Fresh Setting Ideas For Your Fantasy Novel
Ollie Ander
Is probably just a couple cats in a trench-coat—the hair shedding and sunlight napping are highly suspect.
Where can your fantasy story take place that hasn’t been done so many times before? Although avid fantasy fans love a dose of nostalgia in a medieval high fantasy setting, there’s nothing more refreshing than a story that adventures into the unexplored corners of a world that already feels well-trodden.
How does the rest of magical society function, in all the places that don’t have a spotlight thrust upon them by the Chosen One’s attempt to circumvent the end of the world? In a repetitive, saturated genre, those are the places worth wandering into! Here’s a list of unexplored places to set your fantasy story, or to at least consider visiting on your characters’ grander journey:
Niche Magical Spaces
What are some niche spaces that only exist within a fantasy world; locations that make a functional magical society which you cannot explore anywhere else?
Many modern businesses have magical equivalents. For example, we have pharmacies, but wizards have potion shops. Apothecaries have existed in history, but one in a magical world would have more ingredients available, and the workers would provide other services accordingly. Try answering that question: what would be different, and why?
Here’s a list of uniquely magical variations of businesses for your characters to peruse, or run themselves:
Potion Ingredient Shoppe (pharmacy)
Wand Crafters (wood workers/restorers)
Antique Enchanted Items (thrifting)
Magical Equipment Depot (hardware store)
Broom Mechanics (vehicle maintenance)
Rune Artisans (stone carvers, home security)
Scribe Services (scroll duplicator, printer)
Imbued Gem Gallery (advisor recommendations for spells)
Tailor (magically-infused or resistant clothes)
Charm Casters (household magical items with practical purposes)
Mythical Creature Zoo (observation and study of rare, wild creatures)
Bestiary Pet Store (domesticated mythical creatures)
Magical Item Manufacturer (mass production)
Herbalist Center (greenhouse, nursery for magical plants)
Mundane Spaces + Magic
Although fiction is typically read for escapism, it’s the bits of realism from our everyday lives that makes the fantastical feel grounded; believable, despite itself. We don’t want to read about someone dealing with the lines or process at the Department of Motor Vehicles… and yet, what if it were the Department of Magical Vehicles?
Do witches need a license to fly—do they have insurance against dragon attacks?
Is there a broom-flying school?
Are there sky police—flying limits?
Are there problems with air control or the smuggling of illegal potion ingredients?
Not every fantasy story needs to involve an adventure that spans multiple settings in one book. You could have your character settle in, build a life, and explore the nuance of an existence as an "Average Joe" in a magical world. You could have a character own and run any of the Niche Magical Spaces listed above, or take it one step further by making the magic seem mundane. Magic could just be the "background vibe" for the main plotline’s genre—like a romance, or thriller.
Insider Knowledge
Where do you work? Surely you have a lot more in-depth knowledge about the process at your job than the average person would: add a sprinkle of magic on-top, and you’ve got an incredibly immersive setting on your hands! A favourite example is Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree: although all the characters are fantasy races, and there’s magical workings at play, what it comes down to is one retired orc starting a cafe business—and it’s an amazing read!
This is part of the reason that magical schools are such a popular setting for fantasy stories. What other semi-structured institutions can you explore through magical inclusion?
-School, College/University
-Government/Ministries
-Small Business (of any kind)
-Restaurant, bakery, cafe
-Hobby Areas (sailing, mountain climbing)
-Sports Competitions (regular sports, invented magical sports)
Layered Areas
An excellent way to vary the settings of your fantasy without having to move your adventuring party long distances or to new regions is to create a layered environment. This is often seen in dungeons or labyrinths, where the party moves to layers with completely different aesthetics and challenges, but which all contribute to the understanding of one whole area.
Layered environments provide an inherent reasoning to any drastic vibe changes, and a sense of progression overall; that your characters are working toward something, learning the grander mysteries.
This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, using topographically segmented areas:
-Dungeon Levels
-Labrynth Sections
-Mountain Elevation
-Descending Mine Paths
-Layers through the Earth
-Cloud Stratum
-Space/Alternate Planets
-Roaming Environmental Effects
To keep your fantasy settings feeling fresh, explore niche parts of the world, convert mundane societal structures into magical ones, or challenge your characters with a "layered area." Before you go bending expectations, though, perhaps you should make sure you know $ what are the rules of the fantasy genre?$
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