Different Worlds

One of the many draws of the fantasy genre is the variety of strange and wonderful worlds that the stories take place in. A reader can enter an amazing new setting in every book, but the way they are introduced to this world can alter the nature of the story. It will affect how the reader perceives and relates to the characters as well as how they view the world. It can also determine the techniques and strategies the author uses in exploring the world.

The Portal Fantasy

One of the most popular and easy to recognise categories is the Portal Fantasy, where an individual or group passes through a doorway into the world of the fantastic. This new world may be entirely self-contained or it may have a relationship to the real world, as in the distorted mirror of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. The protagonist will enter the world and often be drawn into some grand quest that will dramatically change the fantasy world they have found themselves in. Classic examples of the Portal Fantasy and of this narrative format are The Chronicles of Narnia and Alice in Wonderland.

The story begins with exploration and experience of the fantasy world; the author will play up the wonder and strangeness of the place as both the reader and the protagonist will be new to the area. Conflict is introduced early and the protagonist gets drawn into the events of the world, this may be a dispute between factions or a personal conflict around returning home. Throughout the narrative they usually show growth and personal development, ending with the resolution of the conflict. This enables the protagonist to return home greater than they were, though in many stories the characters elect to stay.

Because the protagonist originates from the “real world” familiar to the audience, the reader has a baseline to understand the story from. As questions arise about the fantasy world, the author is justified in asking them because it is foreign to the protagonist as well, serving to advance the reader’s understating in a logical way. The story progresses in an organic fashion from the point of entry in the new world with the reader accepting the fantasy elements as an aspect of the location. The key trait of the Portal Fantasy is that the new world is introduced separately. Its parameters are defined early on and do not usually allow for crossover.

Secondary World Fantasy

Another popular category is Secondary World Fantasy, a term used by Tolkien to describe a consistent fictional world. This world exists in of itself and requires no link to our own reality, or any justification to be. Everything about the world is simply taken as fact as if it were our own. It could be a rural European setting where noble houses do battle, or it could be a blasted wasteland inhabited by sentient squid creatures that live underground. Whatever the author writes, that is the reality of the story and the reader accepts this as part of a willing suspension of disbelief. Middle-Earth from The Lord of the Rings is an example of a Secondary World; it is a consistent setting with its own history and internal coherency. The entirety of the story is contained in that world.

This necessitates a different method of introduction to the reader than the Portal Fantasy, from the first page the reader is immersed in the fantastic and must quickly learn about the world. As there is no acknowledgement of a real world, there is no reason for explanation – even the characters are a facet of the world and so should not require an information pack. The author must work harder at constructing their world and passing the information along to the reader in such a way that it feels natural and does not slow the story. One common method is to have the protagonist undergo new experiences so that they are learning about the world, this justifies the information the author wants to impart to the reader.

Authors of Secondary World Fantasy often spend a great deal of time on their worldbuilding, if they expect to convince the reader of the reality of the setting they must ensure that it’s plausible in context and functions as a real world. Many authors have detailed notebooks filled with information about their world, its history, climate conditions, political situations – anything that might be important to their story.

Secondary World Fantasy can host a number of different plot types, once the world is established it allows for any number of potential story arcs and is perhaps the most flexible when it comes to narrative.

Alternate World Fantasy

What if Columbus had never discovered America because his ship was sunk by a kraken? Would The Hundred Years War have been shorter if England had fielded battalions of dragon riders? Alternate World Fantasy exemplifies the “what if” question of speculative fiction, it opens up a new range of possibilities within our own world. This style of fiction takes our reality as a premise and changes something; it introduces an element of the fantastic and follows through on an extended thought experiment about what would happen.

Depending on the nature of the change, the world of the story may be very similar to our reality or it may be widely different as a result of the consequences of the change. A Dangerous Energy by John Whitbourn shows a version of England in 1967 ruled by the Catholic Church, in this world there are steam trains and rifles, but no electricity – technology has taken a different pace. It is a different but recognisable world, but there is also the influence of the fantastic shown in the elves, demons and magic of the story.

With Alternate World Fantasy the author already has a basis to work with and so does the reader. The job of the author is to make clear the differences so that the reader has some parameters to work with. The fantastic is already part of the world, and is introduced to the reader alongside the familiar – it is a similar situation to that of the Secondary World but without so much content to deliver.

It is the author’s choice when constructing an alternate world how far they wish to go. They may simply wish for an altered setting that allows them to tell their story, or they may want to completely remake the world. Creating an alternate world can be easier than starting from scratch, but whatever the level of change the author must maintain the internal coherency of the story. The world will react to the changes made by the author and those reactions must be plausible in context.

Urban Fantasy

One might argue that Urban Fantasy should fall under Alternative Worlds, many stories in this category could be summed up as: “What if magic existed in the modern day?” But Urban Fantasy typically has a different way of introducing the reader to the fantastic – it has overlap. Many Urban Fantasy stories are based on the idea of a secret world underneath what we know, and their narratives follow the protagonist as they explore this hidden realm.

To begin with these stories take place in our world; the characters travel the safe and recognisable streets of the modern day. Then comes the “intrusion of fantasy” into the real world, an incident that makes the characters aware of something outside the norm. This can be subtle, with a slow escalation into the strange, or it can hit like a bludgeon to the face. In The Mortal Instruments, Clary Fray’s awakening begins with strange symbols and is catalysed when she witnesses a murder no one else notices. While in the Dresden Files, Harry is an established part of the magical community from the start.

But whether or not the character is familiar with the magical world, the reader won’t be. The author’s choices about how to blend the two worlds together can affect the nature of the story. Is it a tale of discovery? Does the author slowly pull back the hidden curtain, drawing attention to the elfin cast of the CEO’s ears, pointing out that the fire exit over there should actually lead into a brick wall? Or do they drop the reader right into the special world, launching into the story while their characters try to outrun werewolves along the streets of London.

A lot of Urban Fantasy draws from myth and legends, following the route of fae creatures like elves, fairies and trolls, but there are other works that have very different and original ideas like China Mieville’s Un Lun Dun. Still, when building their hidden world the author must consider a number of factors. They must determine the level of contact between the worlds, looking at secrecy vs. awareness – think about Harry’s work with the Chicago PD and the rules about magic. Do the two worlds have a truce of non-interference or are they involved in a secret war? These choices will change the tone and alter the focus, instead of a story about one person’s discovery, it could be a conflict between societies. The author must answer these questions and establish how the worlds interact together.

The fantasy genre provides endless possibilities and I’ve only focused on a few of the common categories here. There are many more ways the fantasy world can be introduced to the story. You have lesser known subgroups like Bangsian fiction that deals with the world of the afterlife, or you might come across surreal tales where the fantasy world is only a product of a character’s mind. There are stories which feature overlap of these groups, like an Urban Fantasy which contains a portal to the fae world. As with most things in fantasy, the only limit is your imagination.

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