D&D 5E Yawning Portal monsters?

[Savage Wombat]

Nah, it's because it's actually true to mythology. I remember some author (Piers Anthony?) commenting on how many fey creatures seemed to exist solely to have sex with mortals.

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

...basically turning it into a kind of perverted "I stole your clothes now you have to do what I say while naked" bit... That bit, 3e kept mostly intact. Probably because magical bits of clothing are kind of fey-ish. Binding a faerie to your service by stealing their clothing sounds totally Old World Mythic. But, stealing a girl's clothing so that she'll have to do whatever you say (wink nudge wink) is like...idiot bro logic.

Sadly, that's based on actual mythology. Selkies are common myth victims of it as well. And I think djinn fell victim to it on occasion too.

Part of why I really love DnD is that we can have these monsters without the bits of their myth that were really squicky. And I'm hoping they keep that in mind when updating some of these encounters and are willing to drop some of the bits that really should not be kept.

 

[Greg Benage]

Sadly, that's based on actual mythology.

I agree there's lots of this in Classical mythology, but I don't recall it being true for the Nereids.

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

I agree there's lots of this in Classical mythology, but I don't recall it being true for the Nereids.

That's because it's a fairy tale from much later in human history. In classical myth, Nereids more tended to be married by simply kidnapping them or holding them down until they gave up.

Edit: I said Turkish originally for the culture, but I'm not so sure. Going to hunt that one down a bit. But definitely a more modern fairy tale.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Sadly, that's based on actual mythology. Selkies are common myth victims of it as well. And I think djinn fell victim to it on occasion too.

Part of why I really love DnD is that we can have these monsters without the bits of their myth that were really squicky. And I'm hoping they keep that in mind when updating some of these encounters and are willing to drop some of the bits that really should not be kept.

Yeah, idiot bro logic was pretty prominent in old myth. Ideally, they'd be able to find some more interesting / nuanced way of handling the idea that nereids value these items.

 

[CapnZapp]

Not that this is particularly relevant, but nakedness was much more natural in the era of the source material for nereids and other "monsters" (or even the hapless heroes themselves). So please don't read more into the "stealing her shawl leaves her unclothed" part than what is actually there.

And what is there, is the theme of "bending deceitful women to your will". That's what stealing her shawl means.

This does not mean the target group is creepy teenagers. Just ancient (male) Greeks, that by our standards appear chauvinistic.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I spent some time doing some research to find out where D&D got that shawl stuff from, but my google-fu is weak. I did find that forcing nereids to marry you by restraining them is a common theme (the whole rape-a-nature-spirit-to-marry-it thing is a recurring motif in Greek myth, so not surprising there), that most of the nereid depictions in ancient Greece were fully clothed (the Romans got a little more exposed), that you could easily play Six Degrees of Thetis with Greek myth, and that sea silk is a thing and is one of those weird confluences of super luxurious and kind of gross that make me want to use it in my D&D games!

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

The idea of marrying a Nereid by stealing her clothing is relatively-modern Greek fairy tale. I traced it to Women of Turkey and their Folk-Lore, which then led me to The Science of Fairy Tales where it talks about the fairy tale being modern. Both of these are from 1891, putting this fairy tale squarely in the modern era. Definitely not classical myth by a long shot, but close enough to the modern era that it might have still been somewhat known by the makers of AD&D.

I think we can say I just did the literary equivalent of archaeology

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I seem to recall that in most mythologies, the pretty girl in the water is basically trying to put a good spin on "you drowned." Myths were full of that: going to Valhalla (not to mention the hot Valkyrie) was basically the good spin on "you were in a fight, and now you are bleeding out." Not to get into modern religion too much, but 42 virgins (I forget the actual number) awaiting you in paradise after you suicide bomb the infidels is pretty much the same thing.