I know someone who moved to the USA recently and learned English as a second language as an air and I had to explain this to them when they started playing Baldur’s Gate 3.
Western Fantasy is nearly entirely based on Dark Age and Medieval Europe, and for English speakers (in particular English speaking Americans) that usually means it’s based on England/UK in particular because it’s the country that speaks English.
So, a huge majority of fantasy characters have an English accent because it’s the accent associated with the only place in the world that spoke English during the vague target time fantasy is set in or based on.
Of course English sounded very different at that time in England, but the tie between them is so strong and has continued for so long it’s now the tradition/expectation.
Like, as an exercise, consider if you were to watch a classical Western-fantasy-type show like Game of Thrones or a Lord of the Rings series. If everyone had modern American accents (general, Southern, etc) wouldn’t you immediately notice and find it odd and out of place?
PS: the person in question was really quite great at English but had to install a mod to add subtitles in their native language because they struggled greatly with non-American accents.
I know someone who moved to the USA recently and learned English as a second language as an air and I had to explain this to them when they started playing Baldur’s Gate 3.
Western Fantasy is nearly entirely based on Dark Age and Medieval Europe, and for English speakers (in particular English speaking Americans) that usually means it’s based on England/UK in particular because it’s the country that speaks English.
So, a huge majority of fantasy characters have an English accent because it’s the accent associated with the only place in the world that spoke English during the vague target time fantasy is set in or based on.
Of course English sounded very different at that time in England, but the tie between them is so strong and has continued for so long it’s now the tradition/expectation.
Like, as an exercise, consider if you were to watch a classical Western-fantasy-type show like Game of Thrones or a Lord of the Rings series. If everyone had modern American accents (general, Southern, etc) wouldn’t you immediately notice and find it odd and out of place?
PS: the person in question was really quite great at English but had to install a mod to add subtitles in their native language because they struggled greatly with non-American accents.