“Low Fantasy” is kind of a broad job description but I’d say besides GBU_28’s “normal people be normal” and TheOakTree’s “upper bounds on magic”, there seems tb be the one thing highly relevant enough to LF that it’s used to “sell it”:
It’s about human glorification.
Sure, there can be elves and dragons and stuff but the setting presents them as worse or lower than humans. For example, dragons are basically cats and can be domesticated, or elves isolate themselves because they are chronic backstabbers who can’t form any lasting alliance, let alone a nation or country. Or even worse: the dragons are cats and the elves are just basically cosplayer humans!
But in the end whatever races and species you add, it all ends up somehow being in the service of humans having the primacy on the setting.
Other than that, I’d say an important thing for making a world feel low fantasy is that it has to be easy to pick a cause to join or fight for. It’s a world that has, dunno, artists, bards, poets, scholars, radio talks, whatever, that makes easy for people to broadcast and pick on immediate needs, be they refuge, food, or protection from the Hourglass Demons.
“Low Fantasy” is kind of a broad job description but I’d say besides GBU_28’s “normal people be normal” and TheOakTree’s “upper bounds on magic”, there seems tb be the one thing highly relevant enough to LF that it’s used to “sell it”:
It’s about human glorification.
Sure, there can be elves and dragons and stuff but the setting presents them as worse or lower than humans. For example, dragons are basically cats and can be domesticated, or elves isolate themselves because they are chronic backstabbers who can’t form any lasting alliance, let alone a nation or country. Or even worse: the dragons are cats and the elves are just basically cosplayer humans!
But in the end whatever races and species you add, it all ends up somehow being in the service of humans having the primacy on the setting.
Other than that, I’d say an important thing for making a world feel low fantasy is that it has to be easy to pick a cause to join or fight for. It’s a world that has, dunno, artists, bards, poets, scholars, radio talks, whatever, that makes easy for people to broadcast and pick on immediate needs, be they refuge, food, or protection from the Hourglass Demons.