A Mythic Earth

[Morrus]

If you were to create a setting based on the real world's mythology, what would you include?

I'm thinking that each country (or area) might have iconic era, and the 'mythic world' has each of those areas at their most iconic historical time.

For example in Europe --

Britain might be in the Dark Ages, with Arthurian Knights, fey, druids, etc.

Greece might be in the age of Heroes, with Achilles, Herakles, atc. (these are very broad, generic periods)

Dracula is in Transylvania.

Thor is smashing giants in Scandinavia.

Julius Caesar is crushing Gaul.

If you had to draw a world map and pick each area's mythic iconic ages, what would they be?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I would include Greek mythology, later translated into different personas as Roman Mythology. Then, Egyptian mythology, English, Scottish, and Irish folklore, and a few Mesoamerican mythologies with Kukulkan, Quetzalcoatlus, and a few other deities worshiped by different tribes. There'd also be Norse mythology just to add on top of the others, and some hints of mesopotamia and other cultures.

I would probably have it be in modern days, with these myths all but forgotten, similar to how Rick Riordan's books function. If I were to make a new world, I would have it all take place on one continent, with the rest of the world scattered across smaller islands. The continent would be called "The Hearth" but the world would be named "Gresimakur" or something like "Maker".

I would have all of the different groups be competing countries. Greeks hate Romans. Egypt hates Rome and has an alliance with Greece. England is minor, just a countryside with a feudal society. The american countries would be a warring region far from the others on the other side of the continent.

Does any of this help?

 

[Morrus]

Does any of this help?

Well, it's certainly a list of mythologies.

 

[Fenris-77]

I think it would be cool to have a Brothers Grimm style Germany, maybe renaissance or slightly later feel. The Dark Woods vibe anyway. Various classic myths could rule their own electorates.

Japan would pretty obviously be feudal samurai, but with all the mythology come to life - Dragons, Sword Saints, crumbling Buddhist Temples built into enormous Camphor trees. Shape changing galore.

For China I'd probably go with Confucian Bureaucracy meets Gormenghast. Enormous echoing imperial palaces, pointless Kafakaesque paperwork, armies of clay keeping the peasants in line, and an aristocracy from the Chinese hells. But in the countryside, the Tao rises. In the North, the Centaur armies of the Mongol king prepare an invasion.

I think you could do something really cool with the dream in Australia. A place where the very ground is shaped by the beliefs and desires of its inhabitant. Maybe a little Sandman-y, but true to Aboriginal legends at the same time.

Pirates in the Caribbean.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

You could try emulating each kingdom/mythology with a different D&D/other RPG race. England could be humans, Scandinavians could be Orcs/Half-orcs, France as halflings, the Americas as tabaxi, or something like this. It could become questionable if you actually straight up say "Greeks are Centaurs" or something like that, but you could just take the races and create a country with a society of that race that functions similar to classic versions of those nations.

 

[Morrus]

You could try emulating each kingdom/mythology with a different D&D/other RPG race.

Oh, god no. No, all humans get to be humans.

 

[Bilharzia]

The Design Mechanism's "Mythic Earth" series is doing this using the Mythras rules, with a mix of a fairly true-to-historical and cultural setting with appropriate myths-as-real integrated into the system and setting.

Mythic Britain is set in Dark Ages Britain (about 500AD) which mixes a fairly realistic historical setting with Celtic and Christian superstition, spirits and magic. The usual suspects are there (Merlin, Arthur, Guinevere and so on) but as characters appropriate for the time, with the exception of Merlin who has been around a few hundred years. The campaign is supplemented by Mythic Britain: Logres, which presents the setting from the side of the Saxon invaders who have their own mythology - much closer to Germanic Scandinavians in contrast to the British Celts.

Mythic Constantinople is set in 1450, just before it's fall to the Ottoman Empire, it presents the mix of peoples present - Greek, Turkic, Frankish, Arab as well as a number of non-human mythical peoples - the Arimapsoi, Astomatoi, Blemmyai, Kynokephaloi, Skiapodes, Tripithamoi and the more familiar Minotauroi.

Mythic Rome is possible the "most historical" but also features particularly Roman religion, magic and creatures from Roman myth and belief.

Mythic Babylon is due for publication next, there's an interview with the authors talking about how they are mixing the historical and the mythic,

1.4 By the Mythras of Babylon - Mythras Matters

Welcome to the fourth episode of the new podcast dedicated to all things about Mythras.In this episode, I have an interview with the creators of Mythic Babylon and I get personal with some discussion about the rules and some campaign concepts.If y...

www.buzzsprout.com

 

[Morrus]

I think choosing a time period is tough. For Britain, the dark ages are attractive; but so are Robin Hood, Camelot, and Victorian London. I love the idea of using real maps for the campaign setting and characters actually travelling from, say, Southampton to Winchester.

 

[Fenris-77]

Do you have to choose a time period? Perhaps these mythic worlds exist side by side as a sort dream reflection of the real world. Kept separate by boundaries of some sort, but still bleeding into one another at the boundaries. Or radiating from nodes, with the liminal spaces being equidistant between nodes. I think I'd still be selective about timeline and fit in a scenario like that, but I think you could handle some anachronism too.

If you wanted to use real maps perhaps this mythic world is a straight reflection of the real world in terms of geography, buildings, roads, anything human built., but is mythic in terms of the natural world and the inhabitants. The inhabitants don't know that they're myths, and strange things happen overnight as sometimes the human geography changes to reflect something built in the real world. Buildings appear and disappear, stuff like that. The only things that are permanent and real in the mythic world are the myths themselves. This could extend to places as well, the larger the mythic reputation the more real the place and more mythic overlay in terms of what to looks and acts like.

 

[Morrus]

I’m thinking simpler than that. A ‘real’ world except that all the stuff people believed is true. Gods, fey, monsters, legends. The magical stuff like god a and get aren’t bound to a time period; some historical or semi-historical characters and places might be though.