What is your favorite fantasy lore?

I recently bought this book:

And it reminded me how much I really enjoy the Dragon Age lore. I've read the novels and most of the comics, and I love the way their history mirrors the history and cultures of Europe. And I enjoy the individual personalities of the races and cultures (Ferelden is my favorite).

But fantasy lore is a lot like taco bell food. A lot of it has the exact same ingredients, just repacked and prepared in such a way that it can change the flavor of the whole thing. So I'm curious what people's consider their favorite fantasy lore. I mean there are tons of options to choose from Warcraft, Diablo, Elder Scrolls, The Witcher, Secret of Mana etc. So what's your favorite lore?

I know that Warcraft ripped off Warhammer ripped off Tolkien ripped off Beowulf etc, but it doesn't really matter to me. I've still got a soft spot for Warcraft. I haven't read the books or anything, but I'm thinkin' about it.

I love everything to do with Middle Earth.

Tolkien is the Father of a lot of Fantasy Concepts that everyone associates with the genre, while he might not have "Invented" them, I think he's one of the reasons Orcs, Elves, etc are so popular and he probably is the reason a lot of similar themes are still around today.

What's not to like, Demons, Dragons, Gods, Monsters, and Wizards.

Game Fantasy.. I guess Mass Effect? I can't really think if you could consider that Fantasy, maybe it'll be true in 1000 years

Fire Emblem and its glorious medieval war epics will always be a favorite for me, but right now, I'm particularly enjoying the rich mythical world of Xenoblade.

Witcher and the Malazan series by Steven Erickson

Loved Dragon Age as well, really got into the first game lore.

But my favorite, I love everything about the Metal Gear Universe, just fantastic and crazy as I could want it. Used to love Resident Evil pre 5 but then it just went stupid......er than it was before.

EDIT: I also started reading the Witcher book before I start the games and the universe is fascinating, can't wait to play the games.

It doesn't get much better for me than Arthurian mythology, which I studied like crazy in college (which is likely part of why I'm unemployed today). But I love me some Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and Tad Williams (especially Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn). They were (or are, in the case of Williams) master world-builders.

As far as games, I think Dragon Age has some fantastic world-building, and I hope we get to see more of that in the next game. I also tend to enjoy the lore and world-building in the Elder Scrolls games.

Tolkien stuff. Nothing else sets my imagination off quite like Middle-Earth lore does.

Elder Scrolls is my definitive favorite.

probably D&D Forgotten Realms. Without having played the pen and paper, I just really enjoy the lore in the isometric games like Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights.

The Witcher and the Conan universe are the most interesting to me. I prefer some dark fantasy and low fantasy over high, personally.

I've gotten way into the Dragon Age and Elder Scrolls lores. I also really like the world of the Witcher.

I like the Legacy of Kain lore.

I can't really think of one, there's never been something where I read the core work and then went off to learn more. When I was younger I used to write some really longform fan-fiction books centered around the timeline of Resident Evil 1+2 on the IGN RE forums. But there's no lore I have any deep, abiding knowledge of. Game of Thrones seems awesome but I'd never read the books or take a map out and try to figure out how these characters get where they go, and Lord of the Rings were great reads but I'm not actually that interested in that world, just the characters and situations.

I do really, really respect what Bioware did with Mass Effect, though.

Hmm, can I nominate Xenogears? Because I'd still rank what Xenosaga turned out to be as the greatest disappointment from my childhood that wasn't actually all that serious or important to me.

Steven Erikson's Malazan books without a doubt. His world-building is second-to-none. Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy is worth a mention as well, though it's no where near the scope of Erikson's work. Why Martin gets all the acknowledgement awash in a sea of authors better than him, I'll never know.

I've never really gone in hard on any kind of fiction. Reading a couple of the Warcraft books recently has made me want to return to Warcraft 3 and WoW though.

Wheel of Time. Nothing else like it

Love how Elder Scrolls, Tolkein, Sword of Ice N Fire lore ties in with the ongoing story, Continuity, people. If you like Elder Scrolls lore, check out this guy's podcasts. They're great.

The Wire

@the_ruiner said:

I recently bought this book:

And it reminded me how much I really enjoy the Dragon Age lore. I've read the novels and most of the comics, and I love the way their history mirrors the history and cultures of Europe. And I enjoy the individual personalities of the races and cultures (Ferelden is my favorite).

But fantasy lore is a lot like taco bell food. A lot of it has the exact same ingredients, just repacked and prepared in such a way that it can change the flavor of the whole thing. So I'm curious what people's consider their favorite fantasy lore. I mean there are tons of options to choose from Warcraft, Diablo, Elder Scrolls, The Witcher, Secret of Mana etc. So what's your favorite lore?

HOLY FUCK. I did not know that exists! I need to buy that! Is it just one huge lore book I'm guesing?

Magic the Gathering? The setup rationalizing the gameplay is pretty cool.

Okay... I'll leave.

@pandabear: Well, damn. Thread is over I guess.

The world(s) from the His Dark Materials trilogy comes to mind. Steampunk, but not, like, bullshit steampunk. Fun steampunk.

I love The Elder Scrolls lore, but then again I've yet to experience anything else quite like it or surpassing it as I'm not a very bookish individual.

While exceeding long and over blown I really like the Wheel of Time series, I felt like it subverted the established Tolkien tropes. It felt like most of the characters actions were reasonable enough and realistic. I don't know what happened, but today it seems like most people on message boards or book reviews despise the basic premise of the series though. That seems kind of stupid to me; everything starts off with some stereotypes and tropes what's important is how well developed and executed the narrative ends up being.

I'm liking the First Law series, right now I'm on book 3 of the main series. It has some magic, but few and far between. It likes to play with stereotypes and how X type of characters are 'suppose' to act.

muppets, dark crystal, labrynth or storyteller. Actually Terry Jones and Terry Pratchett style writing also.

Conan the Barbarian is awesome fantasy.

Loreful Evil.

• Fantasy lore that stems mostly from games? - Warcraft
• Fantasy lore that has a lot of games based around it but didn't originate there? - Forgotten Realms (runner up Witcher)
• Fantasy lore outside games? - that's a whole other ballpark, league and conversation

They're just very different categories that can't be compared on equal footing imo

40 fucking K.

I'm a sucker for Warcraft lore.

@fourwude: @artisanbreads: I am curious as to what you recommend (either comics or novels) to get started in the Conan Universe. Any suggestions?

I like the Harry Potter world, but that's mainly due to growing up with the books and not the lore itself.

In terms of video-games, I'm really intrigued by Dishonored's world. Sure, it's no Elder Scrolls in terms of scale, but I definitely want to see more of that universe.

@iigrayfoxii: You must conquer your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their women.

Only then will you be ready.

The various Icelandic Sagas are incredible stories. Fact > fiction.

The Discworld of course.

I was going to say the Wheel of Time and 40k when I came in here, and then @sparky_buzzsaw mentioned the Arthurian Mythology. That's definitely the one for me. A big part of that, I suppose, is that no one's bothered to make a game that makes the most of it. Why? It's fucking amazing, it's the first great story of Anglo-Saxon culture. The sword in the stone, the unification of the realm, the fucking quest for the Holy Grail, the final battle with Mordred. Every attempt at a King Arthur game to this point (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) has been some woeful misappropriation of the characters for a generic fantasy setting. (That King Arthur role-playing war game wasn't generic, but the rest of the statement still stands).

Of course.

Discworld, The Witcher and Warcraft. All three offer something different and are pretty darn fantastic in their own rights.

I love Warhammer Fantasy for its diehard dedication to being completely fucking shameless with it's goofy-ass appropriation and reinterpretation of cultural tropes and historical figures. With maybe a few exceptions, there aren't really any factions that aren't directly based on some country's folklore or customs. Some examples (from memory, so these may not be 100% accurate) include:

• The Araby, a land out in the deserts where the people have made great strides in poetry and mathematics. They also have flying carpets and djinn and scimitars and all that shit.
• The Norse, from the frozen land of Norsca, a group of sea-faring explorers, traders, and warriors that run around with horned helmets and axes and totally aren't Vikings we swear.
• Vampire lords from a country called "Sylvania"
• Fucking mummies
• Guys that are so Goddamned Italian I can't even begin to describe them
• Lizard people that live the jungles and mountains of a far-off continent that's totally not America (discovered by an explorer named Marco Columbo). They've got big stepped pyramids and sacrifices and a whole lot of x's in their names and they're certainly not one big mash-up of Incan, Mayan, and Aztec stereotypes.

Lord of the Rings.

And i'll probably be mocked to hell for it, but whatever, I really enjoy Harry Potter's fiction and lore

This book is excellent:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Adventures/dp/0345461517/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1380810818&sr=8-6&keywords=conan

And there are a couple other collections to check out after. The original stories really are amazing reads, great fun. I enjoy their one off nature while still expanding on a single universe.

I'd probably say Planescape. So weird but fantastic and original setting.

Im a sucker for most lore. The only one that I never really got interested in was D&D lore (although I played D&D throughout college). Recently I have been reading up on Warhammer 40k. If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be Shadowrun.

The Dark Horse Conan series is great, a lot of fun and it has really killer art, which really brings some of the adaptations to life. Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan is also amazing, really great, pulpy, black and white reads with awesome art and a great sense for adapting the original stories. Both have been collected into trade paperbacks almost in their entirety, I believe, and are pretty lengthy, like, Savage Sword is over 200 issues long. The original stories by Robert E. Howard are fantastic reads and the best place to start. I haven't read much of any the other novels or short stories written by anybody other than REH, though.

The Wheel of Time gets points from me for sheer breadth and excruciating amount of detail. If we're talking video games, then sure, I think Dragon Age has some decent Fantasy lore. They borrow a bit too much from A Song of Ice and Fire for my tastes, but yeah.

Probably Demon's Souls. I really want to read a book about Latria.

I actually usually hate fantasy worlds but I like a lot of the stories/games within them. Demon's Souls/Dark Souls (technically not related) have really pretty dumb story stuff, but the atmosphere, enemy design and gameplay are so good it doesn't matter. The Legend of Zelda is one of my favorite game series and I hate linking (ha!) all the games together on some sort of connected world or timeline. Mass Effect was super awesome (sci-fi I guess...) until the end of the third game...I dunno, I especially hate medieval stuff but there's cool things that come out of those sometimes. I actually enjoyed Lord of the Rings when I read the books recently, which was surprising.

I love Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant universe. There has only ever been one game made based on it though, The Land, and it was unauthorized. I'd love to see the day CD Project manages to grab the rights to make games based on it though.

I recently read Book of Cain (Diablo) and it was full of awesome. I also love Star Wars, Dune, Witcher and Dragon age lore.