Ideas for a Fantasy Setting?

[Falconius]

Steven Erickson seems to run his novels in pretty diverse fantasy settings pretty far removed from the typical Arthurian/European models you seem to think stale. I love Steven Erickson. Oh and there was a chick who wrote a great first novel about Northerner barbarians and hammer men and all sorts of cool **** like that, but then the second book kinda blew. For the life of me I can't remember her name though, there was a female orphan in the snow or something in the beginning.... damn... second book started off in some retarded slave mines... I wish I could remember.

Anyway I would say start off with world paradigms you yourself are not so much familiar with. As with the taiga you mention or arid areas or deserts. Or start off with setting paradigms untypical to fantasy, it worked for Josh Whedon in Firefly. Just decide whatever push off is more important or meaning full to you and then start building it from there, add characters you'd think would populate this area or culture and the things they'd value etc. Wow.. totally rambling tipsy here, sorry. Have fun with it but remember stories come from defining parameters and limits not from endless possibility.

[Diamond]

Falconius: I think you're thinking of Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones. Second book IS kind of bad, but it picks up again in the third. If only she'd write faster... I think there's still at least one or two books left to go in the series.

[Falconius]

Diamond, yeah that's the one. I was really into that first book. I should have a look at the third one if I can find it. Kudos for figuring that out from that scant description

[Diamond]

It was the 'orphan in the snow' bit that did it.

[jtougas]

I say this every time this kind of discussion comes up but I love the Pern kind of setting, it has all the "right" elements. Dragons (and telepathic talking dragons at that) A monstrous voracious villain (even if it is unintelligent and a natural occurrence) and all the political intrigue and back stabbing you could ever ask for. Oh and DRAGONS !!

[A.Woods]

I like the underused climate/environment idea. I think taiga mixed with a tundra or polar climate could be interesting. Perhaps the war could be tied to the overall all lack of resources and harshness of the environment.

[acrosome]

Instead of just "taiga" how about "Siberioid" or Central Asian? So there's bands: tundra, taiga, steppe. Have a people like the Saami in the tundra along with Yakut-equivalents, etc. Cossacks in the taiga. Mongols and Turkic horsemen on the steppe. Also a breadbasket like the Ukraine on the steppe somewhere, as a target for the aforementioned Mongols, Turks, etc.? GURPS Russia might be handy- great worldbook.

Or, Icelandoid? (That's pretty much just Vikings, though...)

Or Thule-oid? There's a really neat timeline at alternatehistory.com about an ascendant Thule: The Lands of Ice and Mice, though it starts in 1717AD. Still, nice ideas on the culture.

[Bravo6]

The most remarkable setting is Ring World.. a similar setting is in Avatar with floating mountains.. more down to earth would be an ocean planet with floating islands similar to the Life of Pi but with soil deposited on layers of dead vegitation. Perhaps asteroids with interior worlds of habitation.

[Bravo6]

I was wrong. The book I'm remembering to poorly was not a construction but a naturally occurring environment in space where there was an atmosphere and many forms of places.. some of rock some of other material. In this non-world which completely encircles the sun like a ring. Take the asteroid belt and situate it in a habitable distance from the sun, provide an atmosphere and water. The water would sometimes be held by the weak gravity of a large asteroid but at other times be a free floating blob the size of the asteroids themselves with their own separate ecosystem. There would be huge plants freely floating with their own eco system. Life would be abundant with a number of intelligent species.

I've gone overboard, straying from the world dimly remembered. Someone please help me out.

[RobA]

I've gone overboard, straying from the world dimly remembered. Someone please help me out.

Could be the other Niven series The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring: Larry Niven: 9780345460363: Amazon.com: Books

-Rob A>