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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/37507
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/37507
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Many works of the High Fantasy genre are set in a pseudo-European fantasyland, in a rather amorphous time-period that mixes early-medieval and late-medieval arms and armour (but never gunpowder), late Renaissance society structure, and civilian technology that's everything before steam. Of particular note is _The Lord of the Rings_: the hobbits dress and act like they're late 19th century, eat potatoes and smoke tobacco, while the world around them appears to be early middle ages: swords, shields, mail rather than plate armour, longbows rather than crossbows.

**What are the advantages and disadvantages of setting a fantasy novel in such a fantasy past time, rather than in a specific time period, with its historically accurate technology (or lack thereof)?**

Clearly, we are willing to accept a "Once-upon-a-time" setting that's a mix-and-match of "past", it doesn't break our suspension of disbelief. Such a setting requires less research, and is less limiting (for example, I can have a character leaf through a book, when she should be reading a scroll, if she has access to written material at all). But looking at the story itself, what does it gain, and what does it lose, by the time being more specific? (The genre being High Fantasy, history and calendar would be that of the fantasy world, of course. I'm talking of the Real-Life time period that serves for inspiration being more specific.)

Is it possible for historical correctness to detract from the setting, when history clashes with the readers' expectations? (For example, presenting Englishmen with no potatoes as per the LOTR example, because potatoes would not have been introduced yet, or Middle East with no curved swords and no coffee?)

Does the answer change if the story is set not in fantasy-Europe, but in fantasy-Middle East, or fantasy-East Asia, for instance?

Original score: 9