Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
It sounds like RIFTS
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A Mythic Earth
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
That would be a matter of execution, wouldn't it? It's not that far off what American Gods did, or even Sandman (to use a couple of Neil Gaiman examples). I didn't say it would be easy of course, you need to find some kind of central organizing idea to hang it all on. My initial thought there was do go with human belief as the engine that powers things. Anyway, I can see how it would would work, which is the important thing.
I'm not super into the dreamscape aspect myself, but the idea of a "mythic" world that is a combination of different ages in one place has been done. REH called it the Hyborian Age. Gary Gygax called it the World of Greyhawk.
REH's has mythic pre-Hellenic Egypt; a mythic Levant; mythic and racist sub-Saharan Africa; etc. Gygax's version seems to me pretty obviously inspired by REH.
A mythic England with druids (eg Merlin) and King Arthur and Robin Hood (in Prince Valiant called Hugh the Fox) and 19th century-style Fae seems pretty straightforward to me. If the characters travel to Central or Eastern Europe presumably there are werewolves, vampires, grim castles with skulls for decoration, etc. I don't know if Fenris-77 would envisage Arabian Nights or something else to the south-east. It might be wuxia once you get to China. To me, something like this seems fairly standard FRPGing stuff. The dreamscape idea could perhaps establish some sort of meta-rationale, and also lay the groundwork for some subsequent mash-ups or genre/trope-breaking big reveals.
aramis erak
Legend
I'd start by deciding how the mythic world became a blender of different times. Then, as well, changing the names of the leaders to enable freedom from the historic elements when desired.
Rome circa 200 BC. Punic wars era. Basically, the map in point seven at 40 maps that explain the Roman Empire but with the Selucids trimmed at the end of turkey, to be replaced by Chaldean culture and its NeoBabylonian Empire.
African south of the Sahara in the mythological kingdoms (some of which have had corroborating archaeological finds), but with portals to a lost land of large carnivores and primitive hominids - Australopithecus and early Homo genuses.
Australia, New Zealand, the various South Pacific tribes: last century before mainland (re)contact. Australia with portals to the Dreamtime.
China in the Warring States.
Japan in the Heian.
South Asia in the height of Ankor Wat.
Hmong on portal-connected lost world, along with the western mythical Siam.
The Slavs and the Germanies also in their circa 200 BC primitivism.
Mongols in a lost world where they hold most of europe.
But, as others have noted, REH's Hyperboria is the same concep, as is Greyhawk, Mystara, and even The Forgotten Realms.
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TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
Spent a long time doing versions of this, as a D&D setting (which has its own issues)
Some of the main problems are noted above. When is the mythic era for a region? How do you handle real-world history? Specifically how do you handle Christianity?
Then there are secondary issues, depending on what you are doing with it, like where do you put the orcs?
In actual myth and legend, famous figures are often brought together, anachronistically. The Robin Hood ballads came at least a century after Richard the Lion Hearted, but in the most famous version of the story, they are contemporaneous. The Arthur and Roland legends were updated at various points, and the roots of much fantasy come from Christian monks turning ancient pagan tales into more current legends.
The setting is embracing this idea, but of course you can do it in each territory. Marauding vikings and Asgardians, Arthur and Robin Hood, Leonardo in a pagan Florence...but you have to make a fair number of judgement calls. Arthur did fight the "Dictator of Rome" in France/Gaul. But should that be Julius Caesar?
Terra Viejo
www.terra-viejo.net
Some of the main problems are noted above. When is the mythic era for a region? How do you handle real-world history? Specifically how do you handle Christianity?
Then there are secondary issues, depending on what you are doing with it, like where do you put the orcs?
In actual myth and legend, famous figures are often brought together, anachronistically. The Robin Hood ballads came at least a century after Richard the Lion Hearted, but in the most famous version of the story, they are contemporaneous. The Arthur and Roland legends were updated at various points, and the roots of much fantasy come from Christian monks turning ancient pagan tales into more current legends.
The setting is embracing this idea, but of course you can do it in each territory. Marauding vikings and Asgardians, Arthur and Robin Hood, Leonardo in a pagan Florence...but you have to make a fair number of judgement calls. Arthur did fight the "Dictator of Rome" in France/Gaul. But should that be Julius Caesar?
TheSword
Legend
American Gods is really worth a watch. Very clever premise well executed.I’ve not read either of those. I mean, I’m not 100% sure what I’m after either. There’s no wrong answers, just some answers that strike a chord with me!
Have you ever seen the game TORG? Arthurian Britain, Cyberpunk France, "Lost World" America, "Pulp Fiction" Middle East.... It's an interesting mash-up. Torg - Wikipedia
Or 7th Sea? All the interesting bit of Renaissance Europe plus a little bit of viking. 7th Sea (role-playing game) - Wikipedia
Or 7th Sea? All the interesting bit of Renaissance Europe plus a little bit of viking. 7th Sea (role-playing game) - Wikipedia
aramis erak
Legend
A large number of things about him are mythologized, especially given the number of plays and novels about him.Caesar is not mythical, he is historical. Roman's mostly adopted Greek gods but changed their names. Not sure what they believed in prior to the meeting the Greeks. (I need to research further).
edit: Romulus and Remus are mythical beings
Roman Mythology
Roman mythology - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
aramis erak
Legend
7th Sea has a huge initial divergence besides the geology change and adding magic... The Gnostics won the first Ecumenical Council. This utterly changes the nature of worshjp at the reign of Constantine I.
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