Picture a Big Fat Fantasy novel, which went by the initials BFF in the publishing industry for years before BFF became Best Friends Forever. Your stereotypical Big Fat Fantasy so often has maps that, brevity be damned, industry insiders sometimes call this category Big Fat Fantasy With Maps. Maybe that’s because BFFWM at least distinguishes it from non-publishing BFF meanings. What’s the other thing BFFWMs stereotypically have? Genealogies.
Whether that’s thanks to Tolkien or all Tolkien’s fault depends on how fine-grained you like your worldbuilding.
