To create a living breathing world that feels as real as our own is something only the greatest fantasy writers, from Homer to Tolkien, have perfected. A fantasy world, from futuristic to medieval, must accomplish a delicate balancing act between being believable yet unbelievable, detailed yet expansive.
Many who have achieved this have called upon real world history and folklore to help inspire their works, like Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher or George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. Nonetheless, the vast community of experts on Ranker is at it again, and this time, thousands have chimed in to vote on the best of the best Fantasy Worlds.
Wakanda (Marvel’s Black Panther)
First appearing in Marvel’s Fantastic Four issue #52 from 1966, Wakanda is a technologically advanced east African country, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Wakanda serves as the home of the superhero Black Panther, who is the King and Protector of Wakanda. Marvel's Black Panther is notably the first African superhero in mainstream American comics.
Heavily inspired by the real-life Kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa, Wakanda has been depicted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a landlocked country, isolated from the outside world mountains and jungles, powered by green energy and rich deposits of the fictional element vibranium.
Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland)
The fantastical setting for Lewis Carroll’s Victorian Fantasy novel of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Wonderland is inhabited by all manner of memorable yet surrealistic characters from the Mad Hatter to the ever-grinning Cheshire Cat and the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, each literary allusions to real people in the author’s life.
In fact, many aspects of Wonderland are actually based on actual places and events merely seen through the façade of fiction. The world of Wonderland itself serves as a critique of Victorian ideals, especially towards the plight of children in Victorian society. Nonetheless, Wonderland lives up to its name through its diverse landscape which includes oceans, forests, and various gardens.
Camelot (King Arthur)
Born out of the chaos and upheaval in the years following the Roman Empire’s retreat from the British Isles during the 5th century AD, the legendary Briton warlord, King Arthur, resided in his mythical Kingdom of Camelot. Arthur and his Kingdom of Camelot are partially based on the real-life Kingdom of Dumnonia, with Tintagel Castle serving as the inspiration for Camelot.
However, Camelot has since been portrayed in a variety of ways, from medieval literature to modern film and television, typically as a medieval pastoral landscape with an imposing castle commanding the horizon. Due to its imprecise geography, Camelot itself has become more of a shining symbol rather than just a physical location, conjuring images of chivalry and noble adventures.
The Continent (The Witcher)
In recent years, The Witcher franchise by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski has steadily become a global phenomenon. The unique and varied surroundings of its medieval-fantasy realm known as "the Continent" have contributed much to the franchise’s success. Many of the various locales, characters, and monsters of Sapkowski’s fictional world are based in part on Eastern European History and Slavic Folklore.
For example, the historic capital of Silesia in southern Poland, Wrocław, serves as the major inspiration for the Redanian city of Oxenfurt in the Witcher universe. From the Nordic-inspired Skellige Isles to the bucolic countryside of Toussaint and the bustling port city of Novigrad, the world of The Witcher covers a wide swath of territory, providing plenty of material for both the CD Projekt RED video games and now Netflix’s hit TV show to explore.
Atlantis (Greek Mythology)
One of the oldest fantasy worlds ever created, Atlantis has held a special place in popular fascination for thousands of years. First mentioned in the works of Plato, the Legend of Atlantis has grown and morphed over the years, giving rise to its own pseudohistory of an ancient utopian metropolis swallowed by the sea and lost to time.
While there is still much debate about the real-life inspiration of Atlantis or even if Atlantis ever existed, many historians have identified the Minoan civilization on the island of Thera and its subsequent destruction by a huge volcano as the probable source for the idea of Atlantis. The mythological version of Atlantis however, has since been adapted several times into popular culture, from movies to comic books and everything in between.
Westeros (Game of Thrones)
One of the three continents of the “Known World” of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire and later its highly successful HBO adaptation, Game of Thrones, Westeros serves as the main location for most of the events of the story. And HBO's upcoming spinoff, House of the Dragon, will provide even more lore.
While the continent of Westeros offers much in terms of diversity of landscape and culture, from the frozen north to the balmy south, its political and historical inspiration harkens back to the medieval history of Great Britain, especially during the tumultuous period of civil war known as the Wars of the Roses.
Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia)
From the creative genius of English author C.S. Lewis, a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, comes the mythical world of the Chronicles of Narnia, a land of talking animals, mythological creatures, and widespread magic where only a select few humans, usually children, are permitted to visit, through a magical wardrobe.
Narnia is a world arguably as detailed and rich as Tolkien’s Middle-earth, with a number of different countries, peoples, diverse landscapes, and even cosmology. The main real-life inspiration for Narnia was C.S. Lewis’ native land of Ireland with its own long history of powerful kingdoms and mythological creatures. Netflix has since announced a new Chronicles of Narnia reboot is in the works.
Asgard (Norse Mythology)
The home of the Norse Gods, from Odin to Thor, Asgard serves as one of the Nine Worlds under the great tree Yggdrasil. Within Asgard, there are many notable locations such as the Bifröst bridge to Midgard, the World of the Humans, and Valhalla, Odin’s fortified mead hall inhabited by the souls of honored warriors.
Asgard itself has since been depicted in numerous comics, movies, and video games, most notably as the intergalactic homeworld of Thor and Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and its solid DLC, Dawn of Ragnarok.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Harry Potter)
The central location in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels and later film adaptations, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is set in a secret parallel world of wizards, magic, and mythological animals known as the Wizarding World. Hogwarts serves as the premier British boarding school for magic users, who are divided into four school houses. Every 90s kid dreamed of receiving a letter to attend Hogwarts.
The school itself is a large medieval castle set atop a cliff overlooking a lake and surrounded by an enchanted forest deep in the Scottish Highlands. Hogwarts as well as other beloved locations in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, such as Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade Village, have since been recreated in various Universal Studios Theme Parks.
Middle-Earth (The Lord of the Rings)
A fantasy world so incredibly detailed that its creator, J.R.R. Tolkien, constructed 10 full native languages each with unique grammar and alphabets, Middle-Earth is the prime example of a fantasy world that all others look up to. From its diverse folklore to its epic landscapes and thousands of years of history, Tolkien's Middle-Earth is most notably featured in his novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and later their various multimedia adaptations.
The popularity of The Lord of the Rings and Middle-Earth as a whole has even given rise to a phenomenon known as "Tolkien tourism", in which fans journey to far-flung locations connected with both the films and the books. The latest installment of The Lord of the Rings franchise will be Amazon’s highly anticipated Lord of the Rings TV series, The Rings of Power, premiering on September 2, 2022.
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