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Exploring Fantasy Worlds


exploring fantasy worlds

This is a prologue of my imaginary trek through mythical places. For generations, writers have been drawing maps for their fantasy worlds to accompany their prose and to serve as an aid for the reader as they venture into the world--or worlds---the writer imagined for the reader to explore. For quite some time, I've wanted to offer some kind of guide to these fantastic worlds---but alas! their number grows faster than I can collect them.


In addition to the fantasy maps drawn by authors, we now have dozens of popular fantasy maps for video games. The stories that accompany these maps, the character development involved in the quests, and the sheer depth of the settings in these video game worlds, have led me to believe that many video games are a new form of storytelling, one that provides an open-ended experience. In fact, compared to the single path the protagonist takes in a traditional book, the way the player can choose his or her own path in an open world video game is truer to the journey we all take in life.


Moreover, the artificially generated maps and open worlds of gaming have become a sort of new frontier for explorers. While they don't have the appeal to all five senses that real-world places have, they do spark the imagination. The human imagination isn't just about pushing the limits of human creativity. It is also about wondering what could be, what vast worlds may sit beyond the one we know, and what the future may hold.


Let's Embark


So, I dove into my laptop and began exploring the many different and diverse worlds imagined by game developers and authors. Many of these places I traveled to for free. Others had a border entry fee. Interestingly enough, some of them let me explore the galaxy, but most of the worlds I found were lacking culture, even though sentient beings--even humans---lived there.


But perhaps I should begin with my own story, meaning the one that got me into this crazy quest in the first place. I was minding my own business when a mysterious voice from the ether told me everything here part one massive game.


“Okay,” I said. “How do you play?” 


“Just start at the beginning,” the voice 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 made. The room looked out on it.


Mesmerized, I asked, "How should I start?" 


 "You can start by answering this simple question: Who do you want to be?"


I took a little time to think about it, but the answer was simple. Who wouldn’t want to live in the prime of life? 


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


"Go ahead."


In the room, I could select my phase of life and gender, so I did. I selected “young adult” and “male”.


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


"Sure. You have that option.” 


“I want everyone else in the game 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, you’re making this more complicated than it needs to be! Fine, people can be whatever age they want for however long they want. How’s that?”


“This is acceptable, even though it is strange. Youth may be a quality coveted by many, but perhaps it is overrated," the voice continued. "After all, what is youth other than the relative time since your birth, compared to how long you have to live? Surely, health plays a factor as well. Does an overweight drug addict who has lived only 18 years exhibit the best qualities of youth more than a 58-year-old athlete who can run a six-minute mile and bench 250 pounds?


"Also, youth is only so cherished because it is ephemeral. If everyone exhibits the best qualities of youth all of the time, will it remain as cherished? Youth is a relative term, as you will quickly discover. All those qualities which you thought were characteristics of youth, you will find are simply qualities of life well-lived. In the universe you are entering, the lives of characters can easily be reset. All characters receive boosts or blemishes according to their performance in the game. So, the value of youth---and all those qualities you so cherish in it---are null and void here, especially when compared to how well you play.


"But, have it your way. You see this meter here. It determines what age everyone should be. You can give each character access to the meter so they can choose their age. You can freeze the meter so they stay the same age, unfreeze it when you want them to start aging, you can accelerate it so they age quicker, or slow it down so they age more slowly. Keep in mind, though, the choices of the characters come into play too. If they don’t take care of themselves they could die more quickly no matter what you do. It’s all up to you. I’ve given you this power to decide what age each person is, or to leave it up to them, since this was your first decision when I asked, you can do whatever you want. Apparently a person’s age is important to you. I can understand why, even though I think it’s silly, but that’s beside the point. Now, since I gave you something, I am going to ask for something in return. I am giving you a mission.”


“Oh, uhuh. I knew there was a catch. I didn’t sign up for any of this anyway. 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 gaming 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?”


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


Looking out from my base camp, I saw a medley of worlds hanging in a dark blue sky and didn’t had no idea how they were all connected. When I brought them into closer view with a simple gesture from my hands, I saw there were worlds with adventurers fighting strange creatures, mysterious quest seekers, corsairs attacking remote trading posts, knights on royally-sanctioned missions, 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 open sky in front of you is a living database of every fantasy world ever imagined,” the hidden voice said. “Except, 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 humans' 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.”


“Okay, 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. Goodbye.”


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. 


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 ways—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. I first assumed 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 2024 because for some reason there was a preset for it on the interface. There were other presets for other dates in the past and 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 lights started flashing. My stomach became uneasy, but before I knew it everything was still again and the door reopened.


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


I was in the game world commonly known as The Sims. I knew this because the machine that brought me there displayed my location on a screen, but "The Sims" is an inaccurate 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 actually 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. It may be bigger than that, but this was as much as I could figure out from my own exploration.


Maxis was just one of the many worlds in this universe. Intrigued, I exited the Sims' world of Maxis and went back to my base. Looking at the vague and incomplete map there, I saw on the map all these worlds too:



There were countless more, but I haven't had the time to tell you all the others I saw. I will keep you posted. I still don’t know how they’re all connected either. In other words, I wouldn't know how to navigate from one to the other if it were not for this special machine given to me. It’s like a ginormous puzzle for which I only have a few pieces. 



exploring fantasy worlds

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 all begin?”, meaning the overarching story of all these worlds. Discovering the first true fantasy world became my first task. 


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


Sources:













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 kilbyfreelancer@gmail.com


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