I‘m not exactly sure who made character-driven epic fantasy a thing. Certainly, the popularity of GRR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series might have done a lot to turn the tide from the old-fashioned epic fantasy (good vs. evil, chosen hero, ridiculously deranged villain) to the shades-of-grey, good-guys-are-bad-guys-too epics of today.
I follow the road set out by writers who take this idea a step further: our stories our little more than vessels for character studies. Now, I won’t get ahead of myself and tell you my characters are complex beings who can glean the meaning of life, the universe, and everything from cat excrement. Far from it: many of my characters are pretty simple people, with simple desires and personalities. My stories attempt to bring the spotlight towards these characters, putting them in different situations and watching them grow. There is nothing complicated about it.
The question then becomes: why write epic fantasy at all? Why not write literature? Contemporary fiction? I’m going to pretend to answer that question seriously (the real answer is that, at heart, I’m just a big kid who loves swordfights and long speeches and using every opportunity in real life to yell: “If this is to be our end, then I would have them make such an end, as to be worthy of remembrance!” In short, I’m a geek who is also a nerd, and it is the best thing ever).
The thing about epic fantasy, as a genre, is that it removes all the baggage and subtleties of every day life. Most of the time, you put your characters in a simplified setting, with smaller-scale economies, terrain they could prance around in, and histories that can be summed up in a few short words, such as: “There was this king. He evil.” Now, mix that with a large, looming threat, and fantasy elements (a.k.a. shit you make up on the spot for convenience) and you have the tools to manipulate a story in order to make its essence come out.
What’s left is a world where romanticized values can rise to the surface, because real life perceptions of how the world really is don’t cloud it. In what other genre are things like honour and duty a topic to talk about? It is easy to see the context of loyalty if you show the relationship between a soldier and his king, whereas that same sort of loyalty to a corporate boss would be strange and inexplicable. Love really can transcend the ages in a world where there is immortality and magic. Faith and hope becomes stronger if you’re up against a Dark Lord, courage is commendable when you are One Man against an Army of Cannibal Barbarians, and responsibility seems all the more poignant if you bear it despite being made to cross The Swamps of Doom and Dying and Death.
The thing is, these romantic values are just as relevant to us in every day life. A lot of us just don’t see it. We get too bogged down by the details to really have time to think about big-picture things, like how your decision today can affect your life tomorrow, and so on.
Epic fantasy can impart these life lessons in a magnificently entertaining way. It is serious without being serious. Real life problems pale in comparison to, say, the fact that you have Two Days To Learn How to Be a Swordsman So You Can Fight in a Very Important Duel Because The Kingdom’s Incompetent Fucks Thought It Would Be a Good Idea. So your boss fired you for browsing Facebook at work…at least you don’t have to marry the king’s ugly daughter and tell your wife that you really do have to on the same day.
That’s how I see it, anyway. I mean, hey, I could be wrong, and maybe I’m the only person who walked into a Calculus exam I was bound to fail with the same death-defying determination of Frodo marching into the fires of Mount Doom…
Read The Agartes Epilogues and be glad you’re not Enosh.
