Why Do We Love Elemental Fantasy?
Richard Marpole
Earth, air, fire, and water. Primal forces that make up the world and power magic. Why are they such a popular motif in fantasy fiction? Firstly, the theory of the…
history
You Are Writing Medieval Fantasy Wrong
*Disclaimer* This is not an academic essay. It’s a series of very shallow cuts that completely fails to delve into the complex histories it touches upon. It bounces around the…
The Origins of Halloween and its Traditions
S. H. Paulus
You might have some fond memories of Halloween growing-up, where you dressed-up as your favorite superhero or mystical entity, to go door-to-door collecting candy. When someone opened the door, you…
The Museum of Magical Miniatures: Gallery One
With museums and art galleries across the world closed to the public, now seems like a good time to introduce a little virtual museum created just for Fantasy-Faction. Presenting: The…
A Walk Among the Trees: A Look at Forests in Myth and Media
Forests have always been places of enchantment, haunted by outlaws, gods, angry ghosts and ferocious monsters. Walk a while with me. The wind sings through the leaves. Birds squabble in…
Unicorn Mirror: A Compendium of Unicorn Lore
Introduction: The Ethereal Glimpsing of a Unicorn “The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and…
Hell: An Exploration
The nature of the afterlife has fascinated and terrified humanity for tens of thousands of years. What, if anything, waits for us after death? Is there more than one place…
The Many Faces of The Headless Horseman
One of the most prominent creatures in both Western and European folktales is the headless horseman and can be dated as far back as the mediaeval times within Celtic folklore.…
Once Upon A Time: Fairy Tales and Fantasy
Jo Niederhoff
Once upon a time… Just about anyone familiar with the Western literary canon knows that phrase. It opens familiar fairy tales we’ve grown up with, like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty,…
A Fantasy Geek’s Guide to YouTube: Weapons and Warfare
YouTube is an app, a website, and a cultural phenomenon. It’s also a vast and barely-explored wilderness full of content that ranges from dynamic to dire. Whatever your interests are,…
A Streak of White Hair: Fantasy or Reality?
Nicola Alter
I was recently reading a fantasy romance novel where the main character pushed himself to the limits of his magical abilities and nearly died. Afterward, he was left with a…
A Fantasy Geek’s Guide to YouTube: Mythology
YouTube is an app, a website and a cultural phenomenon. It’s also a vast and only partially explored wilderness full of content that ranges from dynamic to dire. Whatever your…