Alien invasion in an high fantasy world

I don't know if I'm the only one who came up with this idea but... Is it plausible for an alien invasion to take place in a high fantasy world or is it rare nowadays? I'm constructing a fictional world and I just want to be sure if someone has thought about it before. I could be right, though.

Well, how are high fantasy protagonists supposed to fight off anyone with the ability of spacetravel? I think these stories are rare because that inherent difference in weight classes makes it difficult to plot them. So the first thing you'd need to think about is why the fantasy protagonists don't simply get bombed out of the way.

Honestly, it's difficult to say, really. Since high fantasy societies have medieval technology, they obviously won't stand a chance against extraterrestrial beings but there's a possibility that they might use their technology to form more technologically advanced societies, most likely through scavenging once the invasion is over. My constructed world is a post-apocalyptic one but I kind of borrow some elements from Destiny, Fallout, Final Fantasy, and a few others. I thought it was a unique idea.

Edited by OyoJan on Mar 23rd 2024 at 6:33:18 AM

I can easily see it work.

The Aliens came in fully expecting a world of "Technology & Science" and prepared themselves accordingly with the shields to block nukes, the latest tech to counter their tech and whatnot.

They did NOT expect a world void of "Technology & Science" that instead, utilizing powers their instruments can't even begin to measure or put a number on and is capable of doing things they never expected to counter in the first place, leaving their whole fleet destroyed during the initial invasion (due to the mages of this world turning their hulls into cookies which ended up breaking into pieces from the vibrations of the engines. Not to mention the dragons of the setting which, to the aliens' horror, have scales so tough that they bounced off the lasers the alien ships where equipped with and their breath weapons easily carving through the hulls like a hot knife through half-melted butter).

Leaving the surviving aliens stranded with their tech in a world that made it very clear that any outsiders are not welcomed.

So they are stuck trying to repair a ship to leave while exploring the High Fantasy they are now stuck in for parts and try avoid getting killed in the process and marvel over the extraordinary (albeit extremely dangerous) magical aspects of the world they are now in.

Update: I was a bit late to reply before learning more of the setting, it seems.

Edited by Trainbarrel on Mar 23rd 2024 at 11:55:36 AM

I see. Pretty interesting stuff. I agree with your statement but my take on this setting is different. You see, the inhabitants of the fantasy world barely managed to survive the chaos in some shape or form but the aliens (especially those who got stranded or decided to reside in the fantasy world to carve their own path there) seem to overstay their welcome there. As a result, magic and technology coexist with each other and remnants of things left behind by the aliens led to the decline of feudal societies.

There Is Nothing New Under The Sun :P

(Specifically, perhaps take a look at this trope page: Fantasy Aliens)

But more to the point, I don't see an inherent problem with the combination.

The main question is that of what outcome you want, and what resources the fantasy society has.

If the fantasy society has magic, then they might be able to meet the aliens in battle; if not, then they might be swiftly defeated—but that itself is a perfectly valid plot-point, I daresay.

[edit] The "swiftly defeated" part seems to be no longer relevant in light of the post just above, but I think that the overall point stands: I see nothing wrong with the idea, and there is precedent.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Mar 23rd 2024 at 1:16:41 PM

Ah, that makes sense. Although writing about a protagonist walking through the post-apocalyptic fantasy world is an intriguing concept that I have in mind, I'm already familiar with the Fantasy Aliens trope so I kind of know what to expect. lol

Edited by OyoJan on Mar 23rd 2024 at 7:27:43 AM

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea, but it does beg the question of why don’t the aliens also have magic?

Them being interdimensional entities would be the most obvious and easiest solution, but then you have to think about exactly why the aliens felt the need to invade a universe and/or planet where magic is a thing.

Edit: Trainbarrel’s suggestion offers a good enough explanation: they were planet conquering and just came across a magical one kind of by accident, but it raises one more potential problem worth exploring a little; I.e. the Signs one where for some reason the aliens don’t do any research on a planet who’s abundant with something that could very easily kill them, even though they’re also smart enough to make space travel look easy.

Edited by Angelspawndragon on Mar 23rd 2024 at 4:33:26 AM

Perhaps they just didn't know that magic existed when they arrived in the first place?

It's the same thing back before people had crossed the great Atlantic ocean and captains set sail across it, not having a single idea of what to find on the other side, if anything at all.

Just because you can go somewhere, it doesn't mean you'll know anything about what you'll find there.

Why would the alien invasion be sci-fi in nature?

From the perspective of humans, Warcraft is an alien invasion story.

I don't know if Earthsea is considered High Fantasy, but I could imagine the Wizards of Earthsea easily defeating a typical Alien invasion after they find out their true name (which the Aliens might tell them).

The only problem is that it wouldn't be classical High Fantasy anymore if aliens invade. That's not a problem, you just want to signal to the reader what kind of story it is.

I would suggest for alien invasion stories, that one could look to historical examples of overseas colonization. A lot of times colonies were stared by a relatively small group that allied with natives. For example, Cortez defeated the Aztecs with an army that was mostly natives.

Edited by ry4n on Mar 23rd 2024 at 6:54:46 AM

Are you familiar with the plot of The High Crusade by Poul Anderson? Aliens invade medieval England, and get much more than they bargained for.

If a possible alien invasion doesn't seem to work in a high fantasy setting (especially if magic is a thing in that case) then I suppose that it's near impossible to pull it off. There are plenty of sci-fi stories where it takes place on Earth, our Earth. But I thought it would be a pretty awesome idea where I take that overused trope, put it in a fantasy setting, and see what I could come up with. In other words, I wanted to do something unconventional, something that may or may not work in a logical sense. I don't know but I just have this feeling that it might work perfectly if done correctly. But, at the same time, I know that wouldn't make sense given that magic is prevalent in high fantasy stories if I could just give the aliens magic too but I don't want to do that so I don't know.

And no, never heard of it. lol

Edited by OyoJan on Mar 23rd 2024 at 8:00:40 AM

If you assume that the aliens follow high fantasy rules, why not?

A few ideas that come to mind:

• Instead of aliens riding on rockets, they use magical portals from their planet to ours.

• Alien spaceships are powered by magical crystals, or they ride on magical beasts through space

• Assume medieval, or even ancient theories of the universe, where the other planets revolve around the Earth, floating in ether. Or, that there is a super tall mountain that reaches to the stars, through which the aliens invade

Edited by minseok42 on Mar 23rd 2024 at 4:51:07 AM

Pretty fascinating ideas you have there. I think I like the first one more because it's relatively simple. However, I want to remind you that my conworld is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy so I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work out. Do you have any other ideas based on that?

The science and technology in your setting should follow the rules of your universe, not the one we live in. Ted Chiang once said that the difference between fantasy and science fiction is that fantasy assumes there is something about the universe that will be incomprehensible forever, while sci-fi assumes that the universe can be logically understood.

So in your setting, you could have magic not be a thing a handful of mages use, but rather something that is understood and used systematically. You would have a Isaac Newton equivalent who does the math to figure out how you can teleport to another planet, for example. Magitek could provide some inspiration as well.

Another inspiration for a setting where aliens, technology, and magic coexist would be Star Wars. Jedi can use magic (called force).

Specifically, regarding the idea of aliens invading through magical portals, I guess what you could have is a magical portal taking the place of a wormhole through hyperspace. And maybe have a group of aliens opening up a portal to Earth because of a navigation error.

You have a good point. I also want to mention that my conworld is post-apocalyptic in nature and that it takes place after the alien invasion. What are your suggestions for me regarding this subject?

Post-apocalypse can mean a lot of stuff. Breath of the Wild can arguably be called a post-apocalypse set in High Fantasy, where the Kingdom of Hyrule fell because of a calamity that caused widespread destruction. So you need to contrast the good old days before the aliens with the chaos caused by the aliens. One idea would be to look at the fall of Rome and the start of the Dark Ages, where the huge empire fell and got split into feudal fiefdoms, with the loss of a lot of art and knowledge of before times. Or the fall of the Zhou dynasty in ancient China, which led to a period of civil war between warlords. Another inspiration for a medieval post-apocalypse could be the Black Death.

Another direction you could take, since many alien invasion stories were metaphors for colonialism, is that your world got attacked by a few aliens with advanced weapons. The usual government structure collapsed, and your culture is at risk of being stamped out. Your protagonists are engaging in guerilla warfare against the aliens committing cultural genocide or ethnic cleansing.

Ah, I see. But what about those that take place many years after the alien invasion (as in the aftermath of it)? How can that come into play?

Then, the contrast with the better days of the past will have to be done using show don't tell. Have older characters do it, or show things like the ruins of buildings destroyed by the invasion.

Like the ghost cities in China?

Aside from that, perhaps the aliens left behind not members of their own species when they left, but the slave-species they used as fodder for the invasion and didn't bother to bring back with them once things either went south for the invasion or due to treating the slave-species like trash and just left them to fend for themselves when they left.

And now, those slave-species have become to the fantasy world like cane toads have become to Australia.

So is the idea that the aliens invade a world with medieval level technology, or that they invade a world with modern or advanced technology and post invasion the technology is medieval?

If there the later is the case, then the aliens could be the source of "magic"

I think that pretty much answered my question. I want to say thank you to everyone who has given me suggestions to work around with. I can't guarantee that I'll ever finish creating my conworld but I can try. I actually have another idea in mind but we'll see about that. But I'll definitely keep those suggestions and ideas in mind for sure. Again, thank you, I really appreciate it.

Perhaps the following has been obviated by the discussion that followed, but I'm confused by the above statement:

Have we not pretty much all in this thread been saying the opposite? That such a combination is perfectly feasible...?

I'm thus a bit confused as to how you came to so state...

There's also the matter of like, what technology are we talking about? what magic?

Surely Harry Potter couldn't beat back a sci fi invasion but is that our point of reference? Goku could, after all.

Then there's other elements. Wuxia novels have plenty of high fantasy coupled with interstellar travel and aliens. At one point in Xian Ni, entire interstellar wars are fought by the equivalent of martial artist mages. Planets aren't battlegrounds but weapons to be flung at the enemy.

It's only impossible to conceive if your idea of High Fantasy is like, Lord of the Rings.