​​Subgenres of Fantasy You’re Gonna Want to Know About

The fantasy genre is vast.

In one realm, we have heroes and heroines embarking on epic quests to overcome forces of evil and restore order to the world.

In another, we have cynical PIs investigating magic-related crimes in modern cities. 

Journey even farther across the landscape of fantasy and you’ll encounter alien superheroes, nightmarish abominations, lovestruck werewolves, and fairy tales so boldly reimagined they barely resemble the source material.

There’s just no boxing fantasy in. After all, you’re dealing with a genre that centers on magic and wild imaginings. The possibilities are literally endless.

That’s exactly why it’s important to know your subgenre when you write fantasy.

Not only does this knowledge help you market your book when it’s ready to publish, it also helps you meet reader expectations.

What tropes will your audience be looking for in an urban fantasy novel? What do they want to feel when they read paranormal fantasy? What kind of ending do they expect from grimdark fantasy? (Not a happy one—I’ll tell you that right now.)

If you can answer questions like these about your own subgenre, you’ll be better equipped to write a book that resonates with readers.

So let’s get to know the many, many fantasy subgenres that are out there. We’ll take a close look at some of the most common subgenres, plus a quick peek at some of the more niche categories.

First, though, let’s make sure we’re all in the right genre to begin with. 

What Defines Fantasy?

Before we can start nailing down fantasy subgenres, we need to clarify the fantasy genre as a whole. What qualifies something as a fantasy story?

A fantasy is basically any fictional narrative that incorporates supernatural or magical elements. 

This might mean the story takes place in a fictional world populated by magical beings and governed by physical laws that don’t apply in the real world. Or the story could take place in our own world, where supernatural characters keep their remarkable abilities hidden.

Either way, worldbuilding is a huge aspect of writing fantasy. It’s not just about dreaming up fantastical creatures and mysterious new lands. You also have to offer some explanation for the way this world works. That includes the world’s history, religion, culture, social and political structures, and magic system.

As you’ll soon see, each fantasy subgenre requires its own type of worldbuilding. While there’s still plenty of freedom to get creative within each category, your readers will have certain expectations about the beings, landscapes, and magical laws that await them in your story.

And What are Subgenres, Exactly?

Good question. A subgenre is a subcategory of a larger literary genre. 

While the fantasy genre encompasses all stories where magic or the paranormal play a starring role, subgenres are much more specific. They indicate what type of supernatural elements readers can expect, how much magic there will be, which tropes will arise, and what the setting is like.

Many fantasy subgenres even indicate a specific tone or set of story beats.

You can see why this categorization makes it easier for you to connect with readers who are looking for a book exactly like yours. So enough dallying about with definitions. Let’s dig into some fantasy subgenres.

High Fantasy

This is the subgenre most people imagine when they think of the fantasy genre… especially people who don’t read fantasy.

High fantasy takes place in a fantasy world. Kingdoms, countries, continents, planets… the whole world is a fabrication of the author’s imagination. 

As you can imagine, the worldbuilding in high fantasy is pretty hardcore. You’re creating an entire universe from scratch—everything from flora and fauna to histories and even languages. Luckily, Doug’s got a stellar guide for creating a worldbuilding bible.

Stories in this subgenre tend to be grand in scale with noble heroes or heroines who accept important quests for the common good. The conflict in high fantasy stories often boils down to a battle between good and evil, and you can almost always expect good to prevail.

Common Elements of High Fantasy

In high fantasy, expect to see things like:

• The Hero’s Journey story structure
• A hero(ine) or band of hero(ine)s on a grand quest
• A high-stakes conflict that affects the entire kingdom (if not the whole world)
• All kinds of fun magical creatures
• Magical artifacts
• Honestly just a ton of magic overall
• A ridiculously long page count

Examples of High Fantasy

The Lord of the Rings - A hobbit inherits a dangerously magical Ring and goes on a quest with a bunch of other fantastical beings to destroy the Ring as part of a battle against a Dark Lord.

A Wizard of Earthsea - A cocky young wizard accidentally unleashes a dangerous shadow creature and goes on a journey, first trying to flee the shadow, then ultimately learning how to confront it.

The Fifth Season - This incredibly dense novel centers on a world that’s prone to frequent apocalyptic natural disasters. Not only that, but some characters have the ability to manipulate the earth’s power. 

Epic Fantasy

There’s a lot of overlap between high fantasy and epic fantasy, so if you struggle to determine which of these two subgenres a story falls under, it’s probably both, like The Lord of the Rings.

An epic fantasy is defined by the major event that puts the story into motion. We’re talking about a massive catastrophe that puts the entire world in danger—often a war, environmental catastrophe, or an evil being rising to power. 

Naturally, it takes many, many pages and often many books to overcome a disaster of this magnitude. There will be long journeys, a huge cast of characters, and grand heroic feats, whether the hero(ine) is extraordinary from the get-go or is a Common Person who discovers their power along the way.

Common Elements of Epic Fantasy

The epic fantasy subgenre features things like:

• Serious, complex worldbuilding
• A lengthy timeline, sometimes spanning generations
• Bold, heroic feats
• A ton of characters representing a wide range of fantastical species
• World-level conflict
• Massive stakes
• A boatload of magic

Examples of Epic Fantasy

The Wheel of Time series - A man discovers that he is the reincarnated messiah, destined to save the world from the Dark One—a being of unthinkable evil. So he tries to make that happen on a quest fraught with war and destruction.

Nocturna - A faceshifter and a prince accidentally unleash an ancient, world-devouring power. Whoops! Now they must band together (and face a bunch of their own trauma) to save the world.

A Song of Ice and Fire series - The king dies, throwing the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros into a long and violent power struggle.

Low Fantasy

While high fantasy takes place in an entirely fictional world, low fantasy stories take place in our own world. Fantastical elements still exist (it’s like the one defining trait of the genre, after all), but these elements stand out as remarkable in an otherwise ordinary setting.

In low fantasy, magic is often alarming to non-magical characters or hidden from them altogether.

Because the world itself is so familiar, this subgenre tends to be more accessible to readers who find the complexity of high fantasy overwhelming. Low fantasy writers still have some worldbuilding to do, but it’s not nearly as consuming as it is in high fantasy.

Like high fantasy, low fantasy is a sizeable subgenre that contains several other subgenres, including urban fantasy, historical fantasy, and paranormal fantasy. We’ll cover several of these as we go along.

Common Elements of Low Fantasy

In low fantasy novels, you’ll often see:

• Hidden magic systems
• Modern life
• A mix of magical and non-magical characters
• Supernatural characters navigating normal, everyday life
• More personal, small-scale conflicts

Examples of Low Fantasy

Tuck Everlasting - Set in 19th-century rural America, this book tells the story of a girl who stumbles upon the opportunity to become immortal.

The Borrowers - A family of tiny people live in the walls of a regular-sized house. They survive by borrowing things from the “human beans” who occupy the home.

The Harry Potter Series - A boy discovers that he’s actually a wizard destined to save the magical world hidden within the world he knows. 

Urban Fantasy

As I mentioned above, urban fantasy falls under the umbrella of low fantasy. As the name suggests, stories in this fantasy subgenre usually take place in a modern urban setting. This is how you get fun hybrids like hardboiled detective fantasy novels.  

As with any low fantasy story, your worldbuilding challenge in urban fantasy is to find the balance between the magical and the mundane. Luckily, Doug’s written a great article that covers the entire subgenre in depth.

Common Elements of Urban Fantasy

In this fantasy subgenre, you’ll often see:

• A gritty urban setting
• Hidden magic
• First-person point of view
• Some blend of paranormal elements, mythological creatures, and/or sci-fi technology
• A protagonist balancing real life with a supernatural crisis

Examples of Urban Fantasy

The Dresden Files series - This urban fantasy series follows a private investigator/wizard as he investigates supernatural cases in modern-day Chicago.

American Gods - An ex-convict takes a job as a bodyguard, only to find himself caught in a power battle between the Old Gods and New Gods of America.

Gods of Jade and Shadow - A young woman accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who sends her on a quest across Mexico.

Dark Fantasy

Dark fantasy is a blend of fantasy and horror in which most—if not all—the supernatural elements are rooted in terror and evil.

Dark magic is huge in this fantasy genre. There’s a lot of mind control, manipulation, and body horror. Supernatural creatures are generally grotesque and vicious. The characters are either long-suffering victims of the daily nightmare they live in or self-serving semi-villains doing what they must to survive. 

The main character is almost always an anti-hero or villain protagonist.

In dark fantasy, readers and writers indulge in more cynical themes, exploring moral gray areas and asking who we’d really be in desperate circumstances. 

Some dark fantasy stories fall under the heading of “nobledark,” which means they feature heroes or heroines attempting to make this hellish world slightly better. But the more popular dark fantasy subgenre is grimdark fantasy, in which good never prevails, and the ending is a major downer.

Common Elements in Dark Fantasy

In this subgenre, you’ll often see:

• Settings in decay
• Armies of the undead
• Dark magic
• Power-hungry oppressors
• Goodness reliably punished
• Cruel or indifferent deities
• Anti-heroes or villain protagonists
• Devastating endings
• Moral relativity

Examples of Dark Fantasy

The Poppy Wars series - A young girl orphaned by war undergoes military training and allies herself with a vengeful god, ultimately transforming into a genocidal oppressor.

Gideon the Ninth - A brash and irreverent swordswoman is forced to protect her greatest rival, a necromancer seeking more power. Lots of murder, mystery, decay, dark magic, and undead.

The Young Elites - The survivor of a rare blood disease that has all but destroyed her nation is left with powers that could prove destructive, especially in the hands of someone deeply marked by trauma, distrust, and a vengeful heart.

Historical Fantasy

This is exactly what you think it is: a fantasy story set in a real historical time period.

At first glance, a lot of high fantasy looks like historical fantasy, as many high fantasy works borrow their terminology and aesthetic from medieval Europe.

The difference is that the worlds of high fantasy are entirely imagined, while historical fantasy weaves magical elements into real eras in history. Think the California Gold Rush but with dragons. Or the Indian Independence Movement but with dragons. Or the discovery of fire but, you know… with dragons.

Okay, so you can write historical fantasy without dragons, but for whatever reason, they come up a lot in this subgenre.

Historical fantasy overlaps with alternate history, which is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which an author reimagines historical events with different outcomes. 

Common Elements in Historical Fantasy

Aside from all the dragons, this fantasy genre often involves:

• Real historical events, settings, and people
• Worldbuilding drawn from both research and the imagination
• Outcomes that differ from true history, due to the interference of the supernatural
• Outcomes that reflect true history, explained by the involvement of magic

Examples of Historical Fantasy

Outlander - A World War II nurse stumbles back in time to 18th-century Scotland. It turns out to be a thrilling, romantic, terrifying adventure.

She Who Became the Sun - Written as a re-imagining of the rise of the Ming Dynasty, this novel tells the story of a young girl who steals her dead brother’s identity to secure his destined greatness for herself.

The Gilded Wolves - Set in late 19th-century France, a wealthy hotelier is tasked with hunting down an ancient artifact.

Comic Fantasy

This one is pretty straightforward. A comic fantasy is any fantasy intended to be funny and lighthearted in tone, like The Princess Bride and Shrek.

Many works of comic fantasy take place exclusively in fantasy worlds, but the worldbuilding is not as intense as it is for typical high fantasy. While the author is still on the hook for dreaming up new landscapes and beings, details like history, political structures, and magical laws don’t have to be quite so thought out.

After all, it’s not really about that stuff. It’s about being playful and inspiring a few laughs.

Common Elements in Comic Fantasy 

This subgenre often features:

• Subversions or parodies of high fantasy tropes
• A comically evil villain
• A bumbling magical being
• A Common Person protagonist
• Fantastical elements that are as ridiculous as they are magical
• Satirical subtext

Examples of Comic Fantasy 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - A girl falls through a rabbit hole and ends up in a fantasy world populated by all kinds of bizarre beings, including a disappearing cat and anthropomorphized playing cards.

The Discworld series - A flat planet sits on top of four elephants standing on top of a giant turtle. That’s Discworld. The many stories in this series parody famous fantasy and science fiction works, as well as fairy tales, folklore, and mythology.

Barbie - Barbie is the center of her own universe, believing her existence and accomplishments have successfully empowered all human girls. When she ventures into the real world, she learns the truth is much more complicated. Lots of comical commentary on gender roles and expectations in modern society.

Science Fantasy

Science fantasy is a blend of fantasy and science fiction. That is to say, popular elements and tropes of both genres are smashed together in one thrilling narrative.

Wizard scientists. Alien sorcery. A military powered by robots and dark magic. Whatever delicious blend inspires you, you can make it happen.

In science fantasy, science and magic often co-exist as separate forces. You’ll also see instances where a concept that’s absolutely fantastical in the real world (as far as we know) is explained as a scientific advancement beyond our current comprehension.

It’s like Frankenstein. The idea of reanimating a mish-mash of human body parts seems purely fantastical, especially to readers in 1816. But we’re calling it science because a scientist made it happen without magic.

Science in theory, fantasy in actuality. Science fantasy.

Common Elements in Science Fantasy

In this sugbenre, you’ll often find:

• Fantastical creatures
• Advanced technology
• Minimal explanations for how technology works
• Futuristic technology in fantasy settings
• Fantastical beings in futuristic settings

Examples of Science Fantasy

Star Wars - The many, many stories in this franchise feature advanced space travel, intergalactic tyranny, big furry aliens, rebel royalty, and the ever-mysterious Force binding the galaxy together.

Cinder - It’s Cinderella but she’s a cyborg and also there are moon-dwelling Lunar people. 

The Darkest Minds - A group of children develop supernatural powers after surviving a mysterious infection. Now the government is after them.

Paranormal Fantasy

Paranormal fantasy includes any fantasy story that deals with the paranormal. Go figure, right?

This includes stuff like telekinesis, extrasensory perception, ghosts, aliens… all that stuff.

Paranormal fantasy novels often overlap with urban fantasy. For whatever reason, we love exploring these themes in a modern, urban environment. 

This subgenre is also ripe for romance. In fact, the term “paranormal romance” refers to a narrative that contains paranormal elements but centers on the love story. It’s technically a romance subgenre, but you’ll see it categorized under the fantasy genre, too.

Common Elements in Paranormal Fantasy

In a paranormal fantasy story, you might expect to see:

• A contemporary urban setting
• Telekinesis
• Telepathy
• Ghosts
• Vampires
• Werewolves
• Aliens
• Angels and demons

Examples of Paranormal Fantasy

True Blood - A telepathic human-faerie waitress (man, that’s a lot of things to be) falls in love with a vampire against the backdrop of vampires’ struggle for equal rights in Louisiana. 

Twilight - A human teenage girl falls in love with a vampire to the chagrin of a shapeshifter.

The Mortal Instruments series - This series follows demon-battling warriors who are half-human, half-angel.

Fantasy Romance

This subgrene might be more accurately categorized under romance, but we’re covering it here because it typically contains a ton of fantasy elements and therefore finds itself under the heading of fantasy a lot.

Fantasy romance is first and foremost romance, meaning it centers on a love story and abides by the conventions of the romance genre. If you’re familiar with this genre, you know that means the story must end with a Happily Ever After (or at least a Happy For Now).

Fantasy romances often take place in magical worlds and contain supernatural or fantastical elements.

Common Elements in Fantasy Romance

In a fantasy romance, you’re likely to find:

• Dazzling fantasy settings
• Love as the central conflict
• Lovers who end up together after repeatedly being pulled apart
• A “love conquers all” theme
• A strong, complex heroine

Examples of Fantasy Romance

A Court of Thorns and Roses - A huntress is kidnapped by a handsome faerie and falls hard for him. Also, there’s an ancient evil emerging in her faerie boyfriend’s magical realm, so that’s not great.

This Woven Kingdom - This li’l love story is between a crown prince and the woman destined to upend his kingdom. 

Divine Rivals - Two rival journalists forge a magical (and romantic) connection against the backdrop of a war between the gods.

Magical Realism

Here’s another subgenre that doesn’t officially belong under the heading of fantasy, but you’ll find it there from time to time, so let’s talk about it.

Magical realism is more often considered a subgenre of literary fiction. The genre as we know it today originated in Latin American literature, though it’s become wildly popular all over the world, especially when telling stories of resilience or oppression.

The characters and settings in magical realism are unmistakably ordinary. The central conflict is rooted in realistic struggles and relationships. So where does the fantasy come in?

Often, magical elements arise to deepen the emotional experience of a scene or emphasize a theme. Fantasy is treated more like a literary device than a plot driver.

If you’re curious to know more, we’ve got a whole guide to magical realism right here.

Common Elements in Magical Realism

You might be reading this subgenre if you notice:

• Grounded characters
• Ordinary settings
• Relatable human conflicts
• Unexplained phenomena that don’t appear to be part of an established magic system
• Magical occurrences casually explained away as curses or signs
• The fantasy elements feel like they symbolize a larger idea

Examples of Magical Realism

The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez - Fulgencio loses the woman he loves to his own obsessive insecurities—a perfectly relatable shortcoming that, in his case, is the result of a family curse.

One Hundred Years of Solitude - This is one of the novels that defined the magical realism genre. Inspired by the very real colonialism and political unrest in Columbia, this book tells the story of a fictional town where minor magical events are regular occurrences.

My Neighbor Totoro - As two young girls wait for their hospitalized mother to recover, they discover a magical friend who sustains their childlike wonder in the midst of a very grown-up crisis.

Other Notable Subgenres

We’ve covered a lot of ground, but we still haven’t covered it all. There are tons of fantasy subgenres out there. There are overlapping subgenres and subgenres that nest inside of other subgenres.

The good news is that you now know a lot about the most common categories in fantasy.

The extra good news is that you’re also about to get a quick peek at several more, just to round out your knowledge before you and I part ways.

Here are a few more fantasy subgenres worth knowing:

Arthurian fantasy - This is any fantasy that is derived from, inspired by, or a retelling of the legends of King Arthur.

Fairytale fantasy - Fairy tale fantasies pull inspiration from folklore. This category includes (currently very popular) fairy tale retellings.

Wuxia fantasy - This is a genre of Chinese fantasy that often incorporates martial arts and battles against corrupt, oppressive governments.

Crossworld fantasy - In crossworld fantasy, characters cross from their normal world into a magical world. This is also called portal fantasy.

Fantasy of manners - In this fascinating little subgenre, the protagonist navigates the challenges and expectations of polite society just as a Jane Austen character would. But also, there’s magic.

Superhero fantasy - A being acquires superhuman powers through non-scientific means and uses those abilities for good. Wonder Woman and Superman are superhero fantasy characters. 

Sword and sorcery - A sword-wielding hero sets off on an epic quest, often doing battle alongside or against wizards. There’s a good amount of magic and romance involved.

Your Fantasy, Your Way

It’s a bit dizzying, trying to keep up with all these subgenres. There are so many out there, and with all the overlapping and hybridizing and genre innovations, it feels like new and different fantasy subgenres are emerging all the time.

But then, that’s beauty of it. Fantasy is an incredibly versatile genre with readers who live for the bold, creative, and unexpected. This is the place to let your imagination run wild.

So dive into the subgenres that speak to you. Blend if blending’s your jam. 

And if you get overwhelmed by the myriad possibilities, let Dabble help you keep your head together.

This all-encompassing writing tool has tons of innovative features to help you organize complicated plot lines, dream up complex characters, and create a worldbuilding bible that’s always one click away as you write your fantasy novel. You can even get your hands on a free fantasy template to streamline your process from the very beginning.

If you’re not already a Dabbler, don’t worry. You can try every feature for free for 14 days without even entering a credit card. (No risk of accidental charges!) Click here to get started.

Now go dream up something remarkable.