How do we get a 'fantasy' world?

Just something I was musing earlier today.
How do we get the real world to bare the closest possible resemblance to a (hard) fantasy setting without resorting to ASB interferance.

Take this how you will but to my mind things required would be:

*Fully functioning nations in regular contact with each other but with drastically different technology levels (i.e. Steam punk nation is just next door to medieval nation)
*Lots of true adventurers who aren't all just mercenaries.
*Relative ease of travel for the above (paradoxical lack of centralization)
*Most kings are somehow just background characters in main events


Feel free to pick and choose and add your own definitions though, my mind has wondered and I've lost a lot of my train of thought.
I think the jist of a fantasy world here is lots of variety.
Of course fantasy is fantasy because its just that but is there anyway reality could be shoved in that impossible direction?
 
I'm afraid your definitions sorta work for our timeline.

Compare the situations in Somalia and the Arab oil states.
The chaos in Afghanistan or the Balkans and the stability of India and Austria.
There are probably some pretty low-tech communities near Silicon Valley.

As for adventurers, what about those wealthy entrepreneurs trying to start their own space programs, or treasure hunters, undersea divers, even Olympic athletes.

Most kings are background characters? Well, the Prime Minister of England probably gets a bit more coverage in the news than Queen Elizabeth. :)

As the most advanced tech gets even more advanced, we'll get an even greater divide between rich/powerful/high-tech and poor/weak/low-tech.

There have been threads here on surviving hominids, and where they would be. How long could they be isolated from each other so they don't kill each other off?

Then in modern times we might have different varieties of humans giving rise to legends about beings similar to elves, fairies, brownies, pixies, etc.
 
I don't get how any of that gives us a fantasy like world apart from the technicality with the queen.
 

mojojojo

Gone Fishin'
Neanderthals could fill the role of dwarves if they survived and developed metal working. Is that a skill they would be able to master?
 
Pygmies weren't very big

And how about an international agreement to allow "Darkest Africa" to develop at its own pace ?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
A world in which the basic human/prehuman stock and animal species spread over the globe and then were completely isolated from each other by geologic upheavals and catastrophes. Radically different microenvironments with radically different selective pressures develop. Over several million years, mutually infertile species of "humans" evolve. Some never advance beyond the hominid stage, and others evolve to meet the different selective pressures: Dwarf species, giant species, hairless species, furred species, tall, thin species, heavyset strong species, perhaps semi-aquatic species, arboreal species, all with radically different technologies and cultures suited to their environment and body type. Some with excellent hearing, others with excellent eyesight, who knows, maybe some with a finely tuned sensory capability giving them the appearance of having "supernatural powers". Then, about 5000 years ago there are another series of geological cataclyms which remove or eliminate mostof the boundaries (seas drain, mountains sink , whatever) allowing these different species to come into contact - share ideas perhaps, but remain biologically distinct - plus they all share an ancestral memory of the cataclysm which brought them together to form the basis of a common religious framework
 
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