A fantasy world is a type of fictional universe in which magic or other similar powers work. The world may be a parallel realm or dimension tenuously connected to our world via mystic gates (like Narnia and The Dreamlands ); somewhere in our mythical past (like Middle-earth and the Hyborian Age of Conan the Barbarian) or future (Earthdawn, Dying Earth); or the story may have no reference to our reality at all.

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 (called "campaign settings"), 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 and the fantasy fiction it has inspired due to its influencing new writers toward reading 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.

For a list of fantasy worlds, see list of fantasy worlds, list of fictional universes, and Category:Fictional universes.

See also

• contemporary fantasy
• juvenile fantasy
• urban fantasy
• constructed world

Reference

• Diana Wynne Jones: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland explains and parodies the common features of a standard fantasy world