Guide on Novels and Games - FANTASY - INTRO, EPOCH AND HUB

The genre fantasy is quite "big" because is composed by various elements and for this reason I'll use this section for explain it looking at the various parts.

First of all there are 2 main branch of the fantasy genre:

* **Normal**, the classical fantasy with magic, not human races and so on. This genre basically involve a single and "closed" world where all the events happen there and no external elements are added.
* **Isekai**, the variation of the normal where the main character come from another world using one of the following "methods":
	+ Death, the Main Character die and reborn into another world, the common cause of death is "car incident" (normally is being killed by a truck aka being "trucked", this simple thing created a little meme that sometimes was used in other works, an example of this are 2 highschool students that are talking with each other and one of them say to the other that it had a little incident with a truck and the other ask why the first students wasn't transfered in another world... I clearly remember this joke in a work but don't really remember which one) as cause of death but anything work like sickness, old age, killed by a crazy/thief, sleep apnea, etc. I can confirm that all the cause of death I listed before were really used... despite I saw the use of sleep apnea only one time.
	+ Transfer, the Main Character is transfered/summoned into another world, is "transfer" when something happen and the character is moved, is "summoned" when someone or something "grab" the character and transfer it into another world.
	+ Death + Transfer, the Main Character die and is transfered to another world with the possibility of have his/her old appearance or a new one, normally in this cases the death come from an error of a powerfull being that for compensate make he/she "rebirth".
	+ Possession, this is complicated because for what I know the process is never explained so here what I think happen... the MC enter inside someone and take control of that someone's body, if the body is half dead then the process will give a little more strenght for survive but if the situation is normal then, what I think happen, is that the MC absorb the owner's soul or fuse with it, in the latter case the MC don't notice that and continue like nothing thinking that any change is based on his/her survival instinct and/or his/her adapting to the new world, till now is rare that the 2 souls live together in the same body learning from each other.

Some little notes about Isekai stories:

* While in some stories is possible send back the summoned person/people, in other works this can't be done and the summoned person/people need to adapt to the new situation.
* When someone is summoned, it can happen that there are flashback of the summoned person/people past but aside this nothing else.
* When there are moments of the other world showed in the story the possible outcome are usually two and this mean 1 – there is a way for look in that world but no interaction 2 - someone else from that world will be summoned, usually this mean that the character that is observed will be the one called. This two points are not fixed so it's the author's freedom to use them.
* Usually reincarnated character remember their previous life after a certain age (is largelly used 6 but other ages can be used too) or after an incident (hit by a lightning, fall and hit the head, etc., the variations are so much that list all of them here is quite difficult for not say impossible.)
* Possession character most of the times gain the knowledge of the old owner of the body and try to fit their new life but I saw that there are cases where this don't happen and so the new owner of the body need to gain new knowledges. The absence of knowledge is mainly used with child like characters, this way an author need less explanation and planning... if an adult ask something that even a child know then the author need to come out with some kind of explanation.
* Isekai characters don't always reveal that they come from another world and this come for various reasons (they can't prove that, people can think that they are crazy, otherworlder are used as power tool from the countries, etc.), if they reveal that than is with very trusted people... that usually belive them or give them some credits.

Given my "speech" about isekai, now I can start talking about "Manhua".

For the ones that don't know, "manhua" is the term used for indicate comics produced in China, their format can vary depending on the region where they are made and probably the most famous one we see are the so called web manhua that are works released on social and sites.

From the various works I saw around we can mainly divide them into two groups:

* Fantasy in ancient age.
* Fantasy in modern age.

As is easy to notice, the first group involve a story in an ancient world while the second instead use modern age as set for the events.

The main elements that I saw, at least in the works I know and follow, are:

NOTE: I'm not an expert so take carefully what you'll read in the following text because is even possible that I'm wrong.

* *Immortals*, in chinese mythology are present beings called Xian (Immortals), we can say that they are superior beings and in the works seems that humans can become one of them if the human advance enough in his/her cultivation
* *Cultivation*, the spiritual power in this works follow a method that is called "cultivation" that, from what I understand, is based on "philosophy" and that make people more powerfull depending on the method. In all the works I saw till now that involve immortals and cultivation, are present various methods but what caugh my attention is the work "Tales of gods and demons" where the main character, Nie Li, explain that souls have various traits and thanks to this, if one use the wrong cultivation method than not only will the process will long but is even possible damages itself, combining this two approacehs is right to say that... cultivation is a complicated matter that I can't fully explain since I'm unable to fully understand it.
* *Meridians*, in the various works I saw they are nominated basically always, they are energy channels inside our bodies. If they are ruined in some way there are heavy damages in the body but they can be "repaired", depending the story repair them is possible but this involve some high ranking and knowledge.
* *Aura, Qi, Inner force and Dantian*, this four "things" are normally the source of power that the characters use but lets see them singularly: - Aura, normally I saw this term used for natural energy in the environment, for example I saw a character absorb demonic aura from the environment for increase his own strenght reaching new levels. - Qi, this is basically what in other works is called chi, prana and life force and is the energy that make you alive, in the time I saw that the Qi can have various nature like cold or hot. In a work, that don't remember the name at the moment, I saw the term "true Qi" but I'm not really sure what really is, what I think is that is basically a more pure and powerfull version of the normal Qi and require quite the training for use it without loose your own life. - Inner Force, sometimes called inner energy, I'm not really sure what really is but is basically a type of power that can be obtained by a conversion process in your own body but that can be present from the beginning. - Dantian, this term is used for indicate what I can describe, in a quite raw and barbaric way, the power core where the Qi is generated. In various works the term/sentence "cripple your/his cultivation" is usually referred to character whose dantian is damaged or destroyed.
* *Ranking and Tribulation*, every single manhua use, in a way or another, a ranking system and here is the problem because sometimes, if not most of the times, there are two systems... yes, two systems, the first of immortal and then the one of the humans, we are lucky that in the progress of the story the ranking system of the immortals are used less leaving only the first... in some stories I saw that a color system is used but don't remember if I saw them in korean works or chinese ones. For what concern the tribulation, every cultivator reach certain points where he/she do a breakthrough but once reach certain level the "tribulation" happen, technically speaking it was once explained as "a challenge that the heavens do for see if the cultivator is worthy". Usually the tribulation seems some kind of thunder storm that aim toward the cultivator but in the work "Apotheosis" I saw that there were different type of tribulation, I don't say which type for avoid do spoilers so go check the works... anyway, if the cultivator pass then it will
* *Traditional Chinese Medicine*, that the story take place in ancient or modern age is not important, this type of medicine appear anyway and mainly in combination with acupuncture but I'm really sure if preassure points are included too... I saw some particular massage technique but never saw anything specific so I can't confirm it.
* *Alchemy*, I saw a particular type of alchemy but what attracted me is the process of pills making where basically the alchemist manipulate fire using some particular technique and place the ingredients inside a particular furnaces, for make certain pill a more powerfull fire is need and for this reason more powerfull furnaces is required... about the ingredients used, I can say that they change depending on the work BUT they mainly follow a specific logic infact they are better when they not only are fresh but when they have high quantity of natural energy... just in case, I saw in various works that some plants were used for cultivate instead as ingredients with the cultivator use their energy but not really sure of the entire process.
* *Sect*, I think mean "Sector" in short but not sure about that, this term is used to refer to a certain school of cultivation/martial art that is basically an organization on its own. In some works I saw that there are sects only for women and sects only for men but there are some mixed gender sects too, for the reason for this... well, dunno, the only reason can come to me is that certain way of cultivate fit better for a man while others for a woman and due to this the sects open their doors only to certain genders but is even possible that there are othere reason for that.
* *Families*, in all the works I saw, modern and ancient age, the concept of "family" is quite affirmed and for this reason we encounter things like "main family" and "branch family", they usually have great powers and influence for not say money... I saw so much time the MC kill someone and that someone or one of their followers say that "the family will avenge them".

**EPOCH**

With this I refer to the corresponding epoch that we can recognize... basically all the classical fantasy have the trait of what we can call medieval europe or something a little more advanced.

About it we need to remember a little distinction between the different "epoch":

* Degraded, with this I refer to all the stories that take places in worlds where there were an advanced civilization and that for who-know-which-reason was destroyed, a classical example of this causes is a global war followed by the collapse of the society that de-evolved into medieval like.
* Normal, there is no a previous advanced civilization or at least there are civilization that desappear like the maya for us.

I'm sure that some of you are asking why make this difference and the answer is quite simple... when there is an ancient civilization thare are ruins and where there are ruins there are knowledge and relics... their presence can influence the civilization making it different but let me make an example...

In a world there was an advanced civilization that was destroyed by a zombie apocalyps... survivors were present and the civilization went back to medieval keeping stories of the old advanced civilization as legends and myth.

In this contest there will be things that will differ from a normal epoch

* the presence of knowledge can make advance the technology of certain fields like be medieval but have a more advanced medical knowledge.
* the presence of relics and "lost technologies" (a common term used in fantasy for indicate technologies of ancient civilizations) alter because there will be researcher that will try to analize them.
* Social advancement is influenced by merits like discover ruins, retrive relics or unvail the mistery behind certain technologies, in "normal" fantasy things like this are impossible.

This are some of the possible differences and since write a story mean be free of do what one want you can found or create new differences as your wish

## FANTASY OTHER SECTIONS

* Races
* Monsters
* Dungeon
* Society & Religion
	+ Society section
	+ Religion Section
	+ Guild
	+ Slavery
	+ Country's power & Money
* Magic
* Skills & Powers
* Skills List