Anne Lyle
Fantastical historian
I disagree with Wikipedia, then. I don't think setting is as central to the distinction as they make out.
High fantasy - overt magic/fantastic elements, whether that means dragons, wizards, folkloric non-humans (elves, dwarves, etc), parallel worlds or whatever. Usually set in an invented world, although modern-world urban fantasy often has "hidden realms" full of high-fantasy beings.
Low fantasy - low-key or minimal magic. No mythical beasties; any non-humans are within the bounds of scientific plausibility. Can be any setting, but if zero magic then it must be set in an invented world or it doesn't qualify as fantasy
There's a lot of confusion between high fantasy and epic fantasy, because the latter often falls into the former category. Epic fantasy is nearly always set in an invented, pre-industrial world, but its key feature is the global scale of its conflicts. ASOIAF is unusual in being a relatively low-fantasy incarnation of epic fantasy.
Anya, can your characters travel to our world, or do you just mean that the technology/culture level is analogous to our own?
High fantasy - overt magic/fantastic elements, whether that means dragons, wizards, folkloric non-humans (elves, dwarves, etc), parallel worlds or whatever. Usually set in an invented world, although modern-world urban fantasy often has "hidden realms" full of high-fantasy beings.
Low fantasy - low-key or minimal magic. No mythical beasties; any non-humans are within the bounds of scientific plausibility. Can be any setting, but if zero magic then it must be set in an invented world or it doesn't qualify as fantasy
There's a lot of confusion between high fantasy and epic fantasy, because the latter often falls into the former category. Epic fantasy is nearly always set in an invented, pre-industrial world, but its key feature is the global scale of its conflicts. ASOIAF is unusual in being a relatively low-fantasy incarnation of epic fantasy.
Anya, can your characters travel to our world, or do you just mean that the technology/culture level is analogous to our own?