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<blockquote data-quote="jester47" data-source="post: 963915" data-attributes="member: 2238">This has been discussed in literary circles for a long time.&nbsp; The High and low as antecedents fro the word fantasy have nothing to do with the ammount of magic in the the fantasy story.&nbsp; High Fantasy is also known as Epic or Heroic Fantasy.&nbsp; Low Fantasy is also known as Sword and Sorcery Fantasy.&nbsp;&nbsp; The high and low come from how the stories are told and what they are about.&nbsp; A high fantasy story ussually has a larger than life hero and a lot at stake. (For aragorn its the future of men, for odyseus its his family and holdings)&nbsp; The divine interfere (gandalf, the gods) and it is epic in scope.&nbsp; Magic is mysterious and ussually hard to access.&nbsp; Low fantasy is ussually action based.&nbsp; Its Die Hard with wizards and warriors.&nbsp; Little is given to character development and its more about what happens.&nbsp; Oftentimes magic is everywhere.&nbsp; REH's Conan (no one elses) and most dungeon crawl centered D&amp;D games fall into this category.&nbsp; The ammount of magic in a story or game is largely a result of what is needed to tell the story in the way it needs to be told for its sub-sub-sub genre.&nbsp; So you can have SWord and Sorcery with very little unexplained magic, and you could have Heroic Epics with Magic around every nook and cranny.&nbsp; However, what is emphasised in each one ussually makes it the opposite.&nbsp; Heroic Epic Ussually = Not much magic, but very powerful magic.&nbsp; Sword and sorcery ussually = Lots of magic of lower power.Of course none of this is written in stone. Aaron.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jester47, post: 963915, member: 2238"] This has been discussed in literary circles for a long time. The High and low as antecedents fro the word fantasy have nothing to do with the ammount of magic in the the fantasy story. High Fantasy is also known as Epic or Heroic Fantasy. Low Fantasy is also known as Sword and Sorcery Fantasy. The high and low come from how the stories are told and what they are about. A high fantasy story ussually has a larger than life hero and a lot at stake. (For aragorn its the future of men, for odyseus its his family and holdings) The divine interfere (gandalf, the gods) and it is epic in scope. Magic is mysterious and ussually hard to access. Low fantasy is ussually action based. Its Die Hard with wizards and warriors. Little is given to character development and its more about what happens. Oftentimes magic is everywhere. REH's Conan (no one elses) and most dungeon crawl centered D&D games fall into this category. The ammount of magic in a story or game is largely a result of what is needed to tell the story in the way it needs to be told for its sub-sub-sub genre. So you can have SWord and Sorcery with very little unexplained magic, and you could have Heroic Epics with Magic around every nook and cranny. However, what is emphasised in each one ussually makes it the opposite. Heroic Epic Ussually = Not much magic, but very powerful magic. Sword and sorcery ussually = Lots of magic of lower power. Of course none of this is written in stone. Aaron. [/QUOTE]

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