Magical Land

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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It's all ooohs and aaahs until you get lost. And die. And die painfully.
It's a "magical" land. I think "magical" is ancient Greek for "pain in my butt."
Bun-Bun on the Land of Halloween, Sluggy Freelance, Book 11: The Holiday Wars, Chapter 37: Holiday Wars - Halloween, arc Smashing Pumpkins

The "another world" part of Trapped in Another World. It may lurk down a rabbit hole, at the bottom of a pool, over a mysterious mountain range, or through a wardrobe. What is certain is that people from other worlds will be visiting it. Usually the Magical Land is Another Dimension or time period or some sort, but it can also be a mysterious "unexplored territory", uncharted island, or Lost World, which is more common the farther you go back. (Geography marches on.)

Land of Faerie is a sub trope of Magical Land.

Contrast this with Constructed World which does not have visitors or a gateway from our world.

Magical Lands are usually based on Medieval Europe, and while they may be vastly different, they usually have a couple of things in common:

Vulnerable to Planetville-ism. The world's version of natural laws are usually the Magical Underpinnings of Reality.

The King in the Mountain may be sleeping here. (Not necessarily under a mountain.)

If it's really magical, it may be Wackyland. See also Trapped in Another World.

Examples of Magical Land include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • The Valley from Bone.
  • Tellos from The World of Tellos
  • Abadazad, a Pastiche of Oz, from the comic book (later illustrated children's book) series of the same name.
  • Gemworld, the setting for the Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld series in The DCU.
    • The DCU also has Skataris (setting of The Warlord) and Myrra (setting of Nightmaster and part of Nightmaster's arc in Shadowpact)
  • The Maxx imagined several Magical Lands, called Outbacks. Pangaea appeared prominently in the first Story Arc.
  • Meridian - Remember, WITCH was originally a comic book. WITCH readers will also remember Arkantha, amongst others.
  • The Homelands in Fables is a composite of every other Magical Land where the titular characters from folklore and legend come from.
  • The Terrain of Testament from the Ulitmate Warrior's self titled and published comic might be this, or maybe a Mental World. It's not really clear.


Film


Literature


Live Action TV


Theater

  • Many Cirque du Soleil shows involve these: Nouvelle Experience, Mystere (with the twist that the stranger who winds up there isn't the protagonist, but the principal clown—and he's not exactly an ordinary person), Quidam, "O", La Nouba (a Dream Land, technically), Varekai, KOOZA, and Wintuk.


Video Games

  • Final Fantasy IV has the Land of Summoned Monsters. In the DS remake, it's referred to as the Feymarch.
  • Final Fantasy VI has the world of the Espers, the place they fled to and sealed away from the normal world.
  • Final Fantasy X has the Far Plane, where pyre flies (souls) go to rest.
  • Ivalice from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
  • Gensokyo from the Touhou games, complete with visitors and occasional artifacts from the "real" world.
  • The Legend of Zelda series has Hyrule itself. Additionally, the Sacred Realm, the resting place of the Triforce, is somewhere in Hyrule.
  • Fantasy Quest's world has no definite name other than the "magical land of fantasy." How you got there? No one knows.


Webcomics

  • In Annyseed the magical land is not so much a secret, but goes unnoticed if you aren't looking for it. It surrounds the real world (which in itself, doesn't quite seem like reality), but the most magical area in Annyseed ’s version of the isle of Skye, is the woodland of Skull Valley, which works as a kind of Monster Town.
  • Gillitie Wood from Gunnerkrigg Court is implied to be like this. Only the edge of it has been shown, but it is known to be ruled by the Coyote, peopled by The Fair Folk and Living Shadows, and devoid of technology because its inhabitants are Luddites.
    • 'Luddite' really isn't the right term to describe the people of the Wood. They widely use the Ethereal designs that seem to lose effectiveness if studied too carefully. Hence, the philosophy of the Court, which is to discover how the universe works is detrimental to them, setting them up in conflict.
  • The character of Erro from Interdimensional Transfer Student Erro comes from one of these realms - Another Dimension, of course, which is populated by a single species of strange, talking mascot animals (of which he is one).
  • Aylia, the titular character of A Magical Roommate, comes from Umbria. This is a bit of a subversion, however; Umbria is just a country in a much larger world, and the only off-worlders that affect politics are understandably those who married royalty. The jury is out on expanding technology, though.
  • The Radical Land in The Adventures of Dr. McNinja.
  • Bird Boy: When Bali chases the spear into the forest, it turns from winter to summer.
  • Just about everyplace in Homestuck that isn't Earth, but particularly Prospit and Derse.
  • The common subtrope involving a child hero is Deconstructed by Xkcd in strip number 693.


Web Original


Western Animation


Real Life