The Quintessential Fantasy Reader Experience

Waking up in the middle of the night and thinking, "I don't really know what a madrigal is. I only kinda know." It doesn't have to be "madrigal," but it often is.

Watch Out for This Anachronism!

It's easy when you're writing your medieval-adjacent fantasy story to slip up and describe a bag full of treasure as being made of nylon. Oops! That's all right though. Find and replace "nylon" with "plastic," and everything's fixed!

Q&A Corner

Q. How many children does the average adult have?
A. None.
Q. Population growth is rough these days. What about in vaguely medieval times?
A. Still none, unless you want to come up with names and descriptions for all of them.

Crypto-Post-Apocalypticism

The next time you start to delete a reference to the Battle of Kursk once you realize that you're writing about a medievalish fantasy setting, think twice. The implications of having your narrator know about armored fighting vehicles will send your readers reeling.

Rank Hypocrisy

People get all worked up about turkey and potatoes in vaguely medieval fantasy, but they never say anything about coconuts, and when you break open the coconut there's a spirit inside that gives you magic armor that's obviously just power armor and the spirt becomes your sassy copilot. Can you believe these people?

Definition Corner

Feudal: People will get mad at me if I try to define this.
Medieval: Not touching this one with a ten-foot pole.
Civilization: Absolutely not.

Marketing Corner

Bad title: Triangle Strategy
Better title: Final Fantasy Tactics: Scales of Conviction
Best title: Final Fantasy: My Life as a Feudal Lord

False Advertsing

I read Prince of Tennis, and even though it had Prince in the title, it wasn't fantasy at all! Well, it kinda was.

Q&A Corner

Q. Why is there so much medieval fantasy?
A. Because anything with a king in it gets called medieval.

Underused Fantasy Settings

Are you tired of standard medieval settings? What do you mean, there aren't really that many of those? Shut up and say yes. Now that we all agree, here are some settings that can set your story apart from the vulgar crowd.

1. Crisis of the third century
2. Caveman times
3. Truck stop bathroom
4. The secret world of pottery
5. Reverse Ecuador
6. Scatlantis
7. Resort town (no volcano)

Historical Accuracy

When putting together your setting, remember that medieval cities mostly didn't have skyscrapers or movie theaters.