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Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Lumineth Realm-Lords

2021-09-22T04:00:45Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:F04E:EC36:9269:4164: /* Why Play Lumineth Realm Lords? */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Lumineth Realm-Lords|Logo=Eltharion's essence.jpg|Alliance=Order|Motto=FOR <s>ULTHUAN</s> HYSH!!!!!}}

The time of isolation is over, and now the Lumineth Realm-lords (not capitalizing the "-L") finally rise to defeat the forces of chaos with their unwavering resolve, unstoppable magic, angry cow people, stupid and impractical headgear even by this setting's standards and crippling drug addiction! (No really, that last part is actually part of their rules)

New battletome incoming!

==Why Play Lumineth Realm Lords?==
*You were a big fan of High Elves in The World that Was.
*You saw <s>300</s> Alexander the Great and thought to yourself "Yeah, this is cool, but you know what would be awesome? If they had pointy ears and a drug addiction!"
*Because you agree with most people that Eltharion was done dirty in The [[End Times]] and thought he deserved a new chance to shine.
*Because you want a more defensive playstyle with very durable infantry and a lot of flanking and ranged firepower.
*While you are an Elf fan, you also secretly like Dwarfs and want a factions that mixes elements of both.

'''Pros:'''
*Extremely durable core options with your Vanari units being able to automatically give enemies -1 to hit for your standard spears, archers and cavalry.
*If you absolutely need to hit a unit before it gets away or fights back, you can with Lightning Reactions.
*You can give your units buffs out the ass, and you don't need magic to do so.
*Speaking of magic, did we mention all your Vanari units are mages? You are *the* magic army, with only the likes of Tzeentch being able to keep up with you... and then you could take Teclis, who gives Lords of Change penis envy. Nobody expects Geminds and Lifeswarms to come out of your battleline.
*You can't throw a rock without hitting something that deals Mortal Wounds.
*Very powerful HQ choices. Obviously they have Teclis but if you don't want/can't afford him their other options are pretty damn good.
*Sweet spell lores. Being able to drop all enemy Bravery, make all your opponent's command abilities cost double, giving one of your units Ethereal or teleporting them means you have a spell for every situation.
*Horde factions are going to hate your guts because you have a lot of ways to get cheap, plentiful models off the field.
*You can turn the main weakness of using Aetherquartz, the -1 to bravery, and give it to your enemy, giving factions like Grots and Skaven a massive middle finger.
*Several shooty units can hit-and-run.
*Between all your monsters, Alarith units and Severith, you are the bane of terrain features and siege warfare.

'''Cons:'''
*Remember all those buffs we mentioned above? Well, most come with <s>withdrawal</s> drawbacks. Sure, you can get your wardens to give the enemy -1 to hit having their models all touching, but now they can't run or charge. Sure you can break into your Aetherquartz reserve to give your troops a rush, but now they have -1 to bravery. You need to make sure you are using them at the best time to mitigate the drawbacks.
*No multi-casters outside of bringing Teclis or <s>snorting crystal meth</s> using aetherquartz.
*The models are bad to transport. There's a lot of bits sticking off them like weapons, tassels and braids. The Vanari Dawnrider models are only connected to their bases by one hoof from their horsies. They'll likely need the Nighthaunt or Sylvaneth solution.
*Their bravery is mediocre, and gets even worse if they use aetherquartz.
*Your only allies are your edgy siblings from the sea, questionable lore be damned.
*Though you have the military style down from the High Elves, you traded the awesome stuff like Dragons, Lions, and eagles for weird <s>furry</s> Elemental spirits and amalgamation mounts.
*Remember how everyone complained about Disciples of Tzeentch (especially Arcanites) being [[Powergamer|OP]]? Then Hedonites of Slaanesh? Then Ossiarch Bonereapers (especially Petrifex)? Then Kharadron Overlords? That's where you are now; half of these "Cons" are about the models and lore. Be prepared for possible nerfs in the future.
*The models are so detailed they take an eternity to paint.

==Army Rules==
===Battle Traits===
*'''AETHERQUARTZ RESERVE:''' This is your big army-wide resource, more akin to the Kharadron's Aethergold in application. Every unit in your army has a single share of Aetherquartz. Once per phase, you can let one unit blow their reserves for one of the following powers below. However, using it has drawbacks: After using it, the unit suffers <s>Drug withdrawal</s> -1 to their Bravery for the rest of the game.
**''Heightened Senses:'' Triggered before the unit shoots or fights. The unit adds +1 to hit with any attacks they make for this phase (Shooting/Combat Phase).
**''Heightened Reflexes:'' +1 Save when chosen as an attack target (Shooting/Combat Phase).
**''Magical Boost:'' +1 or reroll cast (Your Hero Phase).
**''Magical Insight:'' Cast an extra spell (Your Hero Phase).
*'''ABSORB DESPAIR:''' Once per phase, a Cathallar wholly within 18" of a unit who uses an Aetherquartz can absorb it. If they do, don't reduce that units Bravery by 1 and instead choose an enemy unit within 18" of the Cathallar and reduce its Bravery by 1 for the rest of the battle. An enemy unit can't be affected by this more than once per battle. Its effectiveness depends on your opponent. It's great against some armies (nearly all Destruction armies will hate this), but worthless against others (it's a drop in the ocean against most Death armies... and Ossiarch Bonereapers laugh this off). However, your unit still shrugs off the -1 to its Bravery, even if there is no eligible enemy target.
*'''LIGHTNING REACTIONS:''' When you get to select a unit to fight, instead of picking only 1, you get to pick 2 units with this ability. They then fight one after the other.
*'''SHINING COMPANY:''' Any {{AOSKeyword|Vanari}} units (Auralan Sentinels, Wardens, bladelords, and Dawnriders) that is set up where a model is touching bases with two other models is automatically made a Shining Company, encouraging block-like tactics of old. Units in this fashion are harder to hit with a -1 to hit them., but they can't run or charge and they only get a pile-in distance of 1". It's better to stagger your models in the crook of the circle bases than it is to line up in a proper rectangle. BE VERY CAREFUL when pulling casualties to make sure you don't accidentally lose the buff, since it's gone for good once it is.
*'''DEEP THINKERS:''' Any {{AOSKeyword|Scinari Wizards}} can choose to skip casting spells to think really hard. If they do so, next turn the first spell they cast is automatically cast at a 9 that can not be modified, but can be unbound. They learned a little from Teclis, but not quite enough it seems.
*'''ENDURING AS ROCK:''' Before the first battle round of the game and at the start of your hero phases, you can set up any number of {{AOSKeyword|Alarith}} units (Hammerboys, stonemages, and Moontains) into the Mountain Stance. Until the end of your next Hero Phase, your units now ignore Rend -1. There is currently no reason to opt out of doing this. Always have it on.
*'''TECTONIC FORCE:''' At the end of all combat phases, your {{AOSKeyword|Alarith}} units can each nominate an enemy unit within 1" of them (Though two units can't nominate the same enemy). The enemy is then shoved 2" in any direction so long as they are more than 1" from any {{AOSKeyword|Alarith}} unit and then you can let these units within 3" pile in 1" to continue fighting. This is your means of dominating the objective game and tossing enemies into deadly terrain.
*'''MOVE LIKE THE WIND:''' Any time a {{AOSKeyword|Hurakan}} unit piles in, it doesn't need to pile in to the closest enemy model. In addition, when they charge, they can fly and move 3" for piling in. All of it helps establish their role as alpha-strikers, the pile-in trick helping them move to more favorable fights.

===Command Traits===
<tabs>
<tab name="Lords of the Warhosts">
{{AOSKeyword|Vanari}} only.

#'''Grand Strategist:''' If your general is on the field during the first turn, you gain 1 CP.
#'''Consummate Warrior:''' Once per turn, your general can re-roll a failed hit, wound or save roll they make.
#'''Astute Commander:''' When your general is on the field, you can roll a die any time you spend a CP and regain that CP on a 6+.

It's more a toss-up between Consummate Warrior and Astute Commander, hinging on how much you need your CP. If you don't spend them much, then Consummate Warrior will give a bit of an edge in combat. Otherwise, Astute Commander gives a meager chance of winning back some CP.
</tab>
<tab name="Lords of Brilliance">
{{AOSKeyword|Scinari}} only.

#'''Spellmaster:''' Once per turn in your Hero phase, you can re-roll 1 failed casting attempt.
#'''Loremaster:''' Your General knows 1 extra spell from the Lore of Hysh.
#'''Warmaster:''' When your general is on the field, at the start of your Hero phase, you get a CP on a 4+.

If you're bringing a Cathallar you could honestly go for any of these. Spellmaster is strong enough, as there's so many good spells you really want to go off. Loremaster is good if you want some more versatility from your spellcaster and if you give it a Silver Wand you could get a caster that can get a ton of magical value in one turn. Warmaster can get you some nice CP if you're lucky though if you want consistency from your general you're better off with the other two.
</tab>
<tab name="Lords of the Air">
{{AOSKeyword|Hurakan}} only, meaning only your nimbus-wizard.

#'''Grand Windrider:''' When a Windchargers unit wholly within 24" of the general moves, their movement is upped to 16" and they can fly.
#'''Swift:''' Your general adds +3" to movement.
#'''Loremaster:''' Your general knows 1 extra spell from the Lore of the Winds.

Grand Windrider pretty much expects that you'll be running a windcharger-heavy list so it can actually see use, as it provides nothing to the archery foxes. Swift serves as a decent choice if you plan to sprint a lot between supporting foxes and charges as you'll be needing to heal the former while making sure the latter can be free to move where they wish. Naturally, Loremaster is as powerful here as it is in any other list.
</tab>
<tab name="Lords of Stone">
{{AOSKeyword|Alarith}} only, so for right now, just floaty rock guy

#'''Majestic:''' Add 1 to Bravery of friendly Lumineth wholly within 12" of the General. Also, your enemies subtract 1 from Bravery while they are within 18" of the General.
#'''Enduring:''' Add 3 to the General's wounds characteristic.
#'''Loremaster:''' General knows 1 extra spell from the Lore of High Peaks.

Majestic seems boring, but with all the bravery debuffs in this army, you could easily have most of the opposing army at -3 Bravery while you're able to at least walk off the Bravery penalty of spending your share of Aetherquartz. A few casualties over multiple units could see elite armies heading for the hills real quick. Enduring isn't bad when the big hat man is public enemy number one for keeping your war cows at top bracket, improving Rend of Cow Elves around him, and providing re-rolls to saves in the Moo Cow battalion. A very good choice when mixing the various defensive buffs available to him. Loremaster is, obviously, a solid enough choice.
</tab>
</tabs>

===Artefacts===
<tabs>
<tab name="Heirlooms of the Sun">
{{AOSKeyword|Vanari Heroes}} only.

#'''Syari Pommel:''' The bearer gets another share of Aetherquartz.
#'''Senlui Amulet:''' The bearer can run and charge in the same turn.
#'''Sun Stone:''' The bearer can now dispel endless spells and unbind normal spells as if they were a wizard. If they were already wizards, then they can add +1 to their first unbind and dispel rolls.

The Syari Pommel is not as potent as Syar's ability to give everyone extra shares, this is enough to help boost your forces once over or grant the Cathallar another shot at debuffing the enemy. The Senlui Amulet is pretty much tailor made for the lord regent who absolutely needs a massive charge range, though the bannerblade can also benefit from it if they're not bothering with supporting their allies. The Sun Stone pretty much is there as an insurance policy if you're not expecting your wizard to survive.
Addendum: Do NOT underestimate the Syari Pommel on a Lord Regent. Using a quartz whilst keeping and getting a second wind of their in-built -1 against them and magic buffs is crazy-good in a non-Syar list. Makes your Lord Regent ever more capable of overstaying his welcome at your foe's expense.
</tab>
<tab name="Heirlooms of Hysh">
{{AOSKeyword|Scinari Heroes}} only.

#'''Phoenix Stone:''' If a friendly {{AOSKeyword|Lumineth Realm-Lords Hero}} is slain within 12" of the bearer, before removing that model from play, roll a dice. On a 6 that model is not slain, all wounds allocated to it are healed and any wounds that currently remain to be allocated to it or its unit are negated
#'''Silver Wand:''' The bearer can cast 1 extra spell in their hero phase.
#'''Blade of Leaping Gold:''' Pick 1 of the Bearer's weapons. Add 3 to the Attacks characteristic of that weapon.

You will be taking the Silver Wand. Nothing else even has half as much versatility in use. The Phoenix Stone has it's uses, with it not being 1 use, but it's still very unreliable. Maybe in a hero heavy list it has a place. The Blade of Leaping Gold is best used on the Calligrave as they have the best melee profile of any of the non-unique Scinari
</tab>
<tab name="Gifts of the Winds">
{{AOSKeyword|Hurakan Heroes}} only.

#'''Windblast Fan:''' Once per game during the enemy's movement phase, you can pick a unit within 3" of the bearer. This unit most move and must retreat from the enemy, no questions asked.
#'''Wind Stone:''' You get a single-use grenade you can throw at an enemy unit within 18" of the bearer. On a 2+, that unit takes 3 mortal wounds, but a 5+ makes it d6.
#'''Buffeting Aspiragillum:''' 5+ FNP save.

The Windblast Fan can provide some breathing room when dealing with battles, but it also means that you're still in range for a second charge if you don't bail immediately. The Wind Stone gives you a single shot at some undeniable damage, but nothing else. The Buffeting Asipragillum is perhaps the one with the most uses, as they're likely more of an target since they are so vital for keeping the spirits of the wind alive.
</tab>
<tab name="Gifts of the Mountain">
{{AOSKeyword|Alarith Heroes}} only.

#'''Hearthstone Amulet:''' 5+ FNP save.
#'''Ebony Stone:''' Each time the bearer is affected by a spell or endless spell, you can roll a die. On a 4+ Ignore the effects of that spell on the bearer.
#'''Magmic Hammer:''' If the bearer is a {{AOSKeyword|Wizard}} (Which the only one model to take this item is), add 1 to the number of mortal wounds inflicted by Arcane Bolt spells that are cast by the bearer.

All 3 have their uses, but the Ebony stone is probably the weakest of the bunch as you should have no problem stopping any and all harmful spells headed your way via other means. The Amulet adds even more survivability to your already potentially hyper-tanky mages (between ignoring rend, the sanctum, and this, you could have a pretty annoying model to remove), and the Magmic hammer just adds more punch in case your don't need to buff any Alarith squads.
</tab>
</tabs>

===Great Nations===
your bog standard subfaction list. We only have 6 so far, with a theoretical max of 10.

====Syar====
*'''Gleaming Brightness:''' All your {{AOSKeyword|Syar}} units get 2 Aetherquartz reserves instead of 1. With how powerful these boosts are, you'll definitely appreciate a second wave of these working without worry about Morale. Pair with a Cathallar to avoid a permanent -2 to your bravery.
*'''Command Ability''' - ''Deplete Reserves:'' If a {{AOSKeyword|Syar}} unit uses an aetherquartz reserve ability, you may pick another {{AOSKeyword|Syar}} unit within 18" that still has a reserve. You may spend that reserve to give them the same ability. Great for boosting your forces in a big charge
*'''Command Trait - Goading Arrogance:''' Choose 1 enemy hero within 6" of this hero. That enemy hero must attack your general, and your general gets +1 to hit for attacks against that enemy hero. Best on a Lord Regent, but can be pure troll even with a spellcaster. For example, park your Cathallar 6" from Archaon and watch as he spends the rest of combat seething helplessly while she makes fun of his daddy issues from behind a wall of spears he can't attack.
*'''Artefact - The Perfect Blade:''' Unmodified 3+ hits always hits, Unmodified 3+ wounds always wound, and unmodified 3s to save always fail. Absolutely worth it for your Lord Regent or Bannerblade.

These guys will make your aetherquartz last much longer, and feel more impactful. <s>The meth lab workers among the Lumineth, hence their larger stash</s>. A Cathallar is pretty much a requirement in this army because otherwise your troops will have the bravery of most Skaven troops after blowing their reserves. Have a Vanari Lord Regent somewhere so you'll actually have someone reasonable to give the Perfect Blade to.

====Iliatha====
*'''Unity in Purpose:''' Once per phase, after a {{AOSKeyword|Iliatha Vanari}} uses a command ability, you may select another {{AOSKeyword|Iliatha Vanari}} within 3". That unit gains the same ability for free.
*'''Connected Souls:''' +2 Bravery to all Vanari and Aelemantari troops, making up your your mediocre base bravery. You can use an Aetherquartz now and still be in a better bravery position than normal
*'''Command Ability''' - ''Strike in Unison:'' During your shooting or combat phase you may select one {{AOSKeyword|Iliatha Vanari}} unit with 2 or more models and they reroll hit rolls of one.
*'''Artefact''' - ''Simulacra Amulet:'' The <s>Chad</s> Stacy Simulacra Amulet vs The <s>Virgin</s> Becky Phoenix Stone. The first time the bearer dies, roll a dice. On a 4+ heal them back to full.

If you're a sucker for good 'ole High Elf aesthetic, then this is your choice. While it doesn't explicitly buff your aelementari stuff, it doesn't mean they don't fit in with the +2 bravery. This will probably be your best choice if you wanna go for quantity rather than quality, though you're still going to be fairly elite.

====Zaitrec====
*'''Lambent Mystics:''' The first cast, dispell, or unbind from *EACH* wizard in your army gets +1 every command phase. Each wizard hero knows one extra spell, and each wizard in the army gets the spell overwhelming heat in addition to the spells they know.
*'''Command Trait''' - ''Fast Learner:'' General can dispel 1 additional spell and can reroll the second unbinding roll.
*'''Lore of Zaitrec''' - ''Overwhelming Heat:'' Casts on 7. Enemy unit within 24" has halved movement, and if you roll a die and its equal to or higher than their save, they take D3 MWs. It's a solid little spell, but you'll usually be casting if you've already done everything else.
*'''Artefact''' - ''Gift of Celennar:'' 6+ shrug for MWs, +2 if Teclis is on the battlefield

The magic choice. Taking Teclis with this Great Nation will probably bring the most out of them for that sweet, sweet MW avoidance - although he isn't an auto-include. Obviously protecting your mages is paramount and if the heroes die early you're pretty much screwed. ALWAYS combine this with the twin stones for more magic shenanigans.

====Ymetrica====
*'''Mountain Realm:''' Ignore up to -2 Rend for units in Mountain Stance, instead of -1
*'''Command Ability''' - ''Redoubled Force:'' End of combat phase, one unit that's used Tectonic Force and within 18" of a {{AOSKeyword|Ymetrica Hero}} can use Tectonic Force again against another enemy unit within 1".
*'''Command Trait''' - ''Almighty Blow:'' When you pick the general to fight, instead of fighting you can pick an enemy unit within 1" and deal D3 MW on a 2+.
*'''Artefact''' - ''Mountain's Gift:'' +1 damage to a single attack made by a single weapon, 6+ FNP, and 5+ Spell ignore

Obviously, this one is meant of Alarith units, so you should be going with a stoneguard, mountain spirit and stonemage army for this one. It's not quite as powerful as it was in the 2020 battletome, but it remains very focused on using the Alarith, tanking blows and shoving around enemies.

====Alumnia====
*'''Claim the Field:''' Right before the battle begins you can pick up to three {{AOSKeyword|Alumnia Vanari}} or {{AOSKeyword|Alumnia Scinari}} units to move immediately, but they can't run.
*'''Command Ability''' - ''Seize the Moment:'' During the charge phase, pick a friendly unit that already ran. This unit can charge after running.
*'''Command Trait''' - ''Burning Gaze:'' At the start of the fight phase, your general can target one enemy unit within 3" ad deal a MW on a 2+.
*'''Artefact''' - ''Waystone:'' Once per game, the bearer can forgo moving and pick a unit within 12" of them. The bearer can immediately teleport to any spot 1" from that chosen location so long as it's not within 3" of an enemy unit.

Another mobility-focused nation, though not nearly as focused on any single faction like Helon. The battle trait grants your troops a much-needed scouting move, while the command ability gives all your units a very useful perk when stuck in combat.

====Helon====
*'''Gale of Killing Shafts:''' All {{AOSKeyword|Helon}} missile units within 3" of an enemy gain +1 attacks.
*'''Command Ability''' - ''Gone Like the Wind:'' At the end of combat you may pick one {{AOSKeyword|Helon}} unit that is within 12" of a {{AOSKeyword|Helon}} hero. That unit may move but not run.
*'''Command Trait''' - ''Skyrace Grand Champion:'' Your general can reroll one run, charge and casting roll per battle.
*'''Artefact''' - ''Metalith Dust:'' Once per battle you may select one enemy unit within 3" of the bearer. That unit suffers -1 to hit and wound rolls until the end of the phase.

You pick this one if you REALLY want to piss your opponent off. Giving you ranged units extra shots and the ability to escape from close quarters combat will drive them to want to bash your face in with a hammer. It's also great if you want to go with a Hurakan themed army.

===Spell Lores===

*'''Power of Hysh:''' Casts on 6. This can be cast by the battleline units with Sunmetal Weapons, and allows them to dish out mortal wounds on a 5+ instead of a 6+. Very, VERY good, especially on <strike>Bladelords</strike> (Bladelords have Sunmetal weapons but not the ability as the spell states, therefore it won’t work on them), Wardens or Sentinels.
**'''Greater Power of Hysh:''' Casts on 7. The version given to Lord Regents and Lyrior Uthralle essentially lets you spread this to d3 other units wielding Sunmetal weapons within 18" of them. Pretty much there so you're not fretting about which unit you want to use Power of Hysh on.

<tabs>
<tab name="Lore of Hysh">
{{AOSKeyword|Teclis}}, {{AOSKeyword|Vanari}} and {{AOSKeyword|Scinari Wizards}} only.
#'''Speed of Hysh:''' Casts on 5. Double the movement of a friendly unit within 18" of the caster. Amazing for sprinting onto objectives, stealing away an important enemy charge, or slinging some cavalry almost 30" across the board.
#'''Solar Flare:''' Casts on 8. Pick a point on the battlefield within 10" of the caster. If there is an endless spell there, dispel it. If there is a unit there, roll # of models dice, Each +6 does 1 MW and until next hero phase -2 to enemy wizards cast, unbinds, and dispels. Very useful in mirror matches.
#'''Lambent Light:''' Casts on 5. Pick an enemy unit within 18", you can reroll missile weapon attacks against that unit until your next hero phase. Remember you can reroll even if you don't miss. Your other "auto-include" if you're following the competitive route of a decent number of archers.
#'''Ethereal Blessing:''' Casts on 6. Give Ethereal to a friendly unit within 18". Remember that this also includes positive buffs like cover or drugs. Think before you cast.
#'''Total Eclipse:''' Casts on 8. Until next hero phase, your opponent has to spend 2 CP instead of 1 when using command abilities. Easily our most trolly spell, use it to absolutely cripple some of the stronger combinations in the game by stopping almost all Command ability shenanigans. You should almost always have this, just in case.
#'''Protection of Hysh:''' Casts on 8. Give friendly units wholly within 9" of the caster 5+ FNP. Doesn't stack with Teclis' sadly.
</tab>
<tab name="Lore of the High Peaks">
{{AOSKeyword|Teclis}} and {{AOSKeyword|Alarith Wizards}} only.
#'''Unyielding Calm:''' Casts on 4. Unit wholly within 18" doesn't have to take Battleshock tests. Super nice if you didn't bring Eltharion for some reason.
#'''Crippling Vertigo:''' Casts on 6. Pick an an enemy unit within 18" of the caster. Until your next hero phase, roll 2d6 each time the unit tries to make a normal move, pile in, or charge. If the roll is higher than the unit's bravery, it cannot make that move. The most obnoxious spell in this tree, use it to even further stall that big monster who got hit by your stonemage's signature spell.
#'''Voice of the Mountains:''' Casts on 6. -2 Bravery to all enemy units until end of turn, and then -1 until your next hero phase.
#'''Living Fissure:''' Casts on 6. Draw a 1mm line to a point 9" from the caster, on a 2+ deal D3 MWs to a unit that lines passes over
#'''Entomb:''' Casts on 7. Pick an enemy model within 18" and visible to the caster. Roll a dice, if the result is higher than the model's Wound characteristic, it is slain. If you roll a 6 and it is not enough to kill, deal D6 MW instead.
#'''Assault of Stone:''' Casts on 8. Choose an enemy unit wholly within 24" and visible to the caster. Roll a number of dice equal to the casting roll. For each result *lower* than the enemy unit's save value, they take 1 MW. Rolls of 1 or 2 never deal a mortal wound and Saves of "-" count as 6 for this rule. Really god for digging through chaff, but not much else.
</tab>
<tab name="Lore of the Winds">
{{AOSKeyword|Teclis}} and {{AOSKeyword|Hurakan Wizards}} only.
#'''Freezing Squall:''' Casts on 5. An enemy unit within 12" is unable to run until your next Hero Phase. Annoying, though it may not matter much to certain armies.
#'''Howling Gale:''' Casts on 7. An enemy unit within 12" will be unable to use or benefit from command abilities. Oh, this can prove to be a right pain, especially in armies that really rely on their leaders.
#'''Guiding Flurries:''' Casts on 7. One friendly Lumineth unit wholly within 12" of the wizard can pick between either adding 6" to the range of their missile weapons or adding +1 to hit with their missile weapons. This is a pretty handy support option, though it can be hamstrung depending on circumstances.
#'''Calming Zephyr:''' Casts on 6. A friendly Lumineth unit wholly within 16" of the wizard heals d3 wounds and ignores battleshock for the turn. Pretty solid for support.
#'''Burning Simoom:''' Casts on 6. Pick an enemy unit within 12" of the wizard and roll a number of die equal to the number of models in this unit; Each model suffers a mortal wound on a 6, though this can be improved to a 5+ if you scored a 10 or better on the casting check. An absolute doozie with Teclis. See that block of 60 Grotz? Now you don't--...I smell something burning...
#'''Transporting Vortex:''' Casts on 8. One friendly Lumineth unit wholly within 12" can now immediately redeploy anywhere on the field so long as it's over 9" away from any enemy unit. You'll definitely be needing this for your more mundane forces, as your Hurakan units can easily skip around where needed.
#* Worth mentioning that you can redeploy a Vanari unit that exited out of shining company, back into shining company, as per the last FAQ. So dropping a hurt unit of wardens on a point will make them quite immovable.
</tab>
<tab name="Endless Spells">
#'''Sanctum of Amyntok:''' 30 points, creates a triangle around the caster and now counts as part of their model. Gives the enemy -1 to hit against the caster, gives the caster +1 to their save and a 50/50 shot to deal some MWs to anyone standing too close. Cheap and a good way to protect your squishy wizard, plus since the spell counts as part of their model, it makes their bubbles slightly bigger, which is good for those rules which require the unit to be "Wholly within" range.
#'''Hyshian Twinstones:''' 30 points, starts at 1 and gets a charge every time a spell is cast within 12 inches of it (maxes out at 6). While within 12" of it, your wizards can choose to add the value of the charges to their casting roll. Easily your best endless spell. As per the FAQ on its order of operations, after one spell is cast, it can give the rest of your wizards within range a permanent +2 to cast every single time. This means you're looking at a +4 to cast on nearly every spell you sling if you bring Teclis and Zaitrec. Since our stuff is expensive, if you have <100 points left over, bring it. Always.
#'''Rune of Petrification:''' 70 points, subtracts 1 from the run and charge rolls of non-Lumineth within 6, and does d3 Mortal Wounds to non-Lumineth within 6 on a 4+ at '''both''' the start and end of '''both players''' movement phases. That's 3d3 minimum if your opponent moves out of range on their first turn. If you get a double turn that's 5d3 ''if'' they can move out of range at the first opportunity. It's a good way of controlling enemy movement, but it's expensive. Probably the hardest to use of the three, plus being more expensive than both of the other spells combined means this is less than ideal most of the time, but still holds potential.
</tab>
</tabs>

==Unit Analyis==
===Named Leaders===
* '''Archmage [[Teclis]] and Celennar , [https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Teclis%20-%20eng.pdf Spirit of Hysh] (660 pts):''' One of the dual gods of Hysh and another of the [[Everqueen|big]] [[Lord Kroak|literal]] [[Nagash|god]]-[[Be'lakor|tier]] [[Archaon|models]]. He went from "the best wizard who's not a daemon, demigod or Slann" to "gives Greater Daemons penis envy and makes Slann second-guess themselves". While he's not a slouch in CC, he shouldn't try to take on big scary things alone, as he'd rather be slinging spells and ruining your opponents day.
**He can cast 1, 2, or 4 spells. Depending on the number of spells he choses, they cast at differing values (1 spell meaning a 12 with no unbinding allowed, 2 spells means a 12, but otherwise normal, and 3/4 spells going off on a 10)
**Celennar’s Aura: +1 to cast, dispel, and unbind to everyone within range. Keep this in mind for when you cast the twinstones in a Zaitrec list for +3-8 on your casts.
**Can auto dispel 1 endless spell in your hero phase and auto unbind 1 enemy spell in their hero phase, and can still unbind unlimited enemy spells after his auto-unbind.
**Friendly units in Celennar's aura ignore spells on a 4+, and bounces a handful of MWs at an enemy within 18" of said unit when it works.
**Spells: (1) ''Protection of Teclis'': 10 to cast. 5+ FNP within 18", can't be cast same turn as Hysh Protection. (2)''Storm of Searing White Light'': 10 to cast. Roll a dice for each enemy unit within 18" and visible. 1, nothing happens; 2-4 D3 MW, 5+ D6 MW. Oh, plus EVERY spell from all three Lumineth trees. And when new elemental temples get released, they generally get a new accompanying spell lore, meaning that he's only going to get stronger as time goes on.

* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Eltharion_EN.pdf Light of Eltharion]:''' (220 pts) [[Eltharion]] returns to us as a living suit of armor. A melee beat-stick with ethereal bonuses, a ranged d3 mortal wound shot, and a massive leadership bonus tied to his command ability. He wants to aim at a character and rip and tear untill it is done. Once your enemies duelists/buffs/characters who looked at you funny are down, aim Eltharion at whatever you want and have fun. Tanky, killy, and obnoxious, Eltharion is easily one of your best HQs.

* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Avalenor%20-%20eng.pdf Avalenor, the Stoneheart King]:''' (360 points) The Mega Moo himself. Avalenor is a great support character for your army, He has a 30” ranged attack which can do D6W at rend 2 (range decreases with damage) and has 6 attacks (7 if it didn’t make a charge move this turn) that are Rend 1 with 5 Damage each in melee. He also has a debuff aura which makes all enemy units within 12” have a -1 to hit, which is awesome when he's properly positioned in the middle of your front line. He also has a command ability which can give D3 Alarith Aelf units +1 attack, sorry other moontains. All these nice things get a bit worse with damage taken, but if you have a Stonemage within 12" of him, he can pretend to be max health, so keep your little mage friend safe. His last ability, Elder Wisdom, allows a hero within 6" to use a command ability for free next turn, so keep him within <s>grumbling</s> advising range of your dudes.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_Sevireth.pdf Sevireth, Lord of the Seventh Wind]:''' (300pts) DO YOU NEED SPEED? Just as Avalenor is king of the earth-moos, this guy is one of the seventy-seven most powerful winds (or <s>kitsunes</s>). Unlike Avalenor, his stats never degrade, which means that he can always shoot at maximum efficiency. Since unlike Avalenor he isn't a mountain but a wind, he is also fast. Fast as in 24" flying - something necessary because his bow is actually quite short-ranged at 18" but comes with a dangerous -3 rend and D3 damage. To keep his 5+ save out of trouble he can move another 12", but he can slso still charge. That's great since his melee power's not too bad. Impact damage on the charge and doing more Mortal Wounds as he flies over enemies, debuffing enemies close to him. As he's quite fragile for a monster, he does need support - Take a Windmage so they can heal him up. Remember, he is a Hurakan unit, so should you find yourself in a fight you are unlikely to survive, just leave and laugh as you do, Hurakanspirits were playful and giggling once. His last ability is Scour, which allows him to essentially render enemy setpieces into ineffective hunks of plastic on a 2+. If you ever wanted to tell the OBR Obelisk to shove it, here you go.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_Ellania_Ellathor.pdf Ellania and Ellathor]:''' (260pts) The new hot pair of Elven twins, one of whom is a master mage and the other a peerless warrior. This totally-not-Tyrion-and-Teclis combo will probs take the place of them, especially since one serves Tyrion and the other serves Teclis. Like Syll'esske and the Sisters of Twilight, these two are effectively one model. To no one's surprise <s>Ellathor's</s> not-Tyrion's new sword is terrifying, with damage equal to the turn number and a one-off batch of mortal wounds in a line a la Sunfang, while <s>Ellania</s> not-Teclis' staff is merely decent with a -1 rend. Riding on top of this, the end of each fight phase gives the chance of vanishing if you roll a dice and it's under the turn number or amount of wounds suffered they vanish to a spot 12" away from any enemies as well as healing d6 wounds - likely very useful earlier on, but prone to wearing out its welcome as the game carries on. Not Teclis can also cast/unbind two spells, and comes with a unique spell that grants a 5+ FNP, which you will be using.
**Their neatest gimmick is that they can be taken as allies with any army who's general has the {{AOSKeyword|Order}} Keyword and can generate Command Points on a 4+ if they are within 3' of them, though this comes at the cost of never being generals themselves. Internationally focused elves? What a unique and interesting idea, cough cough.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_LyriorUthralle.pdf Lyrior Uthralle, Warden of Ymetrica]:''' (210 pts) The head general of the Lumineth and Tyrion's right hand man. He's your named lord-regent, and much like the other forms of named "melee HQ on bigger than average mount" that AOS released, he'll probably be a bit better, but a bit less flexible than his normal form. If his lance wounds a {{AOSKeyword|Chaos}} or {{AOSKeyword|Daemon}} Keyword model, he automatically does 3 damage instead of d3, but it still only has 1 attack, so don't get too excited about it. It's worth noting he lets you get more CP when you don't have Teclis hanging around, and since he has the same spell as the lord regent, it becomes clear that he's meant to be hanging around the other Vanari units.

* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Myari_Lightcaller_en.pdf Myari Lightcaller]:''' (220 pts) The new character from the Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm box set. While he’s a single model unit, he must be accompanied by his retinue, and their points are included in his points cost. Same stat-line as the Stonemage, he trades tankyness for a decent shooting attack and okay close combat. His Scryowl Familiar adds 1 to his casting, unbinding and dispelling rolls and, similar to the Sentinels, can choose a unit 24” away and out of line of sight to have LOS on. His unique spell, '''Dazzling Light''' subtracts 1 from hit rolls from missile weapons that target him, or a unit wholly within 6” of him. Mathematically, this will mean you can fit a Cow Mountain in this bubble, giving a -2 modifier to hit when stacked with Avalenor’s '''Guardian of Hysh''' ability.

* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Myaris_Purifiers_en.pdf Myari’s Purifiers]:''' (220 pts) A separate unit from Myari Lightcaller, but included in his points cost. You get one Bladelord, one Sentinel, and one Stoneguard. The Bow gets two shots, but only has the 18” profile, the Mallet retains the '''Crushing Blow''' ability to do extra damage, and Greatsword and Bow are both Sunmetal weapons, but they cannot access Power of Hysh. Their '''Guardians''' ability is their saving grace, allowing them to intercept a wound or mortal wound on Myari Lightcaller while he is within 3”. Basically, they’re here to be a tax to bringing Myari, which was a bit of a pain before all the new HQs got announced.

===Leaders===

* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Alarith%20Stonemage%20-%20eng.pdf Alarith Stonemage]:''' (130 pts) Floaty cow-kin him/herself. You will be seeing him in every list with Cow Elves (Stonegaurd) and Spirits of the Mountain. Fairly squishy at 5 wounds and only a 5+ save, until you remember he is ignoring Rend 1 (and Rend 2 in '''YMETRICA''' armies) among other defensive buffs. She is your standard 1 cast/1 unbind wizard that provides a powerful buff in the form of his '''STONEMAGE STANCE'''. In the start of the combat phase, the Stonemage can strike a pose that allows every '''ALARITH AELEMNTIRI''' WHOLLY WITHIN 12 inches an additional Rend on their melee weapons in exchange for not making a pile in move. Easy Rend 2 on all my Stoneguard? Yes please. His spell, '''Gravitic Redirection''' is cast on a 5+. The stonemage gains fly, and picks an enemy units within 18", cutting their speed in half and turning off fly. It also does a mortal wound, but that's definitely not the main point. Pick the enemy's big flying threat and laugh at the waster 400+ points. S/He's got a pretty standard mage melee statline, but his/her real job is to buff till the cows come home. If you can't tell, the model's sex is hard to tell, go elves!

* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Scinari%20Cathallar%20-%20eng.pdf Scinari Cathallar]:''' (140 pts) These professional mourners are excellent at debuffing foes and mitigating the drawbacks of <s>crystal meth</s> aetherquartz. Aside from the obvious Scinari benefits, she also gains the '''Emotional Transference''' ability, allowing her to target any Lumineth unit within 18" and let them ignore battleshock. What's more, if that unit lost models, you can later target an enemy with 18" and add their casualties to their bravery roll. Basically her job is to ruin the fun your opponent thought he was having when his Scary charge killed 15 elves.

* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_ScinariLoreseeker.pdf Scinari Loreseeker]:''' (160pts) LOREMASTERS OF HOETH RETURN TO US NOW, AT THE TURN OF THE TIDE. Since they embody the balance of tyrionic and teclian ideals like none other, they perform well in both melee, a 12" shooting atack and casting a single spell a turn. That however is not what you take them for. You take him for his special rules. With "Loreseeker" he generates a CP everytime a enemy with an artifact dies within 3" of him, but the real ticket is the Rule <s>"In Addition"</s> "Lone Agent" He gets +1 to his save if he is away 9" from friendlies, he gets to set up 3" away from enemy models and not your territory. If you set him up near an objective without enemies it's his and it cannot be stolen until he dies. Either game breaking or a neat trick, the jury is still out on this one.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_ScinariCalligrave.pdf Scinari Calligrave]:''' (100pts) A new wizard who's job it is to un-chaos lands he visits with totally-not-dwarf-runes. Their unique spell is a like arcane bolt, but it only works against other heroes and instead of rolling really high, you need to spend a turn marking an enemy hero with this spell before casting it again to deal D6 MW. Since 2D3 is statistically better than 1D6, it's pretty meh, even more so since you also need to cast the spell again to get the chance to completely botch your D6 roll; the other side of the coin is D6 MW sounds terrifying in prospect, especially on marked support heroes that could get instascrubbed on a favourable roll, which could lead to enemy players treading mega conservatively to let you get into better position or leave one of their units without their support. Once per game, he can pick a spot ANYWHERE on the map. Roll a dice and add the current battle round to the result. On a 5+, he paints out a rune on the chosen spot; this rune makes it so that no friendly Lumineth units wholly within 9" need to make battleshock tests while wizards within this area can add +1 to their casting/dispelling/unbinding checks. Don't expect to get this off early in the game, and whilst it sounds crappy on paper, the rune could add some much-needed stability in late/endgame cycles in matches when your army has taken a beating. You pay a generous 100 points for a mediocre spell and an ability that requires waiting a few turns before it can be reliably cast, so whilst you'll be uhm-ing and ahh-ing about this guy, there isn't much to whinge about! He's cheap, he has his uses, can give a bloody nose in a fight, and it's one more spell to add to your Hero phase! Have him contemplate and spam Total Eclipse whilst babysitting some Starshard Ballistae, people will hate you.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_HurakanWindmage.pdf Hurakan Windmage]:''' (120pts) The not-last Airbender/Son Wukong with Horns comes in fast with 16" on his little cloud friend. A 5+ Save and standard mage whacky stick is nothing to write home about, he is your buff boy for all things windy. With the rule on the "Windmage Symbiosis" on the Windspirit scroll he replenishes their power, with his own "Windleap" he has your Windchargers go a bit faster and since Calming Zephyr from his spell lore is kind of the default he has some more heals to go around. For his own protection his little fan redirects enemy missile attacks to give him a better save and on an unmodified 6 on his save he can send a mortal wound back to an enemy within 9". No matter how small or big your Hurakan temple will be, he's a part of it.

* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_VanariLordRegent.pdf Vanari Lord Regent]:''' (150pts) Your new generic melee hero on a bomb ass amalga-mount. His addition means you finally have something other than wizards to give those melee focused artifacts to, as well as an HQ who can actually keep up with the dream of a cav-spam list. 14", 6 wounds and a 3+ save as well as good melee sees him pose a mobile threat. His Pure Aetherquartz not only makes his casting a little better but also offers an innate -1 to hit against him, so he shines bright like a diamond until he uses his Quartz up, then the ability dies. Greater Power of Hysh is your safety net, should a Vanari unit fail to get their power of Hysh cast. On a 7 you can give the same Power of Hysh to D3 units wholly within 18". A fantastic all around choice.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_VanariBannerblade.pdf Vanari Bannerblade]:''' (110pts) An elf with a massive banner. Friendly Lumineth within 18" add +1 to their bravery just by seeing this flag, but this is boosted to +3 when this guy's within 3" of an enemy. In addition, once per game during any phase you can trigger the power of their banner - enemy units within 18" need to roll a d6 and if they roll under the current turn number, they eat D3 MWs and a -1 to hit in melee for the phase. Despite being no slouch in Melee, he is more of a niche choice, but not one you'll have to feel bad about.

===Battleline===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Wardens_EN.pdf Auralan Wardens]:''' (Battleline, 120pts, Min:10, Max:30) The Elven phalanxes finally return home, and they come equipped with 3" range Sunmetal <s>spears</s> pikes that get -1 rend and +1 to wound when they are charged. Like all the other Sunmetal weapons, each hit roll of a natural 6 causes a MW. The unit champion comes with a -1 rend sword, a one-use mortal wound bomb used at the ''start'' of the combat phase. On top of that he is a wizard as long as there are at least 5 models in the unit. All this combined with the shining company bonus makes these guys amazing charge screens for your archers and objective holders. Wardens are the only unconditional Battleline unit of the Lumineth. But for every unit of Auralan Wardens, you can take a unit of Auralan Sentinels or Auralan Dawnriders as Battleline.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Dawnriders_EN.pdf Auralan Dawnriders]:''' (Conditional Battleline, 130pts, Min:5, Max:15) Their Deathly Furrows ability grants bonuses for attacking infantry: 1 additional attack for all weapons (ie rider & mount) if the target has 2 wounds or 2 additional attacks if the target has 1. This *ONLY* works against units without mounts, so try to aim for infantry if you can. This Translates to a lot of dead chaff and 1-wound elite infantry. If speed is your game, cast speed of Hysh on them and you'll be looking at a 28" standard move, meaning you have no excuse to not pick the perfect charges.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Sentinals%20-%20eng.pdf Vanari Auralan Sentinels]:''' (Conditional Battleline, 140pts, Min:10, Max:30) More MWs, delivered at a distance & w/o line of sight. While the spear elves poke & hold the line against heavy hitters (or Stoneguard, if that's how you swing) with your horses mulching chaff, Sentinels are ideal assassins- pumping mortal wounds into the opposing (support) heroes from 30" away with Sunmetal arrows. Since mortal wounds trigger on natural 6+ (Or 5+ with Power of Hysh) 'Look out, Sir!' does not help those supporting heroes. Conveniently their bows have a second firing mode that deals more consistent normal damage with higher Rend, this is at a "shorter" range though (18") so really is more for supporting your spears or whatever flavor of tarpit needs the firepower after the opponent's general is kaput. Remember that the unit leader does not have a bow, so to maximize shooting and mortal wounds taking max size units is probably better. Remember that rules that remove specific models can remove your ability to fire out of line of sight if they kill the squad leader. Thanks to AoS 3.0 you can now run a unit of 30 of these bastards if they're battleline. With the new Unleash Hell command they become unfavorable to charge and worse to leave alone.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Alarith%20Stoneguard%20-%20eng.pdf Alarith Stoneguard]:''' (Conditional Battleline, 100pts, Min:5, Max:15) Your elite infantry choice and a battleline if you're playing Ymetrica. They come in two types, a dual handed diamondpick hammer or stone mallet with -1 rend and a captain with *OPTIONAL* dual Stratum Hammers for more attacks. If you roll an natural 6 with the stone mallets you get 1 extra damage and if you get a 6 with diamond picks you get 1 mortal wound. This means mallets are better at killing crowds where as picks are better at dealing with armored units. Flexible elite choice depending on how you build them. Even if you're not focusing on Alarith units, a squad of 5-10 of these guys work great at one end of your phalanx to prevent flanking and losing your buffs. How historical.
Never take the Stratum Hammers in lieu of the chosen unit weapon on the leader- they're utter horsecack.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_HurakanWindchargers.pdf Hurakan Windchargers]:''' (Conditional Battleline, 130pts, Min:5, Max:15) Aelven archers riding battle tauntaun-furdino-kanga-joust mounts. 14" pseudo-flying movement, 2 wounds and a whimpy 5+ save. Their Bows hit and wound on the aelven standard of 3+, at range with -1 rend and -2 rend when used in melee. Yes, they use their Bows as sticks in melee and are rewarded with an extra rend for it. The Bows only have 12" or range when shot, which can place them in harms way, but remember that you can use the Hurakan rules to just have them leave.

===Other===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_VanariBladelords.pdf Vanari Bladelords]:''' (120pts, Min:5, Max:10) Swordmasters reborn. Now you can have heavy infantry without the need for stupid hats/conversions, HOORAY! Each one comes with a sunmetal greatblade that doesn't have the Sunmetal rule, so no Mortal Wounds. Instead they can use in one of two ways: either a single high rend stabs that auto-hits (to hunt characters and monsters), or an anti-horde swings based on how many enemies are nearby. Paired with their innate extra magic protection, and you have a flexible unit to plug gaps in your line, HOWEVER don't be overconfident. 10 of these guys only kill 3 chaos warriors a turn or ~13 marauders (or equivalents), so don't expect them to be fully self sufficient. They also don't get to cast spells, which makes them rather dependent on others. In exchange they are bodyguards. Before a Scinari allocates suffers a wound nearby Bladelords can take the hit instead for 1 MW on a 2+. 10 Bladelords make any Scinai functionally immortal.

* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_Hurakan_Spirit_Wind.pdf Hurakan Spirit of the Wind]:''' (250 pts). The generic Fox is Severith, but lesser. Eight wounds instead of ten, a slightly less impressive bow and he loses some rules. No "Scour" to take the rules off of faction terrain, no fly-over Mortal Wounds and his quiver is way less cool. But he retains the movement shenannigans of his named counterpart, same regeneration from the Windmage, same absolutely insane 24" move.

===Artillery===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Eng_VanariStarshardBallistas.pdf Vanari Starshard Ballista]:''' (100pts) Your new and only artillery unit, ultimately proving to be more like a classic ballistae than the Stormcast's machine gun blasts. It fires twice at -2 Rend and d3 Damage, making it a bit of a menace - especially if you manage to get a hero in position so they can grant a ballista a +1 to hit so the attack is pretty much guaranteed to hit. Keep it still in the movement phase, and it gets another shot, meaning another nasty potential D3 dead dudes. They also have a once-per-game ability to stun an enemy in addition to the sweet damage potential, dealing a -1 to hit whilst you gib them, so you can annoy and put the pressure on enemies until you can have someone else handle them.

===Behemoths===
* '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/Lumineth_Warscroll_Alarith%20Spirit%20of%20the%20Mountain-%20eng.pdf Alarith Spirit of the Mountain]:''' (340 pts). The Moontain. Your primary beat-stick and use for command points when you bring 'em. Outside of heroes, your only source of >1 damage attacks (well, the Stoneguard can get it on a 6 to wound with the Mallets) - at full health, his hammer is hitting on 3s, wounding on 2s, -2 rend, and 5 damage each. Keeping a stonemage within 12" of him allows you to ignore his damage table. Finally, his command ability allows you to add 1 to the attack characteristic of 1 unit's melee weapons.

===Terrain===
*'''Shrine Luminor''': A floating shrine meant to power up your already crazy strong mages. It lets you nominate a hero to be the shrine guardian, who gets to use their command ability for free, as well as giving heroes 1 free reroll on cast/deny/dispell a turn within 12", growing to 24" turn 2 onwards.

==Battalions==
Due to how Battalions are now universal, expect see the whole lot of this on the trash bin outside of narrative games. Bonus rules, traits and doodads are going to be likely added to the faction rules as default.
*'''Alarith Temple:''' (120) '''MIN:'''690/'''MAX:'''1510
**'''Requirements:''' 1x Avalenor or Alarith Spirit of the Mountain, 1x Alarith Stonemage, 1-3x Alarith Stoneguard.
**'''Ability:''' At the start of your combat phase, a Stoneguard unit from this battalion that is wholly within 12" of a hero from the same batalion can reroll saves until end of phase but can only pile in 1".
If you are playing Ymetrica you may as well take this one with Avalenor. Makes your already annoyingly tough units even tougher.
*'''Auralan Legion:''' (120) '''MIN:'''780/'''MAX:'''2820
**'''Requirements:''' 1x Scinari Cathallar, 2-4x Vanari Auralan Sentinels, with an equal amount of Vanari Auralan Wardens
**'''Ability:''' Units within 3" of another unit from this Battalion can reroll saves of 1.
Again, make your top objective holders better at holding objectives. Cast Etherial Blessing vs Rend or otherwise use your Aetherquartz against that key charge and you will definitely keep control of that objective. This is particularly good for Iliatha armies, since you want to keep your Auralan units near each other anyway.
*'''Dawnrider Lance:''' (120) '''MIN:'''380/'''MAX:'''1680
**'''Requirements:''' 2-3x Vanari Dawnriders
**'''Ability:''' Units from this Battalion may reroll 1’s to hit on the charge.
A cute buff that pumps up the offensive half of your cavalry are a fairly manageable cost. Toss 2 10-man squads in here for a solid enough flanking force.
*'''Hurakan Temple:''' (180) '''MIN: '''680/'''MAX:'''1770
**'''Requirements:''' 1x Sevireth or Hurakan Spirit of the Wind, 1x Hurakan Windmage, 1-3x Hurakan Windchargers.
**'''Ability:''' Any unit from this battalion wholly within 12" of a hero at the start of the fight phase will count as having charged this round.
Useful for movement and kiting shenanigans. If you're playing Helon you may as well pick this up.
*'''Starshard Battery:''' (120) '''MIN: '''520/'''MAX:'''720
**'''Requirements:''' 1x Scinari Calligrave, 3-5x Vanari Starshard Ballistas
**'''Ability:''' The ballista's Warding Lanterns ability now triggers on a 5+ instead of a 6 if they're within 3" of another pack of ballistas.
A pretty decent grab if you're focusing on the ballistas, as this makes them a bit more durable. The calligrave gives you a wizard that can also grant you a decent safezone for your army as well.
*'''Vanari Bladehost:'''
**'''Requirements:''' 1x {{AOSKeyword|Vanari}} or {{AOSKeyword|Scinari}} hero, 2-3x Vanari Bladelords
**'''Ability:''' Any units that charged this turn can re-roll 1s to hit.
Pretty much an auto-take if you're running any builds not focused on Teclis or any temple heroes. The units are pretty much going to be taken anyways.

===Super Battalions===

*'''Teclian Vanguard:''' (80) '''MIN:'''2370/'''MAX:'''14,470
**'''Requirements:''' 1x Archmage Teclis and Celennar, 0-1x The Light of Eltharion, 1x Alarith Temple, 1-3x Auralan Legions, 2x Dawnriders Battations.
**'''Ability:''' While wholly within its own territory, every friendly unit from this Battalion has a 6+ Feel No Pain.

Not a terribly bad bonus, better than a poke in the eye with a Sunmetal Spear. If you're playing 2,500 point games for some reason, the value of this battalion is VERY mission dependent, depending almost exclusively on the size of the territory.

*'''Lumineth Battlehost:''' (50) '''MIN:'''2430/'''MAX:'''15,290
**'''Requirements:''' 1x Vanari Lord Regent, 1x Vanari Bannerblade, 0-3x Scinari Heroes, 0-1x Alarith Temple, 0-1x Hurakan Temple, 1-2x Auralan Legion, 1-2x Dawnrider Lance, 1x Bladelord Host, 1x Starshard Battery
**'''Ability:''' For every hero in this battalion, roll a dice, and for every 6 you get a command point.

Considering that you can have up to 11 heroes in this army that is up to 11 chances at more CP, which is always appreciated. If you take Lyrior Uthralle as your General (He does have the Hero and Lord Regent keywords after all) you can get 12 chances of regaining CP.

==Allies==

Oddly, the army may only take Idoneth Deepkin as allies. Some of them have gotten over their Teclis hate/fear boner, good for them (Or they've realized there's shit out there that's way scarier than their estranged father and his new favorite kids). The Akhelian half of the army patch the speed issues of Lumineth. You don't need more anvils, so the trident eels and allopexes are definitely the right choice. With the Broken Realms: Morathi update to their warscroll, a squad of 3 Alopexes with nets may be just the high rending damage, speed, and flying that this army is greatly missing. Alternatively you can take a soulscryer and two Allopexes to give your army some much needed backline deployment. Another option to consider is bringing an Akhelian king and a single squad of trident eels for two mobile, multidamage units to help your cav deal with their primary weakness.

Your also have the Order option of '''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//ENG_Gotrek_Warscroll.pdf Gotrek Gurnisson]'''. For a similar point cost you are probably better off taking Teclis. While he doesn't benefit from speed of Hysh, his speed isn't as detrimental to the Lumineth compared to other armies since you're already slow as sin if you don't bring Hurakan units.

*'''Bundo Whalebiter''': A Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant mercenary available to all Order factions. He could be a useful way to play up your strength by moving midfield objectives back into your defensive line, but his cost is a very large hurdle to deal with, as you're nearing Teclis levels of points and cheese.

==Tactics==

*'''High Elf roleplaying''': For those of us who remember the halcyon days of WHFB, focusing on your Vanari units can let you relive peak High-elf fun! 2 or 3 spear bricks and a lot of archers as your backbone, with a ballista and some totally-not-Swordmasters. Not the most effective list we could run, but good enough to handle most things. This list gets significantly more viable come all the new generic HQs.

*'''Moontains march to war!''': Building your list around 2 Alarith temples (1 of which has Avalenor) and a buncha hammers as ymetrica lets you build a surprisingly tanky list that hits like a bull. 2-3 moontains will mulch through anything short of a god or mega-gargant without much worry, though you should try to keep in mind that this list only has 2 casters, and none of the spells that really screw with your opponent.

*'''The Tryhard''': Sticking Teclis, 2 units of minimum spears, and FAR too many archers with the twinstones enables you to run the competitive tryhard list of your dreams! No one likes you for doing it, and you'll have minimal actual fun, but it can be done for an easy way to guarantee a win against most factions.

{{Age_of_Sigmar_Tactics}}

Spanish Inquisition

2021-09-22T00:51:46Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:F04E:EC36:9269:4164: /* Reputation */

Unlike their [[Inquisition|Imperial]] counterparts, the '''Spanish Inquisition''' did not shove Inquisitorial retinues up people's asses for [[heresy|the slightest of offences]]. The Imperial Inquisition was, however, partially inspired by the Spanish Inquisition, or at least, the romanticized version of it and the one from the Black Legend, with the [[grimdark]] turned up more than a few notches of course.

== Background ==

The Spanish Inquisition wasn't the first such order to exist, it drew heavily from the Medieval Inquisition. The Medieval Inquisition as we know it was formally establishedby Pope Gregorius IX around 1230, its goal to fight religious dissent (like for instance Catharism) in an unified way across Europa.
== Origins ==

Fast-forward two centuries : the real-life Spanish Inquisition were a combined political/religious party formed in 1480 by the Spanish Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille. [[Skub|While the reasons for their founding have been debated by historians]], several clear goals (or more popular theories) are that it was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition under Papal control with one answerable to the Spanish monarchs.

While the groundwork was laid in 1478, the Spanish Inquisition was officially formed in the year 1480. For context, the reason why the Spanish monarchy wanted their own Inquisition was because Spain was in the final stages of the Reconquista, conquering Moorish Grenada ten years later. Spain, being only very recently unified and having conquered a great deal of land formerly held by Muslim rulers, wanted to maintain its existence through a strong central government supported by an orthodox system of laws & religion. All remaining Muslims were required to convert, but the monarchy wanted to make extra sure that they were being for realsies and wouldn't try to rebel or conspire with the Ottomans. They also threw in the Jews, because of the Jews' allegedly traitorous actions during much of the reconquista, allying with the Moors and often fighting alongside them such as in the [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Higueruela.jpg Battle of La Higueruela (notice the banners)] for one instance. The scope often changed with Spain's political agenda- Lutherans (who were making controlling the Netherlands more difficult) and unruly nobles often fell under investigation.

It is important to keep in mind that Inquisitions controlled by the Church (i.e. "actual" Inquisitions) were very different. For starters, they didn't kill people. The problem was that secular governments had their own laws about heresy...and were very torture and execution happy. This somewhat contributed to the end of the Inquisitions as Inquisitors weren't exactly enthusiastic about their jobs when they knew anyone found guilty faced horrific treatment but not finding them guilty so they could be forgiven by a priest would risk those people's souls. A real rock-and-a-hard-place situation. Catholic Inquisitors rarely decided there was enough evidence to go investigate an accusation and dismissed the claim as false. On the occasions they did investigate, they rarely found enough evidence for a trial. When the investigation did progress to a trial, the Inquisitors rarely found someone guilty. When someone was found guilty, they were given God's forgiveness and released. Torture was limited to about three minutes or so per day and no permanent damage of any kind was permitted. Often, Inquisitors refused to use torture or outright decried torture as sinful. The Catholic Inquisitors set standards of practice which grew into the modern day ideas of the humane treatment of prisoners and modern police investigative practices: for instance, they would allow any suspect brought before them to 'name those they considered mortal enemies', with any accusation/testimony by such a named person discarded as mere human grudges and revenge-mongering.

The politically-controlled Inquisitions were basically "you're guilty and I'm going to hurt you until you admit it" if you were a political enemy of the State, but were generally actually pretty good at their jobs when you were a random Joe.

== Goals ==
The Spanish Inquisition was created during a time of high political development in Spain. At the end of the 15th Century, the Catholic Monarchs, Elizabeth I of Castilla and Ferdinand II of Aragon, were trying to unify all peninsular kingdoms into a single state that they might recover the legacy of the Visigothic Kingdom of old. However, it was still the Middle Ages, and this meant that pretty much all territories had their own set of laws, organizations and, of course, nobles that pretty much controlled most of the land. Medieval kings were not absolute rulers (yet), after all; they were bound by quite a lot of law with regards to their range of action, much more than many would assume. If Elizabeth and Ferdinand were to create an unified kingdom controlled by them and them alone, this massive division had to be overcome. And for that, this new Kingdom would need an organization that had authority everywhere.

It is always important to remember that the Spanish Inquisition was a political tool first and foremost (like the Gestapo). Alongside the Spanish Royal Guard (one of the first attempts to create a modern and stable army in Europe after the fall of Rome), the Spanish Inquisition was one of the organizations that were needed for the creation of a unified State in the whole Iberian Peninsula. The Inquisition targeted people and ideas that might have broken with the growing structure of Spain, and it just so happened that a religious organization was the perfect body to do so. Spain was an incredibly religious country at the time; centuries of Reconquista had seared in the medieval Spaniard's mind the idea of Christianity's right for the land over the infidel. The Spanish Inquisition worked for the Spanish monarchy, targeting cases of [[heresy]], [[/d/|moral misconduct]], treason, political dissidence... and all other similar crimes, while most of the time hiding them under a blanket of religious condemnation. Nobles not that loyal to the new monarchs? Accuse them of some religious misconduct, and you'd have the Inquisition keeping them under serious scrutiny. Printing books that have been deemed "problematic" by the Inquisition? You better watch out. Practice Muslim beliefs and sympathies (under a Christian façade)? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain? I hope you like barbecue... Witchcraft was usually laughed at as baseless superstition: The Inquisition hired some of the smartest and most prepared individuals at the time, so they were pretty enlightened about ignoring the magical and focus on the political side of things. Hollywood, popular media, and general knowledge (i.e. "common idiocy") led modern peoples to widely believe that the Witch Hunts were Catholic. They were actually Protestant; Catholicism has always held that witches do not exist (demons don't give a fuck about any deals). ''Witchcraft'' does but not witches (summon demon, get soul stolen instead of making a deal, no deal = no witch).

Remember than an accusation and investigation of the Inquisition could ruin someone's life, and that was intentional. Not only could the nobility lose everything they have (riches, titles and land that would go right into the crown's hands), but also end up ostracized from the community if they were ever condemned and punished. Fortunately, most of the guilty verdicts did not end with an execution, but rather a fine and/or incarceration. Yet the Inquisition were the ones who decided if the person was guilty or not and the local authorities were the ones who had to carry out the punishment for the crime themselves. And if that could happen to nobility, [[Grimdark|imagine what they could do to regular peasants...]] Also, because they were a religious corps in charge of (theoretically) rooting out heresy, they couldn't act against those who weren't Christian. They had no authority over Muslims and Jews because they were not heretics, "merely" unbelievers. The solution to that came in the form of the massive forced conversions to Catholicism during the later part of the 15th Century. Now everyone was under scrutiny.

== Reputation ==

The Spanish Inquisition is often stated in popular media and medieval history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. Notably the first major authors of this idea were Protestants who disapproved of the Catholic Church and Heads of State at odds with Spain. Modern historians now question or disagree with earlier accounts concerning the severity of the Inquisition. Henry Kamen asserts that "the 'myth' of the all-powerful, torture-mad inquisition is largely an invention of nineteenth century Protestant authors with an agenda to discredit the Papacy". But due to a little thing called the printing press that the Spanish government (among others) didn't take seriously at the time, the Protestants happily made the Inquisition look as awful as they possibly could and by the time the Inquisitions stopped the "black legend" was there to stay (it didn't help that Spain was at the peak of its power and had plenty of rivals who were eager to drag its reputation through the mud).

After The Enlightenment and since the 19th century, this narrative continued. Writers with an axe to grind against Spain and/or religion capitalized on the narrative of a violently oppressive Spanish Inquisition and ran marathons with it ever since for the past 180+ years, eager to drag the reputation of the Catholic Church, all Christianity or religion itself through the mud. This still crops up in recent and comedic works; for example, the memetic "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" originated from the British series "Monty's Python's Flying Circus" and at least one showrunner had an avowed contempt for religion. Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones either because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie or they have an agenda.

There is an important life lesson to be had here: if you believe something because you saw it in a movie, a TV show, a game or you learned it second-hand, you need to fact-check. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Punching it into Google and reading the first thing it gives you isn't research either. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research (the Spanish Inquisition kept detailed records of their actions, most of which are in archives freely available to the public). If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy, feelings are not facts and that "common knowledge" is almost always wrong.

== Punishments ==

Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. It's important to note that torture was not the punishment, torture was officially a means (and on paper at least a last resort) to extract a confession, though a rather academic point for the victim of said torture. Methods of torture included:

*Strappado: binding the victims hands behind their back and suspending them by their wrists. Sometimes a series of drops would be added, jerking the victim up and down and forcing their arms out of their sockets. Weights could be added to the victims body to make the hanging even more excruciating.
*Toca, or [[waterboarding]]: securing the victim to an inclined board and binding them so that they cannot move. Then the victim is gagged and has a cloth placed over his or her face, and water poured over it. Toca gives the victim a feeling of drowning, even if no water enters the nose or mouth. CIA agents go through it as part of their training and on average last only 14 seconds before begging to be released.
*The Rack: often considered the most painful of tortures by contemporaries. The victim had their hands and feet bound to rollers at opposite ends of a frame. In theory, the torturer would turn the rollers and the chains attached would dislocate the joints of the victim. In theory if the torturer continued to turn the rollers the victim's arms and legs would be torn off (probably not true, tendons and ligaments are incredibly strong. Reports of people being pulled apart by horses mention that they have to be helped by cutting the joints a bit to get the process started. Who knows though, maybe ratchets are just that effective, and some people spent a long time on the rack, which might loosen them up some).

There were, however, regulations for the Spanish Inquisition on how far the torture could go; no removing body parts and nothing that resulted in death. While it's a commonly publicized fact that the first head of the Spanish Inquisition (the infamous [[Torquemada Coteaz|Torquemada]]) made frequent use of torture, a less known fact is that that [[Noblebright|the Pope at the time went to the King and Queen of Spain to try and rein in his cruelty]] (and as an example of problem with political elements in the Inquisition [[Grimdark|the King and Queen pressured him in various ways to keep his mouth shut about it]]). Despite this, the Spanish Inquisition are known to have been fairer, and used torture less often, than the secular courts at the time. There were several cases of people on trial in secular courts for lesser crimes who would blaspheme in the courtroom, just so they could be tried by the Spanish Inquisition instead, who would give them a fair(er) trial.

In a particular instance of "shit that wouldn't sound out of place in 40k", in 1256, Pope Alexander IV decreed that inquisitors could clear each other from any wrongdoing that they might have performed during torture sessions... [[Derp|except this decree was for the Medieval Inquisition, and predated the Spanish Inquisition by over 150 years]].

== Death Toll ==

Modern estimates based on incomplete but detailed records put the total number of people trialed from 1540 to 1700 at around 87,000, with 2,070 people being sentenced to death. With these death sentences, the numbers that ended with an execution ''in persona'' (the person is actually executed) is around 1,300. Some managed to escape the Inquisition before they were executed so instead they were executed ''in effigy'', as in an effigy of the accused was burned in their place; "executions" in this manner (again, from 1540 to 1700) numbered at around 770. Even with records being re-examined in the wake of the Catholic Church opening historical archives, even the highest estimates from historians put the death toll below 5,000 across their 354 years.

This gives the Spanish Inquisitions trials during this period a death rate of less than 1-in-40, and this is before factoring in whether or not the death sentences were actually warranted given the Spanish Inquisition dealt with numerous crimes besides heresy.

==Geopolitical Implication==

Obviously the Inquisition didn't take place in a vacuum, but in a Europe that was very rapidly dividing itself up over religion. The extremes of the inquisitors, along with other incidents such as the St Bartholowmew's Day Massacre in France and the brief reign of ''"Bloody"'' Queen Mary I in England hardened opposition to Catholicism throughout pretty much all of Europe that stood to gain from seeing Spain knocked down. It also didn't help that Charles V by dint of ancestry was both King of Spain as well as the Holy Roman Emperor. Charles spent most of his reign making war with France and trying to hold Germany together even as Martin Luther tore it apart touting Protestantism in response to corruption among the clergy.

Charles's son Philip II inherited Spain and was a fanatical Catholic who was completely onboard with the Inquisition. However, having a lot of power and being an ideological nutter tends to leave you with no friends. The Dutch converted to Protestantism and revolted against Spanish rule, while the English had formed their own church and now started pirating Spanish ships. Eventually even reliably Catholic powers like France and north Italy were fighting border wars with Spain, presaging the chaos that would ensue soon after in the Thirty Years War.

By the time Cardinal Richelieu (yes, THAT Richelieu) came to power in France, the Spanish Hapsburgs had made themselves so unpopular from their fanaticism and warmongering that a catholic cardinal who used inquisition style persecution himself against protestants in his own country was willing to ally with protestant nations to fight Spain.

== Later Years and Disbandment ==

The Spanish Inquisition began to lose influence in its later years, and was formally disbanded in the early-mid 19th century in the year 1834. While Napoleon's occupation of Spain had disbanded it 1808, his defeat and the return of Ferdinand the VIIth to the country meant that Napoleon's law became moot. Though, to be fair, Ferdinand didn't reinstate the Inquisition either, it was unpopular and pretty ineffective at this point, so it was supplanted by ''Juntas de Fe'', a much smaller organization that was basically an Inquisition-lite. The Regent for the queen Elisabeth IInd of Spain, Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, finished the organization once after all in 1834, as a political maneuovre to win the liberal's support against the carlists.

== "The Inquisition Still Exists" ==

There's a talking point in certain [[Urban Fantasy]] works that the Inquisition still exists.

And, yes, the Real World truth is that ''a version of'' the Inquisition does still exist. But it's wildly different from what you might picture, so "The Inquisition still exists!" is only sorta true.

To explain: The main Catholic Church's version, the [[wikipedia:Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] <ref>As it is ''currently'' known; it's gone by several names, historically, mainly because of the bad press the Spanish one had, and a few reorganizations.</ref> on which the Spanish one was based, still exists. But the most they can do is excommunicate you. For more detail, see about the Church controlled Inquisition in the Origins section, above.

To continue from there, because they served a continuing valid purpose, and were usually fairly light hands, the main Inquisition never really went away. And with the removal of "heresy" from criminal law, any secular power they had was gone. Nowdays, they're an internal affairs watchdog and only a concern if you work for the Catholic Church.

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]]

As noted previously, the current Inquisition of the Imperium of Man owes a lot of its concept to a popularized depiction of the Spanish Inquisition, right down to having their own Torquemada.

Also, Victoria Lamb makes some pretty badass Spanish Inquisitorial models.

[[Category:History]]

Mythology

2021-09-21T08:55:31Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:F04E:EC36:9269:4164: /* Moses and the Exodus of the Hebrews */ We already have the tl;dr warning stating that how much of it's true is up to each reader do decide for themselves

In the olden days, before the scientific method was developed, people sought explanations for why the world exists as it does. Humans being humans, their first explanations revolved around ascribing human-like characteristics to natural phenomena, which in turn became the first gods worshiped by humankind. [[Skub|Depending who you ask]].

From there, stories spread about the nature of the gods. In time, people began telling other stories that sought to explain such thinigs as the origins of the world (cosmogonia), the origins of humankind (antropogonia), what happens after death (eschatology), or the exploits of ancient heroes. Many other mythical creatures are thought to have started the same way - for example, stories of giants being an attempt to explain the existence of massive fossilized bones (which we now know belonged to long-extinct animals such as mammoths). As these stories passed down through generations as either legends or religion, they gave birth to the fantasy genre we all know and love.

In a sense, '''mythology''' is a blend of history and fantasy, with elements of what might have really happened wrapped up in cultural beliefs, and then shaped by the worldview of the societies that created the myths in question. Even in the present day more than a few such myths are still prevalent, despite them no longer being openly supernatural, such as the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. Many other such myths are significantly tied to the culture's religion.

Older myths often contained bizarre and fucked up shit like incest and rape, because people in ye olden times <s>[[Slaanesh|were fucking deranged and kinky as all hell]], and as far as they were concerned, nothing was off limits</s> had very different standards of morality than our own.

Put far less bluntly, several cultures saw their gods as models ''OF'' human behavior rather than FOR human behavior, and as such are not inherent indicators of how [[/d/|"deviant"]] a society was (though it ''also'' doesn't mean they might not have been fucked up in some ways). Naturally, exceptions to this "rule" do exist, e.g. the schools of Buddhism, where the core tenet is to transcend the impermanent nature of existence and break the cycle of death and rebirth thus achieving ''nirvana''; the central figurehead, Buddha, and his teachings are explicitly to be emulated as opposed to worshipping him directly (although some branches of Mahayana Buddhism do consider him divine, it's complicated).

Shifts in mythological narratives can also occur due to cultural osmosis and/or conflict; some "foreign" gods are integrated into local mythos or considered an aspect of a "native" god within the pantheon, while other gods (usually from conquered peoples) were sometimes demonized, [[Demon|often literally so]]; alternately, existing gods may shift in nature and reputation due to either technological shifts, or political ones. With different cultures from country to country, mythologies all had their own angels/demons/spirits/energies, with their moralities varying based on how their own cultures and others perceived them. Natural phenomena (the sun, the sea, storms, etc.) and common abstracts (chaos, order, art, etc.) will inevitably feature in nearly any culture's pantheon.

==Connection with Fantasy Genres==
As you can see, many an author took interest in the old legends and decided to include its elements in their own stories. Notably, Tolkien took many elements from the Norse and Germanic Mythologies and popularized the concept of fantasy races like Dwarfs and Elves.

Between these connections and the fact that some mythologies form the basis for many beliefs, both ancient and modern-day (e.g. the Abrahamic religions), while others often incorporate historical and semi-historical figures (with obvious overlap), the following thus bears mentioning: Many other authors have used existing religions (often including their own) as a basis to inform the mythos or cosmology of their settings; [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] in particular is well known for this, as is C.S. Lewis. Liberties will be taken with adapting such figures directly or creating analogues for a given fiction, the same as it would be with any other adaptation. As such should not be taken as absolution or commentary on the reality of such beliefs unless explicitly intended; even in that event such liberties can only be indicative of the author's own beliefs or lack thereof, which is still a far cry from true spiritual or theological objectivity, regardless of how much (if at all) the author may actually want it to be.

<span style='font-size:150%'>{{BLAM|'''''TL;DR The preceding and following descriptions have no ''necessary'' bearing on the matter of whether or not a given being exists or how much of any Scriptures are true or false.'''''}} [[Skub|That's a matter we'll leave to the reader.]]</span>

For the purposes of this article, we're focused more on '''characters''' (including Deities), '''species''', and '''artifacts''', along with particular '''individual stories''' that get repurposed or directly referenced in RPGs. If you're genuinely curious about religious beliefs and/or specifically how it figures into RPGs, we have the [[religion]] article for that.

==Mythologies==
===Abrahamic Mythology (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)===
The one set of mythology everyone most familiar with in the West and the Middle East, since you learn them in church. Or synagogue, or mosque, you get the idea.

Much of the Abrahamic mythology is drawn from the old Hebrew Bible, though it has been expanded considerably by prose and poetry over the centuries, meaning that there is a wealth of third-party, non-canon material out there for DMs to use in their campaign settings. Christian mythology is one of the many mythologies that were derived from Jewish mythology; the same goes for Islamic mythology and many others from Middle Eastern countries. Hence, they are collectively referred to as "Abrahamic" after the Biblical patriarch.

As Islamic mythology is not commonly depicted for a bunch of reasons (most notably because Islam derives from Jewish and Christian mythology, thus sharing many figures and events, along with Islam having a taboo against depicting religious figures - especially their chief prophet Muhammad - that Muslim extremists have often violently enforced even to this day), this section will primarily cover the Jewish and Christian elements of Abrahamic mythology.

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:'''
*Jesus Christ: Please tell us you're joking. If for some reason you're actually serious and have a few hours to spare, find the nearest church and ask whoever's in charge to tell you about him. He will be happy to give you the full story. Otherwise you can ask a Christian you know or pick up a copy of the Bible - nearly every bookstore stocks them and then there's online copies - and see for yourself. Trivia: "Christ" is not Jesus last name, but is one of Jesus' titles.
*Abraham: The common tie between the three Abrahamic religions, his covenant with God makes him and his descendants the first of the Jews.
*Samson: Legendary hero whose power of super strength was tied to <strike>never cutting his hair</strike> ACKCHYUALLY his power was tied to keeping his covenants with God, it just so happened that cutting his hair was the last one to break and he knew it.
*David: Once killed a mighty warrior with a [[Sling]]. Undertook the worst fetch quest in history when the king demanded he collect 100 Philistine foreskins to marry the princess, then decided to go above and beyond and collect 200. Said father in law was King Saul, who later tried to have David killed numerous times (strong contender for worst parent-in-law ever right here). He became the king of Israel some time later after King Saul's death. Also credited with writing the Biblical Psalms.
*Solomon: David's most famous son, also King of Israel. Better at his job then just about anybody who came after him, and (more relevant to media appearances outside of direct-Biblical-adaption) frequently reputed to be a (usually holy) sorcerer of some kind. Islam further credits him with authority over the djinn.
*Moses: See the Exodus for details. Hollywood is a big fan of this guy, even moreso than Jesus (regardless of how you take the implications), so you have a plethora of big-budget film options with A-list actors to choose from (Charlton Heston, Christian Bale, cartoon with Val Kilmer, etc)
*Noah: See below for his boating adventure.
*A few angels; notably, only two are given names: Michael and Gabriel, as well as Raphael in the Book of Tobit though its canonicity is disputed(there's also an Abbadon (no, not [[Abaddon|the armless retard one]]) in the Book of Revelation, but he's usually considered a Fallen Angel like Lucifer). Also notable and mentioned in the Bible: the Angel of Death, aka The Destroying Angel (no name given Biblically, but the Catholic and most Eastern Orthodox Apocryphas (as well as Jewish tradition, especially the later Kabbalic one), identify him as Azrael).
*God is rarely depicted as a particularly active hero, but may [[Just as planned|work in mysterious ways.]]
*Satan and the demons of Hell (see below) are sometimes depicted as an unpleasant but necessary part of the divine plan (compare to Hades, above), as the ones who punish sinners who escape mortal justice. In the early parts of the Old Testament, Satan is seen as a prosecutor of souls who puts people through spiritual trials to test their faith, rather than tempting people into evil for evil's sake, and to this day we speak of the "Devil's Advocate" who points out flaws in popular people or ideas (the term originates from the Catholic Church, of all places; when someone is considered for sainthood, the Devil's Advocate is specifically appointed to argue against them to hopefully ensure all sides of the story are considered).
** Alternatively, Satan is sometimes portrayed as a hero rebelling against an oppressive divine order. Obviously this is [[extra heresy]] (see also: Gnosticism).

'''Most notable villains with lots of media adaptions:'''
* Satan/Lucifer/The Devil (may or may not be the same character): With the many different interpretations, it's hard to tell which is which, but the general gist is that one angel disagreed with how God was doing business and staged a great rebellion. God cast him and his kin out of heaven and forced them to live in a realm where they are never able to feel his presence, and now he takes his hatred of God out on humanity by leading them into damnation.
** Relevant note: One approach used in various media is to have multiple Hellish factions, each of whom have some claim to the title of Supreme Evil. Usually, they're opposed to one another, and usually represent different kinds or aspects of Evil (e.g., one wants to destroy the world, and is directly opposed by another who wants to tempt and corrupt). Note that the Bible is completely silent about most things about demons, so both "they're all working for one master" and "it's every demon for himself" are plausible readings. The Ars Goetia is often a handy source from which to pull such factions.
* Baal, Moloch, and others: False idols (i.e. pagan gods) worshipped by the Caananites, which the Israelites would repeatedly turn to worshipping despite God punishing them every single time they did so.
* Judas Iscariot: One of Jesus' apostles who sold him out to the Romans, leading to the crucifixion. He hung himself shortly afterwards in a fit of despair. His name became a byword for betraying someone close to you, and is also known for the price he sold Jesus out for (30 pieces of silver).
* [[Cain]]: Adam and Eve's son after being cast out of paradise. Murdered his brother Abel for petty reasons.
* The Pharaoh of the Exodus, known simply as Pharaoh. Popular history assumes it to be Rameses II, although [[wikipedia:Pharaohs_in_the_Bible|historians have been arguing over this for millenia]]<ref>Not helping is the long-held knowledge among scholars that ancient Egyptians were more interested in propaganda than recording their actual history on their public displays, which is a large chunk of what contemporary evidence we have for what happened when.</ref>.
* Sometimes God and/or various angels are depicted negatively, as either being passive in the face of evil or complicit ([[Adeptus Evangelion|or being giant monsters out to destroy the world]]). Naturally, those kinds of interpretations are highly frowned upon for the obvious reason that people still worship God, this can involve in-universe retcons of Scripture, consider God good and do not like it when other people call His actions evil, so naturally this is [[Extra Heresy]] (and blasphemy).
** It should be added that Fallen Angels are a Canonical (as in, actually appear in the New Testament) option to have Evil Angels without making God Himself Evil, although it still runs into the problem of why God made his own angels susceptible to becoming evil in the first place. Note that this is more an early Jewish and Christian motif than a later Jewish or Islamic one, due to changes and differences, respectively, in theology.

'''Non-Biblical figures who show up in media adaptions'''
* Lilith, the fanon first wife of Adam, the first man. It must be emphasized that she '''does not exist in any biblical source''' (other then the first woman being created twice -- but then again, a lot of things happen twice, slightly differently described each time, in Genesis), but that being said, she was reputed to be one of Satan's many wives and a mother of demons.
* The Wandering Jew and Longinus: Because Jesus implied that certain people listening to him speak would be around for the Second Coming (although two obvious alternate readings are that Jesus was talking about his shortly impending Resurrection, or referring to the then-future, but politically easy to foresee, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_War Great Revolt of 66 AD], whose results could easily be seen as something that would be talked about in the same tone as the end of the world at the time), two non-biblical figures show up, starting in medieval works: The Wandering Jew, an Jew of the era, cursed to immortality, and Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus' side with a spear during the Crucifixion, similarly cursed to immortality. Can show up as villains, heroes, or mere cameos. (Both are more likely to show up in literature and RPGs then visual media; Longinus in particular is the identity claimed by an important historical vampire in ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''.)
* Various non-Biblically mentioned Angels.
*[[Djinn]]: Originally an element of pre-Islamic Arabian mythology, they are mentioned in the Quran as spirits born of "smokeless fire". Unlike Islamic angels, they are capable of sin and can go to either Heaven or Hell. The Islamic version of Satan (called Iblis or Shaitan) is said to have originally been a djinn. Over time and several (mis)interpretations, they came to be portrayed as the figures we now know as [[genie]]s.

'''Artifacts that tend to show up in media adaptions:'''
* The Holy Grail: The cup that Christ drank from at the Last Supper and/or a cup used for various purposes during the Crucifixion.
* The True Cross: So named because of the dozens of other crosses falsely passed off as the one Jesus was crucified on--not helped by the fact that the Roman Empire crucified a ''lot'' of people, as Crucifixion was the standard Roman method of execution of non-Romans. Whether it actually ''is'' the cross Jesus was crucified in is another story.
* The Spear of Destiny and various other objects associated with the Crucifixion: In certain media, the Spear of Destiny (which pierced his side during crucifixion), as well as the nails which pinned him to the cross, are considered gifted with magical powers because they have the blood of God on them.
** Other objects from the Crucifixion that can show up in media and are sometimes (but more rarely then the above) assigned supernatural powers include the Crown of Thorns, the 30 pieces of silver payed to Judas, the whip used for the 39 lashes, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Sponge a sponge].
* The Veil of Veronica and/or the Shroud of Turin: These are two relics that purported to be pieces of cloth that were miraculously imprinted with an image of Christ's face after being in contact with him sometime during the crucial four days. The former is lost; the latter is of rather dubious authenticity and is now considered by most scholars to be a forgery made in the Middle Ages.
* The Ark of the Covenant: Where Moses supposedly put the shards of the original Ten Commandments (and possibly Aaron's rod and a pot of manna). Famously disappeared during one of the various times Jerusalem was sacked, and has never been seen since.
* The Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil
* The Fruit of Life.
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==== Creation Myth ====
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So in Abrahamic mythology there is only one god, or at least only one ''true'' god: '''YHVH''', which most people would just refer to him as '''GOD''' since his name is too sacred to speak of and because he is the only god that exists, with all others being false idols and products of human imagination or demonic ruse. In fact, we don't even know how its pronounced (in part because ancient Hebrew is an abjad- a language that only uses consonants in their writing system) the two most common anglicizations being '''Yahweh''' and '''Jehovah'''. Other names and titles that may be used instead of '''YHVH''' include '''Elohim''' (meaning '''God''' or gods), '''Adonai''' (meaning '''Lord'''), '''HaShem''', '''"I AM"''', and '''Father'''. In Islam (and also by Arabic speaking Christians), he is instead called '''Allah'''. And other languages have their own unique words used to refer to him.

Before the world was born, according to Milton, there was the "war in heaven" [[War in Heaven|(not this one)]] where [[Horus|Lucifer]], [[Horus Heresy|the most perfect of God's creations and the best of the archangels, rebelled against God with a third of the angels in Heaven, but was defeated and cast down to Hell]], in which he was imprisoned.

After that, God creates the world. It is said that he created the world in 7 days, hence the seven-day work week we all know and love: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (although those names themselves are drawn from various pagan, Roman, and Norse traditions -- Sun, Moon, Tyr, Woden/Odin, Thor, Frigga/Freya, and Saturn -- because flexibility is important when it comes to winning converts). He then created many animals, plants and the first two humans: Adam and Eve. He observed them in the Garden of Eden ''(aka his research facility)'' watching them having fun and telling them that they could do anything they wanted, except from eat the fruit of one particular tree in the garden. But that promise was broken when the woman, Eve was tempted by a winged serpent - who according to Milton, was actually Lucifer in disguise seeking to avenge himself by corrupting humanity - to eat the fruit, which held within it the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve, having eaten the fruit, gained knowledge and dignity which made them embarrassed by their lack of clothing. God found out and exiled from the garden them to the mortal world. The serpent is also punished, with his wings taken from him, turning him into the [[snek]] we all knew and feared. According to Christianity, this also introduced original sin, fundamentally changing the nature of humankind from natural innocence to inherent wickedness.

In the mortal world, Adam and Eve worked hard to survive and later conceived two sons: Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer while Abel was a shepherd. When they both offered their produce to God, God only favored Abel's. ''(According to some, it was because Cain hid his best offering from God, and others because he gave God leftovers while Abel gave the best; others still say (frequently either looking to blame-shift or suggest that even small evils can lead to larger ones in other people), Abel's overweening pride at being favored provoked what followed. By this point if you are a true [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] fan, you would know what's coming next, but without the vampire shit.)'' Cain killed Abel, and his punishment for murder was to never farm ever again; wherever he spilled his brother's blood, the earth became cursed so that it can never grow anything, putting an end to Cain's favorite job and career. However, punishments differ in other mythologies and it's a clusterfuck, though the 'Mark of Cain' deal is a common point of reference - Cain fears the cold, cruel world will be out to get his marauding criminal ass, so God set a mark on him that made it clear anyone trying to inflict their justice over His own would get it seven times worse.

Adam and Eve later had the third son Seth, who is the true ancestor of mankind, and [[Command and Conquer|Cain is then exiled to the land of the Nod]] where he built the City of Enoch (because he can't farm) and conceived many other descendants. There's also the claim that Eve was not the first wife, but Lilith, a woman who was created from the same dirt as Adam. Felt too hot shit for Adam, so she ran away with an archangel called Samael ''(the Fallen name for Lucifer in some stories)'', though in other stories she ran away a demon prince called Asmodeus ([[Asmodeus|the one this guy was named after]]) and begat a whole race of demons called the Lilim or Lilitu. In [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] however, she taught Cain cool dark magic and shit.

As for the rest, it's easier to find the nearest Bible and/or Koran and read it for yourself. Just don't call it mythology or worse where anyone can hear you, unless you enjoy offending people, want to provoke an argument and don't particularly care about being ostracized or worse, depending on where you do it.
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==== Noah's Ark ====
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Humankind had become incredibly corrupt and sinful (we’re talking [[Fall of the Eldar|birth the Eye of Terror]] levels of debauchery(!) here), so God decided to have the sea level to suddenly rise to the kind you see in disaster movie like [[/tv/|The Day After Tomorrow]] after a 120 year countdown. He instructed the only righteous people on Earth, starting with the family patriarch named Noah to build [[Imperial Navy|an ark big enough to contain the non-aquatic animals of the world as well as his family]], or just each animal species with their own female and male pairing so that they could reproduce. God even instructed Noah to build the ark with the size he demands: 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in width and 30 cubits in height (450 × 75 × 45 ft or 137 × 22.9 × 13.7 m), [[just as planned|it's almost as if God intended this]]. The ark is also made out of some probably extinct wood called "Gopher" (that's just how the Hebrew word is pronounced, ''gofer'' -- it's not related to the furry critter), probably the best kind since the ark has to withstand waves after waves of tsunami for a long time and a tragically, all of them were either used up building the Ark or the flood wrecked the rest.

Then the rain lasted 40 days and the resulting flood killed everyone except those on the ark. They basically float and live on their stockpiles for nearly a year until the water goes down. They disembark, and Noah makes a burnt sacrifice to thank God for sparing them and God makes a covenant to never again use a flood to destroy the world (either creating rainbows to serve as a reminder of this, or making the rainbow represent this).
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==== Moses and the Exodus of the Hebrews ====
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Another myth took place in Egypt. There once lived the Israelite (later the Jewish) people, the chosen people of God. They had come to reside in Egypt after a renowned ancestor Joseph helped Egypt survive a major famine, and were living in peaceful harmony until one day some asshole [[Tomb Kings|Pharaoh]] came and starts to oppress the shit out of them. The Pharaoh hated how the Hebrews bred like rats and got paranoid that they '''might''' ally with Egypt's enemies, so he ordered [[grimdark|every one of their male babies thrown in the river of Nile to either drown or get eaten by wildlife]]. Moses, our hero of the story survived as an infant and was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter (oh the irony). Moses eventually grow up and learn of God '''Yahweh''' and is commanded to free his people and guide them on an exodus to the promised land. Pharaoh and his army tried to stop them but God basically said fuck you and send [[Nurgle|twelve powerful plagues]] to fucked them over; it could've ended sooner if he just let them go, but the Pharaoh was [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|stupidly stubborn and always tried to tweak the deal to his advantage]]. [[Nagash|The plagues were so effective that Egypt became a frigging wasteland, and even then Scripture states God was pulling His punches - but no undead unfortunately]]. The Pharaoh was pretty quick to let the Israelites go after the last one. Later, Moses guided his people to close to the red sea where he do the iconic sea splitting to make a crossing passage. The Pharaoh and his goons tried to take chase but was once again pwned by the sudden sea crushing them from both sides when they were on the sea.

After traveling with his fellow Hebrews, Moses was called to Mount Sinai by God, who gave him the '''Ten Commandments''': ten rules willed by God as the foundation of Jewish law and the worship of God. Later on other rules were given, and then sometimes God gave direct orders (e.g. commands to commit [[exterminatus|genocide]] on the entire cities of man, woman, children and animals for failing to worship God, though those nations were also at war with the Hebrews some sources cite that it was also punishment for the practices of those religions, which were said to include [[Khorne|human sacrifice]] and [[Slaanesh|ritual prostitution where they weren't picky about the participants age, gender, species...]]).

While he was up there, the Israelites believed he would never come back and had built an idol of a golden calf that they claimed as their new god. When Moses returned, he was enraged and had the calf ground to powder, which was scattered into water and force-fed to the Israelites, which were then struck with a plague as a punishment for their idolatry. Moses and his followers arrived to their promised land after a delay of 40 years due to the Israelites' incessant disbelief in God despite all he'd done, which is, unsurprisingly, Israel! The Israelites then spend a long chunk of their history trying to kill off the native Caananites who weren't big on peaceful co-existence, all while being repeatedly punished for continually abandoning God's worship in favor of false idols in what can only be called a stunning inability to learn from experience.

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====Things drawn from Abrahamic Myth / Demonology ====
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The "bibles" ''(Jewish, Christian and Islamic holy books)'' and associated apocrypha are undoubtedly HUGE sources of inspiration for game developers, particularly [[Dungeons and Dragons]] where monsters are ported over, virtually unchanged and names of significant figures are also often used.

*The idea that Hell has Nine layers - [[Baator]] - though where Dante's layers have distinct punishments, Baator's layers are the realms of powerful lords.
**Names of significant demon/devil characters: [[Asmodeus]] - demon of Lust, '''Baalzebul''' ''(or other variants like Baalzebul, Beelzebub)'' - demon of gluttony, or '''Mammon''' - demon of avarice
*Different orders of Angels, or angel analogues such as [[Genie]]s (or djinn, as they were originally called in Islamic tradition)
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==== Gnosticism ====
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A wide family of heretical beliefs mixing Abrahamic theology with Greek philosophy, Gnosticism believes in the existence of two gods; the true omnipotent God of the spiritual world and the Demiurge, the false god who created the Earth. Seeing as the world was created by a flawed creator, it is inherently flawed itself, so your goal ought to be to transcend the physical plane and escape to the perfect world of the spirit. Typically the Demiurge was identified with the god of the Old Testament, while the true god was seen as the one preached by Jesus, in an attempt to explain the apparent dissonance between their depictions. Where Satan fits into the picture depends on the exact sect, some portraying him as a force of liberty that seeks to free mankind from the tyranny of the Demiurge while others see him as seeking to further mankind's imprisonment by distracting them from spiritual matters with his temptations. Often associated with the western occult tradition of Hermeticism, also a mixture of Abrahamic and Greek traditions, though not all Hermetics are necessary Gnostics. There were countless different sects of Gnosticism, and describing the differences between them would likely require its own article.

While Gnosticism is hardly the most well-known religion due to the early Christian Church's ultimately successful efforts in wiping it out and the lack of surviving information on how it was practiced, it has influenced several fantasy settings, like [[Kult]], [[The Elder Scrolls]] and both of the [[World of Darkness]] Mage games.
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===Arthurian Mythology===
The story of a boy who becomes king of England and his knights. Arthurian lore is unusual among mythology in that historians actually know the names and history of the authors who created most of it. This doesn't make it any more consistent, in-fact even authors directly continuing existing stories couldn't be assed to keep basic things consistent. The issue has to do with Arthur's story being used by every ambitious bard to introduce their own [[Original character, do not steal|OC]] Knight of the Round Table and why theirs is the best of the bunch, as well as many of Britain's monarchs adjusting his story for their own political gain.

Of some minor note, the story of King Arthur ''may'' have some sorta kinda basis in reality. If he existed, he was apparently a '''general''', not king, who successfully fought in at least one battle to contain the invading Anglo-Saxons during the era after the collapse of the western Roman Empire. Given many, many washings through the story retelling and expanding machine after being combined with the mythos associated with the Holy Grail, we wind up with the King Arthur mythology.

For the closest thing to an official "canon" for Arthurian literature, it officially begins with Geoffrey Monmouth's ''The History of the Kings of Britain'', with some of the more prominent stories including ''Le Morte D'Arthur,'' ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,'' ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail,'' etc.

(Side note: If you intentionally quote from ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' at the gaming table, you deserve to be punched in the face.)

'''Notable Characters:'''
*Arthur <s>(no shit are you fucking stupid oh my god jesus christ come on its IN THE FUCKIN--)</s>
*The Knights of the Round Table
**Lancelot: The closest of Arthur's companions and the greatest knight of the age, but also infamous for his long affair with Guinevere. Some scholars believe he was not part the original group of knights and actually just a completely separate fictional knight that met Arthur in a crossover and never left.
**Gawain: One of the earliest knights in Arthurian mythos, representing Wales. He typically gets shit on by the newer, fancier knights, but really comes into his own during his duel with the Green Knight.
**Galahad: Lancelot's son. [[Grey Knights|Absolutely pure of heart]], and the only one able to sit in the lethal chair at the Round Table known as "The Siege Perilous." For this he is able to complete the quest for the Holy Grail. After finding it, he ascends into Heaven along with the Grail.
**Percival: The Knight who was supposed to find the grail before Galahad appeared. In his version of the story, he finds the grail is kept by the Fisher King, ruler of a wasteland that can only be healed by Percival becoming the new king. In later versions, Percival is unsuccessful in healing the land, allowing Galahad to take over.
**Kay: Arthur's [[Gish]] step-brother. One of the earliest written knights, but nobody remembers him. Kay was a guy's name once upon a time.
**Tristan: Similar to Lancelot, it's assumed he was integrated into Arthurian mythos, but unlike him Tristan had an existing legend attached to him. In it, he was sent by his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, to bring back the maiden Isolde for him to marry. A love potion mishap caused Tristan and Isolde to fall in love with each other instead, and the tragic love affair that followed cost them their lives.
**Bedivere: The Knight who returned Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake after Arthur's death.
**Mordred: Most commonly depicted as Arthur's bastard son with his half-sister (who may or may not be Morgan le Fay depending on the story) or possibly his aunt, but like a lot of things in Arthur Mythos his background is inconsistent as hell. The most consistent part is that he starts a rebellion against Arthur, and in their final battle he mortally wounds Arthur but is killed himself.
*Merlin: Arthur's wizard and mentor, as well as the template for almost every other wizard in fantasy fiction since the genre was a thing. Works vary wildly on how benevolent he is and how he got his powers. Originally named Myrddin, but that sounded too close to "shit" for audiences that knew French, which was a lot of people at the time, so it was changed. Since having a super OP wizard as a buddy would make things too easy for Arthur, some stories have him trapped by Morgan's apprentice Vivian or the Lady of the Lake so that Merlin can't warn Arthur of his impending doom.
*Morgan le Fay: Merlin's opposite number. Sometimes Arthur's half-sister because fuck consistency. Depending on the story, she is either an ally or an enemy of Arthur.
*Guinevere: Arthur's wife. Falls for Lancelot shortly after they meet, and somehow their affair goes unnoticed until exposed by Morgan le Fay and Mordred.
*Lady of the Lake: A fey chick who gives Arthur Excalibur after the sword in the stone breaks. Since most adaptations make the sword in the stone and Excalibur one in the same her role varies wildly. Sometimes said to be Lancelot's adoptive mother.
*The Green Knight: Shows up to the castle one day and challenges each knight to chop his head off with an axe, on the condition he gets to do the same thing to them next year. Nobody is willing to accept the challenge... except Gawain. Gawain beheads the Green Knight [[Dullahan|only for him to pick the head right back up and walk away]], reminding Gawain of their deal. Gawain survives thanks to the the Green Girdle and learns the whole thing really was a test of the knights' courage by Morgan. If this sounds uncharacteristically consistent to you, it's because he only appeared in one story, albeit a well regarded one.
*The Black Knight: There's a few different ones, or it could just be another case of zero consistency. (It should be noted that knights with black armor were actual semi-historical figures; blackening up your armor made it vastly easier to maintain for a solo knight without a squire, so a Knight without a liege sometimes did so while either seeking new employment, or just plain wandering; alternately, the knight painted up his armor and shield to conceal his identity. Either way, you have a knight without a master, a worrying prospect to the feudal mind.)
*The Fisher King: Usually only shows up in Holy Grail-related stories; in some versions, as he suffers, so does the land, and vice versa, and in others, he's just a protector of the Grail who was wounded by it for some sin (usually, adultery or getting married in the first place), and the wound also in some way renders the land barren (and thus, needing to fish in order to get food, thus, "''Fisher'' King"). In the latter case, he's associated with a "Healing Question", a question that when asked of him will heal his wounds, which varies from version to version (the two most famous are "Who serves the Grail?", and "Why are you so wounded?").
*Very few adaptions use the Anglo-Saxons, the people who the earliest chronicles claim he fought against.

'''Notable Artefacts:'''
Arthurian myth has some of the highest artifact density out there. Among the most famous are:
*The Holy Grail: Has some connections to the life of Jesus, see above. Short version is that it grants immortality.
*The Sword in The Stone and/or Excalibur: The legendary sword which acts as Arthur's badge of office. In some versions of the myth they are the same sword, others not; some versions even name the other sword "Caliburn" (which is just a translation of the French "Excalibur" to Latin) The scabbard in particular protects Arthur from all wounds; for this reason, Morgan steals the Scabbard to weaken him.
*The Green Girdle: Obtained by Sir Gawain in ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''. A girdle of green silk, none who wear it can be killed.
*The Round Table itself: Most works just make the round table a mundane table, but a few give it magical powers of some kind. The symbolic importance is that all knights are considered equal to each other as it lacks any ends for a head to claim. One seat, the Siege Perilous, kills all unworthy knight who would sit on it; only the one who will find the Holy Grail may sit in it.

===Chinese Mythology===
Since China lived right next to various, heavily religious nations countries like India and Tibet, their mythology contains many gods from Buddhism, although the ancient Chinese tended more towards Taoism as a general rule. Chinese mythology is pretty well known and famous in Asia and one of its most famous myths, "The Journey to the West", brought forth near-endless adaptations, including everyone's [[anime|favorite anime/manga about a certain half-monkey xeno super fighter]].
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==== World Creation according to Chinese Mythology ====
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The Chinese mythos displays a heavy Taoist belief influenced by the Zhou Dynasty that passed it down from generation to generation until the Three Kingdoms era, where one Xu Zheng finally committed the story to paper. Basically, there is but formless [[Chaos]] in the beginning and it coalesced into a cosmic egg for about 18,000 years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of Yin and Yang became balanced, and Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. Pangu was a [[anime|Tengan Toppa]]-sized sky titan and a hairy primitive humanoid; he would separate the yin and yang (earth and sky) by lifting up the sky and holding it for the next 18,000 frigging years (because fuck you Atlas, you derivative hack). While doing his lifting, both the sky and earth grew ten feet (3 meters) everyday.

Pangu finally died at the end of this period, with the world forming from several of his remains: His breath became the wind, mist and clouds; his voice, thunder; his left eye, the sun; his right eye, the moon; his head, the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood, rivers; his muscles, fertile land; his facial hair, the stars and Milky Way; his fur, bushes and forests; his bones, valuable minerals; his bone marrow, sacred diamonds; his sweat, rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became animals. Kinda similar to [[#Norse|Ymir the giant]], except he wasn't murdered and it wasn't metal enough that the blood became killer tsunamis.
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==== Nüwa ====
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An ancient goddess named Nüwa was the one who created humanity out of clay. Men that were molded by her in yellow clay became the top dog of their society, just because they were molded by her hand - the rest of humankind were made out of mud for mass production and were thus [[peasants]]. [[Skub|(Whether it was ancient Chinese propaganda to let everyone know their place is up to the reader's interpretation)]]. As she was busy creating humans, the pillar holding the sky broke, so she had to fix it herself using a giant azure turtle's shell as water container and its legs as a new set of pillars. There's also another version where she is depicted as the Chinese version of Eve, as well as the daughter of the Jade Emperor, the first god. Her husband Fuxi taught humans how to hunt and fish and gave them the first system of writing.
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==== Xiyou Ji (Journey To The West) ====
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Xiyou Ji (or ''Journey To the West'') is an important historical Chinese fantasy adventure novel about a journey undertaken to India by a Chinese Buddhist monk, known as Tang Sanzang/Xuanzang or Tripitaka, to get better copies of the Buddhist sacred texts. In this, he has recruited four protectors throughout the journey who agree to help him in atonement for their various sins; two guys nobody cares about: a disgraced commander from heaven named Zhu Bajie, who was punished by the gods into a pig like beastman (who ''everyone'' calls an idiot, even ''the narrator'') and Sha Wujing, a random sand bandit who was also from heaven and was banished (the black sheep of the party); a horse (who was secretly the dragon king's son, also disgraced); and the ''real'' protagonist, [[Sun Wukong]], the Monkey King (see his page for more backstory and details).

They proceed to set off on a journey where they learn the virtues and teachings of Buddhism and encounter a lot of interesting folks and weird episodes (such as monsters who wanted Xuanzang's flesh for immortality and power) along the way, many of which you might recognize if you're a fan of Japanese or Chinese-themed fantasy works.

But did they succeed in the end? After a long and approximately 9 to 14 years of pilgrimage, they finally reach the borderlands of India. They then traveled to the mythical place known as the Griddharaj Parvat(Vulture Peak) where Sanzang received the scripture from living Buddha. Afterwards, the gang received their own reward from the heaven, where they have ascended to Buddhahood.
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====The Twelve Zodiac====
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In the ancient China, there is this "Twelve Earthly Branches" that the ancient chinese used to identify dates and time. However, it's origin wasn't clear but it was explained in a humorous manner and replaced with the twelve animal instead. You see a long ago, the Jade Emperor decided to host a race to see which animal would be worthy for the calendar years. The race is special because the animals will have to cross a river to prove their resolves.

The first three animals mentioned in the story are the Rat, Ox and Cat. Since both the Rat and the Cat are bad at swimming, they decided to ride on the Ox's back. The Ox was easy going and just let them have the free trip. Just before they reach the finish line, [[Skaven|the Rat backstabbed the Cat by pushing it into the river and went for the 1st place itself]]. Because of that, Rat became the 1st in the race with Ox being the 2nd. The Tiger got the 3rd place, the reason being it was pushed back by the downstream currents despite being strong and powerful. The Rabbit got the 4th place after it crossed the river by jumping on the exposed rocks in the water. It almost drowned if it weren't for a drifting log that washed it to shore. The frigging dragon (the slender Chinese type) takes the 5th place after that. Despite it being celestial and all powerful, it explained to Jade Emps that it had to stop by a village to save the people there from a housefire. Then on the way, it found the Rabbit helplessly clinging onto the drifting log that the Dragon gives a boost with just one breath. The Horse steadily appeared with galloping sound from a far, but was frightened by the sudden appearance of The Snake, which ended up giving Snake the 6th place with the Horse being the 7th. The Goat, the Monkey and the Rooster gets the 8th, 9th and 10th place in order after they please the Jade Emps with some good teamwork crossing the river. The Rooster found the raft with The Monkey and The Goat pulling the raft. The Dog ended up being the 11th place despite being the best swimmer and runner, simply because it was playing in the water the whole time. The lazy Pig ended up being the 12th and final place despite it eating and sleeping in the middle of the race. The Cat that was drowned did not make into the race and it is the reason why it hates rats so much, as well as suffering aquaphobia because of that.
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===Egyptian Mythology===
Most well known for its collection of gods with [[Furry|the heads of animals]]. Unlike Greek or Norse mythology, has very little emphasis on mortal or demimortal heroes.

Egyptian mythology is wildly inconsistent due to spanning numerous cultures over thousands of years: for instance, the world is alternately said to have been created by Ra, Atem, Ptah, Thoth, or a collection of eight gods known as the Ogdoad. Whoever was the supreme god mainly depended on what city you were in and what time period it was, but the most well-known one was the sun god Ra. A common theme was the maintaining of a divine order known as Ma'at. Maintaining Ma'at on Earth was seen as the prime responsibility of the Pharoah, a priest-king who was seen as the bridge between mortals and gods. Another major theme is the concept of the death and rebirth of mortals and gods alike, leading to the famous Egyptian practices of [[Mummy|mummification]] and the construction of elaborate tombs. In total the Eyptian pantheon had thousands of gods (and that's not counting the dvine aspects attributed to Pharaohs), some of the most notable of them are discussed below.

'''Notable Gods:'''
*Ra: Falcon-headed (although he was also often depicted as a ram or a scarab) god of the sun. During the night, he voyaged through the underworld where he would battle the monstrous serpent Apophis. Also known as Khephri or Atum (among other names), depending on the time of day- it is said he was Khephri in the morning, Ra at noon, and Atum at night.
*Osiris: Formerly the god-king of Egypt, he was murdered and cut to pieces by his brother Set and became the god of the afterlife. Was resurrected by his sister Isis and they conceived Horus... then Set killed him again. Due to the Egyptian obsession with funerary rites, this made him a very important god.
*Isis: Sister/wife of Osiris and goddess of magic and wisdom. Her sorcery was what allowed Osiris to rise from the dead to become god of the afterlife. Her influence was particularly strong during the Roman Empire, and some scholars believe that elements of her worship may have influenced Christianity by way of the veneration of the Virgin Mary.
*Horus (no, not that [[Horus]]): Falcon-headed sky god and son of Osiris and Isis. Waged war against Set to avenge his father, which included humiliating him by [[/d/|ejaculating in his salad]]. Ended up taking his father's job, and so became the patron of the pharoahs. He is heavily associated with the symbol known as the Eye of Horus, which was believed to protect against evil.
*Anubis: Psychopomp deity that oversaw the Weighing of the Heart. Although in actual Egyptian mythology he was only Osiris' servant, his striking jackal-headed appearance has made him more well-known.
*Set: God of deserts, who due to being associated with foreign invaders was demonized into an evil god who murdered Osiris (most myths tell about him doing so out of jealousy, while in some he murdered Osiris for sleeping, and even some raping, Set's wife Nepthys). Wasn't the ultimate villain of Egyptian Mythology, that would be Apophis (who was so evil Set was portrayed as fighting him even after being demonized), but Apophis is nowhere near as infamous.
*Apophis: Essentially, the God of Evil and Darkness. Enemy of all living things, and the sort of guy who picks a fight with Ra each and every night, even though he loses every time. While others gods are depicted as humanoid, Apophis, also called Apep, was depicted as a snake or sometimes a crocodile. Trivia; the Ancient Egyptians believed that depicting Apophis gave him power, so to counteract this whenever they drew him, they'd draw him being beaten in a fight by another god.

===Greco-Roman Mythology===
[[:Category:Greek Mythology|The stuff introduced in Greek myth]] is pretty widespread. Some of it is so widely used people forget it came from the Greeks in the first place.

Interestingly, [[Eldar]] and [[High Elves|Elves]] [[Dark Elves|of the]] [[Wood Elves|Warhammer]] worlds took a lot of elements from Indo-European myth, the prime examples of the west being Greco-Roman mythology.

'''Notable Locations:'''
*Mt. Olympus: The home of the gods, notably Zeus. This place is where the gods look down on mortals while discussing how their mortal champions are going to shank their rival gods' champions.
*Tartarus: Named after one of the primordial gods, it is the deepest abyss, deeper than Hade's underworld. It imprisons the most wicked of criminals along with the titans.
*[[Atlantis]]: Legendary sea kingdom. Pissed off the gods with their expansionist behaviors and got dunked into the ocean. Technically not part of the mythology, but since Plato was the first one to write it down we're putting it here anyway.

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:'''
*Zeus/Jupiter (in his more positive depictions): King of the gods and big good of the pantheon, being a fair judge and ruler of gods and men. If there's any work of fiction with a pantheon of deities, expect one of them to be patterned after Zeus. This guy ''fucks''.
*Hercules/Heracles: The most famous of Zeus' misbegotten sons, Hercules is a demigod who undergoes twelve great labors to atone for killing his family in a berserk rage, slaying many monsters and ultimately saving the gods from an attack by the giants.
*Theseus: Reputed to be the son of Poseidon and the slayer of the Minotaur, he was also credited with the rise of Athens.
*Perseus: Another of Zeus's bastards, and the ancestor of Hercules no less. Famous for slaying Medusa.
*Daedalus: A masterful inventor whose name became synonymous with master craftsmen. Most famously responsible for creating the Labyrinth for [[Minotaur|King Minos' beast]] before being locked up himself.
*The leaders of both sides of the Trojan War (Achilles, Hector, Paris etc.).

'''Most notable villains in media adaptions:'''
*Zeus (in his more negative depictions): Zeus is also known as a serial philanderer/rapist, having slept with plenty of mortal women, nymphs, and goddesses just because he could (and sometimes doing so while shapeshifted into another form: among others, he's been a goose, a bull, and a shower of gold, don't ask how the last one works) and has created as many problems as he has solutions. One could also cast Zeus as being dickish and a control freak as the ultimate authority of Olympus, like when he had Prometheus bound and tortured for giving fire to humanity.
*Hades: A rather glaring case of typecasting, despite being the god of the dead Hades isn't actually as much of a villain as popular media casts him. In truth he's a rather decent fellow, if a bit on the gloomy side. Perhaps the most glaring of crimes he's done is the matter of kidnapping Demeter's daughter Persephone to make her his wife (causing Demeter to plunge the world into famine until it was arranged for Persephone to come out of the Underworld for half the year, creating the seasons in the process), but compared to Zeus he's still a shining beacon of virtue in that respect. He gets even better if you consider that in some tellings she willingly came with him.
*Hera: Only in works involving Zeus' bastards, since she tended to be ''just a little bit annoyed'' at her husband's constant infidelity and was prone to taking her jealous rage out on whoever was unlucky enough to catch his eye at the time as well as his illegitimate progeny.
*The Titans: See below as to why they hate the gods. They tend to be quite cross about it, and eager for revenge.
*Ares: God of War, who constantly feeds upon it. Thus, any matter of peace is bound to be disrupted.
*The various offspring of Echidna: Echidna is a monstrous [[lamia]] goddess who is known to have birthed many monsters, chief among them Cerberus (guardian to the gates of Hades), the Lernian [[Hydra]], and the Nemean Lion (which Hercules slays)

'''Artifacts that tend to show up in media adaptions:'''
*Pandora's box
*Daedalus's inventions (especially the wings of Icarus): Probably the first man-powered flying machine, though it was entirely made of wax. Daedalus made it so that his son Icarus could escape their prison, but Icarus flew too close to the sun in his hubris, causing the wings to melt and him to fall to his death.
*The sun chariot of Helios
*Pelt of the Nemean Lion: The first of Heracles' labors was to kill the Nemean Lion, a beast with an impenetrable hide. After finding this out, Heracles manages to do it in by strangling the beast. Heracles then tries to skin it, only to fail until Athena informs him to use the lion's own claws. The hide retains its invulnerability to most weapons.
*Ambrosia: The food of the gods, capable of preserving their powers like Iduna's golden apples.
*Talos: a ROBOT. That's right, a frigging bronze robot made by Hephaestus to protect Crete where it circles three times a day and crush invader ships with boulders. Was defeated by Jason's gang when Medea distract him while having its nail removed by her teammates, which pour out the ichors inside and killed it.
*All sorts of stuff used by the gods (Zeus's thunderbolts, Hades's helmet of invisibility, Neptune's trident, Hermes's winged sandals, Athena's shield -- sometimes with [[Medusa]]'s head on it...).

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==== The Greco-Roman Gods & Creation Myth ====
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There's a god for every aspect of ordinary life, like smithing, governing and war. This makes naming the entire pantheon quite lengthy (though we neckbeards might see it as a good challenge), so we won't bore you with the entire mess. The following is a list of important gods/goddess, especially ones pertinent to [[/tg/]] interests (such as [[D&D]]):
*'''Jupiter/Zeus''', the guy with the lightning bolts who is the king of the gods.
*'''Juno/Hera''', wife of Zeus and goddess of marriage, childbirth, and women.
*'''Minerva/Athena''', goddess of wisdom and war born from Jupiter having a massive headache [[Sisters of Battle|fully grown up and armed]].
*'''Pluto/Hades''', Jupiter's eldest brother and the god of most of the Greco-Roman afterlife.
*'''Neptune/Poseidon''', Jupiter's other brother and the god of the seas.
*'''Apollo''', god of the sun, music, and archery.
*'''Diana/Artemis''', goddess of the moon and the hunt.
*'''Ceres/Demeter''', goddess of the harvest.
*'''Mercury/Hermes''', messenger of the gods.
*'''Venus/Aphrodite''', goddess of sex and love.
*'''Mars/Ares''', god of war.
*'''Vulcan/Hephasteus''', god of the forge.
*'''Vesta/Hestia''', goddess of the hearth.
*'''Bacchus/Dionysus''', god of wine and drunken revelry.

According to Greek myth, the first beings to come into existence were '''Gaia''' (the Earth) and '''Uranus''' (the sky). They had three sets of children: the Cyclopses, the Hecatonchires (giants with a hundred hands), and the Titans. Uranus imprisoned the first two in Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld. This upset Gaia and she called upon the Titans to [[FATAL|castrate their father with a flint scythe she had made]]. '''Saturn/Kronos/Cronus''', the youngest of their number, agreed and duly carried it out, becoming the new king of the world. However, Uranus warned Cronus that he too would be overthrown by his children.

Cronus sought to avoid this, so he [[Cannibalism|ate each one of them as a new one is born]] from his wife Rhea, but Rhea hid Zeus and fooled Cronus into eating a rock. Zeus then grows up and tricks his father into drinking wine mixed with mustard which makes him puke, saving all his brothers and sisters inside his father's belly (and who were somehow undigested), thus igniting a war that leads to the overthrow of the Titans. This event is known as '''The Titanomachy''' (Battle of the Titans). After all the Titans had been imprisoned in Tartarus and the Cyclopses and Hecatonchires freed, Zeus formed a government with the rest of his gods while living a [[Slaanesh|comfy hedonist life where he raped many mortal girls and had many bastard sons for the lulz]].

Roman myth can't agree on anything, because, unlike Grecian legends, it isn't racist and isolationist as fuck and takes from all Indo-European religions it encountered. This also means that it deviates from the "twelve important gods" rule that the Greeks had, and every area and time period had its own important gods. Imagine it as something akin to ancient Hinduism, minus all the mysticism (at least until all the Egyptian-esque mystery cults started popping up at the dawn of the Empire) and with the occasional emperor being declared a god after his death.
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===Hindu Mythology===
India is a big place with millennia of history, so it has a lot of deities; dominant sects frequently absorbed deities from competing sects into their mythos as aspects of their own favored deity, so many of those once distinct deities have coalesced together over the centuries. The Puranic period saw a deliberate effort to harmonize rival sects together, which gave rise to the Trimurti ("Three Forms"); this is the subset of the Hindu pantheon that is most well known in the Western world. It is also the subset of Hinduism which formed the mythological backbone of two popular [[RPG]] games: ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' and ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]''. The three cyclical concepts underlying the Trimurti are Creation, Preservation, and Destruction, with a particular deity filling each role as the divine manifestation of that concept, with deities differing by sect. When the roles are filled by goddesses (''devi'') the triad is known as the ''Tridevi''. In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' the Trimurti are known as the '''''Triat''''', in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' the Trimurti are known as the three '''''Primordia''''', and ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' uses an atheist version of the concepts called the '''''Metaphysic Trinity'''''. The [[grimdark]] spin that [[White Wolf]] puts on the Triat is that the three deities are embroiled in a vicious theomachy against each other, and have all fallen from grace and have become corrupted extremist versions of themselves.

Reincarnation also plays a big role in Hinduism- humans accumulate karma based on their actions in life, with good deeds granting good karma and bad deeds granting bad karma. One's karma then determines what your soul will be reborn as (human, animal, even a god or demon) in the process of ''samsara''. Ultimately, Hindus seek to rid themselves of karma entirely, both good and bad, and by doing so escape the cycle of reincarnation.

====Deities of Creation====
'''Brahma the Creator''' is said to be the creator of all things, but apart from that not much is known about him save for his tendency to be a bit too free to grant favors. Unlike Brahma who has no dedicated temples, his feminine counterpart '''Sarasvati the Creatrix''' sees active worship not only in India but in surrounding countries in various permutations, such as in Japan in the form of Benzaiten. In the ''Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes'' supplement from [[TSR]], '''Brahama''' was the ruler of the Hindu pantheon (via conflation with the related Hindu concept of ''[[wikipedia:Brahman|Brahman]]''). In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' the analogous androgynous deity of creation is known as the '''Wyld''', and in ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' the corresponding concept is called '''Dynamicism'''.

====Deities of Preservation====
'''[[Vishnu]] the Preserver''' is one of the two best known Hindu male deities; Vishnu preserves the world from evil and upholds virtue. He is said to have had nine incarnations, or ''avatars'' that have manifested when he was needed along with one which has not yet appeared:
*''[[Matsaya]]'' the fish- Saved humanity from a great flood.
*''[[Kurma]]'' the tortoise- Aided the gods in churning the Ocean of Milk to produce the water of life ''amrita''.
*''[[Varaha]]'' the boar- Pulled the earth out of the sea after it fell in due to the weight of the human race.
*''[[Narasimha]]'' the man-lion- Slew the Asura (demon) lord Hiranyaksha, who had received the boon that he could not be killed "during the day or night, inside or outside, by any weapon, and by man or animal". So instead Narasimha [[rules lawyer|killed him at twilight with his claws as he was stepping through his doorway]], hitting every loophole at once.
*''[[Vamana]]'' the dwarf- When the Asura Mahabali conquered the universe, Vamana won it back through cunning.
*''[[Parashurma]]'' the axe-bearer- Defeated the Kshatriyas when the warrior caste grew prideful and oppressive.
*''[[Rama]]''- Hero of the ''Ramayana'' and prince of the kingdom of Kosala, famed for his war against the Asura king Ravana and his friendship with Hanuman the monkey king.
*''[[Krishna]]''- The most beloved of Vishnu's avatars. Many legends speak of him, but he is best known for his appearance in the ''[[Mahabharata]]'' as the charioteer for the prince Arjuna. Notably, he's popular enough to have inspired sects that claim Vishnu is one of ''his'' avatars and not the other way around. Also the supreme God in the Hare Krishna cult/airport conga line.
*''[[Buddha]]''- Yes, the same one from Buddhism. Needless to say, the Buddhists disagree with that interpretation.
*''[[Kalkin]]''- The "Future Avatar", who will appear upon a white horse and destroy evil forever.

In the goddess-centric denominations of Hinduism in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, the goddess '''Lakshmi the Preservatrix''' (a.k.a. '''[[Vaishnavi]]''') sees more worship than Vishnu. In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' the analogous feminine deity of preservation is known as the '''Weaver''', and in ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' the corresponding concept is called '''Stasis'''.

====Deities of Destruction====
Despite his title, '''Shiva the Destroyer''', the other of the two best known Hindu male deities, was viewed as a benevolent being who clears away the old and corrupt to make way for new creation. He is commonly depicted either as a slayer of demons or as a wise ascetic, and he's also strongly associated with dance (the means by which destruction and creation anew is achieved). In older scripture he was called '''Rudra''', a deification of destructive storms.

In the goddess-centric denominations of Hinduism in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, the goddess '''[[Kali]] the Destructrix''' (a.k.a. '''Parvati''') sees more worship than Shiva. You might recognize the fiercer depictions of Kali from [https://youtube.com/watch?v=R0S8JZ6YO5c that one scene in Indiana Jones where the human sacrifice gets his heart ripped out of his chest].

In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' the analogous masculine deity of destruction is known as the '''Wyrm''', in ''[[Orpheus]]'' the nominally feminine deity of destruction is called Grandmother, in ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' the corresponding concept is called '''Entropy''', and in ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion]]'' it is called, well, '''Oblivion'''.

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==== Hindu Creation Myths ====
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Every sect of Hinduism has its own version of the creation myth in which they somehow spin their own favored deity as the primary agent of creation, even if it is just simply claiming that a well-known name of a creator/creatrix deity is really just an aspect of the adherent's favored deity. Within the collective of Hindu myths of creation and related topics there is a running theme of recurring cycles of creation and destruction of consecutive universes; one iteration of universal creation and destruction is called a ''kalpa''.

Furthermore, every deity is but a single aspect of the ''Brahman'', the transcendent Godhead from which all other things derive from. It cannot be understood directly, but by adhering to one's dharma (their duties in life) and working off karma over many lifetimes a human can attain ''moksha''- freedom from samsara and eternal communion with the Brahman.
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===Japanese Mythology===
Japanese laymen don't really bother separating their religions, taking up whatever is convenient or trendy at a particular phase in their life, and thus the major religions (Shinto, Buddhism), some more minor ones, and various folk heroes exist simultaneously. Rarely touched by non-Japanese works that aren't the pantheon for [[Japan]] analogues.

Japan is rife with it's own mythology, which often is connected to history. The most notable example is the first emperor - Jimmu. He is said to be a descendant of Amaterasu but is also taken as a real ancestor to the Imperial Family (which is why the Emperor was worshiped until the end of WWII); this is the equivalent of the British royal family theoretically dating their lineage from King Arthur, if King Arthur himself were a direct descendant of Jesus Christ.

In present day, all three religions plus a number of new religious movements exist in Japan.
There is a common misconception that most Japanese today are non-religious, largely stemming from cultural differences and the somewhat looser nature of Shinto and Buddhism as compared to Abrahamic faiths when it comes to mass-rituals and worship. Suffice it to say that anywhere from 50-80% of Japanese (depending if one counts Shinto and Buddhism individually or combined) pray and partake in religious rituals.

Japanese have a plethora of their native gods, in fact, ''plethora'' is a bit of an understatement. Shintoism posits that every thing, be it rock, flower or a makeup set has its own ''kami'' or god/spirit, and depending on what one counts, there are up to 1 MILLION (or literally uncountable number) Japanese gods/kami (see also god depiction in [[Exalted]]).

'''Notable Deities/Characters:'''
*'''[[Izanami and Izanagi]]''': See the creation myth.
*'''[[Amaterasu]]''': Goddess of the sun. The Japanese imperial family once claimed descent from her, but stopped doing so after World War II. How the majority to entirety of Japan's people as a whole weren't as well, since far younger people are ancestors of the majority of far larger and less isolationist populations, was never explained.
*'''[[Susano-o]]''': Amaterasu's brother and god of storms. Kicked out of heaven for being an absolute dick (and especially for his last prank on his sister that would've ended fatally for everyone else). While walking the earth he proceeds to kill the Orochi, among other (anti-)heroics, and eventually gets his way back into heaven with the fat loot he finds as well as reconciling with his sister (and giving her a bitchin sword that she would later give to her mortal descendant-turned-eperor of Japan).
*'''[[Fujin]]''' - God of wind and one of the oldest gods, said to have been there when the world was created, often paired with Raijin.
*'''[[Raijin]]''' - God of thunder and lightning, often paired with Fujin. Known for eating people's bellybuttons during stormy nights if someone managed to piss him off.
*'''[[Hachiman]]''' - God of war, formerly god of agriculture until he got bored of it or something. His traditional animal and messenger is, ironically, a dove.
*'''[[Inari Okami]]''' - Gods of foxes and fertility.
*'''[[Okuninushi]]''' - God of nation-building, business, farming and medicine.
*'''[[Omoikane]]''' - God of wisdom and frequent adviser to the gods.
*'''[[Tsukuyomi]]''' - God of the moon. He killed the goddess of food after witnessing how she created it by basically vomiting it from her mouth. After killing her, his sister Amaterasu vowed she would never again face him and thus the sun and the moon never do either.
*'''The [[Orochi]]''': Giant nine-headed snake monster that likes to eat (?) female sacrifices. Susano-O gets it drunk and kills it, then he finds the Kusanagi on its corpse.
*'''[[The Buddhas]]''': While normal Buddhists don't "worship" the Buddha, more Shinto leaning Japanese often do. See Buddhism whenever someone is assed to add it for how it's supposed to go. Siddartha Gautama is the one people talk about when they say "The Buddha", but the completely separate Budai/Laughing Buddha is the main one ignorant Westerners know the visual of.
**'''Various Buddhist demons''': Mostly assholes that tried to stop people from achieving enlightenment. Some are actually former assholes who were redeemed by enlightened people and now act as protectors.
*'''[[The Four Heavenly Kings]]''': Bishamonten, Jikokuten, Zouchouten and Koumokuten, the guardians of the North, East, South and West respectively. Their title is co-opted by everything (no seriously, '''everything''': examples include Hollywood stars, Japanese comedy acts, Chefs, (female) Idol Singers, even foodstuffs like meats and canned goods) with four members in Japanese culture, [https://legendsoflocalization.com/tricky-translations-2-the-four-heavenly-kings/ though westerners may not notice it because the title gets translated a shit ton of ways depending on the context].
*'''[[Yokai]]''': Various mythical monsters. The most famous are the [[Kitsune]], Kamaitachi, [[Tengu]] and (though not always counted as one) [[Oni]].

'''Historical People Shrouded in Myth'''
*Emperor Jimmu: [[God-Emperor of Mankind|THE GOD EMPEROR OF JAPAN]] as well as the first Emperor and the descendants of Goddess Amaterasu. Most of his records were old and depict him as a warrior hero-god character accompanied by Yatagarasu, a three-legged crow and wielding a longbow. He died at the age of 126 and has little to no worshipers in modern-day other than having at least a shrine and grave.
*Abe no Seimei: A court magician who lived between 921 and 1005. Fiction tends to make him an actual wizard.
*Himiko: Queen of Japan around 200 AD. Chinese records make it clear she existed but very little is known about her.
*Masakado: Samurai who led a brief rebellion in 940. He's considered the god of Tokyo. His shrine/grave occupies some of the most expensive real estates in the world, as it is thought that neglecting his shrine will cause his angry spirit to bring disaster upon Tokyo.
** Takiyasha Hime: His daughter. Fiction makes her a sorcerer with a toad [[Familiar]]. Possibly entirely fictional.
*Tomoe Gozen: A female [[Samurai]] that actually fought in battle in 1184.
*Oda Nobunaga: Self-proclaimed "Demon King of the Sixth Heaven" (That's '''''historical fact''''' recorded by a Jesuit missionary who knew him personally). Defacto unifier of Japan, while the dominos he set up were falling, he was murdered by his retainer Akechi Mitsuhide for unknown reasons. His successors conquered the country after he did the hard parts, forming what would become the Tokugawa Shogunate. Since he was ruthless and called himself a demon, it's no mystery why fiction depicts him as a literal one.
*Hattori Hanzo: A general during the late Sengoku era. He's better known for allegedly being a [[ninja]].
*Ishikawa Goemon: Bandit during the late Sengoku era, executed along with his infant son by being boiled alive after a failed assassination attempt on Nobunaga's successor. Reputed to be a Robin Hood-like figure and also allegedly a ninja.

'''Artifacts that tend to show up in media adaptions:'''
*The Imperial regalia (Kusanagi, Magatama and the Yata no Kagami): A sword, mirror, and rosary that are considered the badges of office for the Emperor.
*Katana created by famous swordsmiths
**Muramasa: Swords created by the famous (and real) swordsmith Sengo Muramasa. Allegedly his swords have a taste for blood and are demonic in nature and can't be sheathed if they haven't tasted blood yet.
**Masamune: Even though Masamune lived hundreds of years before Muramasa, their swords are often counterparts in fantasy. In contrast to Muramasa, Masamune's blades are supposedly holy.
**Kotetsu: Nagasone Kotetsu was a quality swordsmith from the Edo period with a really fitting name (虎鉄 or "Tiger Iron"). His works are notable but if they show up in fiction expect them to be inferior to the above two.

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==== Creation Myth ====
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According to the Kojiki, the world (or just Japan because every culture at that time are so close minded that they believe their kingdom is THE entire world) was created by 2 gods: Izanami (the wife) and Izanagi (the husband). There were 5 other gods with difficult to pronounced name like Kotoamatsukami (別天津神, "Separate Heavenly Deities") before them, but they entrust these two with the world's creation because they are genderless and thus unable to procreate the next generation. Izanami and Izanagi belongs to the Kamiyonanayo ("Seven Generations of the Age of the Gods") and they shape the earth with this totally awesome spear called Ame-no-nuboko (天沼矛, "heavenly jeweled spear") and create the islands and land using salt.

They then settled down onto the land they've created and mated. Unfortunately, the first two children they conceived, Hiruko and Awashima, were mutants, so badly deformed that the parents decided to send them on a lone boat trip before their third birthday; Hiruko survived, worked hard and became a god known as Ebisu. Turns out, after confronting their elders about the misfortune, it was Izanami's fault for not acting properly during the mating ritual, causing birth defects and such. After some proper mating, their descendants were born, who would eventually become the modern day Japanese islands (or else the islands were named after them). Izanami then died giving birth to Kagutsuchi, a serpent Human Torch-wannabe that burned his mother upon his birth. Izanagi was angered and eight-pieced him, turning his body into 8 volcanoes; his blood on Izanagi's sword became the sea god Watatsumi and rain god Kuraokami. This also marks the end of the creation.

Izanagi was overwhelmed by grief that he traveled to Yomi ("land of the dead") to see his dead wife. Unfortunaly, Izanami already belonged to Yomi after eating its food. Izanagi refused to leave Izanami in this dark land, and waited there because Izanami agreed to go back if she had some rest, but the worried Izanagi decided to see what's going on with his dead wife by lighting a torch using his magical head comb - unfortunately, he found Izanami was already a maggot-ridden, ghoul-like monster. (Some retellings turn this into an 'Orpheus and Eurydice'-style affair where he [[Derp|looks back just as they reach the end]], cursing Izanami to be trapped.) Izanagi was scared so shitless that he ran away, while Izanami called the Shikome (ugly underworld woman) to chase him. After a long Looney Tunes chase that involves Izanagi's use of his magical hair dress and his urine to stop his pursuers, he eventually returns to the living realm. Izanami curses her husband and claims that she will kill 1,000 people everyday, with Izanagi responding that he will give birth to 1,500.
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===Norse Mythology===
See the [[Norse Mythology]] page.

==Miscellaneous Mythical Figures/Artifacts/Stories That Are Directly /tg/ Relevant==

Although the above are the big hitters of Mythology Adaption in /tg/ stuff, there are a few miscellaneous ones who show up that may be worth mentioning. Here's a couple:

*'''Ariadne''': Per preeminent mythologist Karl Kerényi et al., Ariadne was a Minoan mother goddess of weaving and labyrinths who, upon absorption into Greco-Roman mythology, retained her deific name ''Ariadne'' meaning "Most Holy". In the [[Midgard]] D20 setting the goddess Ariadne also goes by the name ''[[Rava]]'', the Spinner of Fate and the Clockwork Oracle.
*'''Baba Yaga''': Probably the sole character from Russian folklore that most people would recognize. Talking about her in any detail would be overly long, even for this overly long article, so just [[Baba Yaga|read about her on her own article here]].
*'''St. Cuthbert''': [[wikipedia:Cuthbert|Famous English monk and later bishop]]. Somehow wound up in [[Greyhawk]], for much the same reason that [[Murlynd|Clint Eastwood]] did.

==Urban Legend==
The '''Urban Legend''' is another type of myth, specifically one of a modern-day taste and often significantly connected to that country's pop culture. In Japan, many classic myths of Yokai continue to "exist" (see: [[Touhou]]), and some have been modernized to fit with new technology (for example, a cursed cart may become a cursed car). [[Board-tans/x|Creepypastas]] are a common sub-variant. Here are some examples:

*'''Bermuda Triangle''' - A triangular region in the gulf of Mexico with Bermuda island, Pureto Rico and Miami, Florida as its angle point. Reputed to be a place of paranormal activity where ships and aircraft suddenly loses their signal and disappeared, both on air or water. In reality, the Triangle is just one of the most heavily trafficked areas in the world, in a region known for storms and general bad weather; if there weren't several mysterious disappearances (and nautical and aeronautical life had, and occasionally still has, plenty of those), it would be surprising.
**'''Mary Celeste''' - A ship that was found abandoned in 1872 undamaged, with ample provisions, undisturbed cargo and a log dated to ten days prior to it being found. Was actually found well outside of the Bermuda Triangle, but often associated with it. Proposed solutions for what happened range from attempted insurance fraud to equipment malfunction, a waterspout strike and a butane explosion. The "wreck" was acquired by a new owner, who promptly sunk it in a poor attempt at insurance fraud.
**'''The Flying Dutchman''': Associated with the Cape of Good Hope, rather then the Bermuda Triangle, but frequently mentioned in connection with the Triangle as well. The most famous "Ghost ship" other then the ''Mary Celeste''; unlike the ''Celeste'', the ''Dutchman'' was only reported to have been seen, but never boarded. The ''Dutchman'' was supposedly an omen of doom, but given that in order to see a ship that isn't there you'd probably have to be in very poor visibility conditions, this reputation has an obvious explanation.
*'''Bloody Mary''' - It is said to be a malevolent spirit who if you call its name "Bloody Mary" in front of a mirror three times, she will come and do something horrible to you. A pretty stupid game often participate by very small children and idiots.
*'''Cryptids''' - Various creatures of folklore that, other then being fucked up looking, are actually plausible animals of one sort or another. Some have been substantiated, but most are just fake or distorted stories of other, known animals (as is speculated having happened with the [[Unicorn]] and Rhinoceros). Such creatures include:
**'''Bigfoot''' - Also known as Sasquatch. It is a creature of ape and man named after its big foot print on the ground. Its sighting are mostly around the Pacific Northwest.
**'''Chupacabra''' - A small bear size monster who likes to suck a goat's blood dry. First spotted in Puerto Rico, where it killed 8 sheep, it is said that its influcence has spread across Latin America. Allegedly, the idea of the chupacabra was just stolen from the movie Species.
**'''Drop Bear''' - Australian joke: Take a Koala, and pretend it's an ambush predator who kills by jumping on its prey, with a taste for human flesh. While clearly originating as a joke, unlike most "real" cryptids, the concept has been used straight in several contexts in fantasy works. As if Australia's actual dangerous animals weren't enough.
**'''Jackalope''' - A rabbit with antelope horns. Possibly based on sightings of rabbits with Shope papilloma virus, which causes infected hosts to grow horn-like tumors. The most popular version seems to have originated as a 12-year-old taxidermist's idea of a joke.
**'''Jersey Devil''' - Weird monster supposedly lurking in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, thus making it the most interesting thing in the state.
**'''Loch Ness Monster''' - A long necked sea creature that allegedly lives in Loch Ness in the Scottish highlands. Presumably to be Mauisaurus, a pre-historical sea dinosaur who shares the similar long neck appearance.
**'''Mokele-mbembe''' - A weird African swimming beast with reptilian traits. Widely believed to be either a rhinoceros or a hippopotamus (the latter of which are responsible for killing more people per year than any other animal in Africa) though some have claimed it's a rediscovered dinosaur - a sauropod specifically, as numerous descriptions ascribe it a long neck alongside reptilian features.
**'''Mothman''' - There were a bunch of West Virginia sightings of a "Man with Wings". Later got overhyped as having supernatural powers, and associated in some way with a local bridge collapse when writers looking to cash in got involved. Side note: Most descriptions from the early, pre-overhype encounter match a unusually large crane.
**'''Rods/Sky Fish''' - Extraterrestrial lifeforms that move at an unseen speed that can only be caught by camera. [[Skub|It may or may not be real]], since it might be just elongated visual artifacts appearing in photographic images and video recordings. Other insects like moths are mistakenly caught on camera and assumed to be them. It helps that there were no actual dissections of the creatures, and most of the videos about catching it are fake and exist for pure entertainment. In some fiction, e.g. [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]], they are portrayed as vaguely creatures with actual limbs and organs that feed on temperature and have the power to KILL or disable a person by absorbing the body heat from their vitalorgans.
**'''Tsuchinoko''' - Also known as "child of hammer", "child of dirt" or "bachi hebi" in Northeastern Japan, it is a snake that is 30 and 80 cm long, has a thin head and tail, and a wide girth in between. It was referenced in Kojiki (古事記) "Records of Ancient Matters" meaning it might have existed at some point in ancient Japan. [[Skub|Others would argue]] that it could be a type of slug who's features became exaggerated over thousands of years, an exinct snake species or an undiscovered snake species. Whatever the cases, the damn thing is popular in Japan and has been featured in many video games, manga and TV show.
**'''Yeti''' - Like Bigfoot above, but found in the Himalayan mountains.
*'''Grays''' - A stock alien appearance of short, large-headed, large-eyed, generally naked, grey men. Allegedly probe humans, steal cows and make patterns in vegetation while riding around in a saucer shaped spacecraft. Supposedly crashed in Rosswell, New Mexico in 1947, which was covered up by the US Government as a "weather balloon"; more recent declassification suggest it ''was'' a balloon, just an experimental and classified one meant for Cold War era spying and hushed up for fear that the Soviets would learn about it.
**'''Area 51''' - [[Wikipedia:Area 51|An actual military base]] in Nevada that the crashed spacecraft was allegedly taken to. Allegedly home to all sorts of government experiments on the supernatural and/or extraterrestrial. Though the existance of the factual military base existing was always known, the US government didn't officially acknowledge it till 2013. Officially it's used for testing experimental and captured aircraft and thus highly classified. Supposedly, the US government thought that the UFO hysteria was good cover for the then-secret U-2 program, as any spotted aircraft could be explained away by kooks as an alien spacecraft. In 2019, Area 51 mythos took a really weird turn; a million [[weeaboo]]s signed on to [[meme|Storm Area 51]] to "clap some alien cheeks" and "escape with all the alien and [[catgirl]] [[waifu]]s that the government's keeping to themselves." Battle plans included [[Anime|Naruto]] Runners, Chads hyped on Monster Energy Drink, and Anti-Vax Karens. What actually ended up happening was only 200 people showed up to party, though there was a confirmed sighting of at least one Naruto Runner.
**'''Men in Black / Majestic-12''' - Another component that's common to UFO conspiracies is a secret branch of the government dedicated to keeping the public in the dark about the existence of aliens. Some stories of the Men in Black instead suggest they're aliens impersonating human government agents to keep the stories quiet. The urban legend version is significantly scarier and more malevolent than their movie counterparts, but a bit ''less'' malevolent than those in the comics the movies were adapted from. The only known evidence of their existence was long since proven to be a forgery.
*'''Jack the Ripper''' - Also known by the London old media as the "Leather Apron", ol' Jack was a real life serial killer in London during 1[[Khorne|888]]. Since he was never caught and the number of victims can't be verified - five are specifically attributed to him - his identity remains a mystery and he is therefore held as the greatest serial killer. Known for mutilating his victim in the most precise manner and the mocking letters he wrote to the police (which are still held in Scotland Yard). He was even suspected to be a woman, with new nicknames such as "Jill the Ripper" added to the long list of nicknames. Since nothing physical is known about the killer, fiction is free to attribute supernatural origin (such as a possessed human or being a monster outright) or that the killer's vileness resulted in transformation into some kind of monster. Making the killer supernatural allows it to be divorced from its time period.
** Various other uncaught serial killers can get this sort of treatment, but to a much lower degree, with the notable exception of the Zodiac Killer, who shared Jack's media savvy.
* '''D. B. Cooper''' - Short version: Guy Hijacks a commercial airplane, demands $200,000 ($1.28 Million in today's money) and four parashoots, gets them, jumps out of plane over state park, and is never seen again. Long version: [[wikipedia:D. B. Cooper|Wikipedia is your friend]].
* '''John Henry''' - A black manual laborer who raced against his industrialized replacement and won, but died from exhaustion at the end. Even if it was loosely based on a real story, any accounts of a real John Henry existing have been lost to history.
** '''Casey Jones''' - Unlike Henry, Jones was definitely a [[wikipedia:Casey Jones|real life train conductor]] who died saving the lives of his passengers. One of his assistants wrote a song defending Jones' reputation<ref>There was some argument at the time that Jones should have seen the signal indicating a possible collision, but the night was foggy, and both signal lights and signalmen could be unreliable.</ref> that got very popular shortly thereafter, and soon turned into a popular figure around which a mythology developed.
*'''Kiyotaki tunnel''' - A haunted tunnel in Japan said to be built by slaves in 1927. It is said to have an unfortunately length of 444 meter long (4 is a unlucky number in Japan--the word for "4" is a homophone for "death") and it is a famous suicide spot. There were witness who saw the spirit of suicide victim walking towards the tunnel. There are reports where the traffic light outside the tunnel to suddenly change color and cause car accidents. The tunnel made frequent references from horror manga and anime where it was portrayed a tunnel full of tormented spirits, dragging other passing traveler to suffer with them.
*'''Radioactive Deer''' - Although decades have passed since the accident, the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant remains one of the most contaminated places on Earth. Every wildfire or severe storm that hits the area will inevitably spawn several days of doomsday fearmongering from the press about nuclear tornadoes or toxic milk. Some recent horror stories have begun to weave the Slavic legend of Baba Yaga, the monstrous child-eating crone of the woods, into the story of the ruins of Pripyat.
*'''Slender Man''' - a fictional character that originated as an Internet meme created by [[Something Awful]] forums user Victor Surge in 2009. It is depicted as resembling a thin, unnaturally tall man with a blank and usually featureless face and wearing a black suit. The Slender Man is commonly said to stalk, abduct, or traumatize people, particularly children. The Slender Man is not tied to any particular story, but appears in many disparate works of fiction, mostly composed online, with the most famous being a series known as "Marble Hornets". Also famous for inspiring two girls to nearly murder their classmate in order to become his "proxies".

==Popular mythology elements used in Fantasy==
*[[Dwarfs]]
*[[Elves]]
*[[Vampires]]
*[[Werewolves]]
*[[Necromancer|Necromancy]]
*[[Troll]]s
*[[Giant]]s
*[[Minotaur]]
*[[God|Gods/Deities]]
*[[Genie]]
*[[Dragon]]
*[[Orc]]
*[[Monstergirls]]

*More than one [[Superhero]] and Supervillain are based directly on Mythical figures. The most prominent at Marvel are Hercules and Thor, who are both exactly the characters named above, and the Black Knight, who descends from the Arthurian one. On the DC side there's Wonder Woman, an [[Amazon]] who frequently comes into conflict with the Greek gods and other elements of Greek myth.

==See Also==
*[[Yog-Sothothery]] - Mythology created by [[H.P. Lovecraft]] that took elements from other mythologies. Its "deities" are a bunch of alien like tentacle monster that defy laws of physic and drives people insane.

==Footnotes==

[[Category:History]]

Cain

2021-09-21T08:39:55Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:F04E:EC36:9269:4164:

[[File:Cain_Road_Trip.jpeg|300px|thumb|right|Introducing [[Ciaphas Cain|Cain]], [[wikipedia:Legacy of Kain|Kain]], [[Khaine]], [[Diablo|Cain]], [[Kane]] and [[Vampire: The Masquerade|Caine]].]]
'''Cain''' (or Caine, or Kaine, or...) is a popular name for a [[BBEG]] because anyone who is a Jew, Christian, or Muslim or at least raised in a Jewish/Christian/Muslim culture will know the story of Cain and Abel. The original Jewish names are usually pronounced "Qayin" and "Havel," and Muslims call them Qabil and Habil, in case you want your BBEG to be a little less obvious.

Cain and Abel were brothers, the first children of Adam and Eve after they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Cain (the elder and first child) was a gardener, Abel (the younger) a shepherd. They both gathered their harvests to make a sacrifice to the one-and-only God: Cain offered the best of his crops, Abel offered the best of his herd animals. God gave Abel a four-star review in Zaggat's, but Cain's offering didn't even get a writeup in Weekly Sun. In a fit of jealousy over God not favoring his sacrifice, even after God explained to Cain what he should do, Cain invents murder by dis-abling his brother. God is VERY annoyed, tells Cain he's cursed to render the soil barren and lifeless around him, and he's to fuck off and never return. Cain complains this is too much, and whoever finds him out there is gonna do unto him what he did unto Abel. So God marks Cain in such a way that everyone will know messing with Cain will mean God will come around and do even worse to them. So Cain fucks off to the land of Nod and settles down with his wife there, while his parents mourn the loss of Abel and eventually have a third son named Seth. This story is where you get the quote "Am I my brother's keeper?" because God comes around after the murder and asks Cain where Abel is, allowing Cain the opportunity to further compound his crime by trying to lie to God Himself about it. Cain then gets murdered several pages later, but don't expect this to stop writers from having Cain still be walking the earth to this day.

Basically the symbolism of nomadic-to-agrarian bullshit as well as the further decline of man's nature due to sin, but being humans, we made videogames out of that.

== Used in Games ==
* White Wolf's [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] uses the legend of Caine as the origin of their [[vampire]]s; God's banishment from his presence meant banishment from daylight, and the curse of no more farming meant no more eating normal food, instead needing to re-create that first murder to sustain himself.
* [[Warhammer 40,000]] novels have "COMMISSAR [[Ciaphas Cain|CIAPHAS CAIN]], HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!" who is the very <s>worst</s> best [[Commissar]] ever.
* Warhammer 40K also has the [[Eldar]] god of war [[Khaela Mensha Khaine]]. In [[Warhammer Fantasy]], Khaine is the god of murder.
* To add to the 40K, we also have [[Kain]], hero in [[Dawn of War II|Retribution's]] Chaos campaign whose main traits are being good at shutting up and being useful for popping tanks.
* [[Kane]], leader of the Brotherhood of Nod in the ''Command & Conquer'' series. While he is not really ever explicitly said to be the same individual from the namesake story, so many clues things starting with the MANUAL from the very first game help. Like for example, how many people's Interpol files are called #GEN 4:16? Last game reveals he was a stranded alien who killed his brother and guided humanity towards enlightenment to get back to space. Sorta Horus/God Emperor/Antichrist hybrid going on there.
* Kain from the ''Legacy of Kain'' games - A pretty cool guy and the definition of a real sophisticated vampire.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Cain_and_Abel_Super_Smash_Brothers.png
</gallery>

[[Category:World of Darkness]][[Category:Vampire: The Masquerade]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Video Games]]

Mythology

2021-09-21T08:30:14Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:F04E:EC36:9269:4164:

In the olden days, before the scientific method was developed, people sought explanations for why the world exists as it does. Humans being humans, their first explanations revolved around ascribing human-like characteristics to natural phenomena, which in turn became the first gods worshiped by humankind. [[Skub|Depending who you ask]].

From there, stories spread about the nature of the gods. In time, people began telling other stories that sought to explain such thinigs as the origins of the world (cosmogonia), the origins of humankind (antropogonia), what happens after death (eschatology), or the exploits of ancient heroes. Many other mythical creatures are thought to have started the same way - for example, stories of giants being an attempt to explain the existence of massive fossilized bones (which we now know belonged to long-extinct animals such as mammoths). As these stories passed down through generations as either legends or religion, they gave birth to the fantasy genre we all know and love.

In a sense, '''mythology''' is a blend of history and fantasy, with elements of what might have really happened wrapped up in cultural beliefs, and then shaped by the worldview of the societies that created the myths in question. Even in the present day more than a few such myths are still prevalent, despite them no longer being openly supernatural, such as the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. Many other such myths are significantly tied to the culture's religion.

Older myths often contained bizarre and fucked up shit like incest and rape, because people in ye olden times <s>[[Slaanesh|were fucking deranged and kinky as all hell]], and as far as they were concerned, nothing was off limits</s> had very different standards of morality than our own.

Put far less bluntly, several cultures saw their gods as models ''OF'' human behavior rather than FOR human behavior, and as such are not inherent indicators of how [[/d/|"deviant"]] a society was (though it ''also'' doesn't mean they might not have been fucked up in some ways). Naturally, exceptions to this "rule" do exist, e.g. the schools of Buddhism, where the core tenet is to transcend the impermanent nature of existence and break the cycle of death and rebirth thus achieving ''nirvana''; the central figurehead, Buddha, and his teachings are explicitly to be emulated as opposed to worshipping him directly (although some branches of Mahayana Buddhism do consider him divine, it's complicated).

Shifts in mythological narratives can also occur due to cultural osmosis and/or conflict; some "foreign" gods are integrated into local mythos or considered an aspect of a "native" god within the pantheon, while other gods (usually from conquered peoples) were sometimes demonized, [[Demon|often literally so]]; alternately, existing gods may shift in nature and reputation due to either technological shifts, or political ones. With different cultures from country to country, mythologies all had their own angels/demons/spirits/energies, with their moralities varying based on how their own cultures and others perceived them. Natural phenomena (the sun, the sea, storms, etc.) and common abstracts (chaos, order, art, etc.) will inevitably feature in nearly any culture's pantheon.

==Connection with Fantasy Genres==
As you can see, many an author took interest in the old legends and decided to include its elements in their own stories. Notably, Tolkien took many elements from the Norse and Germanic Mythologies and popularized the concept of fantasy races like Dwarfs and Elves.

Between these connections and the fact that some mythologies form the basis for many beliefs, both ancient and modern-day (e.g. the Abrahamic religions), while others often incorporate historical and semi-historical figures (with obvious overlap), the following thus bears mentioning: Many other authors have used existing religions (often including their own) as a basis to inform the mythos or cosmology of their settings; [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] in particular is well known for this, as is C.S. Lewis. Liberties will be taken with adapting such figures directly or creating analogues for a given fiction, the same as it would be with any other adaptation. As such should not be taken as absolution or commentary on the reality of such beliefs unless explicitly intended; even in that event such liberties can only be indicative of the author's own beliefs or lack thereof, which is still a far cry from true spiritual or theological objectivity, regardless of how much (if at all) the author may actually want it to be.

<span style='font-size:150%'>{{BLAM|'''''TL;DR The preceding and following descriptions have no ''necessary'' bearing on the matter of whether or not a given being exists or how much of any Scriptures are true or false.'''''}} [[Skub|That's a matter we'll leave to the reader.]]</span>

For the purposes of this article, we're focused more on '''characters''' (including Deities), '''species''', and '''artifacts''', along with particular '''individual stories''' that get repurposed or directly referenced in RPGs. If you're genuinely curious about religious beliefs and/or specifically how it figures into RPGs, we have the [[religion]] article for that.

==Mythologies==
===Abrahamic Mythology (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)===
The one set of mythology everyone most familiar with in the West and the Middle East, since you learn them in church. Or synagogue, or mosque, you get the idea.

Much of the Abrahamic mythology is drawn from the old Hebrew Bible, though it has been expanded considerably by prose and poetry over the centuries, meaning that there is a wealth of third-party, non-canon material out there for DMs to use in their campaign settings. Christian mythology is one of the many mythologies that were derived from Jewish mythology; the same goes for Islamic mythology and many others from Middle Eastern countries. Hence, they are collectively referred to as "Abrahamic" after the Biblical patriarch.

As Islamic mythology is not commonly depicted for a bunch of reasons (most notably because Islam derives from Jewish and Christian mythology, thus sharing many figures and events, along with Islam having a taboo against depicting religious figures - especially their chief prophet Muhammad - that Muslim extremists have often violently enforced even to this day), this section will primarily cover the Jewish and Christian elements of Abrahamic mythology.

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:'''
*Jesus Christ: Please tell us you're joking. If for some reason you're actually serious and have a few hours to spare, find the nearest church and ask whoever's in charge to tell you about him. He will be happy to give you the full story. Otherwise you can ask a Christian you know or pick up a copy of the Bible - nearly every bookstore stocks them and then there's online copies - and see for yourself. Trivia: "Christ" is not Jesus last name, but is one of Jesus' titles.
*Abraham: The common tie between the three Abrahamic religions, his covenant with God makes him and his descendants the first of the Jews.
*Samson: Legendary hero whose power of super strength was tied to <strike>never cutting his hair</strike> ACKCHYUALLY his power was tied to keeping his covenants with God, it just so happened that cutting his hair was the last one to break and he knew it.
*David: Once killed a mighty warrior with a [[Sling]]. Undertook the worst fetch quest in history when the king demanded he collect 100 Philistine foreskins to marry the princess, then decided to go above and beyond and collect 200. Said father in law was King Saul, who later tried to have David killed numerous times (strong contender for worst parent-in-law ever right here). He became the king of Israel some time later after King Saul's death. Also credited with writing the Biblical Psalms.
*Solomon: David's most famous son, also King of Israel. Better at his job then just about anybody who came after him, and (more relevant to media appearances outside of direct-Biblical-adaption) frequently reputed to be a (usually holy) sorcerer of some kind. Islam further credits him with authority over the djinn.
*Moses: See the Exodus for details. Hollywood is a big fan of this guy, even moreso than Jesus (regardless of how you take the implications), so you have a plethora of big-budget film options with A-list actors to choose from (Charlton Heston, Christian Bale, cartoon with Val Kilmer, etc)
*Noah: See below for his boating adventure.
*A few angels; notably, only two are given names: Michael and Gabriel, as well as Raphael in the Book of Tobit though its canonicity is disputed(there's also an Abbadon (no, not [[Abaddon|the armless retard one]]) in the Book of Revelation, but he's usually considered a Fallen Angel like Lucifer). Also notable and mentioned in the Bible: the Angel of Death, aka The Destroying Angel (no name given Biblically, but the Catholic and most Eastern Orthodox Apocryphas (as well as Jewish tradition, especially the later Kabbalic one), identify him as Azrael).
*God is rarely depicted as a particularly active hero, but may [[Just as planned|work in mysterious ways.]]
*Satan and the demons of Hell (see below) are sometimes depicted as an unpleasant but necessary part of the divine plan (compare to Hades, above), as the ones who punish sinners who escape mortal justice. In the early parts of the Old Testament, Satan is seen as a prosecutor of souls who puts people through spiritual trials to test their faith, rather than tempting people into evil for evil's sake, and to this day we speak of the "Devil's Advocate" who points out flaws in popular people or ideas (the term originates from the Catholic Church, of all places; when someone is considered for sainthood, the Devil's Advocate is specifically appointed to argue against them to hopefully ensure all sides of the story are considered).
** Alternatively, Satan is sometimes portrayed as a hero rebelling against an oppressive divine order. Obviously this is [[extra heresy]] (see also: Gnosticism).

'''Most notable villains with lots of media adaptions:'''
* Satan/Lucifer/The Devil (may or may not be the same character): With the many different interpretations, it's hard to tell which is which, but the general gist is that one angel disagreed with how God was doing business and staged a great rebellion. God cast him and his kin out of heaven and forced them to live in a realm where they are never able to feel his presence, and now he takes his hatred of God out on humanity by leading them into damnation.
** Relevant note: One approach used in various media is to have multiple Hellish factions, each of whom have some claim to the title of Supreme Evil. Usually, they're opposed to one another, and usually represent different kinds or aspects of Evil (e.g., one wants to destroy the world, and is directly opposed by another who wants to tempt and corrupt). Note that the Bible is completely silent about most things about demons, so both "they're all working for one master" and "it's every demon for himself" are plausible readings. The Ars Goetia is often a handy source from which to pull such factions.
* Baal, Moloch, and others: False idols (i.e. pagan gods) worshipped by the Caananites, which the Israelites would repeatedly turn to worshipping despite God punishing them every single time they did so.
* Judas Iscariot: One of Jesus' apostles who sold him out to the Romans, leading to the crucifixion. He hung himself shortly afterwards in a fit of despair. His name became a byword for betraying someone close to you, and is also known for the price he sold Jesus out for (30 pieces of silver).
* [[Cain]]: Adam and Eve's son after being cast out of paradise. Murdered his brother Abel for petty reasons.
* The Pharaoh of the Exodus, known simply as Pharaoh. Popular history assumes it to be Rameses II, although [[wikipedia:Pharaohs_in_the_Bible|historians have been arguing over this for millenia]]<ref>Not helping is the long-held knowledge among scholars that ancient Egyptians were more interested in propaganda than recording their actual history on their public displays, which is a large chunk of what contemporary evidence we have for what happened when.</ref>.
* Sometimes God and/or various angels are depicted negatively, as either being passive in the face of evil or complicit ([[Adeptus Evangelion|or being giant monsters out to destroy the world]]). Naturally, those kinds of interpretations are highly frowned upon for the obvious reason that people still worship God, this can involve in-universe retcons of Scripture, consider God good and do not like it when other people call His actions evil, so naturally this is [[Extra Heresy]] (and blasphemy).
** It should be added that Fallen Angels are a Canonical (as in, actually appear in the New Testament) option to have Evil Angels without making God Himself Evil, although it still runs into the problem of why God made his own angels susceptible to becoming evil in the first place. Note that this is more an early Jewish and Christian motif than a later Jewish or Islamic one, due to changes and differences, respectively, in theology.

'''Non-Biblical figures who show up in media adaptions'''
* Lilith, the fanon first wife of Adam, the first man. It must be emphasized that she '''does not exist in any biblical source''' (other then the first woman being created twice -- but then again, a lot of things happen twice, slightly differently described each time, in Genesis), but that being said, she was reputed to be one of Satan's many wives and a mother of demons.
* The Wandering Jew and Longinus: Because Jesus implied that certain people listening to him speak would be around for the Second Coming (although two obvious alternate readings are that Jesus was talking about his shortly impending Resurrection, or referring to the then-future, but politically easy to foresee, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_War Great Revolt of 66 AD], whose results could easily be seen as something that would be talked about in the same tone as the end of the world at the time), two non-biblical figures show up, starting in medieval works: The Wandering Jew, an Jew of the era, cursed to immortality, and Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus' side with a spear during the Crucifixion, similarly cursed to immortality. Can show up as villains, heroes, or mere cameos. (Both are more likely to show up in literature and RPGs then visual media; Longinus in particular is the identity claimed by an important historical vampire in ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''.)
* Various non-Biblically mentioned Angels.
*[[Djinn]]: Originally an element of pre-Islamic Arabian mythology, they are mentioned in the Quran as spirits born of "smokeless fire". Unlike Islamic angels, they are capable of sin and can go to either Heaven or Hell. The Islamic version of Satan (called Iblis or Shaitan) is said to have originally been a djinn. Over time and several (mis)interpretations, they came to be portrayed as the figures we now know as [[genie]]s.

'''Artifacts that tend to show up in media adaptions:'''
* The Holy Grail: The cup that Christ drank from at the Last Supper and/or a cup used for various purposes during the Crucifixion.
* The True Cross: So named because of the dozens of other crosses falsely passed off as the one Jesus was crucified on--not helped by the fact that the Roman Empire crucified a ''lot'' of people, as Crucifixion was the standard Roman method of execution of non-Romans. Whether it actually ''is'' the cross Jesus was crucified in is another story.
* The Spear of Destiny and various other objects associated with the Crucifixion: In certain media, the Spear of Destiny (which pierced his side during crucifixion), as well as the nails which pinned him to the cross, are considered gifted with magical powers because they have the blood of God on them.
** Other objects from the Crucifixion that can show up in media and are sometimes (but more rarely then the above) assigned supernatural powers include the Crown of Thorns, the 30 pieces of silver payed to Judas, the whip used for the 39 lashes, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Sponge a sponge].
* The Veil of Veronica and/or the Shroud of Turin: These are two relics that purported to be pieces of cloth that were miraculously imprinted with an image of Christ's face after being in contact with him sometime during the crucial four days. The former is lost; the latter is of rather dubious authenticity and is now considered by most scholars to be a forgery made in the Middle Ages.
* The Ark of the Covenant: Where Moses supposedly put the shards of the original Ten Commandments (and possibly Aaron's rod and a pot of manna). Famously disappeared during one of the various times Jerusalem was sacked, and has never been seen since.
* The Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil
* The Fruit of Life.
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
==== Creation Myth ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
So in Abrahamic mythology there is only one god, or at least only one ''true'' god: '''YHVH''', which most people would just refer to him as '''GOD''' since his name is too sacred to speak of and because he is the only god that exists, with all others being false idols and products of human imagination or demonic ruse. In fact, we don't even know how its pronounced (in part because ancient Hebrew is an abjad- a language that only uses consonants in their writing system) the two most common anglicizations being '''Yahweh''' and '''Jehovah'''. Other names and titles that may be used instead of '''YHVH''' include '''Elohim''' (meaning '''God''' or gods), '''Adonai''' (meaning '''Lord'''), '''HaShem''', '''"I AM"''', and '''Father'''. In Islam (and also by Arabic speaking Christians), he is instead called '''Allah'''. And other languages have their own unique words used to refer to him.

Before the world was born, according to Milton, there was the "war in heaven" [[War in Heaven|(not this one)]] where [[Horus|Lucifer]], [[Horus Heresy|the most perfect of God's creations and the best of the archangels, rebelled against God with a third of the angels in Heaven, but was defeated and cast down to Hell]], in which he was imprisoned.

After that, God creates the world. It is said that he created the world in 7 days, hence the seven-day work week we all know and love: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (although those names themselves are drawn from various pagan, Roman, and Norse traditions -- Sun, Moon, Tyr, Woden/Odin, Thor, Frigga/Freya, and Saturn -- because flexibility is important when it comes to winning converts). He then created many animals, plants and the first two humans: Adam and Eve. He observed them in the Garden of Eden ''(aka his research facility)'' watching them having fun and telling them that they could do anything they wanted, except from eat the fruit of one particular tree in the garden. But that promise was broken when the woman, Eve was tempted by a winged serpent - who according to Milton, was actually Lucifer in disguise seeking to avenge himself by corrupting humanity - to eat the fruit, which held within it the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve, having eaten the fruit, gained knowledge and dignity which made them embarrassed by their lack of clothing. God found out and exiled from the garden them to the mortal world. The serpent is also punished, with his wings taken from him, turning him into the [[snek]] we all knew and feared. According to Christianity, this also introduced original sin, fundamentally changing the nature of humankind from natural innocence to inherent wickedness.

In the mortal world, Adam and Eve worked hard to survive and later conceived two sons: Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer while Abel was a shepherd. When they both offered their produce to God, God only favored Abel's. ''(According to some, it was because Cain hid his best offering from God, and others because he gave God leftovers while Abel gave the best; others still say (frequently either looking to blame-shift or suggest that even small evils can lead to larger ones in other people), Abel's overweening pride at being favored provoked what followed. By this point if you are a true [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] fan, you would know what's coming next, but without the vampire shit.)'' Cain killed Abel, and his punishment for murder was to never farm ever again; wherever he spilled his brother's blood, the earth became cursed so that it can never grow anything, putting an end to Cain's favorite job and career. However, punishments differ in other mythologies and it's a clusterfuck, though the 'Mark of Cain' deal is a common point of reference - Cain fears the cold, cruel world will be out to get his marauding criminal ass, so God set a mark on him that made it clear anyone trying to inflict their justice over His own would get it seven times worse.

Adam and Eve later had the third son Seth, who is the true ancestor of mankind, and [[Command and Conquer|Cain is then exiled to the land of the Nod]] where he built the City of Enoch (because he can't farm) and conceived many other descendants. There's also the claim that Eve was not the first wife, but Lilith, a woman who was created from the same dirt as Adam. Felt too hot shit for Adam, so she ran away with an archangel called Samael ''(the Fallen name for Lucifer in some stories)'', though in other stories she ran away a demon prince called Asmodeus ([[Asmodeus|the one this guy was named after]]) and begat a whole race of demons called the Lilim or Lilitu. In [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] however, she taught Cain cool dark magic and shit.

As for the rest, it's easier to find the nearest Bible and/or Koran and read it for yourself. Just don't call it mythology or worse where anyone can hear you, unless you enjoy offending people, want to provoke an argument and don't particularly care about being ostracized or worse, depending on where you do it.
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==== Noah's Ark ====
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Humankind had become incredibly corrupt and sinful (we’re talking [[Fall of the Eldar|birth the Eye of Terror]] levels of debauchery(!) here), so God decided to have the sea level to suddenly rise to the kind you see in disaster movie like [[/tv/|The Day After Tomorrow]] after a 120 year countdown. He instructed the only righteous people on Earth, starting with the family patriarch named Noah to build [[Imperial Navy|an ark big enough to contain the non-aquatic animals of the world as well as his family]], or just each animal species with their own female and male pairing so that they could reproduce. God even instructed Noah to build the ark with the size he demands: 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in width and 30 cubits in height (450 × 75 × 45 ft or 137 × 22.9 × 13.7 m), [[just as planned|it's almost as if God intended this]]. The ark is also made out of some probably extinct wood called "Gopher" (that's just how the Hebrew word is pronounced, ''gofer'' -- it's not related to the furry critter), probably the best kind since the ark has to withstand waves after waves of tsunami for a long time and a tragically, all of them were either used up building the Ark or the flood wrecked the rest.

Then the rain lasted 40 days and the resulting flood killed everyone except those on the ark. They basically float and live on their stockpiles for nearly a year until the water goes down. They disembark, and Noah makes a burnt sacrifice to thank God for sparing them and God makes a covenant to never again use a flood to destroy the world (either creating rainbows to serve as a reminder of this, or making the rainbow represent this).
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==== Moses and the Exodus of the Hebrews ====
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Another myth took place in Egypt. There once lived the Israelite (later the Jewish) people, the chosen people of God. They had come to reside in Egypt after a renowned ancestor Joseph helped Egypt survive a major famine, and were living in peaceful harmony until one day some asshole [[Tomb Kings|Pharaoh]] came and starts to oppress the shit out of them. The Pharaoh hated how the Hebrews bred like rats and got paranoid that they '''might''' ally with Egypt's enemies, so he ordered [[grimdark|every one of their male babies thrown in the river of Nile to either drown or get eaten by wildlife]]. Moses, our hero of the story survived as an infant and was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter (oh the irony). Moses eventually grow up and learn of God '''Yahweh''' and is commanded to free his people and guide them on an exodus to the promised land. Pharaoh and his army tried to stop them but God basically said fuck you and send [[Nurgle|twelve powerful plagues]] to fucked them over; it could've ended sooner if he just let them go, but the Pharaoh was [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|stupidly stubborn and always tried to tweak the deal to his advantage]]. [[Nagash|The plagues were so effective that Egypt became a frigging wasteland, and even then Scripture states God was pulling His punches - but no undead unfortunately]]. The Pharaoh was pretty quick to let the Israelites go after the last one. Later, Moses guided his people to close to the red sea where he do the iconic sea splitting to make a crossing passage. The Pharaoh and his goons tried to take chase but was once again pwned by the sudden sea crushing them from both sides when they were on the sea.

After traveling with his fellow Hebrews, Moses was called to Mount Sinai by God, who gave him the '''Ten Commandments''': ten rules willed by God as the foundation of Jewish law and the worship of God. Later on other rules were given, and then sometimes God gave direct orders (e.g. commands to commit [[exterminatus|genocide]] on the entire cities of man, woman, children and animals for failing to worship God, though those nations were also at war with the Hebrews some sources cite that it was also punishment for the practices of those religions, which were said to include [[Khorne|human sacrifice]] and [[Slaanesh|ritual prostitution where they weren't picky about the participants age, gender, species...]]).

While he was up there, the Israelites believed he would never come back and had built an idol of a golden calf that they claimed as their new god. When Moses returned, he was enraged and had the calf ground to powder, which was scattered into water and force-fed to the Israelites, which were then struck with a plague as a punishment for their idolatry. Moses and his followers arrived to their promised land after a delay of 40 years due to the Israelites' incessant disbelief in God despite all he'd done, which is, unsurprisingly, Israel! The Israelites then spend a long chunk of their history trying to kill off the native Caananites who weren't big on peaceful co-existence, all while being repeatedly punished for continually abandoning God's worship in favor of false idols in what can only be called a stunning inability to learn from experience.

Exodus is the subject of much [[Skub]] because the events in question date to a civilization and era that did a bit of <s>writing</s> ''carving into walls''. Ultimately, the exodus of the Israelite tribes and their conquest of Caanan is probably about as historically accurate as the Iliad; that is it may be VERY loosely based on a real conflict but with a lot of embellishment added over the years until it was written down.
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====Things drawn from Abrahamic Myth / Demonology ====
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The "bibles" ''(Jewish, Christian and Islamic holy books)'' and associated apocrypha are undoubtedly HUGE sources of inspiration for game developers, particularly [[Dungeons and Dragons]] where monsters are ported over, virtually unchanged and names of significant figures are also often used.

*The idea that Hell has Nine layers - [[Baator]] - though where Dante's layers have distinct punishments, Baator's layers are the realms of powerful lords.
**Names of significant demon/devil characters: [[Asmodeus]] - demon of Lust, '''Baalzebul''' ''(or other variants like Baalzebul, Beelzebub)'' - demon of gluttony, or '''Mammon''' - demon of avarice
*Different orders of Angels, or angel analogues such as [[Genie]]s (or djinn, as they were originally called in Islamic tradition)
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==== Gnosticism ====
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A wide family of heretical beliefs mixing Abrahamic theology with Greek philosophy, Gnosticism believes in the existence of two gods; the true omnipotent God of the spiritual world and the Demiurge, the false god who created the Earth. Seeing as the world was created by a flawed creator, it is inherently flawed itself, so your goal ought to be to transcend the physical plane and escape to the perfect world of the spirit. Typically the Demiurge was identified with the god of the Old Testament, while the true god was seen as the one preached by Jesus, in an attempt to explain the apparent dissonance between their depictions. Where Satan fits into the picture depends on the exact sect, some portraying him as a force of liberty that seeks to free mankind from the tyranny of the Demiurge while others see him as seeking to further mankind's imprisonment by distracting them from spiritual matters with his temptations. Often associated with the western occult tradition of Hermeticism, also a mixture of Abrahamic and Greek traditions, though not all Hermetics are necessary Gnostics. There were countless different sects of Gnosticism, and describing the differences between them would likely require its own article.

While Gnosticism is hardly the most well-known religion due to the early Christian Church's ultimately successful efforts in wiping it out and the lack of surviving information on how it was practiced, it has influenced several fantasy settings, like [[Kult]], [[The Elder Scrolls]] and both of the [[World of Darkness]] Mage games.
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===Arthurian Mythology===
The story of a boy who becomes king of England and his knights. Arthurian lore is unusual among mythology in that historians actually know the names and history of the authors who created most of it. This doesn't make it any more consistent, in-fact even authors directly continuing existing stories couldn't be assed to keep basic things consistent. The issue has to do with Arthur's story being used by every ambitious bard to introduce their own [[Original character, do not steal|OC]] Knight of the Round Table and why theirs is the best of the bunch, as well as many of Britain's monarchs adjusting his story for their own political gain.

Of some minor note, the story of King Arthur ''may'' have some sorta kinda basis in reality. If he existed, he was apparently a '''general''', not king, who successfully fought in at least one battle to contain the invading Anglo-Saxons during the era after the collapse of the western Roman Empire. Given many, many washings through the story retelling and expanding machine after being combined with the mythos associated with the Holy Grail, we wind up with the King Arthur mythology.

For the closest thing to an official "canon" for Arthurian literature, it officially begins with Geoffrey Monmouth's ''The History of the Kings of Britain'', with some of the more prominent stories including ''Le Morte D'Arthur,'' ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,'' ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail,'' etc.

(Side note: If you intentionally quote from ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' at the gaming table, you deserve to be punched in the face.)

'''Notable Characters:'''
*Arthur <s>(no shit are you fucking stupid oh my god jesus christ come on its IN THE FUCKIN--)</s>
*The Knights of the Round Table
**Lancelot: The closest of Arthur's companions and the greatest knight of the age, but also infamous for his long affair with Guinevere. Some scholars believe he was not part the original group of knights and actually just a completely separate fictional knight that met Arthur in a crossover and never left.
**Gawain: One of the earliest knights in Arthurian mythos, representing Wales. He typically gets shit on by the newer, fancier knights, but really comes into his own during his duel with the Green Knight.
**Galahad: Lancelot's son. [[Grey Knights|Absolutely pure of heart]], and the only one able to sit in the lethal chair at the Round Table known as "The Siege Perilous." For this he is able to complete the quest for the Holy Grail. After finding it, he ascends into Heaven along with the Grail.
**Percival: The Knight who was supposed to find the grail before Galahad appeared. In his version of the story, he finds the grail is kept by the Fisher King, ruler of a wasteland that can only be healed by Percival becoming the new king. In later versions, Percival is unsuccessful in healing the land, allowing Galahad to take over.
**Kay: Arthur's [[Gish]] step-brother. One of the earliest written knights, but nobody remembers him. Kay was a guy's name once upon a time.
**Tristan: Similar to Lancelot, it's assumed he was integrated into Arthurian mythos, but unlike him Tristan had an existing legend attached to him. In it, he was sent by his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, to bring back the maiden Isolde for him to marry. A love potion mishap caused Tristan and Isolde to fall in love with each other instead, and the tragic love affair that followed cost them their lives.
**Bedivere: The Knight who returned Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake after Arthur's death.
**Mordred: Most commonly depicted as Arthur's bastard son with his half-sister (who may or may not be Morgan le Fay depending on the story) or possibly his aunt, but like a lot of things in Arthur Mythos his background is inconsistent as hell. The most consistent part is that he starts a rebellion against Arthur, and in their final battle he mortally wounds Arthur but is killed himself.
*Merlin: Arthur's wizard and mentor, as well as the template for almost every other wizard in fantasy fiction since the genre was a thing. Works vary wildly on how benevolent he is and how he got his powers. Originally named Myrddin, but that sounded too close to "shit" for audiences that knew French, which was a lot of people at the time, so it was changed. Since having a super OP wizard as a buddy would make things too easy for Arthur, some stories have him trapped by Morgan's apprentice Vivian or the Lady of the Lake so that Merlin can't warn Arthur of his impending doom.
*Morgan le Fay: Merlin's opposite number. Sometimes Arthur's half-sister because fuck consistency. Depending on the story, she is either an ally or an enemy of Arthur.
*Guinevere: Arthur's wife. Falls for Lancelot shortly after they meet, and somehow their affair goes unnoticed until exposed by Morgan le Fay and Mordred.
*Lady of the Lake: A fey chick who gives Arthur Excalibur after the sword in the stone breaks. Since most adaptations make the sword in the stone and Excalibur one in the same her role varies wildly. Sometimes said to be Lancelot's adoptive mother.
*The Green Knight: Shows up to the castle one day and challenges each knight to chop his head off with an axe, on the condition he gets to do the same thing to them next year. Nobody is willing to accept the challenge... except Gawain. Gawain beheads the Green Knight [[Dullahan|only for him to pick the head right back up and walk away]], reminding Gawain of their deal. Gawain survives thanks to the the Green Girdle and learns the whole thing really was a test of the knights' courage by Morgan. If this sounds uncharacteristically consistent to you, it's because he only appeared in one story, albeit a well regarded one.
*The Black Knight: There's a few different ones, or it could just be another case of zero consistency. (It should be noted that knights with black armor were actual semi-historical figures; blackening up your armor made it vastly easier to maintain for a solo knight without a squire, so a Knight without a liege sometimes did so while either seeking new employment, or just plain wandering; alternately, the knight painted up his armor and shield to conceal his identity. Either way, you have a knight without a master, a worrying prospect to the feudal mind.)
*The Fisher King: Usually only shows up in Holy Grail-related stories; in some versions, as he suffers, so does the land, and vice versa, and in others, he's just a protector of the Grail who was wounded by it for some sin (usually, adultery or getting married in the first place), and the wound also in some way renders the land barren (and thus, needing to fish in order to get food, thus, "''Fisher'' King"). In the latter case, he's associated with a "Healing Question", a question that when asked of him will heal his wounds, which varies from version to version (the two most famous are "Who serves the Grail?", and "Why are you so wounded?").
*Very few adaptions use the Anglo-Saxons, the people who the earliest chronicles claim he fought against.

'''Notable Artefacts:'''
Arthurian myth has some of the highest artifact density out there. Among the most famous are:
*The Holy Grail: Has some connections to the life of Jesus, see above. Short version is that it grants immortality.
*The Sword in The Stone and/or Excalibur: The legendary sword which acts as Arthur's badge of office. In some versions of the myth they are the same sword, others not; some versions even name the other sword "Caliburn" (which is just a translation of the French "Excalibur" to Latin) The scabbard in particular protects Arthur from all wounds; for this reason, Morgan steals the Scabbard to weaken him.
*The Green Girdle: Obtained by Sir Gawain in ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''. A girdle of green silk, none who wear it can be killed.
*The Round Table itself: Most works just make the round table a mundane table, but a few give it magical powers of some kind. The symbolic importance is that all knights are considered equal to each other as it lacks any ends for a head to claim. One seat, the Siege Perilous, kills all unworthy knight who would sit on it; only the one who will find the Holy Grail may sit in it.

===Chinese Mythology===
Since China lived right next to various, heavily religious nations countries like India and Tibet, their mythology contains many gods from Buddhism, although the ancient Chinese tended more towards Taoism as a general rule. Chinese mythology is pretty well known and famous in Asia and one of its most famous myths, "The Journey to the West", brought forth near-endless adaptations, including everyone's [[anime|favorite anime/manga about a certain half-monkey xeno super fighter]].
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==== World Creation according to Chinese Mythology ====
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The Chinese mythos displays a heavy Taoist belief influenced by the Zhou Dynasty that passed it down from generation to generation until the Three Kingdoms era, where one Xu Zheng finally committed the story to paper. Basically, there is but formless [[Chaos]] in the beginning and it coalesced into a cosmic egg for about 18,000 years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of Yin and Yang became balanced, and Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. Pangu was a [[anime|Tengan Toppa]]-sized sky titan and a hairy primitive humanoid; he would separate the yin and yang (earth and sky) by lifting up the sky and holding it for the next 18,000 frigging years (because fuck you Atlas, you derivative hack). While doing his lifting, both the sky and earth grew ten feet (3 meters) everyday.

Pangu finally died at the end of this period, with the world forming from several of his remains: His breath became the wind, mist and clouds; his voice, thunder; his left eye, the sun; his right eye, the moon; his head, the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood, rivers; his muscles, fertile land; his facial hair, the stars and Milky Way; his fur, bushes and forests; his bones, valuable minerals; his bone marrow, sacred diamonds; his sweat, rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became animals. Kinda similar to [[#Norse|Ymir the giant]], except he wasn't murdered and it wasn't metal enough that the blood became killer tsunamis.
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==== Nüwa ====
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An ancient goddess named Nüwa was the one who created humanity out of clay. Men that were molded by her in yellow clay became the top dog of their society, just because they were molded by her hand - the rest of humankind were made out of mud for mass production and were thus [[peasants]]. [[Skub|(Whether it was ancient Chinese propaganda to let everyone know their place is up to the reader's interpretation)]]. As she was busy creating humans, the pillar holding the sky broke, so she had to fix it herself using a giant azure turtle's shell as water container and its legs as a new set of pillars. There's also another version where she is depicted as the Chinese version of Eve, as well as the daughter of the Jade Emperor, the first god. Her husband Fuxi taught humans how to hunt and fish and gave them the first system of writing.
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==== Xiyou Ji (Journey To The West) ====
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Xiyou Ji (or ''Journey To the West'') is an important historical Chinese fantasy adventure novel about a journey undertaken to India by a Chinese Buddhist monk, known as Tang Sanzang/Xuanzang or Tripitaka, to get better copies of the Buddhist sacred texts. In this, he has recruited four protectors throughout the journey who agree to help him in atonement for their various sins; two guys nobody cares about: a disgraced commander from heaven named Zhu Bajie, who was punished by the gods into a pig like beastman (who ''everyone'' calls an idiot, even ''the narrator'') and Sha Wujing, a random sand bandit who was also from heaven and was banished (the black sheep of the party); a horse (who was secretly the dragon king's son, also disgraced); and the ''real'' protagonist, [[Sun Wukong]], the Monkey King (see his page for more backstory and details).

They proceed to set off on a journey where they learn the virtues and teachings of Buddhism and encounter a lot of interesting folks and weird episodes (such as monsters who wanted Xuanzang's flesh for immortality and power) along the way, many of which you might recognize if you're a fan of Japanese or Chinese-themed fantasy works.

But did they succeed in the end? After a long and approximately 9 to 14 years of pilgrimage, they finally reach the borderlands of India. They then traveled to the mythical place known as the Griddharaj Parvat(Vulture Peak) where Sanzang received the scripture from living Buddha. Afterwards, the gang received their own reward from the heaven, where they have ascended to Buddhahood.
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====The Twelve Zodiac====
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In the ancient China, there is this "Twelve Earthly Branches" that the ancient chinese used to identify dates and time. However, it's origin wasn't clear but it was explained in a humorous manner and replaced with the twelve animal instead. You see a long ago, the Jade Emperor decided to host a race to see which animal would be worthy for the calendar years. The race is special because the animals will have to cross a river to prove their resolves.

The first three animals mentioned in the story are the Rat, Ox and Cat. Since both the Rat and the Cat are bad at swimming, they decided to ride on the Ox's back. The Ox was easy going and just let them have the free trip. Just before they reach the finish line, [[Skaven|the Rat backstabbed the Cat by pushing it into the river and went for the 1st place itself]]. Because of that, Rat became the 1st in the race with Ox being the 2nd. The Tiger got the 3rd place, the reason being it was pushed back by the downstream currents despite being strong and powerful. The Rabbit got the 4th place after it crossed the river by jumping on the exposed rocks in the water. It almost drowned if it weren't for a drifting log that washed it to shore. The frigging dragon (the slender Chinese type) takes the 5th place after that. Despite it being celestial and all powerful, it explained to Jade Emps that it had to stop by a village to save the people there from a housefire. Then on the way, it found the Rabbit helplessly clinging onto the drifting log that the Dragon gives a boost with just one breath. The Horse steadily appeared with galloping sound from a far, but was frightened by the sudden appearance of The Snake, which ended up giving Snake the 6th place with the Horse being the 7th. The Goat, the Monkey and the Rooster gets the 8th, 9th and 10th place in order after they please the Jade Emps with some good teamwork crossing the river. The Rooster found the raft with The Monkey and The Goat pulling the raft. The Dog ended up being the 11th place despite being the best swimmer and runner, simply because it was playing in the water the whole time. The lazy Pig ended up being the 12th and final place despite it eating and sleeping in the middle of the race. The Cat that was drowned did not make into the race and it is the reason why it hates rats so much, as well as suffering aquaphobia because of that.
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===Egyptian Mythology===
Most well known for its collection of gods with [[Furry|the heads of animals]]. Unlike Greek or Norse mythology, has very little emphasis on mortal or demimortal heroes.

Egyptian mythology is wildly inconsistent due to spanning numerous cultures over thousands of years: for instance, the world is alternately said to have been created by Ra, Atem, Ptah, Thoth, or a collection of eight gods known as the Ogdoad. Whoever was the supreme god mainly depended on what city you were in and what time period it was, but the most well-known one was the sun god Ra. A common theme was the maintaining of a divine order known as Ma'at. Maintaining Ma'at on Earth was seen as the prime responsibility of the Pharoah, a priest-king who was seen as the bridge between mortals and gods. Another major theme is the concept of the death and rebirth of mortals and gods alike, leading to the famous Egyptian practices of [[Mummy|mummification]] and the construction of elaborate tombs. In total the Eyptian pantheon had thousands of gods (and that's not counting the dvine aspects attributed to Pharaohs), some of the most notable of them are discussed below.

'''Notable Gods:'''
*Ra: Falcon-headed (although he was also often depicted as a ram or a scarab) god of the sun. During the night, he voyaged through the underworld where he would battle the monstrous serpent Apophis. Also known as Khephri or Atum (among other names), depending on the time of day- it is said he was Khephri in the morning, Ra at noon, and Atum at night.
*Osiris: Formerly the god-king of Egypt, he was murdered and cut to pieces by his brother Set and became the god of the afterlife. Was resurrected by his sister Isis and they conceived Horus... then Set killed him again. Due to the Egyptian obsession with funerary rites, this made him a very important god.
*Isis: Sister/wife of Osiris and goddess of magic and wisdom. Her sorcery was what allowed Osiris to rise from the dead to become god of the afterlife. Her influence was particularly strong during the Roman Empire, and some scholars believe that elements of her worship may have influenced Christianity by way of the veneration of the Virgin Mary.
*Horus (no, not that [[Horus]]): Falcon-headed sky god and son of Osiris and Isis. Waged war against Set to avenge his father, which included humiliating him by [[/d/|ejaculating in his salad]]. Ended up taking his father's job, and so became the patron of the pharoahs. He is heavily associated with the symbol known as the Eye of Horus, which was believed to protect against evil.
*Anubis: Psychopomp deity that oversaw the Weighing of the Heart. Although in actual Egyptian mythology he was only Osiris' servant, his striking jackal-headed appearance has made him more well-known.
*Set: God of deserts, who due to being associated with foreign invaders was demonized into an evil god who murdered Osiris (most myths tell about him doing so out of jealousy, while in some he murdered Osiris for sleeping, and even some raping, Set's wife Nepthys). Wasn't the ultimate villain of Egyptian Mythology, that would be Apophis (who was so evil Set was portrayed as fighting him even after being demonized), but Apophis is nowhere near as infamous.
*Apophis: Essentially, the God of Evil and Darkness. Enemy of all living things, and the sort of guy who picks a fight with Ra each and every night, even though he loses every time. While others gods are depicted as humanoid, Apophis, also called Apep, was depicted as a snake or sometimes a crocodile. Trivia; the Ancient Egyptians believed that depicting Apophis gave him power, so to counteract this whenever they drew him, they'd draw him being beaten in a fight by another god.

===Greco-Roman Mythology===
[[:Category:Greek Mythology|The stuff introduced in Greek myth]] is pretty widespread. Some of it is so widely used people forget it came from the Greeks in the first place.

Interestingly, [[Eldar]] and [[High Elves|Elves]] [[Dark Elves|of the]] [[Wood Elves|Warhammer]] worlds took a lot of elements from Indo-European myth, the prime examples of the west being Greco-Roman mythology.

'''Notable Locations:'''
*Mt. Olympus: The home of the gods, notably Zeus. This place is where the gods look down on mortals while discussing how their mortal champions are going to shank their rival gods' champions.
*Tartarus: Named after one of the primordial gods, it is the deepest abyss, deeper than Hade's underworld. It imprisons the most wicked of criminals along with the titans.
*[[Atlantis]]: Legendary sea kingdom. Pissed off the gods with their expansionist behaviors and got dunked into the ocean. Technically not part of the mythology, but since Plato was the first one to write it down we're putting it here anyway.

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:'''
*Zeus/Jupiter (in his more positive depictions): King of the gods and big good of the pantheon, being a fair judge and ruler of gods and men. If there's any work of fiction with a pantheon of deities, expect one of them to be patterned after Zeus. This guy ''fucks''.
*Hercules/Heracles: The most famous of Zeus' misbegotten sons, Hercules is a demigod who undergoes twelve great labors to atone for killing his family in a berserk rage, slaying many monsters and ultimately saving the gods from an attack by the giants.
*Theseus: Reputed to be the son of Poseidon and the slayer of the Minotaur, he was also credited with the rise of Athens.
*Perseus: Another of Zeus's bastards, and the ancestor of Hercules no less. Famous for slaying Medusa.
*Daedalus: A masterful inventor whose name became synonymous with master craftsmen. Most famously responsible for creating the Labyrinth for [[Minotaur|King Minos' beast]] before being locked up himself.
*The leaders of both sides of the Trojan War (Achilles, Hector, Paris etc.).

'''Most notable villains in media adaptions:'''
*Zeus (in his more negative depictions): Zeus is also known as a serial philanderer/rapist, having slept with plenty of mortal women, nymphs, and goddesses just because he could (and sometimes doing so while shapeshifted into another form: among others, he's been a goose, a bull, and a shower of gold, don't ask how the last one works) and has created as many problems as he has solutions. One could also cast Zeus as being dickish and a control freak as the ultimate authority of Olympus, like when he had Prometheus bound and tortured for giving fire to humanity.
*Hades: A rather glaring case of typecasting, despite being the god of the dead Hades isn't actually as much of a villain as popular media casts him. In truth he's a rather decent fellow, if a bit on the gloomy side. Perhaps the most glaring of crimes he's done is the matter of kidnapping Demeter's daughter Persephone to make her his wife (causing Demeter to plunge the world into famine until it was arranged for Persephone to come out of the Underworld for half the year, creating the seasons in the process), but compared to Zeus he's still a shining beacon of virtue in that respect. He gets even better if you consider that in some tellings she willingly came with him.
*Hera: Only in works involving Zeus' bastards, since she tended to be ''just a little bit annoyed'' at her husband's constant infidelity and was prone to taking her jealous rage out on whoever was unlucky enough to catch his eye at the time as well as his illegitimate progeny.
*The Titans: See below as to why they hate the gods. They tend to be quite cross about it, and eager for revenge.
*Ares: God of War, who constantly feeds upon it. Thus, any matter of peace is bound to be disrupted.
*The various offspring of Echidna: Echidna is a monstrous [[lamia]] goddess who is known to have birthed many monsters, chief among them Cerberus (guardian to the gates of Hades), the Lernian [[Hydra]], and the Nemean Lion (which Hercules slays)

'''Artifacts that tend to show up in media adaptions:'''
*Pandora's box
*Daedalus's inventions (especially the wings of Icarus): Probably the first man-powered flying machine, though it was entirely made of wax. Daedalus made it so that his son Icarus could escape their prison, but Icarus flew too close to the sun in his hubris, causing the wings to melt and him to fall to his death.
*The sun chariot of Helios
*Pelt of the Nemean Lion: The first of Heracles' labors was to kill the Nemean Lion, a beast with an impenetrable hide. After finding this out, Heracles manages to do it in by strangling the beast. Heracles then tries to skin it, only to fail until Athena informs him to use the lion's own claws. The hide retains its invulnerability to most weapons.
*Ambrosia: The food of the gods, capable of preserving their powers like Iduna's golden apples.
*Talos: a ROBOT. That's right, a frigging bronze robot made by Hephaestus to protect Crete where it circles three times a day and crush invader ships with boulders. Was defeated by Jason's gang when Medea distract him while having its nail removed by her teammates, which pour out the ichors inside and killed it.
*All sorts of stuff used by the gods (Zeus's thunderbolts, Hades's helmet of invisibility, Neptune's trident, Hermes's winged sandals, Athena's shield -- sometimes with [[Medusa]]'s head on it...).

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==== The Greco-Roman Gods & Creation Myth ====
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There's a god for every aspect of ordinary life, like smithing, governing and war. This makes naming the entire pantheon quite lengthy (though we neckbeards might see it as a good challenge), so we won't bore you with the entire mess. The following is a list of important gods/goddess, especially ones pertinent to [[/tg/]] interests (such as [[D&D]]):
*'''Jupiter/Zeus''', the guy with the lightning bolts who is the king of the gods.
*'''Juno/Hera''', wife of Zeus and goddess of marriage, childbirth, and women.
*'''Minerva/Athena''', goddess of wisdom and war born from Jupiter having a massive headache [[Sisters of Battle|fully grown up and armed]].
*'''Pluto/Hades''', Jupiter's eldest brother and the god of most of the Greco-Roman afterlife.
*'''Neptune/Poseidon''', Jupiter's other brother and the god of the seas.
*'''Apollo''', god of the sun, music, and archery.
*'''Diana/Artemis''', goddess of the moon and the hunt.
*'''Ceres/Demeter''', goddess of the harvest.
*'''Mercury/Hermes''', messenger of the gods.
*'''Venus/Aphrodite''', goddess of sex and love.
*'''Mars/Ares''', god of war.
*'''Vulcan/Hephasteus''', god of the forge.
*'''Vesta/Hestia''', goddess of the hearth.
*'''Bacchus/Dionysus''', god of wine and drunken revelry.

According to Greek myth, the first beings to come into existence were '''Gaia''' (the Earth) and '''Uranus''' (the sky). They had three sets of children: the Cyclopses, the Hecatonchires (giants with a hundred hands), and the Titans. Uranus imprisoned the first two in Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld. This upset Gaia and she called upon the Titans to [[FATAL|castrate their father with a flint scythe she had made]]. '''Saturn/Kronos/Cronus''', the youngest of their number, agreed and duly carried it out, becoming the new king of the world. However, Uranus warned Cronus that he too would be overthrown by his children.

Cronus sought to avoid this, so he [[Cannibalism|ate each one of them as a new one is born]] from his wife Rhea, but Rhea hid Zeus and fooled Cronus into eating a rock. Zeus then grows up and tricks his father into drinking wine mixed with mustard which makes him puke, saving all his brothers and sisters inside his father's belly (and who were somehow undigested), thus igniting a war that leads to the overthrow of the Titans. This event is known as '''The Titanomachy''' (Battle of the Titans). After all the Titans had been imprisoned in Tartarus and the Cyclopses and Hecatonchires freed, Zeus formed a government with the rest of his gods while living a [[Slaanesh|comfy hedonist life where he raped many mortal girls and had many bastard sons for the lulz]].

Roman myth can't agree on anything, because, unlike Grecian legends, it isn't racist and isolationist as fuck and takes from all Indo-European religions it encountered. This also means that it deviates from the "twelve important gods" rule that the Greeks had, and every area and time period had its own important gods. Imagine it as something akin to ancient Hinduism, minus all the mysticism (at least until all the Egyptian-esque mystery cults started popping up at the dawn of the Empire) and with the occasional emperor being declared a god after his death.
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===Hindu Mythology===
India is a big place with millennia of history, so it has a lot of deities; dominant sects frequently absorbed deities from competing sects into their mythos as aspects of their own favored deity, so many of those once distinct deities have coalesced together over the centuries. The Puranic period saw a deliberate effort to harmonize rival sects together, which gave rise to the Trimurti ("Three Forms"); this is the subset of the Hindu pantheon that is most well known in the Western world. It is also the subset of Hinduism which formed the mythological backbone of two popular [[RPG]] games: ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' and ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]''. The three cyclical concepts underlying the Trimurti are Creation, Preservation, and Destruction, with a particular deity filling each role as the divine manifestation of that concept, with deities differing by sect. When the roles are filled by goddesses (''devi'') the triad is known as the ''Tridevi''. In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' the Trimurti are known as the '''''Triat''''', in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' the Trimurti are known as the three '''''Primordia''''', and ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' uses an atheist version of the concepts called the '''''Metaphysic Trinity'''''. The [[grimdark]] spin that [[White Wolf]] puts on the Triat is that the three deities are embroiled in a vicious theomachy against each other, and have all fallen from grace and have become corrupted extremist versions of themselves.

Reincarnation also plays a big role in Hinduism- humans accumulate karma based on their actions in life, with good deeds granting good karma and bad deeds granting bad karma. One's karma then determines what your soul will be reborn as (human, animal, even a god or demon) in the process of ''samsara''. Ultimately, Hindus seek to rid themselves of karma entirely, both good and bad, and by doing so escape the cycle of reincarnation.

====Deities of Creation====
'''Brahma the Creator''' is said to be the creator of all things, but apart from that not much is known about him save for his tendency to be a bit too free to grant favors. Unlike Brahma who has no dedicated temples, his feminine counterpart '''Sarasvati the Creatrix''' sees active worship not only in India but in surrounding countries in various permutations, such as in Japan in the form of Benzaiten. In the ''Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes'' supplement from [[TSR]], '''Brahama''' was the ruler of the Hindu pantheon (via conflation with the related Hindu concept of ''[[wikipedia:Brahman|Brahman]]''). In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' the analogous androgynous deity of creation is known as the '''Wyld''', and in ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' the corresponding concept is called '''Dynamicism'''.

====Deities of Preservation====
'''[[Vishnu]] the Preserver''' is one of the two best known Hindu male deities; Vishnu preserves the world from evil and upholds virtue. He is said to have had nine incarnations, or ''avatars'' that have manifested when he was needed along with one which has not yet appeared:
*''[[Matsaya]]'' the fish- Saved humanity from a great flood.
*''[[Kurma]]'' the tortoise- Aided the gods in churning the Ocean of Milk to produce the water of life ''amrita''.
*''[[Varaha]]'' the boar- Pulled the earth out of the sea after it fell in due to the weight of the human race.
*''[[Narasimha]]'' the man-lion- Slew the Asura (demon) lord Hiranyaksha, who had received the boon that he could not be killed "during the day or night, inside or outside, by any weapon, and by man or animal". So instead Narasimha [[rules lawyer|killed him at twilight with his claws as he was stepping through his doorway]], hitting every loophole at once.
*''[[Vamana]]'' the dwarf- When the Asura Mahabali conquered the universe, Vamana won it back through cunning.
*''[[Parashurma]]'' the axe-bearer- Defeated the Kshatriyas when the warrior caste grew prideful and oppressive.
*''[[Rama]]''- Hero of the ''Ramayana'' and prince of the kingdom of Kosala, famed for his war against the Asura king Ravana and his friendship with Hanuman the monkey king.
*''[[Krishna]]''- The most beloved of Vishnu's avatars. Many legends speak of him, but he is best known for his appearance in the ''[[Mahabharata]]'' as the charioteer for the prince Arjuna. Notably, he's popular enough to have inspired sects that claim Vishnu is one of ''his'' avatars and not the other way around. Also the supreme God in the Hare Krishna cult/airport conga line.
*''[[Buddha]]''- Yes, the same one from Buddhism. Needless to say, the Buddhists disagree with that interpretation.
*''[[Kalkin]]''- The "Future Avatar", who will appear upon a white horse and destroy evil forever.

In the goddess-centric denominations of Hinduism in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, the goddess '''Lakshmi the Preservatrix''' (a.k.a. '''[[Vaishnavi]]''') sees more worship than Vishnu. In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' the analogous feminine deity of preservation is known as the '''Weaver''', and in ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' the corresponding concept is called '''Stasis'''.

====Deities of Destruction====
Despite his title, '''Shiva the Destroyer''', the other of the two best known Hindu male deities, was viewed as a benevolent being who clears away the old and corrupt to make way for new creation. He is commonly depicted either as a slayer of demons or as a wise ascetic, and he's also strongly associated with dance (the means by which destruction and creation anew is achieved). In older scripture he was called '''Rudra''', a deification of destructive storms.

In the goddess-centric denominations of Hinduism in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, the goddess '''[[Kali]] the Destructrix''' (a.k.a. '''Parvati''') sees more worship than Shiva. You might recognize the fiercer depictions of Kali from [https://youtube.com/watch?v=R0S8JZ6YO5c that one scene in Indiana Jones where the human sacrifice gets his heart ripped out of his chest].

In ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' the analogous masculine deity of destruction is known as the '''Wyrm''', in ''[[Orpheus]]'' the nominally feminine deity of destruction is called Grandmother, in ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' the corresponding concept is called '''Entropy''', and in ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion]]'' it is called, well, '''Oblivion'''.

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==== Hindu Creation Myths ====
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Every sect of Hinduism has its own version of the creation myth in which they somehow spin their own favored deity as the primary agent of creation, even if it is just simply claiming that a well-known name of a creator/creatrix deity is really just an aspect of the adherent's favored deity. Within the collective of Hindu myths of creation and related topics there is a running theme of recurring cycles of creation and destruction of consecutive universes; one iteration of universal creation and destruction is called a ''kalpa''.

Furthermore, every deity is but a single aspect of the ''Brahman'', the transcendent Godhead from which all other things derive from. It cannot be understood directly, but by adhering to one's dharma (their duties in life) and working off karma over many lifetimes a human can attain ''moksha''- freedom from samsara and eternal communion with the Brahman.
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===Japanese Mythology===
Japanese laymen don't really bother separating their religions, taking up whatever is convenient or trendy at a particular phase in their life, and thus the major religions (Shinto, Buddhism), some more minor ones, and various folk heroes exist simultaneously. Rarely touched by non-Japanese works that aren't the pantheon for [[Japan]] analogues.

Japan is rife with it's own mythology, which often is connected to history. The most notable example is the first emperor - Jimmu. He is said to be a descendant of Amaterasu but is also taken as a real ancestor to the Imperial Family (which is why the Emperor was worshiped until the end of WWII); this is the equivalent of the British royal family theoretically dating their lineage from King Arthur, if King Arthur himself were a direct descendant of Jesus Christ.

In present day, all three religions plus a number of new religious movements exist in Japan.
There is a common misconception that most Japanese today are non-religious, largely stemming from cultural differences and the somewhat looser nature of Shinto and Buddhism as compared to Abrahamic faiths when it comes to mass-rituals and worship. Suffice it to say that anywhere from 50-80% of Japanese (depending if one counts Shinto and Buddhism individually or combined) pray and partake in religious rituals.

Japanese have a plethora of their native gods, in fact, ''plethora'' is a bit of an understatement. Shintoism posits that every thing, be it rock, flower or a makeup set has its own ''kami'' or god/spirit, and depending on what one counts, there are up to 1 MILLION (or literally uncountable number) Japanese gods/kami (see also god depiction in [[Exalted]]).

'''Notable Deities/Characters:'''
*'''[[Izanami and Izanagi]]''': See the creation myth.
*'''[[Amaterasu]]''': Goddess of the sun. The Japanese imperial family once claimed descent from her, but stopped doing so after World War II. How the majority to entirety of Japan's people as a whole weren't as well, since far younger people are ancestors of the majority of far larger and less isolationist populations, was never explained.
*'''[[Susano-o]]''': Amaterasu's brother and god of storms. Kicked out of heaven for being an absolute dick (and especially for his last prank on his sister that would've ended fatally for everyone else). While walking the earth he proceeds to kill the Orochi, among other (anti-)heroics, and eventually gets his way back into heaven with the fat loot he finds as well as reconciling with his sister (and giving her a bitchin sword that she would later give to her mortal descendant-turned-eperor of Japan).
*'''[[Fujin]]''' - God of wind and one of the oldest gods, said to have been there when the world was created, often paired with Raijin.
*'''[[Raijin]]''' - God of thunder and lightning, often paired with Fujin. Known for eating people's bellybuttons during stormy nights if someone managed to piss him off.
*'''[[Hachiman]]''' - God of war, formerly god of agriculture until he got bored of it or something. His traditional animal and messenger is, ironically, a dove.
*'''[[Inari Okami]]''' - Gods of foxes and fertility.
*'''[[Okuninushi]]''' - God of nation-building, business, farming and medicine.
*'''[[Omoikane]]''' - God of wisdom and frequent adviser to the gods.
*'''[[Tsukuyomi]]''' - God of the moon. He killed the goddess of food after witnessing how she created it by basically vomiting it from her mouth. After killing her, his sister Amaterasu vowed she would never again face him and thus the sun and the moon never do either.
*'''The [[Orochi]]''': Giant nine-headed snake monster that likes to eat (?) female sacrifices. Susano-O gets it drunk and kills it, then he finds the Kusanagi on its corpse.
*'''[[The Buddhas]]''': While normal Buddhists don't "worship" the Buddha, more Shinto leaning Japanese often do. See Buddhism whenever someone is assed to add it for how it's supposed to go. Siddartha Gautama is the one people talk about when they say "The Buddha", but the completely separate Budai/Laughing Buddha is the main one ignorant Westerners know the visual of.
**'''Various Buddhist demons''': Mostly assholes that tried to stop people from achieving enlightenment. Some are actually former assholes who were redeemed by enlightened people and now act as protectors.
*'''[[The Four Heavenly Kings]]''': Bishamonten, Jikokuten, Zouchouten and Koumokuten, the guardians of the North, East, South and West respectively. Their title is co-opted by everything (no seriously, '''everything''': examples include Hollywood stars, Japanese comedy acts, Chefs, (female) Idol Singers, even foodstuffs like meats and canned goods) with four members in Japanese culture, [https://legendsoflocalization.com/tricky-translations-2-the-four-heavenly-kings/ though westerners may not notice it because the title gets translated a shit ton of ways depending on the context].
*'''[[Yokai]]''': Various mythical monsters. The most famous are the [[Kitsune]], Kamaitachi, [[Tengu]] and (though not always counted as one) [[Oni]].

'''Historical People Shrouded in Myth'''
*Emperor Jimmu: [[God-Emperor of Mankind|THE GOD EMPEROR OF JAPAN]] as well as the first Emperor and the descendants of Goddess Amaterasu. Most of his records were old and depict him as a warrior hero-god character accompanied by Yatagarasu, a three-legged crow and wielding a longbow. He died at the age of 126 and has little to no worshipers in modern-day other than having at least a shrine and grave.
*Abe no Seimei: A court magician who lived between 921 and 1005. Fiction tends to make him an actual wizard.
*Himiko: Queen of Japan around 200 AD. Chinese records make it clear she existed but very little is known about her.
*Masakado: Samurai who led a brief rebellion in 940. He's considered the god of Tokyo. His shrine/grave occupies some of the most expensive real estates in the world, as it is thought that neglecting his shrine will cause his angry spirit to bring disaster upon Tokyo.
** Takiyasha Hime: His daughter. Fiction makes her a sorcerer with a toad [[Familiar]]. Possibly entirely fictional.
*Tomoe Gozen: A female [[Samurai]] that actually fought in battle in 1184.
*Oda Nobunaga: Self-proclaimed "Demon King of the Sixth Heaven" (That's '''''historical fact''''' recorded by a Jesuit missionary who knew him personally). Defacto unifier of Japan, while the dominos he set up were falling, he was murdered by his retainer Akechi Mitsuhide for unknown reasons. His successors conquered the country after he did the hard parts, forming what would become the Tokugawa Shogunate. Since he was ruthless and called himself a demon, it's no mystery why fiction depicts him as a literal one.
*Hattori Hanzo: A general during the late Sengoku era. He's better known for allegedly being a [[ninja]].
*Ishikawa Goemon: Bandit during the late Sengoku era, executed along with his infant son by being boiled alive after a failed assassination attempt on Nobunaga's successor. Reputed to be a Robin Hood-like figure and also allegedly a ninja.

'''Artifacts that tend to show up in media adaptions:'''
*The Imperial regalia (Kusanagi, Magatama and the Yata no Kagami): A sword, mirror, and rosary that are considered the badges of office for the Emperor.
*Katana created by famous swordsmiths
**Muramasa: Swords created by the famous (and real) swordsmith Sengo Muramasa. Allegedly his swords have a taste for blood and are demonic in nature and can't be sheathed if they haven't tasted blood yet.
**Masamune: Even though Masamune lived hundreds of years before Muramasa, their swords are often counterparts in fantasy. In contrast to Muramasa, Masamune's blades are supposedly holy.
**Kotetsu: Nagasone Kotetsu was a quality swordsmith from the Edo period with a really fitting name (虎鉄 or "Tiger Iron"). His works are notable but if they show up in fiction expect them to be inferior to the above two.

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==== Creation Myth ====
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According to the Kojiki, the world (or just Japan because every culture at that time are so close minded that they believe their kingdom is THE entire world) was created by 2 gods: Izanami (the wife) and Izanagi (the husband). There were 5 other gods with difficult to pronounced name like Kotoamatsukami (別天津神, "Separate Heavenly Deities") before them, but they entrust these two with the world's creation because they are genderless and thus unable to procreate the next generation. Izanami and Izanagi belongs to the Kamiyonanayo ("Seven Generations of the Age of the Gods") and they shape the earth with this totally awesome spear called Ame-no-nuboko (天沼矛, "heavenly jeweled spear") and create the islands and land using salt.

They then settled down onto the land they've created and mated. Unfortunately, the first two children they conceived, Hiruko and Awashima, were mutants, so badly deformed that the parents decided to send them on a lone boat trip before their third birthday; Hiruko survived, worked hard and became a god known as Ebisu. Turns out, after confronting their elders about the misfortune, it was Izanami's fault for not acting properly during the mating ritual, causing birth defects and such. After some proper mating, their descendants were born, who would eventually become the modern day Japanese islands (or else the islands were named after them). Izanami then died giving birth to Kagutsuchi, a serpent Human Torch-wannabe that burned his mother upon his birth. Izanagi was angered and eight-pieced him, turning his body into 8 volcanoes; his blood on Izanagi's sword became the sea god Watatsumi and rain god Kuraokami. This also marks the end of the creation.

Izanagi was overwhelmed by grief that he traveled to Yomi ("land of the dead") to see his dead wife. Unfortunaly, Izanami already belonged to Yomi after eating its food. Izanagi refused to leave Izanami in this dark land, and waited there because Izanami agreed to go back if she had some rest, but the worried Izanagi decided to see what's going on with his dead wife by lighting a torch using his magical head comb - unfortunately, he found Izanami was already a maggot-ridden, ghoul-like monster. (Some retellings turn this into an 'Orpheus and Eurydice'-style affair where he [[Derp|looks back just as they reach the end]], cursing Izanami to be trapped.) Izanagi was scared so shitless that he ran away, while Izanami called the Shikome (ugly underworld woman) to chase him. After a long Looney Tunes chase that involves Izanagi's use of his magical hair dress and his urine to stop his pursuers, he eventually returns to the living realm. Izanami curses her husband and claims that she will kill 1,000 people everyday, with Izanagi responding that he will give birth to 1,500.
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===Norse Mythology===
See the [[Norse Mythology]] page.

==Miscellaneous Mythical Figures/Artifacts/Stories That Are Directly /tg/ Relevant==

Although the above are the big hitters of Mythology Adaption in /tg/ stuff, there are a few miscellaneous ones who show up that may be worth mentioning. Here's a couple:

*'''Ariadne''': Per preeminent mythologist Karl Kerényi et al., Ariadne was a Minoan mother goddess of weaving and labyrinths who, upon absorption into Greco-Roman mythology, retained her deific name ''Ariadne'' meaning "Most Holy". In the [[Midgard]] D20 setting the goddess Ariadne also goes by the name ''[[Rava]]'', the Spinner of Fate and the Clockwork Oracle.
*'''Baba Yaga''': Probably the sole character from Russian folklore that most people would recognize. Talking about her in any detail would be overly long, even for this overly long article, so just [[Baba Yaga|read about her on her own article here]].
*'''St. Cuthbert''': [[wikipedia:Cuthbert|Famous English monk and later bishop]]. Somehow wound up in [[Greyhawk]], for much the same reason that [[Murlynd|Clint Eastwood]] did.

==Urban Legend==
The '''Urban Legend''' is another type of myth, specifically one of a modern-day taste and often significantly connected to that country's pop culture. In Japan, many classic myths of Yokai continue to "exist" (see: [[Touhou]]), and some have been modernized to fit with new technology (for example, a cursed cart may become a cursed car). [[Board-tans/x|Creepypastas]] are a common sub-variant. Here are some examples:

*'''Bermuda Triangle''' - A triangular region in the gulf of Mexico with Bermuda island, Pureto Rico and Miami, Florida as its angle point. Reputed to be a place of paranormal activity where ships and aircraft suddenly loses their signal and disappeared, both on air or water. In reality, the Triangle is just one of the most heavily trafficked areas in the world, in a region known for storms and general bad weather; if there weren't several mysterious disappearances (and nautical and aeronautical life had, and occasionally still has, plenty of those), it would be surprising.
**'''Mary Celeste''' - A ship that was found abandoned in 1872 undamaged, with ample provisions, undisturbed cargo and a log dated to ten days prior to it being found. Was actually found well outside of the Bermuda Triangle, but often associated with it. Proposed solutions for what happened range from attempted insurance fraud to equipment malfunction, a waterspout strike and a butane explosion. The "wreck" was acquired by a new owner, who promptly sunk it in a poor attempt at insurance fraud.
**'''The Flying Dutchman''': Associated with the Cape of Good Hope, rather then the Bermuda Triangle, but frequently mentioned in connection with the Triangle as well. The most famous "Ghost ship" other then the ''Mary Celeste''; unlike the ''Celeste'', the ''Dutchman'' was only reported to have been seen, but never boarded. The ''Dutchman'' was supposedly an omen of doom, but given that in order to see a ship that isn't there you'd probably have to be in very poor visibility conditions, this reputation has an obvious explanation.
*'''Bloody Mary''' - It is said to be a malevolent spirit who if you call its name "Bloody Mary" in front of a mirror three times, she will come and do something horrible to you. A pretty stupid game often participate by very small children and idiots.
*'''Cryptids''' - Various creatures of folklore that, other then being fucked up looking, are actually plausible animals of one sort or another. Some have been substantiated, but most are just fake or distorted stories of other, known animals (as is speculated having happened with the [[Unicorn]] and Rhinoceros). Such creatures include:
**'''Bigfoot''' - Also known as Sasquatch. It is a creature of ape and man named after its big foot print on the ground. Its sighting are mostly around the Pacific Northwest.
**'''Chupacabra''' - A small bear size monster who likes to suck a goat's blood dry. First spotted in Puerto Rico, where it killed 8 sheep, it is said that its influcence has spread across Latin America. Allegedly, the idea of the chupacabra was just stolen from the movie Species.
**'''Drop Bear''' - Australian joke: Take a Koala, and pretend it's an ambush predator who kills by jumping on its prey, with a taste for human flesh. While clearly originating as a joke, unlike most "real" cryptids, the concept has been used straight in several contexts in fantasy works. As if Australia's actual dangerous animals weren't enough.
**'''Jackalope''' - A rabbit with antelope horns. Possibly based on sightings of rabbits with Shope papilloma virus, which causes infected hosts to grow horn-like tumors. The most popular version seems to have originated as a 12-year-old taxidermist's idea of a joke.
**'''Jersey Devil''' - Weird monster supposedly lurking in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, thus making it the most interesting thing in the state.
**'''Loch Ness Monster''' - A long necked sea creature that allegedly lives in Loch Ness in the Scottish highlands. Presumably to be Mauisaurus, a pre-historical sea dinosaur who shares the similar long neck appearance.
**'''Mokele-mbembe''' - A weird African swimming beast with reptilian traits. Widely believed to be either a rhinoceros or a hippopotamus (the latter of which are responsible for killing more people per year than any other animal in Africa) though some have claimed it's a rediscovered dinosaur - a sauropod specifically, as numerous descriptions ascribe it a long neck alongside reptilian features.
**'''Mothman''' - There were a bunch of West Virginia sightings of a "Man with Wings". Later got overhyped as having supernatural powers, and associated in some way with a local bridge collapse when writers looking to cash in got involved. Side note: Most descriptions from the early, pre-overhype encounter match a unusually large crane.
**'''Rods/Sky Fish''' - Extraterrestrial lifeforms that move at an unseen speed that can only be caught by camera. [[Skub|It may or may not be real]], since it might be just elongated visual artifacts appearing in photographic images and video recordings. Other insects like moths are mistakenly caught on camera and assumed to be them. It helps that there were no actual dissections of the creatures, and most of the videos about catching it are fake and exist for pure entertainment. In some fiction, e.g. [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]], they are portrayed as vaguely creatures with actual limbs and organs that feed on temperature and have the power to KILL or disable a person by absorbing the body heat from their vitalorgans.
**'''Tsuchinoko''' - Also known as "child of hammer", "child of dirt" or "bachi hebi" in Northeastern Japan, it is a snake that is 30 and 80 cm long, has a thin head and tail, and a wide girth in between. It was referenced in Kojiki (古事記) "Records of Ancient Matters" meaning it might have existed at some point in ancient Japan. [[Skub|Others would argue]] that it could be a type of slug who's features became exaggerated over thousands of years, an exinct snake species or an undiscovered snake species. Whatever the cases, the damn thing is popular in Japan and has been featured in many video games, manga and TV show.
**'''Yeti''' - Like Bigfoot above, but found in the Himalayan mountains.
*'''Grays''' - A stock alien appearance of short, large-headed, large-eyed, generally naked, grey men. Allegedly probe humans, steal cows and make patterns in vegetation while riding around in a saucer shaped spacecraft. Supposedly crashed in Rosswell, New Mexico in 1947, which was covered up by the US Government as a "weather balloon"; more recent declassification suggest it ''was'' a balloon, just an experimental and classified one meant for Cold War era spying and hushed up for fear that the Soviets would learn about it.
**'''Area 51''' - [[Wikipedia:Area 51|An actual military base]] in Nevada that the crashed spacecraft was allegedly taken to. Allegedly home to all sorts of government experiments on the supernatural and/or extraterrestrial. Though the existance of the factual military base existing was always known, the US government didn't officially acknowledge it till 2013. Officially it's used for testing experimental and captured aircraft and thus highly classified. Supposedly, the US government thought that the UFO hysteria was good cover for the then-secret U-2 program, as any spotted aircraft could be explained away by kooks as an alien spacecraft. In 2019, Area 51 mythos took a really weird turn; a million [[weeaboo]]s signed on to [[meme|Storm Area 51]] to "clap some alien cheeks" and "escape with all the alien and [[catgirl]] [[waifu]]s that the government's keeping to themselves." Battle plans included [[Anime|Naruto]] Runners, Chads hyped on Monster Energy Drink, and Anti-Vax Karens. What actually ended up happening was only 200 people showed up to party, though there was a confirmed sighting of at least one Naruto Runner.
**'''Men in Black / Majestic-12''' - Another component that's common to UFO conspiracies is a secret branch of the government dedicated to keeping the public in the dark about the existence of aliens. Some stories of the Men in Black instead suggest they're aliens impersonating human government agents to keep the stories quiet. The urban legend version is significantly scarier and more malevolent than their movie counterparts, but a bit ''less'' malevolent than those in the comics the movies were adapted from. The only known evidence of their existence was long since proven to be a forgery.
*'''Jack the Ripper''' - Also known by the London old media as the "Leather Apron", ol' Jack was a real life serial killer in London during 1[[Khorne|888]]. Since he was never caught and the number of victims can't be verified - five are specifically attributed to him - his identity remains a mystery and he is therefore held as the greatest serial killer. Known for mutilating his victim in the most precise manner and the mocking letters he wrote to the police (which are still held in Scotland Yard). He was even suspected to be a woman, with new nicknames such as "Jill the Ripper" added to the long list of nicknames. Since nothing physical is known about the killer, fiction is free to attribute supernatural origin (such as a possessed human or being a monster outright) or that the killer's vileness resulted in transformation into some kind of monster. Making the killer supernatural allows it to be divorced from its time period.
** Various other uncaught serial killers can get this sort of treatment, but to a much lower degree, with the notable exception of the Zodiac Killer, who shared Jack's media savvy.
* '''D. B. Cooper''' - Short version: Guy Hijacks a commercial airplane, demands $200,000 ($1.28 Million in today's money) and four parashoots, gets them, jumps out of plane over state park, and is never seen again. Long version: [[wikipedia:D. B. Cooper|Wikipedia is your friend]].
* '''John Henry''' - A black manual laborer who raced against his industrialized replacement and won, but died from exhaustion at the end. Even if it was loosely based on a real story, any accounts of a real John Henry existing have been lost to history.
** '''Casey Jones''' - Unlike Henry, Jones was definitely a [[wikipedia:Casey Jones|real life train conductor]] who died saving the lives of his passengers. One of his assistants wrote a song defending Jones' reputation<ref>There was some argument at the time that Jones should have seen the signal indicating a possible collision, but the night was foggy, and both signal lights and signalmen could be unreliable.</ref> that got very popular shortly thereafter, and soon turned into a popular figure around which a mythology developed.
*'''Kiyotaki tunnel''' - A haunted tunnel in Japan said to be built by slaves in 1927. It is said to have an unfortunately length of 444 meter long (4 is a unlucky number in Japan--the word for "4" is a homophone for "death") and it is a famous suicide spot. There were witness who saw the spirit of suicide victim walking towards the tunnel. There are reports where the traffic light outside the tunnel to suddenly change color and cause car accidents. The tunnel made frequent references from horror manga and anime where it was portrayed a tunnel full of tormented spirits, dragging other passing traveler to suffer with them.
*'''Radioactive Deer''' - Although decades have passed since the accident, the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant remains one of the most contaminated places on Earth. Every wildfire or severe storm that hits the area will inevitably spawn several days of doomsday fearmongering from the press about nuclear tornadoes or toxic milk. Some recent horror stories have begun to weave the Slavic legend of Baba Yaga, the monstrous child-eating crone of the woods, into the story of the ruins of Pripyat.
*'''Slender Man''' - a fictional character that originated as an Internet meme created by [[Something Awful]] forums user Victor Surge in 2009. It is depicted as resembling a thin, unnaturally tall man with a blank and usually featureless face and wearing a black suit. The Slender Man is commonly said to stalk, abduct, or traumatize people, particularly children. The Slender Man is not tied to any particular story, but appears in many disparate works of fiction, mostly composed online, with the most famous being a series known as "Marble Hornets". Also famous for inspiring two girls to nearly murder their classmate in order to become his "proxies".

==Popular mythology elements used in Fantasy==
*[[Dwarfs]]
*[[Elves]]
*[[Vampires]]
*[[Werewolves]]
*[[Necromancer|Necromancy]]
*[[Troll]]s
*[[Giant]]s
*[[Minotaur]]
*[[God|Gods/Deities]]
*[[Genie]]
*[[Dragon]]
*[[Orc]]
*[[Monstergirls]]

*More than one [[Superhero]] and Supervillain are based directly on Mythical figures. The most prominent at Marvel are Hercules and Thor, who are both exactly the characters named above, and the Black Knight, who descends from the Arthurian one. On the DC side there's Wonder Woman, an [[Amazon]] who frequently comes into conflict with the Greek gods and other elements of Greek myth.

==See Also==
*[[Yog-Sothothery]] - Mythology created by [[H.P. Lovecraft]] that took elements from other mythologies. Its "deities" are a bunch of alien like tentacle monster that defy laws of physic and drives people insane.

==Footnotes==

[[Category:History]]