Your Worldbuilding Needs Weird Myths
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
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Wow
Do you have a bunch of references for the media footage used and books referenced? I'm in love and would like to deep dive first hand!
No offense, I don't know if it's the editing but you really speak too fast and the constant gesturing doesn't help
One of my fanfics explores how the message of mythologies shift as they're passed down. The main character quickly learns the story of the Witch Queen, a powerful, evil pagan figure who created the Key Stone which gives the bearer a boost in witchcraft power, and once seduced and brought the downfall of a king, with the cursed cat beast Yami being implied to be the king in question. However, later revelations reveal that this isn't true at all: the real Witch Queen was a young girl from ancient Egypt who was a magic prodigy, and her relationship with the king is also much more wholesome than the tales implied - they were childhood best friends with a side of mutual pining/courtly love going on, and she actually died trying to save him. Word of her sacrifice and how much she meant to the king got passed around over the centuries, and so she was called his queen (although they never married) and then conflated with the goddess Isis, who was then conflated with the goddess Hecate during the Ptolemy era, and then as Christianity took over, she - as a personification of everything "wrong" with a woman, strong-willed, magically gifted, and of equal status to her husband - was demonized into the Witch Queen. The main character, as a reincarnation of the original girl, inherits the powers and domains of all of the figures she was conflated with: all of Isis's powers after gaining Ra's true name and her designation as protector of the king, Hecate's domain over arcane arts, and leadership over all Witches and power over dark magic from her title as Witch Queen.
@@balabanasireti false. just listen better
The more mythology you look into outside of “canon”, the more you realize that our stories are more varied and strange than we originally imagined
The concept of a Mythological Canon is pretty specific to Christianity; many religions are pretty okay with multiple, contradictory versions of core stories.
The real problem is passing on the myth in a coherent manner. The very same bible has dozens of different versions often contradicting each other.
@@stefanozucchelli5410 different versions cause of different translations don't talk nonsense do some research first obviously the original language the Bible was written in is old as hell so obviously there will be different translations
@@Shadow-Astro69 That was a very roundabout way of agreeing with the guy.
@@contentsdiffer5958 it isn't the same thing
Hello Darcy!
Myths are like rumors. By the time you learn of them, they've been twisted so many times. In Avatar, the characters get to watch a play about their adventure. The play is probably based on military reports and rumors that have been twisted to glorify the morals of the fire nation.
"Sources include singing nomads, pirates, prisoners of war and a surprisingly knowledgeble merchant of cabbage." Sokka, reading out loud the souces in the episode "the ember island players".
tbf aphrodite just popped up as an adult because she resembles adult love, so it makes sense she was never a kid
From a certain part that is related to her sphere of influence.
A lot of myths probably originated in something like a joke or at least with humor. "So what happened to Uranus's stuff?"
"Hmmmm, well, funny you should ask...."
Tell that to the ancient greek
Yeah the idea of the god of sex ever having been a kid is disturbing so I never questioned her appearing fully grown
@@acadiano10 not really. Most myths either start out describing real life events or from symbolical stories that lose their symbolism as time goes on.
For instance aphrodite was originally a war god that had her domains split into various different gods. And the idea of her spawning from the foam at the sea might have been symbolic retelling of her cult arriving at mainland Greece.
Many of the gods were born as adults and Aphrodite isn’t necessarily “adult love” as such
When you try to explain the unexplainable you generally get some insane solutions.
This is a great comment 😂
Like Dark Matter?
@@animalia5554weird thing to take a stand on...
Who tf mentioned Dark Matter? Are you like, trying to disprove science because people are shitting in how mythology was created?
Those are extremely different methods and concepts.... Whats the play here?
@@darkhobo I meant how Dark Matter was an idea to explain how the universe seems to be expanding more then it should , but there's new math suggesting other possibilities
@darkhobo wow, that was super aggressive.
I like the idea of a sci-fi story set in the far future universe that treats our modern understanding of science as a myth. “Early humans believed that, at the beginning of time, all of the stuff in the universe was concentrated into a single ball. And that ball was so hot and so dense that it exploded, and that explosion was so great, it continued for billions of years, and the universe continued expanding and expanding. Eventually, it was big enough that stars and solar systems and even galaxies gathered together within the expanding universe, and civilizations grew within those galaxies. Early humans wondered if the universe would ever stop expanding, or if it would just keep growing forever. Of course, we know better than that now.”
Sounds like a pretty good creation myth, right?
It is a creation myth, though. I don't say that just because I believe it fictional; from a cultural perspective, it is a creation myth (and remember that all cultures think there own myths are true).
I couldn't keep up with the author's pace, but up though chapter 300 or so (and this probably continued) the "First Contact" webseries leaned into this hard.
Might be worth looking into if this trope tickles your fancy. You know you've got the right one when you find the one with the sentient praying mantis people that have a cultural mania for ice cream and Really Nice Hats (it makes sense in context, promise)
Dude, Asimov literally had already written that in Foundation and Earth.
@@robertlewis6915
But wouldn’t it be like as if we put a house and a tent in the same category just because one can hide from the rain in it?
@@Everywhere4 I'm honestly not sure what you mean. Note particularly that those two things actually share a number of categories.
(and evolution has metaphysical, ethical, theological, and even epistemological implications. just like a religious creation myth)
You know, something many writers miss while creating their own mythology is there always make it too clean.
They remove anything that can be controversial, problematic, nonsensical, or just weird. But myths are weird for a reason.
Not only are pass down from a culture way longer we where born and we often lack the context on why there are told that way, but there are meant to make you think, see things in very different ways and be more open minded about the strangest of ideas, and makes you wonder about impossible things otherwise you never thought before.
Is a open book on how people view the world itself.
As a mythology writer myself I always try and have a couple of nonsensical/downright contradictory things. It's always fun thinking of mythical explanations for things, and then coming up with ALTERNATE variations on the same story!
To be fair, they are likely like that because humans are very moral 😇 fanatical, so censor and alter their own mythology to support whatever morals they happen to have.
It's hard to understand what you're trying to say thru your writing (I assume you aren't a native English speaker), but no, myths *aren't* meant to make you think and see things differently and be open-minded. In fact, usually quite the opposite. They're meant to tell the listener "Here's an answer, now stop asking me silly questions."
@@jursamaj Not in all mythologies. Sometimes the myth is to teach you a sometimes unintuitive lesson to expand your thinking.
@@jursamajthat’s a relatively recent cultural trend (that is thankfully on the decline).
Political leaders didn’t always have authoritarian regimes that needed to be propped up by an imperial “dominance over others” or a nation-state’s “motherland” mythos.
During times where rulers weren’t dependent on an all-encompassing national/ethnic identity to control instead of govern, there wasn’t a whole lot of pressure on religious groups to justify the rulers’ divine right to rule.
This is not to say that myths always/often served the purpose of teaching critical thinking, but your characterization of myths constantly serving the same general cultural purpose of propaganda is too hasty of a generalization.
I love how, even among established lore, there are headcanons (stories we share with each other that haven't been verified by the authors). We make mythology outside of stories. Lore is more than what others say. It's what we believe about what we observe.
Hello Darcy
The romans Famously integrated not only conquered nobility into their society but especially conquered Deities into their own Pantheon, or equal them to some of their own Deities.
A big reason why the Romans lasted so long, roughly 2200 years from Kingdom to Eastern Empire, was their adaptability.
Also keep in mind that the Romans didn't "conquer" deities -- they subverted them. One of the things that the Romans did was perform rituals to convince their opponent's deity that they were their friends, and they'd really like being Roman.
Except for Ba'al Hamon. That guy was a jerk.
The Persians did something somewhat similar but much more pluralistic. Consistent with typical polytheistic worldview which saw different gods as sovereign over different physical territories, they believed that if they were going to rule a vast empire of many foreign lands that they needed to respect and appease the gods of those lands. They not only gave extensive religious freedom to conquered peoples, but they also provided funds for the upkeep/restoration of cultic sites and made efforts to make sure that the priestly classes were fulfilling their duties to their gods.
Studying and being an avid fan of mythology is exactly why I'm so frustrated so many stories these days feel like they're just cheap knock offs of each other and how the stereotypical dragons, elves, orcs and castles fantasy setting has became so overused it effectively lost all magic.
Mythologies from around the world have so many ideas, settings, creatures, magic systems, societal influences that could be a jumping off point for so many unique worldbuildings with unique plots, yet people just always default back to like a handful of plots and world we've seen a million times.
Sure ripping off mythology doesn't make your story "original" either, but at least it's unique and can feel fresh in this oversaturated market of clone trend chasers.
Not to mention so many fantasy writers write with an obvious focus on making an epic. Rather than creating a mythology that feels mythological...
Real it’s honestly disappointing if I ever make a story I’ll do my best to make it unique and amazing
But the question is, is that what the writers want? You're talking about uniqueness but considering how popular these stories are, clearly alot of people genuinely like it so i don't think you can just pass it off as trend chasing.
@@hadrianhexe9603 You're missing the point. I'm not saying the fantasy setting itself is wrong or people are bad for liking it, I'm saying it's been so universally overused it squandered attempts to tell a unique story.
A comparison like the gaming industry. There's nothing wrong with shooter games or the people who enjoy shooter games in themselves, but if the market is so oversaturated with shooter games all trying to do the same thing while any other genres of games, games that tries to be be unique or break the formula is considered "unmarketable", that's an issue.
Shooter games are allowed to exist, but they shouldn't run the monopoly of the entire industry.
@@oboretaiwritingch.2077 I'm not talking about that, which is a valid because diversity is needed, i'm talking about the fact you're speaking as though these things are created because the creator is chasing a trend and not because these are stories they love and influence them.
One thing to note is that mythology is not intentional but emergent, and does not always correspond like lowercase histories do with capitalized History (narratives vs reality). This is because mythology is a collection of stories aggregated together, maybe formally interpreted and canonized later on by institutions of religion and politics.
Using Indian mythology as an example. The Ramayana has many different versions in different parts of the world and slices of society eg. the Tamil one vs the Jain one vs the Indonesian one. The Mahabharata probably arose from the Rg Veda story of the Battle of the Ten Kings as a core, collected with many other Puranic legends, retold by traveling and court bards, until compiled into the form we know today. Krishna the god was originally a collection of folk tales about several different groups of figures: 1) the playful baby Krishna 2) the playboy teenage Krishna 3) the heroic young adult Krishna and the Vrishni heroes and 4) the adult all-powerful wise Krishna of the Bhagavad Gita. Later on, Vaishnavas formalizing Vishnu as the chief of the Hindu pantheon would even go further to say that Krishna is actually the main form, and Vishnu and other avataras are secondary.
Anyways my point is that myths are often like stories told to children, remembered by them as they grow up and begin to take them more and more serious. Not that they are told dripping with allegory and intention in the first place. There may be some level of symbolism, but not the amount by the time they are canonized by institutions. And also thus they are not rooted in reality like historical narratives may be rooted in actual historical events. For example, the Vrishni heroes probably didn't exist. They were just a fun set of stories to listen to.
One mind-blowing example of a lost meaning of myth not being clear is in the Dionysus mythology. There are some hints in the Dionysus myths that they are actually the stories of “Young Zeus” before he dethroned Kronos and became the king of the gods. One hint is the name itself; Dionysus might have originally meant Zeus (Di-wo) of the Nysaids (nūsos). The Nysaids were the nymphs that raised Zeus in the traditional narrative. So it’s possible that there was, in Bronze Age Thrace, Crete, or some other Greek town far away from the hub of Greek civilization, a cult dedicated to the stories of Young Zeus, who were isolated from the rest of mainstream Greek culture by the Bronze Age collapse, and when they were reunited with the rest of the Greek world, everyone had forgotten about the cult of Young Zeus (and the cult of Young Zeus had changed during the isolation), so the Greeks cobbled together several different contradictory beliefs about how the cult of Dionysus fit into their own, separately evolved, culture.
I love, love, love mythology; it's one of my biggest hyperfixations, and it truly fascinates me how stories change and evolve just like people. Terry Pratchett said in Witches Abroad, "People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact it's the other way around." That's why I get really frustrated when people get dismissive of the effect that fiction, and stories in general, have on reality. The stories, tiny stories and huge stories and in-between stories, we tell ourselves and each other every single day, changes our reality, our perception of the world. Reality is molded, shaped, by every single individual's perspective, and with all of these perspectives continually colliding with each other, no wonder the world is in such a mess, and why people are becoming more and more divided, families are fractured, politics are more polarized than ever, and arguments are treated as a matter of life and death. Just taking a few seconds to think, 'why do I think this way?', or 'where did this story come from?' or 'is this my own viewpoint, or is it from someone else?' can be, literally, world-changing.
Also, The Ocean at The End of The Lane is one of my favourite books of all time. So nice to see it get mentioned here.
Fun fact: As a separate example of religious syncretism, we know for a fact that Odin did not originate from Norse myth, but rather, he hails from proto-Germanic myth, where he was called Wotan/Woden. The Nords (meaning, for those who don't know, the people from Scandinavia, not referring to the people from Skyrim) took such a liking to him them when they made contact with proto-Germanic tribes that they brought him back, where he possibly supplanted Tyr.
What's funny about religious syncretism is not only has it happened several times throughout history (The Romans are perhaps the biggest perpetrators of it and it's deeply fascinating to research), but it's also happened a lot more recently than people think. Namely where Satan and Lucifer are concerned, as despite being commonly associated as one and the same being, that's only a recent interpretation; Satan comes from comes from Hebrew "ha-satan" (literally "the satan") and the term essentially means "accuser" or "enemy", as it pretty much refers to the entity's divinely appointed duty to try and tempt humanity away from Yahweh/God and into sin.
Lucifer, on the other hand, has weirder origins. The word "lucifer" means "the morning star", "light-bringer", "Shining one", or "the planet Venus", depending on whether you're going by the Latin or Hebrew interpretation, but in essence they all refer to the planet Venus itself, who's journey across the our sky inspired the motifs of a heavenly host being cast out for the crime of reaching for the highest seat in heaven. At one point, he was even a god himself in Greco-Roman myth.
About Odin, wasn't it more that it was Germanic people that brought him with them when they decided to live in the Nordics? Have heard both hypothesis.
But yeah, Satan is an angel whose job it is to be the advocate of heaven. More or less. Nothing worse. Him and Lucifer having the reputation they have today is certainly some interesting reading. Especially with Lucifer most probably not even existing as a character until much later. Humans being humans do what they always do - combine two completely unrelated things.
@@Elora445So Satan and Slugworth from Willy Wonka serve similar functions?
@@maximillianhallett3055
I honestly have no idea who Slugworth is, so can't say.
@@Elora445 Norse people are Germanic people anyway. General opinion today is that both myths developed from the same Proto-Germanic mythology. Given how many gods are being shared, that seems way more sensible than the Norse just liking one particular god and copying it. Especially from a myth of a group they descended from.
Not quite. Odin was called Wodanaz, not Wodan/Wotan. Wodan is the Anglo-Saxon name, Wotan is the name used by white supremacists and as far as I know is not a historically attested name.
The Norse didn't encounter the Proto-Germanics, they're descended from the Proto-Germanic people, hence why they lived centuries after Proto-Germanic split into it's various branches (though Proto-Germanic is not quite a language, more like a dialect continuum, though it's unattested as the people were illiterate and writing wasn't introduced to the region until after they became clearly separate languages).
So it isn't an example of cultural syncretism but of cultural evolution. Wodanaz would become Othinn in Norse, and Wodan in Old English. Tyr is also a Germanic god, originally called Tiwaz, and would becomes Tyrr in Norse and Tiw in Old English (which is where we get Tuesday from).
Your writing and world building books are good. The first one helped me a lot with fight scenes.
I've unfortunately taken a multi-month break from writing my fantasy novels because of my mental health and living circumstances, but watching your videos and coming up with my own mythos and short stories has rekindled my passion and understanding of how much I use creative writing to parse through my own human experience. Thank you for all of your hard work and I'm excited to read your Writing/Worldbuilding series!
"Dying god" stories can also represent a diferent socio-economic group rising to power and their prefered god replacing the prefered god of the previous ruling goup with the previous one dying.
yeah, diferent generations os primordial supwepowered supernatural beings are a recurreing motif in diferent mythologies (like titans vs Olimpic Gods or Giants vs Norse Deities or between norse deities the conflicts between Æsir and Vanir)
@@irinaiturri I was thinking how the whole point of Osiris dying in the Egyptian mythology is to explain why Horus is now the new main god.
But what you you mentioned is also likely a reflection of cultural shift.
@@petrsevcik5044 It's worth noting that Egypt was something of a theocracy with the pharaoh literally being a divine figure. As such gods rise, fall, and get mashed together seemingly at random. This was done mostly for political reasons.
One of the huge things to remember is that, even within the same mythology, perspectives can be different. The people east and west of a mountain range may worship the same gods, tell the same stories, and share similar histories, but they won’t be identical. The easterners may believe the land is the dead gods body, and the mountains are his spine, while the westerners believe he simply created the world and gave it to them.
That's why I decided from the start to make my myth have multiple contradictory records, split off deities from the same one, "canon foreigners," storylines that go nowhere, and such. Studying Norse mythology really helps in the matter.
The old stories don't make sense to modern people because most people today don't hallucinate, meditate, or pray. Legends are often allegorical as well.
Sorry for a second comment, but when you bring up Perdido Street Station at 2:10 I had to mention a hilarious description I read of China Miéville's writing, namely that he "plays with the English language like Yo-Yo Ma on a cello." It was in the context of a short description of PSS too.
A good example of religions mixing stories together is Christianity
A great example of this is the birth of Malacath in Elder Scrolls lore. He was once Trinimac but he was defeated by Boethia and then consumed and released as excrement. The distraught Mer who followed him rubbed the excrement on their bodies deforming them into Orcs. What was left over formed into their new God Malacath.
HELLO DARCY!!!
Also, awesome that you got your own books now! I will definitely be picking them up soon.
Myths are still made in modern times. Like stories about robots, AI, alien invasions, and superheros, externalizing our subconsious hopes and fears to help us deal with forces much larger than ourselves
Myths are not the same as fictional stories for entertainment.
@@itsgonnabeanaurfrommeNo, but myths can certainly originate as fictional stories that grow and change as they are retold again and again. Superman is one example. 1984 is probably another - the name conjures a vague story in many people's minds, and those stories are largely similar in most people's minds, even though most people probably haven't read the book (the original version of the myth).
I love the myth/folklore of the Mananganal which is a vampire-like creature which splits in half at the waist at night. It's top half flying around feeding on the living.
It’s easier to spooky-fly when you can unload half your body weight 🧐
In my D&D world, I've tried to incorporate the fact that the gods are very much real and interact with people into how myths work. Things like creation myths don't exist - people know how the universe came to be because they can just ask the ones who created it. However, they still have myths, mostly about the gods themselves - similar to how we have myths about real figures, eg Napoleon shooting off the Sphinx's nose, or Marie Antoinette saying "let them eat cake!"
Specific cults - that is, in the Greek sense of the word - also have slightly different versions of events which are kind of close to myths, based on a mix of what their deity remembers or considers important, and sometimes intentional obfuscation to make their "side" look better.
1:11 Did you see the writing on the wall?
One avenue of worldbuilding mythology that I don't think was directly mentioned was what happens when you have a culture which simultaneously embraces two incompatible mythologies/belief systems/ however you want to classify it. Irish mythology is a fascinating example of this. The coming of Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century introduced literacy to the island, and since the Irish Church was built largely from the ground-up locally, the end result is that the churchmen who were writing things down were deeply familiar with and strongly attached to their myths and legendary cycles from their pagan past, but also adherents of a monotheistic religion that flatly rejects the syncretism cop-out. The end result is on one hand, the only Celtic mythology written down by Celts on their own terms. And on the other hand it's a literary tradition that's doggedly trying to square a circle, caught between cultural heritage and devout belief. (At the other end of the Earth, Japanese culture is famous for making Shinto and Buddhism play nice despite the fact that the two belief systems don't actually fit together very well in purely theological terms)
All that to say, there are some fascinating worldbuilding opportunities if you realize cultures don't have to monolithically embrace one mythology. What happens when, for whatever reason, your culture has two or more mythologies that it is strongly attached to, but which can't easily be made to fit each other? Do they develop a complex philosophy to rationalize away the contradictions, or do the just shrug their shoulders, maybe slap a band-aid on the problem, and ultimately say "We don't really care these two worldviews don't mix well, they're both part of us"?
I love this video. Can’t wait to get into your books. The fact that you’re the sponsor 👏👏😆
Hello Darcy 😍 Sorry about your cat, too. I hope that cute little teddy bear is bringing you some comfort.
This was very helpful in mitigating some of my writer’s block! Thank you! I keep coming up against blocks based on having to go back and decide how one thing connects to the other things in the mythology, and I just need to dedicate time to framing out a solid mythology that’s always there for reference instead of making it up and having to match it up as I go along.
I've been playing the old school god of war and been thinking about mythology, so it's crazy this came on my fees. Thanks for your video!
Hello Darcy! I’m so sorry for the loss of your cat & great video of always
Syncretism is really neat honestly, And I'd highly recommend building it into your fictional religions because, Primarily, It's fun. I once made a fictional church that was explicitly created by an emperor who had recently conquered much new territory as a way to unify his now large realm, By incorporating elements of the mythologies of all the conquered peoples into it. And then the Church wound up outliving the Empire, and becoming itself the main power in the region.
Dionysus is a good real-life example of how myths can change over time based on society and politics (see OSP's old video on him, for example). A god's entire personality changed to fit a new society and structure.
Also, hello Darcie! I had missed Momo was gone :( I'm sorry for your loss. I've been here long enough to remember Lord Mishka. It never gets easier, but it's nice having them in our lives and knowing we made theirs as good as we could. And in your cat's cases, they will be forever immortalized in your videos, as they rightfully deserve!
One of the species I created for my fantasy world, the krarka, worship dead gods. To explain that, I have to explain how they reproduce.
There are three sexes to the krarka: emorc, roni, and correp. They reproduce when one of each sex goes to a sacred location in their cities, sheds their metal exoskeleton, and fuse together, producing one to two dozen babies. Their creation myth involves their three gods, Migaen, Lusodra, and Tyiestan, fusing together to produce the first three hundred krarka. So their gods died to create them, and creation, especially of life, is a sacred act to them.
So, they also keep this act secret and refer to it to outsiders as "joining the gods," since it is the ultimate sacred act of creation.
I love your videos. I learn so much about how people write and why we write. I also get a glimpse into the minds of other people by the characters they create. Your video on the psychology of Azula was one of the videos that really got me hooked on watching more of your videos.
Elder Scrolls alone would be a great setup for a video on comparative mythology and syncretism - or how we try to make contradictory stories fit togehter.
Its one of the massive strengths of the deeper lore
Skyrim has some good and wacky lore in there too
IMHO, the problem is that people often learn things by word of mouth and/or through media but lack the skill and motivation to scrutinize or verify the information. That’s especially true for anything that is emotionally charged. Otherwise intelligent and rational people will cling to insane ideas if those ideas offer comfort or help justify questionable decisions.
I just done came up with an epic creation myth, the fantasy world started out when some bloke threw mud into a dishwasher then ran it over with a bulldozer then swag happened. Thats how we got wizards and tissues now. Plz rate my story from 1 to 10
In my setting the world began with a pseudo-spiritual-AI world mind, called the Caretaker by its creators. She was meant to maintain and care for the mortal lives in the world so the cycle of life - Birth and Death - Could power the creators' civilization on the excess energy created by their souls.
The Caretaker, in the eyes or mortals, became a tyrannical force of stagnation as the mortals could not progress beyond the stone age while the AI existed. She was a caretaker, tasked with maintaining an existing system.
So the mortals killed and shattered her.
Then the lesser slaved AIs that she created went on an emergency repair program, and they became the Primordial Gods who reshaped reality following the Shattering of the.... Shattered God, who lost all former identity. Mortals inherited sparks of her divinity - True independent free will and full access to their own souls - And reality was reshaped into a consistent program.
Now mortals view the Shattered God as a creator deity, the Slave AIs as primordial gods or base physical reality, and the mortals that rebelled as hero gods. The world was reshaped with the Shattered God's corpse, and mortals hold a small piece of divinity within themselves.
Playing around with concepts of what the ancient myths might mean in reality, in a fantasy setting, is a whole lot of fun when the most "realistic" parts can be allegory, and the least "realistic" can be literal.
I would add one caveat to this one:
It does depend on how much the world interacts with the gods and how much the gods are willing to communicate. If the divinities responsible for drawing the (current) universe out of primodial chaos are not only still around, but can be communicated with to some extent (depending on circumstances and whose asking), you are going to have a lot fewer myths being generated by mortals about the divinities.
Now, legends and stories about older civilizations on the other hand... well, for my setting at least, the loss of that information is the result of mortals exercising their free will. And that comes with downsides.
This also would depend on how reliable those gods would be. If they had petty rivalries, for instance (a la the Greek gods), the followers of different deities might have very different versions of the same stories.
about a week ago I had a discussion with a history professor about the value of mythology and religion.
they where dismissing it as sacred texts dont convey pure truth. So this sentence: Myths arent just a pseudo history but a moral and social system. And I think dismissing this 2nd part is genuinly selling them short. Just recently being introduced to Maori culture really reminded me of that. The natural wonders they experienced are woven into their myths and gives them a devine connection. It shows how a culture interacted with their suroundings
Yes. My Maori culture is the closest in thought to how the Ancient Greeks, Ancient Minoans, and Ancient Egyptians operated and lived within the world and saw it, too.
It is also not of divine, but of simply seeing the natural world as part of our existence. The Ancient Civilisations I listed are unique in that they share this view.
They were never peoples with separate systems of purposes like today. Which is an indication of where things have gone very wrong.
You will notice, that the changes in how humans see the world first start occurring with the Ancient Romans in clear ways. They show the complete opposite of all of that; they saw the natural world as a need to dominate and fear, and other cultures as an enemy.
Only the gods were kept, and only if they saw equivalence. Any gods that were totally different were eliminated.
So sorry about your cat. I'm glad the doggy can help you smile.
I love experimenting with writing weird mythology. I'll often start with the people who believe the story and work backwards by writing stories that explain why they act that way. A favorite experiment is writing the mythologies or religions of animals. Maybe elephants believe that they are bringing their dead to join a great herd that live just beyond the horizon in a land of at once endless open space and unlimited bountiful forest.
I don't have time to read, could you think about making your books into Audio books, I have time to listen to stuff while I work or clean.
a lot of modern internet memes/stories, given enough time, could very easily become mythology or mythology adjacent. hell, the way we personify companies like amazon and apple and youtube is already a step in that direction
like stories about the queen of england being an immortal vampire lord are going to make NO SENSE to people who read it in 300 years
Honestly, one of the things I could really use is how to find feedback for my stories. I'm not sure I'll ever publish them, but I would love to know what works well about them and what doesn't. If there's anything that can help me find that feedback, I would greatly appreciate it. My biggest story so far is actually one that I set out on in order to... rediscover myself after a rather traumatic period in my life recently. The old characters, who represented fundamental parts of myself, and the way their version of my setting no longer really worked, so I built a new, different version from scratch, and built the core characters back from scratch as well. In working on it, I did... about 150k words over the course of November... which still blows my mind away. The best I can say is that the stories wanted to get out.
I'm so very sorry to hear about the lost of your cat mate. May she forever be with all her other comrades that have gone before her
What I like for some fictional mythology, is how their stories are truer than the ones that arose in the real world.
I.e. the Aztecs believe that the land was created from the remains of a primordial crocodile-fish-amphibian being called Cipactli. But it’s not completely dead as it tries to comeback to life unless provided with sufficient blood offerings.
Contrast this with Arceus from Pokémon, which created most other Pokémon, including very real Physics concepts such as spacetime, or abstract human feelings such as emotion, willpower and knowledge. Arceus can be a benevolent deity who will help anyone, or a vengeful being who seeks Judgment on the humans who double crossed him (Arceus and the Jewel of Life)
Hello Darcy. Sorry about cat.
Anybody other than me pleased and intrigued by The Thread in The Acolyte?
The witches sense what the Jedi call The Foece, but they call it The Thread.
Also, feel the Jedi keep referring to “the will of the Force”… Tbeir grand prophecy of the one who’s being balanced, for example. Whereas the witches who believe in The thread seem to regard it more as a naturally causal thing; you can upon the thread, it acts upon you.
But yah… Pleased and intrigued that this grand thing that pervades the universe has more than one mythos… Hadn’t really ever thought about it until now. Could you imagine if there was only one pantheistic/panpsychic mythos in the world. And that’s just one planet… There are god knows how many planets with sentient life in the Star Wars universe, and The Force is reportedly everywhere. There should be myriads of mythos surrounding it.
The fact that there isn’t suddenly gave me some creepy feelings about the Jedi. Seems the Jedi has universal monopoly on Force training and usage.
Jedi vs Sith has always struck me as good vs evil (I came to it young and naive), but really it’s religious warfare, innit… Who else have the Jedi vanquished on their path to universal force-related religious dominance..?
Sorry for ranting, Darcy. You’re a good dog.
The puppy is adorbs! Deepest condolences on your cat.
Quite an interesting idea, I did have two idea of my own.
1. The universe and the worlds are born from hatched eggs every millenia after a long war between two factions that causes a powerful colourful dragon to emerge to create a birth to new life. It keeps happening over time from explosions. The shells become the sky and ground, the yoke becomes the sun and the white stuff is the sky.
2. A god like being sits in the heavenly celestial waters and he creates new life, by peeing in it, so when the water falls to the world, it brings things to life, from his touch.
I am not sure about these, but you know, it is great to create something different.
Engagement for the world building awesomeness that is your work. Comment for the puppy. Same same, but different.
I have no idea what MOST of the clips are from! Is there a full list of sources somewhere? Maybe Patreon? Could it be put in the description?
(Hello Darcy)
My world has an example of the Dead God trope . In the major power of my setting, the faith of Ha Zesh is the 2nd most prominent religion overall - the #1 religious minority. (It's also the #1 faith of a neighboring nation.) Now, what do the faithful of Ha Zesh believe? Well, syncretism for one - both faiths believe in a wide assortment of minor spirits under the rule of 13 gods who were appointed to their roles by a now-absent creator. But while the faithful of Iye'sett believe the high god is simply off on sabbatical, the faithful of Ha Zesh believe the high god was betrayed and murdered by one of his 13 disciples.
An interesting result is that the church of Ha Zesh includes an order of gumshoe-priests... pro bono detectives (funded by donations to the church), who see their work as honing their skills in an act of worship. The murder of Ha Zesh must be solved, but the trail has had eons to grow cold.
And for anyone noticing - yes, there's also syncretism here with the Christian faith. Very specifically a god with 13 prominent students, one of whom betrayed him. My setting is long after an apocalypse involving an alien invasion, and the invaders had an animist faith that got mixed in with things. Plus small tribal societies that first emerged from the wreckage, but have long since been united into new nations and even a new empire - now in decline.
Great video as always
Hello Darcy! Sorry to hear about your cat :(
Lol I have been watching elderscrolls videos for years and dnd for a few. The video imedatly got my gears turning
Ty
Hello, Darcy! :D Also, thanks for making these videos (Tim, not Darcy). You've got me thinking about the religions and mythology for one of my many, many unfinished novel projects, lol. ADHD sure is a time.
Imma get one of these books next month as I found this video really informative. 😀
I remember in high school we had to make a planet semtient beings. My group had our species do a global sacrifice to their "God" (planet) via giant volcano in the center to ensure it wouldn't blow up.
I kinda love that very random lucidity at the beginning. Thank you.
aww sweet the horned god hatched from an egg Pan Ku is mentioned straight out of the gate
Unsolicited Review for his Wirting and Worldbuilding books: Not only do I own all three books and enjoy them immensely, I am also buying them for other writers to read. Mine are...marked up.. a lot. I make a lot of notes and tags to go back to parts. Great for both a new writer and people who have written for years and may be looking for inspiration
I want to know Darcy's opinions on the ramifications of expansive mythological mixing through cultural exchange in fictional sociopolitical arenas.
Regarding syncretism: consider for example, rome.
Janus: the indigenous roman religion
Jupiter: the religion imposed by the colonizing Greeks, with the local accent shifting Zeus from Diys to Iius
Julius Caesar: the consul who sought even more power, exalted to postmortem godhood in a move to prevent further strife
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte: the syncretic persona taken by a Corsican officer who seized the throne as the French Republic promised to unmake itself
Darcy is a suitable successor to Supreme Ruler Misha.
hello darcy!
also, i just.... love coming up with mythologies for fantasy worlds. i just wish i wasnt so insecure about my creativity haha.
Creation mythology is not an attempt to explain how things came to be, but why, and what our place as humans is within those things. Ancient myths basically come down to creation through making (some divine being forms the world), conflict (a big battle between two divine beings with the world being formed from the body of the loser), sex (the opposite of the conflict, if you will), and creation through word. The intention behind these acts play a crucial role: Making/crafting is a conscious act, the godhead wanted to create the world. Same for creation by word. It also doesn't require another being, so the creator god is ruling supreme, other gods are inferior. The difference lies in the means of creation: Making is a hands-on activity, while the word is manifesting through an intellectual act, which might give insight to the priorities of a society. But both are intentional. Conflict has the creation act mostly as an afterthought: Two concepts are clashing - Order and Chaos. The chaos beast usually predates the agent of order, but gets slain by it. The clash is not a means to creation, but the nature of the two. The creation of the world from the body of chaos is also just the nature of the agent of order, not a clear intention. Creation through sexual intercourse not only needs two equal-ish godheads, but it too lacks intention - they, again, just follow their nature, like animals, just in a more peaceful manner than by killing each other (the slain chaos beast is oftentimes female, while the god of order is pretty much always male). This too can give insight into the priorities and worldview of such societies. In many creation myths, humans play a small or even no role at all, while in others they are a central part. Again, this can give insight in how the gods relate to humans: Do they care about them, or are they indifferent?
As I said, people didn't necessarily believe that the world was really created like this in a literal sense, but it answered the questions about why things exist, who is responsible and what is the place of humans in all of this.
Question what would motivate the godhead to create the world in the first place
The younger dryas impact theory is calling your name
Bought the books as they came out: fantastic resource. And a big hello to D‘Arcy
I'd love to see an analysis of the world building of different games like Dungeons and Dragons, Exalted, Elder Scrolls, etc!
The favorite story I wrote for any Nanowrimo is an animal-based setting, where instead of picking certain species for protagonist/antagonist roles, both sides are different factions of the same species separated along a moral line (as self-described _by_ the protagonists). Except when you try to analyze this line, morality actually has very little to do with it at all...
I’m so sorry for the loss of your cat. Take care.
as a dm/gm your videos are great inspiration! So, with the context from this video, how do those factorss vary when the gods of dnd worlds are very real and can interact with the world of mortals?
Hello Darcy and great video!
Is Volume 2 gonna be available in paperback? I like physical copies.
The Romans, before they attacked a different culture with a different religion, had rituals to invite the opponents deities into the Roman religious ranks.
Mr Darcy is little sweetheart. Also sorry you’ve lost part of your family :(.
I'm really sorry to hear about your cat. I know how hard it can be.
awe Hello Darcy! Fascinating video.
Hello Darcy. And yeah, it's really interesting how mythology works.
Wait wasn't the Elder Scrolls mythology written over the course of like a week in a drug-fueled sleep-deprived haze? Just like real life?
Time to write some myths about divine dumplings...
less than 5min in the video and I just imagined a story of a civilization that regularly makes sacrifice to their god so that the water keeps flowing, unknowing of the fact that their god is dead and the sacrifice, the water from the blood, merely revivify the Divine power that dwells in the earth, like a simple spark that keep the drought afar
My favorite fantasy myth is the story of the darkspawn's origin we're given in the beginning of Dragon Age: Origins.
It is just a myth, right? ...right?
Anyway, it's a big part in reflecting and/or shaping the way the average person sees magic. Not only that, but Tevinter doesn't believe this story by and large. Why? Not only does it directly villianize them, but they are very culturally attached to their magocracy.
Bruh, I just read the demonic devourer. I know, lazy title, but it was actually really good for a lit RPG.
Minor spoilers for anybody wanting to check out the book
But in the book they use "by the broken Gods" liberally as a form of "goddamn it" or "oh my god" from a western perspective. So far it is one of the most creative ways I have read for explaining an RPG like system. A Thousand years ago the gods fell and from their bones the fay made the system.
The author doesn't honestly go into much of the cultural relevance of the deities at all. But Divinity and souls play a large part in the plot. You get more of a outsider looking in version of the mythos
My mythologies are very inspired by the nature
A culture that is quite fertile, but at the edge of a vast desert. They think life and weather and all of plants come from their sun god. That the rain comes from the sun god
One that lives in an area that is quite tectonically active. And that the god who makes life is really hurt when people imitate her work and her bigger sister gets really angry when her little sister is hurt so she makes a natural disaster
A culture of a nature that is hard to live off and is a culture that see nature as a resource only. They believe the first one of their culture cursed the land because he didn't want to take the gifts mother nature wanted to give him
Anybody know if book 3 is on audible yet?
Engagement farm you say? I'll get my tractor!
HI DARCY!! 🤩🤩🤩
Hello, Darcy! Sweet pupper!
Darcy is truly the goodest of guests
Preach King!!!!!
Love your content ! What's your favorite mythology? Mine is greek
YES Elder Scrolls is THE BEST at mythology. Especially how, when you read all the different cultures's myths, you realize the same gods and events show up, but interpreted through the lense of each culture. You also start to see how certain analogies, like walking, have very specific meanings that tend to hold true across cultures. Fascinating stuff.
Indeed, Lorkhan (in his many incarnations across religions) says a whole lot about the cultures they come from. Also, his heart at least exists/existed.
Can i get your stuff as audio books?
Cant read well but can listen while working
Hello Darcy and Tim
hello darrcy, I am serving my purpose in the great engagement farm
I absolutely love your books about world building some of the best I've read and I've read a lot 😂