Dark Fantasy, Defined

In my first novel The Coroner, the goal as a writer was to do more than just put a book out there. My aim was to write something that I believed would be the definitive text that would help narrow the scope of what dark fantasy truly means. This was a daunting task. Mainly because it required that I search within myself, and reflect on what I find fascinating and captivating within the source material. Due to my academic background and my Ph.D., I of course had to take this to the extreme. And so, it is my goal in this blog post, to try and academically define what literary elements need to be present for a work of fiction to claim the title of Dark Fantasy.

First, to establish what drew me to the subgenera. What drew me to dark fantasy, as a reader, was the overall tone. Dark fantasy is unique in its tone, good dark fantasy is. The absence of hope and the overabundance of oppression in both the environment and the conflict are intoxicating. To me, this was so removed from general fantasy, especially epic fantasy where the clear good vs evil trope is king. J.R.R. Tolkien not only defined modern fantasy in his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but established the very notion that fantasy must entice this warm, fuzzy ending where the good guys triumph over evil. I would never suggest that Professor Tolkien did not write characters and story arcs with "shades of gray". We clearly see this with the narrative of Boromir, who is corrupted by the ring which drives him to acts of evil. Or in the narrative of Aragorn, who has spent his life running from his true identity and destiny choosing instead to leave Gondor to a dark fate. The difference in Tolkien's Middle Earth, is that these characters eventually turn from the path of bad to do the right thing. It is a proverbial baptism which was so fundamental to his Christian views. I, like most who love his work, was enamored by this character arc development as an adolescent. These flawed heroes, who in their darkest moments rise up and become the hero that they should be. It is powerfully motivating and passionately inspirational. This is great, but in my opinion, only in a vacuum. See, as I grew older, the world became less black and white. Especially amongst people. This shift in perceived reality changed what I was looking for in my fictional stories. Good and bad were not always so clear. I found myself asking the question, how could that person do such a terrible thing when they seemed so normal? This is where dark fantasy fiction started to draw me in.

Now onto the definition factors. First, the obvious. What makes literary fictional works, fantasy? According to Encyclopedia Britannia, fantasy is defined as imaginative fiction that contains strange settings (i.e. other worlds) and strange character (i.e. other peoples or beings) []. This is inclusive as it is exclusive, but I believe in the definition. I would add a caveat onto this, further defining 'other' as 'not of our own earth', but I am more conservative in what I define fantasy which excludes subgenera such as urban fantasy and other hybrid works. For the sake of focusing on dark fantasy only, I will use this definition of fantasy as I move forward.

So, what defines dark? This is the meat and potatoes of this blog post. The reason, if you have read this far down, why you are here. Dark should encompass elements of selective horror subgenre and selective philosophy. The elements of horror that should be present are gothic horror and cosmic horror. The philosophy elements should put heavy emphasis on the selective works of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Let us begin with the topic of gothic horror. Gothic horror was a literary movement which looked to combine the gothic literary style with supernatural elements such as monsters and specters. The first work of gothic horror was The Castle of Otranto by author Horace Walpole which was published in 1764. Gothic literature is defined as fictional literature that contain prevailing atmospheres of mystery and terror Edith Hamilton wrote in her titular masterpiece Mythology, a great excerpt on primitive man and their relationship to the world around them that I have always linked to gothic horror.

"...Horrors lurked in the primeval forest, not nymphs and naiads. Terror lived there, with its close attendant, magic, and its most common defense, human sacrifice, Mankind's chief hope of escaping the wrath of whatever divinities were then abroad lay in some magical rite, senseless but powerful, or in some offering made at the cost of pain and grief."

This is a powerful take on man and nature. Edith is providing commentary on ancient mankind and the birth of imagination regarding the world around them, but here she hits the nail on the head on why we find gothic horror so intoxicating. I have this quote hanging in my office, above my writing desk, because this is what every dark fantasy writer should be building their world around. The oppressive landscape should deplete the characters, and even the reader, of any hope regarding happiness or triumph. Not only the land, but society as well. The established kingdoms and law that govern the realm, the religious organizations, any social construct should embody this principle. In the Coroner, I tried to capture this essence in the world of Solarno. The frigid range of Brinoa and the Töterhorn Mountain. The rotting, decaying algicultural fields of Turnia. Faynean Forest is dark, decaying, over grown, and menacing. People are trapped, isolated, fractured, lost, and crushed by these landscapes. On top of that, we have the Kingdom of Solarno itself. An empire built on the conquest of its neighbors, who enforces the law with outright brutality. The guardswomen, even the Coroner order themselves. No agency is above it, no character is free from it. A cycle born from our ancestral myth, and gothic horror. To summarize, the oppressive atmosphere should entice emotions of fear and horror, dread and misery. Foreboding and ominous settings should be in the backdrop. Which stems from gothic horror. I would like to add a quote that I also feel embodies this paragraph. That of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, when he said "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown."

Cosmic horror was defined and established by early twentieth-century New England horror giant H.P. Lovecraft. This subgenera of horror was built upon within Lovecraft's Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. If you are wondering why I have included Lovecraft's cosmic horror into Dark Fantasy, you have every right to be curious. One of the elements of fantasy that I excluded earlier, as it was not mentioned in the definition, is the inclusion of deities in fantasy works. The encyclopedia Britannica did not consider gods, goddess, demigods as separate from what they titled 'other beings' which I do not fault them for. I believe that deities of any variety are a cornerstone of fantasy, and any fantasy story that has layered world-building should include these beings. The absence of deific beings in fantasy informs me that the author has not truly built their world, as the absence of religion in any context is a lack of civilization and culture. They need to be present, but also, unique to the genre. A separating factor that splits dark fantasy gods from epic fantasy gods. And here is why I brought Lovecraft's cosmic horror onto the scene. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos was inspired by the works of victorian author, Lord Dunsany and his groundbreaking work titled Time And The Gods or the Gods of Pegana. This is considered by most literary scholars to be the first modern fantasy work, but that's a topic for another time. Lovecraft loved Lord Dunsany's pantheon of various gods, but felt like they were similar in design to the mythological pantheons of our own world. Lovecraft would go on to create his own pantheon of gods. These cosmic beings would differ from any pantheon people would have known at the time. Rather than being meddlesome and benevolent, Lovecraft's gods would be wreckless, deceiving, evil, neglectful, and down right careless over the lives of mere mortals. It was his goal to drive home the philosophy that mankind is nothing but an anxiety induced hairless ape who is naked and afraid in the grand scheme of the cosmos. That we were not alone in the universe, but also beneath the other beings as to appear like insects to them. Squashable and useless, as to draw upon our horror at the idea of discovering you are meaningless. This was provoked by the popular belief of his time, the notion of human egocentrism. Lovecraft loathed this philosophy. That mankind was the center of the universe, and all things were meant to serve the will of man. He despised it so much, that he created his mythos as an antithesis to this very idea. Lovecraft summarized this in a letter he wrote to a penpal.

"The basis of all true cosmic horror is a violation of the order of nature, and the profoundest violations are always the least concrete and describable."

The dark fantasy writer should strive to encompass this notion in their narrative. That the gods violate the very natural order in senseless and reckless acts of selfish vanity. Using their creations as pawns in a grander scheme. Tricking, deceiving, negligence, wrath, and manipulation should all be tools of their trade. The notion of meaning should be void, and if characters try to find meaning. If they seek this higher truth, it can only lead to madness. Because the human mind seeks meaning. It is a natural response to higher learning and cognitive function as we assess the world around us. We seek to find the meaning in all actions we do, and crave acceptance and understanding within it. This leads to religion, social constructs, politics, etc. This is also why we must strip this natural order from the culture of the world within dark fantasy. I believe the best example of this post Lovecraft, is from the video game series Dark Souls created by Hideteka Miyazaki. Dark Souls is dark fantasy at its very core, and executes these principles masterfully. If you look into the deific pantheon of this series, the gods are shown to be selfish and cold to the cares of mankind and other beings. The races and beings of the land are no more than enslaved vessels, cursed with undeath and forced to wander the lands without hope or purpose. The player experiences this within the narrative, and it is harrowing to imagine a world with only cold disparity. Now other works by Miyazaki, such as his collaboration with fantasy author George R.R. Martin with the video game Elden Ring emphasizes this deific principle much better. The idea of induced madness at discovery and cosmic outer gods are done much better in Elden Ring but in my opinion, there are elements that aren't done as profoundly as it was covered in Dark Souls. Again, a topic for another time. The take-away here, is that cosmic horror should be utilized when designing your world. The principles of cosmic isolation, life without grand meaning, and themes exploring these topics make for a more rich universe that feels dark and somber in tone.

Okay so on to my final topic, addressing character and hero architypes for dark fantasy. If you have a world where the environment is oppressive and brutal, and the higher powers that created this world impose a will that enstills isolation and meaningless, how do your characters navigate these themes? I now move on to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche had some radical ideas back in the day. One of them, and the most popular, was the development of the Ubermensch in response to Nihilistic philosophy. In his work titled Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None Nietzsche introduces the Ubermensch idea as a way to revolt against Nihilism. Nihilism is the principle that human existence has no purpose or meaning. That mankind suffers in disparity eternally with no recourse or reason until death claims us. Nietzsche despised this notion, and instead drove the idea that mankind should give themselves their own meaning. We should reject the objective truth and create our own destiny, the will to power, as he called it. What Nietzsche did was add deeper meaning to a hero archetype created by English poet Lord Byron, the Byronic hero. In my opinion, the dark fantasy hero should either be the anti-hero, the tragic hero, or the byronic hero. I state this because these hero architypes do not normally find their way into epic fantasy or high fantasy settings. If they do, they are usually not done properly and thus do not entice the same emotional response from the reader as when they are done properly. William Shakespeare had created some of the best tragic heroes in western literature to date. The characters of Othello and Macbeth are such great odes to the hero defined by greek philosopher Aristotle. The tragic hero starts with a hamartia (the flaw that foreshadows the downfall) and ends with a powerful catharsis (the reader's lingering sense of pity or dread after the death of hero) that makes for powerful narratives. Again, George R.R. Martin does this justice with his character Lord Eddard Stark in A Game of Thrones. His hamartia is honor and his catharsis leaves audiences emotionally saddened with his death. I would only suggest the tragic hero if you truly plan on killing off your protagonist. The anti-hero is becoming overly used in media today but it does have a strong principle that people relate to. The anti-hero embodies the duality of man concept seen in Robert Louis Stevenson story The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The anti-hero has more traits similar to a villain, such as greed, lust, anger, and other criminal flaws. The anti-hero then faces these characteristic flaws and chooses to grapple with them in order to do the right thing in the end. I added this because it makes for a solid choice in dark fantasy hero, but I find the anti-hero easy and thus a lazy option for a writer. Not saying it cannot be done well, I mean look at Disney's Aladdin film. Here we have a character who is a common thief and vagabond and then changes his ways and repents for his lies and deceits in order to marry the woman he loves. Solid narrative, and people love it. The ideal hero archetype, in my opinion, is the byronic hero. The byronic hero encompasses the anti-nihilistic principles of the Ubermensch as described by Nietszche. The byronic hero questions societal conventions and tradition, which drives them to live in isolation from the rest of society. The byronic hero is the lone wolf character. Grizzled, moody, and opaque. They resent society because society resents them. But, underneath the stone exterior is a character that truly cares for humanity. They make the choice to fight for what is right regardless of their resentment and disdain. The world is steeped in gothic nihilism, where brutality reigns and oppression breeds disparity. The byronic hero questions this, questions the order of it all and even the rejects the wills of the cosmic beings. Choosing instead to fight for those who have become oppressed. Becoming the hero on their own terms and without the need for hope and acceptance. We see this done the best in the Japanese Manga series Berserk, Vol. 1 by Kentaro Miura. Miura's byronic hero Guts is the best example of the archetype I can think of off the top of my head. Guts is a lone wanderer, pained by his past which is steeped in sexual abuse and violence. Channeling his anger and rage into becoming a powerfully feared warrior for hire. Upon meeting Griffen and the band of the hawks, Guts learns to accept friend and bonds once more, even finds love. But this is betrayed by the selfish desires of Griffen, who sacrifices their entire group to a sinister pantheon of higher beings known as the God Hand, so that Griffen himself may become a demigod. Guts fights for his survival, never accepting death no matter the odds. He obtains the will to power and rejects the objective truth of his universe. He is fueled by his rage, and stops at nothing to achieve the goal of slaying a God so that the people who reject him are freed from their nihilistic shackles. This is a pillar of dark fantasy graphic literature and in my opinion should be held as a standard for any future writers looking to add to the sub genre.

I would love to add more to this, but I think I covered what I wanted to without running the risk of rambling. In conclusion, every genre has defined literary elements (tropes, themes, motifs, etc.) that shape what the reader believes to fit that group. This also applies to sub-genres, although it is not as concrete in my opinion. In our modern era, genres and subgenera are ever-shifting. There was a time when science fiction and fantasy were separate entities in the literature search. Now, do a quick search on amazon and you will find that the trend is shifting to encompass these two stark contrast genres into one umbrella or camp. I despise this trend. It may be easier for those who consider genre fiction literature to be arbitrary and meaningless. Fiction is fiction , right? Well, no. To put it bluntly. If someone was to put biographies and historical non-fiction onto the same shelf, I don't think it would be met with the same viewpoint. So why is fiction any different? The point here is that there needs to be these definitions. It serves a purpose, helping guide a reader to find literary works that they would enjoy reading. By clumping things into umbrella categories, we remove the individuality of not only the book but also the reader's identity as well. The well becomes muddied, and both books and ebooks are swallowed in a vast sea of vagueness making it difficult for authored work to be seen by an audience that would enjoy their work.Thank you for reading. If you haven't done so already, I implore you to read my book The Coroner especially if you are a fan of dark fantasy. I am going to go and return to my writing schedule but feel free to comment below and spark conversation about this. Take care and have a happy Halloween every one.