The Worlds of Fantasy Stories and Games

I was minding my own business when someone told me life is a game. “OK,” I said. “How do you play?”

“Just start at the beginning,” they said.

“Where's that exactly?”

“Remember when you were young and wanted to be older?”

Next thing I knew I was in a room, not knowing how I got there. A massive world, no--more like a whole universe--was placed before me. It must have contained every fantasy world people have ever contrived or imagined. The room looked out on it.

"Where should I start?"

"At the beginning, of course. Who do you want to be?"

“I want to be a man in my young adult years."

"Go ahead."

In the room, I could select my phase of life and gender, so I did.

"But I want to be a young adult forever. Can I do that?"

"Sure. You have that option.”

“I want everyone else to be the same age forever too though. I want everyone to be young adults forever, between 18 and 40, maybe 45."

"So, no children? No elders?"

"Well if there are already children and elders in this game, they can remain as such. But from now on, all new players will be young adults."

"That doesn't seem very fair to the children and elders."

"OK, fine. They can be young adults too."

“But what if they don’t want to be young adults?”

“Boy, are you annoying! Fine, people can be whatever age they want for however long they want. How’s that?”

“It’s fine. I’m just playing with you anyway. You don’t really set the rules. They’re whatever age I say they should be.”

“What? You mean you tricked me?”

“No, not really. It was more like a litmus test. You’re not the game developer or the author of the story. You’re the main character, or main player if you will. And as such, you have a mission.”

“Why should I …”

“Because if you don’t you’ll be stuck here forever, wondering what your purpose is and why you feel so unfulfilled. So your mission is to chart and keep a record of your experiences in this entire fantasy world, or universe. This place will be your base camp, but as you can see I’ve given you a unique perspective in this world. The other characters don’t know about the huge universe they are a part of. They think they’re a part of just one small section of it. You need to tell them there is more, much more.”

“But, it’s massive! Where do I begin?”

“You keep asking me that. Stop worrying. Just begin with what’s right in front of you.”

“But, can’t I have a guide or something at least?”

“What kind of explorer asks for a guide? Where to start will come natural to you. You’re a natural-born explorer. Don’t complicate things.”

Looking out my base camp I saw a medley of worlds and didn’t even comprehend how they were all connected. There were adventurers fighting strange creatures, mysterious quests, corsairs, knights, and all sorts of wild terrains that made my head spin. Part of me felt like it was all one world, but part of me felt like they were all separate and it was supposed to be that way. The more I looked though, the clearer it all became and the more connected it all seemed.

“This is like a visual living database of every fantasy world ever imagined.”

“Uh, well, ‘imagined’ is an insufficient term. It suggests that these worlds are made up. You have to understand, no human just makes things up.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Basically, to simplify the truth for your sake, whenever a writer, producer, or game designer, contrives a new world out of their, as you call it, ‘imagination’, they’re simply tapping into the reality of an actual distant place humans can’t access any other way.”

“Yea, right.”

“No, really. They may not get it all right, but they provide a good access point. Some of the dots aren’t connected, but what they provide is good enough to work with. Your job is to help connect the dots.”

“OK, I can see that you started me out with a very small section then.”

“Yes, and one that’s familiar to you. That’s all the guidance I can provide for now. Good bye.” I never did see the person speaking to me It was just a voice and before I knew it, it was gone.

In the land where I started, I already noticed that some had gone before me, and I figured it would be the same for all the places I sojourned. So instead of reinventing the wheel, I started gathering the work of those giant predecessors, and stood on their shoulders, giving them credit of course. To all those explorers and cartographers of these fantasy worlds who came before me, I thank you.

Eventually, I began to notice that their work was commendable but incomplete, and I started to see what my guide was talking about. They each had their own interpretations of the lands they were mapping, and there was no coherence or universal scale or style uniting them all. Now, I’m all for diversity and even eclecticism to an extent--because I think it’s important for people to share their own perspectives in their own unique way--but there was no way people were going to see all of these worlds as connected unless I provided a more realistic scale and style. There was only one way to do this. I had to jump in deeper myself.

I looked around the room and saw a closet. When I opened it I discovered a large machine, so large I could step inside. When I stepped inside I saw an interface with a digital keyboard and a timeline. Across the top of the machine were images of human history. My first assumption was that it was a time machine, but that couldn’t be right. I entered a date and then pressed a green button on the interface. The date I picked was autumn 2018 because for some reason there was a preset for it on the interface. There were others for dates further in the past and even in the future, but I wasn’t sure what to expect so I wanted to start things off conservatively, just in case this machine actually did transport me to a different time. After pushing the green button, it lit up and caused the door of the machine to shut me in. There was some rattling and flashing lights and my stomach became uneasy, but before I knew it everything was still again and the door reopened.

Then I found myself in a typical two-level suburban house.

The world where I started is commonly known as The Sims, but that is a condescending name because it names the world after the inhabitants who live there. It’s like calling Earth “The Humans”. A short time in the world will reveal that the Sims call their world "Maxis". It includes not only all the places in all The Sims games, but also all the original maps from all the SimCity games. And Maxis was just one of the many worlds in this universe. Looking at the vague and incomplete map in the room I originally found myself in, I saw on the map all these worlds too:

Agon (Rise of Agon)

Arda (of which Middle-earth is a part)

Azeroth (World of Warcraft)

Black Desert

Entropia (Next Island)

Norrath (Everquest 2)

Tamriel (Elder Scrolls)

The Three Great Continents (Final Fantasy XIV)

Tyria (Guild Wars 2)

Westeros and Essos (World of Ice and Fire)

I still don’t know how they’re all connected, though. It’s like a ginormous puzzle for which I only have a few pieces.

This wasn’t just about mapping and charting all these different worlds either. Each distinct land was filled with stories, and I had to find out how they were all connected as well; similar to the way the Bible consists of many individual stories that are all part of one bigger grand epic. The more I looked into my mission the more massive I discovered that it was. I was being tasked to compose an epic of epics.

The question became not “Where do I begin?” but “Where did it begin?”, meaning the story. Discovering the first true fantasy world became my first task.

If you’d like to join me on this epic quest, stay tuned.

Sources:

Agon - https://wiki.riseofagon.com/Agon

Arda - https://imgur.com/gallery/nXXn5/comment/243749332

Azeroth (World of Warcraft) - http://amiyuy.com/wow/2016/04/high-quality-printable-map-of-azeroth/

Black Desert - https://blackdesertonline.fandom.com/wiki/World?file=Worldmap.jpg

Entropia - http://nextisland.entropiawiki.com/Gallery.aspx?image=7881

Norrath (Everquest 2) - https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Norrath?file=Eq2norrathmap.jpg

Sims 4 Worlds, as of January 2019 -https://simscommunity.info/2019/01/21/a-simmer-has-put-together-all-the-sims-4-worlds-in-one-image/

Tamriel (Elder Scrolls) - https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Elder-Scrolls-Online/tamriel-map-eso-wiki-guide.jpg?v=1593744314430

Three Great Continents (Final Fantasy XIV) - https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/b8ciiu/map_of_the_three_great_continents_updated/

Tyria: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/5/57/Tyria_map_%28unexplored%29.jpg

Westeros and Essos (World of Ice and Fire) - https://www.deviantart.com/scrollsofaryavart/art/A-Map-of-A-Song-of-Ice-and-Fire-Version-3-297102060

Disclaimer: I have attempted to give adequate credit to all maps that I’ve borrowed. If any creators believe I am violating any copyrights, I apologize ahead of time. You can contact me at [email protected].