FANTASY WORLDS 🪐 - TIER LIST

We talk about and rank various fantasy worlds! From Middle Earth to Dresden :)
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[@uly2570]

Australia is my favorite fantasy world, i love the lore of all the monsters encountered there, australians especially.

[@squidwardtortellini362]

Ntm that whole upside down thing it has going on. Such a neat gimmick.

[@Goldenxbih]

💀💀💀

[@casfv]

Me as an Australian: 💀💀

[@sharky977]

I love the reverse-gravity! Adds to the world building and immersion, it’s like the reverse of our world; almost a shadow-realm with the horrifying monsters.

[@gothamcity4043]

Underrated

[@Youbeentagged]

Daniel: puts middle earth in top tier immediately Everyone: so, you have chosen life

[@brandonbiondo9208]

1:15 Middle Earth - Lord of the Rings (S) 1:45 Wheel of Time (S) 2:36 Forgotten Realms (B) 4:15 Broken Empire (A) 5:45 Harry Potter (C) 8:06 Narnia (A) 9:38 Wonderland (A) 10:54 Dresden Files (A) 12:18 Azeroth (B) 13:30 Hyrule (C) 14:31 Westros (A) 15:42 Star Wars (D) 17:28 Poppy Wars (B) 19:08 Stormlight Archive (B) 21:13 Mistborn (A) 22:14 Powder Mage (A)

[@haillobster7154]

Thank you, bud. 😁👍

[@David-se5ph]

Love whoever made this and have a good day :) !

[@ibreatheglitterr]

You're doing god's work, Brandon. God's work.

[@nicholascurry8732]

MVP!

[@salpetersaureistlecker1642]

Thank you so much

[@mercurydylan899]

We hoping to see Tamriel (Elder Scrolls) and Thedas (Dragon Age). Or also “The Continent” of Witcher.

[@laconsuela69]

I've found the Witcher books are a little weaker in world building, so that's probably why

[@TDW0304]

Brett Wood you take that back!!!!!

[@laconsuela69]

@@TDW0304 have you read them? Beyond just like 1 or 2? The world building isn't very deep. That doesn't mean the books are bad, they just don't focus on world building. They mostly focus on characters that happen to be in a fantasy setting. Most people who enjoy the games might enjoy the short stories, but the main series is fairly boring. I've never played the games, just read the books Still is finely crafted and there is world building, just not as much as most fantasy

[@TDW0304]

@@laconsuela69 Yes I read all 8, though Im not an avid fantasy reader, so I guess I just don't have much to compare it to

[@joshpackman8296]

Yeh weres tamriel and tamaria damn it

[@rome8180]

What I love about Westeros (and The Known World) is how different all the cities and regions seem from each other. They each have such a distinct culture, topography, climate, architecture, and overall feel.

[@mypanexogamouslineage965]

That's also how I feel about Avatar The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra.

[@DongusMcBongus]

I’d put the World of Ice and Fire at S only because it’s like, I WANT to know about the Jhogos Nai, I WANT to know about Yi Ti, I WANT to know about Stygai! I don’t care about Gondor bro, just tell me if the Bloodstone Emperor was eastern Night King. I know George literally thinks these other areas are just “fun teases” BUT I WANNA KNOW DAMN IT

[@damp2269]

@@DongusMcBongus I rate it B because these areas you mention are just that a tease, there is no exploration just promises. If we ever get more, I'm willing to revise my score but putting side by side with WoT is day and night and I'm not done yet reading wot. The North and the Dorne have flair but the rest of the seven kingdoms are samey.

[@DongusMcBongus]

@@damp2269 Bro the Vale is stunning. The show did them dirty by implying The Eyrie was the only castle House Arryn had.

[@damp2269]

@@DongusMcBongus the area is geographically interesting but culture wise they are indistinguishable from the Casterly rock or Kings landing. they are all medieval city, westeros. At least, Dorne has an identity.

[@tulkdog]

“J. K. Rowling has just made it worse” Yes, yes she has . . .

[@tulkdog]

paula So true

[@martytu20]

The worst part is, she refuses to write another book to flesh out the universe. She could easily put the blogs and tweets together into one cohesive idea to write a book to flesh out the universe. Instead, she just wants to have her cake and eat it too.

[@appetizingly]

I absolutely love Harry Potter, it's still my favorite fantasy franchise because of the overall setting, and JKR has created a fantastic world on the surface but worldbuilding definitely isn't one of her strong suits... and yes, she's definitely making it worse every time she decides to add something new or retcon something that has already been established.

[@havissard]

She didn't make it good to begin with. It's lazy.

[@ONSYAM]

yeah, i know the world arent perfect its like a squash up idea . but then i heard this comment that says just imagine it as harry dreams, all this wizard and magic were just harry's imagination; he wants to be special cause of his real living situation so he make up world of it; then all make sense, its just a kids dream thats why the world is just mess up full of imagination that he made up LOL think it for a minutes then .... it does make sense J.k cant really make this to be true cause then all the kids will cry LOL

[@ryanvance1020]

daniel: “imma go ahead and put Star Wars as D tier” me: then you are lost daniel:”mostly bc of disney” me: this is fine

[@curranfrank2854]

Because it was so good when the prequels were coming out

[@understorymainchannel8326]

@@curranfrank2854 the extended universe would like to have a word with you

[@oozekip]

Let's be honest with ourselves, a LOT of the Star Wars universe was formulaic, repetitive, boring, or just a straight-up dumpster fire long before Disney got their hands on it. Don't get me wrong, it had some fantastic elements and those might outshine the bad in many cases (and a lot of that comes from the Old Republic), but outside of that it's never been all that complex or compelling of a setting beyond the surface level.

[@understorymainchannel8326]

@@oozekip ever read stuff from the extended universe?

[@curranfrank2854]

@@understorymainchannel8326 Okay and the world in the movies which is the most accessible version was pretty bad before Disney. I'm kinda tired of everyone jumping down the new movie's throats when they're not even as bad as some other star wars media (prequels being the main example). Although when you cite expanded universe I doubt you're talking about all of it because as Philip said it's very hit or miss. Quite repetitive too tbh, (like there's a lot of giant superweapons throughout star wars just as one example.) And as a functional world goes it's a bit absurd how slow a galactic civilization progresses technologically. Even one as disconnected as star wars would be advancing much faster than our own due to information being able to be shared between thousands (millions?) of different intelligent species and cultures.

[@cagankaplan5302]

Nothing to see here, just commenting to support my boy Daniel.

[@twenty-fifth420]

Çağan Kaplan You are a good fan and I have nothing but respect.

[@cagankaplan5302]

@Lord Targaryen

[@pexrinne5144]

M2

[@leontheamateur1135]

Bu herifi takip eden tek türk benim zannediyordum.

[@gokbay3057]

Merhaba arkadaşlar bu kanalda kaç Türk varsa toplayalım.

[@mr.fufucudlypoops8207]

The reason I think the world of ice and fire is S tier is how the mystery is handled. The "A World of Ice and Fire" book is written from the perspective of a Westerosi historian with his own biases. This makes it where we have painstaking detail on the history of Westeros and other regions that influenced its history, while other regions are left more bare. This can be because the scholar didn't or just didn't know. So many of his accounts are second or even third hand, making the stories of ice dragons in the north sea or what lies in the shadow land completely unreliable. The way that detail becomes much thinner after passing the bone mountains (a mountain range that splits ethos in two) is very reflective of how real world mountain ranges have always posed a challenge to explorers throughout history. And also how the world and history past the mountain range feels completely disconnected from the world of the main story, safe for the port city of Asshai. We still don't know if naomi sunrider ever found out what's west of Westeros and if that really is her ship in east Essos. Thanks to the incredibly harsh environment of Sothoryos, will still don't know what it looks like beyond the northern jungle, aside from it being very large, which we got from a Targaryen who flew across it. No one knows what really beyond the wall. It could extend to a land of pure ice the size of Essos, or it might not extend much farther than what the map tells us. There's also the casual mention of the forth continent, Ulthos, which we can see the tip of and has the sole description of "grassy". Martin has an incredible knowledge of how geography forms and how it influences culture, ethnicity and wildlife. The sheer diversity of races and how they're so organically placed never ceases to amaze me. I especially love how also the strangest "human" races are all placed on islands, left to evolve independently when completely disconnected from the rest of humanity.

[@robotsmasher0007]

i am going to read all that

[@judeconnor-macintyre9874]

Small correction it wasn't a Targaryen who flew over Sothorys it was Jaenara Belaerys who was a dragonrider from before the Doom of Valyria (another enticing mystery in the world)

[@mr.fufucudlypoops8207]

@@judeconnor-macintyre9874 thanks for that correction.

[@tokiomitohsaka7770]

The Elder Scrolls universe is so deep and rich it is insane. Especially from what we have seen in TES III: Morrowind which was so unique. I would put in as a high A tier, maybe even S tier.

[@benjaminjacobs3498]

I would say upper a tier or lower s tier but still below middle Earth

[@frankheninja1]

The fact that the history is so sparse in SA is actually built into the lore of the world though. Constant desolation resets their history regularly.

[@kingofrome9765]

I both disagree and agree, it has been literally 4500 years since the last desolation so there is alot of room for history however i think the history and information about the desolation's is significantly more important to the story.

[@benbigham6374]

@@kingofrome9765 Agreed, and the history provided so far that I've read (500 pages into book 3 so a good chunk) is rather mundane and boring. I think Sanderson has failed at creating an interesting modern history in favor of developing a much more interesting, almost mysterious ancient history. It explores how information is lost/changed over massive time frames. I also find the modern histories rather boring, and little more than squabbling between countries. I think this is why his history appears rather weak, when in fact, it really isn't and suffers really from being mundane and frankly, kinda safe. But, on the flip side we get an excellent ancient history and we get to explore how time/culture has rewritten the truth of ancient events.

[@pratyushbzr]

@@benbigham6374 well I think it's literally too early to expect a fleshed out history from SA... I mean look at Wheel of Time, it took 4 books before it gave a sense of the scale of it's world and 4 more before they gave us more info about Seanchan and Shara... I think we will get a deeper and more fleshed out history in the future books as the mysteries unveil... And also it is just a part in the larger Cosmere where a lot of the lore is included like the Shattering of Adonalsium and the Shards etc... I think it's really early to judge

[@patrick-io4nj]

also is thematic, just as with the heralds returning to teach forgotten knowledge just in time for the desolation, so will we learn more of the worlds history.

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

King Of Rome This feels quite odd, yeah. I mean, for many people our OWN real world barely has anything from 4500 years ago to latch onto and know much about outside of Asia. And, within that period, there’s a ton of history to chew on. It would almost be a nonissue.

[@BooksBeforeDeath]

I will say in regards to Stormlight Archive, not to get into spoilers but there's in story reasons why we don't know a lot of the history. The characters are just now learning what the eff actually happened in their past in book 3 so it makes sense that we as readers also don't know much yet. But I have full faith in Sanderson that we're at the point in the series now where we're gonna get so much more in the coming books as it all unfolds. ✌🏻 - Bree

[@MrCapitalTS]

Give Brandon another 2 to 3 books in SA (plus Mistborn era 3) and he think we will be putting him along side Jordan and Tolkien in that S tier. At least I hope so, I personally already rate him there, but know he hasn't rightfully earned that quite yet.

[@jake61494]

I agree. Scadrial kinda has the same thing going, but since Mistborn Era 1 IS the history of Era 2, and we see the world evolve from Era 1 to 2, it adds a lot to the world, verse Roshar I think. I think the argument he is making against Roshar is that not knowing everything pre- false desolation is understandable, but there was 4,000 years between that and the present in which we should probably have a much larger recorded history. But all we have really is the Hierocracy and Gavilar's conquests. And some small snippits about a Shin invasion... and ongoing Tukar war.

[@lorenzoamato953]

@@jake61494 I agree. In fact, it is preatty frustrating that we know almost nothing about the PRESENT era. All geographical info about the world is given through some lines of dialogue between characters, and that's all. After 3000 pages of reading I expect a bit more from a fantasy world, TBH. Not complaining about the story per se, mind you, but I would argue that Sanderson is not necessarily interested in world-building, if it's not relevant for the story (unlike the S authors in the tier list).

[@ANT96-x8d]

Got a question. What are some good examples of a high fantasy series with both spiritual and psychological themes?

[@chrisbyrd1349]

@@ANT96-x8d dunno about high fantasy but if you want both of those topics I can think of no place better than Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

[@Revanchist]

The Old Republic era is definitely the best Star Wars era. Amazing plot, characters and they just give it more... well... character to the world. Since you mentioned Revan and the Star Wars tatoo, I wish you did a tier list of Star Wars character or stories!

[@onceacarnowaking539]

@Tom Ffrencheven though Disney took over it shouldn’t overly effect the older content

[@DandDgamer]

Just want to say huge respect for giving Narnia such consideration. I'm a huge Lewis fan and while Narnia has its flaws, I agree that he definitely did what he set out to do and its gratifying to see that acknowledged by someone who's not as into it

[@skloplyenost]

what tier is above "s"? nvm, that's where discworld is.

[@spinakker14]

The basic setup of discworld should warrant that Btw I haven't read it yet, the number of books frighten me

[@XakoWako]

@@spinakker14 Hey, I really wouldn't worry about that. Yes there is a whole heapload of them, but each one is very digestible. You'll find yourself tearing through them in no time!

[@operaforlife6551]

@@spinakker14 I get that, but just start at the beginning, and by the time you reach the city guards books you will find yourself thinking that 40 is not that much after all and wishing for more xD

[@skylar85]

@@spinakker14 it's split up in trilogy and character books for example the first 8 follow Ringwood and then there's the death, witch and so on trilogy and it's easier to read then

[@spinakker14]

thanks for the replies and tips for all of you

[@noahjohnson5603]

Malazan Fans watch from the corner, teeth sharpened and blades oiled, waiting for their S-ranking.

[@t.hussain921]

It's not here 😂😂 Unleash the warren

[@djsuth7727]

I can't make up my mind if it is S tier or A+ but it's definitely up there with Middle Earth and ASOIAF for sure. I think Daniel gets blinded by his first love of tWoT :D

[@t.hussain921]

@@djsuth7727 Malazan is not my most favorite series but its world is definitely my favorite. Unlike most other writers, Erikson understands the vast distances he's working with, therefore his world and its cultural diversities actually feel organic (WoT lacks that diversity factor and it really bugs me). There's also layers upon layers of fictional history that adds to the overall narrative of the series.

[@smuckfuzzer]

Erikson's archaeology background is a massive part of Malazan's world. There's so much history and it's blended with the gods so well.

[@t.hussain921]

Malazan also benefits from having a known 'full world'. Since the story takes place on 3-4 continents, it gives the impression of being a full fledged geopolitical story rather than the story of few selected protagonists.

[@ji4215]

I'm a huge Harry Potter fan but I would've put the world in D Tier lol

[@cussundriakneal9904]

Same, lol

[@bookschocaholic]

Same. But for me it served the purpose of the story or it would have got too saturated for a kids book. My problem is more that jk Rowling tried to fix it. If she didn't try and fix it there would be nothing wrong but her continuing shows off the flaws. As we only see it from Harry's muggle raised perspective I think it's fine as it is. If it ain't broke... Don't jk Rowling it. 🤣

[@VolvagiasBlaze]

@@bookschocaholic "fix it". all she really does to fix things is to mess with character backstories, which truly adds nothing to her story other than making it forcibly inclusibe and makes her look attention hungry

[@Mermer-16]

haha, yep.

[@MrParkerman6]

@Books And Chocaholic The Harry Potter books aren't kid's books, dumbass.

[@aaronnix7345]

Stormlight's history is intentionally vague because it is going to be extraordinarily important for the plot in later books.

[@lorenzoamato953]

We have almost zero info about current geography and recent history. It's not about 5000 years ago (heck who in this forum knows anything about our earth 5000 years ago?), but about 100 years ago... or 50 years ago... or even one year ago, right before the start of the story of the SA. Tolkien's Middle-Earth lore is not only about the First Age, but also about Tom Bombadil or genealogies of recent kings and battles. Sanderson's SA is strictly about the story narrated in the books, and history is used as a tool for specific story points, not as a point of interest per se.

[@aaronnix7345]

@Yay Art I think much of even recent history is going to be very relevant plot-wise. Remember we have had heralds living in the Roshar for 4500 years. I think there is going to be a lot of important information about even history in the past 4500 years that is pivotal to the plot; especially relating to each of the shards' plans. Remember Brandon has close to 5 million unpublished words of worldbuilding related to Roshar. I fully expect that to be relevant in the future.

[@lorenzoamato953]

@@aaronnix7345 I really hope so. I like Sanderson's style, except for that aspect. If he could improve on it, the SA would be the best fantasy of the last years.

[@aaronnix7345]

@Yay Art Do I really need to say it? Journey before destination my friend

[@dgmisal1979]

I'd have loved to have seen LeGuin's Earthsea (all 6 books), and Zelazney's Amber considered. But great work and thanks!

[@routex1]

Agreed, was looking for Amber in the comments!

[@afellownerd]

Would've like to see artemis fowl

[@DanzMcAbra]

Someone needs to tell him about the Elder Scrolls lore.

[@calebmauer1751]

I loved reading the in game books back in the day. Can't remember reading much in Skyrim, but I'm pretty sure I read everything in Oblivion and Morrowind.

[@swine13]

Meh, its not as deep and nuanced as people give it credit for. Sheogorath DLC was the last engaging/interesting elder scrolls content imo. After that it was asset recycling and more of the same story arcs id already played in previous releases. Still... pumped over 100hrs into Skyrim waiting for it to get as good as the hype around it and it just... never did. 😩

[@caluminnes579]

EXQUISITE NACHOS idk what you’re on about i mean it’s your opinion so it’s valid of course but to me it’s far more detailed and deep than any other world. maybe excluding middle earth and a couple other s tier worlds. if you want a world with history there literally isn’t one with more

[@joedatius]

@@caluminnes579 sorry but thats just arguably untrue. the elder scrolls lore is incredibly skin deep and mostly just unimportant blurbs, most of it being fairly generic

[@nykv9101]

joedatius - I agree, I still love elder scrolls tho

[@KingsandGenerals]

Like a clockwork. Appreciate the work ethic!

[@confusedabsurdist]

Like ze germans. He even looks like one.

[@DanielGreeneReviews]

See I spelt In and wasn’t even awake when the video came out 😬

[@matheusb.dambrowski4639]

Damm, you here? Really love your videos

[@martytu20]

Catch you on the next one.

[@sergezede]

Out of curiosity, why is there an "a" in the first sentence? Isn't it supposed to be "like clockwork?"

[@jhatch5]

History of Roshar, it is so much deeper than two events, although I get how you can generalize. Off the top of my head: -Migration from Ashyn -Shin Conquests -The Sun maker's rule -The scouring of Amia -The Hierocracy And these are just off the top of my head. I know there are more in these videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4qbqGOpo9SEhdk kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5LXaGuNg7ybj5o

[@ammalyrical5646]

Not to mention the recreance, the shattering of the Oathpact, and Aherietiam. You can even count the assassination of Gavilar. The betrayal of the spren (they betrayed the Singers).

[@Liamb2179]

Also thousands of years of desolations (which also explains why so much history has been lost)

[@YourBlackLocal]

Well I think the difference between what Daniel is saying and you’re saying is detail, there isn’t much detail, or maybe I missed it, of these events. Theres pretty vague explaining of them and it’s done in a very Star Wars way of it being mentioned a bit of information is giving them it’s moved on. they’re also very isolated, you never hear of a prior event that was close and caused that event to occur or of any of the key players in that time and who they were. There’s almost a universally excepted history, which is pretty strange in such a large world. Look at Westeros or LoTRs you know who was there at the time you learn of legends surrounding events, you get to see these events from different angles dependent on the feelings the character’s would have towards the event. We’re only three books in, so i won’t make a definitive judgement yet but I understand why Daniel put it there.

[@jhatch5]

@@YourBlackLocal That is an excellent point, that many of these events are lacking detail and all have a pretty universal version so far. I would credit the general acceptance of the events so far as just most of our POV characters being Alethi, or at least Vorin. I hope that we will get a greater divergence as the story moves westward, and as one person said already, we are going to get a ton of early Rosharan history in the back five. Also, there might be more detail that you are remembering. Check out the videos that I linked, so long as you don't mind some rambling, pedantic weirdos talking cosmere for a couple of hours :-)

[@YourBlackLocal]

Jay Hatch Lool, I did check the Wiki for the events you mentioned and they still lacked the detail i was looking for tbh there wasn’t really any mention of the stuff I listed, but as said, here’s hoping we get a lot of detail in the back five books, which I imagine is more Herald centred.

[@jeanlouise4707]

The world of ice and fire is S tier for me 👍👍👍 It has so much lore, history, and culture. Though, of course the magic system is not very elaborate, I guess, so I can understand why that would fall under A

[@JLchevz]

yeah but Daniel is so in love with WOT and LOTR that he cant admit ASOIAF is on that level

[@tomfastic4]

I'm with you, I appreciate Magic systems, but I'm a huge history nerd. The world of ice and fire just really clicks for me on a lore/history level.

[@Ioiopopoio]

The magic system is soft, but that doesnt make it bad.

[@mralfey]

I would put it lower in A Tier because most the history and lore is basically re-skinned England history

[@Ismael-kc3ry]

He didn’t say the magic system is bad, in fact I don’t think Daniel even mentions the magic system when talking about ASOIAF

[@jrm371]

The wordbuilding was actually pretty decent in the GOT show for the first few seasons. Season 5 began to throw it way or avoid it

[@gabbymitaj8165]

No. No it wasn’t. It was really zoomed in and we didn’t get a chance to explore anything other than kings landing, the wall and some essos. I want to see the lamb people, frog eaters, cannogmen’s island, and WHERE THE FUCK was the rest of the north? Where is DORNE other than that stinking palace. Please. They disregarded so much. Which, IF THEY ACTUALLY FOLLOWED THE MATERIAL AND DID MORE SEASONS, they would have time to explore.

[@brettervonkanada6102]

@@gabbymitaj8165 Feast for Crows is like 80% just Dorne and Iron Islands. For some reason they cut almost all of Feast for Crows from the show. But it's a TV show after all, we can't expect them to go as deep as the books without making like 15 seasons, and it's absolutely impossible for a show to stay consistent as long (or survive even). You know they don't even know if they will have the show more than 2 seasons in advance, no matter how successful. That's the entertainment beaurocracy...

[@bradkrick8254]

Westeros. Definitely S tier. Hardly worth discussion. The depth of history in that world is so well crafted that I never once thought while reading it that if I asked GRRM a follow up question about some history minutia that he wouldn’t have an answer. It’s extremely fleshed out while still having deep mysteries that may or not be uncovered about the ancient past.

[@t.hussain921]

Awkward to see Malazan's absence, because regardless of the series' polarizing reputation, its world is generally considered the pinnacle of modern fantasy worlds. I thought by Book-4 you'd have had a good idea of the world and its lore. I'd also like to see what you think of His Dark Materials world.

[@BaronVonWolfe19]

To be fair, it's hard to appreciate the temporal and practical SCOPE of Malazan until you get a ways into the series and into Esslemont's books. Multiple continents turns into multiple worlds turns into multiple planes of existence. It's like Forgotten Realms but way more cohesive. The history of Malazan is literally millions of years. The more you read, the more jaw-dropping the scale becomes.

[@mohawk283]

I say Malazan is S tier if your willing to put in the work, I recently just finished the series and found my self constantly looking up the wiki to learn what was what, there is so much in the world but at the same time it is not explain in a lot of cases or explain 6 books in the later or your reading book 9 and they talk about stuff in book 1 which just makes it hard to follow. If we didn't have the internet it would be a nightmare to just trying to remember characters across books not to even mention history. Great series, but thank God there is a wiki lol

[@TheOnceandFutureJake]

"Forgotten Realms doesn't have diehard lore fans..." UMMM, excuse me, yes it does. They're called Dungeon Masters. There's actually a LOT of cool shit that's gone on in FR. One of the most notable is the Time of Troubles, when the gods just disappeared and things went crazy, but you find out it's because they were at war. Or when Mystra, the Goddess of Magic, was murdered and her death caused chaos through the Weave, basically the magical framework of the universe that she created. Because of that, the Spellplague happened, and the entire world was left at the mercy of pure magical unpredictability. Entire nations were destroyed, regions suddenly disappeared and were replaced by choatic limbo, or a piece of another world entirely! All of which, only took place in a 500-1000 year period. There is so much more going on everywhere else ALWAYS because FR is so goddamn huge. Sure, Azeroth has a cool blind Night Elf anti-hero, and some demons, but in my mind it really can't compare to the amount of work put into FR.

[@DanielGreeneReviews]

The Once and Future Jake a lot happening =/= quality things happening.

[@amaresuify]

This! I was so surprised he ranked the Forgotten Realms so low. I haven't read the novels since I was a kid, but I DM with my campaigns based on the Sword Coast. The amount of lore and history I've picked up just from the source books and some Wiki reading is massive.

[@TheOnceandFutureJake]

@@DanielGreeneReviews How is that any different from Azeroth? Azeroth is arguably just as generic. The only difference being that making large changes to video game world lore is a lot easier than with books. There are several fantastic FR book series out there. Drizzt isn't the only one. The special thing about FR is that with a world as big as it is, you can have several authors make their marks in different ways. It's truly special when you can go from reading a book series, to picking up a D&D book and read about a region and say, "I know why it's like that." This is 100% one of the cases where I don't think you have enough exposure to the FR content.

[@geosustento8894]

@@TheOnceandFutureJake I agree. I know ranking videos are great, but I think Daniel might have to think twice about ranking some stuff/lore/books he knows very little of against others that he's a big fan of because sure, this is subjective, but can you really give a good judgement about something you know little about? PS: no hate, but this is one thing that I always notice on his tier lists.

[@Thumbdumpandthebumpchump]

I agree that Azeroth is worse than Forgotten Realms, but Forgotten Realms is B tier. That's still a good ranking.

[@altoguy16499]

Oh. Interview with Jim Butcher. That's exciting. Also, when do we get the "fantasy world I want to live in?"

[@lordofdarkness4204]

He’s already said that he doesn’t want to live in any of them.

[@sianaloo]

Can't believe asoiaf isn't in S tier. It's got so much history and lore.

[@brianlinden3042]

"Narnia might not have the most DEEP magic system..." Haha, I see what you did there! (YOU might not have seen what you did there, mind you, but I did!)

[@kammy6340]

Hahahaha...I saw it too. Lol. Clever.

[@ASmartNameForMe]

@@kammy6340 guess who didn't? Me, I didn't. Please explain to us emptyheads

[@ASmartNameForMe]

Wait no now I remember. Right "do not cite the deep magic to me witch" dear god I'm a fucking idiot

[@kammy6340]

@@ASmartNameForMe nah you're not an idiot. We all do things at a different pace. You got to it in the end. 👍😁

[@ASmartNameForMe]

@@kammy6340 aww, I'm flattered, but no I really am, if not for this then for everything else.

[@warl0ck_st0rm7]

Wheres Terry Goodkind's fantasy world where he thinks he writes good books??? Missed a cruical one dan....

[@derpimusmaximus8815]

It's up his butt. Same place as his head.

[@sernoddicusthegallant6986]

Out Lord and Savour Terry Greatkind does not write fantasy books.

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

Fantasy fans don't like people with confidence and self-esteem... Shocking! :D

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

Aleksandar Ivano Terry Goodkind is so ashamed of the genre he’s using that it reeks of fear and overcompensation. I’d hardly call that confidence.

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

@@UltimateKyuubiFox that is not why fantasy fans hate him and you know it, stop lying.

[@sernoddicusthegallant6986]

*Dosent include Malazan* "‘We left a debt in blood,’ she said, baring her teeth. ‘Malazan blood. And it seems they will not let that stand.’ They are here. On this comment section. The Malazans are on our comment section."

[@shawngillogly6873]

This. Sadness. And an absolute S Tier world. History literally baked into the series. Lore for multiple races going back 100,000yrs. Archaeology dwelt on with the love Tolkien gave pipeleaf. And for my money, the most unique and mind-blowing magic system in fantasy.

[@WildWolfGod]

I'm going through the comments specifically for everyone that feels cheated at the lack of Malazan.

[@Hursomhelst]

Its just why I cant for the life of me take Daniel seriously, he is stuck in his YA wheel of time fanboyism and cant grow intellectually beyond Jordan and that hack Sanderson

[@bryson2662]

@@Hursomhelst this comment reeks of snobbery.

[@UltimateKyuubiFox]

hursomhelst Or he hasn’t read more than three books of Malazan and doesn’t feel he reasonably rank it without a fuller context, as he’s explained in previous videos. You know.

[@abj136]

The World of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant deserves to be high on this chart. Donaldson's inventiveness in this regard is second to none, the depth and breadth of its history and geography is amazing. His books span multiple completely different eras, as well as the geography of the world, though many characters come from areas never visited in the books.

[@stephencruickshank3868]

abj I’m not sure Daniel has read that series. I may have missed it, but he has never mentioned it. And it was Wheel of Time before Wheel of Time. An attempt to show how normal people would actually respond to epic adventures.

[@chriscase6929]

I’m not sure Donaldson did worldbuilding or lore the way Tolkien and his successors do. The appeal of The Land seems prominently there to serve as a provocation or temptation for the protagonist. I spent many a pleasant hour in The Land though, so I’d vote for it.

[@christianyaerger1751]

While I'd rank Star Wars one grade up, I understand where you're coming from. My biggest issue is the "One Biome Per Planet" trope. In Rise of Skywalker, the Endor moon on which they find the Death Star debris isn't the same First Moon in Return of the Jedi, but a Water Moon. Probably the most varied planet is Naboo in Phantom Menace, since it had a forest, water, AND city tileset!

[@kreehomel]

As much as I like Mistborn, it is way too high here, particularly being over Stormlight. Mistborn has a lot of its history erased or not discussed, just like Stormlight, but its environment and cultures aren't as well defined or at least as diverse. Mistborn has maybe 6 cultures (that play roles in the story), and its scope is limited to an area smaller than most of the countries on Roshar. Plus, it doesn't have all the cool animals (though granted, the lack of biodiversity is part of the story). Oh, and Malazan should be in S tier.

[@Salvationman51]

To be fair, I’d probably flip Mistborn and Stormlight Archive on the History portions. I do wholeheartedly agree on Stormlight Archive being a bit light on History, but it’s going to be massive so he’s slow rolling it a little so it’s just not info dump for a half a book XD. Spoilers...... But how much can you say about the Final Empire before Kelsier’s time and before the Lord Ruler’s time. We know of the Terris and that’s about it for the World History. With the changing of the prophecy/the logbook, we can’t even say for sure what is true history and what is not. Sure we can say the Final Empire is pretty stable/uniform through its history, but still kinda lacking. The only other snippets are the ancient religions from Sazed. For Stormlight we have a similar information about it’s deep history (Desolations ala Terris), but we at least get more hints of the past with Dalinar’s visions. We know of the Sunmaker’s conquest, the recent unification of Althekar, the Recreance, the Hierocracy (not sure how to actually spell that). I would at least rate the flashbacks of the POV characters of Stormlight almost on par with the original Mistborn trilogy as being history. I think the issue more is scale than anything else between Mistborn and Stormlight Archive. Mistborn is essentially only following one county’s history (shush about Bands of Mourning) for maybe a thousand years of the Final Empire plus the three hundred or so afterwords with the four and a half thousand for truly an entire world’s worth of countries.

[@leviticus311]

Just wanted to say thank you for that spoiler warning. Don't know what I was thinking beginning to read the comments, but the warning brought me back to my senses. Much appreciated.

[@dirtybirdperson4020]

Same. I love Mistborn but even with two separate eras the world is really small (because its not explored ) so there isn't a lot of culture variation and the history at least that of the final empire itself feels pretty static with like the occasional small rebellion being the only note I can remember (and we don't know much about pre empire world). In fact I'd say the closet thing Scadrial has to deep historical lore is pretty much what we already read about in the 1st 3 books so it was neat seeing how that evolved centuries later but isn't the same.

[@Salvationman51]

JimmyBgood43 Honesty sometimes, there is always another secret. You never know what little nugget of wisdom you missed in a Sanderson book, keep you eyes very glued to a page, never straight up google stuff (Sometimes I wish there was a function on its wiki to only reveal knowledge with Books A, B, E, G, and I but not Books C, D, F, and H). That and with how prolific he is, you never know what he has published recently you missed XD

[@leviticus311]

@@Salvationman51 Understood, thanks!

[@bribes_for_nouns]

Agreed. I love Mistborn and SA but putting Mistborn's world that far above SA seems a bit criminal just for the history element alone. Esp considering the Desolations plot aspect of SA. The Lord Ruler and the world back then did have some good backstory but it wasn't so elegant to warrant Scadrial being that far above Roshar. Roshar is just so rich that while reading it you just feel like you're inside of it, one of my favorite parts of SA. No way Mistborn's world was better.

[@GideonCyn]

Did I miss the Malazan Empire? did you not put it in cos there isnt a S+ tier? very considerate.

[@Cieges]

Witness

[@xcBlackDiamond]

This must be the reason lol

[@TheRazCooper]

deity 93 He mentioned on twitter that he isn’t far enough into Malazan to comfortably rank it, I believe.

[@rederik99]

@@TheRazCooper That's good news. I know the fandom can turn off some experienced fantasy readers because they are so vocal on social media, but honestly, once you've read all of Malazan (like he has with MiddleEarth and WoT), you see clearly how unrivaled the Malaz world truly is.

[@omnitheus5442]

@@rederik99 not really. He already ranks SA after 3 books. Hypocrisy is the greatest luxury!

[@vincentthendean7713]

If you do a part 2, might I suggest Warhammer's world (both Fantasy and 40k). Also, try looking into the worlds in manga like One Piece.

[@Haxerous]

I would say One Piece has a similar problem like Roshar. Like its history is very important to the story and we won't see everything till the series ends.

[@derpimusmaximus8815]

True, but for the sake of precision, do the best Fantasy (3rd WHFB/1st WHFRP).

[@jancodevilliers2432]

Personally I think in terms of world building, one piece actually beats tolkien, especially with the size and detail, but I do agree with the problem with all the unknown that we stil need to know but is heavily important and will only will be revealed at the end...

[@nvwest]

Amestris from Fullmetal Alchemist is also amazing. Seems like he might plan on reading that sometime

[@great-wall-of-nowhere9377]

The current setting of One Piece like the amount of Islands and cultures that Oda has crafted is supreme.

[@samtheactualkenku6205]

Fun fact for non D&D players: the Forgotten Realms was made by Ed Greenwood for AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) and R.A. Salvatore's the Legend of Drizzt was the second series to be based in the Forgotten Realms, the first followed a wizard named Elminster as well as his companions, many of whom are currently gods in the Forgotten Realms

[@mikesbookreviews]

"I'm gonna make some people mad in this one" I took as "calm down, Malazan fans." I agree with most other than Star Wars. If we're counting JUST the original EU (aka Legends) that is. But you make good points. I do wish you had included First Law, but I'll guess you'd have it in low B or high C.

[@damp2269]

I'd rate The Circle of the World a solid A tier but that includes all the info that comes from the standalones and the age of madness.

[@hendrikkranen662]

With out watching wheel of time is top tier Edit: surprisingly not Edit 2: nevermind

[@nosferatum791]

You scared me - I almost downvoted this video without watching.

[@hendrikkranen662]

nosferatum791 bro sorry i was mistaken

[@randyrogers1853]

WoT is a B tier world at best but it’s Daniel so you know it’s gonna be ranked S, behind only Middle Earth. (And probably begrudgingly at that)

[@kvothekingkiller1754]

@@nosferatum791 when youre so much of a reddit addict you use reddit terms on KZbin

[@hristohristov9573]

Hey! As soon as you finish Malazan series, you can update this tier list with it on the top and all will be right with the world :)

[@Zivilin]

All will be right in the world once he updates it with Tamora Pierce's world of Tortall. :)

[@hope2dust]

Daniel: This is not the same as the fantasy map video! Video: *is basically the same as fantasy map video Me: Daniel is content king! So original! Brilliant! Never before seen tier list! I'm in love!

[@nvwest]

bigredcrazyk haha 😂 me

[@w.o.4870]

Tier lists are my favorite. There's just something so satisfying about them!

[@lyrix9753]

I think a big problem with forgotten realms is that it deliberately only gives a skeleton of its lore and also it tries to juggle so much things with its lore that it all falls apart the deeper you dive into it

[@joelip4396]

I feel like the unknown history (at least toward the beginning) could be intentional in stormlight with the way it relates to the plot. It will be cool if more of it gets uncovered later on

[@LittleFourStar]

The lore of WoW and the effects it has on the world are incredibly interesting. The Cataclysm alone changed the world sooooo much.

[@DrakeCaliburn]

If you were to do more, I would like to recommend Thedas from Dragon Age, maybe some Nirn from Elder Scrolls, the Continent from The Witcher, heck I would include Matt Mercer's Exandria.

[@lpierich]

I would like to here about Daniel’s thoughts on n Mercer’s world building. I would put Mercer’s story telling up there with Tolkien. There are not to many people that can describe a chair to be as distrusting as Matt. Haha. But Daniel if you see this I would like to hear your thoughts on Matt Mercer’s world. I don’t know if you have watched all 5000 hours of critical roll.

[@sonofthewolfguardianofthef1214]

15:00 Okay so you know how after the Stark/Tully war of independence the Lanisters cut up the Riverlands for the Frey’s? Okay I did a little bit of looking into it because my brain was like “this doesn’t make sense” and I found some pretty crazy stuff. So Black Walder and his brother are the Heir and a spare to the Twins. The thing is that they both hate each other and think that the other will try and kill them meaning that after Lord Walder dies those two are going to start fighting each other so that’s a potential civil war. Gatehouse Frey is the Lady of Darry, but there is a Frey branch of Crakehall dissent that is based in the Vale and one of their members are a master in the halls of House Hunter, and they’re intermarried with the Wynwoods and the Hardings so potentially more Frey on Frey violence. Emend Frey thinks that because he owns Riverrun he controls the Riverlands instead of Peter out of Harinhall so that will give Littlefinger a reason to invade from the Vale. Roselyn Frey is a member of the Vance branch of house Frey and the Vances don’t like the Frey’s and with Roselyn they can return the Tullys to power so even more Frey on Frey violence. To me that deserves S tier but I can respect your choice.

[@nicoleglasson8615]

One of my favourite fantasy settings is the one from the Death Gate cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (the original Dragonlance authors although this series is completely separate). This series is known for it's worldbuilding above any other factor. The prose and characters are somewhat tropey but the setting itself is incredible. It's hard to talk about without spoiling anything, but you basically have four main worlds each based on one element - air, fire, stone, and water - and then a central Nexus connected to a Labyrinth. Each of the first four books takes place in one after another of the elemental worlds with their own characters and storylines. Each of the first four books (except possibly the third) could easily stand alone. So first point - the maps. The air world is very hard to describe with any level of accuracy. There are basically three levels of firmament that have semi stable floating pieces of almost-land on which people live. Travel between these lands is by airship or by dragon. The fire world (I keep calling it the earth world because it's so green but it's really really not) is huge and is set in a system with four suns and some other spoilery things that I can't talk about because the setting is plot related. But the world is so rich in resources that the vegetation is miles high. The ground itself is a mythic entity. Then we have the stone world which is entirely set in large connected caverns on the interior of a planet. Lava abounds which is why I always mix this and the fire world up. Finally the water world from my understanding is more like a giant sphere of water that contains air pockets around pieces of land. People on this world don't build ships so much as submersibles. Aside from these four you have the Labyrinth which is basically a potentially intelligent piece of landscape that's out to kill everyone inside of it. The Nexus is a sort of a big city placed at the exit of the Labyrinth. All of these worlds are joined by the Death Gates, hence the name of the series. Next point - the people. In this series there are two main sets of races to talk about. The first set are the mensch. These are the humans, elves, and dwarves. The dynamics between these races completely changes depending on which world you're reading about, and each of these three has a character as the main viewpoint in books 1, 2, and 4 respectively. 3 is a special case, I'll get to that. Humans and elves have magic systems specific to their races and dwarves, as is normal in fantasy, get magically shafted. The second set of people are these two humanoid groups called the Patryns and Sartans. These two groups were more involved with the foundations of these worlds but by the time the books start have largely disappeared. In the case of the Patryns, they were imprisoned in the Labyrinth generations ago and as of the prologue of book one have only recently started to emerge in the Nexus beyond. I won't say anything about the Sartans except that they were in many ways the exact opposite of the Patryns. These two groups both have access to magic which is for the most part the equal and opposite of the others. The magic they use is so powerful that they would appear to be gods to the mensch if they ever met them. Finally the lore - there's a lot of it. These two authors are worldbuilders to the core so there's a whole heck of a lot going on behind the scenes. Not only are there appendices, there are also footnotes. Not footnotes like the ones in Nevernight where the author is having a laugh, just specific lore points that you can choose to read or not as you please. You won't miss out on much if you don't read them but they are quite interesting if you're willing to disrupt the rest of your reading. I'm not sure that I want to talk about much else because of spoilers. I will say that books 1-4 are mostly self-contained and 5-7 revisit some of these stories while also bridging together the whole. One of the background plots, more important in some books than others, is about how each of the elemental worlds is starting to fail because they don't have access to aspects of the other worlds. For example, off the bat the air world has very very little water - a barrel is thought to be a kings ransom. And the stone world... the stone world needs some serious tlc. That place is a mess. I'll give summaries for the contained stories of books 1-4 and leave it there. Book 1 - Air - A human king hires an assassin to kill his only child in order to start a war (or for some other nefarious political reason). Book 2 - Fire - Picture Attack on Titan only the mensch didn't know they were coming. Watching AoT really creeped me out as an adult because it so matched how I imagined the Tytans in this book, only less green. This is possibly the weakest book because the characters are my god pretty annoying. But the world is great. Book 3 - Stone - Why necromancy is a not good very bad idea. This is the book where the overarching plot really starts to come into play and is typically where I start my rereads from. As much as I like books 1& 2 they feel more on par with your average Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance book. Which I mean, I love me some simplistic pulpy fantasy. But from this point on the series is really elevated to something different. Book 4 - Water - A powerful race interacts with the mensch and demands that three children, one child from each of the ruling families, be sent to them as tribute. I really have to stop before I hit some sort of mythical comment character limit. Anyway who did I write this for? And for what purpose? idk it's like two in the morning and I'm supposed to be sleeping but who needs sleep lmao not fuckin me. And why can I write 8000 words on a book series that no-one asked me about but I still haven't done my lab report?? Asking the real questions.

[@Vitlorgal]

Just wanted to say I appreciate your comment. Definitely will read the Death Gate Cycle soon.

[@katiestiava4856]

Thank you for giving The Broken Earth the respect it deserves for its world

[@VeganFury]

Was i the only one who thought it was hilarious when he said the magic in Narnia isn't very DEEP! like it literally has the deep magic.

[@mmartinu327]

He probably meant complex, not deep.

[@ytyler2012]

As someone who grew up completely opposite of you on Narnia, I grew up taught to hate His Dark Materials (I’m from the Bible Belt, give me a break), and loving Narnia, but after watching your videos for so long, I’m actually going to give Pullman’s books a shot. I know this probably doesn’t belong here, but while we were on the topic of Narnia, I figured I’d thank you.

[@t.hussain921]

His Dark Materials was the first fantasy book series that I read and it's still one of my top-5.

[@ytyler2012]

Hussain T my schools refused to have it in our libraries. We always had Narnia though, and aside from a Series of Unfortunate Events, it was my favorite series. But as I’ve grown up and realized what a cut off childhood kids in the south have had, especially with overly conservative parents.

[@t.hussain921]

HDM's criticism of religion is very subtle. It does not outright throw "religion bad" rhetoric in your face.

[@ytyler2012]

Hussain T I don’t doubt it, and at this point in my life, even if it did, I wouldn’t care near as much as I would’ve in high school. Literature is literature. I’m fully planning to read HDM probably later this year after I binge the Cosmere and WoT.

[@thebookviking988]

I literally started this video just thinking that Daniel has got to put Middle Earth super high. I’m really happy with your ranking and reasons. I also literally yelled I was so happy that you placed Middle Earth first. There is sooo much to Tolkien’s world!

[@billyalarie929]

>"sustenance" "you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means."

[@elijahtaylor4698]

Hell yes!

[@nailin18]

Don't want to be that guy, so I'm just saying I'm surprised you didn't put the World of Avatar (The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra) anywhere in your list.

[@noahmpinto14]

I'd put avatar in B tier

[@henryanderson6752]

noahmpinto14 I’d put it in A list, but Korea ruined it for me.

[@robotgalaxy4168]

Was looking for this comment. When he was saying all the things that make Middle Earth great, the world of Avatar was the first thing to come to mind since I saw this was uploaded 9 months ago, which was when I did a rewatch for the first time in years

[@lacedmilk8586]

I'm going to assume that the reason Malazan isn't here is because Daniel hasn't read enough of the series.

[@Ktulured55]

There are lots of series aren't in here that he does not like. And for other reasons of his, and his alone.

[@pkrdy3]

Dresden definitely becomes an S tier world. You don't even really understand what the big bad of the series is yet before Changes, although he starts giving you ideas pretty early on. It's wild how much that series opens up and then continues opening.

[@brittany9233]

I so appreciate that you ranked Wonderland so high even without a rich history. I'm currently writing a surrealist fantasy that may not wind up with a deep and expansive history just based on how the world works, but you have reassured me that a world can be loved and respected as long as it succeeds elsewhere, and as long as it's what is needed for the story. I have some thoughts about your ranking of course, it's all subjective, but it's clear that you love and enjoy fantasy through your observations and I can't argue too hard with a fellow genre fan. Great video!

[@sethrobbins2464]

Prince of Thorns is fantastic. Read the TRILOGY. You will find yourself loving Jorg despite him being a psychopath. Haha maybe even because of it.

[@bradenhazle4378]

Just gonna ignore The Last Airbender world? Wow wow

[@noahmpinto14]

I'd put the Avatar world in upper B tier

[@shrexyavocado7828]

noahmpinto14 *not high enough*

[@nedsrandom]

@@shrexyavocado7828 the world isnt that good honestly, not loads of history, we don't see much of the fire nation. I'd say it's B. placing it on the same tier as asoiaf is just not right.

[@FlyingFocs]

@@noahmpinto14 as a hardcore fan, I'd have to agree. There is some history and folklore, but it's not super complicated, and Roku and Sozin being Zuko's Great-grandfathers doesn't make a lot of sense chronologically. Great-great works much better. I do like some parts seem generally lived in, and it feels like there is history in some of the locations just on a visual level, but then again it's kind of weird that the World of Avatar is just... The World of Avatar. Like, it has no official name. I don't find that immersion breaking, but it is weird to notice.

[@pixelarrowproductions]

I think that avatar is really more about the story and its characters. The world building isnt exactly a major focus. So I can see why he didnt include it here.

[@gabrielnaylor6443]

We need a tier list of all of the major magical diseases in fantasy worlds

[@BirdMorphingOne]

If Star Wars is its own “world,” shouldn’t the Cosmere be considered all one as well?

[@Ktulured55]

This gentleman who made the video, has so many opinions that so many disagree with. Yet so many still watch him and act like his opinions are facts. He's not so nice sometimes too. Only my opinion! ☹

[@RecklessFables]

Is the Cosmere, at this point, really interlinked enough to be compressed as a world? Each planet has its own magic, culture, etc. Does Star Wars deserve to be separated? Maybe? Some planets are fleshed out a bit, but all we really care about are the planet-hopping characters.

[@BamadeusTTV]

IMO, splitting up the Star Wars galaxy into multiple multiple worlds would lower the quality even further. They have a whole ass galaxy filled with worlds that, if we only go by canon, is largely surface level decoration more than it is an actual place. Even the most fleshed out worlds feel paper thin to the point that I couldn't imagine any single one being close to breaking out of D. I've always thought that Star Wars suffers from a feeling that alien species and worlds are just constantly thrown in for the fun of it, or to be the butt of some joke to serve the immediate scene and barely if ever be referenced again. It feels disposable.

[@joshyaash]

Yeah I'm not sure if we can call it it's own "world" until we get a dedicated Hoid book.

[@braydengraves4655]

@@joshyaash The Hoid book (Dragonsteel) will be a prequel to the Cosmere, and be set on its own world, so I don't think it would count then either. The fourth Mistborn series, on the other hand, will be a space opera spanning the entire Cosmere, so that would probably qualify the Cosmere as a whole.

[@Evil_Peter]

I think Westeros is definitely S-tier for the intricate display of noble houses, their politics, and how the rest of society fits with that. It's a big thing to make the world believable as a place where people actually live and with a feeling how those lives actually look like. It's a big thing for buying into the world as something more than just cool. That believability is Middle-Earth's biggest weakness, as I never get a good feel for how the daily life of people go, how their societies work with logistics, etc. That aside it's still unquestionably S-tier for me as well. Easily the most iconic fantasy world ever. The WoT world I have a hard time saying that much about since I'm only somewhere in early book 3, and to be completely honest struggling with interest a bit. This far it doesn't seem very cohesive and more like cool things cobbled together, but naturally my opinion isn't very relevant until I've seen more of it, so I don't have a rating for it yet.

[@nerdtopicscovered9105]

I'm cracking my knuckles, ready to defend Westeros

[@nanotyrannus5435]

Stormlight has 3 books out of ten, so I think it is okay to count it as incomplete. I would rate it higher because it is only one shortfall and that is probably because Sanderson revealing the history slowly is what he also did in Mistborn, which has the time jump advantage in history. I would say Stormlight has more history shown than you give it credit for, there is a lot we find in the books. Being 6 books into Wheel of Time I would say Stormlight has shown us more history in 3 books out of ten than WoT did in 6 books out of 14.

[@lordofdarkness4204]

Nanotyrannus that’s because Jordan has unveiled the world far more slowly then Sanderson did. But I’d argue he has given more details on the history in those six books then Stormlight has

[@StudentoftheABC]

With WoT, why not call it: Moiraine Terrain?

[@amys0482]

Randland was more common

[@swine13]

Id have gone for Lanland but thats just me

[@texman89]

That Star Wars placement physically hurt me

[@der_benson4478]

I think he would have made many fans happy if he had given it 2 spots... placing the Disney Canon in D tier, where it belongs and placing the Legends Canon into A or B Tier, where it definitely belongs.

[@SamGaleFilms]

Aslan: you know of the *deep magic* Dan: *the magic is not the deepest*

[@razorboy251]

If we are looking at worlds from traditional tabletop RPGs, you should look at Eberron! Amazing sense of scale and history in it.

[@loreguru3083]

Me: *Sits down.* Oh hey, a world tier list that looks at the history, character and other parts of the world. M'boi Malazan should hit the top of the top tiers pretty easily here. Also Me: Oh right Daniel likes to use images for these tier lists and STEPHEN refuses to give us A MAP OF THE MALAZAN WORLD. RIP.

[@theatheistbear3117]

*Steven, not Stephen.

[@ChristmasLore]

Pretty sure I've seen maps in Malazan books?🤔 Perhaps, not of the whole world (and there's a good reason for that, if I remember well)

[@loreguru3083]

@@ChristmasLore There are maps, yes, but no full-world maps like the one SE has hanging in his house somewhere. Which he refuses to share because Erickson is a cruel and angry god.

[@urturningviolet]

I love these videos because they're full of variety. However, if you could more directly reference which series accompanies the person/place/ whatever that you're ranking then I would appreciate it. Sometimes you make something seem so cool when you're ranking it but then I don't have that ping of understanding if I hear the series again. I hope that makes sense.

[@conorkeelan5390]

Re: stormlight’s history, I think it is placed similarly to where WoT is at its point. I am on book 5 of WoT in a first read through and still feel very confused/vague about the chronology of history and it’s depth which is still majorly shrouded in mystery.

[@frking100]

Daniel went full fanboy and gave the series s ranking. Yes wot is very detailed culture wise but most of the story is pure blank pages. You have the breaking which is pretty shrouded then the rise of the tower, trolloc wars and later hakwings empire. But between these timelines you have like 3000 years of meh status quo happened.

[@jroygbiv]

GOT 100% in the S tier. Each character has a real life level of history. And all those lives interlaid with each other gives this world so much history.

[@juanr.2308]

Hey daniel, I think i watch every video you upload so I'm going to give you some feedback. When you make tier lists it woul be really useful to either have a pop up for the name of the things or/and a picture. For example I had some trouble getting you say Hyrule , so a popping link picture would have been really useful. Hope you keep us entertained !

[@saldanamoreno]

I'm one of the people who would put ASOIAF world into "S" tier....hello good day to you as well good sir.

[@antikotocerepa]

You mean "ser"

[@watershipdowneyjr]

I think if we had more information about the lands beyond the Dothraki Sea it'd definitely be "S" tier. I totally understand why GRRM has kept all that so vague considering he's writing from the perspective of what is known by Westerosi standards at the time. Knowing next to nothing about Sothryos just kills me, though.

[@darkcow7of9]

Agreed and he fleshed out the whole world more in books like the world of ice and fire. I don't think there is any other series that explores history and lore as much as a song of ice and fire

[@cbob213]

Hands down the best fantasy world with it's own history

[@ashutoshtripathi.]

Honestly, the one thing that detracts from ASOIAF is that in Westeros, an entire continent bigger than Europe, there is literally just one language being spoken. I mean are you kidding me? Sure there's the language that giants speak but that's fucking it!

[@siahtaylor4942]

"Brutal and unforgiving" 20 sec later "I am blind to these flaws" lmao perfect

[@moonlightboiii]

Can't wait for your reaction on Dresden Files' Changes. Also pumped up on the incoming Jim Butcher interview!

[@Ymryrth]

Rand in German means edge and in some cases border. So Randland sounds to me like Edgeland or Borderland.

[@SayBinidus]

I always felt that Wheel of Time fell short in its history, even though it's still my favorite book series. Not so much that a lot of the history is obscure or forgotten, but that nearly all of its ancient history falls almost exactly into three narrow slices- the Breaking, the Trolloc Wars, and the War of the Hundred Years. (Recent history aside, of course.) I even get why most of that should be the case, due to records getting destroyed and everything, it just really bugs me that we never learned much about the times in between besides the barest out-of-context hints. Even the New Era history tends to center on either the immediate aftermath of the war, or circa 500 NE. I would have loved to learn more about the 300's NE or like the 680's (besides which queen of Andor or amyrlin seat was in power). And for some reason I really wanted to learn more about the countries of Caralain and Almoth. But I could probably recite the location of every leatherleaf tree or gilded object in all of Randland, so there's that! :P

[@atdeacon]

Ray Feist's Midkemia and its full universe should be examined now that the Riftwar Saga is concluded. the last 4 series explore the different planes and how they are reflected on Midkemia is the main reason this Saga is actually 3rd on my all time list. Also its multi-tiered magic system is fully explored and fascinating. And Nakor is one of the most interesting characters in a fantasy series.

[@alantaylor6691]

What is 1 and 2 on your all-time list, if Riftwar Saga is your "3". ? My top 3 are Middle Earth, Axis Trilogy, and Riftwar Saga. What do you think of the Axis trilogy?

[@atdeacon]

@@alantaylor6691 #1 is Wheel of Time #2 is the Shanarra Saga by Terry Brooks-After and incredibly mediocre first book (Sword of Shanarra which Brooks admitted was too derivative of Tolkien and not very good) then Brooks found his voice and by the end was a magnificent world with some of the most memorable characters (Garet Jax for example)

[@thefilmeffect6089]

A Song Of Ice And Fire is S Tier. It's more fleshed out than the Wheel Of Time and the only one that is on The Lord Of The Rings level. It's history, cultures, and lore are all on another level.

[@ThaAlkaholik13]

Daniel: Wheel of Time is the only fantasy world that rivals Middle-Earth in history and lore Malazan fans: excuse me what the fuck

[@zachary4725]

I think that the harry potter world is meant to be more of a setting, than a world. It achieves its purpose in the story extremely well, (and to tie your metaphor into this) as the story really only needs an extremely pretty garden

[@mantycorrin246]

Hyrule definitely is really redundant but I really love how the lore is ingrained in the world. Especially in Breath of the Wild, I feel like as you explore it really gives you a sense of wonder of how things got to where they were. A example of this is the mystery of the Zonai Tribe being completely abandoned and erased despite Zonai ruins and influence all around Hyrule. I still agree that the world doesn’t hold up to many others but I really find the world and mystery in Breath of the Wild beautiful.

[@thJune-ze7dn]

Where would Discworld rank? Thoughts?

[@jellevanbreugel325]

God Tier

[@lordofdarkness4204]

I haven’t read that much of it but based on what I’ve read it would S tier for anyone who’s e read the whole series. Each book develops the world (some develop it more then others) that I’ve read and I think it deserves a high spot

[@TheSamfrog]

S tier for me. Pratchett evolved his world throughout the books in a way that I've rarely seen in other works, and his would has an incredible amount of personality

[@christopherbacon1077]

S. The first three books are almost like a separate world and by themselves would be a C but as a whole definitely S

[@travis1984ify]

Should check out the Elminster series in Forgotten Realms. I really enjoy that series.

[@VikingSchism]

> Includes Stormlight even though there's only been 3 books > Doesn't influde Malazan after reading at least 4 of the books - including Memories Of Ice that really delves into the T'lan Imass etc and House Of Chains Smh

[@mikebennett1174]

Memory Sorrow & Thorn????

[@adamborst]

I don't really comment much, but I cannot wait for the Dresden stuff alluded to here, Changes review whenever that happens and more importantly the Butcher interview. For any family focused people out there Changes hits you right in the feels.

[@corbanbausch9049]

Hot Take: the Cosmere as a whole should be included in this list. The Cosmere seems to me to be a "more than the sum of its parts" deal when it comes to worldbuilding. The way the magics and worlds connect is fascinating and I love just how huge and mysterious it feels and searching for clues is so much fun. The concept of a whole fantasy universe completely separate from our own and lacking any real sci-fi elements is so interesting to me.

[@killerkonnat]

"Hyrule is redundant as hell" -> Says man whose favorite book series is based on events repeating infinitely.

[@calebmauer1751]

Maybe Hyrule is the fifth age, and every game is just a different iteration.

[@swine13]

Hyrule is still redundant as hell though. 🤔

[@milesdavis607]

Not to mention that the WoT has so much stuff it takes ages in our world to get through it all lol

[@owendepascal3577]

And its still better than hyrule

[@GideonCyn]

If we are talking pure world building, then Roshar is easily S tier.

[@OverFjell]

I'd put Roshar's world building as only being rivalled by Middle Earth, personally. It blows ASOIAF and (imo) WoT out of the water.

[@Agent_Ste]

@@OverFjell not really

[@Agent_Ste]

@@OverFjell there are literally books about the world of song of ice and fire. We know more about Essos than about Roshar. The details and the known history of this world are incredible. Please watch the video of alt shift x about the east. It's great

[@Alexander-tu3iv]

@@Agent_Ste Planetos has the edge on scope, but doesn't come close to matching Roshar in detailed and unique worldbuilding which all comes together to create a greater whole. Pretty much all of the worldbuilding in asoiaf is retelling of irl history. Whereas stormlight archives is built from the ground up around the concept of high storms, from the fact that it's a supercontinent to the physiology and behaviour of the animals and plants, to the magic system, to the architecture and even to the way humans look (epicantic folds are widely thought to have evolved for keeping out particles in various windy environments, and only those ethnic groups protected from high storms by mountains don't have them) Roshar actually feels like a different world, whereas Westeros is quite obviously fantasy Europe. Although I will admit that GRRM has fleshed out his noble houses and political factions quite a bit more. Basically GRRM is a quantity worldbuilder and Sanderson is a quality worldbuilder.

[@NaytGaming]

Love the video, but the maps could have been enlarged every time you brought one up.

[@nilsnyberg4825]

I think that the Forgotten Realms being predictable is, in a sense, a good thing. It might not make the best literature but that's not what it's made for, it's made to be (one of) the default settings for a tabletop role-playing game. If Forgotten Realms was very original with deep complex lore that would make it very daunting to new players and require them to either do a lot of homework before creating characters and playing or constantly ask the DM and more experienced players questions about the lore.

[@unclefuzz2313]

I get any list like this is based on what you have read but the world of the Belgariad, Nehwon (Lankmar), and the Hyborian age all deserved some love.

[@mikesanders9267]

Wonderland wasn’t purely absurdism. Much of it was subtle sociopolitical satire of Lewis Carroll’s time, which is lost on today’s audiences, for the most part. No Malazan? Seriously, it’s one of the best in terms of world building, history & cultures.

[@keegszzz8356]

Mike Sanders No Earthsea either, I know he’s only read 1 book but I thought the world was realized enough. There is more in later books though.

[@bramvandenheuvel4049]

Looking forward to where you'd put Malazan once you're far enough into that series ^^

[@randyrogers1853]

He finished book 4 a couple weeks ago. That’s plenty far enough to realize it should be S tier

[@shaedcloak5803]

It’s awful how much he’s snubbed Malazan, I honestly don’t expect him to ever give it the recognition and praise it deserves.

[@ezequielevilovich9486]

@@shaedcloak5803 because he is a fanboy of wot, is not serious

[@unexpected_girl]

me: how could you rank Star Wars so low Daniel: it’s because of the sequels me: ah, yes, this makes sense

[@GannerRhysode]

I wish he would rank legends and new canon separately

[@mmm7528]

@Ema Strnad do you really believe that the prequels, originals and books have poor world building?

[@MarkD5678]

D for Disney

[@thatnerdygaywerewolf9559]

Me, a hardcore Zelda fan with Hyrule being my favorite fantasy world of all time: Yeah, C-tier kind of makes sense. The games are made gameplay first, with the lore and story being second (though with a lot of hidden potential) and mostly involving elements that are game-specific and don't branch out into the wider Cannon, like the Minish, Subrosans (and Labrynna and Holodrum in general), any alternate world presented, and so on. It is a structure that makes the perfect world to create video games in, with a lot you can theorize on, try to connect together, and in general to have fun with, and is capable of feeling deeper/vaster than is actually presented.

[@MrCowabungaa]

Worlds I'd add: Glorantha (big fat S tier), Tamriel (A tier), the Broken Earth world (A tier).