Alternatives to the 'Vaguely Medieval European' Fantasy Setting

While this seems to be the default setting for most fantasy stories (kicked off by Tolkien and codified by D&D), there are other 'vaguely-something-something' settings we can use, right?

Off the top of my head, there's 'vaguely Victorian/Regency England/London' mostly used in steampunk, but would actually be a good setting for an outright High Fantasy, especially if you want guns. Another alternative is 'vaguely-American westward expansion' if you want a setting where he map is still mostly blank and hding all sorts of hidden elf villages and temples of doom. Plus, more guns.

What else? What other alternative settings are there that's set enough in the pop cultural consciousness that you don't need all that much worldbuilding to get it off the ground?

edited 3rd Jul '16 7:43:36 PM by SCMof2814

How about ancient civilizations like ancient Egypt and medieval Malaysia.

For guys live with Jin Yong's novels (or cheap dime paperback substitution), Wuxia settings.

How about a setting where the cultures are mixtures of various ancient cultures.

I'm quite partial to pseudo-Bronze Age settings, like Europe, North Africa and the Middle East before the rise of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity. There's no wide-ranging religious orthodoxy - every other village has their own beliefs, rituals and myths. There's no overbearing cultural hegemony - you can run into strange foreigners with odd customs just by walking or sailing for a few days in any direction. There's no accepted military doctrine - the Romans haven't written the rulebook yet, so everyone is just rolling with whatever works for them.

It's a setting where the world seems so much bigger, where no-one has drawn the maps, no-one has written the histories and no-one has set the rules. A world where it's perfectly reasonable to believe that giants live in the hills over yonder, because no-one has been over there yet to check.

edited 4th Jul '16 3:01:30 PM by Tungsten74

Africa before Christianity and Islam.

Africa before European colonialism.

Africa After the End.

“Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.”

Also known as The Time of Myths. Personally, I like that setting for the multi-cultural societies, as well as the clear division between civilization and wilderness when instead of nations, there are simply city-states with surrounding fields. It's a very adventure-friendly setting.

There are some Spanish fantasy works located in the Modern Age (that's between the discovery of America and the French Revolution) and yes, they have guns already. But this period is mostly use for romance adventure like the Three Musketeers and the like

I always wanted to see something set in the Ancient Mediterranean. The period while Greece was at it's height, Republican Rome was on the rise, and Carthage was still a power. You have such a wide variety of cultures, geographical areas, cities, trade routes, and professions to include. Lots of international and domestic politics to weave into a story. Not only the three main powers, but the remains of Ancient Egypt where an ancient priesthood keeps it secrets in the shadows of ruins older than history. Farther south are the pagan desert nomads, and even farther the trackless jungle. To the north is are dark forests of Europe, filled with savage Celtic tribes, and beyond them the icy land of the Lapps. East is the ancient kingdom of Persia, and further east than that is the sub-continent of India. The northwest are the endless steppes, and the horse-nomads that trade with China. To the West is the boundless Atlantic Ocean, and all the lands along the northern and southern coasts. The era has a greater variety of languages, religions, lifestyles, myths, legends, magic systems, monsters and fighting styles than any fantasy setting I ever heard of, and that includes Middle Earth. The characters to include: scholars in the Library of Alexandra, merchants plying the seas between Carthage and Tyre, the Lawgivers of Athens, philosophers, mercenaries, criminals, slaves, priests and lords.

It was an amazing time and place. I cant understand why it isn't used more often.

edited 6th Jul '16 9:21:47 PM by DeMarquis

Put like that, yeah, you're right. I'm inclined to give it a shot myself now.

Though trying to keep all you described and giving them at least flintlock guns and magic will be a bit of a challenge...

Well, you would need a fair amount of magic to get the metallurgy of the period up to mass-produced firearms standard, but I can see nothing that would stop you from making an attempt. Giving Alexander the Great guns is an interesting alternate history. Go for it.

edited 6th Jul '16 9:42:53 PM by DeMarquis

You know, I always thought Sinbad the Sailor was set in the mediterranian. It is set in the indian ocean. Huh.

I do remember The Sarantine Mosaic that sounds like what you want, but I dropped it in chapter two, so can't recommend it.

My setting's science fantasy Space Opera, but I'll still chime in: what I do is have multiple fantasy counterpart cultures of various sorts. For example, I have one that resembles Egypt and another that resembles Japan and a third the resembles Maori. None of them are a direct analogue for "Knights and Castles"-era Europe per say.

Try going full Wuxia with a vaguely Chinese setting.

Dororo takes place during the Sengoku period in Japan, and makes it clear that this was a shitty time to be a peasant in. There's some overlap with your standard Medieval Europe setting but there's a large gap in culture. Particularly, there's a far greater sense that the land itself is out to get you, and that informed the local customs and religion(s) in a way that doesn't have an easy counterpart in the usual Fantasy.

Even better, though: it was animated, and there was a movie.

so is shitty east medivial europe

Right now in making a setting semi fantasy where all cities are colonies of ancient empire that colapse for reason, imagine city state made by semi futuristic people...well kind off

edited 8th Jul '16 11:06:13 AM by unknowing

What about Napoleonic Austria with all it's little fiefdoms that eventually band together only to fall apart again?

Magic is still quite useful because individual firearms are inaccurate and take minutes to reload.

The more I find out about the pre-Hispanic Philippines, the more amazing it sounds. A massive archipelago of petty-kingdoms with dozens of languages and sub-cultures within an overall culture, they have tattoos and outrigger canoes that are extremely close to their Polynesian counterparts, and it's got quite a few Muslim and Chinese minorities from the mainland.

Goddamn it, Spain. Why'd you have to fuck that up with your colonialism?

Speaking as someone from there… yeah, we were awesome.

in my setting, it takes a more tribal take on the fantasy genre. it's a mix of every tribal or indigenous culture in likes of germanic, nordic and african cultures. sure, there is a few medieval aspects to it but it's mostly tribal.

SCM: Yay, another Pinoy! I'm American, and it's disheartening how a lot of the times, the diaspora is more interested in pre-Hispanic culture than the island-born Filipinos (who are hugely Catholic).

edited 11th Sep '16 1:56:07 PM by Sharysa

It's a flaw built into the education system. Ll the elementary about Highschool exams are on the Spanish, occupation and World award 2 periods, so that all we care to know about for exams.

I've always thought of Wood Elves (or Wild Elves, whatever you prefer to call them) as being analogous to Native American tribes. That would be an interesting twist, wouldn't it? Have Columbus and/or the Conquistadores "discover" the New World, only to find that Elves consider the entire Western Hemisphere to be theirs.

I've always been partial to very late Imperial Russia. Something about snow, high art, the clash between the old and new traditions, curious animosity from other nations, and the growing unrest of the lower classes combined with oppressed peoples just seems like a gold mine for drama.

Just make sure you 1) do research on actual Native American tribes instead of making them all some generic "connected to nature" mush, and 2) don't fall into the Noble Savage or Magical Native American stereotypes.

A lot of my island-born friends have openly called it "brainwashing." At least the American education system is just shitty and white-centric, but making people think that the Spaniards HELPED Filipinos is another thing entirely.

edited 11th Sep '16 9:19:03 PM by Sharysa