No matter where a Fantasy story may be written, whatever rich history the author's homeland might have, most fantasy stories take place in Medieval Europe (or a facsimile thereof, possibly reasonable), especially England. People will fight with swords and shields, and the government is usually vaguely feudal: it may not map well to any real-world political system, but it usually has hereditary monarchs and nobles (which many other cultures also have, but if European titles are used, you're in a Medieval European Fantasy). The nations involved are often quite small, although they've got an area large enough to have a capital city, and outlying settlements — usually a few villages and towns a decent enough distance away from the capital — to make longer trips a necessity. However, larger nations are also fairly commonplace. Medieval European Fantasy settings are sometimes littered with Schizo Tech, although Fantasy Gun Control is often a limiting factor. Enchanted Forests are almost invariably deciduous woodlands based on the old-growth forests of temperate Europe, with haunted taigas or magical jungles being much rarer.

The Trope Maker for Medieval fantasy is The Lord of the Rings, which was based heavily on European folklore, but this trope has older roots in the tradition of fantasy works set in actual medieval Europe, especially those connected to or influenced by Arthurian Legend. Note that there are notable differences between J. R. R. Tolkien's setting and the modern form of this trope; Middle-Earth is specifically based on the early Dark Ages, immediately after the final crumbling of the Roman Empire — more or less direct links can be made, for instance, between the fallen Realm of Arnor and the Western Empire, the rump state of Gondor and the Eastern Empire, and the recently-immigrated eastern peoples such as the Rohirrim and the Germanic tribes such as the Anglo-Saxons. The modern Medieval fantasy setting was codified chiefly in tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons, which based themselves primarily on the High and Late Middle Ages and their world of elaborate castles, merchant cities, plate-armored knights, and established aristocratic kingdoms.

Christianity may appear, as it almost always did in Medieval and Renaissance literature,^note often anachronistically, as when the story took place in ancient Greece or Rome but it is fairly rare to find Christianity — or any real-life religion — in modern fantasy settings: that might attract distracting controversy towards the work, and wouldn't make sense for a setting that's supposed to be a different world than our own. Mythopoeia is possible, as well as Crystal Dragon Jesus. This will partly depend on whether it's a High Fantasy or Low Fantasy setting, as religion and magic are often closely associated.

This is also frequently the setting of Eastern RPGs, Wutai aside, as well as most Western RPGs in between science fiction games. The first settings of Dungeons & Dragons are perhaps the most well-known example — even though many later D&D settings avert this trope, the sheer popularity of Faerûn makes this trope almost synonymous with D&D. Notably averted however in Wuxia, which is a sister trope (Chinese fantasy with a long literary tradition, set in a pseudo-historical Alternate Universe China, featuring magic, wandering errant martial artists, legendary artifacts, dragons and the rest). Played straight in most fantasy anime. Arthurian Legend usually (but not always) overlaps with Medieval European Fantasy.

The setting is often depicted as more like Arcadia and the Ghibli Hills than the actual medieval Europeans viewed it as, though not always.

Prone to People of Hair Color.

May be imported in a Feudal Future, with or without advanced technology.

If the setting's history starts with The Time of Myths, jumps straight to the medieval period and stays there forever, it's trapped in Medieval Stasis.

See also Heroic Fantasy, Standard Fantasy Setting, Standard Japanese Fantasy Setting, and Fantasy Counterpart Culture, all of which may overlap with this. See Urban Fantasy and New Weird for alternatives fantasy fans, who were getting tired of this setting, came up with. For fantasy settings based on later periods, see Gunpowder Fantasy (for Early Modern settings) and Gaslamp Fantasy (for late 19th-early 20th century settings).

Examples: