Fantasy set in a world analogous to the 18th or early 19th century, where gunpowder technology coexists with magic.
Flintlock fantasy advances the technological clock of traditional fantasy from medieval swords to muskets, cannons, and early industrial technology. The settings evoke the age of Napoleon, the American Revolution, or the early Industrial Revolution, with magic woven into a world of powder smoke and political upheaval. It fills the gap between medieval-style epic fantasy and steampunk's Victorian technology.
If your fantasy world has progressed beyond swords but hasn't reached steam engines, flintlock fantasy gives you a category and a readership. It's a growing niche that demonstrates how changing the technology level of a fantasy world fundamentally changes its power dynamics, warfare, and social structures.
The genre's flagship: a revolution inspired by the French Revolution, with mages who draw power from gunpowder.
Military fantasy set in a Napoleonic-era-inspired world with demonic magic.
Colonialism, economics, and espionage in a pre-industrial world that feels distinctly flintlock-era.
Write a battle scene where magic and muskets coexist on the same battlefield. How does a mage adapt to gunpowder? How do soldiers adapt to magic? The interaction between these two forces should create tactical problems that neither system alone would generate.