Trying to inflict psychic damage to a tumblr user is like trying to irradiate a cockroach, like it can be done, but the lethal dose is not safe for humans either
Besides the point, but you could always try physical damage?
You’re right Gomez, bring me the flail
lavalord555 asked:
What do you mean that Forgotten Realms is a romantic fantasy setting masquerading as high fantasy?
prokopetz answered:
(With reference to this post there.)
Exactly what it says on the tin – the Forgotten Realms is clearly principally inspired by romantic fantasy, not high fantasy.
In this context, when I say “romantic fantasy”, I’m referring to a specific, relatively short-lived genre of fantasy literature that was wildly popular in the 1980s and 1990s, but abruptly fell almost entirely off the map after about 1998, due to a variety of economic and cultural factors which are way too complicated to go into in a Tumblr post. This is distinct from the more contemporary usage of “romance novels with fantasy settings”, though there’s definitely a lot of overlap.
If you’re looking for a romantic fantasy reading list, Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series – especially the early stuff – is probably the easiest to get your hands on these days; it’s practically the only example that still has any real name recognition in 2025, for all that Lackey was a latecomer to the genre. Other names worth checking out include Margaret Ball, Carole Nelson Douglas, Tanya Huff, Holly Lisle, Jennifer Roberson, and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, off the top of my head, though not all of them worked exclusively within the genre.
(Elizabeth Moon is an interesting edge case, in that her stuff is principally military science fiction, but very much adheres to the forms of romantic fantasy. Her Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy, one of her few pure fantasy works, is a fun snapshot of an era because it was written explicitly in response to what Moon perceived as the shortcomings of the fantasy worldbuilding on display in then-contemporary Dungeons & Dragons settings, and hit the shelves at just about exactly the same time as the earliest Forgotten Realms material.)
Question, what exactly is the difference? Google just wants to show me Romantasy.
Well, the trick is that genres are creative conversations, not checklists of tropes, so the real answer to that question is "it's the type of fantasy that was being written by this specific group of popular fantasy authors, most of whom personally knew and frequently collaborated with each other, during this specific period of time".
That said, there are a few recurring features that can be identified. Not all of these will be present in every example of the genre, of course, and whether they add up to a distinct strand of fantasy or a subgenre of high fantasy or what-have-you is a debate I'd prefer to leave to those who have more time on their hands, but to hit some high points:
lotr but nobody knows anything about the other races
Pippin thinks Legolas is a woman
Boromir is convinced that the hobbits are all 15 max
Everyone thinks that Merry and Pippin are twins, except for Legolas, who is convinced the hobbits are quadruplets
Sam thinks that Aragorn, Boromir and Legolas don't have to eat to survive
Legolas doesn't mention things he sees or hears because he thinks the others have noticed them too and just assumes they have a plan
Pippin complains that he is hungry and Legolas just gives him a handful of grass. Pippin is so confused that he just takes it, and now Legolas tries to figure out what hobbits can eat by just giving them random shit, like
Things the hobbits have accepted and likely eaten later (a list by legolas)
-Grass - Leaves
-Stones - a hair tie
-A feather - one of Gimli's shoes
The hobbits and Gimli just assume that this is what elves eat