Fantasy trope

J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium (and in particular, The Lord of the Rings) for example, was inspired from a variety of different sources including Germanic, Finnish, Greek, Celtic and Slavic myths.

[2] J. R. R. Tolkien delved into the nature of good and evil in The Lord of the Rings, but many of those who followed him use the conflict as a plot device, and often do not distinguish the sides by their behavior.

[citation needed] Even in so fanciful a tale as Through the Looking-Glass, Alice is made a queen in the end; this can serve as a symbolic recognition of the hero's inner worth.

[citation needed] The villain of the Demon Sword video game is also literally called Dark Lord.

Science fantasy stories often make use of scientifically implausible powers similar to magic, such as psychics.

Races of intelligent beings such as elves, dwarves, and gnomes often draw their history from medieval or pre-Christian roots.

Governments, for instance, tend to be feudalistic, corrupt empires despite the greater variety of the actual Middle Ages.

A famous example is the Hyborian Age (the fictional world of Conan the Barbarian), which features analogues of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Roman Empire, among others.

Three notable recent series with such settings are: Bartimaeus by Jonathan Stroud, Percy Jackson & the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan.

[20] J. R. R. Tolkien popularized the usage of the term in this context, in his legendarium (and particularly in The Lord of the Rings), and the use of races in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games further spread the label.

[21] Many fantasy and science fiction settings now use the terms race and species interchangeably, such as the World of Warcraft computer game.

Older editions of Dungeons & Dragons called the primary non-human player races (dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, and half-elf, half-orc) "demi-humans."