Yes! It's been done in many stories, movies etc. A big example would be Harry Potter. The "muggles" (ordinary humans) have no idea anything supernatural exists, even though wizards are around them all the time. And there are dragons, trolls and all kinds of fantasy creatures amongst them, they don't have a clue about. In novels I believe the genre is called "Urban Fantasy", where they have supernatural fantasy creatures and people in a modern urban setting. Another example of this is Supernatural TV series. Your trolls and ogres could be discreet, come out only at night, or be shy of people and hide from them. In Cryptozoology, people think Bigfoot could really exist, because at night they could stand really close to main highways in America, and no one would see or acknowledge them. (Someone did an experiment with that, think they had a tall guy dressed in black by a highway, and he had to stand really close before anyone would see him. So very easy to hide in the shadows and not be seen). Many wildlife animals are shy of humans and very difficult to spot. Many humans don't see them when they're practically right under their noses! Your dragons could have a supernatural ability to turn invisible, could come out only at night, or have the same ability as chameleons and blend into their environment if they stay still. Any human stumbling across a troll or dragon could be killed by them (depending on how dangerous you want your story to be), hence they wouldn't be able to tell anyone they saw them. So only special warriors or wizards who could use magic would be able to survive a dragon/troll encounter. Your wizards could be dressed in modern ordinary clothes, carrying wands on them discreetly and practising magic out of sight. Or have secret magic doorways much like Harry Potter, where they can wander around in long cloaks and pointy hats. You should easily be able to set them in big cities or towns. There are some novels which feature ogres or trolls living under bridges, perhaps in a sewer system, or an abandoned warehouse. Do dragons have to be giant? Yours could be about the size of a bus, or a building, or just the size of a small car. You're inventing it, you can have them any way you like. Think of your home town, if you had those creatures living in your town, where could you hide them, where would nobody see them? Think outside the box - have fun reinventing your world and the creatures in it!
There are a lot of weird stuff going on in the real world that no one can explain, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to explain it as fantasy stuff. Who built the Stonehenge, and why? What are the purpose of the statues on Easter Island? What happened to Atlantis, and where is it? (if it even existed.) With some imagination, Atlantis could have been full of wizards, witches, gobins, trolls and so on. It sunk into the sea and killed most of them, so the survivors fled to the mainland and remained hidden from the world. But personally, I think the question is why they have to stay hidden. Why not make a modern fantasy by taking a normal fantasy world and placing it in the modern world? If you look at Warhammer, it has a normal fantasy setting and a sci-fi setting that takes place 40.000 years later. Sure not much is left of the fantasy stuff, obviously, but it's still based on the same. So why not make a modern Warhammer? Or turn the Forgotten Realms into the Known Realms? I would much rather read a story like that than another hidden-world story. (and btw to bring up my beloved House of Night again, it's a series with vampires, magic, the occasional monsters and so on, but they don't hide much. The monsters do, but not the vampires.)
Or you can take the True Blood tack, and set your Urban Fantasy in a near-future time when your fantastical creatures have "come out of the closet" and made themselves seen by humans. You'd have to explain where they've been all these years, but it would also give you a canvas for exploring issues of fear, prejudice, tolerance, and true diversity.
Doesn't even have to be near future. You could let monsters come out of the closet in the 1500s if you wanted to. It wouldn't be modern, but still.
You could plot it like The Land Of The Lost or Journey To The Center Of The Earth like a hidden Realm that has yet to be discovered. A good one would be a planet on the other side of the Sun from the Earth that has never been seen. Hell, Narnji was inside a Kids Closet
I think the OP has made a kind of impossible premise. The whole point of fantasies set in the apparently "normal" world is the hiding of the fantasy - it usually makes most of the conflict. If it was simply a case of everyone just somehow didn't notice for thousands of years there'd be no story. It makes no sense to have a guy just walk out and notice a dragon and be like, "Dude!" before someone tells him, "uh, we've always had those..." unless it turned out this was an alternate timeline where he was the only guy from our world who remembered the boring version we know so well. Either the urban fantasy is open and everyone is in on the secret, or it's a complete secret to the muggles except those who are lucky enough to stumble over all the age-old secrets. Which is why hidden worlds and so on are so often used. Now, my urban fantasy is the real world, and no one knows it exists except it all does, but I'd give away all my secrets if I told you how so just ignore this last sentence
see Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. i think he pulled off something along the lines you are thinking of expertly. he also became a bestseller in the process
Actually I found a way to do it either way. Impossible is a limit I don't adhere too anyways. And I agree about it being a focal point of the conflict, the difference is I didn't want to use concepts that someone else had previously used. I wanted something a little bit harder to pull off and I believe I found my way, I am just not going to explain it for similar reasons you want people to neglect that last line of yours. I suppose you could call it a trade secret except once published it is no longer secret but you get the idea.
I think it can be done. If you have a great concept and strong characters you can find a way for them to interact with the outside world, or perhaps not interact. The point it, there's nothing that's impossible, you just have to know what your intentions are
The peachy part about fantasy is that you're only limited by your imagination. Yes, why the hell not? BTW are you aware that a good deal of famous and award winning fantasy fiction has modern setting with mythical creatures. Piers Anthony has his Xanth sagas that take place in an area that looks eerily like Florida on maps.
Modern fantasy: Harry Potter-muggles don't know there is a world of magic in there world or that there are portals to get to the other world. Angel, Eclipse etc: the world of vampires hidden in the modern world. Coneheads, Superman, Third rock: Aliens living in the modern world. ok, would probably be more scifi then fantasy. We have many legends of mythical beasts hiding in the world today: Bigfoot, Nessie, Champ, Chupacabra, abominable snowman, Demons, devils, clowns(IT), If you can think it, you can write it in a modern world. Then again, you can change the modern world to a modern world with fantasy races as a part of the world. Maybe a half orc soda jerk? Computer whiz Gnome? Elven librarian?
I'm working on a modern fantasy novel myself and it's definitely possible, you just have to use your imagination. I also wrote the script for a comic a few years back involving angels. In that story, when people looked at the angels, they saw normal people but they looked different to each person based on their point of view. One person might see a homeless person while another might see a businessman in a suit etc.
Yea they can exist. Take twilight for example. You just need a clever solution. Think up something original but somewhat realistic. Hope that helped!!
it depends on your imagination. with a good imagination anything is possible. x-men comes to mind as a modern fantasy. they use magic and there are weird looking monsters in it. also, hellgate london was a modern day fantasy. it followed a more traditional fantasy type story but is set in modern day london.
The first things that come to mind for me are: - Harry Potter - Hell Boy - Constantine - Percy Jackson - Almost any vampire story I am sure I could find more if I thought about it.
