toward more original places. I don't doubt that medieval high fantasy will continue for some time in the future, especially memeticly, but as the barriers between published authors and self-published authors decreases, we're going to see a rise in the fantasy genre. There's going to be a rise in the amount of crap that's put out, of course, but there will be quality works as well. And as we go into this future, it's impossible to say what the most popular setting will be.

This started from a joke and this better stay lighthearted - don't take the actual feasibility of future fantasy using this too seriously

[Willfor]

The problem with that assumption is that we're already seeing the collapse of the standard fantasy setting as more and more authors move toward more original places. I don't doubt that medieval high fantasy will continue for some time in the future, especially memeticly, but as the barriers between published authors and self-published authors decreases, we're going to see a rise in the fantasy genre. There's going to be a rise in the amount of crap that's put out, of course, but there will be quality works as well. And as we go into this future, it's impossible to say what the most popular setting will be.

This started from a joke and this better stay lighthearted - don't take the actual feasibility of future fantasy using this too seriously

But talking knowingly about the future as if I had any idea about how it's going to turn out is fun for me...

[RedKing]

I'd say a giant conflict in the Middle East + mages would be a theme due to the ripe potential for conflict there. Some mages with powers based on their religions, and some given powers based on exposure to biological contaminants. Also, superheroes will likely be blended in for good measure. Captain Syria. It's go time.

And of course, his sidekick: Major Uprising. Quick! To the Intifada-cave!



I think any kind of retro-modernist genre would be more like a Weird West than medieval. Everyone would carry guns, and there would be firefights regularly, between the various "guilds" (based on subcultures). So of course, there would be a rousing tale of the Shootout at the 4chan Corral.

[Kay12]

Indeed, I was imagining something like steampunk - except that you replace steam with something that defines our modern world. I guess that's the untamed wilds of the Internet.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Horrible mishmash of high fantasy, real history from all the wrong periods and CSI: Miami.

[Darvi]

And this is what the US Pres will be like.

[RedKing]

Steampunk - steam + computers = Cyberpunk. Which is sci-fi, not fantasy. And an old and established genre.

Horrible mishmash of high fantasy, real history from all the wrong periods and CSI: Miami.

YES. An elven prince that uses "forensic magic" to figure out how a Nazi sniper shot JFK.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Steampunk - steam + computers = Cyberpunk. Which is sci-fi, not fantasy. And an old and established genre.

Horrible mishmash of high fantasy, real history from all the wrong periods and CSI: Miami.

YES. An elven prince that uses "forensic magic" to figure out how a Nazi sniper shot JFK.

He did it with radiation from a mobile phone!

[ChairmanPoo]

You know, I've thought for a while that fantasy worlds are getting permeated by modern science as much as sci fi settings or more. Wizards in fantasy worlds are becoming stand-ins for scientists' the spells get scientific (or pseudoscientific, or a mishmash of both) explanations more and more often, and real world discoveries influence the kimnd of things they can do. Furthermore, fantasy authros like to make their wizards drop lines that show them knowledgeable about science, and magic itself is described as something physical and bound by a few manageable laws, instead of being arcane and forbidding...

[RedKing]

Well IMHO that's partially because magic in a fictional setting often needs to have some kind of rules, or it can easily become a big series of asspulls and deus ex machinas. Or you run into problems with inconsistent power levels (a massive problem in comic books, for instance).

There's also a secondary effect from RPGs--where magic has to have a rulesystem to make it playable, and then novels based on the games wind up internalizing that. (the most hamfisted attempts being where you can literally see the character's spell list at a given point in the story)


Magic in Tolkien and other old-school fantasy authors was much more like the old legends--unexplained and mostly just hinted at.

[counting]

Fantasy is about what-if. And by then the future science will be built upon modern science. And it's not likely it will contradict current observation in science (or it won't be science). Or another dark age happens so the current science will be like weird magic.

If super advanced techs already becomes normal. People may tend to build what ever fantasy they want, without the limitation of particular settings.

[Dsarker]

I was thinking more of the "mages" would be scientists, so you'd have your hydrogen scientist causing things to explode, for example.


Counting, less than five hundred years ago, people knew that the Earth was the centre of the universe, and thus didn't move. After all, if it did move, there would have been a noticable parallax shift. Aristotle had proven it.

Of course, there wasn't a parallax shift they could notice because they didn't have powerful enough telescopes. It's all too likely that someone will discern that elements are completely false, for whatever reason.

[kaijyuu]

All I know is I'd love to play Elemental Rock Paper Scissors with the actual periodic table. Souped up of course; can't have those measly chemical reactions you see in real life!