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Fantasy Subgenres

Subgenres of speculative fiction whose defining premise is magic, myth or an invented world rather than a scientific one, spanning high and low fantasy, sword and sorcery, urban and contemporary fantasy, historical and mythic fantasy, comic and romantic fantasy, and the Chinese and Japanese fantasy traditions built on their own mythologies such as xianxia, xuanhuan, isekai, LitRPG and the shenmo or gods-and-demons tradition. Includes fantasy hybrids that blend magic with another mode, such as science fantasy, romantasy, weird western and grimdark, where the entity's own description frames the work primarily as a fantasy variant rather than a horror or science-fiction one. Excludes science-fiction subgenres grouped under Science Fiction Subgenres, horror-first subgenres grouped under Horror Fiction Subgenres, and fairy-tale-specific forms grouped separately under Fairy Tale and Fable.

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Era of Emergence
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Fantasy Subgenres
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Bangsian Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Children's Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Chuanyue

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Contemporary Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Cozy Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Dark Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Fantastique

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
32 links

Fantasy Comedy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Fantasy of Manners

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Gods and Demons Fiction

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Greek Mythology Retelling

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Grimdark

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Hard Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

High Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
2 links

Historical Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Imaginary Voyage

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Isekai

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

LitRPG

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Low Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Magic Realism

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Magical Girl

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Mythic Fiction

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Mythpunk

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Portal Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Progression Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Romantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Romantic Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Science Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Shenmo Fiction

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Silkpunk

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Slavic Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Superhero Fiction

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Sword and Sorcery

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Urban Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Weird Western

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Xenofiction

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Xianxia

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link

Xuanhuan

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction
1 link
Sources
1. Fantasy (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Fantasy, Modern fantasy section
Quote, Fantasy, Modern fantasy section
Although pre-dated by John Ruskin's story 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 Phantastes (1858) and The Princess and the Goblin (1872)
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