Fantasy is a genre I love and is perfect for building stories filled with the supernatural and exotic. A lot of the time though we end up with fairly generic fantasy worlds, it’s easy and most people are familiar with the standard tropes it provides. There’s inherently no problem with this, some of the most beloved worlds fall into this category. But, sometimes we want to break out of the ordinary and explore something a bit different.
To that end, I’ve put together this list of 5 fantasy setting ideas that are a bit more than just a rehash of Middle Earth. The goal isn’t to give you a fully fleshed-out fantasy world, but instead to provide you with some ideas to build from. If you’re looking for something a bit more exotic to build then you’re in the right place. In each of the settings below, we’ll look at the basics of it, some ideas to consider when building the world, and a few sample hooks for stories that could be told there.
A World Covered in Water
Imagine a world where there is no land, or perhaps sparingly few parcels available. Where every race has adapted to live below the waves, potentially in complete darkness and immense pressure.
Consider how people might live and have evolved in a life under the sea. How do they survive, build, and find food? Where do communities choose to settle, perhaps in shallow, warm coastal waters? What do the people look like, the standard fantasy races would certainly have to look different to evolve in such a different ecosystem.
This world creates a lot of challenges, especially for those not native to it. How would a party of land-dwellers survive in these harsh conditions? You can also spice it up a bit by having land exist but be extremely rare. Maybe owning land becomes a massive status symbol that only the highest echelon of kings and nobility can ever hope to obtain. That could lead to interesting conflicts as different groups vie for control of it.
Sample Hooks
A patch of rare land, only a few acres in size, has become the focal point of a violent war between different nations.
A valuable artifact is said to rest at the bottom of a massive ocean trench.
A massive aquatic beast is terrorizing small communities.
A World of Extreme Cold
In this world, freezing temperatures are the norm. The world is covered in a vast sea of snow and ice and massive glaciers rule the landscape. This world is harsh, and those who choose, or are forced, to live here have to be tough or risk perishing to the extreme cold.
A world of intense cold would be very different from the one we live in today. A big difference would likely be the lack of agriculture, which was a key development of larger societies. Without the ability to grow food, there’s likely to be a cap on how large groups of people are likely to get. It wouldn't be surprising if small, nomadic tribes were the largest groups of civilized peoples.
That doesn’t preclude larger settlements though. Perhaps a group has learned to cultivate various fungi underground where temperatures are more stable. A world described above might lead to more underground societies that have a better chance to thrive than on the cooler surface. This is a good example of how we can take some realism to describe the situation, but then use fantastical elements to overcome them.
Sample Hooks
Rapid warming threatens to melt glaciers which is causing flooding and other natural disasters.
A rare herb is said to be able to grow in even the harshest landscapes. Acquiring some would help smaller tribes survive and thrive even when hunting results are poor.
A race of underground gnomes holds the secret to fungi cultivation that could end rampant hunger for the surface dwellers if trade lines were opened up.
A World Controlled By a hyper-powerful Undead
In this world a powerful undead being, or group of them, controls the entire world; or at least a large portion of it. This undead could be a standard powerful undead like a lich or vampire, or it could be something completely unique to your world. Maybe necrotic energies have reanimated the corpse of a god that now holds dominion over this world, a simple example that isn’t one of the typical undead.
The standard conflict would be a struggle of the general population against the tyranny of their undead overlords. Groups of people, far surpassed in skill but not in courage, taking up arms to rid themselves of the evil that controls their world.
Or, maybe you flip things around and the undead are actually the good guys. This could be an interesting way to subvert expectations and throw in a nice twist if done correctly. The popular trope “a greater evil” could be employed here, the undead rulers are the only thing keeping something truly evil from overrunning and destroying the world.
In any case, it might be helpful to explore some of the undead rulers' motivations. What drives them to do what they do, and what sorts of goals does an immortal world-ruler have?
Sample Hooks
A group of freedom fighters has discovered a way to finally destroy the undead that rule over them.
The undead lords need a spy to infiltrate and destroy the last remaining bastion of rebel power.
An ancient evil is sealed away, only kept in check by the undead king, the very same king the people seek to destroy.
A World Where Humans Aren’t The Dominant Species
Most fantasy worlds tend to have humans as the dominant species, but what if that wasn’t the case? What if elves, dwarfs, gnomes, orcs, or even something else is the most dominant race? How would that change how the world looks, how cultures interact, and how people behave?
This is a particularly interesting one because it can lead to worlds very similar to traditional fantasy worlds, or ones that look completely different. It all depends on what race your world is primarily inhabited by.
You could have a world that is more or less the same, it just happens to be that elves are more populous than humans. Or you could have a world controlled by ogres where brute strength is the only trait worth having and things like knowledge and education are shunned. Over thousands of years of civilization, these two worlds are likely to diverge in interesting ways.
I like to think of this as a good example where making a single change can give you a drastically different world. You can leave much of the world alone and still end up with ones that are radically different.
Sample Hooks
The brutal trolls have subjugated the “lesser” races but resistances have started to crop up to put down their oppressors.
A group of humans is transported to this world and must adapt to a different status quo.
The tinkering gnome populace has created a mini-industrial revolution by inventing steam power.
A Dead World
This is a world that is long past its prime. What once may have been a shining beacon of civilization is now just a husk, a lifeless reminder of what once was. There may be reminders of the past inhabitants, ruins, and the like, but those that left them are long gone.
This world can be a bit tricky to pull off but could work well with some imagination. One idea is to treat it like a mystery where the goal is to find out exactly what happened to the people who used to live there. There may also be some element of a race against time as resources may be limited depending on the specifics of the world.
This world works well with storytelling as those who explore it become immersed in the people who lived there and what happened to them. Putting together the pieces can be a fun challenge with the reward being knowledge of the past.
A clue to the survival of the current world rests in the remnants of another, dead world.
The dead world is actually the body of a god that died eons ago. Some of its divine power still resides there.
Some people have become trapped on the dead world and must find a way to escape or risk suffering the same fate.
There’s Always More To Explore
The above worlds are only a small sample, you’re only limited by your imagination. Hopefully, they've given you some ideas and demonstrated the different worlds that are possible. They also show how tweaking a single characteristic, the people, the climate, or geology, can lead to radically different worlds. When you sit down to build your next world, consider what you might change about it to make a unique creation that has its own stories to explore.
