Why do we only see Tolkien's elves, dwarves, and orcs in medieval fantasy, why not space?

[Veylon]

It's laziness. If you're an author, it's far, far easier to simply tell another tale in a cheap knockoff of Tolkien's Middle Earth than to create a world of you're own. It's gotten to the point where standard fantasy (words that should never go together) has become a deep rut that few minds can summon the force of will to free themselves from.

 

[Vault101]

You know what would be cool? a story where tolkein-esque fantasy has advanced to our modern time that owuld be interesting how would magic ans science co-exist? and racial issues?

I mean harry potter has a tiny bit of that and discworld is sort of like after lord of the rings

 

[Imat]

The Elves are out, they've already faded as a race. The Dwarves are probably out as well, seeing as how they would rather dig deeper than expand upwards. And Halflings are just little Humans, so there's really nothing special about them.

 

[OldRat]

It's laziness. If you're an author, it's far, far easier to simply tell another tale in a cheap knockoff of Tolkien's Middle Earth than to create a world of you're own. It's gotten to the point where standard fantasy (words that should never go together) has become a deep rut that few minds can summon the force of will to free themselves from.

I'm actually kind of amused at the term "Tolkien knockoff" as it's often used. As it stands, Tolkien's fantasy world is actually NOT one of the genero-medieval Europe worlds. Much of Tolkien's world is more primitive than that.
A more appropriate term would be Dungeons & Dragons knockoff. D&D more or less transmuted what Tolkien made into what you often have now. All elves good with bows, kings and castles, poorly understood and oft-misunderstood medieval orgy of genericness and all that.

But on a sidenote, not every medieval fantasy world is a Tolkien knockoff.

 

[crudus]

Fantasy and space are going to have a hard time mixing especially since you want to get fantasy races involved. The closest you could get would be some mix of Star Wars and Star Trek. Star Wars beat some long odds being a fantasy set in space...and good. Well, Firefly did it but that was a space western rather than fantasy.

Vulcans anyone? I know, that is most illogical Captain. Pointy ears and everything. Though the Vulcans aren't bad-asses. The Elves (even though they are really girly... kind of like Link) are totally epic. Spock and the gang are boring.

Link is not girly! He wears a kilt, like William Wallace! Was he girly? No, he kicked some British ass! FREEDOM!!!

I am not going to say William Wallace was girly for any reason, especially for wearing a kilt/shirt/skort(/kort?). I will however just say that Mr. Wallace died in 1305 and the kilt was invented in the 1500s.

 

[TheEggplant]

Well someone already said Paper RPG Shadowrun, so I'm going to mention CRPG Arcanum.

 

[Laurie Barnes]

Look up D20 modern, it is essentially what you just described.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Why don't we have robots and aliens and time traveling body snatchers in fantasy? It's because they're both seperate genres with their own characteristics and neccessities. It wouldn't make sense in a book about robots for the robots to travel through a forest to find magic crystals and use wands to turn their enemies into doorhenges. It wouldn't make sense to have an elf with mechanical arms running through a space station avoiding lasers and airlocks.
Now, genre crossing like aformentioned has been done before, a few times, actually. It's just that only a few of them were very good. It takes more creativity and thinking to cross the genres properly. Would it be awesome if done right? Absolutely.
Also, Warhammer 40k seems to be a popular example.

 

[Veylon]

I'm actually kind of amused at the term "Tolkien knockoff" as it's often used. As it stands, Tolkien's fantasy world is actually NOT one of the genero-medieval Europe worlds. Much of Tolkien's world is more primitive than that.

A more appropriate term would be Dungeons & Dragons knockoff. D&D more or less transmuted what Tolkien made into what you often have now. All elves good with bows, kings and castles, poorly understood and oft-misunderstood medieval orgy of genericness and all that.

Thus the word "cheap"; few authors have much of a grasp on Tolkien's work aside from the basics. Besides that, Tolkien operates on ideals totally alien to most genre fantasy. Mentors that trust their charges? Magic artifacts that are already found and need to be gotten rid of? The Returning King isn't even the main character? No Prophecy? What madness!

The D&D label is fair enough, except that most authors like to think of themselves as Tolkien's heirs (with the attendant entitlement, I might add) and would be wounded to think that their tales are something that might have been spun off ad hoc from a roleplaying session.

But on a sidenote, not every medieval fantasy world is a Tolkien knockoff.

True enough. I wish more authors were adventurous enough to pen something like the "Prince of Nothing" or the Vlad Taltos sereis.

 

[Veylon]

Why don't we have robots and aliens and time traveling body snatchers in fantasy? It's because they're both seperate genres with their own characteristics and neccessities. It wouldn't make sense in a book about robots for the robots to travel through a forest to find magic crystals and use wands to turn their enemies into doorhenges. It wouldn't make sense to have an elf with mechanical arms running through a space station avoiding lasers and airlocks.
Now, genre crossing like aformentioned has been done before, a few times, actually. It's just that only a few of them were very good. It takes more creativity and thinking to cross the genres properly. Would it be awesome if done right? Absolutely.
Also, Warhammer 40k seems to be a popular example.

Fantasy Robot = Golem. A Golem might need magic crystals to keep itself going.

And why shouldn't sufficiently advanced magic produce something like a spaceship? Imagine a pentagram drawn over an entire hemisphere or a magic portal large enough to move worlds or mana shrine vast enough to terraform a continent.

 

[Tanfastic]

Warhammer 40k, we get it. But it could be done (better) in some other games/books/movies.

 

[DracoSuave]

People use elves, dwarves, orcs, and goblins because people KNOW those things. A lot of the times when authors try to do something different it just gets conceptualized as 'Oh, that's just an elf with cloven feet' or something similiar.

People have their symbols, writers use them, and move on to important things like figuring out what to do with them. Dragon Age differentiates itself not because it has the same dwarves and elves, but because those dwarves and elves are different than people know them. They take the symbols and turn them on your end.

The real question needs to be asked.. what is to be gained by using different races? If the answer is 'you can use different races' without any internal substance... then you're not really doing a service.

 

[-Ulven-]

Juust going to put out that Tolkiens Dwarves, Elves and such were based of nordic mythos.

 

[GotMalkAvian]

I was going to say WH40K but, unsurprisingly, a lot of people have beaten me to it. I think it's the same reason that grey aliens rarely show up in fantasy settings; other than a small niche that would enjoy a mix, sci-fi and fantasy fans tend to like their world kept separate.

I know it's not quite what you're looking for, but things like the Urban Arcana D20 Modern tabletop RPG and the Shadowrun RPG mix fantasy races with modern or futuristic settings quite well.

 

[Haydyn]

Never thought about the space element with Elves and Dwarves, but what bothers me is while I don't personally consider myself a fan of Lord of the Rings, I love the way Humans, Elves, and Dwarves are represented. It's scary to think that the "Standard Fantasy Setting" was created by one series, and incorporated into a whole genre. But I honestly can't imagine Dwarves not being alcohloic warmongers and Elves not being almost as tall as humans and associating themselves with nature and lore.

I personally don't like futuristic fantasy settings. Kotor being the exception of course, because it's bloody Kotor!

 

[Glaive_21842]

Shadowrun
Okay so its cyberpunk rather than sci fi, But close enough

 

[Vykrel]

all i can think of is warhammer 40k, which you mentioned. but it would definitely be interesting if other games did something similar.

 

[masterchevyman]

I was actually thinking about this the other day when playing Warcraft so I mentioned it to my Guild. We decided that necessity is the mother of invention, I give you a Quote from Mordin Soulus, "Can't carry load so invent wheel, can't catch food so invent spear, limitations! Without limitations culture stagnates!" With magic the need to advance the tech level is rendered moot. The one thing that would make space travel laughably easy is also what is preventing it in the first place.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Still don't see why we can't have elves in space, but OK.

Simply put, why aren't these Space Elves?

And they're EVERYWHERE.