I need a myth

[Rechan]

It goes without saying that my players need to vamoose.

More accurately, I need a Trickster Shapechanger myth for my setting.

While planning my encounters/plots for my current campaign, I noticed a link. There are several shapechanging races/monsters who are innately crafty (aranea, jackalweres, a crocotta (converted by Mesh Hong). A lycanthrope or barghest is likely going to fall in there somewhere. Not to mention the fairies that can change their likeness. The game takes place on an unexplored jungle continent in (right now) a relatively "safe" and walled off corner.

Because I noticed the similarities between the monsters, I wanted to come up with an interesting creation myth for them. Or a way to fit them into the background maybe. But I've not got anything "clicking". So I thought I'd start a brainstormy thread. Start bouncing ideas around, and see if anything clicks for anyone.

First a little background

[sblock=Setting Background]This continent is basically the first cradle of civilization, the Gods' first try. The civilization(s) got too big, too much hubris, and the Gods smote them. By dropping Demogorgon on top of them and letting him go wild, before finally caging him away. Then the Gods just forsook the continent, literally said "We don't want to think about you anymore". Primal spirits and the fey have filled the land in their absence.

Skip ahead a long while. Civilization there has stopped. The natives don't dare "advance" in a sense - they know that those that came before were toppled for angering the gods, but many have differing opinions as to why, so they have superstitions towards advancing. Enter colonists from a powerful country across the sea[/sblock]

One other thing to make note. Given that I just listed various shapechanging trickster monsters, the most likely place to go first is just "the myth involves something evil". But one thing is important: not all of them are evil. The jackalweres, yes. The crocotta, yes.

But the aranea are not. First, their larval stage are changelings (thus allowing PCs to have access to that race). Secondly, Aranea are not evil, just manipulative. They are the most "in the know" race in the area, and have convinced some of the local tribes that they are "speakers to the underworld" (I took off a myth from a Central American people who believe tarantulas are the messangers to the underworld because they live underground).

 

[Rechan]

As far as how I'm going to use them... The crocotta is just a monster that will attack the PCs when they make camp, and possibly kidnap someone from the colony it "falls in love with" if it manages to survive the initial encounter.

The aranea are allies. Maybe initially seen as a threat or at least untrustworthy (shapechanging spiders don't exactly LEND themselves to trustworthy stereotypes).

But the jackalwers... I was sitting and thinking about how I could use them, and an idea occurred. That the jackalweres used the PCs ignorance. They tricked the PCs into acting aggressive towards the (relatively) peaceful natives, possibly even steering the PCs directly into the path of the Aranea, just to put a real hurting on them. To shake things up all over the place, while the jackalweres picked off stragglers at their leisure.

But I wonder how the players will react to such betrayal. Especially if the lead jackalwere "befriends" them. Acts as their guide. Really he just wants to learn their language so he can spread it around - that knowledge would give him Power, and it would help him discourage the PCs from finding out about the peaceful natives before it's Too Late.

 

[The 1 and the Prime]

Easy:

The manipulative shapechangers are the descendants of infiltrators sent by the enemies (maybe more than one faction of enemies) of the gods of your world to destroy the nascent civilizations through subterfuge and sowing of discord. After accomplishing their original purpose they were forgotten by their overlords along with the rest of the continent and must now fend for themselves.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Trickster Shapechangers vary greatly from culture to culture.

You have all kinds of animial tricksters like Coyote from Native American lore, and Anansi from Africa, and Asian mythology is full of shapechangers, including Kitsune.

But if you look at the gods of northern Europe, a trickster god is more likely to be a human shaped being, like Loki and the Jotuns.*

And of course, Judeo-Christian stories feature the Devil as the supreme trickster, and he frequently assumes the shape of snakes, goats or dogs.

Some modern fiction has featured insect-like beings as tricksters, although they use pheromones to fool our perceptions, not actual shapechanges.





* Great name for a band.

 

[Rechan]

The manipulative shapechangers are the descendants of infiltrators sent by the enemies (maybe more than one faction of enemies) of the gods of your world to destroy the nascent civilizations through subterfuge and sowing of discord. After accomplishing their original purpose they were forgotten by their overlords along with the rest of the continent and must now fend for themselves.

Well honestly, the way it went down is simply 'They let Demogorgon go. It was a rampage of insanity and savagery as those who didn't even fall to Demogorgon's minions tore each other apart in bloody mania." It would be like sending spies to sabotage a place you're just looking to nuke. You just turn it to glass and don't look back.

Besides. I'm not looking for a REASON for them. But for a Parable or MYTH for them. Something for a superstitious native to tell the PCs to show them how crafty and dangerous the Shapechanger is. Also just to give the place a bit of color.

I'm trying to think fo something like Monkey, who is a powerful primal spirit trickster, gets tricked by something, or the knowledge to change shape is stolen from him and used against him.

 

[The 1 and the Prime]

To clarify: I meant the enemies sent the shapechangers to cause the hubris which caused the disappointment of the gods which caused Demogorgon.

I may have misunderstood you: when you said "creation myth" I thought you meant a story which explains where they come from and why.

 

[Stormonu]

In the beginning - for that is where all stories start - the Gods had made all creatures, but not given them shape. In short order, the Gods found this to a woeful state, for without shape, it made them bland, uninteresting and lacking creativity. After much debate among the Gods, it was decided that they would gift the different races each with their own form that would make them distinct.

Through their priests, the gods made their desire known and all beings were summoned to the great temples to be reformed in an image that more pleased the Gods desire for diversity.

However, among the creations of the Gods was one individual, named Dopler, who was a powerful, selfish wizard. For many years Dopler had carefully studied the Gods and learned many of their secrets; these were the secrets of magic. He feared that when he stood before the Gods they might discover the secrets he had learned from them and bind him to a form incapable of producing magic. This, he could not tolerate, but he knew he could not defy the Will of the Gods.

Dopler delayed his arrival as long as he could, fashioning for himself a magic cloak to conceal himself within. When it was completed, he was among the last of the beings to arrive before the Gods. As he witnessed their transformation of the being ahead of him into the platypus, it resolved Dopler to continue with his plan.

Wrapped in his magic cloak, the Gods unknowingly blessed the cloak with a form of its own (Many tales vary on what shape the Gods gave to Dopler, but they generally agree it was humanoid) and Dopler gave his thanks and beat a hasty retreat.

In public, Dopler wore his cloak to conceal his true nature from the other beings, and prided himself on duping the Gods. As time passed, Dopler encountered many of his former friends who had been given forms that were lacking in one way or another. One of these, Aranea the Spider-like, he fell in love with and married. So great was his love for Aranea, that he eventually revealed his secret to her.

Aranea was both pleased and disheartened by the revelation. She was pleased to learn her husband was clever enough to trick the gods, but she was disheartened that she had not thought of such a trick to keep her own formlessness.

This greatly saddened Dopler, who devoted his studies to finding a way to undo Aranea's form. In the years Dopler struggled with how to undo his wife's form, the couple gave birth to two children - Chimera the Lion-like and Chameleon the Blender. (Some stories up this number to seven or a dozen such children, all amalgam creatures of some sort) At first, Dopler feared that these strange offspring - who neither resembled Dopler or his wife - would tip off others that something was wrong, but his wife Aranea was able to put off any questions as it being a "Gift of the Gods" to reward their piousness with even more varied and interesting children.

Eventually, after long years Dopler was able to discover a means by which he could allow his wife to alter her shape as she wished. By distilling a small part of his own essence and allowing Aranea to imbibe it, her form regained some of its former liquidity.

This would, perhaps, have been the end of the story if Aranea had not been so vain. For against Dopler's admonitions, she would often alter her appearance to incorporate whatever pleasant feature she found in another being. As time passed, her neighbors became more and more suspicious, and eventually Aranea's closest friend - the nymphs - tricked the secret out of her.

Threatening to reveal her secret to the priests, Dopler was forced to repeat the process for the Nymphs. However, to bind them against informing others, he demanded from them a lock of hair, which he incorporated into his cloak. To Dopler's surprise, he found that thereafter, he could change the cloak's form to match the Nymphs, and used it to spy on them and ensure they kept their bargain.

Unfortunately, they did not, and the conspiracy expanded. Some asked for themselves, some asked for loved ones deformed by their ill-devised shapes and some even asked for the gift of morphability for their pets. Each time Dopler agreed to share his essence with those who discovered the secret in returned for the magic elixir that allowed their shape to quiver and shift. As less and less of Dopler remained, the power of the elixir became less potent, so that those who came later into the conspiracy could only change their shape to that of one other form, and eventually some could only partially change their shape. Yet, from each Dopler required a bit of skin, blood, hair or other token to incorporate into his cloak and from that he could assume their shape when he desired.

Under the weight of so many, the conspiracy could not withstand. Tales eventually reached the ears of the gods and they came to Dopler's village to investigate. By then, the magic of change infested every being within and threatened to spill over into neighboring towns. Angered by what they witnessed and an entire village that had turned their back on the God's gift, they smote the village and captured Dopler and his cloak.

Yet, with their ability to shift, many of its residents were able to flee the village. The Gods made no further attempts to hunt down these beings, though they were scattered to the four winds. Even Aranea escaped into the wilderness to found a people of her own.

Dopler was taken back to the home of the Gods, where he was judged and found guilty of subverting the Gift of the Gods. They made an example of him, cursing his form into the most horrid of disfigured shapes (though tales vary on the form he was forced into). Instead of killing him, the Gods cast him back into the world and his only possession - his cloak of changing. Forever after, Dopler was cursed to hide under the forms of others, for his own true shape is so hideous it would kill those who were to gaze upon it. From his seed thereafter, came the Doppleganger; pale reflections of Dopler and said to carry a small piece from his cloak, by which they can assume the shape of others.

It is said that to this day, Dopler, still cursed by the gods, walks among us. We would never know if this were true or not, for he could easily be among us now, listening to this tale ... or perhaps telling it himself.

 

[Rechan]

Stormonu, that is just the sort of thing I was looking for and it is quite cool. Has a very "Prometheus" feel to it. It would also not surprise me if Donder had further children once he was cursed, and he then beget monsters.

Again I worry my players may be upset by the betrayal. I don't know if they will be - I don't Know them that well - but I have heard that players just don't appreciate betrayal all that much in any fashion. Especially if the betrayer tricks them into assaulting peaceful folk.

And I am wary that the "shapechanger badguy" has been done to death. Even if I'm trying to do it well. Ahem.

 

[Gilladian]

I have nothing to say about myths, but as far as your players feeling "betrayed" by betrayal - I say GOOD!

If they actually get upset, it means you did a good job setting the situation up.

With one caveat: make sure that for every piece of misinformation they are fed by the doppleganger, they have an equal chance to discover a clue to the reality of the situation.

In other words, if the doppleganger tells them that the folk of one village are liars and dishonest in their trading, then they need to have contact with another person who would/could refute that statement, and who is given an opportunity to provide the info. If the PCs don't ask the traveling huntsman or merchant his opinion of the "dishonest" village, well, that's their problem; you gave them an opportunity and they didn't take it.

 

[Stormonu]

Stormonu, that is just the sort of thing I was looking for and it is quite cool. Has a very "Prometheus" feel to it. It would also not surprise me if Donder had further children once he was cursed, and he then beget monsters.

Again I worry my players may be upset by the betrayal. I don't know if they will be - I don't Know them that well - but I have heard that players just don't appreciate betrayal all that much in any fashion. Especially if the betrayer tricks them into assaulting peaceful folk.

And I am wary that the "shapechanger badguy" has been done to death. Even if I'm trying to do it well. Ahem.

Thank you, I love the chance to write up these sort of things and let my creativity get a little loose.

I'm with Gilladian about betrayal. As long as it is not arbitrarily heavy handed, and the characters have the chance to learn the truth and right any wrongs they have made, a well-executed betrayal will give the players a memorable villain they will never forget.

The only thing I would add is to be wary of overusing betrayal; the players should encounter many, many more truly trustworthy beings during the game so both the betrayal is more bittersweet and so that the players do not become paranoid that everyone is going to betray them at some point.