Picturing a fantasy world, what often comes to mind is an image of the past. A time reminiscent of castles full of nobles and towns filled with peasants. And there are actually two forms of this medieval setting: the small scope and the large.
On a smaller scale, many books found in the fantasy genre take place in a castle. Countries or kingdoms or cities are run by a royal family, and the narrative focuses on these noble characters (or characters interacting with the nobles). Kings, queens, princes, and princesses—one can find the entire royal roster in dozens of fantasy stories. Occasionally there will be an emperor, or a servant, or a citizen of the city; but at the end of the day, it circles back to the ruling party, and the majority of the story takes place within or around a castle.
When the story grows beyond just one book, the world expands and the setting shifts from being pointed directly at the castle to the wider country, continent, or world—as seen in stories like the Red Queen series. The world is still often heavily inspired by medieval times, but now the characters traverse across countries and seas, infiltrate different kingdoms, or spend nights in charming little towns. They do not move quickly between locations, but the characters are always moving. The towns bring to mind warm colors like brown and orange, peasantry to contrast the opulence the castle settings bring to the table. The portrayal of the world is far more open—as if the possibilities on where to go are endless—which is a huge difference from the way settings kept in a singular place, like a castle, can feel restrictive and suffocating.
What is fantasy without its magic? Like the genre itself, this trope is vast and includes a wide range of possibilities, some that overlap with others (fantasy races, for example). But, not every fantasy world contains magic, so it falls onto this list as a trope. The amount of magic in any given world differs depending on the story.
For some stories, the magic is subtle—or perhaps just not all-encompassing. It’s in the background of the story. Common in the ways that cars and phones, or dogs and cats, are in our world. Low-fantasy stories utilize this kind of magic, where magic is not special in any way because it is so normalized in society. It’s a part of everyday life, and to remove the magic would not affect the main plot in any way. Spells to do chores cast without a second thought, elemental magic mentioned in passing but rarely used by the characters. Cozy cottages inhabited by a witch or a royal sorcerer whose magic is acknowledged but rarely focused on.
In contrast, some stories have magic that is so integral to the story that to remove it would leave barely any plot remaining. Typically the case in high-fantasy stories, learning or utilizing magic is a key part to the protagonist’s journey, focusing on how magic impacts the characters. The Percy Jackson books follow this framework. Or, the magic makes the world so different from ours that there is no ignoring it: wars waged not with technological weapons but elemental magic, necromancers leaving towns haunted with husks of its citizens, healing potions in every characters’ bag, or warnings of love potions being tipped into their drinks. These high fantasy stories rely so heavily on their magic systems, that even the very themes—as explored here—are affected by the magic implemented into the stories.
Finally, there are the inhabitants of the world. This trope has two categories: races and creatures.
The different races of a fantasy world typically seem more humanoid; they are the beings we look at and see ourselves. This category includes elves, orcs, and dwarves. They have unique societies, cultures, and histories. We learn about the traits and cultures of these races usually through an outsider’s POV. Sometimes implementing different fantasy races in stories creates allegories for issues we face in our world—the topic of fantasy discrimination and racism is one that is debated often when found in stories.
Different creatures make up the animal kingdom—the beings we first think of when we imagine a fantasy setting: the dragons and fairies and towering monsters. Sometimes the creatures take inspiration from folklore—dragons being a perfect example, with many different origins, types, and reputations. The animals of a fantasy world sometimes take inspiration from our own world—magical deer or shapeshifting snakes. Other times, the creatures can be entirely fictional, made to be something we would have never seen before outside of dreams—monsters as tall as mountains with too many teeth or little pet slimes.
The biggest difference between races and creatures in fantasy are the level of sentience given to them. Some stories—such as the Wings of Fire novels—make dragons sentient creatures with their own societies and cultures, thus moving them into the race category. Other times fairies are the protagonists, rather than small animals that happen to look like us, and we view them as real creatures with lives.
This is far from a comprehensive list of common tropes one can find in fantasy; in fact, it’s merely the tip of the iceberg. But that’s part of the charm of fantasy—the genre encompasses so much that there’s something for everyone, whether you like the portrayal of magic or the whimsy of entering a brand new world.
Grace McCool, Pine Reads Review Writer & Editor
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This post is very well written and thought out! I love all the examples provided. The explanations of each trope is easy to understand and still leaves room for personal thoughts and opinions. I love all things trope, though some of my friends know little of it, and I just know showing this to them will help!
Very informative and an excellent list. Grace Mccool- wonderfully excellent work.