in the real world wizard power is so much weaker than in fantasy.
While I agree with the spirit of this, there are some ways in which I don’t think it is correct. Ways that have some interesting implications.
When reading fantasy novels we usually experience the story from the perspective of one of the main characters. A character who’s wizard power is typically orders of magnitude above that of the average sentient being in the story. If you instead experienced the story from the perspective of an average person in your given fantasy universe the potency of “wizard” power relative to king power looks a lot different.
Wizard power can appear significant in society relative to king power in only 2 cases.
There is something inherently special about certain individuals allowing them to wield wizard power far beyond the combined strength of whatever army of lesser wizards a king could send against them.
Something about the technology, culture or nature of the fantasy world inherently sabotages attempts by individuals to group together into large packs to increase their collective power over others.
Option one is a nightmare scenario for anyone not blessed to be among the chosen few with potential above most others. Option two requires some creative world building to explain why it is that groups led by a king would not always expand to the size where they can always overpower those dedicated to wizard power.
Technological advances over the last few hundreds years have only allowed us to form larger and larger collectives and organize ourselves into groups with increasing ease. This train of thought really does make me wonder whether that pattern will necessarily continue. Or if some of technologies on the horizon might change the rules to once again discourage large collectives and for maybe the first time, give wizard power a real chance...
While I agree with the spirit of this, there are some ways in which I don’t think it is correct. Ways that have some interesting implications.
When reading fantasy novels we usually experience the story from the perspective of one of the main characters. A character who’s wizard power is typically orders of magnitude above that of the average sentient being in the story. If you instead experienced the story from the perspective of an average person in your given fantasy universe the potency of “wizard” power relative to king power looks a lot different.
Wizard power can appear significant in society relative to king power in only 2 cases.
There is something inherently special about certain individuals allowing them to wield wizard power far beyond the combined strength of whatever army of lesser wizards a king could send against them.
Something about the technology, culture or nature of the fantasy world inherently sabotages attempts by individuals to group together into large packs to increase their collective power over others.
Option one is a nightmare scenario for anyone not blessed to be among the chosen few with potential above most others. Option two requires some creative world building to explain why it is that groups led by a king would not always expand to the size where they can always overpower those dedicated to wizard power.
Technological advances over the last few hundreds years have only allowed us to form larger and larger collectives and organize ourselves into groups with increasing ease. This train of thought really does make me wonder whether that pattern will necessarily continue. Or if some of technologies on the horizon might change the rules to once again discourage large collectives and for maybe the first time, give wizard power a real chance...