Historical fantasy

Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction: fantastic elements such as magic woven into a more "realistic" narrative, with stories generally taking place prior to the 20th century. Its named subcategories include medieval fantasy, gunpowder fantasy (high fantasy's magic, mythical creatures and epic scale combined with muskets and rifles), Celtic and Classical fantasy, fantasy steampunk with its gaslamp branch, and wuxia. Three approaches recur: magic hidden within the real history as a secret history, alternative history where a real event turned out differently, and a secondary world paralleling a real period.

For writers the genre runs on research plus rules: the actual history must be right before the magic bends it, because both are now canon. The shelf sits between high fantasy's invented worlds and the research discipline of how to write historical fiction; its hidden-magic branch is a period cousin of urban fantasy.