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A Powerful Overview of Fantasy Time Travel
Sunfire
CONTENTS
The Premise
There are numerous ways to delve into the grandeur of a fantasy world regardless of the plot. From action to romance, the storytelling potential of the fantasy genre is rich. However, there is one particular type of story that has become practically synonymous with the genre; this one offers far more flexibility in worldbuilding than you think it does. Fantasy time travel is a superb way to really explore the world.
Time travel has long intrigued people. There are tons of stories out there that depict it in various forms and showcase what it can do. The reason why people love this is it shows a wholly different world than the one they know whether it be in the past or the future. Time travel illustrates how just a small choice can change everything you know about the world.
You’re creating a story and you’re curious about whether to bring it into yours? Fantasy time travel is not something to be taken lightly; there is a lot to learn so that you can utilize it in your own and not cause your audience to be confused or think you don’t know what you’re doing here. Thus, it’s imperative that you have a strong understanding of the basics before you start integrating this concept into your story.
Why might you want to travel through time? Besides exploring a different period in your world, there are a number of excellent reasons for pursuing this. For instance, you could illuminate a pivotal event that shaped the world both your audience and characters are in. There are a ton of avenues you could take to go about it!
What purpose does fantasy time travel serve regarding worldbuilding? There are several purposes, one being it builds upon the lore already established thus far. It adds a different dimension to a complicated world and helps the audience get a better feel for what’s going on in the story.
This is the first article in the time travel series. If you want to see what else we have, you can find a ton more on our blog page!
The Building Blocks of Fantasy Time Travel
Time travel is a complicated subject full of debate. As a creator, you don’t need to know there is to know about it but you need to have a good grasp of the fundamentals if you are mulling whether to bring it into your own or not. The internet is your best friend when it comes to learning about this topic since there’s plenty of articles and videos covering it.
From a creator’s perspective, there are several things to know when it comes to fantasy time travel. The first is that moving between periods requires the use of an object. It could be a musical instrument or a powerful artifact. Having an object enables the user to move through time without having to worry whether or not he can return to his own time.
Secondly, when in a different time period, especially the past, the protagonist needs to exercise extreme caution. That means he needs to go to great lengths to avoid time paradoxes or doing something that could cause a chain effect of events that results in the world he’s from disappearing or being different than when he left. In other words, he needs to let events transpire as they once did though he is experiencing them himself.
Thirdly, and this is an important one regarding fantasy time travel. As much as the protagonist might like to stay in the different time period, he must return to his own. After all, everything he knows is there from his family and friends to his life. While in the other era, he undergoes some character development which will pay off when he finally gets back home. Getting home enables his character arc to reach a resolution since he is able to apply what he learned in the other period to help him become a better version of himself.
Fourthly, being in a different era of time gives the protagonist exposure to new ideas and people that will pay off later on when he returns home. He will make mistakes but he will learn from them. Through his experiences in this world unknown to him, he might gain the strength to finally overcome one of his fears, whether it be the neighborhood bully or a overbearing parent who has his life all planned out.
Reasons to Use Fantasy Time Travel
There’s no doubt that time travel has a lot going for it. When it comes to fantasy, it offers creators ample opportunities to craft meaningful stories that their audience remembers for a long time. The goal here is to create a story that takes advantage of what time travel has to offer.
Regarding fantasy time travel, there are several key reasons creators choose to bring it to their own. The first and the most obvious one is that it enables them to envisage a world unlike the one they’ve created and bring it to life. They get to show how the two different worlds are connected and how one leads to the other.
Another key factor is that it enables creators to delve into stories and themes they otherwise couldn’t. For example, in a world dominated by industry, by stepping back into the past, you could show it in a pristine state that no longer exists later on. You could show how the protagonist tries in vain to prevent the world he’s from from coming to be or in a twist of fate, be the one ultimately responsible for it.
The third reason to use fantasy time travel is to highlight or showcase a pivotal event that shapes the world the protagonist lives in. It could be a war that wrought great devastation whose effects that people in his world are still dealing with or the destruction of an artifact which inspired hope for all those who viewed it that caused despair and mayhem to run rampant later on. By showing your audience how it happened, they gain a better understanding of how the world in the protagonist’s time wound up being in the state it’s in.
For stories where the hero travels to the past, it’s a great way to have your audience meet characters or visit places they might have heard about that might not exist back in the present. They get to see what these people were like and how these places looked while remembering what people in the present said about them.
How Fantasy Time Travel Enhances Worldbuilding
For worldbuilding, time travel is a golden mine. Being in a different era of time enriches worldbuilding in that it gives creators a chance to build upon the lore they’ve already established. In other words, their audience gets to learn even more about the world they’re in.
Fantasy time travel dramatically expands the scope of the world. Through the eyes of the characters from another time period, people see a different iteration of the world they’ve been learning about. They discover new locations, characters, and different ways of living. These new experiences will change them in untold ways.
When being in the world of the past, the audience sees what life was like then. Their innate curiosity impels them to want to learn as much as they can about this unknown world from the culture to the animals. They want to see what people did in these days and how the world changed from then to now.
One major benefit fantasy time travel brings to worldbuilding is that people get to visit places that once stood but no longer exist or are in a ruined state later on. It could be a castle, temple, or city that fell apart in the ensuing years between the two periods of time. They get to see how they looked and learn about them.
Though it’s only for plot-related reasons, when in a different era of time, the characters and the audience are along for the ride when momentous events that have the potential to change the world occur. It could be the rise of a new technology that takes it by storm, a long-simmering feud between two great powers finally escalating into open warfare, or sailing across the seas for the first time. They get to see how people reacted, their thoughts and emotions as they borne witness to such a transformational event.
Tying it all Together
Time travel is one of the fantasy genre’s greatest advantages. You get to show your audience a different iteration of your world, whether it’s in the past or future, which is always exciting! More so, it’s an opportunity for you to delve into a different aspect of your world, one your audience might not have seen much about.
It’s important that you do fantasy time travel the right way. That is, you want to be sure you have a solid grasp on the fundamentals before incorporating it into your own story. Understanding how it works is key to creating a timeless story that your audience winds up enjoying!
Traveling through time appears in many stories across the genre. Some give their creators the platform to further flesh out the world they made, others use them to highlight a dramatic event that set the world on the path it is in when the story begins, and so on. The sky is the limit when it comes to weaving this concept in stories!
Overall, fantasy time travel is a net benefit to worldbuilding. People get to see locations that don’t exist in the world they know, meet characters from a different period of time, and etcetera. It also expands upon existing lore and enhances it in other ways.
Using time travel is an excellent way to bridge two different versions of the world and highlight how one affects the other. If you present it in a way that catches your audience’s interest, they’ll want to be part of it, from the beginning all the way to the end!
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Thanks for reading this and until the next time,
Sunfire
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