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Line 2: The exploits of mighty-thewed, sword-wielding heroes and their thiefly, wizardly and/or priestly companions, as they [[In Harm's Way\|spend their days]] smiting evil, fighting monsters, recovering treasures and quaffing ale. Tends to be distinguishable from [[High Fantasy]] by its ~~scale -- the~~scale—the problems are generally those of the hero, not the ~~world -- and~~world—and moral ~~standards -- absolute~~standards—absolute evil and absolute good make fewer appearances. (Well, absolute good makes fewer. Absolute evil, in the form of a [[Religion of Evil]] or the like, makes a convenient foe.) Also by its tendency to be an endless series of adventures, partly because the smaller scale makes it more plausible, and partly because the heroes are very prone to ''love'' being [[In Harm's Way]]. Heavily influenced by [[Hero's Journey]], the [[King Arthur\|Arthurian]] cycle, the ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' stories and movies, the game ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', and classical myth. Line 10: Sometimes it can be found in the future, often in [[After the End]] setting; sometimes it comes close to [[Planetary Romance]]. Also often features [[Medieval Stasis]]. Also known as "Sword and Sorcery", a term coined by [[Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser\|Fritz Leiber]], one of the genre’s [[Trope Codifier~~\|Trope Codifiers~~]]s, in reply to a letter by [[Michael Moorcock]]. There is much debate of the definition of these genres; unkind souls have even described Heroic Fantasy as nothing but an upmarket term for Sword and Sorcery. Good live-action film and television heroic fantasies can be counted on the fingers of one hand (generally starting with the ''Conan the Barbarian'' movie). Dying is easy. Fantasy is hard! On the other hand, roughly half of all RPGs ever written fall under this genre, if not more. The odd tendency for [[Anime]] to use settings with an [[Medieval European Fantasy\|obvious European flavor]] is noted. Line 27: == Anime & Manga == * [[Crimson Spell]] combines [[Heroic Fantasy]] with the [[Boys Love]]. * Arguably ''[[Berserk]]'' goes from [[Low Fantasy]] to [[Heroic Fantasy]] at the end of the Golden Age arc where all the demons start coming out and become the main source of conflict. ** Or it was Heroic Fantasy all along without the characters noticing. After all [[Devil in Plain Sight\|Zodd the Immortal]] didn't exactly keep his existence a secret. * ''[[Rune Soldier]]'' is a comedic Heroic Fantasy spin-off of the high fantasy ''[[Record of Lodoss War]]''. * The first ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)\|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' anime was [[Heroic Fantasy]], as opposed to the [[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)\|manga]] and [[Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood\|second anime series]], which quickly veered into [[High Fantasy]] territory. Line 44: * ''[[The Beastmaster]]'' (only the movie, not the [[Science Fiction]] books it was based on.) * ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' and ''[[Conan the Destroyer]]'' * Technically, the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy is [[Heroic Fantasy]] [[In Space]]. The prequels tend more towards [[High Fantasy]] [[In Space]]. * ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'' * ''[[Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time\|Prince of Persia the Sands of Time]]'' Line 56: * Lynn Flewelling's ''[[Nightrunner]]'' * [[David Gemmell]]'s books are a prime example. * [[Robert E. Howard\|Robert E Howard]]'s ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]''~~--although~~—although it bounces between "not very realistic" and "really really unrealistic" depending on the iteration. Also ''[[Kull]]'' and ''[[Bran Mak Morn]]''. To a large extent Howard invented the modern incarnation of this trope. * Patrick Rothfuss's ''[[The Kingkiller Chronicle]]'' (although the protagonist is leaning toward [[Anti-Hero]] territory and may get worse in the upcoming book 3). * Norman Spinrad's ''[[The Iron Dream]]'' (a [[Deconstruction]]) Line 63: * Fritz Leiber's ''[[Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser]]'' * Karl Edward Wanger's ''Kane.'' * C.L. Moore's ''[[Jirel of Joiry]]'', the first major female character in [[Heroic Fantasy]]. * Charles R. Saunders's ''[[Imaro]]''. * ''[[The Black Company]]'' Line 85: == Tabletop Games == * ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''. Though the game system is flexible enough that the enterprising DM can apply it to almost any [[Fantasy]] subgenre, as printed it tends toward [[Heroic Fantasy]]. * ''Barbarians of Lemuria'' emulates the whole Sword & Sorcery genre.

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