Kameron’s last blog post was Writing sword-and-sorcery fiction

Magic can be flashy and still contribute to an epic fantasy. However, this is usually done by either A) having two obvious scales of magic (“today’s magic” and “the magic of the Ancients”) in the same world, or B) having a single magical event that is either horrifically catastrophic or epically heroic. A good example of such an event is the end of Firestorm by Mercedes Lackey; I won’t ruin the ending here, but suffice it to say that the magic involved is intense on a biblical scale.

So. As long as there are two distinct “levels” of magic, mundane magic can still be involved in an epic fantasy, to my line of thinking.

Teach me, oh my master

On a side note, I can see where my RPG games do actually tend to resemble epic fantasy. I almost always split the party, for example.

Bob Younce’s last blog post was Fiction Writing Thoughts

An example would be Gollum in the LotR epic, while technically considered a villain, some sympathy is gained for him as we see what it was like for him to hold the Ring for so long. He becomes something of an anti-hero by the end of the story.

Another example would be Raistlin in the DragonLance original trilogies. He could very likely be classified as evil, even as he helps the heroes in their “good” deeds. Most of his motives are selfish, and yet he is the “hero” of the story.

Robert Jordan’s characters are very often filled with moral ambiguity and side characters that could be considered “villainous” (such as the Aes Sedai) can garner sympathy from the reader.

In all cases, though, there is a “larger”, more powerful, more evil villain (or villains) – Sauron, Takhisis, Shai’tan. The line between good and evil is still absolute, there is still a complete embodiment of evil that must be overcome by the heroes of the story.

As for the outcome, that I think is also somewhat relative. The good outcome in epic fantasy is that the evil is defeated in some way (either destroyed, imprisoned, etc). This may not be due to the heroes success, however. In some cases, it may be the hero’s own demise will lead to the “good” outcome (Raistlin sacrificing himself to save the world, thus not achieving his own outcome, or in the Wheel of Time, Rand may not “succeed” in order to save the world, it could be the outcome is sad/bad for him and/or those around him, but the end result is that the evil is overcome). Thus, I’d revise that last line to say that the reader shouldn’t be led to believe that the heroes actions (not necessarily their success) will result in the good outcome (whether those actions would be considered “good” or “bad”, it’s the old addage “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”)

Lukahn’s last blog post was Superheros – scifi or fanfi?

I actually squeezed both of your additions into #2, but they were probably worth expanding into their own points. I totally forgot about the wise and powerful counselor, though that’s more of a trope than a characteristic.

Epic fantasy tends to be, well, epic. Heroes in epic fantasy save the world, not the town.

Epic fantasy usually features heroes who rise to power of some sort throughout the story. The protagonist often has a humble beginning (such as being a peasant, or farmer, or something considered ordinary) and eventually becomes extraordinary (mighty wizard or warrior, or king, or something like that). If there’s a character that starts out in that high-powered role (Gandalf), they’re usually more of a supporting character.

Mike’s last blog post was Taking on the Tomb