# Your Favorite Fantasy World



## thecoldembrace (May 27, 2015)

I am actually curious as to what fantasy worlds/universes people think of when asked this question. It doesn't just have to pertain to books, but could also be game worlds or one from a movie. What makes the world you choose so interesting to you?

-Cold


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## Garren Jacobsen (May 27, 2015)

Brandon Sandersons Roshar from Way of Kings. My own world that's just a sketch now where the Magic is based in common law principles of torts, property, and contracts.


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## thecoldembrace (May 27, 2015)

Brian Scott Allen said:


> Brandon Sandersons Roshar from Way of Kings. My own world that's just a sketch now where the Magic is based in common law principles of torts, property, and contracts.



What makes Brandon Sanderson's Roshar so interesting to you?


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## Garren Jacobsen (May 27, 2015)

It's wholly alien. It's nothing but stone, storms, and war. The beliefs are strange, the magic stranger, and dammit I want to ride a chasm fiend.


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## skip.knox (May 27, 2015)

You mean besides my own? <grin>

Sorry to be so obvious, but Middle Earth. You're going to ask why so I'll save you a post. Because more than any other fantasy realm, it feels like a place I could actually visit and explore.

Second would be the world of Elder Scrolls. Same deal. I want a fantasy world where it feels like I could actually walk around, stop in a tavern, talk to the people, find my own way. And that's exactly why I don't care for Sanderson's Roshar, because pretty much all that's there is there in service of the plot. It feels like if I wandered outside the story lines, all I would get is polygons. I know other folks love that world. Different chasms for different bridge men.


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## Snowpoint (May 27, 2015)

Favorite movie is Princess Mononoke. The movie is set on the boarder between man and nature. Talking animal gods roam the woods. It doesn't have as much stuff going on like a long running fantasy series would, but this is awesome.


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## Incanus (May 27, 2015)

Skip stole about half my thunder.  Yes, Middle-earth all the way.  I love the over-the-top detail.  Riffing on what Skip was saying, I totally feel like, instead of going east out of Bree with Strider and the hobbits, I could head north--_and would find stuff there_.  Its that sense that there's something around every corner, even the ones that are never actually taken by any character.  I'm not certain I understand how this was accomplished, but it is just awesome.  A powerful combo--insane world-building blended with a compelling plot.  Most other fantasy worlds have 'just enough to tell the story, and no more', which is often fine, but Tolkien goes the extra step and it makes all the difference.


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## TWErvin2 (May 27, 2015)

The Land, in the _Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever _series (two trilogies and then a final 4 books).

It has depth and history, and isn't like other worlds, with unique magics and cultures and creatures.


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## Pythagoras (May 27, 2015)

I'm a fan of the Earthsea archipelago.


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## BWFoster78 (May 27, 2015)

I honestly have no answer for the question.  Not a single fantasy world from movie or books made enough of an impression on me for me to have any basis for ranking them.

Characters, books, even magic systems, yes.  Worlds, no.


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## thecoldembrace (May 27, 2015)

BWFoster78 said:


> I honestly have no answer for the question.  Not a single fantasy world from movie or books made enough of an impression on me for me to have any basis for ranking them.
> 
> Characters, books, even magic systems, yes.  Worlds, no.



No world you'd like to actually visit were it possible?


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## Ophiucha (May 28, 2015)

I feel similarly to BWFoster, there aren't any worlds that - on their own, at least - enchanted me. I like worlds for the people that inhabit them or the way they allow stories to be told in or about them. Oz comes to mind as a 'world' that I like, but there's nothing in its lore or landscape that interests me anymore than the next fantasy novel. I've just loved so many of the stories to come out of Oz, be it the L. Frank Baum novels or its many, many spin-offs and reinterpretations, that Oz in turn has become a setting I enjoy. I certainly like many of the settings of my favourite novels - Bas-Lag, for example - but more in how they enhance the story than in any aspect of the worlds on their own. _Iron Council_, one of the books written in that setting, deals a lot with social inequality and the worldbuilding does an amazing job of showing us a dark situation and building up to a stunning conclusion. But I wouldn't care much at all about it if we weren't following around a ragtag group of bisexual communist golemancers.

If I had to pick a place to _live _in or visit, though, it would probably just be Dinotopia. A utopian island with talking dinosaurs. Can't complain about that.


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## Feo Takahari (May 28, 2015)

Can I get away with The Golden Oecumene? It's sci-fi, but it's so far in the future that it might as well be fantasy. The author references ideas that could be the premise of an entire novel, then tosses them off as background details to show just how vibrant and varied the setting is. The main character is part of a group that emphasizes seeing the world exactly as it is, without any sort of filters or augmented vision--and this is probably the only way the book could have been written, because some of the characters are so _alien_ that it would be nigh-impossible to write an entire story from their POVs! More than anything else I've read, it feels like a world that could never be fully explored because there's always more to see and do.


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## Chessie (May 28, 2015)

TAMRIEL. I want to live there!


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## ThinkerX (May 28, 2015)

I have read a huge pile of fantasy / SF works, probably far more than all but a couple of posters here.  Lots of the respective worlds made impressions on me, enough to the point where I stole elements from one or another for my own writing.  But as to a favorite...

...first off, lives of most folks in most fantasy worlds is not great.  Once a peasant, barring divine intervention or something similar, always a peasant.  Short life, dominated by hard work.  Travel not a real option, also education, medical care, and the like.  Upper classes have it better, but still...not that great.  Applies to Feists Midkemia, Tolkien's Middle Earth, Kerr's Devery, LeGuin's EarthSea,  and most other fantasy worlds.  But there are a couple I found downright fascinating, though very few others here will have heard of them.  Of these, the one I'd like to visit, and based one of my worlds around is...

the Spine from Kim Stanly Robinson's 'Short Sharp Shock' - a world of water, with a single significant landmass - a narrow ribbon of rock and dirt encircling the entire world - and its a big world.  Most places you can cross its width in a few hours, maybe a day or two, tops.  But the circumference is several tens of thousands of miles, minimum.  And every few hundred miles is a strange little society, some human, some not, some hostile, some not, each with differing degrees of technology and magic.


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## WooHooMan (May 28, 2015)

I don't want to say Tamriel because other people have said it but, man, Tamriel is great.

I've heard someone said that Tamriel is a by-the-numbers European-flavored fantasy setting on the surface but the deeper you get into the world, the more you realize it's a very bizarre Hindu-inspired science-fantasy. 
In my experience, that's pretty accurate.  Oblivion, for example, is pretty clearly a Lord of the Rings-inspired adventure story but there's also an alien invasion, an avatar and a time traveling robot.  Those layers and the way the setting gets weirder and more complex the more you learn about it really makes you want to know all you can know about it.


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## SugoiMe (May 28, 2015)

Yeah, aside from my own? 

I'm gonna have to go with either Middle Earth or the world from the Sword of Shannara trilogy.  For Middle Earth, there are just so many places to explore, and it's easy to go travelling around...so long as you don't get impaled by an orc arrow. lol  For the Sword of Shannara trilogy (can't remember for the life of me what the world's called.  Earth?), one of my favourite parts from the first book was when the travelling crew came across some ruins from ancient times.  I would love to investigate those and explore the area for more if I could.  It'd be awesome to speculate about where they could have come from.  Also, picking Allanon's (spelling okay?  I dunno) brain about secrets of the past.  Just so long as a giant machine-turned-half living monster doesn't eat me.


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## Nagash (May 28, 2015)

Sanderson's Roshar seems amazing too, but I don't know much about it, having _just_ begun to read the Way of Kings (absolute delight, by the way). 

I'd probably go for the world of Warhammer, to wander off in Lustria with my fellow lizardmen, or maybe Tamriel as mentionned above, since it has captivated me since I played Morrowind. Definitely not Westeros, though. Great tale, but man, what an awful world to live in. Don't get me wrong : warhammer is awfully cruel too. But there's lizardmen, damnit !

Also, Azeroth would be pretty nice, provided I would land in a timeline where these pandas had never existed. I know it isn't as sophisticated as most fantasy universes (/wink cold) and that it's downright childish at times, but I just can't let go of all the memories I have of me playing the Warcraft saga and fancying myself an orc leader of Doomhammer's Horde or a jungle troll. My, what a life that would be...


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## BWFoster78 (May 28, 2015)

thecoldembrace said:


> No world you'd like to actually visit were it possible?



No, not really.


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## Russ (May 28, 2015)

Melnibone and the Young Kingdoms.


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## K.S. Crooks (May 30, 2015)

I'm pretty straight forward: 1) Narnia because I like all the creatures that exist there. 2) Our world with muppets that are really alive.


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## Chessie (May 30, 2015)

BWFoster78 said:


> No, not really.


Get with Tamriel. You'd love it.


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## ChasingSuns (Jun 1, 2015)

As others have said, Tamriel and Middle Earth would both be pretty cool. I would also like to check out Dunwall, although the plague would be a little unsettling lol. Also, I happen to play MTG, and have read several books tied into that game, so yeah... I would LOVE to go planeswalking through those different worlds.


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## Nomadica (Feb 2, 2018)

Dying Earth by Jack Vance. Both the world itself and the cultures in it. I like how it's on earth yet so alien and magical and ominously beautiful. So far nobody can paint pictures in my head like Jack Vance, its like watching a movie in my skull.


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## skip.knox (Feb 2, 2018)

So many of the fantasy worlds are so grim, I doubt I'd like to visit there. Even Narnia feels like a place more dangerous than interesting.


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## Nomadica (Feb 2, 2018)

skip.knox said:


> So many of the fantasy worlds are so grim, I doubt I'd like to visit there. Even Narnia feels like a place more dangerous than interesting.


Dangerous yes but even though the earth is dying it doesn't feel as grim as one would think.  "There is evil on Earth, evil distilled by time … Earth is dying and in its twilight." The "few thousand strange souls" are "feverishly merry, for infinite night was close at hand, when the red sun should finally flicker and go black"


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## skip.knox (Feb 2, 2018)

Don't get me wrong, I love Jack Vance and the Dying Earth. To read. 

But if I want to party and get wasted in the face of the apocalypse, why I can to that right here. ;-)


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## Nomadica (Feb 2, 2018)

True lol


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## Dark Squiggle (Feb 3, 2018)

_Discworld _and _Lower London _ of_ Neverwhere_. I like them not so much because I'd like to go there, but because very often I feel like I already am there.


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## DragonOfTheAerie (Feb 3, 2018)

I mean, I want to visit Hogwarts, but Middle Earth...I suppose? I would love to stay in a hobbit hole. 

I'm not altogether sure i want to visit my own worlds. All are quite dangerous, and dark.


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## Tom (Feb 4, 2018)

I'd love to visit Earthsea. Favorite fantasy world by a long shot. I'd also be up to experience Arilisee, my least hostile created world, mostly because of the sheer amount of fun I've had building it.


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## CupofJoe (Feb 4, 2018)

Dark Squiggle said:


> _Discworld _and Lower London of_ Neverwhere_. I like them not so much because I'd like to go there, but because very often I feel like I already am there.


You beat me to both of them! 
I'd love to live on the Discworld. It seems such a nice place. I know that bad things go on there but it has a safe cosy feel to it. I live not far from places that would be right at home on The Chalk.
As for London Below, it feels fantastical but all too believable. I went to the Catacombs in Paris and it felt like a glimpse of somewhere straight out of Neverwhere. And that it was written more than 20 years ago...


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## Insolent Lad (Feb 5, 2018)

There is something to be said for Zelazny's Amber multiverse (or is it an infiniverse?). So many possibilities—assuming one has the abilities of the royal family! Of course, in a sense, we all already live there.


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## Corwynn (Feb 5, 2018)

Others have mentioned Middle Earth and Tamriel. Both have a rich sense of history, geography and culture that allow one to explore well beyond the limits of the main story.

Another favourite is the Empire of the Isles from the _Dishonored_ series. It's broadly based on 19th century Europe, but with some unique twists to make it interesting. The art style is gorgeous, and Arkane has included a lot of worldbuilding info. Even though we only get to see a small part of the setting, there is so much to see and do within that area. It has been a major influence on my own fantasy world.

I also like the world from Cecelia Dart-Thornton's _Bitterbynde_ series. While Dart-Thornton has her flaws as a writer (she can get overly self-indulgent with the language), her world is beautifully-crafted, drawing heavily from European (especially Celtic) folklore. It is world of both beauty and peril, where magic and fay creatures are everywhere.

There are also a few webcomic universes I find quite fascinating, most of which you've probably never heard of, but what most of them have in common is a sense of strangeness and exoticism that I find compelling.


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## Orc Knight (Feb 6, 2018)

Albion, from the Fable series, for sheer mystical whimsey (and utterly terrifying things inside the whimsy). And it's one of those Fantasy world's one has a chance to survive in. At least bigger then normal.


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## ScorpionWoman (Mar 15, 2019)

Game of Thrones world ( I haven't yet had the pleasure of reading it but am heading that way having just finished season 7). The inkworld in Cornillia Funkes Ink series, it's a middle school aged book but has always stuck with me. I particularly love it in the second book where it's more dominantly used.


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## Gurkhal (Mar 18, 2019)

Westeros because it, at least in the much of the material, isn't as magic-heavy as many other worlds.

After that comes Middle Earth.


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## TheCrystallineEntity (Mar 22, 2019)

Discworld!


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## Mythopoet (Mar 23, 2019)

Middle-earth always because no-one will EVER make more wonderful Elves and also because HOBBITS. Absolutely the best little people ever invented.


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## Shonen (Dec 27, 2019)

My favourite world is Azeroth (especially the classic WoW) and Middle-Earth


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## Sir Kenneth (Dec 28, 2019)

Middle-Earth. It just feels so lived in and fleshed out and with such a rich sense of history. I don't think there's ever been written anything quite like it. Not anything I've read anyway.


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## Rogue (Jan 5, 2020)

I can't really answer this because my answer today will be different than it was yesterday and would change come tomorrow. I just can't pick a _favorite_. But if I had a chance to _visit one_, assuming that I wouldn't remain the incompetent lummox I am in the real world, then I would have to choose the _*Forgotten Realms*_. The stories I've read in that setting aren't my favorites by a long stretch, I don't even have that high of an opinion of most of them, but the world just screams of a high fantasy setting where anything is possible.

I feel like it would give me the potential to live out all of my ultimate wish-fulfillment dreams from boyhood when my stories were still just shameless self-insertion and I'd be the budding adventurer turned legendary hero, slinging spells and swords left and right and dragons would tremble when they heard my name! Because ultimately, while my writing has matured since those days (at least I hope so!), my dreams certainly haven't and I'm happy for that!


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## Yora (Jan 5, 2020)

I am tempted to say Planescape. As a game setting it has some serious design flaws, but it's overall style is just fantastic in every sense of the word.

Star Wars and Morrowind are both strong runners-up.


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## Insolent Lad (Jan 5, 2020)

I might like to take a tour of the upper Miskatonic Valley someday. Through the picturesque--though crumbling--covered bridge and past the quaint and friendly village of Dunwich. I wonder why no one has opened a bed and breakfast yet. Note the 'Indian' ceremonial site on that hilltop over there. We should come back and do an archaeological dig next time.


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## Hir i-Chorvath (Nov 13, 2020)

Middle Earth and Roshar.


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## S.T. Ockenner (Dec 1, 2020)

Chessie said:


> TAMRIEL. I want to live there!


The world is called Nirn, Tamriel is the continent it's set on, Chessie2 .


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## Toby Johnson (Jan 25, 2021)

the lord of the rings, middle earth


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## Kittie Brandybuck (Mar 19, 2021)

Definitely Middle-earth. (Specifically, the Shire, and even more specifically, Buckland/Bucklebury or Hobbiton).


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## Killerwizerd (May 3, 2022)

Star Wars was considered "Space Fantasy" when it first entered the world, and that's what I would consider my favorite. If it doesn't count, then probably Azeroth(World of Warcraft), from a Lore stance (_not a gameplay one_)


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