Fantasy: Iconic Conventions of This Genre
The origins of the fantasy genre can be traced back all the way to the days of Greek literacy, and Roman novels. They helped establish what we call fantasy today and shaped the genre for millenniums on end. Not only in early fantasy, but even in contemporary fantasy, genre conventions have played a significant role. This is one of essays on fantasy where I will be looking at three of the typical conventions of the genre, that are expected to be in any type of fantasy game, movie, or book.
Magical and supernatural powers are easily one of the first things that come to mind when talking about the fantasy genre. Anything that cannot be explained by real world science or logic could be considered magic. Its system plays a key part in most fantasy stories. They are elements of sorcery, witchcraft and enchantment. Two of the most common types of magic with elements are done with fire and ice, and understandably so. They are polar opposites which could potentially make for great rivalry between two personalities. In games like World of Warcraft this is used for mage characters, where players can choose between specifications of their character, two of them being fire and ice.
Another use of magic in fantasy is tied to potions. The potion sellers being witches and mages, not only do they use different ingredients, but also their magic and sorcery as a part of the process of creating these potions. If drank, they would usually grant supernatural powers to the person who consumed them, but in other cases they are used to sabotage one’s enemy.
The second convention I wanted to remark are mythical creatures. Greek mythology has played a huge role in the beginning of fantasy and is still relevant in modern fantasy. They frequently resemble real life creatures like dogs, birds, wolves, felines and others, and often times they are either some altered versions of real life animals, or just two animals mixed together into one. For instance, the griffin, or gryphon has the body, tail and back legs of a lion, but has the head and wings of an eagle. Centaurs, cyclopes, giants, Pegasi, phoenixes, pythons, sirens and other creatures originating from Greek mythology have been around since the dawn of these kind of stories. These creatures are considered to be monsters, due to their bizarre or unusual appearance, and their extraordinary capabilities and powers. In fantasy, typically they are portrayed as enemies that the main character has to defeat on their quest. In some lesser cases these mythical creatures are on the side of our heroes, like the Griffin in Harry Potter, or the Wyverns and Dragonhawks in World of Warcraft used for transportation.
Having some sort of quest or a big journey always plays a big role in fantasy stories. Whether it is to defeat a monster, help someone escape, or even save the entire world, is up to the writers. Joseph Campbell has defined a hero’s journey in twelve steps, and they are still true to this day, in most ordinary fantasy stories. Not every fantasy story follows these steps but it is not uncommon to see at least a couple of them being in any fantasy movie, book, or video game.
In Witcher, Final Fantasy, Dragon Age, and other single player fantasy games, the journey is mostly the same for everyone (not to say these are bad games at all), however, in most MMORPGs, the player’s story is not just defined by the quests the game designers have created, but also by the interactions with other players of the game, which makes each story entirely unique in their own shape or form, for every player. Each player’s story could very well be limitless, since it does not have to end at the maximum level someone can reach, as they can make goals for themselves. This could be getting better gear or collecting items and such. All these events and interactions with other players of the game playing out in a huge fantasy world can be a part of a journey that is different to each player, with every character they create.
While these are not the only conventions of fantasy, they would be considered amongst the most typical ones used in movies, books, video games, and other types of fantasy. When looking at these conventions, it is clear that the appeal seems to be that they do not exist in the real world, however, with fantasy movies, books, video games and other forms of media, fans of the genre are able to experience them in their own unique way.
