Fantasy is full of grand conflicts—wars between kingdoms, battles against dark lords, and struggles for forbidden magic. But some of the most compelling fantasy stories explore a different kind of war: the battle between civilization and the environment itself. Whether it’s rising seas swallowing entire cities, relentless storms shaping the fate of nations, or a vengeful Earth striking back against humanity, these tales force characters to confront the consequences of living in an unstable world.
In The Remnant, The Stormlight Archive, The Broken Earth Trilogy, and The Earthsea Cycle, environmental catastrophe isn’t just a backdrop—it’s a force that drives the story forward. Today, we’ll explore how each of these epic fantasies portrays environmental crisis, how their characters respond, and what they reveal about our own world’s uncertain future.
Rising Seas and Climate Collapse
🌊 The Remnant: The Drowning City
In The Remnant, the people of the Cross-Sea Lands refuse to surrender to the rising ocean. Instead, they build upwards, sealing off old streets and creating new layers of civilization above the flooded ruins. The City Beneath is both a marvel of human ingenuity and a ticking time bomb, as its foundations rot and collapse under the weight of generations.
This is a classic example of humanity’s resistance to environmental reality. Rather than adapting by retreating or changing their way of life, Cross-Sea’s people double down, pushing civilization higher even as it crumbles beneath them. The result? Increasingly deadly sinkholes, a thriving black market in the ruins below, and a society on the brink of catastrophe.
🌊 The Earthsea Cycle: Magic and Environmental Imbalance
While The Remnant presents a world drowning under its own hubris, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea novels approach environmental collapse through the lens of magical imbalance. In The Farthest Shore, magic itself is disappearing, causing the natural world to wither. Animals vanish, crops fail, and even the ocean grows lifeless. This unraveling isn’t the result of natural disaster but of reckless magic use disrupting the balance of the world.
Where The Remnant mirrors real-world sea-level rise and overdevelopment, Earthsea explores the consequences of exploiting power without understanding its long-term effects—a theme that resonates with modern concerns about resource depletion and climate instability. Both stories force their characters to confront a painful truth: humanity cannot outbuild or outmagic nature forever.
Extreme Weather and Adaptation
🌪 The Stormlight Archive: A World Shaped by Storms
Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive presents a world where civilization has been forced to adapt to relentless highstorms. These storms are not rare disasters—they are a constant, powerful force that dictates everything from architecture to warfare. Entire cities are built into cliff sides for protection, and economic systems rely on stormlight-infused gemstones that recharge with each passing tempest.
What makes Roshar fascinating is that its people don’t try to fight the storms. Instead, they’ve built a society that accepts extreme weather as an unavoidable fact of life. This contrasts with The Remnant, where people attempt to resist nature through sheer force of will, and Earthsea, where balance must be restored. The Stormlight Archive shows what happens when civilizations truly integrate environmental challenges into their way of life rather than seeing them as temporary obstacles to overcome.
🌪 The Broken Earth Trilogy: The Earth as an Unforgiving Adversary
While Rosharans adapt to their environment, the world of The Broken Earth Trilogy actively fights back. In N.K. Jemisin’s apocalyptic setting, earthquakes, volcanic winters, and climate disasters are so frequent and severe that civilization barely survives between devastating events known as “Fifth Seasons.”
The protagonists, particularly the Orogenes—people with the ability to control seismic activity—are both feared and needed. They can prevent earthquakes, but their powers are also seen as dangerous, making them scapegoats when things go wrong. This reflects real-world patterns where those with knowledge of environmental crises (scientists, indigenous communities, activists) are often ignored or even vilified.
Unlike The Stormlight Archive, where adaptation is possible, The Broken Earth Trilogy presents a world where survival is barely achievable. While The Remnant and Earthsea explore the costs of ignoring environmental warnings, The Broken Earth Trilogy suggests that by the time people are willing to change, it may already be too late.
The Environment as an Active Player
🌎 The Broken Earth Trilogy: A Vengeful Planet
In Jemisin’s trilogy, the Earth itself is a conscious force. It has suffered abuse from humanity, and it is striking back. This makes the natural world more than just a setting—it becomes a character, an adversary with its own motivations. This is a stark contrast to The Stormlight Archive, where the environment is neutral but dangerous, and The Remnant, where nature’s destruction is a side effect of human arrogance rather than an intentional act.
🌎 The Earthsea Cycle: Magic as a Reflection of Natural Order
Le Guin’s Earthsea books also portray nature as a living force, but rather than actively seeking vengeance, it exists in a delicate balance. The disappearance of magic in The Farthest Shore causes environmental decay, not because nature is striking back, but because humanity has disrupted the world’s equilibrium. Unlike Jemisin’s apocalyptic setting, Earthsea suggests that balance can be restored if people recognize their mistakes in time.
While The Broken Earth Trilogy presents a grim, almost inevitable path of destruction, Earthsea leaves room for redemption. This contrast mirrors the difference between pessimistic and hopeful perspectives on climate change—are we past the point of no return, or can we still restore what has been broken?
Final thoughts: What Fantasy Teaches Us About Climate Change
Each of these fantasy narratives presents a different vision of how civilizations respond to environmental catastrophe:
- Denial: The Remnant portrays a civilization that refuses to change, even as the foundations crumble.
- Adaptation: The Stormlight Archive shows a world that learns to live with its extreme climate.
- Destruction: The Broken Earth Trilogy warns of a future where nature, pushed too far, fights back.
- Restoration: The Earthsea Cycle suggests that the solution lies in restoring balance rather than dominating nature.
These stories resonate because they force us to confront real-world environmental crises through the lens of fantasy. They remind us that nature is not a passive force—it shapes us, and how we respond to it determines our future. Will we be like the people of the Cross-Sea Lands, refusing to change until it’s too late? Can we adapt like Rosharans? Or are we already facing the kind of irreversible catastrophe seen in Jemisin’s world?
Fantasy allows us to explore these questions in powerful ways, making environmental crises personal, immediate, and emotionally resonant.
Join the Conversation!
Which fantasy worlds have made you think differently about environmental issues? Do you prefer stories where characters adapt to nature, fight against it, or try to restore balance? Do you think fiction is an effective way to explore climate change? Drop your thoughts in the comments!
And if you want to see how Basha fights to survive in a world crumbling beneath her feet, grab a sneak peek of The Remnant here and sign up for my newsletter for exclusive content!
