Public Domain Fantasy Project:Purpose and Principles

The Public Domain Fantasy Project is a collaborative reference work dedicated to discussing, documenting, and sharing fantasy concepts freely. Our goal is to create a collection that anyone can use without having to worry about rights. Hence the reason this archive uses the Creative Commons Zero license. You are free to use it in your own works, both fiction and non-fiction, including, but not limited to literature, video games, television, film, and other media.

This project is not a novel, while it discusses fictional concepts, there is no overarching narrative or fictional continuity that everything has to fit in. It discusses fantasy concepts, characteristics, properties, mannerisms, and other information relevant to using it in your own works.

We want to encourage creativity, not dictate it.

How does it differ from other projects?

While we have the utmost respect for other collaborative projects, the Public Domain Fantasy Project aims for a different goal. Most projects aim to create one continuous narrative on which people could build. This project instead is built to act as an encyclopedia, a reference work. There is no story, no narrative throughline. Everything is laid out bare, so that anyone can get inspiration for their own works.

While this project does keep a sort of canon, you are free to interpret is as you see fit. Most of the canon is here to provide context for your own canon, but aren't hard facts for every work. You may decide to work around or even ignore parts of the canon if that fits your works better. You are free to change, reinterpret, or completely disregard any part of it.

There's another difference. Most collaborative efforts use a Creative Commons license like CC-BY-SA, which requires others who use the work to share derivatives under the same license. Our goal is different, in that we want people to use any part of it as they see fit. This is why we use the Creative Commons Zero license. We believe that some ideas, and specifically the ideas and concepts in the Public Domain Fantasy Project, belongs to everyone, rather than one individual or group. Nobody should have to ask permission to use the work, nor should they feel obligated to credit anyone.

This approach has quite some drawbacks. Once it's out, it's no longer yours, anyone can change what they want without needing to consult. Big companies can use these concepts as they like, without having to pay anyone or give credits to anyone. However, this also lowers the hurdle for smaller creatives, as they wouldn't have to check whether something can or can't be used due to licensing reasons.