As noted in this and the plants column, most traditional fantasy settings are medieval with magic. We like swords and the concept of wandering for adventure. It may not be Earth, but most fantasy settings are Earth-based—alternative worlds where magic has come to life.

In a typical medieval setting, fuel comes from very basic sources. Wood was used to keep early hominids warm up to 1.5 million years ago. It stands to reason that some tribes learned that bone shavings could burn at a high enough temperature. That dung could become a fuel. By the time most fantasy settings insert themselves into our world, most humanoids would be well-practiced at starting and maintaining fires to heat their homes and cook their food, as well as attack and destroy their enemies.

Most fantasy settings utilize other sources of fuel, such as petroleum (pitch), for certain portions of an adventure (a torch, perhaps), but don’t use these Earth-based fuels half as much as they could. This article is an opportunity to modernize, or anachronize, game settings, with a look into alternative geologic fuels in modern-day and doomsday settings as well.

Wood Fuel

While not technically a geological resource, it is included here in the discussion of fuel. Regarded as one of humanity’s greatest advances, wood fuel is easily utilized with little need for tools and many innovations were made early on to maintain a fire with ease. Tents were developed with smoke holes, followed by hearths in permanent homes. The hearth became a symbol of comfort for years to come. Real chimneys did not appear until the twelfth century, although the Romans used tubes inside the walls for bakeries. Where there was a forest, the local peoples learned how to develop wood as a resource. Greeks, Romans, Celts, Britons, and Gauls not only learned to use wood as fuel, but developed methods of deforestation that allowed renewal.

Game tip: Any civilization around long enough will have coppice standards of harvesting the tree growth in certain areas, allowing young shoots to replace older trees in a cyclic fashion. A party of adventures can determine they are approaching a city or kingdom by passing through one of these regions. In areas of higher populations, much of these coppice areas will be converted to agriculture due to the demands of the people.

Charcoal

Where there’s wood, charcoal usually follows and charcoal was very important in the smelting of metals throughout the European wooded sectors. To make charcoal, the ancients would pile wood on their ends to form a cone, leaving openings at the bottom and a central flue at the center. The entire shape would be covered with clay or mud and the fire ignited at the bottom of the flue. The skills required to produce the best charcoal most efficiently developed an entire new profession: colliers. It is a fuel that burns hotter and cleaner than wood and is often used by blacksmiths. It is also used in metallurgical operations as a reducing agent to smelt everything from aluminum to copper, burning at 1100 degrees C (2010 degrees F). It wasn’t replaced by coke until the Industrial Revolution. Although not used to power vehicles until the turn of the 20th century, this does not mean that advanced societies in gaming can’t figure out how to develop a wood gas generator.

Game tip: Charcoal is one of the three ingredients of gunpowder, along with a nitrate (potassium nitrate, also called saltpeter), and sulfur (brimstone). While the Taoists monks of China did not “discover” gunpowder until the 9th century, the Chinese knew of the flammability of sulfur in the 6th century BC, and saltpeter by the 1st century AD. In an anachronistic fashion, anyone involved in alchemy could discover the correct combination, from ancient wizards to dwarves.

Peat

This is accumulated, partially decayed vegetation that is pressed of water and used as a fuel when dry. Where wood is scarce peat is commonly used as a fuel. During prehistoric times peat bogs were the places of ritual and sacrifice. During the Dark Ages, peat bogs produced bog iron, which supplied the Vikings with most of their swords and armor. Peat bogs are found throughout northern Europe and Canada, as well as northern East Europe, New Zealand, Florida, Southeast Asia, and the Falkland Islands. Peat has a high carbon content and can burn under low moisture conditions. Once ignited it smolders, sometimes for months, years, or even centuries.

Game Tip: It would be interesting to have the party meet up with a society that worships and sacrifices at the peat bogs, but even more interesting is what happens when a wizard ignites the peat....

Fossil Fuels

Coal, petroleum, and natural gas are all fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals exposed to heat and pressure from the earth over millions of years.

Coal

Of all the ancient civilizations, China has a recorded history that dates the first use of coal back to 4000 BCE. This use was not for fuel, however; the early Chinese carved ornaments from black lignite. It is believed that the ancient Chinese may have used coal to smelt copper for coins as early as 1000 BCE, but this is not confirmed. Until more evidence is gathered, the Chinese did not officially start using coal as fuel until the Han Dynasty around 200 CE. Britain, on the other hand, was using outcrop coal in funeral pyres as early as 3000–2000 BCE. During the Roman occupation of Britain some 1500 years ago, Roman soldiers found that coal could be burned to provide heat to ward off cold. By the end of the 2 century CE, the Romans were exploiting nearly every coal field.

Coal did not become of great important in Great Britain until 1000 CE. By 1306 English smiths all around London were burning coal rather than wood charcoal to preserve decreasing wood supplies. Offended by the smell, the nobles protested and King Edward banned its use. It was a dictate largely ignored. By the 1500s England was mining coal on a large scale for iron foundries.

Also at 1000 CE, the Hopi tribe was using coal to fire pottery. English settlers eventually discovered coal in Virginia and found many ways to utilize it among the colonies. In 1816 Baltimore Maryland lit their street lamps with coal. Locomotives were developed in the 1830s and Edison developed the first coal-fired electric power station in New York in 1882.

Game tip: For alternative history games, the coal provided throughout Britain could have allowed them to become more developed sooner. In a game setting it is realistic to have coal rather than wood as a major source of fuel throughout the world, used in large-scale smelting operations and even as a clean fuel for alchemists and sorcerers in their laboratories.

Coke

Coke is the solid material left over from the distillation of coal, and it is a fuel that produces little or no smoke, making it ideal for large or very hot fires. The Chinese started using coke as a fuel in the 11th century, but the Europeans did not start regularly using the process until the mid 1600s. Coke is better for cooking fires, since it does not impart a smoky smell to the food. It is also a high-quality fuel for iron-smelting, and was one of the first major fuels for English steam locomotives.

Game tip: The process of making coke involves baking the coal in an airless oven at temperatures reaching 2000 degrees Celsius. It’s the last place a group of gamers want to end up, and a great setting for a chase scene or final battle with a boss.

Petroleum

Petroleum was widely used throughout history. Egyptians coated mummies with pitch/ The Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians all paved their streets and used pitch to hold buildings together. Noah used it to seal his ark. The American Indians used petroleum as paint, medicine, and fuel. The earliest known oil wells were drilled in China in 347 CE or earlier, some of them with depths of up to 800 feet. The oil was used to evaporate brine and produce salt. Oil lamps were immediately popular and by 1500 BCE the Arab and Persian chemists were producing a weapon similar to napalm against their enemies.

By the 9th century the Arabs had determined how to make naphtha and kerosene was distilled not too long afterwards. In Arabian counties, “naphtha” is the common name for petroleum and its products, while among the Europeans, “pitch” or “tar” is more commonly used.

Game tip: Oil should be very common in most game settings that are Earth-based, even going as far back as the Bronze Age. Dwarves and other underground denizens would probably have the most experience with using oil as a fuel, and they may readily develop something akin to jet fuel or gasoline by the time they begin associating with the other races top-side.

Natural Gas

This gas is closely related to petroleum and coal, consisting of methane, butane, propane, ethane, and pentane. It also contains carbon monoxide, helium, hydrogen sulfide, and nitrogen. In 1000 BCE a flame caused by spontaneous burning on Mount Parnassus became the site of the Temple of the Oracle of Delphi. By 500 BCE the Chinese used natural gas to heat water and desalinate it and by 100–199 CE the Chinese were using bamboo as pipelines for the gas. Between 1 and 99 CE, the King of Persia built his palace kitchen around a natural gas flame.

Game tip: Natural gas is odorless and invisible; a good combination for any unexplained explosion. On top of that huge methane build-ups deep under the ocean sometimes let go and when they do the bubbles that come up make the water less dense… and can abruptly sink a ship. Natural gas is a great way to play with the characters, since you can’t detect it until it’s too late. Any temple could also have an internal flame coming from deep within the earth, and the gases, of course, can build up to dangerous levels, suffocating all comers.

Nuclear Energy

Extracting usable energy from atomic nuclei via controlled nuclear reactions may seem a stretch to add here, but many games can use the concept, from early 20th century gaming to space-age gaming. With magic being as powerful as it is, perhaps splitting an atom isn’t so far-fetched. The most common method of producing this energy on earth is through nuclear fission, although energy produced from nuclear fusion or radioactive decay is also possible. Uranium is, incidentally, not unknown to history; its first use is seen in 79 CE by Romans to add a yellow color to ceramic glazes. By the Middle Ages it was called pitchblende and used as a coloring agent in glassmaking.

Game tip: The materials are available, just not exploitable by mundane means before the 20th century. Due to the large amount of non-mundane characters out there, a game master would have to consider carefully whether nuclear power is creatable in fantasy settings.

Wind, Solar, and Water

Wind

Humans have used wind power for over 5,000 years, from sailing ships to wind ventilation. The first practical windmills were developed in Afghanistan in the 7th century, although the concept had been around since the 1st century. These first windmills had a vertical axle; horizontal-axled windmills were later developed in northwestern Europe beginning in the 1100s.

Solar Energy

It may seem like this is a later technological innovation but passive solar energy has been used since the time of Socrates, when he designed his Megaron house to utilize the sun for the best lighting and temperature range. During the short growing seasons of the Little Ice Age, French and English farmers built walls to reflect the sun’s heat and increase fruit production. Solar distillation for brackish water was first used by 16th century Arab alchemists. The concept of using metal material to heat food may have been perfected in the 1700s, but it stands to reason that the concept was used prior to this date.

Hydropower

Water-powered mills were used in Imperial Rome and India had many water mills and water wheels. Irrigation is the most traditional form of using hydropower, “Hushing” is a term used when a wave of water released from a tank would extract metal ores in mines and was popularized during the medieval period in Britain. Tide mills date from the Roman times and used the coming waves to drive the wheel. Hydraulics, developed in Greco-Roman times, was the high science of ancient times and led to many innovations from force pumps to armillary spheres to aqueducts.

Geothermal Power

Although not used to create electricity until the 20th century, geothermal springs and “hot spots” were used for bathing and heating during the times of the Roman Empire

Game Tip: Using resources such as these create the appearance of an “intelligent” race on Earth. Any society that employs natural energies in a high fantasy game has gained relative comfort to explore sciences and artistic leisure. These renewable energy sources become popular again in futuristic Earth settings and these societies too should regard themselves as “higher” than the game party.

Other Sources of Fuel

Manure

Cow dung is used in many places as a fuel to cook food and keep warm. American Bison dung was also used as a fuel out on the prairies. For that post-apocalyptic feel, dung and manure can produce a biogas that is readily converted to a renewable and stable source of energy.

Vegetable Fuel

Olive oil is known for producing a flame and was used by the ancient Mediterranean peoples as a traditional lamp oil. In ancient Egypt, lamps used castor oil, while in Africa the aboriginal people used carrot oil, peanut oil, mustard oil, and nettle oil. Also used historically in lamps are coconut oil (South Seas and Southeast Asia), false flax oil (Britain), and mustard seed oil, jatropha oil, and honge seed oil (India), Sesame oil was used in Hindu sacred votive lamps. Peanut oil was the original source of fuel for the diesel engine demonstrated at the 1900 World’s Fair.

Animal Fuel

The main fuel for the lamps of early Western civilizations was whale oil, although fish oils and cheese oil were also used.

Algae

Algae oil fuel is a 21st century invention; the algae’s carbohydrate content can be fermented to produce bioethanol and biobutanol.

Game tip: Futuristic settings can use any one of these alternative to fossil fuels. Alternatively, other worlds may have an entire society run on a type of algae. The elves may have determined an alternative fuel and ran with it, providing themselves with an advanced society that the humans have no idea exists.

Fantasy Fuel

Once you get in the realm of science fantasy and fiction, anything is possible. The concept of finding a renewable, potable, clean energy has been searched and researched throughout novels, movies, TV shows, and games. Just keep some things in mind:

1. It’s got to come from somewhere (energy can be transformed to another form but the total energy can’t change). If you create a form of energy that is coin-sized but produces power akin to the sun, you better figure out a brief way to explain how. Otherwise, it will come back to bite you later. If you’re in this universe it could simply be a type of material that stored power from all the way back to the Big Bang; a laden jar of massive amounts of energy might be easier to envision than an object that has its own energy.
2. Even in magic, you have to have give and take. Most systems cover this; once you expend your daily maximum of energy, you can’t do any more magic until you rest and recover. However, I’ve been developing magic systems for over ten years and I have an argument against this: if the heart is willing, then the energy should just come from deeper within. If a person is willing to damage or possibly sacrifice himself in order to do that one last spell, then let him have it.
3. Nothing lasts forever and everything breaks down. Anything denoted as having eternal energy either has a source to siphon from or is a lie.
4. If you’re going to create a fuel on another world or plane, at least consider its history of discovery. These things should not be taken lightly. Even if you don’t bother writing it down, run through the process in your head and determine whether everything seems accurate based on the world you’re in. You may be able to use its past in a plot hook somewhere. This is mainly for fuels found throughout the universe, since someone had to make the breakthrough of using it for energy.

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