Science Fantasy

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Contents
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Science fantasy Planetary romance Sword and planet High fantasy Mythic fiction Fantasy Sword and sorcery Pandoran biosphere Fictional universe of Avatar Worldbuilding Fictional universe 1 4 8 18 23 24 28 33 38 43 46

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Science fantasy

Science fantasy

Cover of the magazine Imagination, October 1950

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Science fantasy

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Science fantasy, more commonly known as science fiction-fantasy, is a mixed genre within the umbrella of speculative fiction which draws upon tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy, and sometimes also incorporates elements of horror. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction points out that as a genre, science fantasy "has never been clearly defined," and was most commonly used in the period 1950-1966.

Science fantasy versus science fiction

Distinguishing between science fiction and fantasy, Rod Serling claimed that the former was "the improbable made possible" while the latter was "the impossible made probable".[2] As a combination of the two, science fantasy gives a scientific veneer of realism to things that simply could not happen in the real world under any circumstances where science fiction does not permit the existence of fantasy or supernatural elements; science fantasy explicitly relies upon them.

Historical view
The label first came into wide use after many science fantasy stories were published in the pulp magazines, such as Robert A. Heinlein's Magic, Inc., L. Ron Hubbard's Slaves of Sleep, and Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp's Harold Shea series. All were relatively rationalistic stories published in John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Unknown Magazine. These were a deliberate attempt to apply the techniques and attitudes of science fiction to traditional fantasy subjects. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published, among other things, all but the last of the Operation series, by Poul Anderson. Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore published novels in Startling Stories, alone and together, which were far more romantic. These were closely related to the work that they and others were doing for outlets like Weird Tales, such as Moore's Northwest Smith stories. Ace Books published a number of books as science fantasy during the 1950s and '60s.

Science fantasy

Subgenres of science fantasy

Dying Earth and Post-apocalypsis
Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories are sometimes classed as science fantasy because the cosmology used is not compatible with that conventionally accepted by science fiction. Other stories in the Dying Earth subgenre such as M. John Harrison's Viriconium novels or Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun are usually classed as science fantasy. Terry Brooks' Shannara books represent a fantasy world as the far future of Earth after supernatural events cause the downfall of civilization.

Planetary romance
The planetary romance, a story set primarily or wholly on a single planet and illustrating its scenery, native peoples (if any) and cultures, offers considerable scope for science fantasy, in the sense of fantasy rationalized by reference to science-fictional conventions. The works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and E. R. Eddison are probably the earliest examples of this genre, especially the John Carter of Mars series. David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus, published in 1920 is one of the earliest examples of the type, although it differs from most of them in not assuming a science-fictional background of interplanetary or interstellar travel; it is rather a philosophical romance, which uses an alien planet as a background for exploring philosophical themes. C. S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet (1938) is an example of the same type of story, though in its case the preoccupations are theological. In both cases the magical elements are barely rationalized, and in Lewis' case stand in stark contrast to the pseudo-scientific machinery that frames the story. Some examples of this type of science fantasy deliberately blur the already vague distinction between science fictional paranormal powers and magic; for instance, Poul Anderson's The Queen of Air and Darkness, in which aliens use psionic powers of illusion to imitate earthly myths of fairieswho are themselves traditionally regarded as magical illusionists. In Andre Norton's Witch World series, the fantasy world is excused as a parallel universe. There are a few science fictional elements in the earlier stories of this series, which are absent from the later novels.

Sword and planet

Many works by Edgar Rice Burroughs fall into this category, as well as those of his imitators such as Otis Adelbert Kline, Kenneth Bulmer, Lin Carter, and John Norman. They are largely classed as "science fantasy" because of the presence of swords and, usually, an archaic aristocratic social system; Burroughs' own novels are, however, skeptical in spirit and almost free of any non-rationalized "fantastic" element (other than the never-explained mechanism by which John Carter gets to Mars). The graphic novel Camelot 3000 is another good example of this. The movie Krull also falls in this category, since that the movie depicts a story where a near omnipotent alien creature invades a fantasy world and the protagonists must find a way to fight back against the alien.

Other subgenres
Science fantasy is also a popular subject for role-playing games, of both tabletop and video game varieties, the latter most popularly emphasized by games such as Final Fantasy VII and VIII, which incorporate fantasy elements such as magic in dystopian, futuristic world settings. One of the earliest pen-and-paper games to reference the term was Gamma World published by TSR in 1980 (the same company that originated Dungeons and Dragons). Other pen-and-paper RPGs typically classified as science fantasy include Rifts and Shadowrun. The manga Dragon Ball, among other similar examples of the medium, can also be considered a kind of science fantasy, with science fictional elements like aliens, robots and high technology coexisting with supernatural concepts like gods, demons, and powers based on the manipulation of ki.

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References
[1] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Fantasy& action=edit [2] Rod Serling (1962-03-09). The Twilight Zone, "The Fugitive"

Planetary romance

Cover of the magazine Planet Comics, July 1948 (art by Joe Doolin)

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Planetary romance is a type of science fiction or science fantasy story in which the bulk of the action consists of adventures on one or more exotic alien planets, characterized by distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds. Some planetary romances take place against the background of a future culture where travel between worlds by spaceship is commonplace; others, particularly the earliest examples of the genre, do not, and invoke flying carpets, astral projection, or other methods of getting between planets. In either case, it is the planetside adventures which are the focus of the story, not the mode of travel.[1]

Prototypes and characteristics

As the name of the genre suggests, the planetary romance is an extension of late 19th and early 20th century adventure novels and pulp romances to a planetary setting. The pulp romance (of writers like H. Rider Haggard and Talbot Mundy) featured bold characters in exotic settings and "lost worlds" such as South America, Africa, the Middle or Far East; a variant type took place in real or fictional countries of ancient and medieval times, and eventually contributed to the modern fantasy genre. In the planetary romance, space opera transformations are applied to the pulp romance genre: the bold adventurer becomes a space traveler, often from Earth, which itself stands in for modern Europe and North America (understood as centers of technology and colonialism). Other planets (often, in the earlier history of the genre, Mars and Venus) replace Asia and Africa as exotic locales; while hostile tribes of aliens and their decadent monarchies substitute for Western stereotypes of "savage races" and "oriental despotisms". While the planetary romance has been used as a mode for expressing a very wide variety of political and philosophical thought, an enduring subject is the encounter of civilizations alien to each other, their difficulties in communicating, and the frequently disastrous results that follow.

Edgar Rice Burroughs and "sword and planet" stories

The first author to achieve a large market for this type of story was Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose Barsoom series' first installments appeared in the pulp All-Story in 1912. Even if Burroughs' writing was not wholly original, it at least popularized the concept of pulp-style adventures on other planets. Burroughs' "Barsoom" (Mars) manifested a chaotic melange of cultural and technological styles, combining futuristic devices such as "radium pistols" and flying machines suspended by a mysterious levitating ray, with anachronistic Martian cavalry charges, a feudal system with emperors and princesses, much sword-fighting, and a credibility-stretching martial code that justifies it. Frank

Planetary romance Herbert's Dune and George Lucas' Star Wars are direct inheritors of this tradition of welding the futuristic to the medieval. The content of the Barsoom stories is pure swashbuckler, being a series of imprisonments, forced gladiatorial combat, daring escapes, monster-killings, and duels with villains. Fantasy elements are minimal; other than telepathy, most instances of "magic" are dismissed or exposed as humbuggery. Burroughs' stories spawned a large number of imitators. Some, like Otis Adelbert Kline, were exploiting the new market that Burroughs had created; even Burroughs imitated himself in his Venus series, starting in 1934. After the genre had been out of fashion for a few decades, the 1960s saw a renewed interest in Burroughs and the production of nostalgic Burroughsian pastiche by authors like Lin Carter and Michael Moorcock. This consciously imitative genre, influenced also by such sword and sorcery authors as Robert E. Howard, goes by the name of "Sword and Planet" fiction; it is an essentially static, "retro" genre, aiming at reproducing more of the same type of story, with slender variations on a set formula. Perhaps for this reason, many "Sword and Planet" authors have written staggeringly long series sequences, the extreme example being Kenneth Bulmer's Dray Prescot saga, composed of fifty-three novels.

Planetary romance and science fiction

The publication of pulp science fiction magazines starting in 1926 (and becoming especially prolific in the 1930s) created a new market for planetary romances, and had a strong effect on later incarnations of the genre. Some pulps, such as Planet Stories and Startling Stories, were primarily dedicated to publishing planetary romances, while existing fantasy pulps like Weird Tales began to publish science fiction romances next to their usual horror and sword and sorcery fare. One of the most outstanding writers in this vein was C. L. Moore, the author of the Northwest Smith stories (19331947), featuring a rugged spaceman who finds himself continually entangled with quasi-sorcerous alien powers. There is very little swashbuckling adventure in Moore's stories, which focus instead on psychological stresses, especially the fear and fascination of the unknown, which appears in Moore as both dangerous and erotic. In the 1940s and 1950s, one of the most significant contributors to the planetary romance genre was Leigh Brackett, whose stories combined complex, roguish (sometimes criminal) heroes, high adventure, the occasional love story, richly detailed physical settings with a depth and weight unusual for the pulps, and a style that bridged space opera and fantasy. Brackett was a regular contributor to Planet Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories, for which she produced an interlocking series of tales set in the same universe, butwith the exception of the Eric John Stark storieswith wholly different protagonists. Brackett's stories are primarily adventure fiction, but also contain reflections on the themes of cultural and corporate imperialism and colonialism. There is an instructive comparison between The Enchantress of Venus, one of Brackett's Stark stories, and A. E. van Vogt's Empire of the Atom. Both take as their starting point the plot and situation of I, Claudius by Robert Graves. Van Vogt follows the plot somewhat more closely, concentrating his invention on the background of his empire while emphasizing the hero's vulnerability. Brackett introduces an Earthman who is struck by the romantic allure of the women involved in these intrigues. While both stories are space operas, only Brackett's is a planetary romance. From the mid-1960s on, the traditional type of planetary romance set in the Solar System fell out of favor; as technological advances revealed most local worlds to be hostile to life, new planetary stories have usually been set on extrasolar planets, generally through the assumption of some form of faster-than-light travel. One exception is the Gor series, published from 1967 to the present. Gor is a Counter-Earth planet in a symmetrical orbit to Earth on the other side of the Sun (not at Earths L3 point). Gravitational effects and detection by terrestrial probes are explained away by superior alien science, a common conceit in planetary romances. The planetary romance has become a significant component of current science fiction, thoughpossibly due to the term being perceived as a pejorativefew writers use the term self-descriptively. Given the cross-pollination between planetary romance and space opera, many stories are difficult to classify as being wholly one or the other.

Planetary romance Frank Herbert's Dune series, particularly the earlier books which are largely set on the desert planet of Arrakis, has all the characteristics of planetary romance (and some of "sword and planet" fiction), though they are used in support of Herbert's meditations on philosophy, ecology, and the politics of power. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels can also be classified as planetary romance, since the focus remains firmly on the planet Darkover, though the galactic setting is never entirely limited to background. Similarly, L. Sprague de Camp's Krishna series of rationalized planetary romances are a subseries of his space opera Viagens Interplanetarias series. Ursula K. Le Guin's earliest works, such as Rocannon's World and Planet of Exile are recognizably planetary romances; arguably most of her Hainish Cycle can be classified as such, though in later works fantasy elements are submerged, and social and anthropological themes come to the fore. In Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels (1985), editor and critic David Pringle named Bradley and Anne McCaffrey two "leading practitioners nowadays" for the planetary romance type of science fiction.[2] McCaffrey's Pern novels generally limit the galactic setting to very short prologues. The reader's scientific world-view is important but the Pernese society has lost that.

Examples of planetary romance worlds and works

In written fiction
Almuric by Robert E. Howard Arrakis (in the Dune series) by Frank Herbert Barsoom (Mars) and Amtor (Venus) by Edgar Rice Burroughs Darkover by Marion Zimmer Bradley Gor by John Norman Hainish Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin Helliconia by Brian Aldiss Kregen by Kenneth Bulmer Krishna by L. Sprague de Camp Majipoor by Robert Silverberg Pern by Anne McCaffrey The Radio Man by Ralph Milne Farley Riverworld, The Green Odyssey and World of Tiers by Philip Jos Farmer The Saga of the Skolian Empire by Catherine Asaro, including the worlds of Raylicon, Balimul, Parthonia, Debra, and Skyfall. The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis. Tormance in A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay Much of the SF work of Jack Vance: the Big Planet duo, the Alastor trio, the Durdane tetralogy, the Cadwal Chronicles trilogy, the Tschai or Planet of Adventure tetralogy, most of the Magnus Ridolph stories, the Demon Princes pentalogy, and various stand-alone novels such as Maske: Thaery and short stories such as The Moon Moth.

Planetary romance

In comics
Adam Strange Buck Rogers Flash Gordon Space Family Robinson World of Two Moons/AbodeElfquest Den The Trigan Empire

In film and television

Avatar James Cameron film set exclusively on the fictional world of Pandora. Defiance TV series set exclusively on a terraformed, altered version of Earth itself. Irandaam Ulagam - Tamil film

Notes
[1] See Science Fiction Citations: Planetary Romance (http:/ / www. jessesword. com/ sf/ view/ 169); and John Clute, "Planetary Romance", in Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, ed. John Clute and Peter Nicholls, 1995, ISBN 0-312-13486-X. [2] David Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, An English-language selection, 19491984, London: Xanadu Publ, 1985. Page 17. Pringle does not include any Bradley or McCaffrey novels. Introducing his selections, he says, "I admit to blind spotsfor example, I have little affection for the type of sf story which has been called 'planetary romance'".

Sword and planet

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Sword and Planet is a subgenre of science fantasy that features rousing adventure stories set on other planets, and usually featuring Earthmen as protagonists. The name derives from the heroes of the genre engaging their adversaries in hand to hand combat primarily with simple mele weapons such as swords, even in a setting that often has advanced technology. Though there are works that herald the genre such as Percy Greg's Across The Zodiac (1880) and Edwin Lester Arnold's Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905; published in the US in 1964 as Gulliver of Mars), the prototype for the genre is A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs originally serialized by All-Story in 1912 as "Under the Moons of Mars". The genre predates the mainstream popularity of science fiction proper, and usually does not feature any scientific rigor, being instead romantic tales of high adventure. For example little thought is given to explaining why the environment of the alien planet is compatible with life from Earth, just that it does in order to allow the hero to move about and interact with the natives. Native technology will often break the known laws of physics. The genre tag "Sword and Planet" is constructed to mimic the terms sword and sorcery and sword and sandal. The phrase appears to have first been coined in the 1960s by Donald A. Wollheim, editor of Ace Books, and later of DAW Books at a time when the genre was undergoing a revival. Both Ace Books and DAW Books were instrumental in bringing much of the earlier pulp Sword and Planet stories back into print, as well as publishing a great deal of new, imitative work by a new generation of authors. There is a fair amount of overlap between Sword & Planet and planetary romance although some works are considered to belong to one and not the other. In general, planetary romance is considered to be more of a space opera subgenre, influenced by the likes of A Princess of Mars yet more modern and technologically savvy, while Sword & Planet more directly imitates the conventions established by Burroughs in the Mars series. That is to say that the hero is alone as the only human being from Earth, swords are the weapon of choice, and while the alien planet has some advanced technology, it is used only in limited applications to advance the plot or increase the grandeur of the setting. In general the alien planet will seem to be more medieval and primitive than Earth. This leads to anachronistic situations such as flying ships held aloft by anti-gravity technology, while ground travel is done by riding domesticated native animals.

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Beginnings
In A Princess of Mars, John Carter, a Confederate officer and soldier, has taken up prospecting in Arizona after the war to regain his fortune. Under mysterious circumstances, he is transported to Mars, called Barsoom by its inhabitants. There he encounters savage and monstrous aliens, a beautiful princess, and a life of adventure and wonder.[1] Burroughs followed up this first book with several more Barsoom stories, and another series that could be considered Sword & Planet, featuring as hero Carson Napier and his adventures on Venus. Burroughs' Pellucidar series could arguably be considered sword-and-(inner) planet, as it follows most of the plot conventions described below.

Form
Burroughs established a set of conventions that were followed fairly closely by most other entries in the Sword and Planet genre. The typical first book in a sword and planet series uses some or all of the following plot points: A tough but chivalrous male protagonist, from Earth of a period not too distant from our own, finds himself transported to a distant world. The transportation may be via astral projection, teleportation, time travel, or any similar form of scientific magic, but should not imply that travel between worlds is either easy or common. The Earthman thus finds himself the sole representative of his own race on an alien planet. This planet is at a pre-modern, even barbaric stage of civilization, but may here and there have remarkable technologies that hint at a more advanced past. There is no obligation for the physical properties or biology of the alien planet to follow any scientific understanding of the potential conditions of habitable worlds; in general, the conditions will be earth-like, but with variations such as a different-colored sun or different numbers of moons. A lower gravity may be invoked to explain such things as large flying animals or people, or the superhuman strength of the hero, but will otherwise be ignored. (A Princess of Mars, however, when it was first written did loosely follow the most optimistic theories about Marse.g., those of Percival Lowell who imagined a dying, dried-up Mars watered by a network of artificial canals.) Not long after discovering his predicament, the Earthman finds himself caught in a struggle between two or more factions, nations, or species. He sides, of course, with the nation with the prettiest woman, who will sometimes turn out to be a princess. Before he can set about seriously courting her, however, she is kidnapped by a fiendish villain or villains. The Earthman, taking up his sword (the local weapon of choice, which he has a talent with), sets out on a quest to recover the woman and wallop the kidnappers. On the way, he crosses wild and inhospitable terrain, confronts savage animals and monsters, discovers lost civilizations ruled by cruel tyrants or wicked priests, and will repeatedly engage in swashbuckling sword-fights, be imprisoned, daringly escape and rescue other prisoners, and kill any men or beasts who stand in his way. At the end of the story he will defeat the villain and free the captive princess, only to find another crisis emerging that will require all his wit and muscle, but will not be resolved until the next thrilling novel in the adventures of...!.

Chronology
Stories in the Sword and Planet genre fall primarily into two chronological classes. The first includes the stories of Burroughs himself and his early imitators, of whom Otis Adelbert Kline was the most significant. The second and larger group includes authors who began to write Burroughs pastiches from the mid-1960s to early 1970s. Such authors included Lin Carter and Michael Moorcock. Except for continuations of the extended Dray Prescot and Gor sequences, and occasional parodies of earlier series, not many new works in the genre have appeared from major publishers since 1980. One notable exception are two books by S. M. Stirling, published by Tor, The Sky People, (2006)) and In the Courts of the Crimson Kings (2008). Smaller presses have continued to issue new works in the genre, though, most notably Wildside Press, primarily through The Borgo Press imprint. In 2007, for example, Wildside/Borgo published a new book in Charles Nuetzel's Torlo Hannis of Noomas series, and printed the Talera

Sword and planet trilogy by Charles Allen Gramlich (Charles Gramlich).

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List of works
What follows is admittedly incomplete, but is a listing of some of the more important and more remembered representatives of the genre. Some of the dates are reprint dates, not date of original publication.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Barsoom Series (a.k.a. The John Carter of Mars Series) A Princess of Mars (serial 1912/novel 1917) The Gods of Mars (1913/1918) The Warlord of Mars (1913-1914/1919) Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1916/1920) The Chessmen of Mars (1922/1922) The Master Mind of Mars (1927/1928) A Fighting Man of Mars (1930/1931) Swords of Mars (1934-1935/1936)

Synthetic Men of Mars (1939/1940) Llana of Gathol (1941/1948) Skeleton Men of Jupiter (1943/1964) - published in John Carter of Mars (1964) together with the non-ERB juvenile John Carter and the Giant of Mars (1941). The Venus Series (a.k.a. The Carson Napier of Venus Series) Pirates of Venus (1934) Lost on Venus (1935) Carson of Venus (1939) Escape on Venus (1946) The Wizard of Venus (1970)

Roger Sherman Hoar (as Ralph Milne Farley)

Venus series The Radio Man (1924) aka An Earthman on Venus The Radio Beasts (1925) The Radio Planet (1926) The Radio Man Returns (2005) includes The Radio Minds of Mars

John Ulrich Giesy

Palos series Palos of the Dog Star Pack (1918) The Mouthpiece of Zitu (1919) Jason, Son of Jason (1921)

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Alexei Tolstoy
Aelita (1923)

Otis Adelbert Kline

Venus series Planet of Peril (1929) Prince of Peril (1930) The Port of Peril (1932) aka Buccaneers of Venus Mars series The Swordsman of Mars (1933) The Outlaws of Mars (1933)

Gustave LeRouge
The Vampires of Mars (1908) aka The Prisoner of the Planet Mars The War of the Vampires (1909)

Edmond Hamilton
Stuart Merrick series Kaldar, World of Antares (1933) The Snake-men of Kaldar (1933) The Great Brain of Kaldar (1935)

Robert E. Howard
Almuric (1939/1964 - started c. 1936, allegedly completed posthumously by Otis Adelbert Kline)

Manly Wade Wellman

Sojarr of Titan (1941)

Gardner F. Fox
Llarn series Warriors of Llarn (1964) Thief of Llarn (1966)

Michael Moorcock
Sojan the Swordsman series (juvenile short stories) Sojan the Swordsman (1957) Sojan, Swordsman of Zylor (1957) Sojan and the Sea of Demons (1957) Sojan and the Plain of Mystery (1958)

Sojan and the Sons of the Snake-God (1958) Sojan and the Devil Hunters of Norj (1958) Klan the Spoiler (1958)

Sword and planet Dek of Noothar (1957) Rens Karto of Bersnol (1958) Kane of Old Mars series (writing as Edward Powys Bradbury) Warrior of Mars (1965) aka City of the Beast Blades of Mars (1965) aka Lord of the Spiders Barbarians of Mars (1965) aka Masters of the Pit

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John Frederick Lange (writing as John Norman)

Gor series 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Tarnsman of Gor (1966) Outlaw of Gor (1967) Priest-Kings of Gor (1968) Nomads of Gor (1969) Assassin of Gor (1970) Raiders of Gor (1971)

7. Captive of Gor (1972) 8. Hunters of Gor (1974) 9. Marauders of Gor (1975) 10. Tribesmen of Gor (1976) 11. Slave Girl of Gor (1977) 12. Beasts of Gor (1978) 13. Explorers of Gor (1979) 14. Fighting Slave of Gor (1980) 15. Rogue of Gor (1981) 16. Guardsman of Gor (1981) 17. Savages of Gor (1982) 18. Blood Brothers of Gor (1982) 19. Kajira of Gor (1983) 20. Players of Gor (1984) 21. Mercenaries of Gor (1985) 22. Dancer of Gor (1985) 23. Renegades of Gor (1986) 24. Vagabonds of Gor (1987) 25. Magicians of Gor (1988) 26. Witness of Gor (2001) 27. Prize of Gor (2008) 28. Kur of Gor (2009) 29. Swordsmen of Gor (2010) 30. Mariners of Gor (2011) 31. Conspirators of Gor (2012)

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Mike Resnick
Ganymede series The Goddess of Ganymede (1968) Pursuit on Ganymede (1968)

Charles Nuetzel
Torlo Hannis series Warriors of Noomas (1969) Raiders of Noomas (1969) Slavegirl of Noomas (2007) (With Heidi Garrett)

Lin Carter
Callisto series Jandar of Callisto (1972) Black Legion of Callisto (1972) Sky Pirates of Callisto (1973) Mad Empress of Callisto (1975) Mind Wizards of Callisto (1975) Lankar of Callisto (1975) Ylana of Callisto (1977) Renegade of Callisto (1978)

Green Star Series Under the Green Star (1972) When the Green Star Calls (1973) By the Light of the Green Star (1974) As the Green Star Rises (1975) In the Green Star's Glow (1976)

Mysteries of Mars series The Man Who Loved Mars (1973) The Valley Where Time Stood Still (1974) The City Outside the World (1977) Down to a Sunless Sea (1984)

Kenneth Bulmer (writing as Alan Burt Akers and as Dray Prescot)

Dray Prescot series Transit to Scorpio (1972) The Suns of Scorpio (1973) Warrior of Scorpio (1973) Swordships of Scorpio (1973)

Prince of Scorpio (1974) Manhounds of Antares (1974) Arena of Antares (1974)

Sword and planet Fliers of Antares (1975) Bladesman of Antares (1975) Avenger of Antares (1975) Armada of Antares (1976) The Tides of Kregen (1976) Renegade of Kregen (1976) Krozair of Kregen (1977) Secret Scorpio (1977) Savage Scorpio (1978) Captive Scorpio (1978) Golden Scorpio (1978) A Life for Kregen (1979) A Sword for Kregen (1979) A Fortune for Kregen (1979) A Victory for Kregen (1980) Beasts of Antares (1980) Rebel of Antares (1980) Legions of Antares (1981) Allies of Antares (1981) Mazes of Scorpio (1982) Delia of Vallia (1982) Fires of Scorpio (1983) Talons of Scorpio (1983) Masks of Scorpio (1984) Seg the Bowman (1984) Werewolves of Kregen (1985) Witches of Kregen (1985) Storm Over Vallia (1985) Omens of Kregen (1985) Warlord of Antares (1988) Scorpio Reborn (Wiedergeborens Scorpio, 1991) Scorpio Assassin (Meuchelmrder von Scorpio, 1992) Scorpio Invasion (Invasion von Scorpio, 1992) Scorpio Ablaze (Scorpio in Flammen, 1992) Scorpio Drums (Die Trommeln von Scorpio, 1992) Scorpio Triumph (Der Triumpf von Scorpio, 1993) Intrigue of Antares (Die Intrige von Antares, 1993) Gangs of Antares (Die Banditen von Antares, 1994)

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The following have only been published in German translation: Demons of Antares (Die Dmonen von Antares, 1994) Scourge of Antares (Die Geiel von Antares, 1994) Challenge of Antares (Die Fehde von Antares, 1995) Wrath of Antares (Der Zorn von Antares, 1996) Shadows over Kregen (Schatten ber Kregen, 1996)

Murder on Kregen (Mord auf Kregen, 1997) Turmoil on Kregen (Aufruhr auf Kregen, 1997) Betrayal on Kregen (Verrat auf Kregen, 1998)

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Leigh Brackett
Eric John Stark series Eric John Stark: Outlaw of Mars (1982) The Secret of Sinharat (1964 - revision of Queen of the Martian Catacombs (1949)) People of the Talisman (1964 - revision of Black Amazon of Mars (1951)) Enchantress of Venus (aka City of the Lost Ones) (1949) The Book of Skaith (1976) The Ginger Star (1974) The Hounds of Skaith (1974) The Reavers of Skaith (1976) Other The Sword of Rhiannon Lorelei of the Red Mist (with Ray Bradbury) Shadow over Mars Sea-Kings of Mars

Gerard F. Conway (writing as Wallace Moore)

Balzan Of The Cat People series The Blood Stones (1975) The Caves of Madness (1975) The Lights of Zetar (1975)

Andrew J. Offutt
Ardor on Aros (1973) Chieftain of Andor (1976) Clansman of Andor (1978)

Mike Sirota
Dannus/Reglathium series the Prisoner of Reglathium (1978) the Conquerors of Reglathium (1978) The Caves of Reglathium (1978) the Dark Straits of Reglathium (1978) Slaves of Reglathium

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Jack Vance
Planet of Adventure City of the Chasch (1968) Servants of the Wankh (1969) The Dirdir (1969) The Pnume (1970)

Del DowDell
Warlord of Ghandor (1977) Spearmen of Arn (1978)

David J. Lake
Xuma Series The Gods of Xuma (1978) Warlords of Xuma (1983)

Charles Allen Gramlich

Talera Series Swords of Talera (2007) Wings Over Talera (2007) Witch of Talera (2007)

Dan Simmons
Ilium/Olympos The Ilium/Olympos (2003/2005) cycle has elements of this genre through staging the Trojan war myth on a far-future terraformed planet Mars.

Filmation
*Blackstar (TV series), a 1981 cartoon. Has all of the elements of the genre represented.

References
[1] Charles Gramlich, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders, pp. 1209-1211

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High fantasy
Fantasy
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High fantasy (also referred to as epic fantasyWikipedia:Verifiability) is a sub-genre of fantasy fiction, defined either by its setting in an imaginary world or by the epic stature of its characters, themes and plot. Quintessential works of high fantasy, such as The Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Wheel of Time, and The Belgariad, have both of these attributes. High fantasy exists on one side of a spectrum, opposite urban fantasy, which is set in the 'real' world. Some works, such as The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and The Chronicles of Narnia concern characters that travel between realistic and imaginary settings, and are thus difficult to classify on this spectrum.

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Genre overview
High fantasy is defined as fantasy fiction set in an alternative, entirely fictional ("secondary") world, rather than the real, or "primary" world. The secondary world is usually internally consistent but its rules differ in some way(s) from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy is characterized by being set in the primary, or "real" world, or a rational and familiar fictional world, with the inclusion of magical elements.[1] Nikki Gamble distinguishes three subtypes of high fantasy: A setting in which the primary world does not exist[2] (e.g. The Lord of The Rings, The Legend of Zelda, A Song of Ice and Fire, Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, Inheritance Cycle, Discworld, The Earthsea Series, The Sword of Truth, The Riftwar Cycle, The Shannara Series, The Edge Chronicles, The Wheel of Time, The Prydain Chronicles, Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Kingkiller Chronicle, Gormenghast, and Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn) The secondary/parallel world(s) is entered through a portal from the primary world (e.g. Alice in Wonderland, Oz books, The Chronicles of Narnia, His Dark Materials, Phantastes, The Dark Tower, Xanth books, and Avantasia) A distinct world-within-a-world as part of the primary world (e.g. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Stardust, Arthur series (Besson), The Spiderwick Chronicles, American Gods, The Gods of Pegana and The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) Where the primary world does not exist, detailed maps, geography and history of the fictional world will often be provided. The secondary world often is based on, or symbolically represents, the primary world. The Oxford of Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights is similar, a world that is "both familiar and strange". Pullman's preface to that book explains that the setting is "a universe like ours, but different in many ways". In the case of a world-within-a-world, also known as a wainscot, the secondary world co-exists with the primary world; however, the mundane inhabitants of the primary world are unaware of the secondary world. Gamble suggests that The Lord of the Rings takes place in a setting where the primary world does not exist. This was something Tolkien often denied; rather, he suggested that Middle-earth was the primary world, but in the past.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] This was not always clear, however, as a few of his early letters described that while his stories take place on earth, elements of the stories as a kind of "...secondary or sub-creational reality" or "Secondary belief" in replies to letters, or "at a different stage of imagination...".[10][11][12][13][14] In most cases he is adamant that the events ("history") occurred on primary earth, and not another planet.[15]

Setting
These stories are often serious in tone and epic in scope, dealing with themes of grand struggle against supernatural, evil forces.[16] Some typical characteristics of high fantasy include fantastical elements such as elves, fairies, dwarves, dragons, demons, magic or sorcery, wizards or magicians, constructed languages, quests, coming-of-age themes, and multi-volume narratives. In some fiction, a contemporary, "real-world" character is placed in the invented world, sometimes through framing devices such as portals to other worlds or even subconscious travels. Purists might not consider this to be "true" high fantasy, although such stories are often categorized as high fantasy because they've yet to be classified as their own distinct subgenre, and often resemble this subgenre more closely than any other.Wikipedia:No original research High fantasy worlds may be more or less closely based on real world milieux, or on legends such as the Arthurian Cycle. When the resemblance is strong, particularly when real-world history is used, high fantasy shades into alternative history. The high fantasy genre's fandom ranges from Tolkien to contemporary. Recent screen versions of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as well as Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader have contributed to the subgenre's continuing popularity. Moreover, film adaptations of some novels are in preproduction, such as David Farland's The Runelords, and also Terry Brooks' Magic Kingdom of

High fantasy Landover as well as The Elfstones of Shannara.

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Characters
Many high fantasy storylines are told from the viewpoint of one main hero. Often, much of the plot revolves around his or her heritage or mysterious nature. In many novels the hero is an orphan or unusual sibling, often with an extraordinary talent for magic or combat. He or she begins the story young, if not an actual child.[17] Some examples of this are: Kathryn Lasky's Soren of Guardians of Ga'Hoole, David Eddings' Belgarion in the Belgariad and Malloreon, Terry Brooks' Shea and Wil Ohmsford of The Sword of Shannara and The Elfstones of Shannara, David Kier's Thomas Pitworth of Ravenscroft and The Door to the Shadows, Terry Goodkind's Richard Cypher, Robert Jordan's Rand al'Thor of The Wheel of Time, Pug and Tomas of Raymond Feist's Riftwar Saga, Philip Pullman's Lyra Belacqua of His Dark Materials, Ursula K. Le Guin's Ged, Aerial of the Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce, Christopher Paolini's Eragon of The Inheritance Cycle and Ashalind of the "Bitterbynd Trilogy". In other works he is a completely developed individual with his own character and spirit David Eddings' Sparhawk of The Elenium and The Tamuli. High fantasy is not by any means limited to a male protagonist, as seen in such works as Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion Cecelia Dart-Thornton's Ashalind and P.C. Hodgell's Jame, though a man is perhaps more common. In the beginning of the storyline, the hero is threatened by the unknown force.[citation needed] One reason for such a threat is that, unlike the typical sword and sorcery adventurer, the hero is seldom bored stiff by ordinary life and therefore will not abandon it quickly and on any excuse.[citation needed] Even though, like Bilbo Baggins, he or she may not be eager for adventure, he is willing or somehow brought into a fantasy affair. By the same token, the hero of the high fantasy adventure is capable of completing it and settling down to ordinary life again.[citation needed] Typically, the hero slowly gains knowledge of his past through legend, prophecy, lost-and-found-again family members, or encounters with "mentor" characters who know more about him/her than he/she does. With that knowledge comes power and confidence; the hero often begins as a childlike figure, but matures rapidly, experiencing a huge gain in fighting/problem-solving abilities along the way.[18] The plot of the story often depicts the hero's fight against the evil forces as a Bildungsroman. However, the epic adventure is not always quite so Siegfried kills Fafner, by Arthur Rackham stereotyped. A good example of a less stereotyped epic is The Deed of Paksenarrion in which the main character becomes a paladin through her own growing strength instead of it having been forced on her at birth. In many books there is a knowing, mystical mentor/teacher, associated with the Jungian archetype of Senex, or wise old man. This character is often a formidable wizard or warrior, who provides the main character with advice and help. Examples would be: Tolkien's Gandalf of The Lord of the Rings, Dumbledore of Harry Potter series, Merlin of Arthurian Legends, Lasky's Ezylryb of Guardians of Ga'Hoole, Brooks' Allanon of The Sword of Shannara, Eddings' Belgarath and Polgara of The Belgariad, Feist's Macros the Black of the Riftwar Saga, Jordan's Moiraine of The Wheel of Time (who at least starts out as this kind of character), Goodkind's Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander of The Sword of Truth, Dart-Thornton's Thorn/Angaver, and Paolini's Brom and Oromis of The Inheritance Cycle. In some books, there is also a mysterious Dark Lord, often obsessed with taking over the world and killing the main hero. This character is an evil wizard or sorcerer, or sometimes a kind of god or demon. This character commands a huge army and a group of highly feared servants. Examples would be: Tolkien's Morgoth of The Silmarillion as well

High fantasy as Sauron, the King of the Nazgl and the others of the Nine Riders from The Lord of the Rings, Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter series, Lasky's Kludd and Nyra of Guardians of Ga'Hoole, Brooks's Warlock Lord of The Sword of Shannara, Jordan's Dark One of The Wheel of Time, and Eddings' Torak of The Belgariad and Zandramas of The Malloreon, Rick Riordan's Kronos of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Goodkind's Darken Rahl and Emperor Jagang of The Sword of Truth, Dart-Thornton's Moragon, and Paolini's Galbatorix of The Inheritance Cycle. In some works the villain may have had a predecessor/s who might have been superior or inferior to them. Examples of this would be Morgoth from the Silmarillion, Sauron's former commander, Goodkind's Panis Rahl, as well as Galbatorix with Morzan and the Forsworn from the Inheritance Cycle. The progress of the story leads to the character learning the nature of the unknown forces against him, that they constitute a force with great power and malevolence.[19] Facing down this evil is the culmination of the hero's story and permits the return to normal life.

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Good versus evil

Good versus evil is a common concept in high fantasy, and the character of evil is often an important concept in a work of high fantasy,[20] as in The Lord of the Rings. Indeed, the importance of the concepts of good and evil can be regarded as the distinguishing mark between high fantasy and sword and sorcery.[21] In many works of high fantasy, this conflict marks a deep concern with moral issues; in other works, the conflict is a power struggle, with, for instance, wizards behaving irresponsibly whether they are "good" or "evil".[22] In some works, as in large parts of Jordan's The Wheel of Time, the struggle between good and evil is mainly used as a backdrop for more intricate conflicts of interest, such as conflicts between different factions formally on the same side in the good vs. evil conflict. Recent fantasy novels have begun to depart from the more common good vs evil background that became prevalent after Lord of the Rings. Prominently, George R R Martin's acclaimed A Song of Ice and Fire series more or less abandons the good-evil paradigm in favor of a more politically based and multifaceted struggle between different ruling families, most of whom display both good and evil tendencies in pursuit of power, which takes the place of the main catalyst of the story. Although several characters who have a civilised, trustworthy guise do perform terrible acts of cruelty marking them as morally degenerate, their intentions are not necessarily "evil". Often the villain will try to convince the hero either a) the villain is not in fact evil like the hero thinks he is, b) the hero is actually the evil/immoral one, c) the mentor character has been using the hero's special qualities for his own ends and does not really care about him/her. Most of these arguments will be followed up by a conversion attempt, with promises of redemption for supposed misdeeds or glory, riches and power.[citation needed]

Saga or series
From Tolkien to the modern day, authors in this genre tend to create their own worlds where they set multi-tiered narratives such as the Belgariad, Malloreon, Wheel of Time, Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Inheritance Cycle, The Black Company, The Sword of Truth, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Role-playing campaign settings like Greyhawk by Gary Gygax, Dragonlance by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis and Forgotten Realms by Ed Greenwood[23] are a common basis for many fantasy books and many other authors continue to contribute to the settings.[24]

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References
[1] C.W. Sullivan has a slightly more complex definition in "High Fantasy", chapter 24 of the International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature by Peter Hunt and Sheila G. Bannister Ray (Routledge, 1996 and 2004), chapter 24. [2] That is, the primary is either separated from the setting entirely, as in the Sword of Truth, where author Goodkind reveals that his setting and Earth are alternate realities separated by roughly 10,000 years, or is separated from it by a great distance in space and/or time, as JRR Tolkien was adamant that Arda (both before and after it was made spherical) was in the history of the Earth as we know it; The Book of the New Sun and the Shannara series are explicitly stated to be in Earth's far future, as well is this implied in the Wheel of Time, with a cyclical view of time and 20th-century cultural landmarks, such as a Mercedes-Benz hood ornament, being present as archaeological relics in-world. [3] Return of the King, Appendix D, Calendars: '...long ago as those times are now reckoned in years and lives of men, they were not very remote according to the memory of the Earth.' [4] Letters No. 151, 212, 325, 328 [5] "The Lord of the Rings may be a 'fairy-story', but it takes place in the Northern hemisphere of this earth: miles are miles, days are days, and weather is weather." Letters No.210, p.272 [6] "'Middle-earth', by the way, is not a name of a never-never land without relation to the world we live in (like the Mercury of Eddison). It is just a use of Middle English middel-erde (or erthe), altered from Old English Middengeard: the name for the inhabited lands of Men 'between the seas'. And though I have not attempted to relate the shape of the mountains and land-masses to what geologists may say or surmise about the nearer past, imaginatively this 'history' is supposed to take place in a period of the actual Old World of this planet." Letters No.165, p.220 [7] "I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. The name is the modern form (appearing in the 13th century and still in use) of midden-erd>middel-erd, an ancient name for the oikoumen, the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world, in use specifically opposed to imaginary worlds (as Fairyland) or unseen worlds (as Heaven or Hell). The theatre of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary. The essentials of that abiding place are all there (at any rate for inhabitants of N.W. Europe), so naturally it feels familiar, even if a little glorified by enchantment of distance in time." Letters No.183, p.239 [8] "Arda 'realm' was the name given to our world or earth.... ... [I]f it were 'history', it would be difficult to fit the lands and events (or 'cultures') into such evidence as we possess, archaeological or geological, concerning the nearer or remoter part of what is now called Europe; though the Shire, for instance, is expressly stated to have been in this region (I p. 12). ... I hope the, evidently long but undefined, gap* in time between the Fall of Barad-dr and our Days is sufficient for 'literary credibility', even for readers acquainted with what is known or surmised of 'pre-history'. I have, I suppose, constructed an imaginary time, but kept my feet on my own mother-earth for place. I prefer that to the contemporary mode of seeking remote globes in 'space'. However curious, they are alien, and not loveable with the love of blood-kin. Middle-earth is not my own invention. It is a modernization or alteration of an old word for the inhabited world of Man, the oikoumen: middle because thought of vaguely as set amidst the encircling Seas and (in the northern-imagination) between ice of the North and the fire of the South. O.English middan-geard, medival E. midden-erd, middle-erd. Many reviewers seem to assume that Middle-earth is another planet! *I imagine the gap to be about 6000 years: that is we are now at the end of the Fifth Age, if the Ages were of about the same length as S.A. and T.A. But they have, I think quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh." Letters No.211, p.283 [9] "['Middle-earth'] is an old word, not invented by me, as a reference to a dictionary such as the Shorter Oxford will show. It meant the habitable lands of our world, set amid the surrounding Ocean. The action of the story takes place in the North-west of 'Middle-earth', equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. ... If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence. The mouths of Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy." Letters No.294, 8 February 1967, p.375376 [10] Letters 180: 14 January 1956 [11] Letters 200: 25 June 1957 [12] Letters 328: Autumn 1971 [13] http:/ / valarguild. org/ varda/ Tolkien/ encyc/ papers/ dreamlord/ stages/ stages_of_imagination. htm#24 [14] Dennis Gerrolt, Now Read On... interview, BBC, January 1971 http:/ / www. lordotrings. com/ interview. asp [15] "...a searchlight, as it were, on a brief episode in History, and on a small part of our Middle-earth..." Letters No.328, Autumn 1971, p.412 [16] Philip Martin, The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest, p 34, ISBN 0-87116-195-8 [17] Michael Moorcock, Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy p 84 ISBN 1-932265-07-4 [18] Casey Lieb, " Unlikely Heroes and their role in Fantasy Literature (http:/ / www. victorianweb. org/ authors/ gm/ lieb14. html)" [19] Patricia A. McKillip, "Writing High Fantasy", p 53, Philip Martin, ed., The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest, ISBN 0-87116-195-8 [20] Tom Shippey, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, p 120, ISBN 0-618-25759-4 [21] Joseph A. McCullough V, " The Demarcation of Sword and Sorcery (http:/ / www. blackgate. com/ articles/ S& S. htm)" [22] Ursula K. LeGuin, "The Question I Get Asked Most Often" p 274, The Wave in the Mind, ISBN 1-59030-006-8 [23] "For Dungeons and Dragons, both TSR and WotC produced additional settings that can be used with the core rules, two of the most popular being the magic-punk Eberron ... and the high fantasy Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting." Snow, Cason. "Dragons in the stacks: an introduction to role-playing games and their value to libraries." Collection Building 27.2 (2008): 63-70. [24] "Most role-playing games draw upon a universe based in high fantasy; this literary genre, half-way between traditional fantasy ..." Squedin, S., & Papillon, S. (2008). U.S. Patent Application 12/198,391.

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Mythic fiction
Mythic fiction is literature that is rooted in, inspired by, or that in some way draws from the tropes, themes and symbolism of myth, folklore, and fairy tales.[1] The term is widely credited to Charles de Lint and Terri Windling.[2] Mythic fiction overlaps with urban fantasy and the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but mythic fiction also includes contemporary works in non-urban settings. Mythic fiction refers to works of contemporary literature that often cross the divide between literary and fantasy fiction.[3] Windling promoted mythic fiction as the co-editor (with Ellen Datlow) of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror annual volumes for sixteen years, and as the editor of the Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts. Though mythic fiction can be loosely based in mythology, it frequently uses familiar mythological personages archetypes (such as tricksters, or the thunderer). This is in contrast to other forms of fantasy, such as the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, which invent their own legends and folklore or volunteer entirely new pantheons. A suggested Mythic fiction reading list can be found at the Endicott Studio website Mythic fiction Reading List [4].

Notes
[1] "A Mythic Fiction Reading List, The Journal of Mythic Arts, online archive: http:/ / endicottstudio. typepad. com/ jomareadinglists/ 2007/ 10/ a-mythic-fictio. html [2] Julie Bartel, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Young Adult Literature, "Mythic Fiction for Yong Adults," The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., 2005. [3] Julie Bartel, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Young Adult Literature, "Mythic Fiction for Yong Adults," The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., 2005. [4] http:/ / endicottstudio. typepad. com/ jomareadinglists/

External links
The Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts (http://www.endicott-studio.com) Endicott's Journal of Mythic Arts (http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/jomahome/)

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Fantasy

Fairy tales and legends, such as Dobrynya Nikitich's rescue of Zabava Putyatichna from the dragon Gorynych, have been an important source for fantasy.

Fantasy
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Tolkien fandom Tropes and conventions Worlds Categories

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Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary plot element, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical creatures are common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of scientific and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three, all of which are subgenres of speculative fiction. In popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form, especially since the worldwide success of The Lord of the Rings and related books by J. R. R. Tolkien. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy comprises works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians, from ancient myths and legends to many recent works embraced by a wide audience today. Fantasy is a vibrant area of academic study in a number of disciplines (English, cultural studies, comparative literature, history, medieval studies). Work in this area ranges widely, from the structuralist theory of Tzvetan Todorov, which emphasizes the fantastic as a liminal space, to work on the connections (political, historical, literary) between medievalism and popular culture.[1]

Traits of fantasy
The identifying traits of fantasy are the inclusion of fantastic elements in a self-coherent (internally consistent) setting, where inspiration from mythology and folklore remains a consistent theme.[2] Within such a structure, any location of the fantastical element is possible: it may be hidden in, or leak into the apparently real world setting, it may draw the characters into a world with such elements, or it may occur entirely in a fantasy world setting, where such elements are part of the world.[3] Essentially, fantasy follows rules of its own making, allowing magic and other fantastic devices to be used and still be internally cohesive.[4]

History
Beginning perhaps with the Epic of Gilgamesh and the earliest written documents known to humankind, mythic and other elements that would eventually come to define fantasy and its various subgenres have been a part of some of the grandest and most celebrated works of literature. From The Odyssey to Beowulf, from the Mahabharata to The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, from the Iliad to Fengshen Yanyi, from the Ramayana to the Journey to the West, and from the Arthurian legend and medieval romance to the epic poetry of the Divine Comedy, fantastical adventures featuring brave heroes and heroines, deadly monsters, and secret arcane realms have inspired many audiences. In this sense, the history of fantasy and the history of literature are inextricably intertwined.

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There are many works where the boundary between fantasy and other works is not clear; the question of whether the writers believed in the possibilities of the marvels in A Midsummer Night's Dream or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight makes it difficult to distinguish when fantasy, in its modern sense, first began.[5] Although pre-dated by John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River (1841), the history of modern fantasy literature is usually said to begin with George MacDonald, the Scottish author of such novels as The Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes (1858), the latter of which is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults. MacDonald was a major influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, a popular English poet who wrote several novels in the latter part of the century, including The Well at the World's End.

Many works are unclear as to the belief of the authors in the marvels they contain, as in the enchanted garden from the Decameron.

Despite MacDonald's future influence with At the Back of the North Wind (1871), Morris's popularity with his contemporaries, and H.G. Wells's The Wonderful Visit (1895), it wasn't until the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach a large audience. Lord Dunsany established the genre's popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. These authors, along with Abraham Merritt, established what was known as the "lost world" sub-genre, which was the most popular form of fantasy in the early decades of the 20th century, although several classic children's fantasies, such as Peter Pan and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, were also published around this time. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, with the effect that writers who wished to write fantasy had to fit their work in a work for children.[6] Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children,[7] though works for adults only verged on fantasy. For many years, this and successes such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), created the circular effect that all fantasy works, even the later The Lord of the Rings, were therefore classified as children's literature. Political and social trends can affect a society's reception towards fantasy. In the early 20th century, the New Culture Movement's enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature. The spells and magical creatures of these novels were viewed as superstitious and backward, products of a feudal society hindering the modernization of China. Stories of the supernatural continued to be denounced once the Communists rose to power, and mainland China experienced a revival in fantasy only after the Cultural Revolution had ended. Fantasy was a staple genre of pulp magazines published in the West. In 1923, the first all-fantasy fiction magazine, Weird Tales, was created. Many other similar magazines eventually followed, most noticeably The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The pulp magazine format was at the height of its popularity at this time and was instrumental in bringing fantasy fiction to a wide audience in both the U.S. and Britain. Such magazines were also instrumental in the rise of science fiction, and it was at this time the two genres began to be associated with each other. By 1950, "sword and sorcery" fiction had begun to find a wide audience, with the success of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories.[8] However, it was the advent of high fantasy, and most of all J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings which reached new heights of popularity in the late 1960s, that allowed fantasy to truly enter the mainstream.[9] Several other series, such as C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books, helped cement the genre's popularity.

Fantasy The popularity of the fantasy genre has continued to increase in the 21st century, as evidenced by the best-selling statuses of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series; Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians pentalogy, which focuses on Greek mythology; The Kane Chronicles trilogy, which focuses on Egyptian mythology; and the Heroes of Olympus trilogy, which focuses on Greek and Roman mythology, along with all three's successors. Several fantasy film adaptations have achieved blockbuster status, most notably The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, and the Harry Potter films, currently one of the highest-grossing film series in film history.

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Media
Fantasy is a popular genre, having found a home for itself in almost every medium. While fantasy art and recently fantasy films have been increasingly popular, it is fantasy literature which has always been the genre's primary medium. Fantasy role-playing games cross several different media. Dungeons & Dragons was the first tabletop role-playing game, and remains the most successful and influential.[10][11] The science fantasy role-playing game series Final Fantasy has been an icon of the role-playing video game genre (as of 2012[12] still among the top ten best-selling video game franchises). The first collectible card game, Magic: The Gathering, has a fantasy theme, and is similarly dominant in the industry.[13]

Subgenres
Modern fantasy, including early modern fantasy, has also spawned many new subgenres with no clear counterpart in mythology or folklore, although inspiration from mythology and folklore remains a consistent theme. Fantasy subgenres are numerous and diverse, frequently overlapping with other forms of speculative fiction in almost every medium in which they are produced. A couple of examples are the science fantasy and dark fantasy subgenres, which the fantasy genre shares with science fiction and horror, respectively.

Subculture
Professionals such as publishers, editors, authors, artists, and scholars within the fantasy genre get together yearly at the World Fantasy Convention. The World Fantasy Awards are presented at the convention. The first WFC was held in 1975, and it has occurred every year since. The convention is held at a different city each year. Additionally, many science fiction conventions, such as Florida's FX Show and MegaCon, cater to fantasy and horror fans. Anime conventions, such as Ohayocon or Anime Expo frequently feature showings of fantasy, science fantasy, and dark fantasy series and films, such as Majutsushi Orphen (fantasy), Sailor Moon (urban fantasy), Berserk (dark fantasy), and Spirited Away (fantasy). Many science fiction/fantasy and anime conventions also strongly feature or cater to one or more of the several subcultures within the main subcultures, including the cosplay subculture (in which people make and/or wear costumes based on existing or self-created characters, sometimes also acting out skits or plays as well), the fan fiction subculture, and the fan video or AMV subculture, as well as the large internet subculture devoted to reading and writing prose fiction and/or doujinshi in or related to those genres.

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References
[1] Jane Tolmie, "Medievalism and the Fantasy Heroine", Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2 (July 2006), pp. 145158. ISSN 0958-9236 [2] John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Fantasy", p 338 ISBN 0-312-19869-8 [3] Jane Langton, "The Weak Place in the Cloth" p163-180, Fantasists on Fantasy, ed. Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth J. Zahorski, ISBN 0-380-86553-X [4] Diana Waggoner, The Hills of Faraway: A Guide to Fantasy, p 10, 0-689-10846-X [5] Brian Attebery, The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature, p 14, ISBN 0-253-35665-2 [6] C.S. Lewis, "On Juvenile Tastes", p 41, Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories, ISBN 0-15-667897-7 [7] Brian Attebery, The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature, p 62, ISBN 0-253-35665-2 [8] L. Sprague de Camp, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy, p 135 ISBN 0-87054-076-9 [9] Jane Yolen, "Introduction" p vii-viii After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien, ed, Martin H. Greenberg, ISBN 0-312-85175-8 [10] According to a 1999 survey in the United States, 6% of 12- to 35-year-olds have played role-playing games. Of those who play regularly, two thirds play D&D. [11] Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of the RPG products sold in 2005. [12] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Fantasy& action=edit [13] Note that the "twelve million" figure given here is used by Hasbro; while through their subsidiary Wizards of the Coast they would be in the best position to know through tournament registrations and card sales, they also have an interest in presenting an optimistic estimate to the public.

External links
The SF Page (http://gutenberg.net.au/sfproject.html) at Project Gutenberg of Australia (http://gutenberg.net. au)

Sword and sorcery

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Sword and sorcery (S&S), or heroic fantasy,[1] is a sub-genre of fantasy and historical fantasy, generally characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tales, though dramatic, focus mainly on personal battles rather than world-endangering matters. A film genre tangentially related to sword and sorcery, at least in name, is sword-and-sandal, though its subjects are generally oriented to biblical times and early history, instead of fantasy. Not to be confused with cloak and dagger or cloak and sword, which are alternate genres (although both daggers and cloaks are integral elements of many fantasy settings).

Origin
The term "sword and sorcery" was first coined in 1961, when the British author Michael Moorcock published a letter in the fanzine Amra, demanding a name for the sort of fantasy-adventure story written by Robert E. Howard. He had initially proposed the term "epic fantasy". However, the celebrated American sword-and-sorcery author Fritz Leiber replied in the journal Ancalagon (6 April 1961) suggesting, "sword-and-sorcery as a good popular catchphrase for the field". He expanded on this in the July 1961 issue of Amra, commenting: I feel more certain than ever that this field should be called the sword-and-sorcery story. This accurately describes the points of culture-level and supernatural element and also immediately distinguishes it from the cloak-and-sword (historical adventure) storyand (quite incidentally) from the cloak-and-dagger (international espionage) story too! (Fritz Leiber, Amra, July 1961) Though not explicitly mentioned in Leiber's letter, the originally Italian film genre known as "sword and sandal", depicting heroic adventures in settings derived from the Bible or Greek mythology, was at the peak of its popularity in the US at the time when the letter was written. Since its inception, many attempts have been made to redefine precisely what "sword and sorcery" is. Although many have debated the finer points, the consensus characterizes it by a strong bias toward fast-paced, action-rich tales set within a quasi-mythical or fantastical framework. Unlike high or epic fantasy, the stakes tend to be personal, the danger confined to the moment of telling.[2] Settings are typically exotic, and protagonists often morally compromised.[3] Many sword and sorcery tales have been turned into a lengthy series of adventures. Their lower stakes and less-than world-threatening dangers make this more plausible than a repetition of the perils of epic fantasy. So too does the nature of the heroes; most sword-and-sorcery protagonists, travellers by nature, find peace after adventure deathly dull.[4] At one extreme, the heroes of E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros grieve for the end of the war and that

Sword and sorcery they have no more foes equal to those they defeated; in answer to their prayers, the gods restore the enemy city so that they can fight the same war over again.[5]

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Sources
The subgenre has old roots. Ultimatelylike much fantasyit draws from mythology and classical epics such as Homer's Odyssey and the Norse sagas. It is also influenced by historical fiction, begun by Sir Walter Scott, under the influence of romantic collection of folklore and ballads.[6] However, very few of his works contain fantastic elements; in most, the appearance of such is explained away,[7] but in its themes of adventure in a strange society, this led to the adventures set in foreign lands by H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs.[8] Haggard's works included many fantastic elements.[9] However, sword and sorcery's immediate progenitors are the swashbuckling tales of Alexandre Dumas, pre (The Three Musketeers (1844), etc.), Rafael Sabatini (Scaramouche (1921), etc.) and their pulp magazine imitators, such as Talbot Mundy, Harold Lamb, and H. Bedford-Jones, who all influenced Robert E. Howard.[10] However, these historical "swashbucklers" lack the truly supernatural element (even though Dumas' fiction contained many fantasy tropes[11]). Another influence was early fantasy fiction such as Lord Dunsany's "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth" (1910) and A. Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar (1924).[12] All of these authors influenced sword and sorcery for the plots, characters, and landscapes used.[13] In addition, many early sword and sorcery writers, such as Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, were heavily influenced by the Middle Eastern tales of the Arabian Nights, whose stories of magical monsters and evil sorcerers were a major influence on the genre-to-be. It can also be noted that in its frequent depictions of smoky taverns and smelly back alleys, sword and sorcery draws upon the picaresque genre; for example, Fritz Leiber's city of Lankhmar bears considerable similarity to 16th century Seville as depicted in Cervantes' tale Rinconete y Cortadillo. Sword and sorcery proper only truly began in the pulp fantasy magazines, where it emerged from "weird fiction." Particularly important was the magazine Weird Tales, which published Howard's Conan stories as well as such important S&S influences as Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith.

Seminal works
The genre has been defined, strongly, by the work of Robert E. Howard, particularly his tales of Conan the Barbarian and Kull of Atlantis, mostly in Weird Tales from 1932 and 1929 respectively.[14][15] Other books and series that define the genre of sword-and-sorcery include: Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique and Hyperborean tales, beginning with "The Empire of the Necromancers" and The Tale of Satampra Zeiros in 1932 and 1931 respectively. C. L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry tales, beginning with "Black God's Kiss" (1934), which introduced the first notable sword and sorcery heroine.[16] Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser sequence, beginning with "Two Sought Adventure" (1939). Michael Moorcock's Elric sequence, beginning with The Dreaming City (published in Science Fantasy 1961), notable for its adherence to counterstereotype. Sprague de Camp's Swords and Sorcery the first sword and sorcery anthology, Pyramid Books, December 1963. Karl Edward Wagner's Kane novels, beginning with Darkness Weaves (1970), credited with reinvigorating the genre.[17] Charles Saunders' Imaro novels, beginning with Imaro (1981), a collection of short stories first published in the seventies for Dark Fantasy fanzine. Notable for being the first notable black sword and sorcery protagonist. Other pulp fantasy fictionsuch as Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series and Leigh Brackett's Sea Kings of Marshave a similar feel to sword and sorcery, but, because alien science replaces the supernatural, it is usually

Sword and sorcery described as planetary romance or sword and planet, and considered to fall more in the area of science fiction.[18] Despite this, planetary romance is closely aligned with sword and sorcery, and the work of Burroughs, Brackett, and others in the former field have been significant in creating and spreading S&S proper.[19] Sword and sorcery itself has often blurred the lines between fantasy and science fiction, drawing elements from both like the "weird fiction" it sprang from.

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Revival
From the 1960s up till the 1980s, under the guiding force of Lin Carter, a select group of writers formed the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA) to promote and enlarge the sword and sorcery genre. From 1973 to 1981 five anthologies featuring short works by SAGA members were published: edited by Carter, these were collectively known as Flashing Swords!. Because of these and other anthologies (such as the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series), his own fiction, and his criticism, Carter is considered one of the most important popularizers of genre fantasy in general, and S&S in particular.[20] Another notable sword and sorcery anthology series that ran from 1977 through 1979 was called Swords Against Darkness (Zebra Books), and was edited by Andrew J. Offutt. This series ran to five volumes and featured stories by such authors as Poul Anderson, David Drake, Ramsey Campbell, Andre Norton, and Manly Wade Wellman. Despite such authors' best efforts, sword and sorcery has more colloquially come to be known as a catch-all phrase for low grade, derivative fantasy as well as fiction written in such universes. During the 1980s, influenced by the success of the 1982 feature film Conan the Barbarian many cheaply made fantasy films were released that came to be derisively known as "Sword & Sorcery". The term is sometimes used in a derogatory manner by writers and readers of the fantasy genre. After the boom of the early 1980s, sword and sorcery once again dropped out of favor, with epic fantasy largely taking its place in the fantasy genre. However, the end of the 20th century saw another resurgence of S&S. Sometimes called the "new" or "literary" sword and sorcery, this development places emphasis on literary technique, and draws from epic fantasy and other genres to broaden the typical scope of S&S. Stories may feature the wide-ranging struggles national or world-spanning concerns common to high fantasy, but told from the point of view of characters more common to S&S and with the sense of adventure common to the latter. Writers associated with this include Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, and Scott Lynch, and magazines such as Black Gate and the ezines Flashing Swords (not to be confused with the Lin Carter anthologies) and Beneath Ceaseless Skies publish short fiction in the style.[21][22] These authors and editors are attempting to return the genre to the status it enjoyed during the pulp era of the twenties and thirties.[citation needed]

Women creators and characters

Despite the importance of C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Andre Norton, and other female authors, as well as Moore's early heroine, sword and sorcery has had a strongly masculine bias. Female characters were generally distressed damsels to be rescued or protected, or otherwise served as an inducement or reward for a male hero's adventures. Women who had adventures of their own often did so to counter the threat of rape, or to gain revenge for same. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress anthology series (1984 onwards) attempted the reverse. Bradley encouraged female writers and protagonists: the stories feature skillful swordswomen and powerful sorceresses, working from a variety of motives.[23][24] The series was immensely popular and Bradley was editing her final volume at the time of her death (the series continued under other editors). Jessica Amanda Salmonson similarly sought to broaden the range of roles for female characters in S&S through both her own stories and in editing the World Fantasy Award-winning Amazons (1979) and Amazons II (1982) anthologies; both drew on real and folkloric women warriors, often from areas outside of Europe.[25] Today, active female characters who participate equally with the male heroes in the stories are a regular feature in modern sword and sorcery stories, though they are also relied upon for sex appeal.

Sword and sorcery Introduced as a minor character in a non-fantasy historical story by Robert E. Howard, "The Shadow of the Vulture", Red Sonya of Rogatino would later inspire a fantasy heroine named Red Sonja, who first appeared in the comic book series Conan the Barbarian written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Barry Windsor-Smith. Red Sonja received her own comic book title and eventually a series of novels by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney, as well as Richard Fleischer's unsuccessful film adaptation in 1985. In a 2011 indie game knows as Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, a nonsexualized female known as the Scythian was cast as the lead character.

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References
[1] L. Sprague de Camp, Conan the Usurper, "Introduction". [2] Philip Martin, The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest, p. 35, ISBN 0-87116-195-8. [3] Strahan, Jonathan and Lou Anders (ed.), Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery, "Check Your Dark Lord at the Door", p. xi. ISBN 978-0-06-172381-0. [4] Martin, The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest, p. 37. [5] L. Sprague de Camp, Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy, p. 116. ISBN 0-87054-076-9. [6] Michael Moorcock, Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy, p. 79. ISBN 1-932265-07-4. [7] John Clute and John Grant (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Scott, (Sir) Walter", p. 845. ISBN 0-312-19869-8. [8] Moorcock, Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy, p. 801. [9] Clute and Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Haggard, H. Rider ", p. 4445 [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy,by David Pringle. London, Carlton pg. 34 Clute and Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Dumas, Alexandre pre", p. 300. Sword and Sorcery Timeline (http:/ / www. swordandsorcery. org/ Timeline. asp) Moorcock, Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy p. 82. Diana Waggoner, The Hills of Faraway: A Guide to Fantasy, p. 478, ISBN 0-689-10846-X. Steve Tompkins, Kull: Exile of Atlantis, p. xix, ISBN 0-345-49017-7. Clute and Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Moore, C(atherine) L(ucille)", p. 661 ISBN 0-312-19869-8. Clute and Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Wagner, Karl Edward", p. 990 ISBN 0-312-19869-8. Clute and Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Burroughs, Edgar Rice", p. 152 ISBN 0-312-19869-8. Clute and Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Sword and Sorcery", p. 915 Clute and Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Carter, Lin", p. 171 Strahan and Anders, Swords and Dark Magic, p. xviixviii About BCS (http:/ / www. beneath-ceaseless-skies. com/ page. php?p=about) from Beneath Ceaseless Skies Strahan and Anders, Swords & Dark Magic, p. xvii Bradley, Sword and Sorceress, pp. 913 Clute and Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Salmonson, Jessica Amanda", p. 832

External links
Oxford English Dictionary citations for Sword and Sorcery. (http://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/235)

Pandoran biosphere

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Pandoran biosphere
The Pandoran biosphere, from James Cameron's Avatar, teems with a biodiversity of bioluminescent species ranging from hexapodal animals to other types of exotic fauna and flora. The Pandoran ecology forms a vast neural network spanning the entire lunar surface into which the Na'vi and other creatures can connect. The strength of this collective consciousness is powerfully illustrated when the human invaders are defeated in battle by the Pandoran ecology, after the resolute Na'vi were nearly defeated. Cameron utilized a team of expert advisors in order to make the various examples of fauna and flora as scientifically feasible as possible.

Na'vi
Appearance
In Avatar, the Na'vi are an indigenous species that live on Pandora. They are humanoid in appearance and are 9 to 10 feet (2.7to3.0m) tall, having pairs of eyes, ears, arms, legs and feet like humans, as well as a nose, a mouth, and expressions recognizable to humans. The Na'vi differ from humans in having blue striped skin, pointed and mobile ears, large eyes, catlike noses and teeth, tails, and four fingers (hybrid avatars retain the five fingers of their human DNA). While taller than humans, they have narrower proportions in body frame. Their bones are reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. The Na'vi also have a distinctive tendril feature protruding from the back of their heads, surrounded by hair (resembling a long plait or queue), feeding directly into the brain. This organ allows them to connect with other organisms around them, transferring electrochemical signals such as thoughts and memories to the trees, plants, and other creatures. In the original script, Cameron refers to these as "Jubilees", although the word is not used in the film and may be changed by the time the novel is published. The Na'vi were initially conceived to be more alien in appearance. Cameron recalled that when one of the main characters, Neytiri, was originally drawn, she had gills and other protuberances. In addition to feline features, the species was redesigned to seem more human so that audiences could better relate to it. According to Cameron, the appearance of the Na'vi character Neytiri had some specific inspirations and requirements: she was inspired by Raquel Welch's character in Fantastic Voyage and by Vampirella, noting in the latter's case, "the fact [Vampirella] didnt exist didnt bother me because we have these quintessential female images in our mind, and in the case of the male mind, theyre grossly distorted. When you see something that reflects your id, it works for you.... Right from the beginning I said, 'Shes got to have tits,' even though that makes no sense because her race, the Navi, arent placental mammals. I designed her costumes based on a taparrabo, a loincloth worn by Mayan Indians." Cameron has described Avatar as more "science fantasy" than true science fiction and has said that he would explain in the novel for the film why in the fictional universe the Na'vi look like humans.

Culture and language

According to Entertainment Weekly, "The Na'vi can commune with animals on their planet by literally plugging their braid into the creatures' nerve systems. To become a warrior, a Na'vi must tame and ride a flying creature known as Ikran." The Na'vi also use this neural bonding system, called "tsaheylu", to mate with a "life partner", a bond that, when made, cannot be broken in the Na'vi's lifetime. This is akin to human marriage. The Na'vi way of life revolves around their religion, and the Home tree. The Na'vi sleep in hammocks in large groups for comfort and as a warning system. [citation needed] Conceived for the film was the Na'vi language, a constructed language often spoken by the actors when they played Na'vi characters. The Na'vi language was created by communications professor emeritus and linguistics consultant Paul Frommer of the University of Southern California. He designed the language so as to be speakable by human

Pandoran biosphere actors, combining syntactic and grammatical rules from other existing languages. Frommer created over a thousand words for the Na'vi language and coached the actors who narrated Na'vi characters. When communicating to humans in the film, Na'vi characters especially Neytiri speak in accented and broken English. On religion, the chief and possibly sole deity of the Na'vi is a benevolent goddess known as Eywa. The Na'vi are able to "connect" to Eywa when they use their braids to connect to the Tree of Souls and other similar flora. Eywa is said to have a connection to all things Pandoran.[citation needed]

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Fauna
James Cameron's core idea for the Avatar's fictional creatures was for them to be "superslick and aerodynamic, and be like a race car with racing stripes". Neville Page worked on Avatar as the lead creature designer. He, Wayne Barlowe (author, artist, and initial lead creature designer), and Yuri Bartoli (concept designer and supervising virtual art director) adapted Cameron's conceptions of the fauna into a design that served three purposes: to appear expressive, to function with animation technology, and to seem realistic. He and creature designer Wayne Barlowe sought to base the design of Pandora's creatures on race cars, but they struggled to adapt the concept. Page drew on his education in automotive design, recognizing the irony that race cars were based on real-life animals in having "bone lines". Existing automotive designs drew from seashells, turtle shells, and insects, so the designers returned the design to the fictional creatures. They found that the prime challenge in designing most creatures was to give them organic appearances, including skin texture. Some creatures were also designed to have special breathing holes located in the trachea, copying how cars have intakes. Challenges that the creatures posed for visual effects technicians were to form "walk and run" cycles for six-legged creatures and to impart credible flying for creatures that had four wings. The fictional creatures are not connected telepathically according to Cameron and the designers. However, even though they discussed the idea of the creatures being part of Pandora's "Worldmind", they preferred to interpret the creatures as having heightened instincts. Page explained, "Animals are hooked up to this planet. We're the ones who are detached.... The way I dealt with it was, We have so much rich [material] here to reference, that we don't have to dream up a whole new process of animal awareness." The fictional moon has less gravity than Earth, so the creatures' larger sizes match their environment. Most Pandoran wildlife are hexapodal, or six-legged. Much of the fauna and flora are bioluminescent, which is seen in creatures on Earth such as fireflies, many deep sea animals, and some microscopic algae. The aforementioned breathing holes, located on multiple parts of a creature's body other than the mouth, are similar to spiracles in some of Earth's animals. The flying reptile-like creatures in the film can be compared to extinct flying reptiles such as pterosaurs and to the modern gliding lizard Draco sumatranus.

List of fauna
Direhorse (Pa'li in Na'vi) is a bioluminescent hexapodal equine-like animal. It is scientifically known as Equidirus hoplites. The Na'vi use the Direhorse to hunt. The Direhorse was conceived and designed by Cameron and Stan Winston Studios. The Direhorse is grey with blue stripes and stands thirteen feet (3.9 meters) tall, fourteen feet (4.2 meters) long. The Na'vi "break" a Direhorse by connecting the fleshy tip of their hair to the animal's antennae. Xenobiologists call this a neural whip. Once intertwined, the Na'vi rider can communicate motor commands instantly through the neural interface; however, this connection does not lead to a lifelong, exclusive bond, as it does with the Mountain Banshee. Cameron described the creature as a "six-legged alien Clydesdale with moth-like antennae". The Direhorse uses its long tongue to eat the sap out of Pitcher Plants. Mountain Banshee (Ikran in Na'vi) is an airborne predator who lives in mountainous territory on Pandora. Na'vi warriors attempt to bond with a Banshee, a dangerous and required rite of passage. They are cousins to the Great Leonopteryx and they are scientifically known by Xenobiologists as Pterodactylus giganteus. A Banshee bonds to a Na'vi warrior for life. They are four-winged creatures that, like the Leonopteryx and Direhorse, have a

Pandoran biosphere biologically produced carbon fiber flexing on the skin. Neytiri had a Banshee named Seze (translated from the language of the Na'vi roughly as "blue flower"). Page spent the most time designing the Banshee for the film so it would be convincing when it flew or perched. The designer said, "The hardest thing of all was having a Na'vi on top of it and flying it. You had to backwards engineer it. It was like designing and engineering an aircraft." Barlowe, who contributed to the Banshee's design, was influenced by manta rays and skates as well as relatively little-known pterosaurs and plesiosaurs that had "many, unique aerodynamic and hydrodynamic" characteristics. Like the color scheme for the Great Leonopteryx, color schemes based on Earth animals were used for various Banshees, though Page was inspired by Art Nouveau prints to warp the schemes so they would not look familiar to film audiences. Great Leonopteryx (Toruk in Na'vi, meaning last shadow) is the apex airborne predator native to Pandora. It is scientifically known as Gavilandora maxima. The fierce beauty and nobility of the Leonopteryx gave the species a place in central Na'vi lore and culture.[citation needed] The Leonopteryx is scarlet with black stripes and a midnight blue crest on top of the head and on the lower jaw. It is celebrated in dance and song; elaborate totems symbolize both the fear and respect accorded to the creature. The Leonopteryx is considered crucial to the Na'vi sense of destiny and interconnectedness. Prior to the events of the film, it had only been tamed five times, and Neytiri tells Jake that the riders (Toruk Makto) brought peace among the Pandoran tribes. This makes Jake the sixth Toruk Makto. He manages to capture one by jumping on it from above from his Banshee but release it after the battle with the humans ended. The Great Leonopteryx and the Banshee were designed with bright colors. Page based the colors on Earth's birds, poison dart frogs, and Monarch butterflies, though he altered the patterns so that their inspirations would not be so conspicuous to moviegoers. The skull and crest shapes appear to be derived from pterosaurs from the genus Tapejara. Hammerhead Titanothere (Angtsk in Na'vi) is a large hexapodal herbivore whose massive, low-slung head features bony projections on either side of the skull, similar to those of Terran hammerhead sharks. These protrusions are often used to push and destroy objects: a single sideways thrust of the neck being sufficient to down a significantly sized tree. The Titanothere has exceedingly thick, gray skin. There is a small "fan" feather structure on the head that it flares up as a warning symbol seen in the film and in the video game. The creature, which resembles a cross between a rhinoceros and a hammerhead shark, is easily aroused. Its hide is impervious to human ammunition, though firing on it is known to anger it. This massive, grazing creature travels in moderately large herds or packs of 1020 animals. Avatar creature designer Yuri Bartoli explained to io9.com about the creature's colorful threat display: "Originally, the Hammerhead just had to be a huge creature, big enough that even a Thanator would think twice about attacking one. A threat display is meant to be seen, so it required bright colors that would stand out against its more muted body". It is moderately social, but also extremely territorial and hierarchical. A soft ungulate mouth is protected by a rigid, beak-like jaw structure. The species is scientifically known as Titanotheris hammercephalis. Hexapede (Yerik in Na'vi) are hexapodal deerlike creatures. They are dark blue herbivores with white and yellow stripes. Twin horn structures sheathe a thin, patterned membrane structure. Their small, sloped skull is topped by this light-colored fan structure. This fan has an eye pattern on it similar to those found in Terran insects. A skin membrane hangs under the jaw and runs the length of the neck. Twin lines of dark hairlike bristles run down the Hexapede's back. The antennae are at the back at the head. As a threat display, the Hexapede flares up its twin membrane structure like a satellite dish and retracts both lips. It is scientifically known as Sexcruscervus caeruleus. Prolemuris are blue, hexapodal creatures based on Earth's lemurs. They have two eyes, small nostrils, and their two upper arms are partially fused. Like most Pandoran creatures, they have a queue on the back of their heads. They have lateral skin membranes on each side of the body. They have large eyes and grow 1.5 meters tall. Thanator (Palulukan in Na'vi) is a large hexapodal land predator that is believed, by the RDA, to be the apex land predator. It is scientifically known as Bestiapanthera ferox. Cameron personally designed the creature. The

35

Pandoran biosphere Thanator is first seen when Jake wanders off into the jungle and touches multiple Helicoradian leaves, at which they retract to reveal a family of Hammerhead Titanotheres behind. The Thanator frightens the Titanotheres and pursues Jake. Jake later escapes the Thanator by scaling a waterfall. The Thanator is black with white fleshy skin under each hand. Its appearance is similar to a panther; Cameron describes the Thanator as "the panther from hell". The Thanator has ten sensory quills connected to six pads at the rear of the skull that flare up before it attacks the prey. The director explained how the Thanator is the most fearsome creature on Pandora, "The Thanator could eat a T-Rex and have the Alien for dessert." Viperwolf (Nantang in Na'vi) is a hexapodal nocturnal carnivore. The species is scientifically known as Caniferratus costatus. It has bioluminescence for pack identification. Cameron described the Viperwolves: "[They are] hairless with shiny skin that looks like overlapped armor. Most disturbing are its paws, which are like leathery hands." They are vicious in combat but treat their babies in a loving, nurturing way. They are seen in the daytime caring for their babies and have green eyes. They have a laugh which sounds like Earth's hyenas. Like most Pandoran creatures, they have antennae. They have opposable thumbs allowing them to climb trees as well as stalk from the ground, thereby are able to create a three-dimensional hunting field.

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Flora
Flora on Pandora are of a tropical type several times taller than that existing on Earth. Many, if not all, plant and animal species have bioluminescent properties. The flora specimens seen in the film were all designed by Jodie Holt, a professor of botany at the University of California, Riverside. According to Holt, Pandoran flora are able to communicate with each other through signal transduction and are larger in size than Earth flora due to greater atmospheric thickness, weaker gravity, and stronger magnetism on Pandora.

List of flora

Helicoradian (Loreyu in Na'vi) is a carnivorous plant that has red spiral-leaves. The plants are up to 34 metres (9.813ft) tall and, when touched, instantly curl and collapse into themselves. They are zooplantae, part animal, part plant. They are first seen when Jake wanders off into a forest of Helicoradia and touches multiple leaves, at which they retract and coil up to reveal a Hammerhead Titanothere behind. According to Avatar designer Craig Shoji, the behavior and design of the Helicoradian was based on the Christmas tree worms, tube worms that reside on coral reefs. In the video games, the species has the ability to heal the player. Obesus rotundus (Rumut in Na'vi) is a tree that resembles a puffball tree. Pseudocycas altissima (Tsyorina'wll in Na'vi) is a plant akin to a tall Earth cycad. The Hometrees (Kelutral in Na'vi) are great enough to house hundreds of clan members. The trees are honeycombed with natural hollows and alcoves in which the Na'vi sleep, eat, weave, dance, and celebrate their connection to Eywa. Adult Hometrees are more than 150 meters (492.1 feet) tall, and roughly 30 meters (98.4 feet) in diameter. The Omaticaya inhabit a Giant Hometree, standing roughly 460 meters (1509 feet) tall. A distinguishable feature of the movie landscape, the tree itself is central to the movie story arc. Like many sacred sites on Pandora, the Giant Hometree sits above a large deposit of unobtanium. It is destroyed by the humans using rockets and missiles, which leads to the Na'vi clans' alliance against the humans. The Tree of Souls (Ayvitray Ramunong in Na'vi [Cameron: Vitraya Ramunong]) is a tree where the Na'vi are able to communicate with the biological network that exists throughout Pandora. Cameron described the Tree of Souls as "a big input-output station", having been inspired by the bioluminescence that he encountered during

The Helicoradian plants in Avatar were based on Spirobranchus giganteus, a species of tube worm common to many seas on Earth. These worms quickly withdraw into their tubes when disturbed.

Pandoran biosphere night diving. In the film, the tree is seen to be capable of transferring a specific consciousness from one body to another. The Tree of Voices (Utral Aymokriy in Na'vi [Cameron: Utraya Mokri]) is the most important tree to the Na'vi after the Tree of Souls. It is smaller but its appearance is similar and it too is illuminated. Neytiri tells Jake that it allows the Na'vi to hear the voices of their ancestors. It is destroyed in the bulldozer attack by the humans. This was where Jake and Neytiri chose each other as mates and mated before Eywa. Woodsprites (Atokirina in Na'vi) are seeds of the "holy tree", appearing similar to airborne jellyfish. Neytiri describes them as very pure spirits, and scolds Jake for slapping two of them away. The Omaticaya Clan plants one of these seeds with the body of a deceased Na'vi, so the Na'vi's consciousness will become part of Eywa. Various plants and trees that look like Earth's ferns, palm trees, mosses, grasses, bamboo, and succulents. Several forest plants of Pandora resemble the Earth's zoanthid soft corals, which can be bioluminescent as in the movie.

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References
Fitzgerald, Lisa (2009). The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure. Abrams. ISBN0810982862. Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. It Books. ISBN0061896756. Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook. HarperFestival. ISBN0061801240.

External links
Pandorapedia.com (http://www.pandorapedia.com/) "The Tet Zoo guide to the creatures of Avatar" (http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/01/ creatures_of_avatar.php) at Tetrapod Zoology "The Complete History Of Pandora, According To Avatar's Designers" (http://io9.com/5460957/ the-complete-history-of-pandora-according-to-avatars-designers) at io9.com Is the 'Avatar' Concept Really Possible? (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/03/avatar.technology. science/index.html?hpt=Sbin) by CNN

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Fictional universe of Avatar

In the 2009 science fiction film Avatar, director James Cameron conceived a fictional universe in which humans seek to mine unobtanium on the fictional exoplanetary moon, Pandora. The Earth-like moon is inhabited by a sapient indigenous humanoid species called the Na'vi, and varied fauna and flora. Resources Development Administration (RDA) scientists, administrators, recruits, support, and security personnel travel to Pandora in the 22nd century to discover this lush world, which is inhabited by many lifeforms including the human-like Na'vi. The clan with which the humans have contact in the film "[lives] in a giant tree that sits on a vast store of a mineral called unobtanium, which humans want as an energy supply." The Pandoran biosphere teems with a biodiversity of bioluminescent species ranging from hexapodal animals to other types of exotic fauna and flora. The Pandoran ecology forms a vast neural network spanning the entire lunar surface into which the Na'vi and other creatures can connect. The strength of this collective consciousness is powerfully illustrated when the human invaders are defeated in battle by the Pandoran ecology, after the resolute Na'vi were nearly defeated. Cameron utilized a team of expert advisors in order to make the various examples of fauna and flora as scientifically feasible as possible.

Astronomy and geology

In the film, Pandora is depicted as being located in the Alpha Centauri A system approximately 4.37 light-years (276,000 AU) away from Earth. It is one of the many natural satellites orbiting the gas giant Polyphemus,[1] named for the Polyphemus of Greek mythology. Pandora's atmosphere is a mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, xenon, ammonia, methane, and hydrogen sulfide. Humans cannot breathe this, so they wear Exo-Packs when outside their buildings or vehicles. Leri Greer, a designer at Weta Workshop, explained the unusual day/night cycle experienced by the Na'vi, who inhabit a moon orbiting a planet, that in turn orbits around a star. I actually wrote about how it causes a particular sky coloration across the visible spectrum at moments of pure dusk. And the Na'vi, depending on what elevation they live at (sea level versus higher altitudes), perceive a distinct color in narrow band at the horizon at that moment. They identify themselves, and signify in their markings, with this color. Which helps other Na'vi quickly discern at a distance what/where they are from, or what they are likely to be like (fishermen, high plains, skyriders, etc.). That pure dusk "color," combined with their other predominant color markings lets you also know how they relate to Eywa as a "religion" versus Eywa as a physical reality. And during ceremonial gatherings you can "read" a Na'vi by how they mark themselves with dyes, muds, and paints. And the environment and day/night cycle is directly responsible for the development of this social expression behavior. Again, this was an internal idea to help us design things at Weta Workshop, it's hard to say how much filtered upward to the larger production. Pandora has lush, tropical rainforests that cover much of its continents. Pandora also possesses a lesser gravitational force than Earth does. The geology of Pandora is strongly affected by the presence of unobtanium, a mineral whose superconductive properties allow it to float in magnetic fields. This property makes it highly valued by humans, who mine it for transport back to Earth. Pandora's levitating Hallelujah Mountains contain significant quantities of unobtanium, which allows them to ride the strong magnetic fields in their region. Cameron hopes to explore the other moons in future sequels, books, and spin-offs.
Artist interpretation of Polyphemus

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Pandoran biosphere
The Pandoran biosphere teems with a biodiversity of bioluminescent species ranging from hexapodal animals to other types of exotic fauna and flora. The Pandoran ecology forms a vast neural network spanning the entire lunar surface into which the Na'vi and other creatures can connect. The strength of this collective consciousness is powerfully illustrated when the human invaders are defeated in battle by the Pandoran ecology, after the resolute Na'vi were nearly defeated. Cameron utilized a team of expert advisors in order to make the various examples of fauna and flora as scientifically feasible as possible.

Humans
In the Avatar universe (set in the year 2154), humans have achieved a technologically advanced, post-industrial society dominated by powerful corporations and industries. One of Earth's most powerful corporations is the globally integrated Resources Development Administration (RDA), a quasi-governmental organization that possesses a monopoly over all resources in the Alpha Centauri system and any other non-Earth location. The Interplanetary Commerce Administration granted these sole rights to the RDA under the stipulation that the use of weapons of mass destruction of any kind are to be strictly prohibited. Known RDA personnel on Pandora include head administrator Parker Selfridge, Colonel Miles Quaritch, Private Sean Fike, Corporal Lyle Wainfleet, Dr. Max Patel, Dr. Grace Augustine, Dr. Norm Spellman, and Samson 16 pilot Trudy Chacon. Although Earth is never seen in the film, other than in the extended collectors edition, Cameron developed the future Earth of Avatar as a dystopian, overpopulated, overpolluted, global urban slum wrecked by corrupt, nature-destroying industrialism; the movie's background cyberpunk theme is a regular feature of his work. According to Jake, the Earth is a "dying world" where humans have "killed their mother", suggesting that there is very little, if any, functioning natural ecosystem left. By the film's 22nd century timeframe, Earth faces a worldwide economic/energy crisis due to the depletion of natural resources. Earth is also apparently so politically unstable that the services of private security contractors and the militaries of Earth's nations are in high demand; Colonel Quaritch boasts about serving three combat tours of duty in Nigeria before coming to Pandora and notes that Jake is a veteran of a military operation in Venezuela. The planet has also suffered serious natural and man-made disasters, such as an intra-continental conflict and tsunamis hitting the east and west coasts of the United States.

Technology
Technologically, humans have achieved monumental advancements by 2154: interplanetary and interstellar space travel and colonization; virtual 3D printing and holography mapping; and advanced methods of cryonics and psionics are employed. Using their capability of advanced genetic engineering, humans develop "Avatar" hybrid bodies from genetically distinct modified-human DNA and Na'vi alien genetic material. Through psionics, genetically matched humans are then mind-linked to these "Avatars" for remote control operation. In the area of medicine, humans have developed advanced stem cell neuroregeneration technology that can cure Jake's paralysis. However, in 2154, it is still extremely expensive and is not covered by Veterans Affairs benefits. Thus, RDA is initially able to use Jake's desire to regain the use of his legs as leverage against him. As with many science fiction films, many space vehicles, aircraft, ground vehicles, weapons and technologies were created to fit the story. Many were patterned after historical or contemporary technologies to give the film a sense of futuristic realism. Concept artist Ryan Church based many drawings on aerodynamic research from previously classified NASA and DARPA technical papers. Unlike the movie Aliens which employed one drop ship from de-orbit to ground combat, several vehicles cover specific roles of utility transport, gunship, and base resupply. This is similar to the specialization of aircraft and helicopters in the United States military since the Vietnam war. Amplified Mobility Platform is a MK-6 vehicle redesigned for Pandora's hostile environment that is worn and controlled as a large "mech" motorized suit. They are 16-foot-tall (4.9m) exoskeletons powered by ceramic

Fictional universe of Avatar turbines. Soldiers at Hell's Gate use these for patrol and for battle. AMP suits are controlled via a semi-master-slave system with the AMP's arm motion slaved to the pilot's arm motion. Motion-sensing gloves worn by the pilot are used to control the AMP arms the result being that the AMP's arm movements exactly match the pilot's movement. In their military role, AMP's are usually armed with 30mm GAU-90 autocannons, (occasionally equipped with a blade below the barrel, allowing the AMP to cut its way through denser foliage without putting the weapon aside) which the suit deploys as a soldier or Marine would hold and use a rifle. There is an ammo belt that extends into the gun, into an ammo canister on the shoulder, over the arm, into a socket at the back. The GAU-90 fires 350 rounds per minute. The AMP suit has GPS, thermal imaging display, FLIR, and radar. Stan Winston Studios animator and Avatar Design Supervisor John Rosengrant described the AMP suit as "An Apache helicopter with legs". It also has a ceramic knife that is three feet long. Quaritch owns an AMP suit and has named it "Beyond Glory". Its GAU-90 has a dragon painted on the ammo tube. AT-99 Scorpion Gunship is the heavily armed gunship counterpart to Samson and is similar in role and appearance to the AH-64 Apache, Mi-28 or UH-1 Huey gunships. Dual co-axial ducted-fan rotor systems with a total of four prop-rotors each with three blades lead as the aircraft's primary proplusion. It drives on redundant fuel cells. Twin turbine generators driving counter-rotating annular ceramic motors. It is equipped with radar and sonar generators. It is armed with hex-cluster pylon-mounted .50 caliber rotary chain gun systems that can rotate a full 360 degrees with 700 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire as close range primary weapons. The Scorpion has two pair of stub-wing pylons to carry its armament. Scorpions carry 190 TK-411 WAFAR (Wrap-Around Fin Aerial Rocket) rockets in ten 19-tube rocket launchers. The use of the rocket varies according to the warhead that can range from tactical applications to impact-based sensor systems. Eight Hawkeye NPB-9 Hellfire (Helicopter Launched Fire-and-forget) missiles are used to engage air-to-air targets in conjunction with the nose-mounted sensor suite. The tail doubles as a rear stabilizer. C-21 Dragon Assault Ship is a large four-post ducted-fan VTOL heavily armed transport and gunship which can deliver AMP suits through drop doors. Quaritch led RDA forces with one of these. Its myriad arsenal of heavy machine guns, dozens upon dozens of rocket and missile pods, and door-gunners makes it the RDA's largest ship so far, with the Valkyrie shuttle being the only larger vehicle designed for extended use in the atmosphere of Pandora. Quad turbine generators drive the four-posted ceramic propellers. The Dragon is heavily armed with multiple weapons systems included grenades, rockets, missiles and point-defense Gatling cannons. Ability to deploy many troops and AMP suits, variety of medium automatic guns, ATG and ATA missiles, incendiary rockets, grenades, door gunners, plus dual and quad Gatling gun systems. All gun and missile systems are constrained by friendly fire avoidance codes (IFF Lockout). It has twin cockpits. Its propellers counter-rotate to navigate, plus the nose-mounted radar suite. There are eight fifty-millimeter sentry guns mounted below the right cockpit. GAV Swan is a six wheeled terrain assault vehicle. Its full name is the Ground Assault Vehicle JL-723. It has a gyrostabilized platform so when it travels over rough terrain, the gunner platform is stabilized. The extended gunner's chair can rise up 3.6 meters above the vehicle to see over obstructions between the gun and the target, like the long neck of a swan, hence the name. This 6x6 is built for all terrain, and its permalloy armor and four turret-mounted sixty-millimeter rotary autocannons provide protection from the Pandoran environment. The wheels have little armor and are designed with a thick polymer alloy. Swans have a gyrostabilized system that rotates a full 360 degrees. Swans also have a roll bar and four rear headlights. Swans have redundant fuel cells in the rear. When the chair extends, the ammunition storage canister is located at the back. Hell's Gate is a secure forward operating base with airfield, resembling a "modern day Khe Sanh". Slightly more than a third of the site is taken up by the shuttle runway, VTOL pads, hangars, equipment storage areas, and garage structures. The armor bay is where vehicles come to get stored, repaired or refitted. This building is the main storage area of all AMP suits. There is also a small weight room inside a weapons locker that Quaritch uses. Designed for security and rapid force deployment, the Armor Bay is the core of Hells Gates defenses. Housed inside its fortified hangar and at the ready are Dragon Assault Ships configured for forward strike operations,

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Fictional universe of Avatar Scorpion Gunships, Samson Helicopters, Model 10 Slash-Cutters, an array of AMP Suits, and other attack craft including support vehicles and assorted battle-ready machinery. ISV Venture Star or Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star is an interstellar bulk carrier starship that uses antimatter propulsion systems to enable interstellar travel. It transports supplies, equipment, humans in cryonic hibernation, refined ore, and data between Earth and Pandora, taking around six years to travel from one to the other. The Venture Star does not land on the planetary surface, but stations itself in orbit and rendezvouses with operations on Earth and Pandora via Valkyrie shuttlecraft that dock with it. The Venture Star is one of twelve RDA ISV mineral carriers, continuously traveling between the Sol and Alpha Centauri A systems. According to film designer Ben Proctor: The huge glowing radiators mounted to the engines dissipate their heat, and the enormously long central truss, with its own protective coolers and reflectors, protects the cargo and crew modules from the engines' heat and radiation using the simple rule of r-squared attenuation rather than heavy shielding. (Yes, [James Cameron] really thinks about this kind of stuff and explains it very clearly in text and in person.) The ship has a pair of centrifugal-gravity-gen modules for the crew who remain awake for the duration, which has become a pretty typical feature of quasi-realistic ship designs in movies. But one unique feature it has which directly relates to the sub-light realistic travel is a cascade-style shield stack to protect the speeding craft from interstellar debris. Jim's [brief] completely explains this technology, apparently based on current NASA research, and how it obliterates potentially catastrophic particles by letting them slam through a series of thin, light shield surfaces. The ship was based on designs by scientist and author Charles Pellegrino, who served as science advisor on the film,[2] and deceased scientist and author Robert L. Forward. It also resembles the spaceship Discovery One from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. SA-2 Samson is a twin-ducted fan VTOL utility aircraft. It is armed with two door mounted machine guns and two pylons near the cockpit with missile pods mounted on them. The pair of ducted-fan assemblies, each with two coaxial propellers, enable the Samson of 6,000 kilograms lifting capability by manufacturers specifications, but lifting performance is rated at 150% of that on Pandora due to the thicker atmosphere. Both ducted-fan assemblies are capable of changing blade pitch independently. From the pilot perspective, forward and aft, lift, yaw and roll authority are accomplished by similar sets of controls found in conventional helicopters. Propulsion is twin Goetz-Korman turbine generators.[3] Valkyrie TAV is a delta-wing space vehicle/aircraft used to transport equipment and personnel between ISV Venture Star and Hell's Gate on Pandora and its chief purpose is to bring Unobtanium to the spacecraft. The Valkyrie's official name is SSTO-TAV-37 B-class shuttlecraft. The Valkyrie has a payload of up to 60 armed troops, 25 AMP suits, 25 tons of refined Unobtanium and/or supplies. Two Valkyries carried by the ISV Venture Star are used for transfer of personnel and cargo between the orbiting ISV and the surface of Pandora. It has VTOL capability by rotating its fusion engines, and like the C-130 Hercules was adapted as a bomber to drop daisy cutter bombs out of the rear cargo ramp.

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Reception
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly writes, "Cameron turns Pandora into a vertiginously suspended forest landscape...Jake and the sexy tribal princess Neytiri (Zo Saldana) wow us with their fluid, prancing movements, but there's no subtext to their smoothly virtual faces." Carol Kaesuk Yoon of the New York Times wrote that Avatar "has recreated what is the heart of biology: the naked, heart-stopping wonder of really seeing the living world". CNN reported that the film's universe has had a profound effect on the audience over their perception of Earth, and life on it, in reality. Avatar Forums posted a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible" which received "1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope" (a second thread was posted for more room). Philippe Baghdassarian, the site administrator, commented that, "I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy, but I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed." Many have confessed to falling to depression and harbouring suicidal thoughts, while others have expressed disgust towards humanity and "disengagement with reality." Psychiatrist Dr. Stephan Quentzel added that "Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far." In February 2010, CNN published an article exploring the "Avatar science" (the technology linking the human mind to a remotely controlled body). Elizabeth Landau wrote, "Scientists say we are many decades, even centuries, away from making this kind of sophisticated interaction possible, if it can be done at all." A neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Schwartz, further commented that it "shouldn't be taken as anything but fantasy."

Notes
[1] Although not mentioned in the movie, Polyphemus was discussed in the book James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison. ISBN 978-0-06-189675-0. [2] http:/ / www. charlespellegrino. com/ [3] http:/ / www. pandorapedia. com/ human_operations/ vehicles/ sa_2_samson

References
Fitzgerald, Lisa (2009). The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure. Abrams. ISBN0-8109-8286-2. Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. It Books. ISBN0-06-189675-6. Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook. HarperFestival. ISBN0-06-180124-0.

External links
"The Tet Zoo guide to the creatures of Avatar" (http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/01/14/ creatures-of-avatar/) at Tetrapod Zoology "The Complete History Of Pandora, According To Avatar's Designers" (http://io9.com/5460957/ the-complete-history-of-pandora-according-to-avatars-designers) at io9.com Is the 'Avatar' Concept Really Possible? (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/03/avatar.technology. science/index.html?hpt=Sbin) by CNN

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Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. The resulting world may be called a constructed world. The term "worldbuilding" was popularized at science fiction writers' workshops in the 1970s.[citation needed] Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task for many science fiction or fantasy writers. Worldbuilding often involves the creation of maps, a backstory, and people for the world. Constructed worlds can enrich the backstory and history of fictional works, and it is not uncommon for authors to revise their constructed worlds while completing its associated work. Constructed worlds can be created for personal amusement and mental exercise, or for specific creative endeavors such as novels, video games, or role-playing games.

A rendered constructed world as seen from outer space

Methods
Worldbuilding can be designed from the top down or the bottom up, or by a combination of these approaches. The official world-building guidelines for Dungeons and Dragons refer to these terms as "outside-in" and "inside-out," respectively. In the top-down approach, the designer first creates a general overview of the world, determining broad characteristics such as the world's inhabitants, technology level, major geographic features, climate, and history. From there, he or she develops the rest of the world in increasing detail. This approach might involve creation of the world's basics, followed by levels such as continents, civilizations, nations, cities, and towns. A world constructed from the top down tends to be well-integrated, with individual components fitting together appropriately. It can, however, require considerable work before enough detail is completed for the setting to be useful, such as in the setting of a story. With the bottom-up approach, the designer focuses on a small part of the world needed for his or her purposes. This location is given considerable detail, such as local geography, culture, social structure, government, politics, commerce, and history. Prominent local individuals may be described, including their relationships to each other. The surrounding areas are then described in a lower level of detail, with description growing more general with increasing distance from the initial location. The designer can subsequently enhance the description of other areas in the world. This approach provides for almost immediate applicability of the setting, with details pertinent to a certain story or situation. The approach can yield a world plagued with inconsistencies, however. By combining the top-down and bottom-up approaches, a designer can enjoy the benefits of both. This is very hard to accomplish, however, because the designer must start from both sides creating twice as much work which may not reach the desired product as quickly.

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Elements
The goal of worldbuilding is to create the context for a story. Consistency is an important element, since the world provides a foundation for the action of a story. An uninhabited world can be useful for certain purposes, especially in science fiction, but the majority of constructed worlds have one or more sentient species. These species can have constructed cultures and constructed languages. Designers in hard science fiction may design flora and fauna towards the end of the worldbuilding process, thus creating lifeforms with environmental adaptations to scientifically novel situations.

Physics
Perhaps the most basic consideration of worldbuilding is to what degree a fictional world will be based on real-world physics compared to magic. While magic is a more common element of fantasy settings, science fiction worlds can contain magic or technological equivalents of it. For example, the Biotics in the science fiction video game series Mass Effect have abilities, described scientifically in-game, which mirror those of mages in fantasy games. In the science fiction novel Midnight at the Well of Souls, magic exists, but is explained scientifically. Some fictional worlds modify the real-world laws of physics; faster-than-light travel is a common factor in much science fiction. Worldbuilding may combine physics and magic, such as in the Dark Tower series and the Star Wars franchise.

Cosmology
Constructed worlds often have cosmologies, both in the scientific and metaphysical senses of the word. Design of science fiction worlds, especially those with spacefaring societies, usually entails creation of a star system and planets. If the designer wishes to apply real-life principles of astronomy, he or she may develop detailed astronomical measures for the orbit of the world, and to define the physical characteristics of the other bodies in the same system; this establishes chronological parameters, such as the length of a day and the durations of seasons. Some systems are intentionally bizarre. For Larry Niven's novels The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring, Niven designed a "freefall" environment, a gas torus ring of habitable pressure, temperature, and composition, around a neutron star. Fantasy worlds can also involve unique cosmologies. In Dungeons and Dragons, the physical world is referred to as the Prime Material Plane, but other planes of existence devoted to moral or elemental concepts are available for play, such as the Spelljammer setting, which provides an entirely novel fantasy astrophysical system. Some fantasy worlds feature fictional religions. The Elder Scrolls series, for example, contains a variety of religions practiced by its world's various races. The world of the 2000 video game Summoner has a well-developed cosmology, including a creation myth.

Geography
Map construction is often one of the earliest tasks of worldbuilding. Maps can lay out a world's basic terrain features and significant civilizations present. A clear, concise map that display the locations of key points in the story can be a helpful tool for developers and audiences alike. Finished creative products, such as books, may contain published versions of development maps; many editions of The Lord of the Rings, for example, include maps of Middle-earth. Cartography of fictional worlds is sometimes called geofiction. The physical geography of a fictional world is important in designing weather patterns and biomes such as deserts, wetlands, mountains, and forests. These physical features also affect the growth and interaction of the various societies, such as the establishment of trade routes and locations of important cities. Desire for control of natural resources in a fictional world may lead to war among its people. Geography can also define ecosystems for each biome. Often, Earth-like ecology is assumed, but designers can vary drastically from this trend. For example, Isaac

Worldbuilding Asimov's short story "The Talking Stone" takes place in a world where silicon, rather than carbon, is the basic building block of life. Some software programs can create random terrain using fractal algorithms. Sophisticated programs can apply geologic effects such as tectonic plate movement and erosion; the resulting world can be rendered in great detail, providing a degree of realism to the result.

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Culture
Worldbuilding designers sometimes employ past human civilizations as a model for fictional societies. The 1990 video game Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire, for example, takes place in a world full of tribes based on civilizations in early Mesoamerica and Africa. This method can make a fictional world more accessible for an audience. Simon Provencher has stated as a 'Golden Rule' of Worldbuilding that "...unless specified otherwise, everything inside your world is assumed to behave exactly as it would in the real world." Another example is from Steven S. Long , a representative of the Champions role-playing game, who stated that "Everything that happened in the real world has also unfolded in the exact same way in the Champions Universe.", so that means any past wars, elections, and technological advancements in our world occurred the same way in the Champions Universe unless explained otherwise. Creating a cohesive alien culture can be a distinct challenge. Some designers have also looked to human civilizations for inspiration in doing so, such as Star Trek's Romulans, whose society resembles that of Ancient Rome. The fictional world's history can explain past and present relationships between different societies, which can introduce a story's action. A past war, for example, functions as a key plot point in the Shannara and Belgariad series.

Types of constructed worlds

Examples of constructed worlds include Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the pseudo-Earth Hyborian Age in the Conan series, Arrakis in the Dune series, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea and Gethen, and Arda, the location of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, in The Lord of the Rings. Constructed worlds are not always limited to one type of story. Lawrence Watt-Evans and Steven Brust created Ethshar and Dragaera, respectively, for role-playing games before using them as settings for novels. M. A. R. Barker originally designed Tkumel well before the advent of role-playing games, but many gamers, including Barker himself, have used it as a setting for such games. A shared universe is a fictional universe that can be used by different authors. Examples of shared universes include the Star Wars Expanded Universe and campaign setting developed specifically for role-playing games. One of the oldest of these is Oerth, developed for the Dungeons and Dragons Greyhawk setting. Forgotten Realms is another such D&D setting, originally a homebrew campaign world by Ed Greenwood.

References

Fictional universe

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Fictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm (or world). The terms multiverse, parallel universe, alternate history, story or screen bible, backstory and crossover have a considerable amount of overlap with fictional universes. A fictional universe can be almost indistinguishable from the real world, except for the presence of the invented characters and events that characterize a work of fiction; at the other extreme it can bear little or no resemblance to reality, with invented fundamental principles of space and time.

Map of the land of Oz, the fictional realm that is the setting for L. Frank Baum's "Oz" series.

The subject is most commonly addressed in reference to fictional universes that differ markedly from reality, such as those that introduce entire fictional cities, countries, or even planets, or those that contradict commonly known facts about the world and its history, or those that feature fantasy or science fiction concepts such as magic or faster than light traveland especially those in which the deliberate development of the setting is a substantial focus of the work.

Definition
What distinguishes a fictional universe from a simple setting is the level of detail and internal consistency. A fictional universe has an established continuity and internal logic that must be adhered to throughout the work and even across separate works. So, for instance, many books may be set in conflicting fictional versions of Victorian London, but all the stories of Sherlock Holmes are set in the same Victorian London. However, the various film series based on Sherlock Holmes follow their own separate continuities, and so do not take place in the same fictional universe. The history and geography of a fictional universe are well-defined, and maps and timelines are often included in works set within them. Even languages may be constructed. When subsequent works are written within the same universe, care is usually taken to ensure that established facts of the canon are not violated. Even if the fictional universe involves concepts such as magic that don't exist in the real world, these must adhere to a set of rules established by the author. A famous example of a fictional universe is Arda, of J. R. R. Tolkien's books The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. He created first its languages and then the world itself, which he states was "primarily linguistic in inspiration and was begun in order to provide the necessary 'history' for the Elvish tongues."[1] Another, more recent, famous fictional universe is that of the Avatar film series, as James Cameron has invented an entire ecosystem, with a team of scientists to test whether it was viable. Also, he commissioned a linguistics expert to invent the Na'vi language. Virtually every successful fictional TV series or comic book develops its own "universe" to keep track of the various episodes or issues. Writers for that series must follow the story bible,[2] which often becomes the series canon.

Fictional universe Frequently, when a series gets too complicated or too self-inconsistent (because of, for example, too many writers), the producers or publishers will introduce retroactive continuity (retcon) to make future editions easier to write and more consistent. This creates an alternate universe that future authors can write about. These stories about the universe or universes that existed before the retcon are usually not canonical, unless the franchise-holder gives permission. Crisis on Infinite Earths was an especially sweeping example. Some writers choose to introduce elements or characters from one work into another, to present the idea that both works are set in the same universe. For example, the character of Ursula Buffay from American sitcom Mad About You was also a recurring guest star in Friends, despite the two series having little else in common. Fellow NBC series Seinfeld also contained crossover references to Mad About You. L. Frank Baum introduced the characters of Cap'n Bill and Trot (from The Sea Fairies), into the Oz series in The Scarecrow of Oz. The two characters made a number of subsequent appearances in later Oz books.

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Scope
Sir Thomas More's Utopia is one of the earliest examples of a cohesive fictional world with its own rules and functional concepts but it comprises only one small island. Later fictional universes, like Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian stories or Lev Grossman's Fillory, are global in scope and some, like Star Wars, Honorverse, or the Lensman series, are galactic or even intergalactic. A fictional universe may even concern itself with more than one interconnected universe through fictional devices such as dreams, "time travel" or "parallel worlds". Such a series of interconnected universes is often called a multiverse. Such multiverses have been featured prominently in science fiction since at least the mid-20th century. The classic Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" introduced the Mirror Universe, in which the crew members of the Starship Enterprise were brutal rather than compassionate. The 2009 movie Star Trek created an "alternate reality" and freed the Star Trek franchise from continuity issues. In the mid-1980s, DC comic books' Crisis on Infinite Earths told of numerous parallel universes that were destroyed.

Format
A fictional universe can be contained in a single work, as in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, or in serialized, series-based, open-ended or round robin-style fiction. In most small-scale fictional universes, general properties and timeline events fit into a consistently organized continuity. However, in the case of universes that are rewritten or revised by different writers, editors or producers, this continuity may be violated, by accident or by designfilm productions are notorious for altering fictional canon of written series. The occasional publishing use of retroactive continuity (retcon) often occurs due to this kind of revision or oversight. Members of fandom often create a kind of fan-made canon (fanon) to patch up such errors; "fanon" that becomes generally accepted sometimes becomes actual canon. Other fan-made additions to a universe (fan fiction, alternative universe, pastiche, parody) are usually not considered canonical unless they get authorized.

Collaboration
Shared universes often come about when a fictional universe achieves great commercial success and attracts other media. For example, a successful movie may catch the attention of various book authors, who wish to write stories based on that movie. Under US law, the copyright-holder retains control of all other derivative works, including those written by other authors. But they might not feel comfortable in those other mediums or may feel that other individuals will do a better job. Therefore, they may open up the copyright on a shared-universe basis. The degree to which the copyright-holder or franchise retains control is often one of the points in the license agreement.

Fictional universe For example, the comic book Superman was so popular that it spawned over 30 different radio, television and movie series and a similar number of video games, as well as theme park rides, books and songs. In the other direction, both Star Trek and Star Wars are responsible for hundreds of books and games of varying levels of canonicity. Fictional universes are sometimes shared by multiple prose authors, with each author's works in that universe being granted approximately equal canonical status. For example, Larry Niven's fictional universe Known Space has an approximately 135 year period in which Niven allows other authors to write stories about the Man-Kzin Wars. Other fictional universes, like the Ring of Fire series, actively court canonical stimulus from fans, but gate and control the changes through a formalized process and the final say of the editor and universe creator. Other universes are created by one or several authors but are intended to be used non-canonically by others, such as the fictional settings for games, particularly role-playing games and video games. Settings for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons are called campaign settings; other games have also incorporated this term on occasion. Virtual worlds are fictional worlds in which online computer games, notably MMORPGs and MUDs, take place. A fictional crossover occurs when two or more fictional characters, series or universes cross over with one another, usually in the context of a character created by one author or owned by one company meeting a character created or owned by another. In the case where two fictional universes covering entire actual universes cross over, physical travel from one universe to another may actually occur in the course of the story. Such crossovers are usually, but not always, considered non-canonical by their creators or by those in charge of the properties involved.

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Lists of fictional universes

For lists of fictional universes see: List of fictional universes in film and television List of fictional universes in animation and comics List of fictional universes in literature List of fictional universes in games

References
Alberto Manguel & Gianni Guadalupi: The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, New York : Harcourt Brace, c2000. ISBN 0-15-100541-9 Brian Stableford: The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places, New York : Wonderland Press, c1999. ISBN 0-684-84958-5 Diana Wynne Jones: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, New York : Firebird, 2006. ISBN 0-14-240722-4, Explains and parodies the common features of a standard fantasy world George Ochoa and Jeffery Osier: Writer's Guide to Creating A Science Fiction Universe, Cincinnati, Ohio : Writer's Digest Books, c1993. ISBN 0-89879-536-2 Michael Page and Robert Ingpen : Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were: Creatures, Places, and People, 1987. ISBN 0-14-010008-3
[1] Foreword to The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien [2] How to Give Maris Hives, Alphabetized (http:/ / www. janeespenson. com/ archives/ 00000550. php) (April 2008), a blog entry by scriptwriter Jane Espenson

Article Sources and Contributors

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Article Sources and Contributors

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171, Sturmwolf, Styllian, Suffusion of Yellow, Svaran, Sydi, Tamfang, That Guy, From That Show!, The Bearded One, The ed17, Thegreenj, Thelvyn, Thu, Thumperward, Thylacinus cynocephalus, TowerDragon, Trigaranus, Trivialist, Tylerwillis, Ultramarinblau1969, Uthanc, UtherSRG, VQuakr, Vallaquenta, Vanyel42, Velourium, ViralQuest, Vsst, Weeliljimmy, Werthead, Xeraen, Xerxes b, Xprime13, Yotsuya48, Zoe, ZxqamF, 438 anonymous edits Mythic fiction Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=545463577 Contributors: Deb, Dougweller, Goldfritha, JasonAQuest, Jinnai, JordoCo, Klemen Kocjancic, LadyofShalott, Luscinia19, May Cause Dizziness, Mercurywoodrose, Nick Number, Paul A, PreRaphaelite, R'n'B, RedCitizen, Selfstyled.classics, Shepard, Woohookitty, Yobmod, 27, 19 anonymous edits Fantasy Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=583975611 Contributors: 10metreh, 198.106.217.xxx, 203.170.3.xxx, 24.251.118.xxx, 7, A.amitkumar, A53collins, ABF, Academic Challenger, Acroterion, Adam1213, Adashiel, Ahoerstemeier, Air-con noble, Airconswitch, Altheia, An error has occured, Andonic, Andres, AngelOfSadness, Ann Stouter, Anonymouseeee, Ant, AragornSG, Artsgrie, Asdfadfsjkl;, Avnjay, Ayla, BD2412, BPK2, Baduin, Barek, Bassgorilla, Bateau, Baudelaire Serene, Beetstra, Belladonna, Ben Ram, Ben-Zin, Bennybp, Binabik80, Black Falcon, Blanchardb, Blue196.girl, Blueyoshi321, Bongwarrior, Bratsche, Brc2000, Brendan Moody, Bryan Derksen, Bulldog73, COMPFUNK2, Caiyu, Calaschysm, Camw, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, CanisRufus, Catgut, CatherineMunro, Cayzle, Ccacsmss, Cenarium, Centrino7, Ceri sullivan, Cfailde, Charles Matthews, Chris Roy, Chris Weimer, Chromancer, Cjwright79, Ckatz, Closedmouth, Collywolly, CommonsDelinker, ComputerBuker, Conversion script, Corti, Corvun, Courcelles, Coyoty, Cronos2546, Cruccone, Csari, Curps, Cyrus XIII, D6, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, DBlomgren, DNAprojekt, DVD R W, Damicatz, Daniel J. 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Trusilver, Tubby, Twigletmac, Uncle G, Vagalec, Veinor, Viriditas, Vorash, Vranak, WLU, Wapcaplet, Wayland, Wiglaf, Wikid77, Winterwater, Wmahan, Woohookitty, Wouter, Writercmlloyd, Yidisheryid, Yobmod, Zafiroblue05, Zandperl, Zanimum, , 757 anonymous edits Sword and sorcery Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=578242911 Contributors: AdamBMorgan, Adhawk, Alice.haugen, Andreasmperu, Ant, Apeloverage, Aranel, ArtHound, BPK2, Barsoomian, Beetstra, Binabik80, Boffob, Brendan Moody, CLSwiki, Caiyu, CarinaT, Ccady, Corvun, Cromwellt, Crystalwizard, DBBabyboydavey, DocWatson42, Dr. Demento, DreamGuy, Emperor, Ergative rlt, Evenrd, Fairsing, Forvalaka, Frecklefoot, Geoffrey.landis, Geraki, Goldfritha, Goustien, Graham87, Greengobbie92, Hairy Dude, HappyEskimo, Hewinsj, Hohum, Hyju, Ian Pitchford, Ihcoyc, Importantinfo, Itschris, Jafeluv, Jim1138, Joepearson, KNHaw, Kainja, Karen Johnson, Kchishol1970, Kintaro, Leandrod, LeonWhite, Lotje, M4-10, MakeRocketGoNow, MathKnight, Mercurywoodrose, Mindmatrix, Mogism, Monicasdude, Moroboshi, Muad, Muchness, Mugutolishnaban, Nightscream, Nysalor, Ortolan88, Painocus, Paul S, Percy Snoodle, Phil Boswell, Piano non troppo, Pirotech, Quiddity, RUINER517, Radagast83, RandomCritic, Reconsider the static, Rodhullandemu, Rollersox, Rray, Rursus, SKULLSPLITTER, ST47, Scope creep, Sesshomaru, Shinjiman, Shsilver, Sibbsy, Skald the Rhymer, Tanthalas39, Tearlach, Thumperward, Tony1, Trekphiler, Tresrboles, Ubigcow, Ultramarinblau1969, UtherSRG, VolatileChemical, Vr Auth1, WikiPedant, Wikid77, Windlegends, Woohookitty, Xanzzibar, 112 anonymous edits Pandoran biosphere Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=582335838 Contributors: Anthony Appleyard, Arfaz, BD2412, CapeVerdeWave, Chris the Paleontologist, Chris the speller, Cirt, Daniel FR, F, Golgofrinchian, Huntster, Ingloriouswomble, Jac16888, Littleghostboo, Lugia2453, Marcus Qwertyus, Nightscream, Nikkimaria, NinjaTazzyDevil, Satellizer, Ssamhe, Taketa, TheJJJunk, 10 anonymous edits Fictional universe of Avatar Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=569310231 Contributors: 5 albert square, A Nobody, Abby3460, Abductive, Acather96, Access Denied, Ajaysferrai, Ajwsert, Alexwilkins, Alvez3, AniRaptor2001, Anir1uph, AnmaFinotera, AnonMoos, Anthony.j.radice, Auntof6, Avatarfan1978, Aymatth2, Azemocram, Azurfrog, B9 hummingbird hovering, Bachcell, Barsoomian, Beno1000, Bentelliot, BinaryMn, Boomshadow, Bovineboy2008, BullRangifer, Cardibling, Carturo222, Catgut, Ccacsmss, Cclloyd9785, Chris the Paleontologist, Chris the speller, Cirt, Cldorian, Cmpxchg8b, Cody escadron delta, CompuHacker, Coolcaesar, Cosmic Latte, Covi, Crazymonkey1123 public, Cunard, Cyanura, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, Damiens.rf, Darthdj31, Datan0de, Dawn Bard, Debnathsandeep, Debresser, Decltype, Degen Earthfast, Dine club, DrNegative, Dream Focus, Dude1818, Dudy001, Dyna-musco, EEMIV, Ekis47, Elassint, EmausPriester, Environnement2100, EoGuy, Erik, Everyking, 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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:Imagination cover October 1950.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Imagination_cover_October_1950.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was Pmcalduff at en.wikipedia. Later version(s) were uploaded by Postdlf at en.wikipedia. File:Planet Comics 78548.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Planet_Comics_78548.jpg License: unknown Contributors: Chordboard File:Sigurd kills Fafnir by Rackham.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sigurd_kills_Fafnir_by_Rackham.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Collard, Hekerui, Jappalang, Jotun, Liftarn, Patstuart, Rosemania File:Dobryna.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Dobryna.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Alex Bakharev, Bukk, Butko, Denniss, Man vyi, Mattes, Shakko, The Deceiver, 1 anonymous edits File:The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo by Marie Spartali Stillman (1889).jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_Enchanted_Garden_of_Messer_Ansaldo_by_Marie_Spartali_Stillman_(1889).jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Charivari, Goldfritha, Hsarrazin, Irate, Kilom691, Mattes, Shakko, Wst, 2 anonymous edits File:Spirobranchus giganteus (Red and white christmas tree worm).jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Spirobranchus_giganteus_(Red_and_white_christmas_tree_worm).jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: Nhobgood Nick Hobgood File:Poliphemus.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Poliphemus.png License: Public Domain Contributors: NASA File:Sample conworld.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sample_conworld.jpg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: RJHall File:Map-of-Oz.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Map-of-Oz.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: AnonMoos, Ejdzej, Ephraim33, Erica Letzerich, Goustien, Marcok

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