If Dragons Then Royalty

[lea_hazel]

Royalty and nobility are one of the most common conceits of epic fantasy. Almost every fantasy novel takes place in a world comprised of a series of kingdoms, or similarly structured alternatives. Epic plotlines usually follow the royalty or at least high nobility of one or more of these kingdoms. This applies doubly when the protagonist is a commoner; gaining access to the higher echelons of society is part of their reward.

When I tried to think about fantasy novels (excluding contemporary, and even those have their vampire kings and fairy queens) that defy this convention, I thought first of A Wizard of Earthsea. I may be misremembering, since I read it in translation years ago, but I don't recall Ged or any of the other major characters being noble. A few other books came to mind, where characters sometimes deal with nobility but don't wind up discovered as the long-lost heirs to something, or receiving a noble title, or anything.

I can't think of many fantasies that don't take place in a royal hierarchy, though. For some people, the crowns and swords and other medieval trappings are a major part of fantasy's charm, but it's still a pretty diverse genre. Do people think non-monarchic systems are too much of a divergence for fantasy, or does it just not occur to them that there are other options? Like the title says: If dragons -- then monarchy?

Comments

[tigerlily]

Royalty and money are considered glamorous. Glamour is considered attractive. So even with the common cultural meme of "rich glamorous people are corrupt, and money is corrupt", people still look up to rich people/aristocratic people in some way or another, or at least they wish they had their money. I think it's a common fantasy to visualize yourself as rich royalty, so maybe writers unconsciously decide to reward their protagonists, who are after all bits of themselves, with all the glamour and privilege society in general looks up at. Many of the well-known fantasies and fairy tales in Western culture are in fact about the noble and/or rich minority, and even when they have commoners and corrupt royalty, there's still some idealized princess or prince that redeems the concept of royalty, saying "it's okay to have all these shiny people above you, as long as they're really nice about it".