So I need y'all's help with this. I recently had this epiphany and do day I'm failing hard at the research... A while back I found something online about genre mind maps, which "list" the many different attributes (or elements) of a given literary genre... But there was nothing on fantasy. Do I started doing some basic research into the attributes of the fantasy genre, and... Zip! All I could find was more generalized attributes like plot, length, stuff that could apply to anything. Sooo... I could use some serious help. Any way you guys could help me come up with specific attributes that apply to High Fantasy? Thanks a million!
I'm not entirely clear what you're asking for. Types of characters in your world? Elves, dwarves, humans, orcs, etc. I guess parallel to that, creatures? Orges, Rocs, Griffins, unicorns, peguas' (the flying horse), vampires, monsters like giant spiders and trolls? Jobs? Wizard, witch, guard, king, Queen, soldier, farmer, serf, slave....? The systems in place, like laws, magic, alchemy, metallurgy.... Is this going in the right direction?
Maybe what you need to look up are tropes of high fantasy? Try the TV Tropes page for it: So You Want To / Write a High Fantasy
Fantasy can usually be categorised by the amount of magic that exists. If magic is everywhere, and has powerful effects - fireballs, time travel etc. - then that puts fantasy towards the higher end. OTOH, if magic is minimal, or has very limited effects - e.g. making cows go dry, giving people warts etc., then it's towards the low end. That's not the be all and end all. The prevalence of fantastic creatures, the bigger the better, moves it towards the high end. Dragons, giants, etc. If they're intelligent, even better. If the only creatures you're going to meet are the occasional kobold, then it's *probably* towards the lower end. How realistic the mechanics of the world is another factor. Is armour mostly limited to battered leather, mail or similar, unless you're rich? Then low. If everyone's wandering around in shiny plate armour with lots of twirly bits and has got a sword, then high.
I'm not sure what you're asking because Fantasy is such a mailable genre. It can be anything you want it to be. It focuses on plot because that's central to all stories and fantasy is one of those nasty genres that tends to get away from you. I've seen a lot of stories where spectacle eclipses the actual story. In other words, the author had spent an excessive amount of world building in detail, but the story itself is kind of "meh." I recommend reading the fantasy genre, but not to neglect on current events and non-fiction. These things can help you write something that feels relatable.
Assuming you mean something like what I've hidden in the spoiler tag, I'm going to give some answers, but first I want to be clear that these kinds of things are rather disheartening. The image below eviscerates the purpose of Science Fiction and reduces it to little more than its stage props, which is a kind of petitio principii in the assumption that these props are the important and defining parts of the genre rather than tools of which the genre makes use to speak about the human condition. Spoiler: Science Fiction Mind Map But, if this is what you're after for High Fantasy: Obligatory Faux Northern Medieval Europe Setting Political intrigue Stabby-stabby game of hierarchical climbing. Inns/Taverns Castles Dungeons Towers Gates Sieges Siege towers Trebuchets Swords Other esoteric battle gear no one in the modern world has ever heard of, for which the writer deploys only the obscure opaque name and gives little further explanation because "these are things everyone should know already". Dinosaur-sized reptilian creatures that will have differing names depending on number of legs, number of toes, what it breathes, mental capacity, color, season of the year, etc. (getting the name correct is Extremely Important™) Entire monoculture civilizations of paladins. Monolithic economies that make no sense at all (don't get angry, Science Fiction does the same thing endlessly).† Peasants/Smallfolk The Heir to the Throne The Secret Heir to the Throne The Spare Secret Heir to the Throne (in case the first secret one doesn't stick) The Quest The Side-Quest The Chosen One The Chosen One's Sidekick (initially presented as the more important of the two with a reversal of roles when the Chosen One's status is revealed). The Chosen One's Quest Team (bonus points if they are each from a different fantasy "race"). The Guide (think Gandalf) The Big Bad (think Sauron) The Hot Woman - (may need rescuing, may be the rescuer, may be a princess, may be a commoner, may be a princess in disguise as a commoner pretending to need rescue when in fact she is the one rescuing). Hired Band of Shiftless Mercenaries The One Mercenary who becomes a Hero (very high probability of hook-up/romance with the Hot Woman). Comic Relief (look for the bard or other "entertainment industry" type). Unhired Band of Amazon-esque Warriors (they are rarely hired for gold, but instead evaluate your cause for its nobility and take the job or not depending on your Nobility Score). So - Much - Travelogue (in longer works, you may well cross a continent in real-time). Unaccountably Strange Names for things that already have normal names. (Again, Sci-Fi is just as guilty. Looking at you, Defiance, with your "rollers" for cars and "scrip" for money when nearly every adult character in the show was alive during the era of cars and money. Language doesn't do that with such workaday terms!)† Linguistics deployed by non-linguists † Diverse Community of Magical or Supernatural Beings inhabiting copses, glens, rivers, ponds, waterfalls, and generally scattered about the heath. Magic Cost of using Magic (rarely applied to the Diverse Community of Magical or Supernatural Beings, only human practitioners) The Prophecy Some version of The Crone(s) as the source for the Prophecy. Animal Analogues (a thing that's clearly a dog or a wolf, but indicated not to be that. A thing that's clearly a deer, but... you get the picture).† † These are also part of the Science Fiction mind map.
Thanks, everyone. I guess I can always draw from aspects of other genres, see what applies to my story specifically, and go from there.
Thanks for the tip. I actually just found a good mind mapping app and I can't believe I didn't try this sooner!