The 10 commandments of Fantasy army clichés

1. It shalt be a 'Medieval' world, full of western imagery, weapons and Armour, likewise tactics shall not have evolved beyond "Charge!".
2. There shalt be magic.  Wizards shall wear flowing robes and shalt sport long beards
3. Thou shalt have Humans and they wilt be Heroic.
4. There will be Orcs and Goblins, even if by another name.  Similarly will it be for Elves and Dwarves.  Each will serve as proxies for personality traits that Humans being Heroic does not permit them (Orcs evil, Elves aloof, Dwarves stoic, and so on).
5. New races never seen before shalt not be permitted.
6. Humans shalt ride horses, and nothing else, everyone else gets one mount to suit their race and nothing else, it shalt not match one already taken.
7. Anything that seems like modern technology shalt actually be so ancient that it is handed down through the generations gaining mystical provenance.
8. Wackiness and fun shalt not be permitted, everything shall be sober and preferably 'Grimdark'.
9. Everything will be reduced to a Faction, because nations and cultures are complex concepts for adolescents to get behind, videogame concepts are not.  Conversely world history shalt appear to go back millenia, without anything ever fundamentally changing.  Empires last indefinitely and yet wilt always be on the brink of collapse.
10. Religions will divide into the 'Pseudo-Christian' or 'Barbaric-Pagan', regardless all will have a remarkably uniform underworld population of demons.

Whilst this is intended to be tongue in cheek, it is remarkable how many of these hold true for every half-successful game release.  It is to GW's credit that they try to break some of these rules, but they also fall down hard on others.

Given the sheer variety that Fantasy supposedly permits, why is this template so prevalent - mainstream? Is it down just to the ease of procuring items in these predictable themes, or does it speak more of the audience in the first place?

This isn't a space for answers, yet; but I do find it interesting...

For myself, I have two new Fantasy armies for Dragon Rampant planned, which both hope to avoid as many of these cliches as possible.  I know, more projects!

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