In almost all fantasy settings, humans are the masters and elves and dwarves are in their twilight, their empires and cities are shattered, elves have fled across the sea and dwarves are becoming extinct because they have no heirs.

I would like a sunnier setting, where there is not only rubble and shadows of the past.

I’m looking for a setting where the world is new, where elves and dwarves aren’t growing yet, where elven wizards are doing great things, where industrious dwarves are still digging their amazing cities and forging magnificent objects out of gold, Mithril and Adamantium!

I want a setting where humans are still few, small, weak and ignorant.

Something like the tribe of the protagonist of 10000BC

I want a setting where the elves’ forests are immense and their trees as big as Vallen or redwoods, if not like Avatar’s Hometrees!

And the orcs, yes, they must be there too. Tempted by the whisper of evil because of their sheer physical power that makes the infrastructures of civilization less useful. Orcs with +2 STR, +2 CON, +1 DES but -2 INT, and -1 WIS. A society based on the absolute right of the strongest.

Is there such a setting?

This is a translation of the piece I wrote 4 years ago in Italian, before I got hooked in the Fediverse.