Untapped Mythologies

If you've played the game much at all then you would have a difficult time missing out on the fact that a huge portion of the game's lore is founded on mythological sources of one sort or another.

The game draws upon a diverse variety of sources, from classical Greek and Roman (pretty much anything to do with Statesman, Knives of Artemis, etc...) to African (Pantheon) to Sumerian to Irish (Croatoa factions) and even to American myth and legend (Norambega, Roanoke colony), Lovecraft(Croatoa and Coralax), Modern myth (Malta = Illuminati) and others that I'm not remembering off the top of my head. Additionally, we have cryptozoological creatures such as Sally (Lake monsters) and Lusca (Lusca, a Bahamian cryptid said to inhabit "blue holes" and be a combination shark/octopus).

Basically, prior to the arrival of incarnates, it was fair to say that when looking at the game as it launched and for much of the followup content that mythology was a driving creative force. He Who We Do Not Name was a liberal studies mythology student and Matt has stated in interviews that the studio is peopled with a number of mythology lovers.

With that intro, what I'm interested in discussing is the mythologies that the game has yet to tap for ideas or inspiration, and how it might do that. Mythology in this sense is a broad term; not so much "gods and goddesses" but folklore, cryptozoology and modern urban belief as well as ancient belief. Usage in-game isn't necessarily a literal thing, either. The Knives of Artemis clearly are not related to anything Greco-Roman beyond their name. Adamastor in african myth is not anything like a giant zombie. Lusca is only superficially an octopus and it's definitely not the size of an oil tanker. Red Caps, even evil ones, were not nearly as nasty as our version of them.

In other words, the connection between a mythical idea and a game realization of that idea can be a tenuous one, as long as it's a mythic idea that inspired it.

A couple that I can think of off of the top of my head:

Bigfoot/Sasquatch - A lot of people don't realize that the Sasquatch mythology goes rather deeper than just some guys with grainy home movies or a frozen ape corpse in a carnival side show. Many native american tribes have stories about the Sasquatch and their ways.

It isn't just the native americans, either. As an example - some hundred or so miles southwest of Mount St. Helens is a place called the Ape Cave. It's a huge ancient lava tube that is explorable to a certain extent. In the fifties, I believe it was, there were regular tours by a group of local boy scouts/rock climbers called the St. Helens Apes. Many people just assumed the name came from their rock climbing and mountain scaling activities, running up and down mountains like apes.

In actuality, the name of the group was an allusion to the fact that the valley holding the lava tube and it's entrance cave had a history of being Sasquatch territory. Strange things had been reported in the area over the decades and centuries. The particular event that gave the area its moniker and the mountaineers their own particular name was based on a story by a group of pioneers that built a cabin in the woods in the same general area. Explorers, trappers, hunters; that sort of thing. The men were hunkered down one night when strange noises heralded even stranger events - The cabin was attacked by group of large, hairy, ape-like creatures that bashed it, jumped on it, smashed it with stones and generally terrorized the men inside the cabin who fortunately for themselves, had guns and ammunition. They fought them off, left at dawn and didn't come back again, as one might imagine.

That's not the only Sasquatch story from the area. It's just the most bizarre and frightening one. The thing is that if you research the lore you'll find that the story is not unique. There are similar tales of pioneers and hunters encountering the ape-creatures, with more or less violence as a result. Historically, Sasquatch is much more than a guy in a monkey suit leaving fabricated footprints. "Wild Men", like the X-Files take on the Jersey Devil fall into this category as well.

Inca/Toltec - As far as I know we don't have anything in the game that references the Inca, Mayans, or Quetzlcoatl and his crowd. I could see a villain group taking on a "modern Incans" or "modern Mayans" mystical theme, especially if they thought they had the actual key to the whole "end of the calendar" meme.

Egyptian - Blood of the Black Stream was going to be our Egyptian-themed group and that never got off the ground and doesn't currently show any sign of doing so.

Moth Man - Talking about modern myth, you really can't ignore Moth Man, just because it's so completely bizarre and unnerving. Of course, a lot of what goes on in Paragon City is completely bizarre and unnerving, ha ha! Still, it would be interesting to see a faction of opponents inspired by the Moth Man stories, especially since the motivations of the Moth Men are so weirdly inscrutable that you might not be able to tell whether they were heros, villains, or driven by motivations entirely alien to notions of morality or idealism.

So, what mythos, cryptoid, or folklore would you bring into the game as a reference or as background for a new hero/villain group, if you could?

I was surprised when Night Ward whipped out Lamatshu. I have a friend who's character is a follower of that Deity over on Virtue. And he did it because it's a relatively obscure deity with very little coverage in mainstream media, as far as mythology goes.

You would not believe his level of shock when I realized the Lamatshu I beat up in Night Ward was supposedly the SAME ONE HIS CHARACTER WAS A FOLLOWER OF. In-character, he came up with the justification that it wasn't the real one, just a ridiculously powerful creature believing it was the Mother of Monsters.


On topic, urban myths like Mothman are definitely something. Or perhaps some Japanese mythology like Yamato-no-Orochi.

Native American: Mother F-ing THUNDER BIRDS. Eagles big enough to pick people up and eat them!
(Possibly related: Ziz from Judaic myth. I mean we've already got Leviathan and Behemoth.)

Babylonian: Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes, and someone who could have been THE ORIGINAL Incarnate. (It's implied he was one of the original heroes from the first KNOWN/speculated time 'Pandora's Box' was opened.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

The Malta are more akin to the Majestic 12 conspiracy myth and James Bond stories than the Illuminati. The Midnight Club is more akin to the Illuminati, Masons or other such classical multi-century secret society.


As to that, I know one of my characters is Medusa...as in she inherited the power down through several generations going back to the Libyan Goddess before she was killed...

japanese, and lots of it. I'd love to see the yaoki pop up, with creatures like tengu, oni and bakemono as well as more standard (and creepy) japanese ghosts. I have often suggested having the paper dolls often used by onmyoji in anime as an alternate casting animation for some controls. I'd hug someone if we got a serpentine Asian dragon as a giant monster (with some costume elements for a second dragon head with the whiskers, antler horns and facial hair) maybe even deal with kirin as contacts for blueside and antagonists for red. maybe even throw in a nine tailed fox since we are using our 4 legged rig as much as we are. have weaker foxes with fewer tails, but have a nine tail pop up like a redside giant monster if you beat the lesser ones.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.