Fantasy world
[7] Even within the span of mere decades, Oz, which had been situated in a desert in the United States when first written about in 1900,[6] was relocated to a spot in the Pacific Ocean.
[9] A more recent example of a fantasy land with definite connections to the actual world is Austin Tappan Wright's Islandia.
Islandia's remoteness and aura of mystery, as well as its preservation of an arcadian society, are explained by means of a law that allows only limited contact with foreigners.
Governments, for instance, tend to be uncompromisingly feudal-based, or evil empires or oligarchies, usually corrupt, while there was far more variety of rule in the actual Middle Ages.
[17] Careful world-building plus meticulous attention to detail is often cited as the reason why certain fantasy works are deeply convincing and contain a magical sense of place.
[18] Heavy and faithful use of real-world setting for inspiration, as in Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds, clearly derived from China, or Lloyd Alexander's use of real-world cultures such as Welsh for The Chronicles of Prydain or Indian for The Iron Ring, make the line between fantasy worlds and alternate histories fuzzy.
Conversely, the creation by an author of an imaginary country—such as Ruritania or Graustark—does not automatically transform that imaginary country into a fantasy world, even if the location would be impossible in reality owing to a lack of land to contain it; but such Ruritanian romances may be pushed toward the category of fantasy worlds by the introduction of figures such as witches and wise women, where it is not clear if their magic is effectual.
It is considered a flaw to have, for example, pirates living in lands far from trade routes, or to assign prices for a night's stay in an inn that would equate to several years’ income.
[citation needed] Rather than creating their own fantasy world, many authors choose to set their novels in Earth's past.
J. K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them explains that wizards eventually decided to conceal all magical creatures and artifacts from non-magic users.
Dungeons & Dragons, the first major role-playing game, has created several detailed and commercially successful fantasy worlds (called "campaign settings"), with established characters, locations, histories, and sociologies.
