2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Deathmaster Snikch

2020-08-30T13:35:27Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A:

[[File:Deathmaster Snikch.jpg|300px|thumb|right|"Nothing personal, man-thing."]]'''Deathmaster Snikch''', Chief [[Assassin]] of [[Clan Eshin]], is a [[skaven]] special character for [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Introduced in 4th edition, Snikch is the latest ratman to hold the title of Deathmaster, the bestest ninja assassins of the bestest ninja assassins in Skavendom. Given how incredibly badass Clan Eshin assassins are, it's safe to assume Snikch is pretty goddamn good at his job and is undeniably one of the deadliest, if the not THE deadliest, Skaven alive. Indeed, back in the old Warhammer Fantasy days, Snikch had the highest Weapon Skill stat of any Skaven, equal only to that of a [[Verminlord]], which is a daemonic avatar of the Horned Rat himself. His reputation precedes him everywhere, to the point where the merest rumor that Snikch might be on the hunt gets other Skaven to vent their fear musk glands and fall in line with whoever is applying leverage to them. Lord Sneek, the Grand Nightlord of Clan Eshin and its representative on the Council of 13, is more than happy to use the fear of Snikch as a tool to get work done. As such, Clan Eshin never tells anyone where Snikch actually is at any given time (so he could be anywhere, even RIGHT BEHIND YOU!), so that both the clan and the Council of 13 can maximize the Deathmaster's reputation to suit their own ends. This also means that other assassins' kills regularly get credited to Snikch, inflating his scary reputation even further. Presumably these other assassins don't complain about this kill-stealing, lest they find a certain dark figure popping up behind them when they least expect it.

Snikch is one of the Skaven that actually gets shit done prior to the End Times. When the Deathmaster is deployed on a mission, he simply does not fail. When he was sent after Warlord Sskut of Murkpit, he left the wayward Skaven leader's head sitting atop a pile of the 100 noggins of his elite Stormvermin bodyguard. In another incident, he single-pawededly wiped out the entire leadership of [[Clan Festerlingus]] when they tried to outdo Clan Moulder by crossbreeding alligators with giant rats, leaving his symbol on each of their corpses for everyone to find. And those are just some of the cases where he made it obvious he was responsible.

Of course, Snikch gets sent out after all the other races of the Warhammer world as well. One of his oldest and most famous kills is Celestial Wizard Heinrich Frisen, whose flayed corpse was found in his still-locked chamber, completely stumping everyone who tried to figure out what happened. In another mission, Snikch was sent to mess with Belegar Ironhammer (because Skaven haven't screwed with that poor Dwarf-thing enough apparently), the would-be King of Karak Eight Peaks, by assassinating his beloved brother Dromgar Ironhammer. Dromgar was found dead in the middle of a heavily fortified Dwarf stronghold and they still haven't found his head to this day. When you think about it, that's adding even more insult to injury, because it means that Dromgar can't go to the halls of his ancestors fully intact. He also went on a killing spree in Karaz-a-Karak, which included Thorgrim's daughter and two of his sons, and when Thorgrim put the city in lockdown, Snikch escaped through a sewer grate after killing the guards with warpstone-laced throwing stars. This also adds insult to injury, as Thorgrim didn't have a name or even a race to put in the Book of Grudges for this, just a moniker that translated to "murder-daemon of darkness". In the now-retconned [[Storm of Chaos]], it was Snikch who finished off the wounded [[Valten]], Exalted of Sigmar, after the major events of that story. Did we mention that Snikch is good at his job?

But wait, there's more! Snikch is also responsible for a number of high-profile acts of sabotage and destruction in the world above, including the Great Fire of Lothern (thoroughly proving that the elf-things are not outside the reach of Skavendom), the bombing of the Imperial Navy in the Reiksport, and the destruction of a Dwarf-engineered Iron Cog-dragon on the eve of a major battle. And that's just the ones we know about! Presumably the leaders of men would sleep a lot less easier at night if they actually knew that Snikch was out there lurking and there's little doubt that Dwarf leaders check their closets for Deathmaster Snikch before they turn off the lights.

In battle, Snikch flits and slinks through the battlefield like a living shadow, triple-wielding deadly '''Weeping Blades''' - enchanted weapons infused with toxin and [[warpstone]] during their very forging - two in his hands and one gripped in his prehensile tail. Imagine the feats he had to take to do that. Snikch also wears the '''Cloak of Shadows''', a magical garment woven from stolen human hairs and spider silk and enchanted with the best concealment and sneaking magic Clan Eshin has to offer. Beside being pretty metal, this also makes Snikch incredibly hard to see, helping him sneak-scurry much better than other Skaven possibly could.

During [[The End Times]], Snikch keeps up his record of getting shit done, slaying [[Thorgrim Grudgebearer]], the last High King of the Dwarfs in his private chambers with a nice clean decapitation (the ol' Snikch Special). Thorgrim Grudgebearer was also the Incarnate of the Lore of Metal at this time, which just makes this whole kill even more impressive. Admittedly, Snikch only gets to Thorgrim because the High King leaves a secret door open by accident (what a doofus), but hey, the Horned Rat provides, right? [[cheese|Snikch's blade at that time is also blessed with all the possible blessing needed from the Horned Rat to make him even deadlier]].

There's plenty of other Clan Eshin assassin action in the End Times, so who knows what else Snikch got up to, because the death of Thorgrim was really the last we heard of him. Regrettably, we never got an epic ninja assassin death battle between Snikch and super Dark Elf assassin Shadowblade (who was killed by Malekith in the end times), but we all know it would have been amazing and we here at 1d4chan eagerly await your fanfic of it.

In the [[Age of Sigmar]], there's no word of Snikch. He might still be around, he might not. Until Sigmar knows for sure, he's going to keep checking under the bed for Snikch at night and sleeping with a light on. Snikch's model now serves as a generic Deathmaster for Skaven forces.

==Total War Warhammer==
The Deathmaster makes his debut in Total Warhammer in the Shadow and the Blade DLC, where he faces off against Malus Darkblade. In complete defiance of tabletop rules and fluff, Creative Assembly have applied their trend of turning named heroes into legendary lords to Snikch. We'll leave whether that's good, bad, or not worth caring about to you. Unitwise, his DLC draws from the Eshin list for Storm of Chaos, and adds the Master Assassin as a lord, Eshin sorcerer as a hero and the Eshin Triad as a new unit, as well as Warp Grinders and Poison-Wind Mortars to fill out the remaining weapon teams for the Skaven. Predictably Snikch himself excels at dueling and assassinating single lords and heroes, having good combat stats, armour sundering and increased damage the more health his target is missing. However he's also extremely squishy as he has very little armour and a pretty small healthpool, so he's ill-suited to fight it out in the infantry blobs on the frontline. But most notable about playing him is his late-game scheme Plunge Into Anarchy that only he can enact which [[Lulz|assassinates a faction leader and causes their entire faction replaced by rebels]] on a 100 turn cooldown, for when you just can't be bothered to grind through that #1 Strength Rank faction that's standing in the way of your victory objectives.

His reputation is also clearly such that players will hear their generic Skaven Assassins vocalize that, in an overinflated sense of self-worth typical for a Skaven, they fancy themselves a Deathmaster.

Fun fact: After demand by a lot of fans, he is now the only unit in the game that is classified as "Triple Sword Infantry".

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Snikch4th.jpg| Snikch's old 4th Edition miniature. [[weeaboo|Showing off his triple-wielding technique like a certain anime character]].
File:Snikch7th.jpg| The Miniature for Snikch from 7th onward, until Age of Sigmar, where it serves as a generic Deathmaster.
File:Snikch meditate.PNG| Snikch in [[Total War: WARHAMMER]], meditate in his glorious non-rat ogre abs, Nippon style.
File:Teleports_behind_you.jpg| Snikch in all his weeb glory.
File:Nothing_personal.jpg| Deathmaster Snikch as he appears in Total War: Warhammer 2.
File:TWWH2_-_ttvm21n91y141.png| Do you even Lift-Heft, Man-thing!?
File:Annotation 2020-04-11 123145.png|Snikch alongside an eshin wizard and an assassin
</gallery>

{{Skaven-Characters}}

Von Carstein

2020-08-30T13:02:30Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* Age Of The Three Emperors (Second War of the Vampire Counts\Second Vampire War) */

[[File:Von Carstein Banners.jpg|thumb|right|700px|For only $20, you too can make one unit of your 100+ model army belong to the Von Carsteins! Nothing says "We're just as good as the Lahmians" like paying an extra 50% for kit!]]
{{Topquote|Noble life demands a noble architecture for noble uses of noble men. Lack of culture means what it has always meant: ignoble civilization and therefore imminent downfall.|Frank Llyod Wright}}

The Von Carsteins are a Bloodline (type of vampires related by a lineage of being turned leading back to the very first vampires) of [[Vampire Counts|Vampires]] from [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. They are the posterboy Bloodline of the faction, best summarized as the Dracula Bloodline (or the [[Tzimisce]] without Vicissitude for [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] fans).

==History==
===Vashanesh===
The original Von Carstein is not really named Von Carstein; [[Vlad von Carstein]] is the made up name of Vashanesh, ex-husband of the first vampire [[Queen Neferata]]. Neferata's idiot brother ruled their kingdom of Lahmia, although due to his ineffectual rule the real power behind the throne was his sister. He along with the rest of her royal court in Lahmia shared her Elixer which she and [[Arkhan the Black]] perfected using the Books of [[Nagash]]. After an..."accident" (probably involving blood loss, maybe a bit of mutilation and castration) Neferata took the throne; despite being the Pharaoh of a kingdom described as highly sexist (contrast with Neferata's [[High Queen Khalida|cousin's]] kingdom which was fine with a female monarch) Vashanesh is barely mentioned as even being important among the vampires themselves meaning he was most likely a relaxed political puppet for his wife. After some overly opulent living leading to some [[Fail|badly botched efforts to keep the secret of Vampirism under wraps]] the Vampires were attacked and defeated by other Nehekharans, forcing them to flee to the side of the guy who invented Necromancy, Nagash himself.

After the defeat of the Vampires and Nagash and during the death of [[Nehekhara]]/birth of the [[Tomb Kings]], Vlad and all but two of the other Vampires who had stood with Nagash's forces fought and blamed each other for the loss (Neferata had left before the battle occurred, and [[Abhorash]] had fought until defeat before leaving without a word to the others). Nagash's EXTREMELY angry spirit cursed all Vampires with the assorted mythological weaknesses like inability to cross running water and not having reflections (the latter because by nature Vampires are extremely vain) causing the embittered Vampires to flee his wrath by making their own ways through the apparently quite passable "impassible" mountains separating Nehekhara from the [[Old World]].
Vlad avoided the entanglements of [[Orcs & Goblins|greenskins]] that hindered the others and found his own way to [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|The Empire Of Sigmar]]. Vampires were still mostly an unknown to the humans of Warhammer Europe, despite [[Sigmar]] himself having fought them and there being a minor matter of the Empire marching to destroy Mourkain during the story of [[W'soran]] and [[Ushoran]]. Thanks to the status quo-enforcing policies of Neferata's web of international sexy spies the common folk knew little of Vampires and feared them only among the various other things that are probably lurking in the night.

According to a later retcon Vashanesh never existed. In the new version Vlad's old identity was a noble ally of Neferata's named Ankhat who mostly managed the day to day operations of the city, and Neferata never remarried after her brother was killed. As of The End Times the rulebook confirms he was Vashanesh... while the novel never mentions the name and says Neferata only ever loved Arkhan. At this point, pick a canon you like.

===Vlad and Isabella===
After spending some time gathering information Vashanesh found that he had come to a land called Sylvania. Sylvania was poor and ruled primarily by corrupt leaders who were hated and feared by the populace. The magic Wind Of Death blew strongly through Sylvania, causing madness in much of its inbred nobility and giving the land a cursed and barren landscape. He also discovered that the leader of the region, the mad count Otto Von Drak, had an inheritance crisis due to having no son to inherit and an intense hatred of his brother Leopold Von Drak. Vashanesh invented the name Vlad Von Carstein, obtained some nice clothes, and presented himself as the handsome nobleman to the court of Castle Drakenhof interested in joining the family. Otto, on his deathbed in the year of 1797, almost immediately gave "Vlad" his daughter [[Isabella von Carstein|Isabella]] as a wife and died soon after that. Leopold had an "accident" of falling off a tower (possibly involving blood loss, most likely due to Vlad literally tearing his heart out of his chest for Isabella) and the Sigmarite priest vanished (blood AND body loss!).

Vlad began a network operation of discovering who's who among Sylvanian nobility, greatly aided by Isabella. Although loyal in concept to the Von Drak line she had a great deal of hatred for her father and those of the court, and eagerly made herself more than just a pawn to her new husband. She accepted his Vampiric nature and fell in love, slowly creeping her way into his heart as well. With her guidance Vlad turned the most loyal (read: least batshit fucking insane) nobles into Vampires while making sure the rest met with various "accidents" (probably involving blood loss and the complete removal of their family name from all records and tombstones). While Vlad was prone to great bouts of rage at any slight (like all Nehekharans) Isabella was of a calm temperament, able to calm her husband and lead him back to reason which ensured that only those who truly deserved his anger received it (cruelly, in front of an assembled gathering of the nobility). The common folk of Sylvania, always oppressed and downtrodden, fearing at any moment that a new burst of the local lord's madness would lead to a fresh purge of their friends and family, actually benefited from Vlad's rule; excessive cruelty was not tolerated, and Vlad GREATLY encouraged acting as if they were still mortal which necessitated living servants and workers on the Sylvanian estates. Taxes were more fair and suddenly being killed by a lord was due to their need for sustenance rather than just because said nobleman found them annoying. Vlad eliminated the bandits and corrupt mercenaries, as well as Chaos worship (Sigmar worship suddenly and inexplicably dropped as well after). Most nobles who were turned gladly renamed themselves Von Carstein in Vlad and Isabella's honor (most were related already anyway).

Isabella wanted to remain with Vlad forever, but knew that soon she would start to fall to age, but Vlad refused to make her a Vampire. While Vlad was away she became deathly ill (AKA poisoned herself, which backfired when she got tuberculosis) and he rushed home to save her. Upon arriving home he found that she was dead, but after sending away the healers and mortician he spent three days alone in her room after which she was suddenly perfectly okay (the doctors may have been confused due to sudden inexplicable blood loss).

===Age Of The Three Emperors (First War of the Vampire Counts\First Vampire War)===
During the events of [[Mordheim]] in 1999 on the Imperial Calendar Vlad managed to woo one of his ex's servants, [[Baroness Katherina von Dernsbach]], and sent her to the city to lead Vampire forces in stealing as much [[Warpstone]] as possible.

Long before Vlad reached the Empire, the Age of Three Emperors started due to an election crisis following the [[Fail|assassination of Mandred Skavenslayer]] by [[Skaven]] in 1152. A successor was not appointed until 1359 when (through accused bribery) the Count of Stirland became Emperor leading to the Countess of Ottilia deciding SHE was Empress, causing a war which raged on and off until 1547 when the Count of Middenland declared himself Emperor due to a conflict with the Sigmar and Ulric churches. After the infant Countess of Marienburg won the election for Emperor, the Church of Sigmar rejected her rulership. By the time that Vlad had decided the time was right to fight to become Emperor, his rivals were the Countess of Talabecland, the Count of Reikland, and the Count of Marienburg and the Empire was a complete fucking mess.

In 2010, on Geheimnisnacht (AKA Halloween, when [[Morrslieb]] is closest to <strike>Mallus</strike> the Warhammer World) Vlad invited the nobility of Sylvania to a feast where the Vampire nobles fed on the remaining mortal nobility after which he consumed all of the gathered Warpstone and read an incantation of Nagash straight from one of the nine Books Of Nagash which caused the undead of Sylvania to rise and march.

Throughout the wars, Vlad was continually killed and to the amazement of all initially, and to his enemies afterwards (the first time one of his subordinates named Herman Posner tried to take over the faction), he returned every night (or within the hour if it was already night) as if nothing happened. This was due to his ring, the Von Carstein Ring, given to him by Nagash at some point which allowed him to return to life as long as he was still wearing it.

First he attacked Talabheim, killing Ottilia, followed by taking Stirland and Ostermark. To end the war in 2051 he laid siege to Altdorf in order to take Reikland and thus the Empire itself. The Grand Theogonist claimed to have received a vision from Sigmar revealing that Vlad's ring was the source of his resurrection in order to prevent the Empire from bowing to Vlad. The greatest thief of the time, Felix Mann (no, not THAT [[Gotrek & Felix|Felix]]) was sent to steal the ring which was easy due to <strike>rebellious Vampires</strike> Vlad's army believing they had nothing to fear; he ran off with it, and was later caught by Mannfred, who took the ring and his hands before leaving him in a cathedral to die whereupon he was saved by a Dwarf and...the writers forgot about him. Vlad attacked in a rage once he woke up the next night and found the ring gone and wound up in melee combat with the Grand Theogonist on the walls of Altdorf [[Fail|(because getting into a duel during a battle is the perfect reaction to finding out your get out of death free card is missing)]]. Vlad fatally stabbed the Sig-pope, who tackled him straight off the walls and onto the stakes below while Vlad's magic bloodsucking sword filled him with pope-blood (remember, holy burns undead). The combination, without the ring, killed him and prevented resurrection. Isabella, who was in the middle of claiming the Empire with the Reikland claimant at her mercy, killed herself instead in order to be with Vlad. The Vampires retreated to Sylvania and the Empire focused on ending the succession crisis...which didn't happen until 2145.

===Age Of The Three Emperors (Second War of the Vampire Counts\Second Vampire War)===
After the deaths of the Von Carstein patriarch and matriarch, the bulk of the invading undead army were destroyed by humans or loss of the magic animating them.

The primary contenders for rulership of the Von Carsteins were [[Mannfred von Carstein]], Fritz Von Carstein, Pieter Von Carstein, Hans Von Carstein, and [[Konrad von Carstein]]. Mannfred, being [[Magnus the Red|a non-confrontational nerd]], figured it was a good time for a world tour and immediately fucked off to parts unknown. Before this he freed a vampire named Jon Skellan, and the two did the vampiric equivalent of going on a bender by (sensually) feeding on then killing the most beautiful women they could find across Stirland. After going on this (surprisingly rapey) killing spree, Mannfred charged Jon with undermining whichever brother rose to power, then left for parts unknown. During this time, Fritz attempted to restart Vlad's invasion of the Empire and was killed in Middenheim. Pieter attacked a town where he was killed by Helmut van Hal, one of the Witch Hunter descendants of [[Frederick van Hal]]. Hans and Konrad engaged each other in a duel over who was the strongest Vampire, which Konrad won by tearing Hans apart and burning the pieces. When the dust settled, Konrad was in charge.

This was unfortunate for the Von Carsteins. Konrad was one of the last Vampires turned by Vlad and for unknown reasons; he was ridiculously insane even by Sylvanian standards, having depopulated towns in mass executions on a whim (specifically, "they smelled bad") and executed his mother for giving birth to him without prior permission by him. He had no talent in magic, insulting and killing Necromancers assigned to him and anyone he thought was mocking his lack of magic ability.

Although inept at leadership, combat tactics, politics, and just about anything else not directly related to inflicting violence on people, he managed to intimidate a record number of Necromancers and Vampires into his service and put them into one giant army which steamrolled through the Empire with a record number of Undead. This slowly advancing wave was only capable of destruction, rather than establishing a chain of command and rulership like Vlad had done. Konrad was defeated in 2100 in the Battle of Four Armies (surprisingly not a reference to [[Tolkien]]) by the combined armies of Altdorf, Talabheim and Marienburg, but still "won" since the election crisis resulted in the Count of Altdorf and the Ottilia of Talabheim assassinating each other while the count of Marienburg was killed by Konrad, then sent as a Zombie to try and claim the Empire in Konrad's name (which canonically only failed because the Necromancers puppeting him had done a bad job of hiding his decomposition).

In 2121 Konrad was defeated by an army of the Empire and Dwarfs, but only due to Konrad's Necromancers all abandoning him at once after finally getting sick of his bullshit (this is canon). Most of the army crumbled, and after attempting to control them regardless Konrad's already scrambled brain was reheated and pitched out the window resulting in him wandering around in the woods until Thane Grufbad of the Dwarf army and the son of the Count of Marienburg wrestled him to the ground and beheaded him (to put this in context, Vampires can backhand a fucking Ogre or a Chaos Champion, but some random human and Dwarf managed to get him on his back).

===Age Of The Three Emperors (Third War of the Vampire Counts\Third Vampire War)===
During Konrad's bullshit crusade, Manny had managed to explore Nehekhara, reclaimed some of the Books of Nagash (there's a lore snarl where he apparently claimed all of them despite them all being in multiple places at once and being lost to the sands of time). He managed to commune with Nagash, swearing allegiance, learned from [[Arkhan the Black]], set up ties with the [[Necrarch]] Bloodline, and returned just in time to restore order after Konrad got a <strike>Game Of Thrones</strike> Walking Dead side character death.

Mannfred returned to Altdorf to lay siege, but the Church of Sigmar had learned how to effectively deal with Undead and Mannfred's army was crushed. He used ambushes and raiding to put pressure on the Empire until the Battle Of Hel Fen in 2145, where, despite dealing with disease and the sicknesses of the swamps resulting in a massive amount of casualties, Mannfred's largely Zombie-based army was destroyed and his lifeless body sunk into the muck. Thus ended the last Vampire War, and the succession crisis FINALLY ended after nearly going on longer than the Empire itself.

===Mannfred's Resurrection===
Felix (yes, THAT Felix) saw and wrote about the resurrection of Mannfred during his travels with the God Emperor Of Murderhobos Gotrek. In fact they unintentionally made it possible. Felix and Gotrek were staying at an inn, having been recruited to rescue the innkeeper's adult daughter, Elsa (not a reference to Frozen), who had been captured by a necromancer. They find the Necromancer trying to use her as a virgin sacrifice to resurrect a vampire. Gotrek cuts him in half and they rescue the woman. However the necromancer's blood leaked through the ground onto Mannfred's body and revived him (revealing the necromancer to have been a virgin, which provoked some amusement from Mannfred).

After nearly abusing the innkeeper's hospitality (Gotrek nearly drinking all the booze and Felix attempting to seduce Elsa), a servant of Mannfred's burns down the inn. Deprived of their vices (the booze is burned up and Elsa has too much of a revenge-boner to care about Felix's literal one) and mad at the wanton destruction, they track down the perpetrator. During this time Mannfred had commandeered a ship and put the crew under his thrall (through a mix of vampire charm and the threat of gruesome death) and sailed to a hidden base. Gotrek and Felix track him down to his lair twice. First time he flees after getting a small cut from Gotrek's axe. The second time Gotrek temporarily loses the axe and forced Mannfred to flee by beating him with a pair of silver candlesticks. Mannfred goes into hiding while Gotrek and Felix go to do their thing in later books.

===[[Blood Of Sigmar]]===
Despite the interference of Gotrek and Felix, Mannfred kept his resurrection under wraps in the same manner as the Skaven keep their existence. He actively recruited all Vampires from any Bloodline, assassinating or sabotaging any who didn't sign up with him while avoiding direct conflict with the other Bloodlines. Von Carsteins were bullied back into the chain of command, and Mannfred began his war by attacking the Dwarfs and kidnapping [[Everqueen|Aliathra]], Everqueen heir to the [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|High Elves]] using a prodded force of greenskins and [[Heinrich Kemmler]].

The sun stopped rising in Sylvania and Vampires became openly active again. Mannfred openly seceded Sylvania from the Empire in 2522 by sending a letter to Karl Franz - [[Grimdark|a letter written in blood on human skin, stuffed down the throat of a Witch Hunter's corpse which was dropped into parliament hall by a Terrorgheist]] - where he declared himself leader of Sylvania at the same time as he stole the Crown Of Sorcery AKA Nagash's favorite tiara. [[Volkmar The Grim]] attempted a crusade against Sylvania, but the force was defeated and he was taken captive. [[Balthasar Gelt]] created a giant magical wall trapping the Undead within Sylvania. Mannfred responded by using the blood of Volkmar, the [[Fey Enchantress]], and Aliathra to create a giant wall of bones inside Sylvania preventing the living from entering.

===[[The End Times]]===
(Fuck this shit, I'm not writing it.)

Short version: Arkhan and Mannfred broke through Gelt's wall and successfully brought Nagash back. Nagash brought Vlad back, which was awesome. Vlad took over Sylvania from Mannfred, which is even better. But then the world ended, everyone died and it was Mannfred's fault.

===[[Age of Sigmar]]===
Bloodlines no longer exist as of AoS since nobody is keeping track of lineage, just loyalty (so far, it is possible for GW to bring back the idea later since it has not been stated they have abandoned the idea). Some Vampires such as Neferata survived the end of the world and the ensuing new timeline, now being far more ancient than the rest of the ancient beings in the setting. Some such as Mannfred were resurrected by Nagash.

Technically speaking the Von Carsteins “exist” in the sense that Mannfred is still around, languishing in a place of torment in Nagash’s own version of hell. Its unlikely humans would survive there making it a Bloodline of one at the time, but he has since sided with anyone against Nagash and any mortals he turns are now part of the Von Carsteins. Since Games Workshop has not committed to which specific characters didn't survive the ET, any character can and sporadically has returned so Vlad, Isabella, Konrad, even the named redshirts from past obscure lore, could all be brought back into the story at any time. After getting out of his punishment Mannfred founded a realm called Carstinia which was similar to Sylvania. He was served by vampiric servants, turned in yes-men and made to look like all the other von Carsteins including Vlad, Isabella and Konrad. However Mannfred eventually accepted how hollow his fantasy was and rarely spends time in Carstinia anymore.

That being said, the rest of the Vampire Counts (thus far, since they seem to be making shit up as they go) are Nagash’s and serve under Neferata, with the exception of the “Flesh-eater Courts” which are Ushoran’s. While Ushoran turns his own Vampires which are as a result technically Strigoi, the rest of the Courts are made up of those who have been infected by his madness which spreads like psychic AIDS wherever he or his servants go; while any race, any Bloodline, can end up infected and among his Courts, it requires a willing act of eating food at one of their feasts to seal the deal.

==Relations==
* Chaos
** [[Beastmen]]
*** Vampire encounters with Beastmen in lore are rare, since both tend to serve the purpose as "guys attacking the Empire" although in [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] Isabella remarks that "They would be beautiful if they weren't so disgusting."
** [[Chaos Dwarfs]]
*** Chaos Dwarfs have no concern or interest in the Von Carsteins.
** [[Daemons]]
*** Daemons have virtually nothing to do with the Von Carsteins as Vampires are outside of the cycle of life and death, their souls never returning to the Warp.
** [[Warriors Of Chaos]]
*** The WoC have no concern or interest in the Von Carsteins prior to End Times, when they became rival forces.
* [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dwarfs]]
** Von Carsteins antagonize the Dwarfs a great deal, and the Dwarfs aid the Empire whenever they can. As a result the relationship is quite unfriendly and the Dwarfs are more likely to attack the VCs than the other VC Bloodlines.
* Elves
** [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|High Elves]]
*** Prior to the taking of the Everprincess by Mannfred, the Von Carsteins were not a concern of the Asur so long as the Empire was still a buffer against Chaos. Afterwards they are one of the worst enemies, second only to the Dark Elves.
** [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dark Elves]]
*** Dark Elves have no concern or interest in the Von Carsteins. Would probably mad enough to trade with them like any vampire pirate they encountered.
** [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Wood Elves]]
*** Wood Elves have no concern or interest in the Von Carsteins, but will still kill them on sight like any undead since the taint of undeath kills their trees. Similar incident happened when Heinrich raised a bunch of wraith and killed a lot of trees and elves in the [[Athel Loren]].
* Humans
** [[Bretonnia]]
*** The Von Carsteins have almost no contact with Bretonnia, being geographically separated and having no reason to go after the Frenchies when the Germans are still putting up a fight. Still, they would disavow them if they ever met due to their decree against all undead as well as the similar experience they had with the mousillon undead.
** The Empire
*** The main enemy of the Von Carsteins, seen by the VCs as uppity livestock wandering the fields without masters.
* [[Lizardmen]]
** Lizardmen have no concern or interest in the Von Carsteins, but will probably still kill them on sight since they are not part of the old one's plan. Plus, lizardmen already had the similar experience with a vampire pirate known as Luthor Harkon, who set up a remote port base on their backyard.
* [[Ogre Kingdoms]]
** Ogre mercenaries in the Empire, as well as the population living in Ostland, would be concerned about the Vampire Counts but the Kingdoms themselves are likely to work alongside the Von Carsteins as they are to be against them.
* [[Orcs & Goblins]]
** Lack of fucks given. Just another enemy to fight. But their relationship were much better when Azhag had Nagash's crown and the
Von Carstein wants it for their master's resurrection.
* [[Skaven]]
** Skaven are generally concerned by the undeads due to their history with that particular frightened lich known as [[Nagash]]. Outside of Mordheim they would not acting directly against the Von Carsteins or any other undead in particular since they can't eat their corpses for food. That is unless they carry warp stones.
* [[Tomb Kings]]
The Tomb Kings see them like they do any other vampires, enemy number one (though some of the more unscrupulous Tomb Kings may work with Von Carsteins, [[Settra the Imperishable|Settra]] has [[Blam|a zero-tolerance policy on vampires and working with them]]). However, being geographically separated means their forays are usually limited to small expeditions. Prior to the End Times, their only interactions were Mannfred stealing some scrolls from their tombs to prepare for Konrad's inevitable downfall and a team-up of Khalida and Arkhan the Black to hunt down a Von Carstein vampire with one of Nagash's staffs.
* Vampire Counts
** [[Strigoi]]
*** While the Von Carsteins had nothing to do with their fall, they have still managed to become a hated enemy. Wandering Strigoi find themselves manipulated into being pawns or simply eliminated to prevent them from bringing unwanted attention from the Empire to the region. Or simply because the Strigoi doesn't know when to stop regarding feeding on the peasants, possibly getting a delicious maiden or elderly warrior that someone who could ''appreciate'' the meal could have had. Strigoi in return hate the rich fucks in their fancy castles while they're stuck shivering in cold damp caves.
** [[Lahmian]]
*** The second main enemy of the Von Carsteins after the Empire. While the Von Carsteins want to kick [[Karl Franz]] off the throne of the Empire, stick his head on a pike, and make the architecture look like Tim Burton's Dracula wet dream the Lahmians have already taken over the Empire. As well as Bretonnia, Cathay, some Dwarf Holds, part of Ulthuan, and just about everything else not affiliated with Chaos. The two are direct rivals for power, the Von Carsteins pretending to be vampire overlords in crumbling castles while Lahmians pretend to be human overlords in well-furnished and modern decorated castles. Much of the intrigue not related to ruling the world of both Bloodlines is against each other, with a small amount left for kicking Strigoi in the teeth for lulz.
** [[Blood Dragon]]
*** Despite the Dracula connection, Blood Dragons have almost no meaning to Von Carsteins. Neither factors into the plans of the other, neither are a nuisance to the other, and generally speaking there's no known conflict between the two.
** [[Necrarch]]
*** Necrarchs have the same relationship with the Von Carsteins that they do the other Bloodlines (Strigoi excluded). Necrarchs build monsters or discover new spells, they sell them to the Von Carsteins for gold or supplies. While in theory a rivalry with a resurrected Nagash (that the Necrarchs worship) would cause a conflict, in End Times the Necrarchs joined the Von Carstein bloodline but otherwise stayed in the background.

==Armies==
The Von Carsteins, as the posterboy faction, use every option available to the Vampire Counts. In particular they use Corpse Carts, Black Coaches, and Vargheists, all inventions of the Von Carsteins although later they were adopted by other Bloodlines. Even Bloodline-specific options like the Strigoi Ghoul Kings can be coerced into Vlad or Mannfred's armies (or just be among the more insane of the Sylvanians turned into the family).

{{Vampire-Counts-Bloodlines}}
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Vampire Counts]]

Vampire Counts

2020-08-30T12:46:35Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* Vampire Bloodlines */

[[Image:WHFBVampire.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Let us go out this evening for pleasure... The night is still young!]]
{{Topquote|Death is the one predator we can't escape. But vampires have found the loophole so many of us crave. I think that's the allure of vampirism.|Sherrilyn Kenyon}}
{{Topquote|A great deal of struggle and sorrow in the world comes from misguided feelings of pride of ownership and possessiveness.|Bryant H McGill}}
{{Topquote|He roused from a joyous dream of feasting, of drinking blood and sucking warm marrow from the bone. His sons and daughters swarmed like ants upon the surface of the Earth, ripe in their terror, delectable in their anguish. He swept them into his mouth and their insides ran in black streams between his lips and matted his beard. This sweet dream rapidly slipped away as he stretched and assessed his surroundings. He shambled forth from the great cavern in the mountain that had been his home for so long.|Laird Barron}}

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTKRDZ_8Qek I reject my humanity!].

The '''Vampire Counts''' are the [[Tomb Kings|non-Egyptian]] Undead of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Due to them being..."heavily inspired" by the boom of [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] in the early '90s, the 1994 release of the 4th edition <strike>bit off</strike> borrowed the use of Vampiric "families" leading back to a sole "ancestor". The idea was <strike>sucked up by</strike> popular among the Warhammer community and as a result Vampires split from the mummies in 5e 1999 with the first Vampire Counts Army Book.

The Vampire Counts are your classic, blood-sucking Slavic fiends and total fucking badasses who almost took over the entire fucking Old World (Warhammer Europe) multiple times before the armies of [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|mankind]] and their [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dwarfish]] allies got their shit together. Ruthless, intelligent, strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Ogres and evil as hell (except for a few questionably neutral characters), most of the Vampire Counts in the Warhammer universe long to plunge the entire world into a holocaust of darkness and despair, ensuring that the entire land is wholly under their thumb and the foolish mortals know their place as slaves and food. Others pursue dark knowledge for its own sake, like a Lich with a good (but not great) moisturizer; some want to control the entire planet in the shadows like a far more efficient Illuminati, or simply want to tear down the motherfuckers who have it better than themselves. Regardless of motives or behavior, all Vampires suffer from a strong sense of pride and possession; servants and allied are belongings, either as tools or luxury items/pets, and a sense of camaraderie with any other being is extremely rare. But on the plus side all Vampires are free from the cycle of death (as with the right ritual ANY Vampire can be resurrected and there's plenty of downtrodden mortals clamoring to become a powerful Vampire's favorite servant) and [[Chaos]] (which can provide them blessings if served willingly but cannot actually interact with their soul; but given the aforementioned pride and entitlement, few Vampires would revere even a Chaos God as their superior and pledge any loyalty to it).

Basically, it's an entire army of Gothic Horror Vampire lords, seeking to kill and conquer nations not just to appease their own massive egos and pride, but to ensure their all-encompassing need to feed. The classic intelligent monsters and consummate overlords of evil, WHFB's Vampire Counts are pretty much the best of what Vampires can be, and sure as fuck a welcome departure from [[Twilight|this shit]].

==History==
[[Image:Nagash.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Three thousand years later, still a pain in the ass. ([[Mark Gibbons|MG]])]]
A long-as-hell time ago, even by Warhammer Fantasy standards since most human history is in the living memory of Dwarfs and Elves but this story begins alongside THEIR prehistory, there was a powerful Priest of Khemri named [[Nagash]], who was such a thorough badass that he became not only the first Necromancer in Warhammer Fantasy's universe, but literally created the first undead. He learned his Dark Arts from a trio of Dark Elven Sorceresses, who taught him how to manipulate the energies of [[Chaos]] using dark rituals involving heresy and human sacrifice. He killed them in a magical duel, poisoning one, ripping another to shreds, and crushing the third before consuming their souls; many on [[/tg/]] would say this is ''the'' way to deal with an [[Elf]].

After this, there was no stopping the guy - he communed with Daemons and the spirits of the dead, seized the kingdom for himself from his brother, and used his Necromantic magic to greatly expand his own lifespan. During his tenure as King of Khemri, Nagash decided it would be an awesome idea to run the kingdom as a real-life version of [[Dwarf Fortress]], [[Grimdark|and all that it implies]]. He soon had the idea for the creation of a massive megaproject: a necropolis made of pure [[Warpstone]] AKA evil magic meth plutonium that came to be known as the Black Pyramid, so named for the black Warpstone that made it up. Suffice to say, his blatant evil scared the shit out of the other kingdoms around Khemri, and -undoubtedly jealous of his epic pyramid- they attempted to kill him. Hell, Nagash was so damn terrifying that the Skaven all united against him, which is probably the only time in history the paranoid little freaks have ever been completely united for any cause at all. Despite having an army of the dead and loyal followers like [[Arkhan the Black]], Nagash was finally deposed, though he fled and would eventually emerge once more as the first Lich, continuing to, as many threats in the Warhammer universe have, be a constant thorn in the side of the armies of man forever until the [[End Times|end of fucking time]]...[[Age of Sigmar|and beyond]].

After the fall of Nagash, the Black Pyramid went undisturbed for years, since nobody wanted anything to do with a giant monolith that was related to an insane necromancer who pretty much came within striking distance of ruling all the desert kingdoms. Eventually a spoiled princess from one of the neighboring kingdoms named [[Neferata]] who had been put in charge of interrogating Nagash's sidekick Arkhan channeled her inner Tomb Raider, breaking in and making off with some of Nagash's magic books, which were later called the Nine Books of Nagash (guess how many there were). Delving into the corrupt lore she found within the tome, Neferata discovered a recipe for the Elixir of Life, a blood-draught that would extend one's lifespan. Doing her own research on it and "refining" it alongside the now-infatuated Arkhan, she eventually created a new version of the Elixir -called the Elixir of Damnation using venom from the scorpion tails of Sphinxes- and then downed it. It almost killed her (permanently) until with Arkhan she managed to overcome the sickness and became an unliving nigh-demigod.

Later she shared it with many of her court (after killing her douchebag brother and taking the throne) which created the very first Vampires, most of whom would found their own Bloodlines by turning mortals which then inherited their strengths, weaknesses, and predilections (how generations after the first are turned isn't known, although it involves drinking the blood of their "parent" and something else since without that something else they either just become a feral brute with a short lifespan or get a pleasurable high; volume of Vampire blood drunk may be the difference). Unfortunately we don't know for certain how many or what the names of most of the other Vampire originals are since each time a complete list was given it mostly consisted of a different number of entirely different names. We know the captain of the guard [[Abhorash]] was turned and that he founded the [[Blood Dragons]], her high priest [[W'soran]] who would found the [[Necrarchs]] was turned and began to worship Nagash as a god, her younger brother [[Ushoran]] who was a diplomancing seducer was turned and would create the [[Strigoi]], her husband [[Vlad von Carsteim|Vashanesh]] (although another version names him Ankhat and states he was her attendant) was turned with him founding the [[Von Carsteins]], and Neferata herself created the [[Lahmians]]. She had a [[Cathay|Cathayan AKA not-Chinese]] Vampire who she sent on the Warhammer Silk Road to give her control of the east, and in most versions had a female attendant turned for some classic Vampire bisexual fun.

The additional Vampires in the first batch are possibly: [[Maatmeses]], [[Naamia]], [[Prince Xian Ha Feng]], [[Harakhte]], [[Zhuras]].
Maatmeses and Harakhte have their own Bloodlines, the [[Maatmasi]] and [[Jade-Blooded]] respectively which were created for the [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] supplement [[Night's Dark Masters]], but did not make it into the book and instead were released later individually; whether or not this is canon is debatable since the founders are canon to [[Black Library]]. Another unnamed seven were created after the first, and two vials were sent with Prince Xian Ha Feng to Cathay <strike>to give players a blank check to make OC Bloodlines</strike> for unknown reasons.

Naturally, this massive population boom in immortal superpowerful bloodsuckers led to problems. The seeming eternal youthfulness of Neferata and her ilk were hard enough to ignore, but the rampant feeding of their followers quickly became too much to turn a blind eye to. When confronted Neferata herself tried to forcefully convert her cousin, [[Khalida]], and failed. Suffice to say, the other armies of the desert kingdoms of Nehekhara eventually fell upon the vampires of Lahmia like sacks of thunder, and they wound up scattering, regrouping only when they met up with the now-undead Nagash in his new undead warpstone Dwarf Fortress megaproject of Nagashizzar. The Vampires quickly became generals of Nagash's armies, and, with the overpowering forces they added to Nagash's cause, turned on the combined armies of Nehekhara in vengeance, poisoning the land itself, transforming it into a realm of eternal death and began to systematically usher in what would have led to a global zombie apocalypse if not for the intervention of [[Skaven]]-brand dickery. With Nagash out of the picture -albeit temporarily- the Vampires swiftly turned to in-fighting and scattered to the far corners of the world.

But not being one to let death keep him down for long, Nagash came back, weakened, but still 1,000 years more pissed off than last time. Losing was ''not'' fun to Nagash, and so he went skele-balls deep into Reclaim Fortress Mode to retake Nagashizzar in a single night. But all of his cool artifacts, their craftundeadship being of the highest quality, had been stolen while he has napping. Marshaling another huge undead army to repossess everything that had been pilfered, he sent out word to his Vampire peeps that he was going to fuck up the [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|Empire]] next. This advance was short-lived - as [[Sigmar]] showed up, and, when Nagash called for their aid, the Vampires were too arrogant to actually help out, and Sigmar smashed him down in short order. In retaliation for this double-dickery, Nagash laid out a curse on the Vampires for this offense: for their refusal to come to his aid, they would forever be weak against the power of Sigmar, being vulnerable to sunlight and all sorts of bizarre shit that came in the undead mind of that autistic manchild. The Undead advance fell apart quicker than [[Boatmurdered]], and the bulk of the Vampires retreated to the lands of Sylvania, where the various Vampires would continue to follow their own agendas, not unlike [[Orks|several]] [[Dark Eldar|unrelated]] [[Chaos Space Marines|groups]] in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe.

There they continued to menace the armies of man with periodic invasions of undead, death, and horror for over 2,500 years. With potentially eternal life to bide their time, all they had to do was quit fucking each other over and amass their forces to wait for a [[Nagash#The End Times|supreme leader]] to unite the [[Undead_Legion|armies of undeath]] under one banner once more. I mean, [[Warhammer:_Age_of_Sigmar|what could possibly go wrong?]]

==Here be Sparkles==
[[Image:VampFB.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Fuck yes.]]
One important thing about WHFB vampires is that being turned into one does not automatically turn you evil. It does crank all your personality traits to eleven, almost to a caricature level, so for example a [[Abhorash|noble warrior]] turns into a combat maniac with a stick so deep in his ass it could be seen when he smiles, a [[Konrad von Carstein|petty bully with insecurity issues]] becomes a sadistic psychopath murder machine who does whack shit like having his own mother executed for giving birth to him without his permission, and a [[Neferata|slick politician]] turns into Machiavelian schemer who wraps entire nations in her web of multi-layered intrigues. Similarly a [[Genevieve Sandrine du Pointe du Lac Dieudonné|good person]] given the blood kiss may as well turn into unbearably saintly do-gooder going beyond reason to fight the Thirst and help innocent people. Of course vampirism does not grant the immunity to character development, and feeding on humans, having magical powers, superhuman strength, speed and immortality eventually change ''most'' to the worst, pretty much the same way normal people get mad with power. Still, if one just wants to live peacefully with human society, nothing stops him, providing they have the self discipline to resist the rampant thirst or substitute human blood with animal blood, which can do the job even if it is not as invigorating, or at least get human blood through a second hand market, such as mortuaries. Well, there are also Witch Hunters and angry mobs with torches and pitchforks, so it could take a bit of finesse to hide your vampirism. There are hundreds of vampires living peacefully in the Empire and pretty much all other human nations (except Norskans and Kurgan) - and in some places they even built their own secret societies with a thriving blood market. These vampires are not actually the part of the Vampire Count factions, and some of the bloodlines view them as traitors to vampire cause, adding one more reason for them to lay low. According to the WHFRP supplement Night's Dark Masters, becoming a vampire also makes a person more prone to violence, since it essentially makes you immune to being traumatized by blood, gore and death.

Even when it comes to the "evil" vampires, most of them have much more humanity left in them than your average Chaos Lord, and are capable of acts of true selflessness and compassion, especially if it concerns their loved ones or faithful subjects. Neferata herself originally did all that fucked up shit she did out of love for her motherland, as did Ushoran, and Vlad von Karstein even sacrificed himself to save his wife. This does not, however, change the fact that they see humans as pets at best and would not mind slaughtering thousands of them to further their own goals. Still, even Mannfred, who's most undoubtedly the most irredeemably evil vampire ever, is nowhere close to the kinds of evil Nagash did while he was still human.

== Vampire Bloodlines ==
* '''[[Von Carstein]]'''
The Von Carsteins are your old-school Vampires of the Dracula-inspired "I VANT TO SUCK YOUR BLOOD!" "ZEEE CHIIILLLDREEN OF THE NIIGHTTT VAT SVEET MUZIC DEY MAKE" variety, and their members are more or less parodies of nobility. Since their roots are very recent as opposed to the other major bloodlines which all began at the beginning of the vampire race, they're sort of the nouveau riche of the vampires. [[Vlad von Carstein]], the head of the family, was the one who first tainted the human aristocracy of [[Old World|Sylvania]] with undeath leading them to become the badass European Vampires they'd eventually become. Vlad took a wife (willingly) named [[Isabella von Carstein]] and set out on the first vampire offensive to conquer the [[Empire]]. The Von Carsteins are kind of unusual in that they realized that keeping the living populace safe meant easier meals. This didn't mean they eased up on being badass, however - instead, Vlad, and [[Konrad von Carstein|two]][[Mannfred von Carstein|of]] his "sons" violently and/or politically brought a lot of the rebellious nobles in line and actually managed to unify much of Sylvania's vampire nobility for a while during their reigns. When Vlad himself was killed by Wilhelm the Third, his wife Isabella killed herself because she didn't want to be without him, most of their vampiric get squabbled until Konrad, who is in many respects analogous to a WHFB version of [[Kharn]] [[Skub|(but completely and utterly stupid in a number of ways)]], took power and quickly caused the advance to grind to a screeching halt. Konrad eventually got killed (ridiculously), and Mannfred arose, and managed to come back after two major defeats and continue trying to claim the Empire- before changing his mind and resurrecting Nagash, becoming one of his Mortarchs. Von Carsteins use all Vampire Count models in their army, making them the default faction.

* '''[[Lahmian]]'''
The Lahmians, named for the monster that drinks the blood of Children, are an almost entirely-female (although there ARE males) vampire clan, who descended from [[Queen Neferata]], the woman who started the vampires off in the first place. They are the spy bloodline, keeping humans as happy pets and living in comfortable heated estates instead of crumbling castles. They don't tend to be directly involved in big events, primarily spending their time controlling every government in the world through spies and politics and focusing on maintaining the status quo of happy, stupid, pretty humans. Having pissed off just about every other Vampire clan due to their involvement with this nonsense, Neferata's openly-vampiric followers currently occupy the once-dwarven lands of the World's Edge Mountains (Erryone is getting [[Book of Grudges|grudged!]]). Lahmian groups tend to rely more on psychological effects like Beguile as well as spellcasting, and any non-vampires in the army are ghosts that can be dismissed or skeletons that can be buried or told to lay still until given orders and be told to sit in the crypt to be passed off as inanimate ancestors when Witch Hunters come to investigate them.

* '''[[Blood Dragon]]'''
Formed by [[Abhorash]], the [[Fist of the North Star|fuckingest]] of Vampire Warriors, the Blood Dragons are the martial vampires, and fucking awesome. Honorable to a fault, though still mostly evil-as-hell, they will never refuse a challenge and excel at absolutely curb-stomping anything put against them in combat. Consummate warriors, they live to fight, and they believe that only cowards feed upon the weak - the only ones that Blood Dragons will willingly feed on are powerful warriors and monsters (from both Destruction and the Order alignments of the game). As such, they are capable of resisting the thirst better than the other clans, and, due to their badassery, are arguably one of the two favorite factions of Vampires for /tg/ in the setting.

* '''[[Necrarch]]'''
Following distantly in the footsteps of Nagash, the Necrarchs are Necromancer vampires and loremasters. Whereas other Vampires focus on sorcery, martial pride, or a mix of the two, the Necrarchs focus entirely on Necromancy and thus have vast armies of the undead at their disposal. A common joke is that they'd be studious gits and/or faggots.... If they didn't [[/tg/ gets shit done|GET SHIT DONE]]. They give even less shit about the thirst than the Blood Dragons, often being too consumed in their researches and experiments to remember about it, and as a result they look like withered corpses most of the time, and for most of them this becomes the permanent state, so even if the do start feeding properly they would not revert to human-like looks.

* '''[[Strigoi]]'''
The Strigoi are horrid-looking mutant Vampires, closer to Ghouls than traditional Vampire-kind. They not only drink their prey's blood - they go all the fuck out and devour their prey's flesh as well. They eat anything alive or un-alive, including other vampires and each other. Hated and feared even by their own kind, they are easily the kings of [[Rip and Tear|ripping and Tearing]] and have more Ghouls at their disposal than any other bloodline. Do not let the fact that they are freakish abominations convince you that they are not FUCKING BADASS. They tend to rampage wherever the fuck they want, and as a result they step on the toes of the other bloodlines a fair amount. A common tactic is for the bloodline finding them inconvenient is to send them to another bloodline to be dealt with, killing a bird and annoying another with one stone.

*'''Miscellaneous'''
There are other, smaller bloodlines. All of them are recent and not strong enough to warrant much attention. Among them are a group of vampire [[pirate]]s, vampire [[Warriors of Chaos|Norsemen]], and [[Games Workshop|bloodsucking Brits living in Albion]]. There are also two more major bloodlines that live in Ind and [[Cathay]]. The Cathayan vampires are the closest we get to "good guys" among the undead (barring exceptions like [[Genevieve Sandrine du Pointe du Lac Dieudonné|Genevieve]]), being on generally good terms with the Dragon Emperor as long as they stay out of his way. Many of them are nobles and heroes, though they take great pains to conceal their undead nature. The Indan Vampires are worshiped as one of the many gods of that strange land, and are said to resemble wampyres.

==On the Tabletop==
''See [[Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts|Tactics/Vampire Counts]]''

Originally vampires were but just a cog in the greater Undead army. But come sixth edition Undead had been schismed into two armies, with the Vampire Counts getting the lion's share while those [[Tomb Kings|fucking mummies]] made off with what scant few ranged options Undead ever had. But we all know who got the last laugh in [[The End Times|the end]].

==See Also==
* [[Abhorash]], the most badass Vampire in all of Warhammer.
* [[Vlad von Carstein]], also known as Chad von Carstein.
* [[Isabella von Carstein]], Vlad's bitch.
* [[Konrad von Carstein]], bucking the Warhammer trend of Too Dumb To Live in favor of Too Insane To Live.
* [[Mannfred von Carstein]], also known as Mannchild. Directly responsible for the last chance of saving the world failing.
* [[Ushoran]], the unluckiest of the bunch.
* [[W'soran/Melkhior]], nerd.
* [[Neferata]], the mommy of all Vampires.

==External Links==
[http://www.vampirecounts.net/index.php| Carpe Noctem, the main Vampire Counts army forum]

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Vampire Counts]]

Vampire

2020-08-30T12:32:48Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* The /tg/ Invasion */

[[File:Dracula1.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Bela Lugosi from Dracula (1931). THE OG "classic" gothic vampire.]]
{{topquote|There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, To devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.|Proverbs 30:13}}
'''Vampires''' are mythical creatures and/or people that are known as being malevolent, though the degree of this ranges from someone being forced to drink the blood of others to rage-filled cannibals who are more animal than human.

Vampires mean many things to many people, although they generally have a Gothic aesthetic, but can go from cartoony villains to horrifying monsters.

==Vampires As We Know Them==

===Vampires in anime===
While Japan may have their share of silly vampires, they mostly respected the traditional image of modern vampires. here are some of the traits you may find when looking through weeaboo media:
*Undulated light-colored hair (white, blueish white or light blonde) when it isn't pitch-black
*Red eyes (may brighten when showing strong emotions)
*Long sharp nails
*Pallid skin with fair if slightly sickly features
*White fangs (duh!)
*Bat wings (sometimes may be feathered wings)
*Very very rich (because long term interests are easy when you are a couple of centuries old, may or may not even be the bank owners)
*Preference of early modern age European customs and dresses (may feature black and red)
*Usually of British or west Slavic ascendancy
*May or may not be real nobility
*Crosses (Apparently it doesn't affect them since they aren't christian...)
*Mockingly suave in times of peace, very cultured
*Ferociously sadist when fighting, the beast is unleashed
*Extremely strong close combat and lighting speed
Of course not all anime and manga or [[Touhou|vydiagaem]] vampires fit to the T with this list, but they will have most of this characteristics, expect them to be proficient fighters with all the advantages of old vampires and enough brains to not to fall to cheap tricks such as exposing themselves to the sun due some silly accident.

===Hellsing===
[[File:AlucardHellsing.png|300px|thumb|right|''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GbnMSGXEyE Come on! Get up! Attack me! You've only suffered the loss of your legs! Summon up your familiars! Transform your body! Heal your severed legs and stand!]'']]
A great example of vampires done by Japan right comes from a manga called Hellsing, which focused on a gunslinging "domesticated" vampire named Alucard who works for an organization of vampire hunters. The Hellsing manga follows the story of the Hellsing Organization, a British family-run organization incharge of killing supernatural threats to the British empire. In the manga's case, they fight a 50-year old batallion of artificial vampire [[nazi]]s originally meant to turn the tide of the war (called "The Last Batallion"), under the command of an SS major, who wants to kill Alucard for ruining the original Last Battalion project, and just for the lulz.

Alucard himself is a blood-crazed, warmongering maniac that makes the archetype 90s anti-hero look tame by comparison, even if the villains in the series were even worse than him. He somewhat follows the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with him being Vlad the Impaler in life before getting killed and becoming Dracula in death ("Alucard" is Dracula backwards), but is instead compelled to serve humans rather than being axed off outright.

Just an example of his insanity and his level of dickishness is that he is completely immortal, even by vampire standards, capable of even surviving methods designed to kill vampires, from stakes to the heart to beheadings with blessed equipment. Then AGAIN, this is because he can use the millions of souls he has consumed over 5 centuries to shield him, making him the most powerful vampire in existence bar none. Despite being able to kill any foe he desires in the blink of an eye, he will instead allow them a hollow chance at killing him, [[Rape|only to get back up, show them a fraction of his power, and proceed to slowly dismember and humiliate them before finally killing them, just for the lulz]]. Ohh, and he also transforms into a [[Touhou|little girl]] when it fancies him ([[Pretend|Although keeping his masculine voice while in this form]]). Truly the vampire all of /tg/ asked for.

There's also the deuteragonist Seras Victoria, a british cop-girl-turned-vampire sired by Alucard himself after "saving" her (which is in quotes because he fatally shot her in the first place on purpose) from being molested and murdered by another vampire. She originally started off as the hapless minion of her master, but becomes murder on legs after she unlocked her true power as a vampire, most notably by [[Khorne|literally grinding someone's face off by dragging their face against a wall at high speed]]. Seras is notable for being the plucky comic relief and fan service character despite being an undead creature of the night, and still being an upbeat and decent individual in spite of the former and all of the fucked up shit going on around her.

The series had anime adaption made, but like many animes based on mangas, it started to run out of material and started making its own, which divided fans of the manga, and ended after only 13 episodes. Four years later we got a more faithful adaptation called in the form of series of <s>direct to video movies</s> ''they're called Original Video Animations and they're nowhere near as shitty as direct to video movies are implied to be'' called Hellsing Ultimate. <s>Even though most these haven't been released stateside</s> Since watching dubbed anime is for scrubs even if Hellsing's dub is markedly better than most others, any decent anime fan site will still have them subtitled, so if you want to watch them, you don't have to look to far (Although Crispin Freeman's voice acting for Alucard is the shit, compared to his equally good Japanese counterpart). So go watch them. That's an order.
And here's to get you started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNLuGfIb5Do '''(Well shit. Seems like the copyright goblins have struck again.)

'''TL;DR''' What if Bram Stoker's Dracula didn't get killed but sealed by Van Helsing, who converted to Protestantism and moved to Britain? Spoiler: This means Mina Harker is a vampire too, and her corpse is used by the Third Reich to synthesize their own vampires.

===Warhammer===
{{main|Vampire Counts}}

[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] plays up the horror aspects of the vampires to 11, knowing that it's what makes them a compelling force to play - after all, the one nice thing about being an undead lord of the night is that you get to be a [[Ork|right and propa]] evil overlord about it. vampires in WFB are both hard as nails and are wizards to boot, meaning they cover most bases that other armies have to pick and choose, however being masters of necromancy and all, if the general dies then the rest of the undead army under his command usually starts crumbling to dust (not so much after the return of [[Nagash]] though) unless another vampire/Necromancer can step in and take over. Steven Sevile's vampire trilogy - ''Inheritance'', ''Dominion'', and ''Retribution'' - are great for showing just how monstrous these fiends are.

===Warhammer 40,000===
There were once actually rules for Vampires ''(spelled Vampyre)'' in the 40k universe, taken as supplementary rules for [[Necromunda]] they represented an abhuman subtype who drank blood, had superhuman statlines and raised gangs of thralls to do their bidding. Even a young, pony-tailed [[Gav Thorpe]] got involved with the rules and [[Stat me|wrote up]] a counter character: [[What|B'Ufi the Vampyre Slayer]] which was somehow part of the 40k canon.

Though 40k has generally left Necromunda behind, mention of blood sucking mutants can still be found in [[Dark Heresy]] and one of the [[Imperial Knight|Freeblade Knights]] (the Crimson Reaper) is rumoured to be a Vampyre. Rogue Trader has vampires as [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Vampires Warp-Spawned entities] that change shape and drink the lifeforce of societies they inhabit.

Also, several tabletop factions drink blood as part of their fluff.
[[File:Angelsofblood1.jpg|250px|thumb|right|''"I will drink your blood!"'']]
*[[Blood Angels]] A first-founding chapter who includes blood in many of their chapter themes and rituals (and their successors usually follow this), basically what would happen when you throw Catholicism and Bram Stoker's Dracula in a blender and pressing puree. The Blood Angels have a lot of modern vampiric themes, mixed with angelic elements, from looking eternally youthful, being long-lived (even by Astartes standards), and have an 1-3 chances of developing a need to quench their partially dormant bloodthirst.
*[[Blood Drinkers]] A Blood Angels successor chapter. They have a literal need to drink blood, although unlike their more angelic cousins; they do not do this out of ritual: instead they do it as a way to sate their chapter's innate bloodlust.
*[[Flesh Eaters]] Crappy [[Space Marines]] who like to eat flesh. Especially if it's raw.
*[[Dark Eldar]] While not bloodsuckers, although they might drink their victim's blood if it fancies them; the Dark Eldar partake in a sort of "emotional vamprism" on their hosts to sustain themselves. Said vamprism is carried out usually by ''slowly'' torturing the host until he's dead. They also follow the "classic" vampire aesthetics, being a bunch of long-lived, crazy arrogant, pale and nimble wannabe-aristocrats. They even come back from dead in a process which involves crystal coffins.

=== Dungeons & Dragons ===

Vampires have been around in pretty much every edition of the game. They get a full smorgasboard of powers, including the ability to shapeshift into animals and mist, climb up walls, fast healing, and the ability to not only drain blood but inflict negative levels with their touch, though they usually can't fly unless they shapeshift into something that can. There're also vampire spawn, which are lesser vamps subservient to their creators and reduced versions of most vampiric powers. Most vampires have special weaknesses, but can also be killed by good ol fashioned damage, though a few require extra steps to stay dead.

The gameline also includes a variety of special custom vampires reflecting the dizzying array of bloodsucking undead monsters in world mythology.

Special mention to everyone's favorite master vampire villain, [[Strahd von Zarovich]], and to the Vampire, the awnsheigh from [[Birthright]] where monsters tend to be unique, a tragic figure who hunted down the monster that slew his father, only, in a conflux of different factors, to lose his humanity in the process and become a tyrannical awnsheigh in his own right.

====Vampires in [[4E]]====
Vampires are now a class in 4e. They were introduced in the Heroes of Shadow book, and yes, they are in fact a CLASS now, no longer a template or curse. There is also detailed in the book a new race, "[[Vryloka]]," which are basically vampires in their own right so [[Derp|WHY MAKE VAMPIRE A CLASS]], [[RAGE|I MEAN SERIOUSLY]]. Only in the [[fluff]], Vryloka have the power of vampires, just without the bloodlust. Really? That just sounds stupid on paper. And also stupid in general. We got a fucking ''cornucopia'' of stupid going on here.

The Vampire class has the Shadow power source, and is also a striker, which is apparently all Shadow is good for in 4e, being that all it consists of is Assassins, Executioners (variant Assassins from the ''Heroes of Shadow''), Vampires, and [[Blackguard]]s, all of which are strikers for fuck-all reason. WOTC explained that they named the class Vampire because they really wanted the players to feel like they were playing one, as most of the powers are based on vampiric lore (turning into bats, mist, wolves, drinking blood to gain healing surges). If so, they still could have come up with an original fucking name either way and kept the fluff relatively the same. This also means that Vampires (the class, that is) cannot be mages or knights without using hybrid classes.

Then there's the ''Vampiric Heritage'' feat, which lets any humanoid gain +2 to Perception and Insight checks to find undead while also getting Blood Drain (Encounter Attack; Str/Dex/Con +2/tier vs Reflex when grabbing someone, deals 1d4/tier + Con Mod damage and lets you spend a [[healing surge]]). This already is a step above the class by not hamstringing you with the shittiest number of surges in existence and an absolutely pitiful selection of powers. You also get access to the Blood Knight [[Paragon Path]] and a few extra feats, though some of them are kinda naff:
*Vampire Alacrity (+1 Speed)
*Mist Form (Requires level 10; replace a level 10 or lower utility power with Mist Form, a sustainable daily power that renders you insustantial with a hovering speed of 8 squares but forbids you from attacking)
*Night's Sight (Gain darkvision)
*Bloodied Regeneration (Requires paragon tier; replace a level 10 or lower utility power with Bloodied Regeneration, a daily utility power that grants you regeneration 5 until you aren't bloodied anymore)
*Domineering Gaze (Requires level 15; replaces a level 15 or lower utility power with Domineering Gaze, a daily ranged 5 attack that uses a mental stat +4 (+6 in epic) vs Will that inflicts either save-ends Dominated (downgraded to save-ends dazed after making the save) or save-ends dazed)
*Savage Bite (Requires paragon tier; you can now use your power on anyone you have combat advantage over)

This also raises a question: Since vampirism was already present in 4e by way of heritage feats (which was already a decently-received idea that enabled for diversity in builds), why not simply expand on that idea instead of introducing both a race AND class that are both vampires? Or better yet, why not make vampire a race in the same way that [[Revenant]] is (that is, you choose which race you are a revenant of and can select that race's feats)? As the system is, it is possible to make a Vryloka with Vampire class and the Vampiric Heritage feat, meaning you can gain utility and attack powers that all relate to being a vampire from three different sources with one character.

Another, better idea than they did was themes: optional features that give players a bit more unique character fluff, that came with at least one additional power and others to choose from as you leveled up. Why couldn't they have done this with Vampire? It would have cut down on the feat expenditure, enabled access to unique powers without being shoehorned into any crap class, and offers all the benefits of each without any drawbacks.

[[Tl;dr]] There's a Vampire class, it is stupid, blame Essentials.

{{D&D4-Classes}}

===The Dresden Files===
A number of species (or "Courts) of vampires exist in the [[The Dresden Files RPG|The Dresden Files]]. While the RPG isn't on the neckbeard's essentials list, the novel series is on /tg/'s approved literature list, and the rich background made from the 15 and counting books, numerous short stories, and a few other forms of media is rife with nasties. This includes a number of species that fall under the umbrella of vampires. It should be noted that while they're largely unrelated, vampires have a few thing in common: each Court is essentially a family clan or a close-knit set of family groups; they feed on humans in various ways; they're agelessly immortal; the older they are, the more powerful and more influential in court politics they are.

====The Black Court====
The Draculas. Meant almost unironically. The Black Court are what we normally think of with the pop cultural vampire: blood drinking, moldering corpses with superpowers. In addition to the expected super strength, super durability, and super speed, Black Court vampires have a grab bag of superpowers, including subverting the will of humans to make them docile and compliant, or as a Renfield, a physically-empowered beast who is fanatically loyal to their master. Black Court campires are the most powerful, but have the most weaknesses, and it adds up to them being the hardest to fight and easiest to kill. While older, more powerful vampires have some protection against the traditional weaknesses, young vampires have to remain dormant during the daytime. Garlic, sunlight, and getting staked are all lethal, and holy relics are an anathema, and necromantic magic is rumored to be a potent weapon against them. They are also notably vulnerable to more modern means, such as flamethrowers and high explosives. Out of the vampire species, they reproduce the fastest, with victims of their bite getting back up in a matter of minutes and able to create even more Black Court vampires; but the greater their presence means the more attention they draw, meaning the sooner a whole group comes to extinction.

Their rivals in the White Court commissioned Bram Stoker to write the novel ''Dracula'' as an expose on their strengths, weaknesses, and signs that a group (or more correctly, a "scourge") of Black Court vampires have taken up residence in an area. This has lead to the court has largely dying out, and natural selection has left the most powerful, the most cunning, and/or the most discreet vampires being left alive, with the odd exception of a young Black Court vampire popping up to cause trouble when an older vampire finds them useful.

The original vampire of the Black Court has the title of the Black King, and in this case it appears to be the original Dracula. His father, Vlad Dracul was ironically even worse, since he was some ''thing'' of incredible evil that was trapped in human form (most fan theories posit that he was a demon or a dragon, but juries out if he was something else entirely), and since he was incredibly evil, he was a dick to his son. So out of daddy issues, little Vladdy joined the Black Court according to a snarky magical database, but he might have been mistaken about Dracula having ''joined'' the Black Court rather than ''creating'' it, as Word of God later posits that Dracula was the Black Court O.G. Whoever the creator was, the Black Court was apparently created when they had made a deal, if not with the Devil, then with a creature of comparable evil and power. Notably, if Dracula was indeed the founder, that would make this Court just more than 5 centuries old, making them the youngest Court.

====Red Court====
The Red Court are Central American, anthropomorphic bat monsters. Unlike most [[Furry|depictions of anthropomorphic creatures]], Red Court vampires are grotesque creatures with flabby bodies, pot bellies, spindly limbs, and slimy skin. For them, blood is both sustenance and a drug, sometimes having a narcotic effect with dependence potentially being a very real issue; and instances of insanity and mental instability occurring in Red Court vampires in much greater frequency than in other Courts and human populations.

Red Court vampires are less powerful than Black Court vampires, but also have fewer weaknesses. There are a higher number of magic users in the Red Court than in the Black (though thats a given and its unknown if that's per capita, since only about two vampires of the Black Court showed up, and literally hundreds of Reds). They have super strength, but the fact that they still have a mass comparable to a human has been leveraged against them. Their main weaknesses are divine symbols, fire, and sunlight, being damaging against them, and lethal only with sustained exposure (with fire, of course, requiring slightly less sustained exposure). They can also heal pretty quickly, given they have enough blood to metabolize. They can also pose as regular (albeit incredibly attractive) humans with a second skin called a flesh mask, which can be formed at will over a few seconds, and it provides them with some protection from sunlight. Elder vampires are hinted to be able to alter their flesh masks, allowing them to disguise themselves, and occasionally they happen to have other abilities (one vampire could mesmerize people with a look in the eyes, making them see the things she wanted them too). Lastly, they have narcotic saliva, which can be used to make prey more compliant and willing (imagine an incredibly hot individual who has a tongue than makes you feel great, numbed, and willing to go along with their suggestions), and they can create "renfielded" individuals by making them dependent on the effects of their saliva.

Most members of the Red Court are survivors of another Red Courts vampire's bite. These "dhampirs" have super strength, immortality, and super senses. Unfortunately, they also have a huge hankering for blood that they need to resist unless they want to become a vampire themselves. A group of rebellious Red Court dhampirs have gathered together as the Order of Saint Giles and are conducting a centuries-long guerrilla war on the Red Court. If a Red Court dhampir ever drinks blood, that is to make or fail to resist the choice of taking the life of another to sate their thirst, then they become a vampire.

The leadership is based around hierarchical system of nobility, the very top is a council of twelve who took the name of the Lords of Outer Night, and the Red King being placed above them, and he having taken the title of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kukulkan Kukulkan]. Kukulkan has been the Red King for at least 4,000 years, ruling Central American civilizations from the shadows all the while, and nobody is quite certain where he comes from. The Lords of Outer Night have posed themselves as gods, members of one of the Central American patheons (probably Mayan, going by "Kukulkan"), for several thousand years, and the worship and devotion of mortals has allowed them to become deities in their own right; this means they become much more powerful, and exerting their force of will is like a form of telekinesis that most humans don't have a prayer of overcoming. While considered a nation unto themselves, they control several human nations in Central and South America, mostly through secretly pushing their cult and compulsion of key individuals through intimidation, addiction, or promises of vampirism. As a nation, they have several billion dollars worth of resources and entire villages of humans bred like cattle for consumption and occasionally proliferation, [[Grimdark|including children]].

Kukulkan has ruled the red court for his entire life, though through the novels, his subordinates think that it's about time for his tenure to end. By the "present" in the novels, with the possible exception of a few sequel hooked individuals, the Red Court has been driven to extinction.

====The White Court====
Incubi and Succubi. The White Court are psychic vampires that mainly feed on psychic energy, mostly lust and desire. They appear the most human, having no secret form and no distinction except for glowing silver eyes when their powers are activated or their hunger is stoked. White Court vampires are more born than created; the son or daughter of a White Court vampire is a human born with a demonic symbiote called a "Hunger", and it manifests at puberty, and is awakened only when it sates itself for the first time the nascent vampire makes love for the first time. The effect is that their partner is drained to the point of death and the human scion of the White Court is transformed into a vampire. Female White Court vampires appear to be sterile (though this isn't confirmed).

The White Court is, in a few ways, the weakest of the Vampires. They're still physically superior to humans in every way, have an ability to regenerate from injury that's superior to the Red Court and much better than the Black Court, and when their power is activated, their strongest vampires can go toe-to-toe with a Black Court vampire. But every time their power is used, it draws from their Hunger, draining their "battery" each time, and one of the best ways to beat them is to exhaust their Hunger. They can inspire lust and devotion in their prey, advanced vampires or vampires with a long term relationship with their "food" being able to take the life force from their prey with a touch. At least one of their more humane vampires has developed a semi-functional romantic relationship with his prey, even with the predator-prey dynamic. To compensate the fact that they generally aren't as powerful and that they don't have the sustained power as their counterparts, the White Court has developed a culture of [[Just As Planned|scheming and manipulation]]. (On the other hand, their relative weakness and tendency to act indirectly means they aren't enough of a threat to be worth exterminating like the Reds or Blacks were.)

The White King is the patriarch of the Raith family, known only as Lord Raith, and he maintains his position at the top of the heap with a long-earned reputation of being the most powerful White Court vampire and being the entire court's best manipulator. There are other families, presumably derived from Lord Raith's siblings. While House Raith feeds on and can inspire lust and desire, the lesser houses of Malvoras and Skavis have a similar relationship with fear and despair respectively, and it is implied in the RPG books there is another house that feeds on anger. The White Court derives at least as far back as the Etruscan civilization, which was one of Rome's neighbors about 21 centuries ago, and the ancient Etruscan language is still utilized by the Court in the present.

====Jade Court====
The only court that hasn't appeared directly in the novels. The Jade Court are Asian vampires that have the least details known about them, due to the fact that they're extremely secretive and isolationist, they largely constrain themselves to their bases in China's Yangtze River basin and the area around the South China Sea, and that most of the series takes place in North America. They likely date back to the Qin dynasty. They're currently holding themselves up in their homes while they see if the new People's Republic will collapse like previous Chinese governments. While very secretive, they have a reputation for being honorable and respecting the supernatural equivalent of the Geneva conventions. Next to nothing is known about their nature, but fan consensus is that they're ''[[Jiangshi]]'', and probably feed on a victims ''qi''.

====Other Courts====
There are reputedly at least 3 other courts in the 'verse, but they're fleas compared to the others, and thus not really worthy of mention.

===Vampire: the Masquerade===
[[File:Themasquerade1.jpg|100|thumb|right|THE quintessential vampire game.]]
[[VtM]] from White Wolf had a pretty good take on Vampires, consisting of an entire campaign setting surrounding Vampires, covering a range of playable clans from the uber-seductive Toreador (presumably what inspired the Twilight books though) to the feral Gangrel, the fucking ugly as shit Nosferatu to the batshit mental as fuck Malkavian. So pretty much the setting allowed players to play the vampire of their dreams.

The setting was real-world too, fitting into real-word mythologies using elements from biblical canon to explain itself away, using the origin story of Cain(e) & Abel and making Vampires to be Caine's cursed descendants, after learning how to master his blood magic from the equally outcast Lilith ''(Adam's first ex-wife according to Hebrew canon)''

===Vampire: The Requiem===
Essentially a reboot of VtM above, VtR removed the Christian backstory and made vampires more mysterious, and condensed the vast array of playable clans down to five clans that embodied strong vampire archetypes and myriad sub-clans, "bloodlines", that further refined those archetypes.

===Nosferatu===
The classic 1922 silent film is essentially a bootleg version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula with a more copyright-friendly name. That doesn’t stop it though from coming up with a few original ideas; it’s notable for inventing the entire idea vampires burn in sunlight, something which has stuck with them ever since. However, the character of Count Orlok is a classic example of vampires being terrifying monsters which prey upon the living. Not much backstory is ever really given about him or vampires in this setting, but to defeat a vampire here, a pure maiden must sacrifice herself in order to vanquish him by exposing Orlok to sunlight. Orlok also has a noticeable rat motif going on, bringing rats with him when he moves to a new town, rats which spread the plague. His powers include telekinesis, levitation, some kind of mind control and turning into his own damn shadow. However, what everyone remembers is his appearance, which is now so iconic it's a go-to for making an especially creepy vampire.

===Legacy of Kain===
A series of [[/v/|video games]] from the 90's to the mid 2000's by Crystal Dynamics which has itself some rather unique ideas about vampires and their particular place in the dark fantasy setting of Nosgoth.

While the first game (''Blood Omen'') plays vampirism rather straight with a few extra tricks like telekinetically sucking blood, there are some vampires that do look rather monstrous when compared to the pale-skinned human the protagonist Kain is. Then came ''Soul Reaver'', which sets itself in a distant shithole of a future where the world's about to end and the vampires are now all very inhuman, each with some very unique evolutions based upon their progenitors (like spider-vampires, mer-vampires, bat-like vampires with sonic blasts, etc.) alongside a developed immunity to sunlight. Even Kain himself looks more like a life-sized gargoyle than a person by this point. Raziel, the second protagonist, makes things even weirder by being an ''undead'' vampire who has to feed on souls because he lost his jaw.

Later games expanded upon this by revealing that vampires only became the bloodsucking monsters they are because of an ancient curse by a long-banished enemy that corrupted all vampires and stripped their reproductive abilities from them. With no way to sire vampires or cure their curse, they had to resort to necromancy (Which only made the corruption worse) and eventually became hunted down by greedy fuckwad humans. None of this is helped by the fact that everything's been run by the machinations of an eldritch Lovecraftian entity whose ultimate goal is to own all life in his cycle of life and death.

===Monster Hunter International===
[[Monster Hunter International]] has two types of vampires: Standard and Master. Vampires move faster than humans, drain blood, are weak to silver (like most monsters), holy stuff, faith, sunlight, can't enter buildings unless invited (though invitations are forever and welcome mats count), can be paralyzed with a stake and must be beheaded to kill. Master Vampires are all around stronger and have a few extra powers including only being weakened by a stake, mind reading, hypnotism, more powerful spawn and, rarely, turning to mist. How exactly master status is determined remains unclear, though they are only below Lich (who are very rare) in PUFF value. The second RPG implies normal vampires become masters through age, and in-character speculates the only young master known to exist got that way by using her monster hunting knowledge to feast on other monsters. Normal humans fed on by a vampire will spawn new vampires from their corpse if they die, regardless of how much time has passed, unless it is cremated or beheaded.

Vampires in the Monster Hunter International verse are, like all non-ghost undead, universally evil. Such universal ethics is notable, as there's at least one non-evil ''demon'' in the verse (though if he still counts as one is questionable), and at least one other reformed enough for a PUFF exemption. Fiction portraying sparkly, "friendly" vampires is well loved by vampires in this universe: It makes getting victims so much easier. The running jabs are, at least in part, Larry Correia's way of distancing himself from the ''other'', much worse, Utah Mormon urban fantasy writer (though the work of Anne Rice gets a few jabs as well).

===Deadlands===
In [[Deadlands]], vampires first appeared in the story/adventure module combination "Dime Novel" series, where the third volume "Night Train" featured the Great Rail War getting bloodier because evil Voodooist Baron LaCroix has gathered up a bunch of [[nosferatu]] and allowed them to set up shop in trains he's smuggled onto his rivals' tracks, allowing them to ravage the [[Weird West]]. The second major source was "Rascals, Varmints & Critters 2", which reprinted Nosferatu stats alongside states for Cinematic Vampires, Penanggalans and Ustrels. It also provided stats for Dracula himself and rules for playing a vampire in the Deadlands Classic system. Finally, "The Great Maze" introduced the [[Jiangshi]] and issue #3 of the official magazine "The Epitaph" finished the deal with Nachtzehers, Shtrigas and Upirs.

Vampire strains known to exist in the Deadlands universe consist of the following:
* [[Nosferatu]] (with a more powerful variant called the "Ancient Ones")
* Cinematic Vampire (your Gothic Horror style vampire, also a playable "race")
* [[Jiangshi]]
* [[Penanggalan]] (spelled with two Ls here)
* Ustrel (a child vampire born from a child who died of neglect, which prefers to feed on animals and has a voracious appetite)
* Nachtzeher (a fangless, ghoul-like vampire that chews on corpses to extract blood and which is marked by its heavily gnawed extremities, a result of its initial hunger upon rising)
* Shtriga (a female witch who feed on blood to fuel her magic and preserve her youth, characterized by her tendency of gorging herself until her belly bloats up like a pregnant woman's and she messily vomits up what she can't fit near the site of her kill)
* Upir (powerful vampires who prefer to strangle their prey before feeding from their tongue)

===Dracula===
''The'' vampire. No other vampire is more iconic than Dracula himself who, since his debute in Bram Stoker's novel, has become one of the most iconic villains in horror. In the original book, Dracula is very much implied to be Vlad the Impaler though not outright confirmed, though every single adaptation makes them one and the same. Dracula's abilities in the novel including shapeshifting into a bat and wolf, climbing up walls like a spider, hypnosis, turning into mist, being able to walk around in daylight (though weak while doing so) and a variety of others. Notably, Dracula is written as an elderly aristocrat at the start, but as time goes on, he seems to regain his youth as he kills more victims and demonstrates himself as being fairly competent and dangerous, while being fairly ruthless. Any work dealing with vampires that's set in the "real" world will reference him in one way or another. Strangely, [[Castlevania]] is pretty much the only thing that actually gives him the mustache the book describes him as having, probably because Bela Lugosi is so iconic. However he also has a tendency to become a demon as well.

==History of the Vampire==

===Ancient Vampires===
In ancient cultures, there weren't any creatures called "vampires" or any word that roughly translates to "vampire"; however, stories were told of demons and spirits that drank blood or ate flesh. Even the devil was directly associated with the eating of flesh and drinking of blood, and the gods and goddesses of some cultures were credited with these activities.

The Persians were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shards. Ancient Babylonia had tales of the mythical Lilitu, synonymous with and giving rise to Lilith (Hebrew לילית) and her daughters the Lilu from Hebrew demonology. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies. However, the Jewish counterparts were said to feast on both men and women, as well as newborns. The closest this got to the idea of vampires in recent history was that some demons would possess corpses and then use them to drink the blood of people.

===Medieval and European Vampires===
Many of the myths surrounding vampires originated during the medieval period. The 12th century English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants, though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant. These tales are similar to the later folklore widely reported from Eastern Europe in the 18th century and were the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized.

During the 18th century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe, with frequent stakings and grave diggings to identify and kill the potential revenants; even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires. This was due to a combination of hysterical accounts from deathbed-bound plague victims and the simple fact that symptoms of what we now know to be corpse decomposition (e.g. bloating, pallid "bluish" skin and leaking of apparent excess blood) wasn't a fully understood thing yet.

Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in a mass hysteria throughout most of Europe.

The panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. Two famous vampire cases, the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole from Serbia. Plogojowitz was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. Plogojowitz supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.

In the second case, Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area and it was widely believed that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbours. Another famous Serbian legend involving vampires concentrates around certain Sava Savanović living in a watermill and killing and drinking blood from millers. The folklore character was later used in a story written by Serbian writer Milovan Glišić and in the Serbian 1973 horror film Leptirica inspired by the story.

The two incidents were well-documented: government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe. The hysteria, commonly referred to as the "18th-Century Vampire Controversy", raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them.

Although many scholars reported during this period that vampires did not exist, and attributed reports to premature burial or rabies, superstitious belief increased. Dom Augustine Calmet, a well-respected French theologian and scholar, put together a comprehensive treatise in 1746, which was ambiguous concerning the existence of vampires. Calmet amassed reports of vampire incidents; numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and supportive demonologists, interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed. In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote:

"These vampires were corpses, who went out of their graves at night to suck the blood of the living, either at their throats or stomachs, after which they returned to their cemeteries. The persons so sucked waned, grew pale, and fell into consumption; while the sucking corpses grew fat, got rosy, and enjoyed an excellent appetite. It was in Poland, Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, Austria, and Lorraine, that the dead made this good cheer."

The controversy only ceased when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician, Gerard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies, sounding the end of the vampire epidemics. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local superstition.

Celtic mythology features the Baobhan Sidhe, which resemble the archetypal modern horror vampire, as they are beautiful women who take the blood of men while "dancing" with them (usually in a murderous fashion), but have to return to their burial mounds before the rise of the sun. There is also the Lennan Sidhe, or Barrow Lover, who is the tamer, more good natured, monogamous style of vampire girlfriend, who inspires her pet artist but also drains him, sometimes driving him into an early grave. There's also Abhartach, a dwarf magician and tyrant who, according to legend, rose from the grave after he was killed and demanded the blood of his subjects. He was finally killed using a sword made from a specific type of tree wood.

Romanian mythology also contributes heavily to the modern, sociable, attractive notion of vampires, who seem to usually be gingers, and could sometimes pass unnoticed in human society or even procreate or marry; even female vampires could bear offspring. The children are usually fated to become vampires after death. Romanian vampires come in countless varieties, from evil spirits to owls to vampire babes to actual living witches. Romanian vampires potentially have a shot at becoming alive again -- it involves marrying a foreigner, changing their name and leaving the country, however, which sounds a lot less like "becomes human again" and more "sneaks off to bite people elsewhere." Idk, you tell us.

===Modern Vampires===
[[Image:M1182225 99060207172 VCVladMain 873x627.jpg|right|thumb|400px|[[Vlad von Carstein]] of [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] fame. He'd mutilate the unholy tard out of [[Gay|Tinkerbell]] [[Twilight|Cullen]]. [[Rip and Tear|AND HOW]].]]
In the late 1800s, vampires were still widely regarded to be nasty little weirdos like Count Orlok, creeping around in the night looking freakish and completely the opposite of sexy. Literary examples go back as far as the 1740s, though the works that codified vampire as we'd come to know it wouldn't be codified proper until the 19th century, with the likes of ''Carmilla'', ''Dracula'' and ''The Vampyre''. Carmilla in particular was one of the first notable instances of a lesbian vampire, and actually predated ''Dracula'' by about 27 years. From this root a popular archetype would emerge, primarily in 20th Century film, of the lesbian vampire would who seduce a straight woman, the already-present themes of vampirism-as-sexual-predation amplified by the presence of a then-"taboo" sexuality, and people took notice of the unfortunate implications - [[PROMOTIONS|once most of 'em finished fapping to it, anyway.]]

As for ''Dracula'', the novel by Bram Stoker laid much of the groundwork for modern vampire stories: Dracula was originally a thin elderly man with a hooked nose, pointed ears, thick eyebrows, thick mustache, blue eyes that went flaming red when he was mad, and hairy palms, though his appearance became more youthful as he fed on blood. There were also three female vampires who lived with Dracula in an ambiguous relationship that held both familial and romantic/incestuous overtones, and they tried to seduce people into surrendering to them. This novel also added weather manipulation to the powers of vampires, though it's implied as a product of Dracula studying black magic rather than an inherent vampire ability.

Though hints of their romantic and sometimes erotic aspects had long begun to manifest around the time of Carmilla, and even well before then, it was Tod Browning's adaptation of the aforementioned ''Dracula'' that elevated the vampire from their typical creepy unattractive status to the suave ladies' man inspired by the film's star Bela Lugosi. The film "rehabilitated" Dracula into an eloquent and charming (if manipulative) fellow, the likes of which would be firmly embedded into the public consciousness along with the traditional weakness to sunlight (which we incidentally owe to 1922's Nosferatu; before this, even Dracula himself could walk in broad daylight, though his powers were weakened, and if he'd shapeshifted he was stuck in that form until sundown).

Lady-types developed a metaphorical hard-on for vampires, and vampires supposedly got literal hard-ons for ladies until 1976, when Anne Rice published the first book in her series, ''The Vampire Chronicles'', which established a more... primal interpretation: Vampires had free will, but all of their needs paled before the all-consuming need for fresh blood to feed upon. This is where we started to see more classical portrayals, the vampire pulling triple-duty as sociopath, glutton, and sophisticate all at once.

Discussion of the vampire mythos and their descent into [[Mary Sue|Suedom/Studom]] cannot be had without careful analysis of the culture at this time. Vampires, up through the 1980s, had always been associated with gothic horror - it's one of many reasons that there was such a resurgence of Victorian-style fashion amongst the Goth crowd, which admittedly a lot of [[/tg/]] finds [[Promotions|impossibly]] [[/d/|hot]]. Goth culture celebrated vampire mythos for this very reason; they were a ''worthy'' bit of admirable folklore, the source of many an interesting BBEG, and an inspiration for a lot of things ''in'' Goth culture. This "classical" archetype is what we would see with most Vampire portrayals throughout movies, comic books, television series, and so on during this time.

Sadly, in the early 1990s, cross-contamination by the "Emo" subculture caused this to bottom out in a parasitic fashion - Emo glutted itself on anything it could encounter and claimed that it belonged rightly to it, and Goth subculture, with its established fashion sense and habits, was a natural target. The prevalence of Emo bullshit caused the bulk of the Goth subculture to retreat back to its Victorian roots, but not before Emos had secured vampires as "their own." Similar fates would happen to other genres: Grunge, Punk, and even the Beat movement would all likewise be absorbed by Emo attempts to claim it, which is why many stereotypes - including Emo fashion, music stylings, and predilection towards poetry - persist to this day.

More relevant, however, is the damage that Emo subculture did to the popular perception of vampires, romanticizing them into individuals for whom the taste for blood was little more than a dietetic quirk. [[Edgy|Identifying with the angst of the undead condition]] to the point of hanging all their pots on that one hook, these teenyboppers would drag the reputation of the vampire down to levels of "[[Grimderp|brooding wangsty limpdick loser]]" as it was increasingly associated with make-up, bad poetry, and incense lit to conceal the smell of pot so the "vampire kid's" parents don't come in and scold them in front of his friends from high school. Emos continue to drink tomato juice from plastic Halloween goblets, dress up like shitty vampires, and whine endlessly about how they supposedly hate life to this very day, whilst everyone else who remembers the good old days just shakes their head in disgust, goes "son, I am disappointed," and walks off, depressed.

...and then there was the ''Vampire: the Masquerade'' LARP scene. Yet even that paled in comparison to the influence of one infamous work...


===Twilight===
Possibly the most notorious example of the "ruination" of vampires in contemporary media can be credited to ''Twilight'', whose vamps are less like undead fiends and more like mysterious pretty-boys, who sparkle in the sunlight rather than burning to death.

''Twilight'' was a 4-part book series, authored by overly horny Mormon woman Stephanie Meyer, which was marketed at tween girls - completely unremarkable, until you consider that the first book alone had an initial print run of 75,000 copies and that the movies are internationally successful.

To make an unnecessarily long story short, a woman named Bella gets saved from a car crash by Edward, a mysterious pretty boy who [[Edgy|looks all emo and shit.]] After half a book of plodding romantic crap, we learn that he's a vampire (as though the sunken eyes, avoidance of sunlight and pale skin weren't a massive tipoff). But it's okay -- he and his family are [[Mary Sue|vegetarian vampires, they don't drink human blood.]] Oh, and sunlight doesn't kill them, it makes them [[Bullshit|sparkle like Tinkerbell]] on a six-coffee bender. Oh, and he and his family all have superpowers as if they were the vampire Justice League.

Things become even more retarded when her Native American best friend is revealed to be a werewolf, and the least convincing love triangle of all time ensues, inasmuch as it is explicitly stated over the next two books that she'll choose Edward. Meanwhile, various other shit involving the not-Catholic vampire Illuminati among other things happens, most of which is glossed over or covered in the most hamfisted way ever.

This is itself combined with said Mary Sue insisting on being turned into a vampire, only to be told they need to get married for some reason. Stupid, yes. But if you view it as a metaphor for sex and keep in mind that the author is a devout Mormon, it makes a lot more sense - insofar as [[What|a vampire abstinence porno Meyer could get off to without angering Jesus]] could ''make'' sense. Incidentally, said Mormonism is also why we get such peculiar euphemisms as "Holy crow" in the books. No, really.

The last book of the series can be summed up as follows:

''"[[Grimdark|I'm gonna die a horrible death during childbirth, and my kid's gonna look like a god-forsaken hellspawn all because I fucked a vampire.]] Oh wait, hold the phone-- [[Derp|it's ok, he's going to turn me into a vampire too, and mystical vampire magic will heal my spine so I can frolic through the forest in heels and a cocktail dress]], while my werewolf ex-boyfriend [[/d/|tries to fuck my baby hellspawn daughter.]]"''

[[Tl;dr]] Stupid biatch can't decide for 4 episodes if she's a necrophile or a zoophile, and can't close her mouth as well. End of story.

On top of all of this are the accusations of encouraging toxic relationships, domestic violence, racism, and stalking, and catering to the ''Mormon'' ideal of the nuclear family and male dominance through female submission in the most base sense of the concept... all written with the expect kind of incompetence that coalesced it into a truly marvel-worthy abomination, and then marketed to teenage and young adult girls.

Now at this point, vampires still had the whole "aura of promiscuity" thing going for them - Pinelight took to its [[Derp|logical conclusion]], and in doing so created the spitting image of the fucked-up, universally-mocked, emotionally-abusive teen heartthrobs that naive or similarly fucked-up teenagers would find sold to them. With this, vampires reached an absolute state of immense glittery [[fag]]gotry that caused every [[Vampire Counts]] player in WHFB, every old-school Goth, and everyone who gives a damn about literary or cultural verisimilitude to cry [[Fist of the North Star|manly tears of pain and rage]] as they declared vampires Ruined Forever™.

...well, we say "forever", and yet here we are.

===The /tg/ Invasion===
/tg/ at large became aware of Twilight shortly after the release of the first book, when random (presumably) teenyboppers and/or [[Internet Troll|neckbeards]] began popping up on threads squeeing about seen this awesome new series with its SoKewl vampires and asking for advice on how to stat them out as characters — or worse, suggesting that they were superior to [[Von Carstein|'proper' vampires]] and should totally replace our icky night crawlers as a superior breed. These questions and "suggestions" were met with [[RAGE|reasonable counterpoints]], which became more eloquent after some few elegan/tg/entlemen actually [[Heresy|read the book]].

This rapidly expanded into a [[Storm of Chaos|multiple-year-long discussion]] when the real-life popularity of the books (and later the movies) grew so great that it became impossible to avoid, and Edward Cullen became the poster boy and ('''''especially''''') punching bag for vampires everywhere. /tg/ did what they did, raging day in and day out against the "dying" of the scary and badass monsters-of-the-night that vampires originally were - joined (somewhat surprisingly) by the rest of popular culture.

A pleasant byproduct of this backlash was the surge of more and more media that not only took the piss out of these overidealized sparkly wangsters, but eventually went fully in the opposite direction and made vampires actually frightening and dangerous again. Believe it or not, this was partly spurred by ''Edward Cullen himself'' - the actor who played Ed, Robert Pattinson, mentioned in interviews long after the fact that after reading the books he immediately made Ed for the creepy antisocial loser he was, and [[Troll|played his part to its logical conclusion.]]

The wellspring of righteous fury on the subject has long since run dry, aside from a brief revival in 2020, and even then it no longer has the cultural relevance to even halfway justify any further sustained vitriol - less of the [[RIP AND TEAR|frothing, passionate]] [[RAGE|hatred of old]] that became well-ingrained into pop culture itself, and more of the apathetic "yeah, fuck that series" disdain that comes with hindsight and the passage of time.

Even after you filter for the usual population of folks who blow up at the slightest provocation, the Twilight invasions remain one of the most epic RAGE inducing eras of /tg/ history. And yet, for all that, the image of an all-powerful badass creature of the night that can be both repulsively monstrous and charmingly human retains its appeal, showing that sometimes, just sometimes... there's nothing wrong with just liking things. Even with the usual fleet of derivative hacks, a good idea is a good idea, and there's a reason the public is willing to remember them more often.

As a small side note, an occasional /tg/ sentiment is that there's possibly a better story hidden under all that [[Magical realm|Mormon schlicking material]] -- the vampire mechanics are not that bad, if you're not going to have them burn up in the sun, and the vague plotline of the first book ("'Vegetarian' vampires come into conflict with wandering criminal vampires") sounds like something that could make a fairly good [[Vampire: The Masquerade|Vampire]] or [[Hunter: The Vigil|Hunter]] campaign.

==Defining Abilities==
Though vampires as a species have gone through the gamut in regards to what powers they do or don't have or how to identify one, there are some very common powers that a great number of vampires possess.

*'''Bloodthirst''': ''THE'' defining feature. It occurs usually because vampirism is a product of black magic or demonic involvement, so it's either the price for all their powers, blood fuels their powers or something demons added because well... they're evil. Regardless of reasons such as simple survival, slaking an addiction or just sadism, almost all vampires have to drink blood, usually through their fangs. Also comes with bad side effects if they don't such as going blood-crazy like a rabid dog, weakening until they're paralyzed or dying. It also serves as the main source of conflict for vampires, as it can potentially lead to a conflict in conscience or morality by putting another's life at risk (if not ending it altogether) in order to preserve their way of life.
**'''Healing Factor''': Like any self-respecting BBEG, a vampire's gotta have regeneration if they plan on living past one fight. Usually, drinking blood hastens the process. Anything that causes continuous harm (such as drowning or burning) might even overwhelm the healing factor.
*'''Hypnotism''': As part of their drop-dead sexy, vampires tend to have some sort of hypnotic power, usually in the form of some entrancing gaze (For an example, look at [[Mephiston]]'s Transfixing Gaze or Dio's flesh buds).
*'''Shapeshifting''': Vampires tend to have some form of shapeshifting, even if it's just to conceal their less human features from unsuspecting eyes. There are also those vampires who can shapeshift into animals (typically bats, but they can also turn into wolves, rodents, and even mist). Some vampires can also shapeshift into more monstrous forms, reserved for when they're truly pissed off.
*'''No Reflections''': For whatever reason, vampires do not show up on mirrors, but anything they wear does. Sometimes this is played with, like making it that they only show up on mirrors not lined with silver or making them not show on photos. It's usually a dead giveaway that vampires aren't human.
**'''No Shadows''': When in a room without mirrors (which can happen quite a bit depending on setting), a vampire's inability to cast a shadow might be a giveaway. Just pray that said shadow isn't planning on double-teaming you.
*'''Shadow Magic''': Whenever vampires are allowed to use magic, they tend to focus on using shadows or necromancy. Telepathy is another frequent power, especially when communicating to lackeys/vassals.

===Weaknesses===
Just like the features of vampires, their weaknesses have also gone through various interpretations, but they usually follow some common tropes.

*'''Sunlight''': Despite what pop culture says, sunlight doesn't always kill vampires. Even in Stoker's classic, sunlight really just hampered Dracula's power to the point that he's effectively powerless. Again, thank Nosferatu for that particular bit of suck sauce. Of course, some settings have vampires be resistant enough to sunlight that it just irritates, if it bothers at all. And then there are those that just...[[RAGE|turn into fucking sparkles]] upon exposure to sunlight. Whatever the case, sunlight's not a nice thing to a vampire, so they tend to sleep in their coffins to pass the time.
*'''Stakes''': Yes, the other trademark weakness. By piercing a stake (usually of either silver or wood) through a vampire's heart, sometimes at a crossroad, you can effectively cancel out their blasphemous regenerative properties and kill them for good...then again, this is just as lethal to normal folks and [[Wikipedia:Bocksten Man|tax collectors/recruiters]].
*'''Decapitation''': Another weakness that's just as lethal to normal people!
*'''Holy power''': Since vampires are almost universally unholy creatures if not being demonic themselves, the power of God or gods is a major weakness of theirs. This includes things such as holy water, holy objects (some vampires can't even touch a copy of the Bible) and symbols; Crosses are a popular choice, especially if there's a demonic/Satanic element to vampires, though in some settings it's based on faith rather than divine power or they don't work. These can repel, hurt or even outright kill vampires. Certain substances can also be effective such as thorns - like Crosses, deriving power from Christ's crucifixion ala the Crown of thorns - or salt because the purifying properties of salt extend to the supernatural or it just repels evil spirits. Sometimes this ties into staking, because for the Stake to kill them it has to be from wood that's either blessed or considered holy. Most modern versions nerf this to require someone use these objects to channel [[True Faith]] in order to avoid asserting a single religion is correct. This can even extend to non-religious faith, like to communism, being able to do the job.
*'''Silver''': Silver works fine enough on [[werewolf|werewolves]], why not use your silvered weapons here too? Interestingly, in some stories werewolves could change into vampires giving another reason for the shared weakness.
*'''Running Water''': For some vampires, running water, be it rivers or aqueducts, is an effective way to block them off, even when they could just fly over it. Maybe it's because it reminds them of blood flowing in veins. Maybe it's because water's acidic to them, as is the case in the Legacy of Kain series.
*'''Garlic''': A persistent weakness involved vampires having a phobia of garlic, originally because superstition (a lot of cultures thought garlic was a symbol of health or holiness) and nowadays because it's frankly hilarious. Expect vampires to be crippled by it either because of how it smells awful or because it has some sort of property that's lethal to them like some supernatural food allergy. Then again, some vampires can't taste a thing and wouldn't even notice.
*'''Arithomania''': In case you ever wanted to mention a very petty or stupid weakness, there's spreading sesame seeds somewhere - some vampires have a obsessive-compulsive need to count the fuckers - even when it leads to them counting until sunrise. This plays into the demonic factor, as in some folklore and mythology demons are very OCD.
*'''Permission''': Another very unusual habit some vampires have is their inability to enter a residence without permission. This usually plays hand in hand with their hypnotic factor, but if denied, they'll just pace around angrily until they can try again if they don't decide to go to greener pastures.

==Sexy, Sexy Vampires==
[[Image:MGE Vampire.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Prove your worth, and she may favor you for the evening.]]

{{Monstergirls}}

When Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker wrote their vampire novels (''Carmilla'' and "Dracula" respectively) in the 1800s, setting up the modern vampire, both included heavy erotic themes from the gate. Carmilla was as much a lesbian stalker as you could make a character in 1871 and invented the b movie staple of the “lesbian vampire”. While ol' Drac himself was not exactly portrayed as the handsomest individual, the book's scenes of Dracula's attacks on sleeping women had a darkly erotic undertone (and two of Drac's attacks on women who are awake read like rape scenes) that women readers instantly picked up on. Add in Dracula's far more handsome portrayal by actor Bela Lugosi in the first ever film depiction, and you had the beginnings of the vampire's descent into sexual fandom amongst the growing Goth movement. Add in Anne Rice's sexually charged Vampire Chronicles books, and thus the "Vampires Are Sex Gods" trope was born.

Though it initially tended to be the ''male'' vampires who get presented in this light, dominating the niche genre of "supernatural romance" for women by an enormous margin, there are MORE than enough voluptuous, sexually provocative female vampires in media that [[monstergirls]] fans aren't left entirely in the dust.

In fact, it's not actually unprecedented; the Balkans had stories of [[Dhampir]]s, the offspring of vampires and their human wives, for centuries before Anne Rice put pen to paper, so people have been seeing vampires as sexy for a pretty long time.

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the vampire is presented as a kind of [[succubus]] with a taste for bloodplay and an affinity for [[necromancer|necromancy]]. They are arrogant, conceited tsunderes, demanding only the very best in a potential human mate. Unless you feed them garlic, whereupon they turn into a horny, submissive slut.

==If you're including them in your setting...==

If you're including vampires in your worldbuilding, you should probably decide what general metaphor and niche you're going for.

To provide some examples of niches:

* The inhuman monsters who are merely pretending to be human.
* The tortured and persecuted people struggling with their inhuman and/or monstrous wants and/or needs.
* Both of the above, with the more inhuman ones being the ones who fall off the slippery slope.
* Always Enemy Mook types, who it's perfectly okay for protagonists to murder by the bucketful.
* Superhuman badasses who in turn have some very obvious vulnerabilities.
** In other words: A just about perfect opponent for an "asymmetric warfare" scenario.

And some of the more obvious metaphors to reach for:

* Human predators, whether social or physical.
* "Aristocrats are evil parasites" cliches made literal.
* Violent criminals generally.
* The inhuman creature who mainly serves as an exploration of immortality.
* On the positive side, it's fairly easy to make "attempting to be good" vampires into "recovering addict" metaphors.

The two most important questions are "Are they protagonist material?" and "Are they by default antagonists?"--and it's quite possible to answer "Yes" to both, with the "good guy" vampires being in some way the exception to the rule (for example, a spell exists to grant a vampire a human soul)--or, for that matter, "no" to being default antagonists (for example, if they don't need to kill when they feed, nor do they have to feed on humans, "civilized" vampires may emerge).

[[Category:Literature]][[Category:Roleplaying]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Undead]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]

Mythology

2020-08-30T12:12:15Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* Abrahamic Mythology (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) */

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.

From there, stories spread about the nature of the gods. In time, people began telling other stories that sought to explain such things 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 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 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 - being the best-selling book of all time copies are usually easy to find, 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. If you want to trigger people, just ask how he could have fallen and introduce evil to the universe when God's supposed to be omnipotent, omniscient, and purely good. It's been giving theologians headaches for centuries.
** 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.
* 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 Testiment) 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.
</div>
</div>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

==== Noah's Ark ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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]]. 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 every animals in 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 instruct 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. 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).
</div>
</div>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

==== Moses and the Exodus of the Hebrews ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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]]. Later, Moses guide his people to close 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 both side 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, chidren 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, 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.
</div>
</div>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

====Things drawn from Abrahamic Myth / Demonology ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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)
</div>
</div>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
==== Gnosticism ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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.
</div>
</div>


===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.
*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.
*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. All that's certain is he doesn't like Arthur and wants to take over.
*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]].
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
==== World Creation according to Chinese Mythology ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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.
</div>
</div>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
==== Nüwa ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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.
</div>
</div>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

==== Xiyou Ji (Journey To The West) ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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, whom was punished by the gods into a pig like beastmen (who ''everyone'' calls an idiot, even ''the narrator'') and Sha Wujing, a random sand bandit whom was also from heaven and was banished (the black sheep of the party); a horse (whom was secretly the dragon king's son, also disgraced); and the ''real'' protagonist, Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.

Wukong is quite a [[Mary Sue]] at first glance, with a superpower suite to match (Flight, immortality, disguise-piercing super sight, a steel-hard body, transformation mastery, [[What|being able to turn strands of hair into anything up to and including ''perfect clones of himself...'']] DBZ ''wishes'' it could be that bullshit.); '''HOWEVER''', he's also very much the Only Sane Man™ on this journey and proves to be an archetypical, cunning-if-occasionally-childish trickster through and through. In contrast, Xuanzang is rather unworldly, Zhu Baije is an idiot, Sha Wujing is what effectively amounts to a non-entity, and the horse is essentially just a horse. (For more detail, see "The Monkey King's Backstory" below.)

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 reaches 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.
</div>
</div>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

====The Monkey King's Backstory====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
Because it gets referenced a lot, but isn't quite that important to discussing the rest of Journey to the West, here's The Monkey King's history:

Sun Wukong was born from a stone egg, which was contained within an ancient rock that had been created by [[PROMOTIONS|the coupling of Heaven and Earth]]; the meteor struck a mountain inhabited by wild monkeys. (Yes, this is the basis for Goku's origin, so [[/co/|Superman fanboys]] claiming originality can eat shit.) Despite his categorically extraterrestrial origin, he emerged from the magical egg looking much like the locals, save for being made of rock. After leading his tribe to the well-hidden source of a stream, Sun Wukong took the title of "Handsome Monkey King". From there he would proceed to travel the world and establish further influence and power, making several alliances after collecting powerful weapons and armor like your average JPRG protag. This included his trademark staff, phoenix-feather cap, gold chian-mail shirt and cloud-walking boots.

At some point, the Chinese equivalent of Hell came calling for his soul; rather than accept death and reincarnation, Wukong decided to [[Settra the Imperishable|wipe the names of him and any monkey he knew from the Book of Life and Death.]] This pissed off the gods - in particular troubling Yama (also known as Enma), the other Kings of Hell and the Dragon Kings - due to the inherent blasphemy and the sheer clerical hell that would result. When the Jade Emperor got wind of this, he figured the solution was to kick Sun Wukong upstairs to Heaven, thinking that a place amongst the gods would keep him in line. Unfortunately, he tried to pull one over on the Monkey King - Wukong was indeed admitted to heaven, but as protector of the Cloud Horses, I.E. a fucking stable boy. The Monkey King's reaction was [[RAGE|measured and reasonable]]: he sets the horses loose, fucks off back to his mountain and declares himself "The Great Sage, Heaven's Equal (齊天大聖)". Unable to arrest the sneaky bastard, Jade Emps thought to pacify him again, this time appointing him guardian of a heavenly peach garden. While a much higher position than before, it conveniently excludes him from being invited to a royal banquet for all the ''important'' gods. [[Derp|Apparently Jade Emps thought the same trick would work twice.]]

Deciding to step his rebellion game up a notch, he drinks the Jade Emperor's royal wine, along with chowing down on longevity pills and the garden's peaches - which he likely was doing anyway, since each peach on their own would grant immortality. Thoroughly stocked up on extra lives, the Monkey King then proceeded to '''''solo the entire Army of Heaven''''' - 100,000 celestial warriors, all 28 constellations, and the four Heavenly Kings - all without breaking a sweat. He even matched the strength of Erlang Shen, a pretty cool guy who is the Jade Emp's nephew, has a [[Archaon|truth-seeing 3rd eye on his forehead]] and was the best of Heaven's generals; even when Sun Wukong was captured, it was only through the combined efforts of Tao and Buddhist forces, including several of the greatest deities, and finally Guanyin, a Bodhisattva (an incredibly powerful god-like entity that guides others towards enlightenment, and the only one who could actually subdue and control him).

...and then what? They certainly couldn't execute the Monkey King for obvious reasons, and trying to distill him into an elixir for recreating the longevity pills [[FAIL|just made him '''stronger''' and gave him even more fucking superpowers]]. Enter Buddha, as in '''THE''' Buddha, who appeals to his pride by claiming that he can't escape the Buddha's palm. Sun Wukong accepted, being the smug motherfucker he is, and leaps almost effortlessly to an area with five pillars, where he leaves his mark by writing his title on them (and in some versions by ''peeing'' on them as well). Leaping back, he finds himself back in the Buddha's palm, where it turns out he'd never left - [[Just As Planned|the pillars he'd marked were Buddha's ''fingers.'']] Having one-upped the ultimate trickster, Buddha then turns his hand into a mountain and traps him under it, sealing him with a special talisman before he can lift it off (yeah, he can bench press mountains, get on his fucking level).

Then the monk Xuanzang came along, prompting the Monkey King to bargain for his freedom - as it happens, Guanyin (the Bodhisattva who had helped captured him previously) is searching for disciples to act as his bodyguard, and allows him to join. Buddha ensures his compliance with an unremovable headband that he tricks Sun Wukong into wearing, which tightens painfully when the monk chants a certain sutra. (That's 2-0 for Buddha!) Guanyin decided it wasn't fair for Buddha to COMPLETELY own his shit, and gave Wukong three super-special 'emergency' hairs. He then sets off with the monk, and the rest is history.
</div>
</div>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
====The Twelve Zodiac====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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.
</div>
</div>
===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. 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 prove his worth, 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 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...).

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
==== The Gods & Creation Myth ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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 most important gods/goddess you need to know are:
*'''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]];
*'''Dis Pater/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.
</div>
</div>

===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 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. 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'''.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

==== Hindu Creation Myths ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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.
</div>
</div>

===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 Japanese gods/kami.

'''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. While walking the earth he proceeds to kill the Orochi, among other (anti-)heroics, and bribes his way back into heaven with the fat loot he finds.
*'''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.
*'''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. Gautama Buddha 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 long bow. 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-estate 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.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
==== Creation Myth ====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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.
</div>
</div>

===Norse Mythology===
Like the Greeks, there's a god for every aspect and their most hated enemies are humanoid creatures called Jotun (Jætter), often translated to Giants in adaptations, who the gods/goddess also related to. They come in all sizes, from mostly humanoid to the size of mountains; from humans with big noses to actual beasts. The Norse mythos contains a lot more references to snow, winter and wolves than the Greek one. This is somewhat unsurprising, as those things are much more common in Scandinavia than they are in Greece.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
'''Notable Characters:'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
*'''[[Odin]]''' - The king of the gods. The All-Father, the One-Eyed Wanderer, and Patron of Shamans and Berserkers. He wasn't actually the first of the gods, but rather he is named "All-Father" for slaying his tyrannical grandfather Ymir and creating Midgard (Earth) from his body and bones. His stories are full of sacrifice in the pursuit of higher wisdom, such as hanging himself on the World Tree, Yggdrasil in order to be granted the knowledge of runes and giving up his eye to drink from the Well of Wisdom. He has two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, which deliver him news of the nine realms every day, as well as two fucking huge wolves, Freki and Geri, which he uses as guard dogs/hunting hounds. His major schtick is trying to prevent Ragnarok. He also has a sick-ass spear called Gungnir, which will never miss its mark. Known for being wise, but also manipulative. Not a god you should underestimate, by any means.
*'''[[Frigg]]'''- Wife of Odin. The Matron of the Aesir and Odin's wife. Sort of a power-behind-the-scenes, she is just as wise and manipulative as her husband but much more subtle and slow-moving in her plots. When she appears she seems more like the kind of person who looks to the greater good. She's a goddess of the housestead but in the distant, measured manner. Unlike her version in the Greek Pantheon, Hera, she isn't vindictive in any way and seems to take her husband's infidelity in strides.
*'''[[Thor]]''' - Son of Odin, the God of Thunder, Storms and Oak Trees, the Protector of Mankind, and arguably the most popular god, even in the [[Vikings|Viking Age]]. (No, his popularity isn't really due to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, that came much later.) He wields a mighty warhammer named Mjolnir, and uses it to great effect. Out of all the Norse gods, he's probably one of the most bro-tier, although it's ill advised to piss him off (as several giants and dwarves could attest, were their heads not smashed in). He's so unbelievably OP that even when he thought he'd lost against Utgard-Loki (no relation to Loki, btw), Utgard-Loki had to admit defeat because Thor almost destroyed the world ''by accident.'' Prophesied to die fighting the world serpent Jormungandr.
*'''[[Loki]]''' - The Trickster God, the Deceiver. Unfortunately, the Norse had a rather dim view of tricksters and deceivers, so he's usually a villain in the myths. Probably doesn't help that he and his children are responsible for killing several gods (It also probably doesn't help that the Christians writing down the Norse myths identified him with Satan). Responsible for many shenanigans, including [[Wat|turning himself into a mare and fucking a stallion,]] [[/d/|getting pregnant from said stallion, and giving birth to an eight-legged horse that Odin rides as a mount ]] (part of a crazy scheme to defraud a contractor, no less), killing the near-invincible god Baldur (see below) as a prank, and being Odin's blood-brother. Yes, you read that right, ''Odin's'' brother, not Thor's. Essentially [[That Guy]] of the Norse pantheon, complete with uncomfortable sexual stuff involving animals and betraying his party members.
*'''[[Freya]]''' - Goddess of Fertility, Erotic Love, Magic, and War (in case you haven't noticed, the Norse really loved to fight). She claims half of all warriors slain in glorious battle, bringing them to her meadow of Folkvangr. The other half are chosen by Odin and become Einherjar, the Chosen Slain, where they will feast and fight in Valhalla until Ragnarok, where they will all charge the wolf Fenrir and die. She is among the most powerful of the Norse gods, but originally came from the Vanir alongside her brother and dad.
*'''[[Freyr]]''' - God of Fertility, Harvest and Farmers. Brother of Freya but quite a lot more mellow. He's a protector of the homestead and its prosperity. Some translations make him the god of "half-men", which is still disputed to be anything from men who don't own a homestead to actual gay dudes.
*'''[[Baldur]]''' - Son of Odin and Frigg. God of light, joy and the sun, said to be the most beloved of all the gods. Frigg asked all things to swear an oath not to harm Baldur, save for the mistletoe bush, which she thought to be harmless. Loki, being a spiteful jackass, took advantage of this oversight and arranged for Baldur to be slain by a mistletoe dart.
*'''Høder/Höðr''' - The God of Cripples. Very unimportant - only known for being tricked into shooting a mistletoe-arrow at his brother Baldur, which killed him.
*'''[[Heimdall]]''' - The watchman of the gods, the Guardsman of the Bifrost and the whitest of the gods-- [[/pol/|don't you look at us like that!]] (Seriously, he was known as the "shining god" or "brightest god", and is the guardian of Bifrost, a literal rainbow bridge - the exact meaning and translation of his status is a matter of some debate, though thankfully not in ''that'' sense.) Heimdall is known as the son of Nine Mothers - just how this works is never expounded on. There's... very little else to be said about him beyond that he's watching everyone, everywhere, at all times due to his super senses so keen he could hear grass growing on the other side of the world. He and Loki are going to kill each other come Ragnarok.
*'''Njord''' - God of the Sea, Fishing and the Wind. Father of Frej and Freya, but otherwise unimportant; lives far away in a tower by the sea.
*'''[[Tyr]]''' - The One-Handed God of Justice, Warfare, Strategy and Government. How does he have only one hand, you may ask? Well, let's just say... when a giant wolf demands your hand as payment for the gods binding him in unbreakable tethers, and you're known for keeping your word... well...
*'''Sif''' - The Goddess of the Hearth and Home, wife of Thor. There's little information on her, but she has golden hair. Like, literally hair made of gold, gifted to her by Loki to make up for the fact that he cut her hair in the first place.
*'''Bragi''' - God of Music, Bards and Entertainers. Not a lot is know about him, other than he's engaged to Idunn.
*'''Idunn''' - Provider of the Golden Apples, magical apples that give the gods their youth. There's evidence that she was never a goddess, but instead a fey-creature or an elf who's a retainer within the Valhallan court.
*'''Skadi''' - Goddess of winter and'''fucking skiing'''. Only notable because she's a jotun inducted into the pantheon as repayment for the death of her father, who had been slain after he manipulated Loki into kidnapping Idunn on his behalf. She demanded she be allowed to take an Aesir husband as part of her weregild; she was hoping to snag Baldur, but wound up choosing Njord by mistake. They ultimately got divorced because they couldn't stand each other's favoured territory.
*'''The Valkyries''' - Adaptations only, they're forces of nature at best in the original myths.
*'''Fafnir''' - Son of Hreidmar who is cursed by Andvari's gold and becomes a fuckhuge [[dragon]], yo.
*'''Sigurd''' - Also known as Siegfried, this top bloke single-handedly slew Fafnir and had a tragic romance with the Valkyrie Brynhildr.
*'''Grendel''' - Technically from Beowulf, this guy is the son of Cain and is "harrowed" by the sounds of singing from the King Hrothgar's mead-hall Heorot. One day he snaps and attacks the hall, continuing to attack it every night for twelve years. Did we mention he [[Chaos|consumes the men he kills?]]
</div>
</div>

'''Other important things associated with Norse Mythology:'''
*'''Yggdrasil''' - The World Tree. An actual gigantic tree, but also a sort of metaphysical highway linking nine universes - it is the core of the Norse Mythology, and it has always existed. Those realms are: Asgard (Home of the Aesir,. Vanaheim (Home of the Vanir), Alfheim (Home of the Elves/Dwarves; there isn't much destinction in Norse mythology between Elves and Dwarves), Niflheim (Land of Ice and Fog), Musphelheim, (Land of Ash and Fire), Midgard (realm of mortals/Earth), Jotunheim (Home of the Giants), Svartalfheim (realm of the Dark Elves/Dwarves), and Helheim (realm of the Dead). Encasing Yggdrasil is the Ginnungagap, the chaotic abyss from which all life sprung from. Four stags called Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr, and Duraþrór run among its limbs, feeding on the leaves. A great serpent called Nidhogg lies within its roots and gnaws upon them, and an eagle perches upon its top. The squirrel Ratatoskr runs up and down its trunk, carrying insults between the two.

*'''The Norns''' - These are the three sisters who preside over the fate and destiny of gods and men, much like their Greco-Roman counterparts. They reside near Yggdrasil's roots at a great well of knowledge, and their names are Urd (What Once Was), Verdandi (What Is Now), and Skuld (What Shall Be).

*'''Sleipnir''' - As noted above, Loki got fucked by a stallion while disguised as a mare. Well, in truly horrifying mythological fashion, he gave birth to an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir, who later became Odin's favorite warhorse. Family reunions must've been ''awkward'' in Asgard.

*'''Fenrir''' - Another one of Loki's animal children, and the aforementioned giant wolf whom bit off Tyr's hand due to Odin and the rest of the Aesir-Vanir binding him out of fear. He's prophesied to eat the sun and then kill Odin during Ragnarok, only to be slain by his son, Vidar.

*'''Jormumgandr''' - Yet another Loki spawn, the World Serpent. Basically, a snek so fucking huge that he can encircle all of Midgard when he bites his tail. Prophesised to annihilate Midgard and then fight Thor to the death during...yep...Ragnarok.

*'''The Jotunn''' - Usually called "Giants" or "Frost Giants" in the US, Jætter or Jotunn are the personification of nature's chaos to the gods' personification of human order. Many of them are barbaric or even evil, but they aren't automatically [[Chaotic Evil]] - though they are almost always Chaotic. They live in most other planes, though they are by far most numerous in Utgard. They tend to hate the gods because Odin killed their primordial father, Ymir, who the entire world is made out of. Notable Jotunn are Loki and Skadi above; Utgard-Loki, a powerful lord in Utgard who humiliated Thor by convincing him to wrestle with a personification of old age and tricked Loki into participating in an eating contest with the embodiment of fire, and Surtr, king of the fire jotunn, who leads the charge during Ragnarok and succeeds in killing off most of the gods.

*'''The Vanir''' - Rival god pantheon of the Aesir which we know little about. The Aesir and Vanir fought a war at some point but eventually made peace and exchanged captives to keep it. These captives are Freya, Frej and Njord. Due to these three gods being fertility gods who are among the least masculine gods (compared to the likes of Thor or Tyr, this is understandable), some researchers propose that the Vanir represented feminine virtues to the very warlike and masculine Aesir. Says a lot about the [[Vikings]] that they didn't even flesh out the Vanir pantheon, let alone worship them.

'''Notable Artifacts:'''
*Mjölnir - Thor's Hammer. Could return to him when thrown like a boomerang, but has a rather short handle because of Loki messing with its creation.
*Lævateinn - A really powerful sword.
*Gram - Sigurd's Sword, used to kill Fafnir.
*Gungnir - Odin's Spear.
*Megingjörð - Belt of <s>Giant's Strength</s> Power.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
====Creation Myth====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
Basically, in the early world's life cycle, there were these '''Jotun''' or '''Frost Giants''' who [[wat|were sweats born from the armpit of '''Ymir''', the first of their kind and, at the time, so huge he was the entire world]]. There was also a giant cow, '''Audhumla''', the udder of which Ymir frequented. [[wat|Then that giant cow accidentally created a god by just licking a salty rock]], '''Buri''', who then "begat a son" - fuck knows how. This son, '''Bor''', had a wife '''Bestla''' who gave birth to '''Odin''' and his brothers. Odin does not like the Jotun since they come out of Ymir's stinking armpits like rats and they eat a lot, so he and his brothers '''Vili''' and '''Ve''' killed Ymir. [[Khorne|Ymir was so fuckhuge that his blood caused a massive flood that killed most other jotun right there!]]. Odin then used Ymir's body to forge a new world. The death of Ymir also brought forth many life forms without Odin's touch, like the Dwarves, who were basically [[Nurgle|Ymir's corpse maggots]]. Then like the Greek gods, Odin formed a government of deities from each aspect of daily life. And then [[The End Times|Ragnarok]] will come.
</div>
</div>

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
====Dwarves====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
While there many mythologies that have different telling of the [[dwarf]] race, we will be talking about the Norse version.

After Odin murderfied Ymir and killed a bunch of giants through blood floods (see above), maggots came out and were festering on Ymir's flesh. Yes. [[Nurgle|These corpse maggots are the precursor]] that Odin turned into the dwarfs we all knew and love, at least according to the ''Prose Edda''. [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)|They have the talent of mead brewing, metal smithing and making magical artifacts]], including many iconic weapons like Thor's hammer and most importantly Odin's spear, Gungnir. (Does the Warhammer Dwarven god Grungni sound familiar suddenly...?)

Norse dwarves are also known to be denizens of Svartalfheim along with the svartalfar, who are often conflated with dwarves and dokkalfar (the 'original' [[Drow|dark elves]]) to the point of being the same. At least one instance occurs of dwarfs turning to stone if exposed to the sun for too long, not unlike some Nordic accounts of [[troll]]s.

There are four known dwarfs in the mythologies: Austri, Vestri, Norðri, and Suðri (which means “East,” “West,” “North,” and “South”), and each are tasked with holding up their respective corners of the sky, AKA the Atlas treatment with less punishment and more "best suited for the job".
</div>
</div>

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
====Elves====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
In Norse myth, they were demi-god like beings whose sole purpose is to be [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|more beautiful and superior-than-you]]. They are described as [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|"more beautiful than the sun"]], with their demi-god status apparently linked to the gods of Vanir and Aesir. Their lord is a Vanir god called Freyr, who rules the elves’ homeland, Alfheim. They commonly cause humans to suffer illness, but have the power to cure any illness only if sacrifices are offered to them. Bunch of dicks. It is also possible for humans to become elves upon death, and elf and human can also interbreed; the mix of human and elf is described as having the look of a human, but possessing extraordinary intuitive and magical powers.
</div>
</div>

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
====Ragnarok====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
Also known as "Fate of the Gods", "Twilight of the Gods", Götterdämmerung
[[The End Times|The seemingly ubiquitous "end of the world" event]] - The Book of Revelation, the Flood of Noah's Ark fame, and Jesus' death and return are comparable, and Greek myth has the Titanomachy, but the former is more of a case of "all according to God's Keikaku", whereas Ragnarok counts as "NOT AS PLANNED", and the latter is more a case of a victorious revolution, rather than Ragnarok's being straight up disaster for everyone involved. The event itself may or may not be a product of Christianization, which "naturally" marked the end of Nordic "pagan" believes and promises a new beginning not unlike that promised by Christian doctrine's post-return of Jesus arc.

'''''How The fuck did it start and why?'''''

It is said that Odin was the one that had foreseen this event through his empty right eye socket, and beheld three "signs":

1. The death of Baldur.

2. Three uninterrupted long cold winters

3. Two wolves in the sky swallow the sun and the moon, and even the stars disappear and send the world into a great darkness.

Frigg had several dreams about Baldur's death, and this depressed her to the point Frigg decided to make ''''everything in the goddamn world''''' take a vow not to hurt her precious sunshine-faced boy - and they all complied, too! All but one...

When Loki got the wind of the spell's weakness - mistletoe, which she already considered soft and harmless - the cunny fuckwit thought it was pretty funny, and made a spear, arrow or dart out of mistletoe using his magic. Since Baldur was immune to every ''other'' object, his brother gods made a sport of hurling whatever they could think to at him for shits and giggles. This gave Loki the perfect impetus to carefully place his magic spear into the hand of Höðr, a god who was blind and killed Baldur with it. Höðr was then blamed for Baldur's death, which Odin avenged by [[/d/|fucking a giantess]] and conceiving a god named Váli, who grew in one day just to kill him.

The second sign, a winter that lasts three years with no summer in between, has yet to come according to legend. The name of these uninterrupted winters are called “Fimbulwinter”; during these three long years, the world will be plagued by wars, and men will kill their kindred.

'''''The End Times'''''

A beautiful red rooster named “Fjalar” (meaning “All-knower”) will warn all the giants that the Ragnarok has begun. Two other such roosters will warn the dishonorable dead in Hel and all the Gods in Asgard, the latter named “Gullinkambi”.

Heimdall will blow his horn as loud as he can, and that will be the warning for all the Einherjar (dead warriors) in Valhalla that the war has started. This will be the battle to end all battles,
and all the Einherjar from Valhalla and Folkvangr who had died honorably in battle will pick up their swords and armor to fight side by side with the Aesir against the Giants.

Odin will be riding on his horse Sleipnir with his eagle helmet equipped and his spear Gungnir in his hand, and lead the enormous army of Asgard with all the Gods and brave einherjar to the battleground in the fields of Vigrid.

The Giants will come together with Hel, and all her dishonorable dead, in the ship Naglfar, which is made from the fingernails of all the dead, sail to the plains of Vigrid. The dragon Nidhogg will come flying over the battlefield and gather as many corpses for his never-ending hunger.

Odin will be torn apart by Fenrir, but shall be avenged by his son Vidar. Loki will turn on the Aesir and fight Heimdall to the death. Tyr will fight the watchdog “Garm” that guards the gates of Hel and kill each other. Thor will fight the Midgard Serpent, Jormungand, and kill it, but he will die of the poisonous wounds it inflicts. Freyr will be killed by the fire giant named Surtr. Finally, Surtr will set all the nine worlds on fire, and everything will sink into the boiling sea.

[[Grimdark|There is nothing the Gods can do to prevent Ragnarok.]]

'''''The End of Another Beginning'''''

Everything looks pretty '''FUCKED UP''', I know - but while most of the Gods will perish in the mutual destruction with the Giants, it is predetermined that a new world will rise up from the water, beautiful and green. Before the battle of Ragnarok, a couple by the name Líf and Lífþrasir will find shelter in the sacred tree Yggdrasil. As foretold by the wise Jotunn Vafþrúðnir (Odin's intellectual rival), they consume mourning dew as food during the Ragnarok. When the battle is over, they will become the Norse version of Adam and Eve and repopulate the earth again, providing the sole comfort Odin could ever find in his foresight.

The few Gods who survive, as well as the resurrected Baldr, will go to Idavoll (the ancient altar and meeting site for the gods), which has remained untouched. There, they will build new houses, the greatest of the houses will be Gimli, and will have a roof of gold. There is also a new place called Brimir, at a place called Okolnir (“never cold”). It is in the mountains of Nidafjoll.

But there is also a terrible place, a great hall on Nastrond, the shore of corpses. All its doors face north to greet the screaming winds. The walls will be made of writhing snakes that pour their venom into a river that flows through the hall. This will be the new underground, full of thieves and murderers, and when they die, the great dragon Nidhug is there to feed upon their corpses.
</div>
</div>

==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" and have modernized to fit with new technology (for example, a cursed cart may become a cursed car). [[Board-tans/x|Creepypasta]] 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're probably 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 Pacific Northwest.
**'''Chupacabra''' - A small bear size monster who likes to suck a goat's blood dry. First spotted in Puerto Rico where it kills 8 sheeps. It is said that its influcence has spread across the 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 video about catching it are fake and are pure entertainment. In fiction, notably in [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|JoJo]] they were portray as some kind of avian creature with actual limbs and organs that feeds on temperature and has the power to KILL or disable a person by absorb the body heat from their important organs.
**'''Tsuchinoko''' - Also known as "child of hammer", "child of dirt" or "bachi hebi" in Northeastern Japan, 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". A real life serial killer in London 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 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). Since no identity were revealed, he was even suspected to be a female 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.
* '''John Henry''' - A black manual laborer who raced against his industrialized replacement and won, but died from exhaustion at the end. If he existed, even loosely based on a real story, has been lost to history.
*'''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.
*'''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''.

==Popular mythology elements used in Fantasy==
*[[Dwarfs]]
*[[Elves]]
*[[Vampires]]
*[[Werewolves]]
*[[Necromancer|Necromancy]]
*[[Troll]]s
*[[Giant]]s
*[[Minotaur]]
*[[God|Gods/Deities]]
*[[Genie]]
*[[Dragon]]
*[[Orc]]
*[[Baba Yaga]]: Probably the sole character anybody knows about from Russian folklore. Talking about her in any detail would be overly long, even for this overly long article, so just [[Baba Yaga|read about her here]].
*[[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.

[[Category:History]]

Religion

2020-08-30T12:06:01Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* Somewhat special cases */

{{flamewar}}
{{topquote|Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.|Martin Luther King, Jr}}

:'''Dracula''': ''I was called here by, huuuuumans, who wish to pay me tribute!''
:'''Richter Belmont''': ''Tribute?! You steal men's souls! And make them your slaves!''
:'''Dracula''': ''Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.''
::--An excerpt from the infamous exchange that also gave us "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets" in [[Castlevania#Castlevania:_Symphony_Of_The_Night_.28Castlevania_9.29|Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.]]

Because it's important to several settings and RPG systems, particularly ones that are high-profile or relevant to /tg/, we have a religion article. Let's try and keep it focused on the directly-related-to-/tg/ stuff and not descend into the pure [[skub]] that can arise in discussions of real-life religions, okay?

==Definition of Religion==
Almost since the inception of the term, scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. While there are some belief systems that always count as religions, some have applied the term to various things such as political ideologies, or groups when they reach a certain point. There are however two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical.

The two most widely accepted are:
* "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them."
* "a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted".

As stated before, one common element that every religion which fits the criteria has is humanity's relation to supernatural forces, as all of them have at least one [[God|god]] and/or an afterlife even where there are exceptions; Buddhism doesn't have any gods or its own idea of the cosmos' origins but has afterlives and the existence of the eternal soul (unless a persons achieves nirvana), and Taoism doesn't have an afterlife in the conventional sense but is pantheistic.

Like other terms for heavily [[SJW|debated]] [[communism|subjects]], religion and religious have also been used as insults or Snarl Words in social and political discussions (especially from the 20th century and onwards) to ridicule groups openly promoting something the user disagrees with. This snarl creates a caricature of the group to smear them by association with the worst excesses/negative stereotypes of real-world religious people (like being too preachy, judgmental, irrational, hypocritical, or pressuring everyone to convert).

==List of Religions==

Too many to list, and there's debate about the categorization. In lieu of a list on this site, here are two complied lists that should cover everything that fits the bill. Otherwise, check out the [[Mythology]] page.

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions Wikipedia's list of religions and spiritual traditions]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups For a simplified version from Wikipedia that focuses more on major religions]

==Religion vs. Mythology==
While [[Mythology|mythologies]] aren't religions in and of themselves, every religion has a mythology. While mythologies are merely the accounts of supernatural events, religions add rituals and practices that link those mythologies directly to the lives of their believers in one form or another, typically by describing how to properly serve to a god (or multiple gods, it depends) a significant role in the mythology a given religion is derived from. [[Skub|Whatever the source]], the mythology almost always predates the religion. As a result, especially since the Fantasy genre deals in supernatural beings and forces, most if not all fantasy settings have religions. Science fiction does to a lesser degree, mostly because during the Golden Age of sci-fi empiricists and secular humanists were attracted to the genre and their views often seeped into their stories. Despite this, given that most real-life societies have had religions playing a role in or since their founding, religions are still found in sci-fi.

Religions involves belief systems and practices, where an adherent can call upon the power/being the religion is focused on to give them aid in [[cleric|various]] [[Paladin|ways]], depending at the very least on the religion and the task in question. Given that religions are about people's place in the world, how it was made, ideas on how life should be lived and how humans should relate to the supernatural, they have major implications for societies. Given that people can become [[Exarch|dangerously single-minded]] about a cause, people can be become extremists about their religion, regardless of the fact that [[Heironeous|some]] are more benevolent than [[Asmodeus|others]] and in numerous cases even [[Heresy|if it involves going against the religion's teachings]]; in conjunction with the above this means religious conflicts can become widespread, long-lasting, cause carnage and also involve other elements such as politics- both in fantasy and in the real world.

==Role in Society==
A person's belief (for or against) any or all religions is a major factor in their worldview, and as such often serves as the undercurrent for all others. This is because this belief shapes people's views on the big things such as the purpose of life, how life should be lived in relation to oneself and others and what happens to people after they die. On the upside, this often leads to teachings with the goal of unity, peace, charity and co-operation as per the teachings of most religions, some of which are adapted by or also found among non-religious systems. On the downside, this can lead to clashes over how the people involved do the will of whichever beings or forces they follow, which religion should be followed or whether or not people should follow a god or religion at all. This can involve arguments and factionalizing, or in some cases worse things like pogroms and wars. Since they are an overarching and fairly common element in cultures, they often appear or are referenced in fiction.

The most common religious belief systems are the Abrahamic family of religions (primarily Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which are Monotheistic (belief in a singular God) and share many common elements and root, with - at the time this was written - Christianity being the most followed religion globally. Historically, these and other religions were frequently enshrined in law as the "state religion", giving them special privileges such as extensive influence over the government or tax exemptions. In some cases, they even took over the functions of the government entirely in a system known as theocracy; while uncommon in the present day, theocracies are still in use in places such as the Vatican and Iran.

Within the last few centuries, due to events such as the French Revolution, there has also been a significant amount of anti-religious sentiment, which regards religion as at best redundant and at worst destructive (beyond historical grievances with specific groups within religions, reasons for this view and whether or not those arguments have any merit, shall not be discussed here). For the most part, a combination of people identifying more with their culture or nation than their religion and the concept that religion and functions of state should not interfere with each other has turned into more of a "live and let live" mentality that doesn't really support or oppose any one religion and only reacts when said religions begin actively defying the state or the state starts bringing the boot down on religion.

Throughout history, numerous tyrannical regimes have tried to restrict or stamp out religions. This is usually because religious teachings put the figure/object of worship before the state in a conflict of interest and most religions' teachings condemn tyranny or [[Slaanesh|the vices tyrannical leaders indulge]]. Other reasons include tyrants dislike being answerable to anyone besides themselves and a tyrant may have some form of anti-religious prejudice. While nations have usually tried to block specific religions deemed "false" (read: religions opposing the state-sponsored religion in any way), several nations (usually [[Communism|Communist]] states which took Marx's "religion is the opiate of the masses" quote out of context as a call to arms rather than a passive theory) have tried to get rid of religion altogether, albeit with horrifying [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Militant_Atheists results] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Religious_communities each] time. Best case scenario, they sidegrade from one set of problems to another as cults of personality (commonly ones based on the ruler in charge) spring up to exploit the newly created power vacuum while believers who survive the regime try to continue their activities in secret. Worst case scenario, the society and its population degenerates into [[Commorragh|a violent, fractious, and nihilistic shell of their former selves]].

Aside from the aforementioned theocracies, the most religious nations are countries such as Brazil in South America or Zambia in Africa (Zambia even has a state religion alongside a law that allows for freedom of religion). China is - at the time this was written - the world's least religious and most atheistic country (the situation around North Korea is [[Skub|debatable]], since even though they violently suppress religions [https://www.foxnews.com/world/north-korea-publicly-executes-80-some-for-videos-or-bibles-report-says to the point that merely having copies of religious texts can be grounds for execution], they also have the Kim Cult blended with the Marxist offshoot ideology Juche).

==How this impacts /tg/==
A few major ways. Since most if not every society in real-life has had religion either be the basis for its founding or play a role in it, religion is just as involved in the backstory or current lore of settings. There are three major "modes" of /tg/ settings and related fictions:
* Purely functional use of religion as a story device. (What we might call "Functionalists")
* Endorsement of religion and/or religious people. (What we might call "Religion is Good" types)
* Criticism of religion and/or religious people. (What we might call "Religion is Bad" types)
For ease of categorization, writers who use these modes will also be called proponents, detractors or functionalists (who can be pro, anti or neutral).

===Religion as a story device/Functionalists===
Compared to the two types of writers found below, these writers are usually just attempting to model their work after real-world [[Mythology]] and are frequently attempting to keep their views of Religion separate from their work. Frequently comes in one of two subspecies:
* The [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] default: The world is ruled by an ordinary polytheistic pantheon, usually close to some admixture of Norse and Greek mythologies. Some of them also have a Top God more powerful than all the others, and maybe the in-universe creator of everything who is mostly hands-off in cosmic affairs. The gods of these religions tend to focus on specific areas (gods of [[Paladin|Justice]] and [[Druid|Nature]] are common, for subtly obvious reasons) and frequently want their followers to propagate or promote these things.
* The kind of setting they wanted to make dictated the nature of the divine. For example, in [[Exalted]] just about all the figures anybody would call a "God" (besides the Exalted) are Useless, because the Exalted (which includes the Player Characters) are the guys who were made specifically to do whatever the gods needed them to do for reasons inherent to the setting, to go with the main theme of the setting for the PCs: "You can do '''almost anything''', except ''avoid the consequences of being the one who did that anything''".

===Religion as a Bad Thing/Detractors===
There are several writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy that are of the opinion "Religion Is Bad", often alongside having an axe to grind (sometimes warranted, sometimes not) with either one or more specific real-life religions. This is more common in Sci-Fi than fantasy because the focus on science appeals to the naturalist, empiricist and/or humanist worldview of such writers, with the supernatural being seen as an obstacle to that. Despite that, the view is found among some fantasy authors as well, such as the author of the book series "His Dark Materials", Philip Pullman (he wrote it as pushback against C.S Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" series). Whatever the genre, this comes in flavors of either "The Gods Don't Exist", "The Gods are Incompetent" (more on that below) or "The Gods are Evil". Cosmic Horror also tends to use the "Gods Don't Exist" or "Gods are Evil" route, or combine them into "The Gods are actually Incomprehensible and Destructive Aliens" (for example; the author who codified the genre, [[H.P. Lovecraft]], was an avowed anti-religious atheist - which is why cults are recurring villains in his stories). This also has the side effect of inclining science fiction towards an atheistic perspective.

Another major component is personal issues of the author such as grievance or prejudice, but that's case-by-case and a major can of worms. A writer could have resentment against a specific religion or even the higher power a religion reveres (though opposition to a god or gods is called anti-theistic, not anti-religious), and single them out in their works due to personal bias or agenda. Worst case scenario, the story is some sort of anti-religious wish fulfillment power fantasy - such as Frank Miller's "Holy Terror" comics against Islam and Garth Ennis' "Preacher" comics (and their live-action adaptation) against Christianity.

Whatever the motivation, writers saying this message either model their fictional religions on the - occasionally exaggerated - worst excesses of real world religious people or use a fictional religion as a (usually strawman) stand-in of a real one. The most frequently targeted religions are Christianity, Islam, any faith that practiced human sacrifice (such as the Aztec religious practices) and Scientology. Cults, especially those with beliefs that mainstream religions consider unorthodox or outright heretical, are especially fertile ground for this message, albeit running the risk of being misapplied to tar other groups with the same brush.

===Religion as a Good Thing/Proponents===
There are several Science Fiction and Fantasy writers who either are religious themselves and want to promote their worldview, look upon religion positively and put that into the story or both. This is more common in Fantasy than Sci-fi, partly because with the supernatural being THE fundamental element of the genre, this gives opportunities to explore many aspects of religiosity. This is less common in science-fiction, but not unheard of, such as Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" where God's signature is found in the digits of pi. These authors usually put more thought into their fictional religion plus its central figure (although they have a tendency to go all "Crystal Dragon Jesus"), and try and have it be at least a somewhat good influence, although religious institutions and leaders are usually hit-and-miss affairs.

Some people make a fictional setting with figures from real-world religions, either in the real-world or [[CS Lewis|an alternate world (such as Narnia)]]. Others use fictional religions that either visually resemble real-life religions or figures from them; religions that often get this treatment are the Abrahamic faiths (most often Christianity), Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology and Norse mythology (albeit often a sanitized version of the latter three). In other cases they all but abandon any form of subtlety, with the fictional religion being distinguished from the real-world religion the author follows by only a handful of minor changes. Naturally, those kinds of works tend to come off as preachy, to say the least.

Another route this uses is the route that faith itself provides the power as per "[[Belief Function|Belief Function]]" (think Morpheus' "your mind makes it real" quote, but applying at the cosmological level). In fact, Warhammer often goes the route that the gods are powered by faith as well as from their sphere of influence which has either [[Sigmar|caused some people have risen to godhood]] or [[Ynnead|caused new gods to be born in the setting]]. In fact, this has proven the greatest weapon against Chaos in every Warhammer setting (and why the Emperor's plan to starve the Chaos Gods with atheism was doomed to fail from the start).

===Somewhat special cases===

One somewhat special case is the "Religion of Evil"; in many settings, there is a religion that is explicitly capital E Evil and seeks one of the usual "Card Carrying Villain" goals of Control, Conquest, Corruption, or Destruction. Frequently has some admixture of the worst aspects of Roman Paganism, Norse practices, the Aztec, Scientology and/or the various Abrahamic religions. They also often draw from those found in the writings of H.P Lovecraft. If this cult directly worships an individual Evil God, expect whatever makes sense for that deity to be some form of destructive activity--e.g., the cult of the God of Murder demands human sacrifice on a regular basis, with a certain portion of that explicitly being not-careful-enough cultists. Regardless, Religions of Evil can show up in all three above modes, and usually has a special purpose in all three:

* All three types need bad guys. In particular, a group who by definition is Evil is always good for some no-need-to-worry-about-the-ethics-or-morality-of-killing fodder (based on the idea that everyone in is group is evil because you have to do evil to be part of the group).
* Religion is Bad types tend to use them to say either "while they're all Bad, some are worse then others", that "Religion can be used to justify anything", use it as a strawman to tar all with the same brush or they have a specific axe to grind (either against an entire religion, a group within that religion or individual adherents the author personally dislikes).
* Religion is Good types or the sincerely religious tend to use them as analogies with fanaticism, criticize Real World cults, compare different beliefs or deal with negative aspects of religion (occasionally making jabs at competitive religions, or fellow believers the author disagrees with). Another approach is to have a Religion of Good fighting against a Religion of Evil - either as the heroes of the story or a valued ally - to say "there is good religion, so don't tar all with the same negative brush".
** As a side note, a lot of fantasy has moved slightly away from pure Religions of Evil, for much the same reason as [[Always Chaotic Evil]] races (questions of whether this fosters prejudice against real-life groups and audiences and authors demanding more motive for their villains). While there are still plenty of them, they usually add some nuance that makes them at least morally neutral under their own lights. Popular options are for them to be an off-shoot/subset of another religion and/or be taking vengeance for an injustice (real or perceived, both of which have '''plenty''' of real-life precedent).

[[Urban Fantasy]] writers are another special case, since almost all Urban Fantasy is set in something that might be called "the real world with a twist", with all the usual political trouble that implies. As a result, they can take one of a few routes:
* The most common route is "there are many possible explanations" and vague things up as much as possible ([[True Faith|Faith]] being the power that repels [[Vampire]]s rather than than a cross having any actual connection to a deity is a popular one).
* The second most common route (albeit rarer outside of Cosmic Horror) is the "Religion as a Bad Thing" route; the story is straight up atheistic/"Religion is Bad" [[Imperial Truth|propaganda]] where the writer often has an axe to grind against a specific religion. It's a popular choice for writers trying to be [[Edgy]] who want to include religious subject matter in their stories, and they almost exclusively go after the most established religion in the area or any new cults that have emerged at the time. On that note, any fictional religions or cults are most likely thinly-veiled stand-ins for real life ones.
* Some Urban Fantasy works with a clear correct religion exist thanks to the above mentioned sincerely religious authors, which are typically [[Chick Tracts|barely veiled proselytizing]] or [[Twilight|just straight up terrible]], though [[Monster Hunter International|there are some good ones]].
* The fourth route, taken most notably by [[Supers|DC and Marvel comics]] among others, is to take an "All Myths are True" approach: All religions are sort of true, but none have any exclusivity to the Truth, so Thor and Athena might have the Archangel Michael on speeddial when the Orochi teams up with Apep to get up to no good and start making trouble in their neighborhoods (because "Mikey really likes kicking serpent tail, and gets annoyed when we don't at least try to invite him to an evil serpent ass-kicking."). Differs from the "vague things up" route by being clearer on some details, and also much more gonzo. The Abrahamic God is the exception here: He's usually kept especially vague, albeit more powerful (and yet infinitely less accessible) than anyone else in the setting, and only referred to by some codephrase (Marvel likes "The One Above All", DC generally goes for "The Presence" or "whatever is behind the Source Wall").

===Miscellaneous Observations===

Doing the "The Gods are Incompetent" thing (the similar but different "The Gods are Insane", "The Gods Are Assholes" and "The Gods Don't Actually Do Anything" routes also falls under this umbrella) can go into any of the three modes; in a sincere monotheist's (such as Christian) work, it can be a "Take That" to polytheistic religions; in a "Religion is Bad" atheist's, it can be one to religion in general; in a Buddhist-influenced work, it can be a part of the whole "even the Gods are tied up in the Wheel of Karma" concept; and, even if the author is not pushing any religious message in any way, there's a neutral, plot-structural reason to go "Incompetent Gods": it can make the adventurers the Most Competent People Available since if that wasn't the case there wouldn't be anything for the adventurers to do.

If a work has multiple writers, (as frequently happens with RPG and Wargame settings, and quite a few popular SciFi/Fantasy ones as well) there's a tendency for the writers to try and pull the setting into one of the other two "modes" depending on their personal views. This leads to the theme changing from one side to the other as the story progresses. A recent example is [[World of Warcraft|the spate of retcons to the cosmology of the Warcraft universe]] and the morality of its fundamental forces/dominant higher powers, the Light and the Void. If the story doesn't get focused on a pro-religion or anti-religion message, it may end up swinging back and forth between both sides or settle in a mid-point which doesn't take a strong stance either way.

Note that members of the "Religion is Bad" and "Religion is Good" brigades will get involved in arguments over the relative morality or "goodness" of various factions in the story and the accuracy of any messages a writer presents. Often history buffs will throw their hat into the ring as well.

==Examples of /tg/ connected fictional religions==
===Warhammer 40k===
* The [[Imperial Truth]] was originally the Emperor's plan on beliefs, which he and his servants propagated throughout the galaxy during the Great Crusade. Attempting to wean mankind away from Chaos and being a firm member of the "Religion is Bad" brigade, the Emperor proclaimed there are no gods, and religion had to be abolished willingly or by force while science or reason are to be used for explaining the universe and morality. Everything transpired according to his design, except theistic religiosity in the 40k universe is the best weapon against Chaos so Emps' interstellar state atheism policy gave them a major opening. Things went from bad to worse when people started looking up to the Emperor as a god himself, [[Exterminatus|he responded accordingly]], and the Chaos Gods got a new tool in the form of [[Lorgar]]. After the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's removal from galactic politics: the Imperial Truth was slowly shelved in favor of the Imperial Cult, to the point that espousing the teachings of the Truth is ironically considered heresy. Only a few practitioners of the Imperial Truth remain, most notably the Custodes and the Space Marines (both of whom know The Emperor better than anybody to worship him as a god. Plus, their religious autonomy.).
** The [[Imperial Cult]] is the present-day religion of the Imperium of Man, and is a mix of several Abrahamic Religions along with copious amounts of warmongering, fanaticism and xenophobia. Derived from the Lectitio Divinatus penned by [[Lorgar]] pre-HH, the Cult decrees that because the Emperor is capable of all these miracles and power: he ''must'' be a god, and why you should worship and pledge loyalty to him. Its a complete 180 from the Emperor's original teachings, and has simultaneously been responsible for damning and saving the Imperium past the clusterfuck of the Horus Heresy. It's unknown whether the Emperor still abhors godhood and religion and would abolish it the moment he could, or if he's resigned himself to becoming the very thing he fought against for mankind to persevere in these trying times. Whatever the case, he didn't want to be a god, but now he has no choice but to become one.
** The [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Cult Mechanicus]] (Machine Cult) is the religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus, placing a heavy emphasis on machines, viewing them as gifts from the Machine God called "The Omnissiah" Officially, the Omnissiah is The Emperor, which allows the Mechanicus to sidestep the more puritan pundits of the Imperial Cult (we worship The Emprah, just not how you do it). Unofficially, the Omnissiah may or may not be the C'tan god: The Void Dragon. It also has a high emphasis on the collection of knowledge, and one of the Admech's roles in the galaxy is to explore remote and uncharted regions of space to find and search for knowledge that has been lost throughout the millennia. The last of these, is guidelines on machines and knowledge. Officially, heretic(tek) and xeno works are to be abhorred and disposed of, viewing them as perversions of the holy Machine God's works. Unofficially however, more liberally-minded and higher-ranked Magos would happily hoard heretek/xeno works, seeing their potential over the more restricted and constrained works of the Mechanicus.

* Chaos is a violent and complicated henotheistic (believing in multiple gods but only worshipping one) or polytheistic religion with dozens, if not hundreds of interpretations. Even then, there's more sub-cults that worship their particular god in a specific way, either minutely or vastly different from everyone else among followers of the Big 4. And this doesn't even get into the realm of Chaos Undivided (which worships the concept of Chaos itself, instead of the individual gods) and [[Malal]]. Chaos has very little established guidelines regarding worship, apart from their patron god's/gods' general likes/dislikes, so any religious practices or rituals are either based on commands from the god/s or up to the imagination of the cult.
** Interestingly, there is a Space Marine of the Chaos faction who follows the Imperial Truth, and that is [[Fabius Bile]].

* All Greenskins worship Gork and Mork (jury's out on whether the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] do), but are too disorganized to have anything like a formal religion, though they do make effigies of Gork and Mork and call on them. The closest thing they have to tenants is that Gork favors violence, Mork favors cunning. Greenskins have gotten into fights over this, but violence is part of their nature and that of their gods. While they fight over religion, they also fight over almost any dispute anyway, and may even start a religious argument just to enjoy a good fight among themselves (though the only theological argument they can formulate is "is Gork the god of cunning or is Mork?" or vica versa). On the surface, religion does not play a big-enough role in Ork society compared to other races, being just another outlet for Orks to fight about. But if [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka|Ghazghkull]] is any indication: religion can have a great impact on Orks, with him being becoming one of the greatest Warlords in the galaxy, primarily because he thinks he's personally blessed by Gork and Mork themselves. So if you throw in the Orks' gestalt field into the mix, its likely that its not that religion doesn't matter to them, it's under-utilized.

* The Tau's creed "The [[Greater Good]]" is a specie-wide philosophy that was adopted ever since the initial unification of the Tau in the olden days. In a nutshell, the Greater Good emphasizes the co-existence of all Tau and sapient life in general into working together for a common goal to further the Tau's progress, seeing everyone's potential and hoping to utilize that for an, ahem, greater good. Personal religion isn't forbidden, but it must not contradict or override The Greater Good, and must be disregarded if it ever does so. Technically, this means Tau can be religious or non-religious, as the Greater Good is not a religion (due to lacking an afterlife and supernatural aspects, with the closest things to figures of worship being the Ethereals). This sounds all fine and dandy, but the Ethereal class, who are responsible for maintaining The Greater Good, have been shown to be less benevolent than believed and have been using their unnaturally powerful charisma to subtly oppress the Tau and use them to further their own agendas.
**The Farsight Enclaves, who have thrown off Ethereal rule, are the exception in that they have rejected The Greater Good, seeing it as the method of oppression used to keep the T'au under complete control of the ethereals. Due to this, if one considers the Greater Good a religion, The Enclaves are irreligious.
**As of the 4th Sphere Expansion disaster, Chaos Tau are starting to become a thing.
**At one point, the Earth Caste gathered Genestealer-infected Tau and studied them to see what would happen. Of course, a Genestealer cult developed and naturally they violently escaped control and surveillance. According to rumors, they've even produced a Genestealer-infected Ethereal.

* The Eldar have varying views on religiosity depending on their type. Their religion is polytheistic, with henotheistic offshoots, and Ausryan was the highest ranking god. However all of the Eldar gods were murder-raped to death by Slaanesh except for Isha (taken by Nurgle), Khaine (shattered and flung into realspace), Cegorach (hiding in the Webway) and Ynnead (born long after Slaanesh's birth). Their Pantheon's religious practices aren't fleshed out save for those of Cegorach, Isha, and Khaine, via the Harlequins and Aspect Warriors. With most of their gods out of commission, Eldar religious worship is of a deistic bent.
** Craftworlders and Exodites almost exclusively worship the original Eldar pantheon, though some engage in henotheistic worship of only one of the gods. Asuryan is more popular among Craftworlders while Isha is among Exodites, though nearly all give Khaine some tribute during war.
** Corsairs are all over the place, though Khaine is a popular choice given their more militant nature.
** Being agents of the Laughing God himself, the Harlequins' worship is centered around [[Cegorach]], whilst still paying minor tribute to the other gods.
** The new faith around Ynnead, the Ynnari, is rapidly growing but have yet to establish teachings or rituals.
** Unique among the Eldar, the Dark Eldar are irreligious for the most part and while they believe some gods exist they're too self-centered to worship them (this is canon). They're often also anti-religious to boot; a major landmark of Commorragh is a landfill of religious icons called Iconoclast's Mound, and one Wych cult - the Pain Eternal - revolves around killing religious people and destroying shrines and holy sites. The sole exception, except for Dark Eldar who stop being Dark Eldar, are the [[Incubi]] who hold [[Khaine]] in high regard.
** The Ynnari have encountered atleast one ancient Craftworld that turned into an entire Genestealer cult in a misguided attempt to avoid getting their souls consumed by Slaanesh as their ship had no infinity circuit present. We're not sure if this worked to any capacity (if at all, given the Hive Mind does not absorb souls), but they were taken down by the Ynnari for obvious reasons.
** There are numerous rumors of a very small number of Chaos Eldar, but these are barely fleshed out and heavily classified in-universe. There have been verified Nurgle-worshipping Eldar and persistent rumors that some have embraced Slaanesh without becoming soul-food. Apart from this, some Dark Eldar have been willing to summon Chaos Daemons or work with Chaos worshippers ([[Fabius Bile|or allies of Chaos]]) to further their own ends.

* While the Necrontyr had religions before certain [[C'tan|star entities]] [[Necrons|roboticizied them]], those aren't fleshed out or detailed. Its also heavily implied the C'tan co-opted the Necrontyr religion beforehand. With the change to Necrons taking the higher though processes of most of them, any Necrons who can comprehend faith and religiosity either worship the C'tan or have become irreligious.

* The Tyranids themselves are irreligious, being spehss bugs and all, but understand at least a few of the advantages of religion. [[Genestealer]]s infect people and together they establish cults on targeted worlds, such as one worshipping "Children of the Stars", a perversion of the Imperial Cult (such as one that worships a [[Swarmlord|four-armed]] version of the Emperor) or something else like "Celebrants of Nihilism" (yes, that's a canon Genestealer cult name). Psychic influence is often involved and, notably, the Genestealers do not consider themselves gods. Once the Tyranids arrive en-masse, the cult-gets assimilated along with all non-Tyranids willingly or not. An interesting tidbit is that the Hive Mind stops the Tyranids from attacking the cultists in early stages of the invasion and leads them on, only to later override the Genestealers' wills and and make them slaughter the cultists.

===Dungeons and Dragons===
* Among Dungeons and Dragons settings, [[Planescape]], [[Eberron]], and [[Pathfinder]] are notable for having some coherent things that could be called "Religions", rather then the usual generic Pantheism.
** Most of Planescape's Factions effectively count as religions, to the point they can produce [[Cleric]]s ([[Planescape: Torment#Fall-From-Grace|Atheist ones at that]]). Yes, even the Athar. (Perhaps ''especially'' the Athar.)
** Half of Eberron's religions aren't worship of deities. The [[Blood of Vol]] seeks to unlock the divinity within one's self and rejects the gods (if they even exist) and the [[Path of Inspiration]] seeks to improve their next reincarnation. The Undying Court worships not gods but their undead ancestors that make up their government. The [[Path of Light]], [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Becoming_God|Becoming God]] and [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Reforged|Reforged]] all seek to ''create'' a deity. Even some interpretations of the [[Sovereign Host]], like the one most common among dragons, don't worship them as deities. Due to the way divine casting works in Eberron, all of these can produce divine casters.
** There's a handful of religions on [[Golarion]] that aren't merely worship of pantheons. The most prominent (read: Actually has mechanical support) is the [[Prophecies of Kalistrade]], which is basically fantasy [[Star Trek|Ferengi]].

* [[D20 Modern]]'s [[Urban Arcana]], unusually for urban fantasy, has D&D deities bleed into reality alongside the monsters. You are still able to play a <s>cleric</s> "acolyte" of any real world deity despite this.

===Star Wars===
* [[Star Wars]] is inconsistent on if the [[The Force]] is a religion. The Jedi and the Sith ''could'' both be considered religions as they are considered monastic, but mix in several other traits such as being meritocratic (Jedi) and kraterocratic (Sith) and Lucas himself has axed at least one prototyped book for portraying them too much as a religion. It's also notable that the Sith were former Jedi who left the Jedi path for several reasons including [[Heresy|disagreements over the teachings of that creed]]. Aside from that, religion is nearly always a non-human tradition, something noted in a culture's historical background and never seen implying its extinction, or a scam. The religiously linked "damn" and "hell" are the two real world swear words that exist in-universe, purely because Han Solo used them in the films, and some concept of an "angel" exists because a young Anakin told Padme about them in the prequel trilogy films.
** There are rare exceptions where a religion is fleshed out and explored, and the writing goes various directions for better or worse. A notable example is the aggressive polytheistic religion of the antagonistic Yuuzhan Vong from the EU (which the story gradually revealed was long ago perverted from benevolent roots, and this perverted form takes a few cues from Islam and Aztec mythology).

===Star Trek===
* Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had a low opinion of religion and in his vision humanity had done away with it and was better off for it and he had no interest in adding it to the aliens. However, some of the cast and crew disagreed and occasionally references and religions found their way into the show, which increased after Roddenberry's death. The Federation's culture is distinctly humanistic (extending the concept to alien species) in it's outlook in which religion is regarded as a thing of the past.
** While there are plenty of "Godlike" entities in Star Trek, almost all are treated as Sufficiently Advanced Aliens in the Arthur C. Clarke sense--and in particular, in ST:TNG, the flip side, that Picard and his crew are frequently shown to look like Gods to sufficiently primitive aliens, is gone into in more than one episode.
** The Bajorans are a highly religious alien race, with the majority following peaceful teachings and a minority of violent extremists.
*** Of some note, the Bajoran religion is of interest because their "Gods" actually exist, and can be (somewhat incomprehensibly) talked to (a rarity outside of [[Science Fantasy]]). In other words, they were frequently a method of having some religion vs. science debates where the divine entity (A) explicitly exists, (B) is explainable as "sufficiently advanced and unusual aliens", and (C) aren't jerks, just bad at communication with those of us who experience time linearly--in other words, with a deck that wasn't quite as badly stacked. The religiosity was meant to be as a way of contrasting the Starfleet personnel with the native population and to draw a parallel between Bajorans under the Cardassian Occupation and various real world recently freed oppressed religious-slash-ethnic groups.
** <s>In the fifth Star Trek movie, ''"The Final Frontier"'', some of the crew steal the Enterprise to look for God and instead find a powerful alien being impersonating God in the center of the universe</s> '''Just like there is no live-action movie of Avatar: The Last Airbender, there is totally no Star Trek 5!'''

===World of Darkness===
* Very large books could be written about religion and [[World of Darkness]]/Chronicles of Darkness. We'll just cover a few highlights:
** From [[Vampire: The Requiem]], there's the the Lancea et Sanctum, which might be best described as "Christianity for Vampires", and the Circle of the Crone, which is "Pagan Vampires". Both have Vampire miracles on tap (pun intended).
** [[Hunter: The Vigil]] has various religious organizations among the Compacts and Conspiracies, some very similar to real world ones, others...not so much.
** [[Mage: The Ascension]] has various religious Traditions, portrayed in that highly-stereotypical and highly-depending-on-the-author way typical of old WoD.

==See also==
* [[Mythology]]
* [[True Faith]], a common mechanic to weaponize religion in [[Urban Fantasy]].

[[Category:Not related]]
[[Category:History]]

Religion

2020-08-30T12:00:04Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A:

{{flamewar}}
{{topquote|Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.|Martin Luther King, Jr}}

:'''Dracula''': ''I was called here by, huuuuumans, who wish to pay me tribute!''
:'''Richter Belmont''': ''Tribute?! You steal men's souls! And make them your slaves!''
:'''Dracula''': ''Perhaps the same could be said of all religions.''
::--An excerpt from the infamous exchange that also gave us "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets" in [[Castlevania#Castlevania:_Symphony_Of_The_Night_.28Castlevania_9.29|Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.]]

Because it's important to several settings and RPG systems, particularly ones that are high-profile or relevant to /tg/, we have a religion article. Let's try and keep it focused on the directly-related-to-/tg/ stuff and not descend into the pure [[skub]] that can arise in discussions of real-life religions, okay?

==Definition of Religion==
Almost since the inception of the term, scholars have failed to agree on a definition of religion. While there are some belief systems that always count as religions, some have applied the term to various things such as political ideologies, or groups when they reach a certain point. There are however two general definition systems: the sociological/functional and the phenomenological/philosophical.

The two most widely accepted are:
* "a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say things set apart and forbidden - beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them."
* "a comprehensive worldview or 'metaphysical moral vision' that is accepted as binding because it is held to be in itself basically true and just even if all dimensions of it cannot be either fully confirmed or refuted".

As stated before, one common element that every religion which fits the criteria has is humanity's relation to supernatural forces, as all of them have at least one [[God|god]] and/or an afterlife even where there are exceptions; Buddhism doesn't have any gods or its own idea of the cosmos' origins but has afterlives and the existence of the eternal soul (unless a persons achieves nirvana), and Taoism doesn't have an afterlife in the conventional sense but is pantheistic.

Like other terms for heavily [[SJW|debated]] [[communism|subjects]], religion and religious have also been used as insults or Snarl Words in social and political discussions (especially from the 20th century and onwards) to ridicule groups openly promoting something the user disagrees with. This snarl creates a caricature of the group to smear them by association with the worst excesses/negative stereotypes of real-world religious people (like being too preachy, judgmental, irrational, hypocritical, or pressuring everyone to convert).

==List of Religions==

Too many to list, and there's debate about the categorization. In lieu of a list on this site, here are two complied lists that should cover everything that fits the bill. Otherwise, check out the [[Mythology]] page.

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions Wikipedia's list of religions and spiritual traditions]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups For a simplified version from Wikipedia that focuses more on major religions]

==Religion vs. Mythology==
While [[Mythology|mythologies]] aren't religions in and of themselves, every religion has a mythology. While mythologies are merely the accounts of supernatural events, religions add rituals and practices that link those mythologies directly to the lives of their believers in one form or another, typically by describing how to properly serve to a god (or multiple gods, it depends) a significant role in the mythology a given religion is derived from. [[Skub|Whatever the source]], the mythology almost always predates the religion. As a result, especially since the Fantasy genre deals in supernatural beings and forces, most if not all fantasy settings have religions. Science fiction does to a lesser degree, mostly because during the Golden Age of sci-fi empiricists and secular humanists were attracted to the genre and their views often seeped into their stories. Despite this, given that most real-life societies have had religions playing a role in or since their founding, religions are still found in sci-fi.

Religions involves belief systems and practices, where an adherent can call upon the power/being the religion is focused on to give them aid in [[cleric|various]] [[Paladin|ways]], depending at the very least on the religion and the task in question. Given that religions are about people's place in the world, how it was made, ideas on how life should be lived and how humans should relate to the supernatural, they have major implications for societies. Given that people can become [[Exarch|dangerously single-minded]] about a cause, people can be become extremists about their religion, regardless of the fact that [[Heironeous|some]] are more benevolent than [[Asmodeus|others]] and in numerous cases even [[Heresy|if it involves going against the religion's teachings]]; in conjunction with the above this means religious conflicts can become widespread, long-lasting, cause carnage and also involve other elements such as politics- both in fantasy and in the real world.

==Role in Society==
A person's belief (for or against) any or all religions is a major factor in their worldview, and as such often serves as the undercurrent for all others. This is because this belief shapes people's views on the big things such as the purpose of life, how life should be lived in relation to oneself and others and what happens to people after they die. On the upside, this often leads to teachings with the goal of unity, peace, charity and co-operation as per the teachings of most religions, some of which are adapted by or also found among non-religious systems. On the downside, this can lead to clashes over how the people involved do the will of whichever beings or forces they follow, which religion should be followed or whether or not people should follow a god or religion at all. This can involve arguments and factionalizing, or in some cases worse things like pogroms and wars. Since they are an overarching and fairly common element in cultures, they often appear or are referenced in fiction.

The most common religious belief systems are the Abrahamic family of religions (primarily Judaism, Christianity and Islam) which are Monotheistic (belief in a singular God) and share many common elements and root, with - at the time this was written - Christianity being the most followed religion globally. Historically, these and other religions were frequently enshrined in law as the "state religion", giving them special privileges such as extensive influence over the government or tax exemptions. In some cases, they even took over the functions of the government entirely in a system known as theocracy; while uncommon in the present day, theocracies are still in use in places such as the Vatican and Iran.

Within the last few centuries, due to events such as the French Revolution, there has also been a significant amount of anti-religious sentiment, which regards religion as at best redundant and at worst destructive (beyond historical grievances with specific groups within religions, reasons for this view and whether or not those arguments have any merit, shall not be discussed here). For the most part, a combination of people identifying more with their culture or nation than their religion and the concept that religion and functions of state should not interfere with each other has turned into more of a "live and let live" mentality that doesn't really support or oppose any one religion and only reacts when said religions begin actively defying the state or the state starts bringing the boot down on religion.

Throughout history, numerous tyrannical regimes have tried to restrict or stamp out religions. This is usually because religious teachings put the figure/object of worship before the state in a conflict of interest and most religions' teachings condemn tyranny or [[Slaanesh|the vices tyrannical leaders indulge]]. Other reasons include tyrants dislike being answerable to anyone besides themselves and a tyrant may have some form of anti-religious prejudice. While nations have usually tried to block specific religions deemed "false" (read: religions opposing the state-sponsored religion in any way), several nations (usually [[Communism|Communist]] states which took Marx's "religion is the opiate of the masses" quote out of context as a call to arms rather than a passive theory) have tried to get rid of religion altogether, albeit with horrifying [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Militant_Atheists results] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia#Religious_communities each] time. Best case scenario, they sidegrade from one set of problems to another as cults of personality (commonly ones based on the ruler in charge) spring up to exploit the newly created power vacuum while believers who survive the regime try to continue their activities in secret. Worst case scenario, the society and its population degenerates into [[Commorragh|a violent, fractious, and nihilistic shell of their former selves]].

Aside from the aforementioned theocracies, the most religious nations are countries such as Brazil in South America or Zambia in Africa (Zambia even has a state religion alongside a law that allows for freedom of religion). China is - at the time this was written - the world's least religious and most atheistic country (the situation around North Korea is [[Skub|debatable]], since even though they violently suppress religions [https://www.foxnews.com/world/north-korea-publicly-executes-80-some-for-videos-or-bibles-report-says to the point that merely having copies of religious texts can be grounds for execution], they also have the Kim Cult blended with the Marxist offshoot ideology Juche).

==How this impacts /tg/==
A few major ways. Since most if not every society in real-life has had religion either be the basis for its founding or play a role in it, religion is just as involved in the backstory or current lore of settings. There are three major "modes" of /tg/ settings and related fictions:
* Purely functional use of religion as a story device. (What we might call "Functionalists")
* Endorsement of religion and/or religious people. (What we might call "Religion is Good" types)
* Criticism of religion and/or religious people. (What we might call "Religion is Bad" types)
For ease of categorization, writers who use these modes will also be called proponents, detractors or functionalists (who can be pro, anti or neutral).

===Religion as a story device/Functionalists===
Compared to the two types of writers found below, these writers are usually just attempting to model their work after real-world [[Mythology]] and are frequently attempting to keep their views of Religion separate from their work. Frequently comes in one of two subspecies:
* The [[Standard Fantasy Setting]] default: The world is ruled by an ordinary polytheistic pantheon, usually close to some admixture of Norse and Greek mythologies. Some of them also have a Top God more powerful than all the others, and maybe the in-universe creator of everything who is mostly hands-off in cosmic affairs. The gods of these religions tend to focus on specific areas (gods of [[Paladin|Justice]] and [[Druid|Nature]] are common, for subtly obvious reasons) and frequently want their followers to propagate or promote these things.
* The kind of setting they wanted to make dictated the nature of the divine. For example, in [[Exalted]] just about all the figures anybody would call a "God" (besides the Exalted) are Useless, because the Exalted (which includes the Player Characters) are the guys who were made specifically to do whatever the gods needed them to do for reasons inherent to the setting, to go with the main theme of the setting for the PCs: "You can do '''almost anything''', except ''avoid the consequences of being the one who did that anything''".

===Religion as a Bad Thing/Detractors===
There are several writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy that are of the opinion "Religion Is Bad", often alongside having an axe to grind (sometimes warranted, sometimes not) with either one or more specific real-life religions. This is more common in Sci-Fi than fantasy because the focus on science appeals to the naturalist, empiricist and/or humanist worldview of such writers, with the supernatural being seen as an obstacle to that. Despite that, the view is found among some fantasy authors as well, such as the author of the book series "His Dark Materials", Philip Pullman (he wrote it as pushback against C.S Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" series). Whatever the genre, this comes in flavors of either "The Gods Don't Exist", "The Gods are Incompetent" (more on that below) or "The Gods are Evil". Cosmic Horror also tends to use the "Gods Don't Exist" or "Gods are Evil" route, or combine them into "The Gods are actually Incomprehensible and Destructive Aliens" (for example; the author who codified the genre, [[H.P. Lovecraft]], was an avowed anti-religious atheist - which is why cults are recurring villains in his stories). This also has the side effect of inclining science fiction towards an atheistic perspective.

Another major component is personal issues of the author such as grievance or prejudice, but that's case-by-case and a major can of worms. A writer could have resentment against a specific religion or even the higher power a religion reveres (though opposition to a god or gods is called anti-theistic, not anti-religious), and single them out in their works due to personal bias or agenda. Worst case scenario, the story is some sort of anti-religious wish fulfillment power fantasy - such as Frank Miller's "Holy Terror" comics against Islam and Garth Ennis' "Preacher" comics (and their live-action adaptation) against Christianity.

Whatever the motivation, writers saying this message either model their fictional religions on the - occasionally exaggerated - worst excesses of real world religious people or use a fictional religion as a (usually strawman) stand-in of a real one. The most frequently targeted religions are Christianity, Islam, any faith that practiced human sacrifice (such as the Aztec religious practices) and Scientology. Cults, especially those with beliefs that mainstream religions consider unorthodox or outright heretical, are especially fertile ground for this message, albeit running the risk of being misapplied to tar other groups with the same brush.

===Religion as a Good Thing/Proponents===
There are several Science Fiction and Fantasy writers who either are religious themselves and want to promote their worldview, look upon religion positively and put that into the story or both. This is more common in Fantasy than Sci-fi, partly because with the supernatural being THE fundamental element of the genre, this gives opportunities to explore many aspects of religiosity. This is less common in science-fiction, but not unheard of, such as Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" where God's signature is found in the digits of pi. These authors usually put more thought into their fictional religion plus its central figure (although they have a tendency to go all "Crystal Dragon Jesus"), and try and have it be at least a somewhat good influence, although religious institutions and leaders are usually hit-and-miss affairs.

Some people make a fictional setting with figures from real-world religions, either in the real-world or [[CS Lewis|an alternate world (such as Narnia)]]. Others use fictional religions that either visually resemble real-life religions or figures from them; religions that often get this treatment are the Abrahamic faiths (most often Christianity), Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology and Norse mythology (albeit often a sanitized version of the latter three). In other cases they all but abandon any form of subtlety, with the fictional religion being distinguished from the real-world religion the author follows by only a handful of minor changes. Naturally, those kinds of works tend to come off as preachy, to say the least.

Another route this uses is the route that faith itself provides the power as per "[[Belief Function|Belief Function]]" (think Morpheus' "your mind makes it real" quote, but applying at the cosmological level). In fact, Warhammer often goes the route that the gods are powered by faith as well as from their sphere of influence which has either [[Sigmar|caused some people have risen to godhood]] or [[Ynnead|caused new gods to be born in the setting]]. In fact, this has proven the greatest weapon against Chaos in every Warhammer setting (and why the Emperor's plan to starve the Chaos Gods with atheism was doomed to fail from the start).

===Somewhat special cases===

One somewhat special case is the "Religion of Evil"; in many settings, there is a religion that is explicitly capital E Evil and seeks one of the usual "Card Carrying Villain" goals of Control, Conquest, Corruption, or Destruction. Frequently has some admixture of the worst aspects of Roman Paganism, Norse practices, the Aztec, Scientology and/or the various Abrahamic religions. They also often draw from those found in the writings of H.P Lovecraft. If this cult directly worships an individual Evil God, expect whatever makes sense for that deity to be some form of destructive activity--e.g., the cult of the God of Murder demands human sacrifice on a regular basis, with a certain portion of that explicitly being not-careful-enough cultists. Regardless, Religions of Evil can show up in all three above modes, and usually has a special purpose in all three:

* All three types need bad guys. In particular, a group who by definition is Evil is always good for some no-need-to-worry-about-the-ethics-or-morality-of-killing fodder (based on the idea that everyone in is group is evil because you have to do evil to be part of the group).
* Religion is Bad types tend to use them to say either "while they're all Bad, some are worse then others", that "Religion can be used to justify anything", use it as a strawman to tar all with the same brush or they have a specific axe to grind (either against an entire religion, a group within that religion or individual adherents the author personally dislikes).
* Religion is Good types or the sincerely religious tend to use them as analogies with fanaticism, criticize Real World cults, compare different beliefs or deal with negative aspects of religion (occasionally making jabs at competitive religions, or fellow believers the author disagrees with). Another approach is to have a Religion of Good fighting against a Religion of Evil - either as the heroes of the story or a valued ally - to say "there is good religion, so don't tar all with the same negative brush".
** As a side note, a lot of fantasy has moved slightly away from pure Religions of Evil, for much the same reason as [[Always Chaotic Evil]] races (questions of whether this fosters prejudice against real-life groups and audiences and authors demanding more motive for their villains). While there are still plenty of them, they usually add some nuance that makes them at least morally neutral under their own lights. Popular options are for them to be an off-shoot/subset of another religion and/or be taking vengeance for an injustice (real or perceived, both of which have '''plenty''' of real-life precedent).

[[Urban Fantasy]] writers are another special case, since almost all Urban Fantasy is set in something that might be called "the real world with a twist", with all the usual political trouble that implies. As a result, they can take one of a few routes:
* The most common route is "there are many possible explanations" and vague things up as much as possible ([[True Faith|Faith]] being the power that repels [[Vampire]]s rather than than a cross having any actual connection to a deity is a popular one).
* The second most common route (albeit rarer outside of Cosmic Horror) is the "Religion as a Bad Thing" route; the story is straight up atheistic/"Religion is Bad" [[Imperial Truth|propaganda]] where the writer often has an axe to grind against a specific religion. It's a popular choice for writers trying to be [[Edgy]] who want to include religious subject matter in their stories, and they almost exclusively go after the most established religion in the area or any new cults that have emerged at the time. Furthermore, any fictional religions or cults are most likely thinly-veiled stand-ins for real life ones.
* Some Urban Fantasy works with a clear correct religion exist thanks to the above mentioned sincerely religious authors, which are typically [[Chick Tracts|barely veiled proselytizing]] or [[Twilight|just straight up terrible]], though [[Monster Hunter International|there are some good ones]].
* The fourth route, taken most notably by [[Supers|DC and Marvel comics]] among others, is to take an "All Myths are True" approach: All religions are sort of true, but none have any exclusivity to the Truth, so Thor and Athena might have the Archangel Michael on speeddial when the Orochi teams up with Apep to get up to no good and start making trouble in their neighborhoods (because "Mikey really likes kicking serpent tail, and gets annoyed when we don't at least try to invite him to an evil serpent ass-kicking."). Differs from the "vague things up" route by being clearer on some details, and also much more gonzo. The Abrahamic God is the exception here: He's usually kept especially vague, albeit more powerful (and yet infinitely less accessible) than anyone else in the setting, and only referred to by some codephrase (Marvel likes "The One Above All", DC generally goes for "The Presence" or "whatever is behind the Source Wall").

===Miscellaneous Observations===

Doing the "The Gods are Incompetent" thing (the similar but different "The Gods are Insane", "The Gods Are Assholes" and "The Gods Don't Actually Do Anything" routes also falls under this umbrella) can go into any of the three modes; in a sincere monotheist's (such as Christian) work, it can be a "Take That" to polytheistic religions; in a "Religion is Bad" atheist's, it can be one to religion in general; in a Buddhist-influenced work, it can be a part of the whole "even the Gods are tied up in the Wheel of Karma" concept; and, even if the author is not pushing any religious message in any way, there's a neutral, plot-structural reason to go "Incompetent Gods": it can make the adventurers the Most Competent People Available since if that wasn't the case there wouldn't be anything for the adventurers to do.

If a work has multiple writers, (as frequently happens with RPG and Wargame settings, and quite a few popular SciFi/Fantasy ones as well) there's a tendency for the writers to try and pull the setting into one of the other two "modes" depending on their personal views. This leads to the theme changing from one side to the other as the story progresses. A recent example is [[World of Warcraft|the spate of retcons to the cosmology of the Warcraft universe]] and the morality of its fundamental forces/dominant higher powers, the Light and the Void. If the story doesn't get focused on a pro-religion or anti-religion message, it may end up swinging back and forth between both sides or settle in a mid-point which doesn't take a strong stance either way.

Note that members of the "Religion is Bad" and "Religion is Good" brigades will get involved in arguments over the relative morality or "goodness" of various factions in the story and the accuracy of any messages a writer presents. Often history buffs will throw their hat into the ring as well.

==Examples of /tg/ connected fictional religions==
===Warhammer 40k===
* The [[Imperial Truth]] was originally the Emperor's plan on beliefs, which he and his servants propagated throughout the galaxy during the Great Crusade. Attempting to wean mankind away from Chaos and being a firm member of the "Religion is Bad" brigade, the Emperor proclaimed there are no gods, and religion had to be abolished willingly or by force while science or reason are to be used for explaining the universe and morality. Everything transpired according to his design, except theistic religiosity in the 40k universe is the best weapon against Chaos so Emps' interstellar state atheism policy gave them a major opening. Things went from bad to worse when people started looking up to the Emperor as a god himself, [[Exterminatus|he responded accordingly]], and the Chaos Gods got a new tool in the form of [[Lorgar]]. After the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's removal from galactic politics: the Imperial Truth was slowly shelved in favor of the Imperial Cult, to the point that espousing the teachings of the Truth is ironically considered heresy. Only a few practitioners of the Imperial Truth remain, most notably the Custodes and the Space Marines (both of whom know The Emperor better than anybody to worship him as a god. Plus, their religious autonomy.).
** The [[Imperial Cult]] is the present-day religion of the Imperium of Man, and is a mix of several Abrahamic Religions along with copious amounts of warmongering, fanaticism and xenophobia. Derived from the Lectitio Divinatus penned by [[Lorgar]] pre-HH, the Cult decrees that because the Emperor is capable of all these miracles and power: he ''must'' be a god, and why you should worship and pledge loyalty to him. Its a complete 180 from the Emperor's original teachings, and has simultaneously been responsible for damning and saving the Imperium past the clusterfuck of the Horus Heresy. It's unknown whether the Emperor still abhors godhood and religion and would abolish it the moment he could, or if he's resigned himself to becoming the very thing he fought against for mankind to persevere in these trying times. Whatever the case, he didn't want to be a god, but now he has no choice but to become one.
** The [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Cult Mechanicus]] (Machine Cult) is the religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus, placing a heavy emphasis on machines, viewing them as gifts from the Machine God called "The Omnissiah" Officially, the Omnissiah is The Emperor, which allows the Mechanicus to sidestep the more puritan pundits of the Imperial Cult (we worship The Emprah, just not how you do it). Unofficially, the Omnissiah may or may not be the C'tan god: The Void Dragon. It also has a high emphasis on the collection of knowledge, and one of the Admech's roles in the galaxy is to explore remote and uncharted regions of space to find and search for knowledge that has been lost throughout the millennia. The last of these, is guidelines on machines and knowledge. Officially, heretic(tek) and xeno works are to be abhorred and disposed of, viewing them as perversions of the holy Machine God's works. Unofficially however, more liberally-minded and higher-ranked Magos would happily hoard heretek/xeno works, seeing their potential over the more restricted and constrained works of the Mechanicus.

* Chaos is a violent and complicated henotheistic (believing in multiple gods but only worshipping one) or polytheistic religion with dozens, if not hundreds of interpretations. Even then, there's more sub-cults that worship their particular god in a specific way, either minutely or vastly different from everyone else among followers of the Big 4. And this doesn't even get into the realm of Chaos Undivided (which worships the concept of Chaos itself, instead of the individual gods) and [[Malal]]. Chaos has very little established guidelines regarding worship, apart from their patron god's/gods' general likes/dislikes, so any religious practices or rituals are either based on commands from the god/s or up to the imagination of the cult.
** Interestingly, there is a Space Marine of the Chaos faction who follows the Imperial Truth, and that is [[Fabius Bile]].

* All Greenskins worship Gork and Mork (jury's out on whether the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]] do), but are too disorganized to have anything like a formal religion, though they do make effigies of Gork and Mork and call on them. The closest thing they have to tenants is that Gork favors violence, Mork favors cunning. Greenskins have gotten into fights over this, but violence is part of their nature and that of their gods. While they fight over religion, they also fight over almost any dispute anyway, and may even start a religious argument just to enjoy a good fight among themselves (though the only theological argument they can formulate is "is Gork the god of cunning or is Mork?" or vica versa). On the surface, religion does not play a big-enough role in Ork society compared to other races, being just another outlet for Orks to fight about. But if [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka|Ghazghkull]] is any indication: religion can have a great impact on Orks, with him being becoming one of the greatest Warlords in the galaxy, primarily because he thinks he's personally blessed by Gork and Mork themselves. So if you throw in the Orks' gestalt field into the mix, its likely that its not that religion doesn't matter to them, it's under-utilized.

* The Tau's creed "The [[Greater Good]]" is a specie-wide philosophy that was adopted ever since the initial unification of the Tau in the olden days. In a nutshell, the Greater Good emphasizes the co-existence of all Tau and sapient life in general into working together for a common goal to further the Tau's progress, seeing everyone's potential and hoping to utilize that for an, ahem, greater good. Personal religion isn't forbidden, but it must not contradict or override The Greater Good, and must be disregarded if it ever does so. Technically, this means Tau can be religious or non-religious, as the Greater Good is not a religion (due to lacking an afterlife and supernatural aspects, with the closest things to figures of worship being the Ethereals). This sounds all fine and dandy, but the Ethereal class, who are responsible for maintaining The Greater Good, have been shown to be less benevolent than believed and have been using their unnaturally powerful charisma to subtly oppress the Tau and use them to further their own agendas.
**The Farsight Enclaves, who have thrown off Ethereal rule, are the exception in that they have rejected The Greater Good, seeing it as the method of oppression used to keep the T'au under complete control of the ethereals. Due to this, if one considers the Greater Good a religion, The Enclaves are irreligious.
**As of the 4th Sphere Expansion disaster, Chaos Tau are starting to become a thing.
**At one point, the Earth Caste gathered Genestealer-infected Tau and studied them to see what would happen. Of course, a Genestealer cult developed and naturally they violently escaped control and surveillance. According to rumors, they've even produced a Genestealer-infected Ethereal.

* The Eldar have varying views on religiosity depending on their type. Their religion is polytheistic, with henotheistic offshoots, and Ausryan was the highest ranking god. However all of the Eldar gods were murder-raped to death by Slaanesh except for Isha (taken by Nurgle), Khaine (shattered and flung into realspace), Cegorach (hiding in the Webway) and Ynnead (born long after Slaanesh's birth). Their Pantheon's religious practices aren't fleshed out save for those of Cegorach, Isha, and Khaine, via the Harlequins and Aspect Warriors. With most of their gods out of commission, Eldar religious worship is of a deistic bent.
** Craftworlders and Exodites almost exclusively worship the original Eldar pantheon, though some engage in henotheistic worship of only one of the gods. Asuryan is more popular among Craftworlders while Isha is among Exodites, though nearly all give Khaine some tribute during war.
** Corsairs are all over the place, though Khaine is a popular choice given their more militant nature.
** Being agents of the Laughing God himself, the Harlequins' worship is centered around [[Cegorach]], whilst still paying minor tribute to the other gods.
** The new faith around Ynnead, the Ynnari, is rapidly growing but have yet to establish teachings or rituals.
** Unique among the Eldar, the Dark Eldar are irreligious for the most part and while they believe some gods exist they're too self-centered to worship them (this is canon). They're often also anti-religious to boot; a major landmark of Commorragh is a landfill of religious icons called Iconoclast's Mound, and one Wych cult - the Pain Eternal - revolves around killing religious people and destroying shrines and holy sites. The sole exception, except for Dark Eldar who stop being Dark Eldar, are the [[Incubi]] who hold [[Khaine]] in high regard.
** The Ynnari have encountered atleast one ancient Craftworld that turned into an entire Genestealer cult in a misguided attempt to avoid getting their souls consumed by Slaanesh as their ship had no infinity circuit present. We're not sure if this worked to any capacity (if at all, given the Hive Mind does not absorb souls), but they were taken down by the Ynnari for obvious reasons.
** There are numerous rumors of a very small number of Chaos Eldar, but these are barely fleshed out and heavily classified in-universe. There have been verified Nurgle-worshipping Eldar and persistent rumors that some have embraced Slaanesh without becoming soul-food. Apart from this, some Dark Eldar have been willing to summon Chaos Daemons or work with Chaos worshippers ([[Fabius Bile|or allies of Chaos]]) to further their own ends.

* While the Necrontyr had religions before certain [[C'tan|star entities]] [[Necrons|roboticizied them]], those aren't fleshed out or detailed. Its also heavily implied the C'tan co-opted the Necrontyr religion beforehand. With the change to Necrons taking the higher though processes of most of them, any Necrons who can comprehend faith and religiosity either worship the C'tan or have become irreligious.

* The Tyranids themselves are irreligious, being spehss bugs and all, but understand at least a few of the advantages of religion. [[Genestealer]]s infect people and together they establish cults on targeted worlds, such as one worshipping "Children of the Stars", a perversion of the Imperial Cult (such as one that worships a [[Swarmlord|four-armed]] version of the Emperor) or something else like "Celebrants of Nihilism" (yes, that's a canon Genestealer cult name). Psychic influence is often involved and, notably, the Genestealers do not consider themselves gods. Once the Tyranids arrive en-masse, the cult-gets assimilated along with all non-Tyranids willingly or not. An interesting tidbit is that the Hive Mind stops the Tyranids from attacking the cultists in early stages of the invasion and leads them on, only to later override the Genestealers' wills and and make them slaughter the cultists.

===Dungeons and Dragons===
* Among Dungeons and Dragons settings, [[Planescape]], [[Eberron]], and [[Pathfinder]] are notable for having some coherent things that could be called "Religions", rather then the usual generic Pantheism.
** Most of Planescape's Factions effectively count as religions, to the point they can produce [[Cleric]]s ([[Planescape: Torment#Fall-From-Grace|Atheist ones at that]]). Yes, even the Athar. (Perhaps ''especially'' the Athar.)
** Half of Eberron's religions aren't worship of deities. The [[Blood of Vol]] seeks to unlock the divinity within one's self and rejects the gods (if they even exist) and the [[Path of Inspiration]] seeks to improve their next reincarnation. The Undying Court worships not gods but their undead ancestors that make up their government. The [[Path of Light]], [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Becoming_God|Becoming God]] and [[Warforged_Mysteries#The_Reforged|Reforged]] all seek to ''create'' a deity. Even some interpretations of the [[Sovereign Host]], like the one most common among dragons, don't worship them as deities. Due to the way divine casting works in Eberron, all of these can produce divine casters.
** There's a handful of religions on [[Golarion]] that aren't merely worship of pantheons. The most prominent (read: Actually has mechanical support) is the [[Prophecies of Kalistrade]], which is basically fantasy [[Star Trek|Ferengi]].

* [[D20 Modern]]'s [[Urban Arcana]], unusually for urban fantasy, has D&D deities bleed into reality alongside the monsters. You are still able to play a <s>cleric</s> "acolyte" of any real world deity despite this.

===Star Wars===
* [[Star Wars]] is inconsistent on if the [[The Force]] is a religion. The Jedi and the Sith ''could'' both be considered religions as they are considered monastic, but mix in several other traits such as being meritocratic (Jedi) and kraterocratic (Sith) and Lucas himself has axed at least one prototyped book for portraying them too much as a religion. It's also notable that the Sith were former Jedi who left the Jedi path for several reasons including [[Heresy|disagreements over the teachings of that creed]]. Aside from that, religion is nearly always a non-human tradition, something noted in a culture's historical background and never seen implying its extinction, or a scam. The religiously linked "damn" and "hell" are the two real world swear words that exist in-universe, purely because Han Solo used them in the films, and some concept of an "angel" exists because a young Anakin told Padme about them in the prequel trilogy films.
** There are rare exceptions where a religion is fleshed out and explored, and the writing goes various directions for better or worse. A notable example is the aggressive polytheistic religion of the antagonistic Yuuzhan Vong from the EU (which the story gradually revealed was long ago perverted from benevolent roots, and this perverted form takes a few cues from Islam and Aztec mythology).

===Star Trek===
* Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry had a low opinion of religion and in his vision humanity had done away with it and was better off for it and he had no interest in adding it to the aliens. However, some of the cast and crew disagreed and occasionally references and religions found their way into the show, which increased after Roddenberry's death. The Federation's culture is distinctly humanistic (extending the concept to alien species) in it's outlook in which religion is regarded as a thing of the past.
** While there are plenty of "Godlike" entities in Star Trek, almost all are treated as Sufficiently Advanced Aliens in the Arthur C. Clarke sense--and in particular, in ST:TNG, the flip side, that Picard and his crew are frequently shown to look like Gods to sufficiently primitive aliens, is gone into in more than one episode.
** The Bajorans are a highly religious alien race, with the majority following peaceful teachings and a minority of violent extremists.
*** Of some note, the Bajoran religion is of interest because their "Gods" actually exist, and can be (somewhat incomprehensibly) talked to (a rarity outside of [[Science Fantasy]]). In other words, they were frequently a method of having some religion vs. science debates where the divine entity (A) explicitly exists, (B) is explainable as "sufficiently advanced and unusual aliens", and (C) aren't jerks, just bad at communication with those of us who experience time linearly--in other words, with a deck that wasn't quite as badly stacked. The religiosity was meant to be as a way of contrasting the Starfleet personnel with the native population and to draw a parallel between Bajorans under the Cardassian Occupation and various real world recently freed oppressed religious-slash-ethnic groups.
** <s>In the fifth Star Trek movie, ''"The Final Frontier"'', some of the crew steal the Enterprise to look for God and instead find a powerful alien being impersonating God in the center of the universe</s> '''Just like there is no live-action movie of Avatar: The Last Airbender, there is totally no Star Trek 5!'''

===World of Darkness===
* Very large books could be written about religion and [[World of Darkness]]/Chronicles of Darkness. We'll just cover a few highlights:
** From [[Vampire: The Requiem]], there's the the Lancea et Sanctum, which might be best described as "Christianity for Vampires", and the Circle of the Crone, which is "Pagan Vampires". Both have Vampire miracles on tap (pun intended).
** [[Hunter: The Vigil]] has various religious organizations among the Compacts and Conspiracies, some very similar to real world ones, others...not so much.
** [[Mage: The Ascension]] has various religious Traditions, portrayed in that highly-stereotypical and highly-depending-on-the-author way typical of old WoD.

==See also==
* [[Mythology]]
* [[True Faith]], a common mechanic to weaponize religion in [[Urban Fantasy]].

[[Category:Not related]]
[[Category:History]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:56:05Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* 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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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 from the 20th century onward, this was exacerbated by various groups of people [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] who took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and ran marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie or they had an axe to grind.

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 heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

== Punishments ==

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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.

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, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:55:34Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* 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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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 from the 20th century onward, this was exacerbated by various groups of people [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] who took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and ran marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie and as stated above several had an anti-religious axe to grind.

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 heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

== Punishments ==

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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.

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, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:54:37Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* 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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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 from the 20th century onward, this was exacerbated by various groups of people [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] who took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and ran marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie.

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 heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

== Punishments ==

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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.

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, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:53:22Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* 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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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 from the 20th century onward, this was exacerbated by various groups of people - mostly those [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] - who took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and ran marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie.

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 heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

== Punishments ==

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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.

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, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:52:47Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* 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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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 from the 20th century onward, this was exacerbated by various groups of people - mostly those [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] - who took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and ran marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie.

There is an important life lesson to be had here: if you believe something because you saw it in a movie or game or you heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

== Punishments ==

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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.

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, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:52:02Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* 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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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 from the 20th century onward, this was exacerbated when various groups of people [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and ran marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie.

There is an important life lesson to be had here: if you believe something because you saw it in a movie or game or you heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

== Punishments ==

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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.

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, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:51:09Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* 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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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 from the 20th century onward, various groups of people - especially those [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] - took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and have been running marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie.

There is an important life lesson to be had here: if you believe something because you saw it in a movie or game or you heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

== Punishments ==

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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.

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, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:50:13Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A:

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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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". After The Enlightenment and from the 20th century onward, various groups of people - especially those [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] - took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and have been running marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion).

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). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie.

There is an important life lesson to be had here: if you believe something because you saw it in a movie or game or you heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

== Punishments ==

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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.

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, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:49:24Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* Reputation */ moving the text to another section

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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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". After The Enlightenment and from the 20th century onward, various groups of people - especially those [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] - took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and have been running marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion).

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). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie.

There is an important life lesson to be had here: if you believe something because you saw it in a movie or game or you heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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]].

=== Punishments ===

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

=== 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.

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 Inquision dealt with numerous crimes besides heresy, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:48:30Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* Origins */

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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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". After The Enlightenment and from the 20th century onward, various groups of people - especially those [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] - took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and have been running marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion).

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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]].

=== Punishments ===

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

=== 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.

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 Inquision dealt with numerous crimes besides heresy, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]

Spanish Inquisition

2020-08-30T11:45:52Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:FC6F:3B7E:BAD7:C86A: /* Origins */

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.

== Origins ==

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, which was under Papal control.

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, 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 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.

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.

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). Pop cultural references to the Inquisition inevitably ignore the distinction between the Church-controlled Inquisition and the state-controlled ones because a fair and reasonable system typically makes for a dull movie.

There is an important life lesson to be had here: if you believe something because you saw it in a movie or game or you heard or read it somewhere, you shouldn’t assume it’s true. You should research it. And no, articles and such that just say “yeah, that’s the truth” are not research. Articles that explain the practices and history along with citing journals and such from that time is research. If someone argued “everyone knows it” then remember that truth is not a democracy.

== 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, 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) that might evolve into harbouring Tunisian pirates or the dreaded Ottoman Turks, or even forming a 5th column if war ever broke out? You got a visit from the Inquisition. Trying to bring Protestantism to Spain and risk having the shitshow of the 16th and 17th century religious conflicts? 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". After The Enlightenment and from the 20th century onward, various groups of people - especially those [[Edgy|prejudiced against Christianity]] or [[Imperial Truth|religion in general]] - took the narrative of a violent, oppressive Spanish Inquisition and have been running marathons with it until at least the late 2010's (even in 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 of the series' creators, John Cleese, has a low opinion of religion).

They are often associated with (or reviled for) using torture in popular perception and media. Torture was standard operating procedure for courts, secular or not, inside or outside the Spanish Inquisition, at the time. 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).

Many other torture devices associated with the inquisition are thought to be later inventions by the Victorians, such as the infamous Iron Maiden, a spiked coffin that victims would supposedly be stuffed inside. Another one, the Brazen Bull, actually comes from Ancient Greece; basically, a victim was stuffed inside a hollow bronze bull, fitted with an internal horn. As the bull was set on fire, the victim’s tortured screaming would sound like a bull’s roar. As you can see, comparing these examples with actual torture devices, the real ones tended to be less focused on grotesque conceptual horror and more simple in design and use.

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]].

=== Punishments ===

Despite popular media and perception of them as a blood soaked organization, execution was a far less common punishment for crimes. Most of punishments the Spanish Inquisition inflicted on people declared guilty was merely paying a fine or a short jail sentence. 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.

=== 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.

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 Inquision dealt with numerous crimes besides heresy, contradicting - if not debunking - the blood-soaked reputation the Spanish Inquisition is often given even to this day.

== 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.

So the Spanish Inquisition was in power for a total of 356 years (using 1478) or 354 (using 1480) and hasn't existed since it was disbanded '''166 years before the 21st century''' (despite how much certain people complain about them).

== Relating to /tg/ ==

[[Monty Python|The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.]] (Despite the fact that in real-life they were legally obliged to give thirty days notice.)

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]]