defining the integral elements of epic high fantasy

[George]

It is often said that jazz is the musician's music. In terms of the written world, I would say that fantasy is the true blank canvas of creative fiction. It has this infinite creative canvas that has led me to move from writing horror to exclusively writing and reading fantasy fiction. The author is free to create entire civilizations replete with their own cultural peculiarities, mythos and political/religious realites...the only limit of what the writer can create is the tangible limit of that particular writer's imagination. Still, there are characteristics that define a work of epic high fantasy and I would like to assemble a check list of some of those defining features and generate a healthy discussion around them.

I will start with a few and would love other readers to add their elements:

1. fully realized and developed cultures with detailed histories and cultural mythos.
2. divergent political and religious systems.
3. epic quests that span continents if not worlds
4. well-develop antagonist(s) I've written a detailed blog about why this is so essential on my part of this site.
5. detailed and fully realized schools of magic that are well defined by the author.
6. powerful, evocative prose that vivifies the darkest and brightest aspect of the characters they've created.

These are but a few, but they form a good foundation for a discussion.

[Russ]

George
Wow, never even thought of it that way. I just wrote a fantasy and found it a blast. I usually write television (mostly comedy)... and this was a new experience for me.

What I found most intriguing and confounding was that everything had to be defined. When you write another genre, you can put something in a gymnasium (for example) and the reader basically knows the parameters. But in fantasy, you have to creat the walls, the ceiling, everything.

And you mention the religious aspect -- became very important in the story I wrote. Interesting, I didn't really realize it was a constant in fantasy. I'm a fan of The Hobbit and Eragon... but I wouldn't say I've spent a lot of time with other fantasies...

Anyway, interesting subject.
Russ

[Russ]

Opps, sorry. (Not a very good PR guy.)
My book is called The Wheel of Nuldoid.
www.Nuldoid.com

[George]

I just wanted to clarify that the context of this discussion is strictly from the perspective of the reader...I would never espouse the formula/checklist apporach to fantasy (or any other genre for that matter). As a writer, I eschew even the outline concept of writing...writing shoud be intuitive...basically like a trickle of water flowing over the uneven landscape of the story...and eventually finding its way to where it was destined to go...or something like that.