A completely unreal world

In fiction, the surrounding world provides the constraint. This has nothing to do with realism (even if it explains also realism).  A completely unreal world can be constructed, in which asses fly and princesses are restored to life by a kiss; but that world, purely possible and unrealistic, must exist according to structures defined at the outset (we have to know whether it is a world where a princess can be restored to life only by the kiss of a prince, or also by that of a witch, and whether the princess's kiss transforms only frogs into princes or also, for example, armadillos).

Umberto Eco

parental absence

I think I have read one too many complaint about main characters so seldom having parents in fantasy.
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