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The Sunlit Hearth: An Interesting Look at Multiple Fantasy Worlds
Sunfire
CONTENTS
The Premise
One of the best aspects of a fantasy world is exploring its every nook and cranny to unravel its secrets. However, some creators aren’t just content with using one, they go with multiple fantasy worlds and each one has a story of their own to tell. They weave these different realms together to tell a powerful story that their audience remembers long after they’ve reached the end of the tale.
For those creators who feature more than one fantasy world, they employ different mechanisms in which to showcase them in all their grandeur. One of their greatest strategies is to use environmental storytelling where they highlight interesting parts of the world and reveal how they don’t just impact the areas around them but those in other worlds as well. This enables viewers to draw their own conclusions and understand how the different worlds are related to each other.
When it comes to incorporating multiple fantasy worlds in the plot, there are some advantages. For one, it enables creators to tell a more epic story that spans different worlds. It could be the same one across eras as seen in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. The audience also gets to see how life is like in different eras and how an earlier one impacts a later one.
There are drawbacks in having more than one world in the story. It increases the workload since you’re not just devoting all your time in building one from the ground up, you’re doing multiple at the same time which can be time consuming, especially if said worlds are wholly different from one another like in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past where you have both Hyrule and the Dark World. This means you have to make each area of each world feel fundamentally different, giving them something unique that lets them stand out amid all the different areas of the worlds.
This is article number twenty-six in The Sunlit Hearth series. Want to see what else we have? Head on over to our blog page where we cover many topics related to fantasy and worldbuilding!
How Using Multiple Fantasy Worlds Work
We’ve all consumed media in fantasy that explore more than one fantasy world, whether it be reading a novel or playing a video game. We find ourselves enthralled by everything these worlds have to offer and we cannot help but wonder how these creators did it. It’s helpful to see how they did it so that you can emulate them in your own story.
To make multiple fantasy worlds work, creators rely on several key techniques to make it happen. The most important is through environmental storytelling. A number of factors such as the atmosphere, geographical features, artifacts found on the ground, and major landmarks such as castles and cities drive this. They are incorporated in the the ‘show, don’t tell’ approach to convey a story to the viewers without uttering a single word, leading them to form their own conclusions based on what they’re seeing.
In all of the tales they appear in, these fantasy worlds don’t live in their own universe; they are inextricably tied together. That is, what happens in one affects the other and vice-versa. This is especially more apparent in stories that revolve around time travel where the protagonist and the audience experience different incarnations of one world. For instance, a volcanic eruption in the past can lead to a city not existing in the present. To prevent it from coming to pass, the protagonist must go to the past and unravel the cause of the volcanic eruption which is a monster on the brink of escaping and defeat it before it successfully breaks out.
Creators strive to make the various parts of fantasy worlds feel distinct. One could be a massive lake with a tower smack dab in the middle or a waterfall feeding a river that flows out to the sea in the past, only for it to be dried up in the present. This encourages the audience’s curiosity and makes them want to explore them. This tactic is used to great success across various games in The Legend of Zelda where Link explores different eras of Hyrule, Labrynna, and even the skies and the depths.
One of the best ways to illustrate the different fantasy worlds is by showing how the people of these worlds are living. In one realm, they could be happy and carefree without a care in the world whereas in the other, they could be miserable, downtrodden, and full of despair. This is seen in Ocarina of Time where people in the Child Link era are content though they are oblivious to the climate of evil rapidly approaching them and in the Adult Link era they are down on hard times and fearful for their lives since Ganondorf is ruling Hyrule.
The Pros of Multiple Fantasy Worlds
Creating a fantasy world is exciting enough but building multiple at the same time? It can fuel your imagination in unexpected ways since there’s a lot you can do with them and you can even use them in wholly different ways to craft a masterful tale that spans different realms. There are great pros in featuring multiple fantasy worlds in your tale but only if you present them in a way that engages your audience.
The topmost advantage of including different worlds in your story is that you get to tell a tale that ties them together. By featuring an adventure that crosses different lands (or different periods of the same realm) you raise the stakes and ramp up the tension since it isn’t just the fate of one world that’s at stake, it’s the fate of all these worlds. The audience is treated to different sights and people as they follow the hero in his quest to save more than one world.
Creators have ample freedom in designing different fantasy worlds, meaning they have little restrictions, so they let their imagination run amok. As long as they adhere to the rules that they set for them, they are free to do what they please. In one world, they can lean harder into geographical features such as mountains while in the main one, everything else remains intact and they don’t have to worry about inadvertently messing up its structure.
One of the most interesting parts of multiple fantasy worlds is that the audience gets a glimpse of what life is like in them. They see how people speak, the type of clothes they wear, the type of houses they dwell in, and etcetera. This is especially useful in that the audience can compare how life is like in these different worlds and whether the people truly are having good lives or not.
Another benefit of fantasy worlds is the bestiary. Some worlds have a wholly different set of creatures that don’t exist anywhere else, making them great places to showcase them. This also includes all flora and fauna, aquatic creatures, and all other life forms. Some creators dig deeply into their imagination to craft truly unique species and show them in all their glory.
The Bad Side of Using Multiple Fantasy Worlds
While there are plenty of pros of relying on more than one fantasy world in the tale, they do come with some notable drawbacks. This is especially important to keep in mind if you decide you’d like to incorporate two or more in your own story since you don’t want to let the excitement you have for them dissipate when it dawns upon you what precisely you have to do to make all your hard work pay off.
The greatest disadvantage of multiple fantasy worlds is that they significantly increase your workload. You aren’t just responsible for making everything for one world, you have to do the same for however many you bring in. This is a daunting task but perseverance is key here. By doing a little bit everyday, you won’t feel overwhelmed and you’d still feel the desire to keep going on.
The second thing to remember is that the more worlds you have, the more complex your story becomes. You have a lot of moving parts to contend with which means it’s up to you to make them all work in unison to create a fantastic story that sprawls multiple fantasy worlds. You have to work hard to keep on top of everything and it’s easier than you think to feel overwhelmed at times.
Since you’re working with different fantasy worlds, you have to strive to come up with creative ways to make each area feel distinct from one another. You don’t want your audience to feel like whenever the plot arrives at a new place, there’s a sense of deja vu, as if they’ve already been to a place that feels too similar to the new one. Sometimes even the smallest change like the ambience or color scheme can make an area feel wholly unique so tap into your creativity to think of ways to make them stand out!
Your viewers want to understand why things are placed where they are in your world. It could be a castle, river, forest, mine, and so on. Imagine doing this for multiple fantasy worlds and it’s hard for them to keep track of everything. To minimize their confusion and heighten their enjoyment of your tale, only focus on those relevant to the plot. For those who want more, you can provide additional information at the end of the book in the appendix chapters or draft a stand-alone book or work that explores the worlds on a deeper level than seen in the story.
Creating multiple fantasy worlds isn’t easy but with hard work and determination, you can make it happen. If you find a way to connect them whether by time travel or any other mechanism, use it in a way that upholds the framework that governs the rules and laws of your realms. You can create a poignant epic tale that spans various fantasy worlds, one your audience will fondly look back on for a long time!
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Thanks for reading this and until the next time,
Sunfire
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