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How important do you find realism/coherence in fantasy worlds?

Queshire

Istar
Perhaps this mostly comes from my fondness for animation where it's generally easier to get away with, but I think there's something to be said about using the fantasical or the exaggerated in order to communicate the themes you're going for.

Is your story about the essential dignity of humanity and how no one is too far gone to start taking steps to improve themselves? Well, you could certainly have the story take place in a modern day city, but you could also have it take place in Hell. After all, if the theme holds true in some place as extreme as Hell then doesn't it follow that it'd also hold true in someplace less extreme? Say, Earth?
 
I think there are a few different sides to coherence and realism.

The first is that all writers (whether they intend to or not) in the opening pages make a promise to their readers about the tone of the book. For the reader to accept the story, you need to stay true to that promise. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a wonderful example. It lacks any kind of coherent worldbuilding. It's a universe where literally anything can happen. And it works wonderfully because of how the reader is introduced to this world. The book starts of with an absurd scene of a construction worker lying down in front of a bulldozer so the 2 main characters can have a chat about how the world is about to be destroyed. And that tone carries through the entire story. If on the other hand you read Sanderson, then you very much get a "real" world, with well defined rules that can be applied to all situations.

As for realism, it doesn't so much apply to the world as it does to the characters. The characters and their decisions need to feel real to the reader. A reader must understand why a character makes a certain choice. They need to be consistent and they need to be believable.

And lastly, I think a generalized version of Sanderson's First Law of Magic applies here as well. If you're using some part of your world to solve the plot, then the reader should understand what you're doing and why. In the Lord of the Rings, we're never explained what Gandalf can actually do. And that doesn't matter, because the plot of the book isn't resolved by Gandalf or his magic. On the other hand, if we wouldn't know that Sauron and his powers were directly linked to the one ring, then the whole story would feel incredibly weird. Imagine not knowing how the ring worked, and you get to mount Doom. Gollum falls into the lava, destroying the ring, and suddenly the book ends (yes, there's the scouring of the Shire, but still). A reader would feel very weird.

So if you're using some part of your world to solve your plot, then the reader needs to understand that part, and it needs to be coherent and fit with the tone of your story.
 
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