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What is it about fantasy that makes people want to return to their favorite worlds over and over again? Is is the story, characters, the setting, or something else? Yes, they are important reasons but there is another factor at play, one that perfectly encapsulates the reason why they spend time in their favorite worlds. That reason is what’s called the fantasy charm.
This charm is a feeling that is hard to describe. Think about a fictional world you love. Why do you keep going back to that one even though you’ve learned as much as you could about it? There’s something about it that draws you in and makes you excited about the prospect of spending even more time in it.
Many incredible creators work hard to capture that fantasy charm but keeping it is more difficult to do. You see, the mystique of the world is part of its allure and openly divulging all of its secrets makes it lose that aura. Thus it’s important to strike a balance between maintaining that mystique which draws more people in and revealing the secrets of the world and not lose what makes it so special. That is harder to do than you think it is.
The charm of an imaginary world strengthens worldbuilding in several ways. One of which is to have places that pique people’s curiosity. Your audience is more likely to want to learn more about these places if they serve a particular function in the world that can’t be easily replicated anywhere else, a place like the protagonist’s home for example.
This is the fourth article in The Sunlit Hearth series. If you’re curious about our other articles, you can find them on our blog page!
A main draw of the fantasy genre is the worlds that are so different than ours. Some places have dragons freely roaming around, others are overflowing with magic, and some even take place underwater! There is one common thread amongst all these different, exciting areas and that would be what’s known as their charm.
The fantasy charm is what makes you go back to your favorite places whether it’s Hyrule in Breath of the Wild or the Mushroom Kingdom in the Super Mario Brothers series. There’s something inherently riveting about these places that just evokes a sense of wonder and curiosity in your heart.
The fantasy charm is characterized in a number of ways. It could be a magical sword, the ambience of a specific place such as a castle or forest, the architecture of a city or town, or how people speak. Take Hogwarts for example. Everyone wears school robes and learn about the different aspects of magic and yet magic permeates every part of Hogwarts, from its hallowed halls to the classrooms.
It is also notoriously difficult to describe since there are no tangible words that accurately state what it is. Perhaps it is by design. It is fantasy after all, a realm that is solely imagination-based, populated with many wondrous denizens and fascinating ways of life you just can’t find in the real world.
If a fictional world doesn’t have that charm, not many people will want to spend a lot of time there. That’s why it’s imperative that when creating your own, you use something that fuels their desire to want to explore your realm, whether it be a magical object like a ring or a city that was built using materials that exist only in that world.
Nailing down the charm is easier than keeping it intact all the way throughout the story. Maintaining it helps keep your audience invested and makes for a better experience overall. So how do you go about it in a way that doesn’t seem blatantly obvious to your viewers and doesn’t deter from the plot at hand?
There are several methods to go about keeping the fantasy charm from beginning to end. One is to present it in a subtle way that illuminates the scene, characters, and/or key objects. The lighting of the scene can make the difference between it being a typical one or an otherworldly one. It can bring about a whimsical-like fantastical atmosphere to said scene bordering on magic.
The second way is to be consistent. While the protagonist will visit places entirely different than the one he’s from, focusing on their fantastical elements is a sure-fire method in ensuring your audience’s interest. It could be a city where time seemingly stands still, one high up in the treetops, or in the depths of a cave. Showing your viewers what makes them unique fuels their curiosity while keeping the charm intact.
The mystique of the world is a prime draw in terms of fantasy charm. Avid fans of the genre have an innate desire to explore its every nook and cranny; as its creator, it’s up to you to slowly reveal key facts of it without it overtaking the story. There is a fine line to thread here; showing too much runs the risk of it losing its aura overall but doing so too sparsely can turn off your audience.
And finally, focusing on the key fantasy-oriented objects that are an integral part of the plot is another way to keep the charm. Some creators like to showcase important events in their history to cement their ties to the world and the role they’ve played in the monumental events throughout the world’s history. Others hone in on what makes them truly special and what it takes to be worthy of holding/owning them and the benefits and costs that come with them.
If you do it correctly, the charm becomes an instrumental tool you have at your disposal to create a world that gets people talking. What is it about it that elevates worldbuilding to a new level? Sure, the world’s aura acts like a siren call, beckoning all those interested to come check it out but that’s only a small part of the puzzle.
There are several factors at work here when it comes to the effect the fantasy charm has upon worldbuilding. One such revolves around using its mystique to entice people to come see what your world is about. People have an innate curiosity to explore surroundings unlike those of the real world and showing a snippet of one is likely to spur their interest. It could be airships, castles sitting atop islands high up in the sky, or underwater civilizations.
Paying special attention to places that play a significant role in both the world and the plot is another way to take the world’s charm to a new level. Places such as cities or geographic features like volcanoes are magnets for lore-building since what happened there shaped the history of the world and impact the story in both obvious and subtle ways. An example of this would be the rise of a powerful king who conquered wide swaths of lands and instituted policies that persisted long after he passed on to the point where generations later, people are still abiding by these policies.
A shrewd way to use the fantasy charm of a world to your advantage is to particularly focus on areas that cannot be found elsewhere. It could be the protagonist’s home where it’s full of his favorite creature comforts and acts as his place of refuge in a hostile or darkening world or a treetop village where people do things the exact same way as their forefathers did regardless of how much technology’s advanced since then.
To summarize, the aura of the world matters a great deal, more than you think it does. It needs to contain that wonder-like element that makes fantasy so endearing to its fans and without it, well it just wouldn’t feel like a fictional world, would it?
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