WotC WotC needs an Elon Musk

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

The Abduction of Persephone is a regionalised retelling of a far more ancient story. Hades doesn't even exist in the earliest ones. Heck, one ancient version involves Horse-Poseidon chasing Horse-Demeter and Horse-Persephone (probably. Its a mystery cult, you know how their jam be) being born as a result. Hades himself doesn't even exist in the oldest versions and he just seems to be a split-off of the original Myceanan Poseidon, who was their king of the underworld

Mind, this is absolutely ancient stuff

Ah, I see you are also a fan of Overly Sarcastic Productions.

For Context:

 

[AnotherGuy]

The Phantom Lover was a plot device; there was almost no reason to actually bring him into your game. He was basically there to explain how Garbielle Aderre suddenly had a fully grown child.

But he was treated as a Darklord you could encounter and defeat only to arise again from intense levels of grief (again if I'm recalling correctly).

Dementlieu (pre-revolution Paris) was ruled by Dominc d'Honaire, who had total mind control powers.

Ah like a Kilgrave from the comics and Netflix's Jessica Jones.

In a game, the actual books shouldn't include NPCs that are likely to target my character not as a foe to be killed but as a woman to be raped.

That is far more terrifying - at least the monsters I mentioned upthread seek your character's eventual death and/or soul. Death can be cured in D&D, there is no spell to cure rape.

Even if the DM has no plans on ever including such a thing in their game, that sort of stuff has no place in a book being sold by a major company to an all-ages demographic.

This I would agree with, if they intend to create Darklords with this level of monstrosity the books should be marked appropriately.

 

[Mecheon]

Is that myth connected to Arion, or was Poseidon just fond of turning into horses and having children with Demeter?

I don't think anyone's gone all in for it, but I'd suspect absolutely given it seems to be a retelling of the older myth, just a different horse kid

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Poseidon was also the horse god.

Yes, I know. I have read a lot of Greek Mythology. Most people don't even know who Arion is. I'd just never heard of this possible connection before.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I don't think anyone's gone all in for it, but I'd suspect absolutely given it seems to be a retelling of the older myth, just a different horse kid

Yeah, that's what I suspected. It's strange how often "gods turn into a horse and have magical horse children" pops up (Loki with Sleipnir, Poseidon with Arion, proto-Poseidon with Despoina).

 

[Faolyn]

The Abduction of Persephone is a regionalised retelling of a far more ancient story. Hades doesn't even exist in the earliest ones. Heck, one ancient version involves Horse-Poseidon chasing Horse-Demeter and Horse-Persephone (probably. Its a mystery cult, you know how their jam be) being born as a result. Hades himself doesn't even exist in the oldest versions and he just seems to be a split-off of the original Myceanan Poseidon, who was their king of the underworld

Mind, this is absolutely ancient stuff

Sources? I'd love to read some of these older myths.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Sources? I'd love to read some of these older myths.

A lot of them are summarized (albeit snarkily) in the Overly Sarcastic Productions video I linked above, though sadly I don't have the comprehensive list of sources the video's creator was working from. Would have to go digging.

Some, particularly the Hades as an offshoot of Mycenean Poseidon part, is her own theorizing, and clearly stated as such.

 

[Mecheon]

Sources? I'd love to read some of these older myths.

It involves a lot of digging but Descriptions of Greece (Hellados Periegesis) talks on it when it describes Arcadia, then you have to dig into Myceanan stuff for later parts

However given it was a mystery cult and Despoina is a title meaning "Mistress", as to define a goddess they would not speak the name of to the uninitiated, everyone's basically gone with the 'its Persephone' theory in the time since, given that Persephone and Demeter appear as a linked pair of goddesses with a similar title in Myceanan stuff, and a goddess who's occaisonally referred to as 'Dread queen' getting the Hades treatment of 'don't say their name' before the Hades myth-idea really spread seems to make sense

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Sources? I'd love to read some of these older myths.

I don't think that the video mentions the specific horse myth that @Mecheon is talking about, but this video does a very good job of summarizing what little we know about early worship of Persephone, Demeter, and Poseidon.
Edit: Didn't notice that @Veltharis ap Rylix posted the video first. Ignore this post.

 

[Marandahir]

No