For our classic traditional high fantasy world, we have to assume that we are living in the ruins of a greater empire that dominated in the past, beyond living memory of all but the longest lived of races. Considering high fantasy is often pseudo-european... we are going to assume it will be roman like though we can easily supplant the glories of Rome with any culture really. No matter though... we are living in a period of darkness and fear and ignorance. We don't know what lives in the shadows... in the woods and in the mountains.
Not only do we have the barbarians who sacked and destroyed the old empire... there are countless monsters. After all, we have books upon books of them. Some come from higher or lower planes of existence... who consider mortal life to be a bug under their feet, barely registering that we even exist. The gods barely do much to influence or stop these threats. After all, they are some of the beings who exist on a higher dimension... they are mysterious and powerful.
Mighty knights and adventurers proceed out into the ruins of the fallen empire, looting the remains of past glories. Perhaps they are fighting an enemy who has come into a weapon or item of great power, a remnant of the true power wielded by the previous age. There is always the next massive invasion of barbarians... I mean... orcs and their ilk who threaten the tentative thread of civilization upon which it hangs. Someone is out trying to summon a higher being to our own level of reality again.
These are the various common filaments that fill high fantasy. This is the fuel that has run countless games in both paper and electronic form. It also is so very limiting.
It only begins to appear though as such when you start to run longer games. When you are playing a new game... everything is so new... so much of the map is still unfilled. Here there be dragons still rings true. But what happens if the world survives your plot and the heroes defeat the dark lord of the mountain of black death and the legions of the twilight god? What if the world actually manages to move forward a century or two? Does it STAY locked in the realm of high fantasy?
Well... to some designers... the answer is yes. Some details might change... but there will still be the lords of realm, knights, baronies, the overly superstitious nature of religion, and the people still being locked in awe of magical items and spells. Take a look at Forgotten Realms. Take a good long look at it. Open up its histories. They have a recorded history that blows our own recorded history out of the water... yet they still are locked perpetually in high fantasy era. Lord of the Rings doesn't get away either.
No... there is always a magical apocalypse on the horizon or a war of the gods that resets it back to being stupidly locked in this era of mindset. At no point does it actually ever improve for ANYONE. It is counter productive but hey, it leaves the world constantly ready for the next wave of generic adventurers to sally forth from Minas Tirith, Waterdeep, or Stormwind and fight the next great dragon or army of evil.
Who can fix this? Who can stop this endless cycle? Who can affix the lantern of knowledge to the highest tower and drive away the darkness?
It sure is not the cleric, he is too locked in the trappings and prayers of his deity of choice... unless he is one of the rare clerics of a god of knowledge... but they are useless for the most part.
It is not the fighter, he is a brute for the most part and most of the time can not grasp the higher concepts of civilization and economics. Problems are solved with power and physical strength.
The Druid? He would be happier seeing the world turn back to a wild place.
The Sorcerer? Oh no, he was born with power in his veins. He can't teach that. He is a greedy bastard who shapes with his mind and does not truly understand what he is doing... since it is all second nature to him.
The Bard? Maybe... if he is smart enough and realizes he can actually shape and direct a people. They are great organizers.
Monks? No... their belly button lint is too interesting. They focus on the self. Meditation and purification of the body. But their advice can help people but not nearly as much as they would like. Only if they actually try to direct society like Confucius or promote true Taoism... they are not going to do it.
The ranger? The barbarian? Look at our druid and you will understand.
The Paladin? He is happier with the status quo and has too much invested in the mindset of the cleric. He is enslaved to the mindset of the deity he worships to be of ANY use outside of being a better equipped protector.
The rogue? He is like the bard and monk... if his mind is sharp enough and his tongue made of silver... he might be able to do something.
There are always exceptional people in these classes that can be uplifting but they always do so with the help of people who think outside of the box, who are free and above the powers of the world. They turn to one group and one group alone... a group capable of doing everything that they wish they could.
They turn to the mage. The wizard. The heretic who controls powers that defy gods, who understand the very equations that make the invisible gears of the universe turn. Yes, they don't have the ability to just conjure up fire at a whim like those mutant blooded bastard sorcerers or channel the powers of outsiders like a cleric but they alone have dissected magic down to equations and formula. A pinch of this... a dash of that... and stir under this temperature till done... and you have directed the flows of magic to do what you desire.
In the fantasy world, these people are alchemists and guardians of a mostly forgotten lore. So much is always assumed to have been lost and it is assumed that the wizard and his ilk are clinging to the scattered remnants what survived the fall of the previous ages. They don't understand fully what they are dealing with...
Which makes what they do even more impressive.
After all, using scattered chunks of knowledge... they can call forth beasts and more from the outer realms, ignite flame with a snap of the finger, shatter stone, create illusions that all can see, identify somethings true nature, and at their apex of power... wish something into being... in essence... force reality to bend to their will. And this is with what little they still have. Imagine what they could do if they bothered to actually improve upon it.
Everyone who plays D&D knows of the lich. Every mage player has always wanted to BE one. Why? I am a wizard who gets to live forever! Right! Why live forever though? Oh, so I can become an even more powerful mage. Alright. Our settings provided to us usually have one or two extremely powerful liches out there. Some hundreds of years old. Yet they still play by the rules and cast the same spells that mortal mages do. Their items are not better than what a hero might carry. Despite that there are rules for making better spells. They have not done much with their power.
Kel'Thuzad... you get a pass on this one. You were a successful lich in the whole 5 or so years you got to run around and do things in your setting. You actually DID something with all that power.
No... we must assume now that all initial NPC mages and liches and clerics and deities are... unambitious. They are not looking towards the future. They are not invested in the idea of progressing forward a society and only in maintaining a status quo in which they are on top and everyone is left in the dust and mud below them.
Something needs to set the spark that will burn away the old world and bring about a new age.
The world needs a wizard who actually wants progress... or a non-caster who has the vision to ask a mage to do so. Like I said, we can't ask a cleric to do it... he has to go then and ask his deity who might say no for some mystical reason and give a bullshit answer as to why. The sorcerer is actually limited in what all he can do... he only has so many tricks that his limited blood can bring forth. He is worthless. Once he dies... his tricks die with him. Nothing lasting. Nothing worth it. At most... we can use the sorcerer as a foot soldier or a specialized tool... use it till it breaks and discard it. Train him and send him off.
No, the wizard is the key to a better world. His perception of the world, his attention to detail, is everything. His mind is worth so much more than anyone else is.
The only people who rival the wizard in usefulness are inventors and scientists... and occasionally a bard who actually focuses on knowledge and studies and people instead of silly fucking music or brandishing a sword. After all, everyone needs to have a walking library of lore to draw upon. They are perfect assistants. Too bad we are stuck trying to change the world within the rules and outside of going to third party books... inventors, engineers, scientists, and the ilk are unavailable...
until of course... our wizardry origins allow us to.
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