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Ask HN: Free fantasy world (e.g. not LotR)

2 points by agilord ↗ HN
Is there any free (both as in beer and as in speech) fantasy world available for any kind of development (game, novel, video, ...)?

I don't know the details, but I'd assume Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons and similar popular ones are full with copyright, licensing, and fees.

6 comments

[ 6.3 ms ] story [ 22.1 ms ] thread
dubfan
How about western/northern European mythology (Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, etc.)? The worlds you name take a huge amount of influence from these.
staunch
Yup and history in general works well. Authentic history and embellished history tends to be a very exciting "fantasy" world.

Heck, look at the Total War games:

Shogun: Total War

Medieval: Total War

Rome: Total War

Medieval II: Total War

Empire: Total War

Napoleon: Total War

agilord
That is great, and I am personally a great fan of Celts.

However, what's up with the elves, trolls, orcs...? These are well-understood races, are they free to use?

J_Darnley
I agree. Age of Mythology, for instance, is a great game which combines Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology as three separate groups and stages into one story.
deservingend
Well Warcraft is basically Lord of the Rings, so you could just take an existing one and modify it.
ragatskynet
I would suggest inventing a new world - it is often a great fun for me to discover new worlds and the stories behind it. I think you don't need to reinvent the wheel, just take the best parts of the fantasy worlds you like and from those develop a new-ish thing. Maybe you can start creating a new franchise - who knows?