On Medieval Stasis

I don’t think it is a fresh observation to see fantasy and Sci-fi as genres that embody nostalgia or hope for the future. A yearning for the past with all the cool magic and societies that all but vanished after the onset of the Enlightenment and modern science. Or in the case of Sci-fi, a literary attempt at prophesying about the future.

So the fantasy genre is very heavily inspired by the past, most often the Medieval period. You know the sort, kings and queens, knights and brave warriors slaying dragons and saving the princess. It has been a staple of the genre going all the way back to Elizabethan times, with the likes of The Faerie Queene setting the troupes we all know and love about this genre. One also cannot forget about the massive influence the myth of King Arthur had on what would become the fantasy genre in Europe.

If you want to go back even further, you could even argue that Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey set the bedrock for fantasy. But given the preference of European fantasy and by extension fantasy I am sticking to that period.

You can see similar preference patterns in other cultures too, such as the myth of Hua Mulan for Mulan or Journey to the West in Black Myth: Wukong. Both of which are fantasy IPs set in the cultural time that inspired them.

Tolkien’s influence over modern fantasy cannot be understated, he set the tone for what fantasy would become: epic tales of struggle with larger-than-life heroes and villains and set in a distinctly Medieval setting.

While fantasy has evolved over the years, with sci-fi fantasy, urban fantasy, gaslight fantasy and magical realism, all putting the magic in different times and places, epic fantasy, as it stands, is very much kept to the Medieval period.

Everything from Dark Souls, A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), Dragon Age, The Witcher, The Devils, Elric, The Name of the Wind and Wheel of Time are all set and stay firmly in their Medieval settings.

There never appears to be any progress of time towards the modern world, innovation just doesn’t happen.

This phenomenon, called Medieval stasis, has been something of a conversation starter within the wider fantasy community. And I want to add my two cents to it. Should we try to break from the traditional model of knights forever or is it okay actually?

As a soon to be fantasy author myself, prepping to undertake my epic fantasy series called The Irisian Edda, I am already bucking the trend set out by traditional fantasy, having the world evolve the further along it goes in the history I intend to write. We go from ancient times to Medieval, to Renaissance to Victorian to Modern. It’s quite the undertaking, but I am always up to challenge myself.

I find the notion of evolution fascinating, indeed, to see how we got from banging rocks together to creating flying cars is a source of joy for me. How does science mix with magic, and how do attitudes change towards the gods as we evolve and times change? I have been pondering such questions myself.

That is a lot of work, that is a massive undertaking that honestly is too daunting for most sane people.

I can sympathise with that absolutely, sometimes you just want to stick to the medieval era because that is how it has always been. It is a tradition for that genre enshrined by Tolkien and his inheritors, born from the romanticised history of The Faerie Queene and King Arthur.

But the problem comes from the fact that nothing changes, everyone stays within the time period that inspired it forever.

How many epic fantasy stories are set during the Enlightenment? Or perhaps the Meiji Restoration? None if any and that is a shame. There are so many missed opportunities for exploring new and exciting settings for high fantasy.

But instead, it sticks to the Medieval times, and it never changes over the course of the series. They start in the Medieval period and end in the same place.

And this suggests an element of stagnation within the genre and of the world itself. A status quo that by the requirements of the genre, is unable to grow or change into new eras with all the times and turbulence that such an era would provide.

This genre stagnation is a problem for writers, who feel like they need to stick to the genre conventions to appeal to their audience. To set a story in a world that might be entering the Enlightenment period could be too risky. What if people complain that there are no more cool dragons, or wizards with pointy hats, or witches in low cut dresses? What if the powdered wigs, the birth of liberalism and the decay of monarchy are just too unfamiliar to fantasy fans?

I would like to believe that fans will be keen to see something different. But coupled with the risk, publisher expectations and the fact that most fans want what is familiar more than they would otherwise admit. Then you get the financial reason for why most fantasy settings are trapped in the Medieval Stasis.

And that is a shame, for the authors who might be interested in giving something new are strangled by the traditions of the genre.

Cause that is what it is at the end of the day, the expectation that the author will adhere to the traditions of the fantasy genre, one that is uniquely imbibed with nostalgia and often an expression of past traditions or then current. Be in the veneration of Monarchy in King Arthur/Faerie Queene or Tolkien’s attempt to make a mythology for England.

In my humblest opinion, Tradition is neutral. Traditions are created and discarded as the people will it to be so. Sometimes traditions are a net good on the populace, such as the literary canon of countries. Traditions are one of the unifiers of a culture and its people. They provide a sense of self and anchorage within the culture because you feel connected to something bigger than yourself, something that is older than yourself.

But sometimes cultural practices become outdated or irrelevant, sometimes they are actively harmful to members of the community. These ideally should be discarded to improve the lives of the masses and society at large.

But when traditions fail to innovate or aren’t discarded, the society runs the risk of becoming stagnant, extreme examples like Pre Meiji Restoration Japan, could result in a cultural/economic stasis through isolationism and an absence of motivation to innovate.

The same scenario can be applied to the fantasy genre, with its heavily baked in focus on nostalgia, it is ripe for this stasis, this stagnation. The comfort and safety of the past, never needing to improve because of a lack of motive to innovate past the Medieval period

One might be tempted to go full iconoclastic upon the genre, to smash the traditions that made up the fantasy genre, leave it in the dust and turn to urban fantasy, see the Medieval period disappear.

I don’t think we should get rid of it entirely, I love the dragons and knights too much, save that energy for more deserving traditions. But we need to stop relying on it too much. Japan didn’t abandon all its traditions when it was forced to innovate against the threat of America and other colonial powers, it got rid of the ones that might have prevented them from becoming the unexpected winner of the Sino Russo War of 1905.

We have made good innovations in some areas, urban fantasy, gaslight fantasy, magical realism all offers stories set in other periods of history. But we still write a majority of them stuck in the Medieval period. So many worlds never escape this era, so many remain trapped inside an unending time of no indoor plumbing.

How about we take the Medieval period at the start of the epic fantasy series and watch it evolve over time, sometimes forwards or backwards. Processes can retreat or expand throughout time. I think it would make the world feel more alive, allow for new topics and themes within your setting to be set up. You might find yourself dealing with the philosophical/political/ social ramifications of say liberalism spreading throughout your theocratic monarchy. Perhaps you might wonder how science and magic intersect with each other. Perhaps there will be a sudden reduction of the costs of goods due to instant teleportation rendering the horse and cart obsolete.

Worlds and technology evolve over time, why not show that more in fantasy? Show how this Medieval society changed knights to better slay the dragons. Maybe the onslaught of feminism allowed for the fair maiden to protect herself from the dragon? What conflicts between the old and the new might arise?

All of these are exciting means to innovate and expand on the traditions we inherited. We allow for the removal of the old and the outdated and embrace a newer version of the tradition.

A strict, dogmatic adherence towards traditions only stifles and stagnates the inheritancer of these traditions. Let’s keep them but not be afraid to make something new off the groundwork.

Maybe we will one day see that Enlightenment fantasy world, maybe that innocuous Medieval fantasy series ends with the invention of steam engines.

I would love to see that come to light, populate more of the rich history of the human experience outside the non-Medieval world…