The Fantasy Sword: Bridging History and Fiction and the Arguments for and against it

The Fantasy genre, being recreated and alternative versions of the medieval ages, have its based in historical lifestyles and technological advances. Though varying between subgenres and functions of each fictional world: the Fantasy genre shares many aspects of folklore and storytelling from our human ancestry and history as us as people. The telling of fictional stories has been an important part of human life, as the mythical tales told have been used to give life advice and wisdom in their telling. As well as wonder and curiosity to explore and understand the world we live in.

With this, however, there is one question which continually gets brought up in the conversations surrounding the making of Fantasy worlds. Which is:

How historically accurate does a fictional world really need to be?

This question is extremely broad and undefined as it will always depend on what type of subgenre within the Fantasy category one is talking about. And too will the opinion of both the author and the reader greatly influence the need to portray real-life depictions of historical events and characteristics. So, this post will go through some of the primary concerns and arguments made both for and against ‘’historical accuracies’’ as well as thoughts surrounding the usage and recreations of real-life depictions.

For the case of my work: The Eferian Day is not based in realistic depictions of the medieval era. Instead, the project’s primary goal is to create an explainable magic system to its fullest. With elements emulating that of real science without serving as an educational piece nor as a mimic depiction of real-world scientific ideas or principles. For Sagen, ‘’historical depictions’’ are not of primary concern for the world itself. This is due to how the structure of Sagen surrounds the lives and functions of the Eferian species first and foremost. And since the Eferian species are not of human decent: the world of Sagen is not made to reflect that of real-world historical events. But to be loosely based within an alternative world rather than a mirror image.

Against it: It’s Fantasy, It’s Meant to be Unrealistic

Throughout the many years of creating fictional worlds myself: this argument is the most common thing to hear against the usage of historical elements and aspects surrounding the worldbuilding of Fantasy places. This can have many different avenues where the person is coming from originally. Yet I find the underlining reason being layered in frustration and annoyance in most cases. Most likely due to how the inclusion of historical aspects are viewed by the other party to either put down, mock, or diminish works said person likes.

This is a problem. For both parties.

As I mentioned in previous posts, such as ‘’Valid Critique v. Nonsense Nitpicking: How Eferian Handles ‘’Realistic’’ v. ‘’Grounded’’ Arguments’’: the primary aspect of any fictional work is the enjoyable experience of reading it. The ability to portray an imaginary world to the point where one can engross oneself into it and make it feel real is a tremendous accomplishment to the maker. The concern of having that ability hindered by the continuance need to portray boring and overexplained scenes for the sake of having it be ‘’historically accurate’’ is a valid one to bring up.

For myself: a Fantasy world being a mimic of the real-world is not a plus at first glance. Since it all depends on what type of fictional world it is meant to be, historical accuracies don’t make sense in worlds whose major focus is on non-existing and often time intentionally made non-realistic concepts. Such as worlds in the High Fantasy subgenre being a prevalent example given their hyper-realistic and over-the-top world functions. It is then important to separate each Fantasy world from one and another and view them through the lens of what said world is attempting to portray.

Grounded within its own reality, not realistic to ours is the key mentality.

It is not possible to please everyone. Its then of great need to establish what the work is and what principles its under before the conversation can be had to make sure both parties’ mentalities are within the same field from the start. This is done to avoid annoyances and petty nitpicking from both sides. Mysticality meeting explanation will then make bad blood between people who don’t see the same viewpoint. Whether the person wants a completely non explained world for the sake of mystical imagery of faraway places. Or if the person wants an in-depth and explained world for the sake of theoretical thinking: there are always room in the genre to fit every world each person wants to see. And to go into each conversation between people with the establishment of what the mindset is before aspects and general worldbuilding are spoken of.

For the case of The Eferian Day: the project’s primary market is towards those who seek out answers rather than floating within mysticism. Yet this only apply to the magic system. This being the Haan system in the case of this project. The world itself has many elements of Epic Fantasy within it and the overall aesthetics and storytelling are still within the genre’s usual feel of purpose and grandness.

For it: I Did Not Know That

The ability to include historical technologies and lifestyles give way for the possibility to learn new things surrounding human history. And this goes for both the maker as well as the reader.

Worldbuilding as the concept is a massive project with major portions of time spent researching a large pool of subject surrounding human history and how our universe function. This is done to gain understanding of an area the Fantasy world is portraying. And to gain knowledge about how our world is built to better illustrate it within an imaginary universe as well. By doing this, the creator of the Fantasy world will then in turn learn about subjects of the real-world they would have otherwise not had attempted to learn if not for the worldbuilding of the Fantasy universe.

This is one of the benefits of Fantasy in general.

To create a fictional world, one must first understand how the real-world function to recreate grounded aspects into an imaginary place. By having the worldbuilding of a Fantasy world as the goal, the person will in turn study and learn subjects of real-world functions. And too will the person reading the text written about the worldbuilding find information which correlates or intrigues them into learning about real-life subjects. Neither party would have done this if it weren’t for the imaginary world. This boils down to one of the major aspects of the life in general: the curiosity to explore and learn about the world we live in. This makes the recreation of our world become a start out point for the person enjoying the fictional world to begin to care about real-life subjects.

As mentioned in the ‘’Anti-Mysticism: Creating Magical Wonder within the Explainable’’ post: the understanding of a subject does not take away from the wonders of the subject itself. By having an explanation of how a subject works, the ability to marvel at the work and undertaking behind it begins to shine through.

In Conclusion

The enjoyment of the fictional world will always be the primary concern for any type of worldbuilding. The efforts brought into the worldbuilding surrounding the grounded nature of the fictional world is done to gain a deeper understanding of how said fictional world function. And with it one can begin to enjoy the world to a much greater extent without having to ignore thought and thinking of plot holes and badly designed Fantasy worlds with poor and mentality tiering excuses. For the efforts brought forth are not done to evoke mockery of Fantasy worlds. But to bring forward a reconfirming idea into it.

Which makes the enjoyment of the said world even more, of an enjoyment.