What Is your Favorite fantasy setting Veeky Forums?

What Is your Favorite fantasy setting Veeky Forums?

Other urls found in this thread:

talislanta.com/?page_id=5#2nd
adept-press.com/games-fantasy-horror/sorcerer/
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Why do you capitalize random words?

Why Not?

Habbit

The Witcher
>Cool as fuck Slav folklore
>Creepy Monsters like Leshens, Ghosts and Drowners
>Various factions/empires/kingship in a huge land
>Moral grey a lot of the time
> Cool/funny monsters like Trolls, Dragons and Demons
>Elves are the bad guys
>Dwarves and halflings are the bros

>TALISLANTA
>Exotic fantasy
>Weird magic
>Tonnes of strange cultures, foods, animals, plants
>Not based on the standard humans/elves/dwarves/orcs medieval setting
>Inspired by Jack Vance and Clark Ashton Smith, totally boss

the Witcher is overrated, largely due to what an enormous Sue Geralt is

>elves are the bad guys
It's almost like you don't read the novels or shorts at all. They're treated more like Native Americans in Western fiction in a lot of ways: few, dying out, sad, many acting out in anger and the oldest succumbing to the despair of knowing that their anger is entirely futile.

Unless mean the Aen Elle, in which case...yeah. They only really directly showed up as a negative force in Lady of the Lake, but definitely took center stage as an antagonist group in Witcher 3.

He's the Mary-est Mother of God Sue there is.

Witcher, 100%.

Witcher > Tactics-Era Ivalice > Planescape > Forgotten Realms > FF6 > SoIF > Azeroth.

More than Drizzt, Elminster, and Mystra's Other Chosen?

Well...hmmm...tough call. Drizzit does suffer occasionally and have setbacks, some of the other Chosen have been killed off, but Elminster probably is the Suest of them all.

Black Company's setting is pretty neat

Geralt's uninteresting, but I still enjoy the setting. I'd read/play the hell out of something centered around, say, a Cat school witcher who tries to stay noble in the face of their school's reputation, and relies more on being a clever bastard than being 'teh best sordzmans'.

I liked Geralt more in the novels and short stories.

Drizzt didn't get killed by a peasant with a pitchfork. Just saying/.

Planescape is my second favorite. Mostly because of how DiTerlizzi's art, the writers' setting and the Planescape: Torment game brought everything together so perfectly to make it come alive. It's the only setting that gave me feels and made me awestruck.

Being a fantastic swordsman is something all witchers automatically are according to the setting and RPG; combat is literally the ONLY thing they are trained for, and their knowledge of other things is nonexistent unless all directly tied into lifting curses or hunting and killing monsters. Geralt knows a bit more because he's over a century old and has some pretty interesting friends, but witchers tend to have an autistic-level of focus on their job because that's literally the only thing they were ever raised and taught to do.

In other bits, Geralt's skill as a swordsman is at least partially because of Dandelion overhyping the shit out of him; he actually looses almost as many fights as he wins in the books and some of the stuff he does as a master swords are stuff witchers are supposed to universally be able to do. The crossbow parrying thing for instance is something he outright says he tries to NEVER do unless he has no other choice because it's hard as hell and he has a fairly even chance of missing and getting killed instantly by the bolt as he does actually parrying it aside.
Almost ALL of Geralt's fame comes from Dandelion exaggerating the fuck out of everything he does because Dandelion knows a good story and good story protagonist when he sees one so he writes about the stuff Geralt does while adding extra bullshit to it along the way.

The REAL master swordsman of the series is also Leo Bonhart, who apparently can kill witchers in single combat without even having the benefit of superhuman reflexes like they do.

They're also supposed to be incapable of human emotion, but Geralt is supposed to be an example of that process not being reliable, as he still has emotions, but they dont work the same way.

tolkienverse
planescape
any 80s pulp fantasy setting

Urban fantasy, preferably more like Neverwhere with the unknowable society hidden beneath the streets.

Dresden Files works just fine to sate my needs, too.

>Witcher
>Planescape
>mfw Veeky Forums's already hit my two favorite settings

I guess I'll add that I always enjoyed the setting for David Eddings' Belgariad and Malorean series. It's low fantasy without being grim and gritty, it has historically based civilizations without being boring, and the magic and mythology is consistent but doesn't lose a sense of wonder.

Most of the fiction suggests that they are all completely capable of human emotion.
The problem is they have an autistic-level of social interaction problems because their entire life revolves around that single activity and so they don't know how to interact with people well.
Notice how Geralt is a lot more comfortable (if acerbic) around his Wolf School buddies like Coen and Lambert and Eskel and how all of them get angry or irritable or like or hate things.
Really, the "have no emotions" thing is a mixture of hearsay and the "Witcher Code", meaning bullshit they made up themselves to find semi-polite excuses for their behavior. Their habitually impassive and stoic faces comes from their extremely intense training so they don't loose their cool in combat.
The "autism" thing really DOES apply in this case because they are sent out into the world with nearly no social skills and a hyper focus on a ridiculously narrow skillset that most never deviate out of.

What IS the Witcher's Code anyway?
That thing where they don't kill sentient beings without a good reason?

>What IS the Witcher's Code anyway?
It's literally something Geralt made up so he can avoid doing jobs he doesn't like. He wants to hunt monsters, not be an assassin.

>Belgariad and Malorean
>Low fantasy without being grim and gritty
>Consistent magic

user, stop. You're piquing my interest.

Start here. Be prepared for comfy well-executed clichés and top-tier character writing.

That's the joke; there IS no Witcher's Code. Like their randomly-chosen names, it's just something they make up to make people feel more at ease when around them.
Since witchers are already strongly disliked, they made up the idea of "the Witcher's Code" as a way to weasel out of jobs that they don't feel comfortable doing but don't want to offend the person offering the job in the first place, and as a way to make some more impressionable people think they have more scruples other then practicality and thus hold them in higher regard.

That's why the details of the Code are never explained: every witcher makes it up as he feels like it. Geralt's oft-mentioned tenant of not harming sentient monsters without good cause is because he's hopelessly idealistic.

>Geralt's oft-mentioned tenant of not harming sentient monsters without good cause is because he's hopelessly idealistic.
Gamefag here, I would always avoid killing monsters that weren't actually harmful when given the choice. Is this how Geralt acts in the books? Does it ever backfire?

Seriously? That's hilarious.
And a very true to series explanation I suppose, being an obvious deconstruction over semi-mystical "codes" folks like Jedi have.

Its a piece of shit for everyone there but I still do like the Dark Souls universe.

Yes and yes.
In the stories he usually tries to find non-hostile courses of action when it comes to sentient beings, but often his plans backfire because he's kind of a shitty planner in general.

There's one story where he meets the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, tells him he can't lift the curse and doesn't fight him (because he has no reason to), but ends up fighting him AND his vampire girlfriend (a Bruxae) because said vampire girlfriend is killing people on the road for food.

Oh. And you know how when he has his shirt off he has that gnarly bite-mark scar on his shoulder? That's the story where he got that one.

God damnit, user.

...Once the pendulum of my personal interest swings back from urban fantasy to traditional fantasy, I'll definitely give this a read. Thank you

Eberron has a lot of depth and nuance but Veeky Forums hates it because they inexplicably think it's steampunk wank

How is Geralt a Mary Sue?

Shit somebody else on here likes the DFRPG?

i should really read those books

The short stories are actually quite a bit better in my opinion. They have a lot more of that acerbic wit and sarcasm that really helps elevate the games at times.

The Wakening series. Only one book so far, Dawn of Wonder. It was absolutely amazing. Incredibly detailed background history, mythology, and character development.

A tie between WoD and Shadowrun. I love urban fantasy, and both series have had extremely fun games that really dragged me into the setting.

Unknown Armies

Ivalice in general is fucking fantastic, mostly regardless of era.

Deep characters, an intricate political landscape, a well-structured world full of varied cultures and locations, and an excessive amounts of background lore tidbits. What the hell's not to like?

>mostly regardless of era
I like Ivalice too, but even discounting spin-offs it's not perfect.

Ciri is the real Mary Sue of the series. Geralt is actually kind of a jobber, who we only sympathize with as the protagonist because we see through his perspective. He's certainly better than the vast majority of regular people, but he's actually at the lower end of the special people in the setting. Eskel is supposed to be just as skilled and expierenced as Geralt, and even better with magic, but is ultimately not as well known simply because he doesn't have friends who are famous bards.

Geralt doesn't even slay as much pussy as he's made out to.

Vaan was a mistake. Just try to ignore him and Penelo as much as you can and focus on the actually interesting characters who were supposed to be the protagonists instead.

Vaan and Penelo are supposed to be like Ishmael: Viewpoint characters that just serve as something for the camera to be stuck to.

My own
It's not the best, but it's mine, and that's the important bit I think.

>Ivalice
>Innistrad, pre Avacyn Restored
>Fable, mostly 2
>Witcher
>Monster Hunter, specifically Tri's Isand.

My ideal setting would be a Rococo gothic horror world with hunting guilds being the only thing that keeps hordes of monsters, ghosts and curses at bay. Lots of aristocratic debauchery, government incompetence and black humor welcome.

>
>
>Ciri is the real Mary Sue of the series. Geralt is actually kind of a jobber, who we only sympathize with as the protagonist because we see through his perspective. He's certainly better than the vast majority of regular people, but he's actually at the lower end of the special people in the setting. Eskel is supposed to be just as skilled and expierenced as Geralt, and even better with magic, but is ultimately not as well known simply because he doesn't have friends who are famous bards.
>Geralt doesn't even slay as much pussy as he's made out to.

Of course, that's in the books. In the videogames they treat Dandelion's fanciful takes off how awesome he is as being actually true, and he gets to bone all the women.

>Ivalice
What... time period, because that is like 4 different settings in one depending on what point in the timeline.

>Ivalice
>Witcher
>Planescape
Yep. You guys have good taste in settings, no doubt about it.

The FMA world is pretty good too, as is the avatar the last airbender world.

Not that guy, but fair point.

For me it's going to be done time around the day era

Wow autocorrect what the fuck is that.

Best time around the tactics era*

>The Wheel of Time
>Escaflowne
>Nier
>Shadow of the Colossus
>Shadowrun
>Turtle Island

Just off the top of my head. All of them have been incredible rides in all of the time I've spent in them. Not a moment wasted.

Dropping some Euro-comics that I consider truly original.
Wondering if you guys actually know any of them. You should, you'd love them.

Quest for the time bird!

And Chninkel

Not really, sure Tactics and and War of the Lions are anachronistic to the rest (Balthier and Luso are just there for guest character points) but FFXII, Tactics Advance, Reventant Wings and Advance 2 could have easily happened during the same lifetime, just in different regions. Ivalice is stupidly large, I like to think that's part of what makes kingdoms so brittle and international politics so intrincate in XII.

AND the great Ralph Azham. It seems simple, but the setting is actually quite fascinating and imaginative.

Advance and Advance 2 did happen during the same lifetime. It's revealed at the end of A2 that the advance antagonist is still alive and working as a librarian.

If you can read moon, here's the official timeline thing.

Warhammer fantasy

And Revenant Wings is the direct sequel of XII, I know, and Vaan, Penelo and Al Cid appear in A2 as they would be a couple years from RW's story ending. Wether this means XII is part of the Grimoire's story too, or the Grimoire transports you to an actual living word and Marche was a faggot, who knows.

The Edge is my favorite setting, huge shame it doesn't have any kind of decent game system for it, though I remember Veeky Forums beginning to home brew something for it.
Third age of flight is best age

It probably does.
Marche did nothing wrong.

I actually think ASOIAF is pretty neat until the show ruined it.

Sorry, I Used to write HeadLines for A shitty college paper that didn't follow Normal LayOut conventions

>until the show ruined it
The show only ruined it for bookfags, the show in itself is great.

thought that was thorgal for a sec

Well sure I guess. But the books do exist and I can't ignore that I read them 13 years ago and that the show is proving the ending will not live up to my expectation.

Kind of surprised nobody has posted Requiem Vampire Knight yet.

Elder Scrolls
>CHIMest lore
>cuckbride shenanigans and a fun self contradicting community
that's about it.

>Wheel of Time
>not a moment wasted

I mean, I like the series, but I'm pretty sure at least half of Winter's Heart is completely redundant.

Eberron da best

Eberron was wasted on 3.5. Such a rich setting that manages to subvert clichés without going "LOOK AT ME I'M SUBVERTING CLICHÉS!" I'm currently working on a guide to running it in the Shadows of the Demon Lord system, which I think lends itself much more to the setting than anything WotC is capable of doing.

And if you MUST be a twat and append the "punk" suffix to everygoddamnthing, Eberron is Magicpunk. But really it's just a war torn, post industrial revolution fantasy setting with the more interesting bits of the various wars that America has fought thrown in for good measure.

You have a good eye, it's made by the same dudes.
Chninkel is more crazy, high fantasy and it concludes the story in three magnificent albums. Thorgal started getting a little 'meh' at the 13th album and they're still counting.

>Geralt
>Mary Sue
>In the same series as Ciri

The games dial it back a lot but Ciri is easily the worst part of the books, not even counting the retarded ending.

>White-haired time travelling reality warping interdimensional pansexual girl who is the daughter of the Emperor and also really pretty and also becomes the protagonist in the last novel just to derail her arc into literal King Arthur insert fanfiction before showing up at the end just for the protagonists to get killed by an unimportant rando and also the games aren't canon because they try to undo my mess of an ending [polish phlegm choking noises]

The Witcher's one of the few times a video game adaptation is not just miles but lightyears better than the source material

>Weird magic that doesn't really have a lot of complex rules and is more wild and terrifying for it
>A non-stagnant technology level that evolves as the series goes on
>Accurate portrayal of just how much suck is involved in siege warfare
>Stuff like giants and relics of the old times each with cooler backstories than the last
>Hill-men
>Italy
> Literally every single conflict in the world is just old petty wizards fighting a grudge match and getting innocent people killed for their selfish vendetta, and this has been going on for centuries, sometimes even going so far as to have entire nations founded just for an extra army to throw at each other

I heard the reason the later books are so fucked is because Sapkowski really didn't want to keep writing them.

Glorantha

He got his shit pushed in a few times in the books.

Yeah, Witcher also choose their own names. And Geralt wanted to go with "Geralt Roger Eric du Haute-Bellegarde" first but got told to cut that shit and take a better name by Vesemir. Then he chose Geralt of Rivia. So his title is also completely made up. Bookspoiler: Until he, through chance or destiny, saves the Queen of Rivia and gets knighted by her

Definitely. But the toussaint part of the novels (I think it was in the novels, not sure) is also quite good. Probably one of my favourite parts.

Oh yeah, gotta agree. Tes has a great setting.


As for my favourite Fantasy settings, yeah Witcher is definitely up there.
But also The Hyborian Age (although I have not read much yet).
Symbaroum also has a nice setting I think.
Oh, and what I have seen of it, the Slaine comics seem to also have a nice setting.

Warcraft

>ctrl-f eberron
>3 posts mentioning it
srsly

That hurts my eyes. Shit taste.

I like anime "industrialized fantasy", but without the anime, very much. Eberron, Chronopia, magic megacities etc. If you got the power of sorcery in your hands, of-fucking-course you'll use it to make the work of whole society easier, and getting filthy rih in the process. I've always wanted to write a setting where necromancy was just a source of free labour rather than a hobby for medieval nerds bent on world domination.

Also dark fantasy settings are pretty nice. Symbaroum and the Souls games, as well as OP pic, seem to belong there.

The only great book in the series is the first. The rest are mediocre. GoT exceeds its source material.

...

What kind of elf is that?

ElfSD

The ones that go to pride parades.

That's a Thrall, a servitor race of identical clone warriors who are now free and tattoo themselves to create an individual identity.

You can get the full book here:
talislanta.com/?page_id=5#2nd

The Bartimaeus series. A serious favorite, and a game of players being djinn enslaved to fight for their summoners and having to find ways to trick and destroy them with sneak thievery would be glorious.

i like how garion literally breaks each of the laws of magic

You mean a game like Sorcerer? adept-press.com/games-fantasy-horror/sorcerer/
Or Runequest has also rules for spirit/demon binding, throw out all other magic and you are good to go. Though I think RQ does not do modern stuff good.
Also: I always forget to mention Bartimaeus in threads like this. Thanks for mentioning it, one of my favorite book series.

but Geralt name was not random, he was name by hes mother when she gave him to vesemir

Oh yeah. I forgot that, you are right.
Only his title/last name was chosen.

So....

God Tier
>Discworld

Great Tier
>Warhammer Fantasy
>Witcher
>Planescape

Broken empire is pretty neat.
at least until jorg went a set it right(fuck it up)

fucked*

There's plenty of Anons here that enjoy Dresden Files, it's just that few /love/ it (let's be honest, it's the beer and pretzels of fantasy) and there are a select few that are reduced to foaming rage whenever the name is uttered.

And I hope I didn't just summon the Autist Brigade with my post

You've caught my attention, user, what's so great about these comics?

RQ6 is great for modern stuff.