There is a certain kind of 'look' which exists across a multitude of visual depictions of fantasy and SF settings. If I could describe it in words I would say that it is as though somebody took the architectural styles and geographic context of every culture in the Eurasian continent, created a dreamy pastiche of each of them, and then put the results in a blender with a sprinkling of Africa and Mesoamerica and served it up as a porridge with a generous helping of molasses. The world that it depicts (for it appears to be one world - one region of one world, in fact; or even just one city in one world) is all domes, minarets, muted colours, waterfalls and pleasant mediterranean sunshine, like it is always about 7pm on a late summer's evening in Marseille; there is never any litter and there are no slums, and the fauna are mostly birds soaring about in a genteel and stately fashion to lend things an air of peace and calm. It is a place you want to go for your holidays, so you can sit outside a streetside cafe with a beer or glass of white wine and peoplewatch all day while deciding what you're going to have for your dinner.
What is the name of this aesthetic, and what is the name of the world which it depicts?
Here's the quintessence of it - Naboo in
The Phantom Menace:
Another good example is James Gurney's
Dinotopia (
wikipedia informs me that I'm not alone in noticing the resemblance between Dinotopia and Naboo):
Then there's pretty much every city scene which has ever appeared in an episode of
NextGen:
John Howe's Minas Tirith from certain angles appears to be in this whatever-it's-called-world also:
And one mustn't forget basically every cityscape in
Magic: The Gathering (all the ones I've ever seen, anyway, which I admit isn't all that many):
But perhaps the best way of finding examples is just googling "fantasy cityscape". Here's some I found:
My own suggestion for the name of this aesthetic is "generic pleasant mildly-exotic fantasy city", and for the world it depicts,
Niceland. You may have something better in mind.
"Three times Randolph Carter dreamed of the marvellous city, and three times was he snatched away while still he paused on the high terrace above it. All golden and lovely it blazed in the sunset, with walls, temples, colonnades, and arched bridges of veined marble, silver-basined fountains of prismatic spray in broad squares and perfumed gardens, and wide streets marching between delicate trees and blossom-laden urns and ivory statues in gleaming rows; while on steep northward slopes climbed tiers of red roofs and old peaked gables harbouring little lanes of grassy cobbles. It was a fever of the gods; a fanfare of supernal trumpets and a clash of immortal cymbals. Mystery hung about it as clouds about a fabulous unvisited mountain; and as Carter stood breathless and expectant on that balustraded parapet there swept up to him the poignancy and suspense of almost-vanished memory, the pain of lost things, and the maddening need to place again what once had an awesome and momentous place."
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of the very same description...
DeleteI was thinking Lovecraft's Dreamlands, too, but Sona-Nyl the Land of Fancy, specifically.
DeleteGood call!
DeleteA few of the cities in Final Fantasy XII's depiction of Ivalice seem to fit in. A major inspiration seems to be artists' recreations of what the Gardens of Babylon supposedly looked like (I know Dinotopia in particular was informed by archaeology).
ReplyDeleteI think the greenery is a big component of its popularity. To me it appeals to the dream of a major urban center that isn't also a polluted industrial hellhole.
FF12 immediately came to mind. But 10 and 13 also have a good couple of candidates.
DeleteI would say this is the 3D-Final Fantasy aesthetic.
Oh man, you guys are so right. But my choice would be Final Fantasy XIII.
DeleteDiet-Utopia
ReplyDeleteThe Community
Dome,Spires, and Waterfalls.
Nature: Exists;Builders: I'm about to end this man's whole career.
Post-Babylon
Fingers of the Earth.
I like Post-Babylon.
DeleteI could live there.
ReplyDeleteFrom a drawing perspective it is easier to draw lots of domes that cover large areas without much detail than smaller angled roofs with tiles etc. For CGI this might be easier to generate also.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I hadn't thought of that. Pragmatic considerations result in Niceland.
DeleteI'm guessing that Byzantium was an inspiration for the look, at least for the more Naboo-esque examples. Certainly fits the domes and the opulence.
ReplyDeleteYep, definitely. Sort of a pastiche of Byzantium as imagined by people who had never been there. Venice vaguely too.
DeleteThis is certainly a recognisable style, which we may as well call the "capital world aesthetic". It is all over Jack Vance's work, particularly in places where he advocates a return to classicist ideals instead of 50s/60s-style high modernism (including, in part, some of its social ideals). You can find expressions of the idea in the last two books of the Demon Princes series, where Kirth Gersen kinda "settles" in a similar location (Avente on the world of Alphanor), or in Ecce and Old Earth, outlined briefly and succinctly in this segment:
ReplyDelete"At noon she arrived at the Trieste Central Depot, which served New Trieste, north of the Carso, one of the few remaining urban areas still dominated by the Technic Paradigms: a checkerboard of concrete and glass shapes, rectilinear and identical save for the numbers on the flat roofs. The ‘Technic Paradigms’ had been applied to New Trieste, and thereafter rejected almost everywhere else on Earth in favor of construction less intellectual and less brutally efficient.
From the Central Depot Wayness rode by subway ten miles south to the Old Trieste Station: a structure of black iron webbing and opal-green glass covering five acres of transit terminals, markets, cafés and a cheerful animation of porters, school children, wandering musicians, persons arriving and departing. At a kiosk Wayness bought a map, which she took to a café by a pair of flower stalls. While she lunched on mussels in a bright red sauce redolent of garlic and rosemary, she studied the map."
Another good call.
DeleteThe "Niceland Aesthetic" should definitely be a thing. Zootopia is a bit too modern and primary coloured but is close.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the illustrations in the 5E handbook look like they came from Niceland, especially the _fucking halflings_
5e is a mixture of Niceland and Dungeonpunk I think.
DeleteHow's the name 'Plazas, Domes and Parks' sound? Lots of open, communal, welcoming places, with fairly Urban-Southern Europe connotations. My memories of various depictions of Naboo ground this quite well. Pedestrian streets, courtyards and gardens. Little in the way of mass transit.
ReplyDeleteSome of the above are a little Gothic, which sets them at odds with this. Minas Tirith is explicitly military, which puts it a bit at odds. But Osgiliath (when intact), at least in Peter Jackson's conception was probably very much of this kind - lots of rounded arches and domes: https://middleeartharchitectures.com/2014/08/24/the-kings-hall-minas-tirith.
Yeah, Niceland cities are very frequently pedestrianised. Like an indoor shopping mall but outside, if that makes sense.
DeleteA covered market, perhaps, rather than a mall. Less brashly commercial. No billboards in Niceland - only hanging signs,
DeleteOne way I might phrase it is "like in a Maxwell Parrish painting."
ReplyDeleteIf he had done fantasy cityscapes he would have been perfect.
DeleteOhh... I love that stuff!
DeleteHad to do a quick image search and it's "like someone illustrated Planescape with paintings".
I love the 70s/80s fantasy kitsch style of Hildebrand and Vallejo. Parrish seems like the direct precursor to that.
Off topic, but requesting an update on Between Gently Smiling Jaws por favor
ReplyDeleteOff topic, but requesting an update to Between Gently Smiling Jaws por favor
ReplyDeleteAsk and you shall receive. I'll do one this week.
DeleteNiceland looks nice, but it never really kicks my inspiration into gear. Lankhmar, Sigil, the City State of the Invincible Overlord, Erelhei-Cinlu, Blade Runner's Los Angeles... who wants to adventure in a pleasant middle-class garden city?
ReplyDeleteAll of these looks like the fantasized version of cities akin to Constantinople or Florence : rich, mediterranean, with feats of architecture and art. Actually, it might be how Italian Renaissance cities appeared to peasants whose lives were still very medieval. French knights and assorted invaders/mercenaries were in awe before the architectural marvels of Italy. Could you imagine how their pressganged hencmen were ? Huge domes ! Running water ! Terraced gardens ! it might have been like sci-fi to them.
ReplyDeleteYou are probably right - although I guess even now cities have a bit of that feel to them, if you are from the countryside and go to a metropolis like London, Paris etc. for the first time.
DeleteArchitects' impressions of not-yet-built areas often have a similar, though non-fantasy, aesthetic.
ReplyDeleteWhat about 'Fantasy Copenhagen'?
I actually like the term ‘Niceland’. Simple, evocative. Like ‘Generica’. Now that you’ve coined it I think its a fair enough term as I don’t see a consensus on an alternative. Its interesting that Cyberpunk and Cyberpunk adjacent SF illustrations seem to have their own similar sets of illustrations. Add some flying cars, smokestacks, and make it a night or polluted day scene and you’re halfway there. Maybe add some more rectilinear structures back in, the odd skyscraper or two.
ReplyDeleteCyberpunk is "Nastyland".
Delete