Ask HN: Free fantasy world (e.g. not LotR)

2 points·agilord··6 comments

Is there any free (both as in beer and as in speech) fantasy world available for any kind of development (game, novel, video, ...)?

I don't know the details, but I'd assume Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons and similar popular ones are full with copyright, licensing, and fees.

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How about western/northern European mythology (Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, etc.)? The worlds you name take a huge amount of influence from these.

Yup and history in general works well. Authentic history and embellished history tends to be a very exciting "fantasy" world.

Heck, look at the Total War games:

Shogun: Total War

Medieval: Total War

Rome: Total War

Medieval II: Total War

Empire: Total War

Napoleon: Total War

That is great, and I am personally a great fan of Celts.

However, what's up with the elves, trolls, orcs...? These are well-understood races, are they free to use?

I agree. Age of Mythology, for instance, is a great game which combines Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology as three separate groups and stages into one story.

I would suggest inventing a new world - it is often a great fun for me to discover new worlds and the stories behind it. I think you don't need to reinvent the wheel, just take the best parts of the fantasy worlds you like and from those develop a new-ish thing. Maybe you can start creating a new franchise - who knows?

Well Warcraft is basically Lord of the Rings, so you could just take an existing one and modify it.

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