LotR is in a sort of hybrid Dark Ages/Edwardian world. Does fantasy have to be set in a middle ages or earlier society, or have older elements from middle ages or earlier drawn into a more modern world? There seems to be a need for life and death issues-- as in LotR or The Hobbit, the story never starts swinging until the protagonists wander somewhere where there are things that might kill them. So is a world where people might be killed necessary for fantasy so that the stakes are high enough?
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