What is the ideal time period for 'forgotten history' novels/stories to take place and still end up with our history?
In novels (SF and FF) that hint at being earlier in Earth's history, such as Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time, in which period would such a story need to take place to plausibly and realistically be able to play out into our history?
Some examples are LotR, Star Gate, Fringe, Assassin's Creed, The Event, etc. The plot involves humans (or humanoids that are uncanny to us), elves, aliens etc. that had hyper-advanced (magical or technological) civilizations on Earth long before we were around. But I have yet to find one that goes into (educated) detail as to when and how this was possible without causing huge inconsistencies in a timeline that should end up with present day.
(I understand that many factors go into this such as deep time, geographic details, species evolution continuity/extinction events and archaeological discoveries, but it does seem to me that there should be a time frame (thousands? millions?) where it would be possible to fit in a fictional continuity and still have history play out in the way we know it. If the answer ends up being a discussion instead of a quick response, feel free to PM me)
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/7279. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
0 answers
0 comment threads