The Fantasy Frontier: An Introduction to Horizön

The sci-fi western is a familiar concept, combining the scope and look of sci-fi with the themes and tones of the western. From Firefly to Trigun to The Mandalorian, space has been just as much of a frontier as the Midwest. But one day I asked myself, "Why is there no such thing as a fantasy western?" A Reckoning of Dragons, my novel in progress, is my humble effort to address this discrepancy. The following is a primer on the world this book is set in; note that this is worldbuilding for a work in progress and may be altered, changed, or rewritten at a later date.

Horizön, a fallen land of danger and opportunity, brimming with myths and monsters

The land of Horizön was once a land of myth and magic, where cunning wizards worked spellcraft and brave knights battled horrible monsters. Human nations flourished alongside those of the wise elves, stalwart dwarves, and peaceful halflings. But over time, the non-humans came to resent the humans. In spite of their short lives, the humans held many positions of rulership and caused many wars to break out. There came a time the humans would call the Year of Bloodshed, where non-humans rose up and overthrew the human rulers, exiling all humans from Horizön. The humans were sent across the Shield Mountain range that formed the eastern border, in hopes that their absence would allow Horizön to finally know peace.

Many humans died in the journey, and those who survived found themselves isolated in the untamed wasteland called the Star Territory. With harsh terrain, sparse farmland, and vicious predators, the diverse cultures of humanity didn't take long to start fighting each other over meager scraps of land. Over time, these groups of humans coalesced into five Clans. Over the next century, these five Clans fought in a long series of battles called the Territory Wars. These wars allowed humans to discover the Star Territory's greatest resource. While lacking in farmland, the Star Territory's ample mineral deposits allowed humans to develop steam power, dynamite, and most importantly, gunpowder.

These inventions allowed humans to survive and fight until the day a party of dwarves came from under the mountains. They had once been subjects of the Mazun dynasty, but had tunneled away from Horizön into the Star Territory after the land of Horizön was razed by the great dragon Incem and his brood. The news of the dragons' return spread quickly, and regardless of heritage all humans feared the dragons. Over the next couple of years, the Clans came together to form the Republic of the Single Star, uniting all humans to stand against the dragons.

The Republic formed a front line at the edge of the Shield Mountains, all of their resources being funneled into the warfront. But after a month of preparing and sending scouts through the tunnel the dwarves had dug, the scouts reported that the dragons were nowhere to be found. The old kingdoms had fallen, the people descended into barbarism or hiding, and scores of monsters roamed the land, but the dragons had disappeared. The Republic, seeing an opportunity to take back the land they had been forced out of, set out west into the frontier of Horizön...

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I'm planning to start a series of posts about the setting of my novel-in-progress. I also plan to do some flash fiction, to set some anthology stories in this world to practice my writing and explore the setting. Let me know in the comments what you want to know about the land of Horizön. Next week, I'll be discussing the dwarves and how they contribute to railroad travel...

Image Credit

Background is "Gaucho in a Wild West Sunset Landscape Vector" from Vectors by Vecteezy
Dragon Silhouette is from Clipart Library

4 Fantasy Subgenres We Don't See Enough Of

Fantasy has been a genre for as long as humans have been telling stories. But despite this broad scope of history, the fantasy genre seems to have coagulated into a few standardized ideas. Whether it's vaguely European, vaguely medieval, or vaguely urban, there's a certain sense of monotony that creeps into certain works of fantasy. The very idea of fantasy - something that's meant to be exempt from many of the rules of the world we live in - being samey and stock-standard is bizarre. Here are some different twists on the fantasy genre that don't show up as often as they should.

1. Fantasy Western

The literary fantasy genre has roots in the frontier just as much as the cinematic western genre. Robert E. Howard, author of the Conan stories, spent most of his life in the rural town of Cross Plains, Texas, and the history of settlers on the frontier influenced the world of Conan. Just like Shane or the Man With No Name, Conan the Cimmerian walked the rim between civilization and wilderness, battling evildoers before returning to the untamed land in search of his next adventure. So why don't we bring the genres one step closer together and have dwarves laying down railroads, frontier towns with a wizard's tower in the center, or brave gunslingers facing down vicious dragons?

I plan to remedy this with my own novel, A Reckoning of Dragons, which is currently in rough draft stage. This novel will feature a fallen fantasy kingdom which human settlers with guns and trains seek to take back from the monsters that have claimed it.

2. Modern Fantasy

Urban fantasy is a popular genre, but many of these stories rely on keeping the urban elements separate from the fantasy elements via secrecy and disguise. And while this separation can generate conflict and story just fine, I can't help but wonder what it would look like if the urban and the fantasy blended shamelessly.

Imagine a world where some college students at the wizard academy go on a road trip to the shady fey city over spring break. A motorcycle gang composed of sword-and-spell adventurers ride across the country. A drug cartel hunts magical monsters to harvest their hallucinogenic venom for their product.

Final Fantasy and Shadowrun cross into this territory at times, but they also lean hard into science fiction, having cyborgs and megacorporations alongside wizards and dragons. Bright is the closest this subgenre has come to the western mainstream, but the mixed reception that film received means any studio executive that can read a chart won't be touching this subgenre for a long time.

3. Historic Fantasy

For as long as the Lord of the Rings has existed, there have been dime-a-dozen fantasy novels which imitate the same quasi-medieval somewhat European setting. Earlier I mentioned the idea of a fantasy western, but the American frontier in the 19th century is hardly the only alternative. Imagine fantasy stories set in the Bronze Age Greece, Great Famine-era Ireland, or pre-colonization America. These places all have their own unique cultures and mythologies that could be mined for ideas.

Imagine a world where the Great Famine was created by the Nuckelavee bringing pestilence and despair upon the land? Or a world where cultists of Dionysus threaten to cast budding civilization into madness? Because why should Hades always be the villain when you have a perfectly good ancient god of insanity and hedonism back before he was just 'the god of wine'?

4. Space Fantasy

Star Wars is sometimes referred to as science fantasy, due to the equal blend of starships and swordsmen, but wouldn't it be fun to cut out the science entirely? Imagine spacefarers in ships powered by magic. If magic is strong enough to chuck physics out the window entirely, what's to stop the elves from uprooting a giant tree and enchanting it to fly through space? Or what if there were no ships and people used rituals to teleport from planet to planet. Perhaps an order of magicians enforces a Prime Directive-like control over the ritual to keep barbarians from raiding the stars.

How many other sci-fi tropes suddenly take on new life when given a fantasy flair? What if instead of spacesuits, people wore magic amulets that shielded them from hostile atmospheres? Humanoid races, like elves and halflings, could be shown as aliens from other planets. Instead of blasters and laser swords, we could see how medieval weapons get altered to work in the absence of gravity, either by mundane means (strap your hilt to your wrist to keep your sword from floating off) or magical ones (spells that alter gravity or atmosphere). Use the fireball, Luke.

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Fantasy is a huge genre. Whether it's ancient mythology or modern novels, it's a genre that has stuck with us in many different forms. But that doesn't mean we should always tread in the tracks of what's been done before. The classics have endured for a good reason, but there's nothing wrong with trying new things, especially in a genre that's all about things being different.


What other genres deserve more attention? Let me know in the comments below.