Nerd

From Lord of the Rings to Warcraft, orcs are one of the most-iconic creatures in fantasy, and Charlie Lopresto takes a deep dive into everything about them.

A fantasy hero is only as strong as their blade, so Andrew Rivera examines the inspiration, pedigree and build of one of Game of Thrones' most-iconic weapons: Jon Snow's sword, Longclaw.

From a group of moms against Dungeons and Dragons to pastors banning Harry Potter, Charlie Lopresto explores the times when fantasy stories invoked panic and fear.

Fantasy worlds have some of the finest cartography in all of fiction, but they weren't always part of the package as Andrew Rivera explores the history of made-up maps.

From The Chronicles of Narnia's religious roots to Game of Thrones' struggle for climate justice, Charlie Lopresto looks at the most-famous examples (and non-examples) of fantastic allegory.

From Middle-earth to Westeros, many fantasy worlds are thinly veiled pastiches of Western European tropes. Andrew Rivera highlights the trailblazing authors breaking outdated and largely white norms to revolutionize the genre.

Charlie Lopresto does a deep dive into the origins of The Witcher, a character that was actually created more than 30 years ago!

From Dungeons and Dragons to Warcraft, role-playing games have evolved into mainstream entertainment, and Andrew Rivera is exploring the origins of the game-changing phenomenon.