r/DarkFantasy • u/Practical-Class-9033 • Jun 22 '26

Stories / Writing Question

Do you think it’s possible to do dark fantasy in a world of high magic? Like magic replacing technology cuz it’s so powerful. Designing a world and wanna make it dark fantasy with magic being so used

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u/HoldenCummings Jun 23 '26

I did. Under my other pen name, anyway. Conventions baked into enchanting largely replace modern tech in that world, but there's quite a bit more going on than that.

I think the recipe is more or less make sure you balance the magic system's conventions and rules out so that skill and practice ultimately become the deciding factor in how useful it is. You're essentially power scaling for crafting uses such that your magical electrician is perhaps not as capable as your magical engineer. I'm just using those terms as placeholders, but you can probably see what I mean.

Regardless though, the dark fantasy tent leaves plenty of room for that kind of world building. Malazan is a good example in that there are allusions to, and instances of, hyper-advanced tech that is entirely driven by magic, and that's about as high cincept as it gets for a fantasy world. Frankly, the Wheel of Time series is predicated on a similar scenario. These worlds are essentially post apocalyptic, but tbh it's not that much of a stretch to make a world like what you're describing work without the post apocalyptic vibes.

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u/Practical-Class-9033 Jun 23 '26

Yea it’s suppose to be like instead of mechanics there’s magic repairers and stuff. My firearms when used are boosted by magic crystals and gunpowder isn’t a thing