History Main / HighFantasy

In former times, High Fantasy did not follow this formula. Creator/WilliamMorris ' ''Well at the World's End'' doesn't have this, nor do the dreamers' tales of Creator/LordDunsany, or his ''Literature/TheKingOfElflandsDaughter'', which are very High Fantasy indeed. Neither Creator/GeorgeMacDonald nor Creator/HPLovecraft in his Dreamland cycle have such a storyline. Some more modern works usually classed as High Fantasy, like Hope Mirrlees' ''Literature/LudInTheMist'' and Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'', still don't. Also, there's sometimes a very fine line between what is defined as High Fantasy vs. HeroicFantasy, with some works kind of in the middle, like E.R. Eddison's ''Literature/TheWormOuroboros'' or ''Literature/TheElricSaga'' by Creator/MichaelMoorcock. And it's still not essential to stick so closely to the model, but many of today's fantasy writers still use many or most of the above elements, perhaps feeling that you don't mess with what works. Tolkien scholar Thomas Shippey talks about this in a chapter of his book ''J.R.R. Tolkien, Author of the Century''.

* Scale: Epic scale jn terms of geographic and historical impact. Power politics, wars, the birth and death of nations, gods walking the earth, and the real threat of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. This is what distinguishes High Fantasy from HeroicFantasy.

* ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}} has several like ''Literature/DragonlanceChronicles'', ''Literature/DragonlanceLegends'', and ''Literature/DragonsOfSummerFlame.''

* ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}} Chronicles'' and ''Legends''

* ''VideoGame/{{Anbennar}}'' is a fairly detailed GenreDeconstruction. It kicks off when the hero Corin has just [[DeityOfHumanOrigin ascended to godhood]] after slaying [[BigBad Korgus Dookanson]], the orc warlord who commanded the Greentide. But in a world with no BlackAndWhiteMorality, what follows ''after'' this is the question: what do humans do with the orcs and goblins who now live in the ruins of Escann? (It's often [[MadeASlave not pretty]].) How do the adventurers who made up Corin's armies deal with each other, as TheFellowshipHasEnded and they settle in the land they've taken from the greenskins? Are the "monstrous" races evil, or can they learn to coexist with an ever-stronger humanity? And when magical relics are found in the ruins of the {{Precursors}}, it starts a land rush that can be incredibly savage to the remnants of the ancient elven civilization. Even the idea of the {{Necromancer}} as the BigBad is called into question, as Esthil and the later Black Demesne provide justifications for employing necromancy to improve human lives and wealth, even as some of their methods like becoming a {{Lich}} are PoweredByAForsakenChild. Is it worth it?

Basically, the [[EvilOverlord Dark Lord]], [[SealedEvilInACan thought defeated millennia past]], [[TroubleFromThePast has returned]] to his [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Dark Tower]] in the [[{{Mordor}} Dark Land]], gathering around him [[{{Mooks}} Dark Forces]]. The free lands have only one hope, [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits a small band of lost heirs, princes, and simple village folk]] gathered together by a mysterious wandering wizard, who will have to brave a long quest through strange lands inhabited by dangerous monsters and peculiar peoples in order to save the world.

* Magic: Magic and fantastical elements are often to the fore in High Fantasy, and tend to play major roles in stories, worldbuilding and conflicts. While this isn't a strictly a crucial element -- you can and do get High Fantasy works with subdued or minimal magic and Low Fantasy works with quite a lot of it -- High Fantasy is distinguished by typically portraying its fantastical elements in a more positive and glamorous light, quite unlike the bestial monsters, shifty sorcerers and PowerAtAPrice style of magic found in Low and Heroic Fantasy.
* Scale: Epic. Power politics, wars, the death of nations, gods walking the earth, and the real threat of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. This is what distinguishes High Fantasy from HeroicFantasy.
* Morality: The good guys are good and the bad guys are evil, with fairly minimal overlap. Even in cases where moral ambiguity or flexibility exists, there's still a fairly clear divide between good and evil -- generally speaking, antiheroes and -villains still tend to fall mainly one one side or the other -- as opposed to the GreyAndGrayMorality more common in LowFantasy.

* Methods: Victory is not achieved through force of arms, the main feature distinguishing High Fantasy from Heroic Fantasy. It is also not achieved through wide-ranging strategy, logistics and political and military conflicts, which is generally the case in Low Fantasy. Victory will also be complete and with few loose ends or sour notes; this is shared with Heroic Fantasy, but Low Fantasy tends to favor more ambiguous and incomplete endings. Essentially, if Aragorn had killed Sauron in hand-to-hand combat, that would have been Heroic Fantasy, and if Gondor had beaten Mordor by having more allies, better strategy and a better army, that would have been Low Fantasy. Instead, victory is achieved through the efforts of a small number of characters acting against great odds, and a SupportingLeader or the [[IgnorantOfTheCall Reluctant Hero]] will be offered up instead of the [[BarbarianHero rough-hewn barbarian]] of, say, ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' or ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}''.

* ''LightNovel/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite''

* ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic''

* ''Radio/ElvenQuest'' parodies the High Fantasy setting. The Chosen One (a dog in our world but a human in his) must band together with an Elf, Warrior Princess and Dwarf to find the mystical Sword of Asnagar and defeat the cunning and oddly genre-savvy Lord Darkness.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is an affectionate parody of the genre. It started off as closer to Heroic Fantasy, with an adventuring party raiding a random dungeon, but got Higher as it went on, starting with the reveal that it ''wasn't'' a random dungeon, but the location of a BigBad the leader had sworn to defeat, and building up to the party [[spoiler: being the last hope of preventing said BigBad from (inadventantly) destroying the world.]]

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' is an affectionate parody of the genre.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': The series as a wholesale qualifies, but it ''[[ZigZaggedTrope heavily]]'' plays with the genre's trappings. Like other HighFantasy settings, the scale of each game tends to be epic; continent-shaking wars between kingdoms and RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething who are tasked with defeating a great evil, usually with the [[RecurringElement recurring]] [[TitleDrop Fire Emblem]] involved. Dragons are almost certainly to be involved, and the scale (usually) tends to go through the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil from low level bandits to TheEmpire to a ReligionOfEvil with the power of a dark god[=/=]dragon. However, all of this mixed in with a considerable degree of LowFantasy elements as well; there are [[OurDragonsAreDifferent other]] [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent races]] than humans, but humans constantly act as the dominant force in the world. There's no real epic quest in most of the games (or, at least, it's almost never framed as such) instead focusing on the outbreak of war between human nations and heapings upon heapings of political intrigue. There were ancient heroes with legendary weapons who helped seal away an evil dragon/god, but those legends fade into myth, and many of the different settings' individuals at large forgot the existence of said legendary weapons. Monsters can exist, but it's very case-by-case depending on the setting, but very often they're regarded as mythic like the legendary weapons and are seldom-seen. Magic is common, but it's not seen as a occult happenstance so much as a science, with ''Radiant Dawn'' mentioning scientists developing the Rewarp stave of that game, Anima and Dark magic being regarded as "Reason" in ''Three Houses''. Not to mention, the characters that you can recruit may even be {{Punch Clock Hero}}es, and the series seems to lean towards the neutral side on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, though some of the games can also lean towards the idealistic side as well). Plus, it must be noted that the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Jugdral]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 series]] is very dark in tone.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': The series as a wholesale ''[[ZigZaggedTrope heavily]]'' plays with this genre's trappings. Like other HighFantasy settings, the scale of each game tends to be epic; continent-shaking wars between kingdoms and RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething who are tasked with defeating a great evil, usually with the [[RecurringElement recurring]] [[TitleDrop Fire Emblem]] involved. Dragons are almost certainly to be involved, and the scale (usually) tends to go through the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil from low level bandits to TheEmpire to a ReligionOfEvil with the power of a dark god[=/=]dragon. However, all of this mixed in with a considerable degree of LowFantasy elements as well; there are [[OurDragonsAreDifferent other]] [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent races]] than humans, but humans constantly act as the dominant force in the world. There's no real epic quest in most of the games (or, at least, it's almost never framed as such) instead focusing on the outbreak of war between human nations and heapings upon heapings of political intrigue. There were ancient heroes with legendary weapons who helped seal away an evil dragon/god, but those legends fade into myth, and many of the different settings' individuals at large forgot the existence of said legendary weapons. Monsters can exist, but it's very case-by-case depending on the setting, but very often they're regarded as mythic like the legendary weapons and are seldom-seen. Magic is common, but it's not seen as a occult happenstance so much as a science, with ''Radiant Dawn'' mentioning scientists developing the Rewarp stave of that game, Anima and Dark magic being regarded as "Reason" in ''Three Houses''. Not to mention, the characters that you can recruit may even be {{Punch Clock Hero}}es, and the series seems to lean towards the neutral side on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, though some of the games can also lean towards the idealistic side as well). Plus, it must be noted that the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Jugdral]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 series]] is very dark in tone.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' is mostly this but it also borders on HeroicFantasy at times.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': The series as a wholesale ''[[ZigZaggedTrope heavily]]'' plays with this genre's trappings. Like other HighFantasy settings, the scale of each game tends to be epic; continent-shaking wars between kingdoms and RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething who are tasked with defeating a great evil, usually with the [[RecurringElements recurring]] [[TitleDrop Fire Emblem]] involved. Dragons are almost certainly to be involved, and the scale (usually) tends to go through the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil from low level bandits to TheEmpire to a ReligionOfEvil with the power of a dark god[=/=]dragon. However, all of this mixed in with a considerable degree of LowFantasy elements as well; there are [[OurDragonsAreDifferent other]] [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent races]] than humans, but humans constantly act as the dominant force in the world. There's no real epic quest in most of the games (or, at least, it's almost never framed as such) instead focusing on the outbreak of war between human nations and heapings upon heapings of political intrigue. There were ancient heroes with legendary weapons who helped seal away an evil dragon/god, but those legends fade into myth, and many of the different settings' individuals at large forgot the existence of said legendary weapons. Monsters can exist, but it's very case-by-case depending on the setting, but very often they're regarded as mythic like the legendary weapons and are seldom-seen. Magic is common, but it's not seen as a occult happenstance so much as a science, with ''Radiant Dawn'' mentioning scientists developing the Rewarp stave of that game, Anima and Dark magic being regarded as "Reason" in ''Three Houses''. Not to mention, the characters that you can recruit may even be {{Punch Clock Hero}}es, and the series seems to lean towards the neutral side on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, though some of the games can also lean towards the idealistic side as well). Plus, it must be noted that the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Jugdral]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 series]] is very dark in tone.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' is this mixed in with LowFantasy elements (e.g the worlds are mostly populated by humans, most of the battles are fought between humans though Dragons may be involved somehow), several characters that can you recruit may even be {{Punch Clock Hero}}es, and the series seems to lean towards the cynical side on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, though some of the games can also lean towards the idealistic side as well). Plus, it must be noted that the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Jugdral]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 series]] is very dark in tone.

* ''Literature/TheMirrorOfHerDreams

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' is this mixed in with LowFantasy elements (e.g the worlds are mostly populated by humans, most of the battles are fought between humans though Dragons may be involved somehow), several characters that can you recruit may even be {{Punch Clock Hero}}es, and the series seems to lean towards the cynical side on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, though some of the games can also lean towards the idealistic side as well). Plus, it must be noted that the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Jugdral]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 Series]] is very dark in tone.

* ''Roleplay/RecordOfLodossWar''

** ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' also straddles the lines. There are dragons but the plotlines are also more concerned with political intrigue, HeirClubForMen issues and a looming SuccessionCrisis.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesOfDarkWater''.

* ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'' which mixes a MedievalEuropeanFantasy and Myth/KingArthur inspired setting with various high fantasy tropes.

* ''LightNovel/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite''

* ''LightNovel/MaouNoHajimekata''

* ''Literature/AnOutcastInAnotherWorld'' by Creator/KamikazePotato checks many of the boxes for this genre. Has a non-Earth setting, standard fantasy races, magic, an epic scope, and a great evil.

** ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon''