Dragon Age: Inquisition - From Dark Fantasy to High Fantasy

Ripper said:

This is a good point. Something like the Aksumite Empire, contemporaneous with the Romans, would be an excellent fantasy setting.

Palaces, temples, centre of east/west trade, warrior queens and The Queen of Sheba, mythological resting place of the Ark of the Covenant - and when was the last time you saw it represented anywhere?

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Not really, it wasn't exactly a grade A civilization back then - very little to no monumental architecture, no cool armour like the Romans and Persians.

Nubia would be a safer bet, with its strong Egyptian influences.

In general though, more exotic settings usually have a very hard time selling to a wide audience. It would have to be really, really good and have a really, really smooth introduction to its story and setting. I don't think it's impossible, but it's way more difficult than the same old quasi-medieval pseudo-British stuff.

ChienAboyeur said:

The article reads that Orlais is France for some reasons that are explained in it.
Cant be Québec under those conditions.

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Sorry man, but it's obviously two parts of Canada and the evil nearby empire is USA. And Qunari are probably Russians.

I don't see Europe in this game anywhere.

That could make another article. To be posted once written.

Fluffyhotep said:

Not really, it wasn't exactly a grade A civilization back then - very little to no monumental architecture, no cool armour like the Romans and Persians.

Nubia would be a safer bet, with its strong Egyptian influences.

In general though, more exotic settings usually have a very hard time selling to a wide audience. It would have to be really, really good and have a really, really smooth introduction to its story and setting. I don't think it's impossible, but it's way more difficult than the same old quasi-medieval pseudo-British stuff.

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I'm not quite sure what you mean by a "grade A civilisation".

From the British Museum teaching notes:

"Research shows that Aksum was a major naval and trading power from the 1st to the 7th centuries AD. As a civilisation it had a profound impact upon the people of Egypt, southern Arabia, Europe and Asia…"

"It was described by a Persian writer as one of the four greatest powers in the world at the time…"

"Aksum provides a counterpoint to the Greek and Roman worlds, and is an interesting example of a sub-Saharan civilisation flourishing towards the end of the period of the great Mediterranean empires…"

You can also Google search "Aksum monumental architecture". The great palace of Taakha Maryam was far larger than anything in Europe at the time.

There's some confusion in these categories 'dark fantasy' and 'high fantasy' being thrown around. They are in completely different tiers. A fantasy can either be high fantasy (a world completely invented) or low fantasy (an altered version of our own reality). Either can have a lot of sub-genres, for example, dark fantasy.

Probably the writer of the article meant to say that a tone from ambiguous and grey (which I don't see that much in DA:O, but alright) went to more morally polar and epic.