RangerWickett
Legend
I'm kind of tossing out a net here, looking for ideas, to help me better understand the way we devise our worlds and our game schema. Please help me out with your thoughts.
Anyone who has played in or read about the Forgotten Realms knows that it is a world filled with a myriad of mythological beliefs. You have the typical Faerunian viewpoint, with its curious pantheons of deities, you have Maztica, and Chult, and a dozen other places whose names I cannot remember. Some are Greco-Roman in derivation, and most others seem to have been drawn from a mixture of Norse and Celtic lore common to Arthurian literature. But there is a surprisingly large contingent of locations, stories, or just monsters or magic that are pulled from wholly non-European myths. Forgotten Realms, and many many other fantasy realms like it, take myths from a variety of sources and dash them together, creating a melting pot mythos the likes of which never quite existed on Earth.
I'm wondering why. Is it merely for the sake of variety that so many fantasy stories draw upon diverse elements of our own Earthly myths? Robert Howard's Conan stories were set before the time of the Biblical flood, in a land where Egyptian death cults coexist with Mesopotamian gods, Eastern European sorcerers, the odd Oriental monk or mystic, and a fair horde of Northern European myths. If any of you have read Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword, though it is rooted in the conflict between Elf and Troll, seelie and unseelie fey, there are a few scenes where the author brings in creatures from around the world. A satyr wanders into England, mourning that no one believes in it anymore in Greece; oni and various manner of Russian and African goblins join a Trollish invasion fleet; Christian and pagan beliefs coexist side by side, in tense conflict.
On a more negative note, there is the campy mythic world of Xena and Hercules, where characters who we know should be well-grounded in one mythology, instead take vacations for the sake of variety into other myths. Xena fights alongside Julius Caesar one day, goes to Egypt and confronts a mummy the next, then swings by China so her sidekick Gabriel can learn to fight with sai. Oh, and don't forget that Gabriel takes the place of the Virgin Mary, only her child is evil and will take over the world, more of a Mordred than a Messiah.
In my opinion, such a meshing of different mythos adds a sense of diversity to a world, but it can also create a disjunction, with no clear core of belief. Instead, everyone is given a fair share, which, while admirable, fails to reflect the very real truth that most people in the pre-Renaissance world were barely ever exposed to foreign mythologies. The stories gain greater depth of a whole world, but sacrifice unity and coherence in any given small setting.
One theory that has been put forth is that such efforts to mush together myths into something new have been driven by the desire of the English-speaking world to create its own mythology. J.R.R. Tolkein is credited with having wanted his stories to be a mythology for England. Unlike nearly every other major country or culture, England (and later America) was the clear creation of several cultures intermingling. You have the various Welsh myths, Celtic fey and Norse giants and trolls, and even the British legend of Arthur and the round table, but these stories . . . the myths by which we must define our history, were all originally created in languages other than those we speak today. They were created in a time different from the one that spawned our current language, and so they cannot quite ever capture our thoughts.
Modern fantasy, then, could be a desire to create a mythos for us to live in. America is even worse off than England in that respect, in that we're a far younger culture, easily given to amalgamation. We desire to create a folklore, a mythic history that conveys not just how we feel and what we cherish, but also what we long for and cannot have. The defeatist tone of the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf do not match our modern day interests and concerns.
For us, it is Middle Earth's tale of the Elves, magic leaving the world which is sadly threatened by the approach of technology and loss of individuality. It is Krynn's search for faith in a world where we abandoned it, and now we want to find it again. It is the Melnibonean search for a morality that can no longer simply accept 'right' and 'wrong,' but must seek to comprehend the conflict between the order of protective society and the chaos of personal freedom (a philosophy popularized in the 60s if there ever was one).
It is that near-comic fear from Planet of the Apes, that we might be replaced by our own mistakes, not by fate, but by folly. It is the search for heroes, be they created by science, miraculous mutation, or a fortunate castaway from Krypton, for we think that we no longer have heroes, that we haven't the power to change our world. And that is a power we think we deserve. It is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, telling us to consider that very desire for power.
But we could always just make things up ourselves, and not draw upon older myths. Frankenstein's monster is not a clear descendant of European folklore, no more than Superman, Wolverine, or Jean Grey hail from any of our myths. They seem a more modern creation. True, elements of their stories are as long-lasting and commonly seen as any other tale, but the details of their existence are frame purely without any mythic sentimentality.
So why, in fantasy, do we still see strains of old myths? Are they presented to resonate more with our modern lives, to tie us into the world we cast our minds to as we read or play? Even superhero comics often are their most poignant when they draw upon Christian or Oriental or Jewish or Muslim or other symbolisms. Surely, some authors have a clearer agenda than others, but for those who consciously choose to draw upon real-world myths, what do they think they gain?
I want to end this long question with a bit of a counter-argument. I'm sure there are a thousand other examples, but if any of you have read about or played in Talislanta, you'll know that it owes very little to real-world myths. Dark Sun is much the same, as was, in many cases, Spelljammer. Obviously, fantasy stories can be told without tapping humanity's mythic lore, so then what prompts so many of us to keep doing so?
Take a look at the threads on this board, and see how many are questions on fitting Earthly mythology into fantasy gaming. Hopefully you'll have some insight I don't into why we have this desire.
-Ryan "RangerWickett" Nock
Anyone who has played in or read about the Forgotten Realms knows that it is a world filled with a myriad of mythological beliefs. You have the typical Faerunian viewpoint, with its curious pantheons of deities, you have Maztica, and Chult, and a dozen other places whose names I cannot remember. Some are Greco-Roman in derivation, and most others seem to have been drawn from a mixture of Norse and Celtic lore common to Arthurian literature. But there is a surprisingly large contingent of locations, stories, or just monsters or magic that are pulled from wholly non-European myths. Forgotten Realms, and many many other fantasy realms like it, take myths from a variety of sources and dash them together, creating a melting pot mythos the likes of which never quite existed on Earth.
I'm wondering why. Is it merely for the sake of variety that so many fantasy stories draw upon diverse elements of our own Earthly myths? Robert Howard's Conan stories were set before the time of the Biblical flood, in a land where Egyptian death cults coexist with Mesopotamian gods, Eastern European sorcerers, the odd Oriental monk or mystic, and a fair horde of Northern European myths. If any of you have read Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword, though it is rooted in the conflict between Elf and Troll, seelie and unseelie fey, there are a few scenes where the author brings in creatures from around the world. A satyr wanders into England, mourning that no one believes in it anymore in Greece; oni and various manner of Russian and African goblins join a Trollish invasion fleet; Christian and pagan beliefs coexist side by side, in tense conflict.
On a more negative note, there is the campy mythic world of Xena and Hercules, where characters who we know should be well-grounded in one mythology, instead take vacations for the sake of variety into other myths. Xena fights alongside Julius Caesar one day, goes to Egypt and confronts a mummy the next, then swings by China so her sidekick Gabriel can learn to fight with sai. Oh, and don't forget that Gabriel takes the place of the Virgin Mary, only her child is evil and will take over the world, more of a Mordred than a Messiah.
In my opinion, such a meshing of different mythos adds a sense of diversity to a world, but it can also create a disjunction, with no clear core of belief. Instead, everyone is given a fair share, which, while admirable, fails to reflect the very real truth that most people in the pre-Renaissance world were barely ever exposed to foreign mythologies. The stories gain greater depth of a whole world, but sacrifice unity and coherence in any given small setting.
One theory that has been put forth is that such efforts to mush together myths into something new have been driven by the desire of the English-speaking world to create its own mythology. J.R.R. Tolkein is credited with having wanted his stories to be a mythology for England. Unlike nearly every other major country or culture, England (and later America) was the clear creation of several cultures intermingling. You have the various Welsh myths, Celtic fey and Norse giants and trolls, and even the British legend of Arthur and the round table, but these stories . . . the myths by which we must define our history, were all originally created in languages other than those we speak today. They were created in a time different from the one that spawned our current language, and so they cannot quite ever capture our thoughts.
Modern fantasy, then, could be a desire to create a mythos for us to live in. America is even worse off than England in that respect, in that we're a far younger culture, easily given to amalgamation. We desire to create a folklore, a mythic history that conveys not just how we feel and what we cherish, but also what we long for and cannot have. The defeatist tone of the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf do not match our modern day interests and concerns.
For us, it is Middle Earth's tale of the Elves, magic leaving the world which is sadly threatened by the approach of technology and loss of individuality. It is Krynn's search for faith in a world where we abandoned it, and now we want to find it again. It is the Melnibonean search for a morality that can no longer simply accept 'right' and 'wrong,' but must seek to comprehend the conflict between the order of protective society and the chaos of personal freedom (a philosophy popularized in the 60s if there ever was one).
It is that near-comic fear from Planet of the Apes, that we might be replaced by our own mistakes, not by fate, but by folly. It is the search for heroes, be they created by science, miraculous mutation, or a fortunate castaway from Krypton, for we think that we no longer have heroes, that we haven't the power to change our world. And that is a power we think we deserve. It is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, telling us to consider that very desire for power.
But we could always just make things up ourselves, and not draw upon older myths. Frankenstein's monster is not a clear descendant of European folklore, no more than Superman, Wolverine, or Jean Grey hail from any of our myths. They seem a more modern creation. True, elements of their stories are as long-lasting and commonly seen as any other tale, but the details of their existence are frame purely without any mythic sentimentality.
So why, in fantasy, do we still see strains of old myths? Are they presented to resonate more with our modern lives, to tie us into the world we cast our minds to as we read or play? Even superhero comics often are their most poignant when they draw upon Christian or Oriental or Jewish or Muslim or other symbolisms. Surely, some authors have a clearer agenda than others, but for those who consciously choose to draw upon real-world myths, what do they think they gain?
I want to end this long question with a bit of a counter-argument. I'm sure there are a thousand other examples, but if any of you have read about or played in Talislanta, you'll know that it owes very little to real-world myths. Dark Sun is much the same, as was, in many cases, Spelljammer. Obviously, fantasy stories can be told without tapping humanity's mythic lore, so then what prompts so many of us to keep doing so?
Take a look at the threads on this board, and see how many are questions on fitting Earthly mythology into fantasy gaming. Hopefully you'll have some insight I don't into why we have this desire.
-Ryan "RangerWickett" Nock
