Top 10 Greatest Fantasy Worlds (Ranked)

Explore the top 10 fantasy worlds of all time in this video! From Middle Earth to Westeros, let's discuss the most iconic and magical realms in literature and pop culture.

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0:00 - Intro
0:21 - Discworld
1:28 - Middle Earth
2:32 - Malazan
6:03 - The Last Airbender
7:00 - Elder Scrolls and Dark Souls
7:09 - Wheel of Time
9:10 - A Song of Ice and Fire
10:35 - The Cosmere
11:43 - The Realm of the Elderlings
13:04 - One Piece
14:14 - Osten Ard
15:48 - Dandelion Dynasty

[libraryofaviking]

It has come to my attention that some might find the section about Realm of the Elderlings too spoilery. Feel free to skip that section if you don't want any spoilers!

Thank you to my Patreons who support me and funded the video editing for this video!

[belledejouree]

I don't care if ASOIAF is ever finished, it's still my favorite book series of all time. It has my favorite characters, such an in depth world, so many details and theories to explore, and has provided me with endless amounts of content and discussion for the past 13 years and will continue to do so.

[EarhirX]

Tolkien created a fantasy world for his fantasy language

[verity]

It's Middle Earth always and forever. All other fantasy writers have always been trying to get to that level, but it's impossible because of the historical and mythological character of Tolkien's work. He approached it as a scholar first and it shows in the best way possible. Having said that, I'm very glad that it keeps on inspiring so many fantastic authors to build their own worlds.

[RelativelyBest]

Discworld is actually kinda underrated because it does exactly what a fantasy setting should do, which is be fantastical and weird yet consistent and functional. When writing a fantasy story your world doesn't actually have to be a sphere orbiting a sun: You can make it a flat disc, or whatever else you can dream up, as long as you have some idea of how it's all supposed to work.

[Akuliszi]

The Elder Scrolls has a really good worldbuilding, so I recommend getting into it. There is a lot of lore videos, so you don't even need to play any of the games (but I recommend trying watching at least part of the gameplay). There are also books, but I don't know how good are they.

[coltaine]

Malazan is my No. 1 pick. Read the core ten books multiple times now and there is always something new to discover. It was on a rereading that I paid more attention to some more minor characters in the later books that I suspected that Erikson was toying with the absurdist philosophies of Sartre and Camus. BUT, I'm excluding LOTR from inclusion in this list. My argument is that without LOTR's success and fandom none of these other authors would be on the list as there simply would be no list. Once publishers saw there was a hunger for fantasy that was not simple and easily digestible, it opened the gates for succeeding, talented authors to find audiences and success.

[DragonCreature]

Discworld is my number 1. Read all the books (some more than once), and yeah, it is genius. Remember, silly is not the opposite of serious.

[moo]

As far as manga goes, if you're interested in dark fantasy, BERSERK is a must read as far as world building! Such a shame we'll never know how it ends as the author died.

[mandarina]

One Piece is definitely a good starting point for manga if anyone is ever interested, and if you are scared by the amount of content, I would say that you will need, from my personal experience, as much time to read One Piece as to read all 5 asoiaf books, so if you think you have time for that, please try it, it is amazing.

[aComplexName]

I would say that One Piece is definitely a great starting place if you have never read manga.

[PickleMonster]

I know Elden Ring almost falls under the “Dark Souls” umbrella, but I absolutely loved the lore as I began to uncover it through the game itself (but mostly online.) Such a great world of purgatory for gods and demigods alike, all written by George RR Martin…

[gunghowalrus]

There’s so many good options. For me my all time favorite is Warhammer Fantasy. It’s cheesy and dark fantasy with tons of tropes and worldbuilding plus many books that have made me fall in love with the world. It’s not very original- but I like it enough that I don’t mind. Bashing together parodies of many different real world cultures into a fantasy world makes for a fun time. There are certainly better crafted stories and worlds out there but I enjoy the charm and character of Warhammer Fantasy the most. The tabletop roleplaying game is great too. The better Warhammer setting imo for sure.

[Henry-jpmc]

Wheel of Time is the GOAT and that specific museum artifact really is the cheery on the top 😅

[GoDawgs-nhkp]

missing out on Elder Scrolls. Really good stuff, and the way the Lore is learned through the in-game books, some of which have unreliable or biased narrators is so unique and interesting.

[MedusaLegend]

My favorite world building is Yurgenschmit from Ascendance of a bookworm. The lore is so perfectly incorporated to the story.

[suede__]

The Cosmere's complexity and who (or what) can travel between worlds/planets is very interesting. Like how Warbreaker bleeds into Stormlight Archives in interesting ways.

[Atrulion]

My favorite world is ASoIaF, definitely. I have only read one asoiaf book, and I'm reading the prequels (I know, dumb order but I couldn't wait by reading the extremely long series before getting into the history). The only problem I have with ASoIaF is that, as you said, it's unfinished, but what makes it worse, is that the TV-adaptation has finished the series, but people HATE the way the series ended it, which makes me question whether I want to hope and wait until the last two books come out (or at least the sixth one), or if I want to just watch the show, because I feel like watching the show will just spoil things for me (because I think the same characters die in the series as they will in the books). But I still recommend you strongly to read ASoIaF. It's EXCELLENT! And the third book is supposed to be one of the best fantasy books ever

[corrinflakes]

The Xenoblade series has a great world. All 3 of them, the imaginative geopolitics using Titans as landmasses goes so hard.

[Exsoldier]

New subscriber here. This channel is rapidly becoming one of my favorite Booktube channels, along with Merphy Napier, Daniel Greene and Elliot Brooks'. As both a writer and an avid reader, this kind of video is super useful and informative for me. (And it's introduced me to some new series/worlds I definitely want to check out in the near future, now that I've just finished the Mistborn trilogy, lol.) Keep up the great work, Viking!