this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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I have a hard time taking the political intrigue aspect of high fantasy settings seriously. The dragons in gambo had to be introduced later on and brought into the already functioning seven kingdoms (i know they used to have dragons before)
An experienced wizard in high fantasy may as well be a dragon and it makes a lot of the politics seem futile when the court wizard can launch a missile from their hands.
I'm sure it's possible. The Malazan series does it pretty well
I mean it doesn't have to be HIGH fantasy. Mid fantasy? Idk low fantasy just kinda bores me, it's like you might as well have just picked Ming China or medieval Europe or something
I usually find that stuff interesting though, at least if it's written by a probable leftist who understands the magic stuff would impact how the world functions
I'm pretty baked rn and i think my point was a little muddled but I'm saying i think it's really hard to write and so there are a lot of bad examples.
If you haven't checked it out, the book series "Malazan: Book of the Fallen" it's 10 books long and is very high fantasy and still has great political intrigue. Unique magic system, imperialism, slave uprisings led by the coolest fictional character in all of fantasy who basically has a final fantasy storyline leading to a fight against a god.
Malazan: where the wizard battles are essentially missiles and interceptors going back and forth.
complete with all the wizards have early warning radar when their warrens get opened
And as sophisticated as the system is, they can be taken down by regular dudes in close range. So you need a traditional military to support them.