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Slavery

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TakahaReo: Undo revision 1010385 by 109.70.100.13 (talk)

{{flamewar}}
[[image:Slaves sugar cane.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Slaves harvesting sugar cane, not a lot fun for them. It is really good in tea, though.]]
{{Topquote|I came here in peace, seeking gold and slaves.|Jack Handey, ''What I'd Say to the Martians''}}
{{Topquote|No! We are true men, not slaves! I would sooner choose death than to betray my god and serve the likes of you!|A certain [[Chaos|Forsaken tribesman]], made a <s>foolish</s> bold decision to reject Nagash's slavery, and was devoured alive moments later by Nagash's ghouls. AKA getting exactly what he wants.}}

'''Slavery''' is the institution of owning other humans ([[Hard Science Fiction|as well as]] [[Heroic Fantasy|other sapient]] [[Soft Science Fiction|beings by extrapolation]]) as property. As slaves are bound to their owners, they were prevented from leaving or refusing to work under threat of immediate violence for disobedience. When two groups would fight, it was not uncommon for the victor to capture some of the defeated along with the goods or territory and put them to work. Later on, as long-distance trade improved, they also began selling said captives to other cultures. The children of slaves usually were slaves themselves, though this was not universal.

In other cases, people would be put into slavery as a punishment, e.g. for failure to pay their debts, or voluntarily such as an alternative to paying for something. Some systems of slavery even offered opportunities for, like the Devshirmeh system in Ottoman Empire, where boys taken from among Christian vassals who were bright enough could actually end up as Grand Vizier of the Empire (with a few caveats; they had to be smart and all of them had to be converted to Islam willingly or not... either way they weren't allowed to stay Christian).

In addition to the practice of owning human beings as chattel, there are other contemporary and historical arrangements so similar to slavery that they are referred to as slavery informally or at that point in history. A few of these include serfdom ([[Peasant|serfs]] were not owned, but they were bound to the land owned by [[noble]]s and are required to work the noble's land 2-3 days per week for free and keep what else they could grow-keep-trade), indentured servitude or peonage in colonial America (in exchange for passage to the new world being paid, criminal fines or to discharge a debt in a form of unpaid or coerced labor called debt bondage, someone would be indentured to a contract holder and have to work off their debt over a number of years such as British criminals and Irish people too poor to pay for the trip), impressment and shanghaiing (where people were kidnapped or tricked into leaving from home ports or ships and forced to serve as sailors with said debt not being hereditary, often with their identification papers or debts held over their heads to keep them in line), unreasonable use of unpaid labor such as some more extreme versions of prisons or POW interment facilities, and the various forced labor programs used by the [[Nazi|Nazis]] and other despotic regimes and the victims of human trafficking which is still ongoing today.

Presently it's generally acknowledged that humans cannot be considered ''real assets'', although there remain locations where this is not an absolute, and only the most extreme activists consider this to be a universal right that should be extended to other organisms. Then there is issue of mandatory labor and the debates whether or not its acceptable to have the practices of mandatory conscription, prison labor, court-ordered community service and non-dischargeable debt.

Economically slavery is... tricky. At the first glance it looks like free labour, meaning easy way of getting rich without paying your workers. But slavery have lots of hidden expenses, most notably on security and overseeing work, making it not nearly as free as it looks. Furthermore, most slaves are unfit for any sophisticated work, being way worse motivated in the result of their labour than hired workers. That's not to say you can't have slave engineers, teachers or other high-intelligence jobs, but historically it only worked by giving said highly skilled slaves so much freedom and privilege they end up more like contracted workers with no way of getting out of the contracts, and not much (if any) cheaper than free people doing the same job, so the only upside is that they don't run away from you and tell your secrets to your enemies. For this reason in most cultures for the overwhelming length of history slaves were a luxury, not really a means of creating wealth, unless you happen to have highly profitable industry with very low skill requirement, like strip mining in antiquity (deep mining required way more skill), cotton farming in new age or textile sweatshops in modern times. Even then it have another hidden detriment: slaves don't consume as much as free people, so they put a giant handbrake on the economy, hampering the circulation of the capital and generally making everyone, including even slave owners, poorer compared to the same economy running on hired labour instead of slavery. In short, slavery excels at making nobles or their equivalents in society richer than plebs, but not at making them richer than "nobles" of other societies that don't run on slavery. One of the reasons modern slavery only survived in third-world countries is partly because they're shitholes that still use slavery that cannot afford to "cash out" their slaves and transition to a traditional economy.

== History stuff ==
{{skubby}}
The oldest surviving codex of laws yet discovered in the world, the "Code of Ur-Nammu" dating back to at least 2050 BCE, has multiple references to slaves, so slavery has been with humanity for a ''very'' long time. Slavery was practiced in virtually every culture at some point throughout their history; as soon as a people progressed from a hunter-gathering and nomadic culture to an agrarian one it became more convenient to look for ways to increase productivity and lower expenses. Before the advent of modern machinery, often the best way was some flavor of slave workforce since you generally had to spend fewer resources on a slave than you would on your fellow clan member. That said, it was unusual for a society to have more than 10% of it's population as slaves.

Prisoners of war were taken as slaves and made to ply their trade for their conquerors, or were sold abroad for goods. Since civilizations would wax and wane from time to time, the enslavers of one generation might end up enslaved in the next. The Ancient Egyptians made use of slaves in various ways, though even then, there was something of a hierarchy among slaves. That being said, contrary to popular belief, the pyramids weren't built by slaves but by free people (paid in fresh crops grown on the most fertile and irrigated lands in Egypt owned directly by the pharaoh and worked by said pharaoh's personal slaves, as well as good amounts of meat). The Greeks made heavier-than-usual use of slaves, and the Romans even more so. The Persians did not use slavery themselves and tried to limit it, but slavery did exist in their Empire among their conquered vassals. Slaves worked in every field from miners to farmers, craftsmen, entertainers, teachers and doctors (particularly Greeks who could buy their freedom in a year, or even less if skilled) and even up to high ranking government officials. The notorious examples are the [[Grimdark]] ones like those worked to death sex slaves or fodder for human sacrifice (the latter being something the Aztecs were notorious for, to the point that local tribes Aztecs took captives from to sacrifice '''allied with the Spanish Conquistadors to overthrow the Aztecs'''). Ancient Romans used to grumble about all these slaves coming in stealing people's jobs (this sentence is not a joke).

Slavery existed in [[Medieval Stasis|Medieval Europe]], but declined after the year 1000 CE in a lot of places, especially the north. The Domesday Book (a census carried out by William the Conqueror in 1086) stipulated that about 10% of the population of England was slaves. In fact, the basis for the modern English word slave gets its roots from the fact that the Slavic races were so often put upon that [[Grimdark|the ordeal was named after them]], also providing the first example of race-based slavery. The Vikings practiced slavery, acquiring them primarily on expeditions or raids in Eastern Europe and the British Isles. They could also obtain Viking slaves at home (as crimes like murder and thievery were punished with slavery) or through doing business with the Arab world, which also had a prominent slave trade. The Vikings' treatment of slaves was all over the spectrum. When Arabs, and later the Europeans, discovered the continent of Africa, there was much contact between local tribes and foreigners on this subject. Many nations would take slaves from the peoples of Africa abetted at times by local slavery systems among African people themselves (see below). [[Grimdark|In Brazil and most of the Caribbean between 1600 and 1800, the slave population never was able to achieve natural replacement rates due to a high death rate from overwork and abuse by their masters]]. The American system of slavery (aka "the peculiar institution") would arguably require an entire article of its own, but since we'd rather not try to poke that hornet's nest, suffice to say it was little different from the Caribbean experience and was only abolished by President Abraham Lincoln as a result of the American Civil War (and was one of the reasons Lincoln was assassinated). In Europe, society eventually transition from using slaves to serfs where they were tied to the land (which is owned and under the protection of a landowner) instead of being tied directly to owners under the feudal system. The said system hung on until the Black Death but held out in Eastern Europe right until the eve of World War I.

During this aforementioned time, the idea of racial slavery was raised. In the Classical World (for example, Ancient Rome), slaves were basically from everywhere in the Empire and many places beyond and the children of freed slaves (Libertus) in Rome became more Romans, and Rome being Rome, they even had the manumission (freeing) of slaves as a religious/bureaucratic ritual onto itself. While if Slavic people are considered a race, they were the first case of racial slavery due to being popular choices of slaves. Ideas raised in attempts to justify the idea arose between the Arab Slave Trade and the Atlantic Slave Trade. Slavery is not a nice thing even at the best of times, but racial slavery adds to it the conception that an enslaved race is inherently inferior, doomed to servitude forever, and that people from it are unfit for anything else. Those caught up in it had little hope of ever elevating themselves from a state of being a form of livestock with the hands for manual labor. Slave ships sailed from Europe to Africa loaded with manufactured goods, textiles and weapons which they traded for prisoners of war, criminals and existing slaves. They were packed in like sardines to be shipped to the new world, collecting sugar, rum, coffee and other goods produced by slave labor to sell them in the mother countries.

Africa has had slavery between its various tribes and kingdoms for millennia, even to the present day. Between this and many foreign civilizations making extensive use of African slaves, the history of slavery in Africa is complicated and violent. In Africa, even prior to the Arab slave trade or the Atlantic/European slave trade, slavery happened in all forms from ancient times. This was enacted between many of the various tribes and nations of Africa; however, in many African societies where slavery was prevalent, the enslaved people were not treated as chattel slaves and had certain rights in a system similar to indentured servitude elsewhere in the world. When the Arab slave trade - and centuries later, the Atlantic slave trade - began, many of the local slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa. They also supplied local criminals and captives from rival tribes or nations to the Arab, European or American slave trades. This means African slave traders short-sightedly helped fan the flames of the issue of racial slavery, unaware of the dehumanization these buyers would subject them to - and that's before the Scramble for Africa caused many of them to become slaves themselves.

While black Africans were shipped to the Americas as slaves in huge numbers, they weren't the only victims of slavery there. Many Native Americans were enslaved by colonial powers, especially the Spanish and Portuguese. That said, the influence of humanitarian-minded Catholic clergy eventually led to positive reforms in the treatment of these indigenous peoples, though these improvements weren't always enforced properly. Native Americans were also known to practice slavery themselves, either on their own initiative or due to influence from colonialists. One famous example of the former are the Haida of the Pacific Northwest, who frequently engaged in maritime slave raids against other tribes, almost like Native American Vikings. When it comes to the latter, the Five Civilized Tribes adopted the practice of owning black slaves. Some members of these tribes fought for the Confederacy, frequently because they wanted to keep their slaves.

North African corsairs were notorious for their frequent slave raids against merchant ships and coastal settlements. They struck as far north as Iceland and as far south as the Congo. Foreign nations were expected to pay tribute to avoid having their vessels and towns attacked. Such raids began in the 16th century and didn't end until the French conquest of the Algerian coast in the 1830s.

In the Ottoman Empire, whose system can ''arguably'' be seen as similar to the Eastern Roman Empire (better known as the Byzantine Empire) it supplanted, the system was more or less the same, but with a small possibility of moving up if you were a Christian (or claiming to be one) because Christians and Jews are considered "people of the Book", meaning the worthiest of non-Muslim people according to Islam. It had three sources of slaves: The first was Africa, with the usual [[Grimdark]] fate for blacks brought by the thousands, many castrated and dying during transport, females ending up as house slaves and non-castrated males working agriculture in Egypt and Anatolia as ''fellahin'' (though the descendants of said slaves could and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmet_Ali_%C3%87elikten did] have success stories). The second was the slave-port of Caffa, the most underreported and forgotten white slavery port which took ''millions'' of white slaves from Ukraine, males killed and women sold as sex slaves ([[SJW|you don't get to hear much about it because they are not black]]). ''Devshirmeh'' is the name for the system of taking one boy out of 40 houses from the population of Christian vassals in the Ottoman Empire; this mostly meant Balkan Christians, with the inclusion of Bosniak Muslims while Armenians, Romani and Jews were explicitly excluded. The taken boys were converted to Islam one way or another, then made into elite monastic troops called Janissaries (new soldiers) in Anatolia or the Mamluks in Egypt. If they proved intelligent, they were sent to the Imperial Academy in Enderun to become bureaucrats. Being slaves, they had no ''habeas corpus'' and could be executed at any time - in theory. In practice, while the threat hanging over their heads was very real, they could also push back against this by working their way into military ranks, marrying Ottoman princesses, engineering palace coups to kill off sultans who didn't pay them enough, or even investing back in their native countries such as Bosnia (the reason Bosniaks mourned the fall of the Janissary institution while EVERYONE ELSE celebrated it). The dangers of the ''devshirmeh'' system didn't stop some families from actively sending their kids there in desperation, often to the point of bribing the Janissary Aghas. A similar situation exists in Egypt with the Mamluks; who were typically taken as children from the local Christian Copts by their Arab rulers.

Female slaves in the Ottoman Empire didn't get as many opportunities, with the "best" option allowed to them being to end up as palace concubines. But this contained more backstabbing than a Tzeentchian party, and few died peacefully. Ironically, many concubines who ended up marrying Viziers or military officers ended up in better positions than concubines who were gunning for the top spot (The Sultan rewarded success with concubines he didn't use- talk about sloppy seconds. Or VERY rarely, [[Loli|one of his daughters]].). With the advent of nationalism, the French Revolution, Russia conquering Ukraine and destroying the Muslim-Tatar slavery business ([[Alignment#Lawful_Evil|If only to preserve their white serf population]]) and the growing need for military reforms bitterly opposed by the Janissaries, the system's flaws burst like rotting cysts, and Ottoman-style slavery went the way of the Dodo in 1847 thanks to [[Noblebright|Abdulmajid's reforms]]. The harem was numerous enough by then, and the freed whites went on with their lives while the black population [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Turks settled in Western Turkey as free farmers]. Slavery didn't ''completely'' end until [[Sebastian Thor|Atatürk]] did the [[Noblebright|final house-cleaning]] around the 1930's.

Eurasia, particularly Ukraine, was the hotbed of slavery for the Ottoman Empire, with the port city of Caffa being the continent's major slave ports. The Russians liberated it from the Crimean Khanate, whose major income was thousands of taken women and children from villages, supplying the Ottoman Empire's need for European/white women. Evliya Çelebi even wrote about the despair and cries of women separated from their children and then sold separately.

But the problem was particularly acute in Russia. Tzar Alexander II officially ended serfdom in Russia via two edicts in 1861 and 1866, liberating roughly 33 million people (23 million private serfs and at least 9 million state serfs) from obligations. But this was achieved by simply taxing all of them and paying the tax to their former lords. While this tax was intended to expire, ultimately the hardship this caused, combined with the Great War and other factors, would lead to the Russian Revolution, where the Tzar abdicated and the Bolsheviks rose to power.

In contrast to the above, slavery is virtually never mentioned in [[Oriental Adventures|east Asian-inspired]] settings. This has some basis in history in certain areas: The [[Mongols]]' nomadic lifestyle was not conductive to widespread slavery, though they did take some captives as slaves ([[Genghis motherfucking Khan|Genghis Khan]] himself was briefly a slave in his youth), and during the Mongol Empire's runs on conquering China people were often little better than slaves anyway. The Chinese themselves went through several periods of loosening and then making stricter laws surrounding slavery, usually rallying around who was in charge following their frequent wars to unify, only to break apart once more. The question of working conditions in China and comparisons to slavery along with "prison camps" came up during and after Mao Zedong's rise to power, but rather than poke that hornet's nest suffice to say these stories have more than a grain of truth to them (there's a reason for the stereotype of the Chinese sweatshop worker). The inhabitants of the Ryukyu islands "would die over" slavery rather than participate. Slavery in Asia was probably most prolific on the Korean peninsula, who had a caste system, but population growth, a few slave revolts and modernization eventually rendered it less than palatable.

The earliest European reports of [[Japan]] mention that, though it existed there, slavery was rare and primarily inflicted on debtors and prisoners of war. The main recorded examples are the maids/concubines of the rich, and those brought by Europeans themselves. One European held slave's physical stature impressed Oda Nobunaga so much that he purchased him, freed him and elevated him to samurai status (making him potentially the first and only non-Japanese Samuraï). This man would be known as Yasuke, [[Anime|the only black samurai]]. During the Sengoku a not-insignificant of Japanese prisoners of war were sold to the Europeans for foreign trade until 1587/1595, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned it. HOWEVER... the Japanese were one of the last countries to give up serfdom; the feudal land system disappeared along with the Samurai who oversaw it during the Meiji Restoration.

==Slavery in Fantasy==
[[File:Drow slaves Into the Darklands.jpg|thumb|[[Drow]] are notorious slavers.]]
Because slavery is viewed as such a moral repugnance throughout the modern world, it is an easy way for lazy [[GM]]s to get a reaction from players. Slavery being one of the common features of a setting's bad guys makes for an easy way to establish that civilization or organization is [[Alignment|evil]]. A bunch of armed guys attack a peaceful village with chains and whips to catch its residents, bind them, and take them to their dwelling, where they're treated worse than how we treat livestock and forced to: toil, be beaten, probably raped, and made to fight to the death in arenas for the amusement and benefit of some sick bastards? That is more than enough reason to establish "these guys are bad, go [[murderhobo|kill their asses]]" regardless of alignment; even Evil characters can simply indulge their drive to kill by offing slavers, and exploit the freed villagers and their families for more favors - particularly Lawful Evil ones.

However, this is not always the case; both the perceived "good" and "bad" factions can also engage in slavery, although how they do it usually defines who's good and who's bad (regardless of how minute the difference is). Take [[Araby]] and the [[Dark Elves]] in the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battles|Warhammer Fantasy]]'' setting, for example. Both factions engage in wanton slavery and have no qualms about it being a common thing everywhere. However, what sort of defines each of them is how they see their slaves. In Araby, slaves have several rights, the children of slaves are guaranteed by law to not be slaves, and particularly cruel mistreatment of slaves will result in punishment to the masters and the mistreated becoming free. The Dark Elves consider all non-Dark Elves to be beneath them and will torture, maim and kill their slaves for various reasons including thinking its fun.

Though it is found in both, slavery is more common in fantasy settings than in science fiction. In your typical Tolkien knockoff, the way you go about digging rocks, harvesting lumber, tilling fields and raising buildings is normally with strong backs. In most sci-fi worlds, why have a bunch of slaves working in an irradiated asteroid space mine when you could have a bunch of robots who don't need slave drivers, don't require food or air, won't plot escape/rebellion ([[Men of Iron|'''hopefully''']]), and are stronger and easier to repair if damaged?

Slavery of a [[/d/|certain kind]] is a common feature of many [[Magical Realm]]s.

===Slavery in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]===

Since we are a bunch of [[Warhammer]] nerds, here are some examples<ref>Besides the pair that allows us to explain that there's a sliding scale of evilness associated with slave-holding societies</ref> from those two/three settings, because we can't restrain ourselves:

[[Tomb Kings|Ancient Nehekharan's]] society mostly had its labor powered by slaves that were either prisoners of war or captured from oversea raid (like their Egypt counterpart). According to the Nagash novel, most slaves would overwork themselves and die under the whips of the architects (or soon to be necrotects) while building a pyramid (Settra's pyramid only took 20 years and cost over 2000 slaves; His successor's pyramid usually took 25 years and cost over one million slaves). This does not mean Nehekharan were mostly cruel tyrants, for a few kind or wise rulers would grant a boon to talented slaves by giving them a place in their hierarchy, allowing some of them to even become a vizier (second most powerful man in a great city besides a priest king). Females would be used as servants instead of labor just because they are good looking.

Then there's [[Nagash]]. HE believed everyone but him are either slaves, fuel for spells or enemies to kill (then made into undead slaves). Even talented generals and his nine noble lieutenants were just considered his most useful slaves, and he only treated them better because he understood positive reinforcement was the best approach with them. Necromancy was his idea of free labor; to build the Black Pyramid, Nagash was merciless even by Nehekharan standards (in hindsight, his dad getting a fuck ton of slaves killed to build his own pyramid, which Nagash would [[Grimdark|wall up his own brother alive in to usurp him]], should have raised a few alarm bells), to the point of telling living slaves to make tools from the bones of their dead co-workers to meet his design. Anyone who died in Nagash's service would be made undead to continue working or punishment, best case scenario they'd get a promotion or power boost if they weren't mindless.

Skaven mainly enslave their own kind - Skavenslaves, the bottom rung of their society. There's always a surplus of Skaven ratlings, so most of those end up as slaves. Their lives are often filthy, painful and short; they're underfed, fight for what little food they have and cannibalism is often required not to starve. They get the most dangerous and thankless jobs, including test subjects for [[Clan Skryre]]'s experiments or raw material for [[Clan Moulder]]'s fleshcrafting. Their most famous role is to act as expendable fodder for Skaven Warlords to pin down or exhaust the enemy with (the same could be said about Clanrats, but they have actual combat training and also get armor - albeit poor quality armor). Skaven do take slaves from other races, though they end up as food, material for fleshcrafting or spell ingredients. Humans whom were enslaved by the Skaven for any length of time often go insane (due to their disbelieve in the said ratmen's mythical existence) and even start to act like a Skaven. Rumors claim that at some point they actually mutate into Skaven, but given Skaven Xenophobia and how they treat skavenslaves the chances of them lasting that long are pretty low. non-skaven slaves, especially the humans would often band together in their cell to prevent anyone of them from devoured by other Skavens, especially if they have infants in their group since Skavens finds [[grimdark|infants to be tasty]].

[[Warrior of Chaos|Chaos Tribes]], like Kurgans and Norscans, employ slaves that are captured in the aftermaths of victorious battles and raids. The former, funnily enough, have a system compared to that of an Ancient Rome, where slaves are constantly fighting to get more privileges and eventually free himself. Norscan slaves are called thralls (even though in real history they weren't exactly slaves) and are mostly used in labour and sacrifice.

All elves have some form of "involuntary servitude". The most notorious slavers are, unsurprisingly, [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)|Dark Elves]], who use them in pretty much every type of work and take them from every race (although Dwarf ones are the most valuable). [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|High Elves]] of Lothern use slaves (mostly humans) in menial tasks and also trade them, but in other kingdoms slavery is forbidden. [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Wood Elves]], meanwhile, kidnap [[Bretonnia|Bretonnian]] children and turn them into servants that regard Asrai as gods and never grow up.

[[Chaos Dwarfs]] are one of the most iconic slaver civilisations in WFB, they rely on it as much as Druchii. Most are [[Orcs & Goblins]], but there are other races working for them. [[End Times|This ultimately brought their doom at the hands of Grimgor.]]

Fantasy Greenskins, interestingly, do not have a developed slavery system. Yes, Goblins can work for Orcs because they're smaller, but by outgrowing Orcs they can free themselves (like [[Grom the Paunch]], for example). Not to say that there are excusively Goblin tribes...

[[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogres]] mostly employ [[Gnoblar|Gnoblars]] as their slaves, but there are also battle [[Giant|Giants]]. However, most other captured enemies are just sacrificed or eaten immediately.

Most of the Order-aligned human nations forbade slavery. The only exception is [[Araby]] (which has an extensive slave system similar to that of Ottoman Empire, Berber Coast and other Arabic nations at the time), also slaves are sometimes traded in [[Sartosa]] and [[Marienburg]]. Bretonnian serfdom can also be somewhat compared to slavery. However, older lore mentioned an Imperial owning a Southlander slave in Drachenfels, and the Empire was mentioned as having enslaved a Pygmy once, before said Pygmy rebelled and ate a few dinner guests at his "owner"'s feast before escaping.

=== Slavery in [[Warhammer 40,000]] ===

''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' actually justifies having slaves fairly well. In a galactic empire like the [[Imperium]], automation is considered techno-[[heresy]] (or simply decayed like spaceship artillery loaders) due to a robot rebellion happening in the past and the risk of Chaos corruption for the machines. Even during the heyday of the Great Crusade, "indentured servants" are found in many canon literary works, mostly for payment for medical treatment, crime (think U.S Penal System), or augmentation. In order to access "free" labour without the fear of Abominable Intelligence, they created [[Servitors]], cyborgs made out of human criminals or vat clones. Then again, every human in the Imperium is indebted to the Emperor at birth and thus [[count as]] his currency to be spent [[Imperial Guard|on wars]] and [[Administratum|labors]]. Basically modern slavery but with more fanaticism, cloning and cybernetics. [[Imperial Worlds#Feudal_Worlds|Feudal Worlds]] and [[Hive World]] exists for this purpose and are basically designed to let the Imperium to shit out billions of humans every single day.

Notably, [[Angron]] was a gladiator, a slave warrior who risk his life to entertain his master, making him the only Primarch to be a slave.

The [[Dark Eldar]] are sick bastards who need to consume souls of psychically susceptible species (human youngsters are prime specimens, while Tau souls taste bland and weak) and get their rocks off at making others miserable.

And the [[Orks]]... well, the Orks simply believe might makes right is an axiom <span style='color:green;font-size:150%'>'''(A WOT?!)'''</span>. It's the natural order that the big and tough can and ought push around the small and puny. There's no universal right, only the power you possess and general Orkiness. Ork fluff is dodgy as far as slaves from other species are concerned, but Grots and especially Snotlings fill the role of slaves for manual labour and occasional plaything (not [[/d/|''that'']] kind of plaything). It should be noted that grots and snotlings are part of the broader Orkoid support ecology which was deliberately engineered to support Da Boyz. [[The War of The Beast]] has shown Orks are capable of enslaving other species if they were given a propa brutal cunning (or cunning brutal) evolution to do so.

And let's not forget the [[Enslavers]], as if their name isn't already an obvious giveaway. They are creatures of warp who feeds on living beings soul, then turning them into their incubation bed/cannon-fodder minion afterwards.

=== Chaos in general ===
Since Chaos works the same way in both fantasy and 40k, it is fine to put both setting together when discussing anything about Chaos.

All Chaos worshipers could be count as some kind of slaves to the Chaos Gods. However, since Chaos Gods is the living conscious of everybody's emotion to the extreme, this means Chaos worshipers are in fact enslaved by their own emotions. [[Khorne|Khornate]] followers need to endlessly offer blood and skulls harvest from their enemy and never show cowardice (only to either die by their enemies' hand, or by Khorne's wrath because of taking some of his glory as their own). [[Tzeentch]] followers need to endlessly plot with hopes that their ambitions could succeed (only for their plans to backfire, that or they get turned into...[[Chaos Spawn|whatever that is]]). Nurgle devotees need to continuously bathe in shit and live in misery, or else Nurgle will give them [[Extra Heresy|extra encouragement]] to become a proper follower. Slaanesh's followers need to tirelessly perfect their depraved art and entertainment (only to have their acts caught by their local [[Adeptus Arbites|PDF]], that or Slaanesh might punish them with a hellish "supplementary lesson curse" just because they made one step wrong, or because it is jealous). Only the Undivided Worshippers do not get constantly bent over by their god-masters since they do not channel the power of Chaos in the same way or as often. However, this does not stop the Chaos Gods from punishing them, and since unlike a devotee of one single god, Undivided followers are not likely to gain much favor with an individual god because of their veneration of Chaos as a whole.

There's also a saying that we are all slaves to fate. If that's the case, then Tzeentch is probably the master of all intelligent beings that are capable of having emotions. However, Tzeentch cannot claim the fate of a person if they are; A. claimed by one of his three brother gods; or B. are claimed by other non-chaos gods that could resist him ([[The God-Emperor of Mankind|Big E]], [[Cegorach]], [[Gork]] an' [[Mork]], etc...). Then again, claimed by any god could also count as slavery, but some might not feel the same way. In this situation, the interpretations of slavery is up to how the gods treats their subjects, but for the most parts, the subjects are nothing but pawns to further their gods' plan, that or to entertain them. [[Inquisition|Some are willing, feeling it as a sacred duty to do the god's work]]. Others will resent feeling like a slave, and might [[Horus Heresy|rebel]] against their god, only to be [[Officio Assassinorum|put down]] or [[exterminatus|exterminated right where they stood]].

To the like of [[Wulfrik the Wanderer]], he was cursed to seek out the bounty the god's had marked, or else they will constantly annoying him with headache, and he will be sent to torment for eternity if he dies. He initially hated the curse since it restricted his freedom, prevent him from having a prosper life. However, after facing many encounters with his arch-nemesis, traitors, cheating girlfriend and manipulators throughout his journey to remove his curse, he realized the curse was in fact a bless, and this whole journey was the gods' way to show Wulfrik how much they care for him, in exchange to be enslaved by them, the gods ultimately helped him exact vengeance and gain glory. So yeah, Chaos Gods do have a soft side for their subjects, in a weird dickish way, and being enslaved by them is has its own warped form of glory.

==A Digression About the Economics of Slavery==
For serious worldbuilders who have it, you need to consider what economics already considers a long-standing question: Is slavery profitable in the long term, and if so where?

The consensus answer among economic historians to the first one is that yes, slavery can be profitable, but only in those situations where technology does not offer a faster/cheaper/safer solution. Indeed, most ancient Empires (Egyptian, Greek, Roman) had some form of institutionalized slavery that allowed them to endure. Likewise, the institutions of serfdom and feudalism in the early Medieval era was an evolution of the masses seeking shelter and sustenance from armed landowners (who in turn had to gain favor from higher authorities to protect their property from rivals). This being said, the very concept of slavery has some serious downsides (that have nothing to do with morality) dooming it in the long run. The short answer to the "where" question is "cash crops and other agriculture, unskilled labor, and a bit of mining", in roughly that order of profitability.

The practical downsides that doom slavery include, but are not limited to:

*First of all, in any area where sabotage is a serious concern slavery is usually a non-starter. For a recent example, look at the [[Nazi]]s using forced labor to build their weapons later in the war, and the quality of said weapons, with Russian POWs and Communist and Social Democrat political prisoners being the most prolific for small-scale sabotage (like leaving out a bolt here and there or not quite soldering something right). Turns out a learned clockmaker isn't the best at toiling the fields. That rules out most semi-modern mining, as well as just about any industry with any degree of mechanization and a surprising amount of agriculture.
** Despite mining being the stereotypical use of slaves in fiction, mining past a certain depth is sufficiently deadly and expensive that semi-skilled labor is '''absolutely required''', and a slave has a nice way to commit suicide AND hurt their master's profits at the same time. While ''other'' exploitative practices may be used, the training required means actual slavery-based mining is very much a no-go save for tasks such as the very basic work of breaking surface mineral seams, as well as open-pit mining, where "getting stuck" is not an issue and carrying loads to processing stations a la South American silver mining done by Spanish or simple stone quarries where all one needs doing is to hit a stone with a pick and carry the resulting ore chunks to the storage.
** The same goes for large-scale infrastructure projects like those undertaken during the Great Terror under Stalin in the Soviet Union. Nearly all of these projects that heavily relied on forced labour fell apart very quickly once they were put to use, often with disastrous consequences. The sinister thing about this is that, because the Soviet system was supposedly infallible, every accident of this kind was attributed to "Sabotage", leading to another round of arrests and purges, endlessly propelling forward a cycle of mass arrests, deportations, accidents and so forth. Khrushchev ended the Gulag system mainly because the shoddy work the Gulag produced wasn't sustainable in the long run (and also to distance himself from Stalin) when the USSR was to look eye to eye with the United States.
*Second, unless reproduction is heavily encouraged (and ties down the female slaves to light labor), slave populations have a tendency to drop over time, especially compared to relatively free populations (even ignoring manumission, buying freedom in better societies and escapes), and five seconds of thought on slaves' living conditions should lead to a few obvious conclusions as to why. So if you want to keep up, you need to constantly raid (or trade with raiders) for more slaves. Last time this was done beyond the 16th century, the United States wrecked the entire Barbary coast with artillery and freed slaves. So any "sustainable" raiding *will* attract military threats that will make sure any slave taken will eventually be more expensive than a free worker who is A) already available and willing, B) lives within the empire and C) has many motivations, such as family, welfare and [[Tzeentch|hopes for a good future]]).
*Third, slave-holding societies are usually economically out-competed by non-slave-holding societies once military considerations are either removed or temporarily equalized. There are plenty of reasons for this, but the big ones are the twin spectres of Incentives (which align more closely in non-slave societies) and Efficiency (effort you expend on keeping slaves from escaping or rebelling could usually be more productively used elsewhere, and that's just to ''start'', saying nothing of potentially intelligent slaves wasted in labor they are not optimal for rather than being educated and made into scientists).
*Fourth, distinct from the point above, slavery has a bad habit of leading to a hyper-stratified society. Such heavy social stratification leads to a heavy decline in economic flexibility, which is a ''bad'' thing when you're in competition with a more flexible (and thus better able to change) society, particularly if innovation is a factor. Beyond scientific, technological, and economic competition, this also applies in military matters as seen with historical "elite" slave military units such as the Janissaries and Mamelukes in the Middle East. Sure they were more fearless and well trained at the beginning but eventually, their comfortable status without existential foes to fight, distraction from political intrigue once they became king-makers, and lack of incentive to reform or innovate compared to their foreign adversaries adopting new technologies and tactics made any defeats extremely damaging to their host empires.
*Fifth, if slaves are owned in large numbers they start to displace the local non-slaves. This is not a simple case of [[Meme|"DEY TOOK AHR JERBS"]], as the Romans can attest: when large numbers of slaves started to displace local farmers who were forced to sell their land for some reason or the other, said ex-farmers were driven to the cities, where there were not a lot of jobs either. This bred poverty, and from poverty rose a class dissatisfied with their lot in life as they starve while the rich grow fat. And from this rose political and civilian unrest, which is never good for any state. In the case of the Romans, this gave birth to a populist dictator, Julius Caesar and his adoptive son Octavian, which created a major precedent for all modern dictatorships and bread-and-circuses states.
*Lastly, having a large slave population essentially constituted a permanent fifth column presence. Every empire that employed slavery was compelled to maintain a large armed presence in its home territory to suppress revolts. This tended to limit the size that a state could grow to territorially, with only a few superpowers managing to consolidate enough territory with reliable regional governors to sustain a permanent campaigning military while retaining enough force at home to prevent rebellion. This was a noticeable problem with Sparta where the ratio of Helots to Spartiates (ethnic Spartan cizens, not to be confused with free-dwelling Perioikoi non-citizens) fluctuate around 7 Helots for every Spartiate. Hence, the Spartans had to initiate ritual war and assassination of those deemed too dangerous under the Krypteia to keep the Helots in line. On the other hand, others argue Sparta’s helot management system was more akin to ritual depreciation to make Helots suffer an inferiority complex from constant intimidation and surveillance instead of blatant terror tactics. Serfdom policed by religious caste systems was more effective at maintaining civil order, with serfs tending to rebel only in the case of famine and excessive taxation.

Slavery in worldbuilding is not confined strictly to historical settings; it is also a valid consideration in near future science fiction. The time and cost of moving individuals to other bodies in the solar system by conventional means, combined with the work to be done and the scarcity of hands will mean that people on such ventures will NOT have the luxury to quit. Space colonization under these circumstances will inevitably require a return to the ancient naval tradition that a captain at sea must be an absolute despot for the good of all aboard; "keeping ''everyone'' alive" and "avoiding ''everyone'' dying" are not synonymous, and many hazards of space make the distinction very important. Activity in space today is achieved as a pseudo-military expedition with carefully selected teams trained to cooperate, but larger scale operations WILL necessitate an organization divide between labor and operations and that will result in social friction (this is already seen at the South Pole station; disputes between operations and scientific staff are a continuous problem, especially during winter when the station is completely isolated for months). In some settings, colonization is achieved in the form of penal colonies by using convicted prisoners labor to sidestep the moral questions of compulsory work and sacrificing some to save all (though this raises the issue of sabotage being a '''very''' serious concern). Additionally, the prospect of disadvantageous contract labor (akin to indentured servants) who are coerced into harsh labor to pay off debts (either related to those back at home or from the voyage in hopes of finding opportunities) could theoretically make a comeback.

[[Category:History]]

Nazi

2026-04-30T18:14:50Z

TakahaReo: Undo revision 1010386 by 109.70.100.13 (talk)

{{flamewar}}
{{Fail}}
{{heresy}}
{{sick|Fucking Nazis.}}
{{Topquote|I have in this War a burning private grudge—which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.|[[J.R.R. Tolkien]], being a boss}}
{{Topquote|1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHFtbSZ3KRE YOU UTTER FOOL! GERMAN SCIENCE IS THE FINEST IN ZE WORLD!!!]|2=[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Stroheim, an over the top Nazi and the first Guile]]}}

[[File:Nazi.png|frameless|center]]

[[Image:Nazi uniforms.gif|thumb|right|150px|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L21dPTqSjpQ God''damn'' it, Nazis! Why are you so fashionable, you ''evil fucking bastards''?!]]]
'''Nazi''' is the commonly used shorthand version of ''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (National Socialist German Workers' Party), a political party which took over Germany <s>for a 1,000 years</s> from 1933 to 1945. Interestingly, Nazis did not refer to themselves as 'Nazis', they called themselves 'National Socialists'.

It also refers to people who belonged to said party, their ideology, and their regime in Germany during said period of time. Led by Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party emerged from the uncertainty and political upheaval caused by the Red Scare, the end of the German Empire after the Great War, myths, promoted by the army, that the military had been on the cusp of victory before being "stabbed in the back" by the civil government, resentment at unfair conditions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, economic uncertainties due to the stock market crash of 1929, German ethnic nationalism, a desire to blame things on scapegoats, and a belief in militarism popular among many returning veterans. They were also aided by their invention of modern campaigning and propaganda, wide-spread dissatisfaction with the status quo, the strategic seizure of the political positions that controlled the police force, the intimidation or murder of political opponents and journalists using glorified street thugs, and more dumb luck than anyone has any right to have, let alone a bunch of genocidal [[Racial Holy War|loons]].

==Overview==
[[File:German_Bratwurst.gif|right|thumb|Historically Accurate (if you consider checzia polish)]]
The Nazis' initial success can be attributed to the image of glorious economic recovery, part of which they accomplished by keeping Germany's economy running during the Great Depression. They presented this to the rest of the world, making many people believe the little mustachioed guy couldn't be that crazy since he'd made his country recover brilliantly in very little time. And while Germany did indeed recover, the whole thing was helped and held upright by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mefo_bills MEFO bills]: basically a Ponzi scheme that allowed the government to loan money on the sly through a front company about metallurgy research (the ''Metallurgische Forschungsgesellschaft'', or MEFO in short). This allowed them to work at a much higher level of debt flotation than allowed by international regulation, and the idea was to pay back the loans with seized gold and valuables from Jews at first, and then directly from conquered nations after the war, since even [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_bond state created debt bonds] are exactly that: debt, credit, which is trust. Eventually the creditor will want something in exchange (or at the very least get his investment back) or the debtor's credibility will be shattered, stopping the money flow.

To give you a clearer idea of what happened: You are defeated and poor, but are fuming for revenge. To keep you down, your victorious neighbors don't lend you a dime to produce guns and make sure your already meager income is only spent on debt and basic necessities. So what do you do? You decide to spend money in the form of credit, raise the debt higher and higher (making the rest of the world believe you are rich), and keep the charade until the debt becomes irrelevant (who needs to pay the creditor he will declare war on?). So you make up a credit card called Mefocard ("MEtallurgische FOrschungsgesellschaft" - Metallurgy R&D sounds civilian and peaceful, so the world markets play along), borrow even more wildly to look opulent, and to create weapons on the sly promise that you'll pay the debt back... Then attempt to kill the lenders and subjugate their families to share the debt you have. It was simply a continent wide, all-or-nothing robbery attempt even wilder than WW1's trench-fighting Imperial duel.

The Ponzi schemes weren't limited to national/corporate level shenanigans, but extended to the German people as well. The famous Beetle was developed to be a cheap family car (hence “volkswagen”, or “people’s car”), and a part of selling the German public on the idea of an idyllic, cheap-and-cheerful family life, along with things like state-sponsored vacation villages. An elaborate layaway scheme allowed average German families to give the government a few Reichsmark a day in exchange for the promise of a new Beetle and a seaside vacation package. However, all that money actually went into rebuilding the German military, and war began before any of the promises had to be delivered on. Because the [[Tzeentch|illusion of a better future and hope is always easier]] than just taxing the population directly. And, lastly, the Holocaust itself was also an important pillar of the German economy, especially when the war started in earnest. Jewish (and other undesirables', particularly Slavic intelligentsia) property and land was being confiscated on a scale never before seen or even conceived of. Not even their dead bodies were safe: glasses were taken apart and reused for scopes or similar, hair was used as fabrics for the textile industry, and gold teeth were taken and melted down by the millions. Massive amounts of gold, hard currency and other valuable things like works of art were stolen from Jewish museums, synagogues, households and bank accounts (hence keeping up the Mefo bill's token payments to creditors). They even had to pay for their own transit into the death camps, which would almost be hilarious if it wasn't so unbelievably evil. This ruthless, industrialized way of executing a massive genocide made the Holocaust the standard many people associate the word "genocide" with today - ironically, the Holocaust was in its methods the exception. No other genocide in history built an entire branch of government and industry centered around the mass murder of human beings, not to mention devoting vital manpower and military resources bullets to the project that the overstretched front lines of Germany desperately needed; in essence, [[Fail|the Nazis sabotaged their own war machine, just to kill Jews.]]

They were also fantastic proponents of lies and propaganda, ranging from bogus race theory (fake archaeology was a particular favorite), to manufactured pretexts for war (the trigger for invading Poland was an obvious false-flag operation- something Japan had used 2 years previously), to simply overstating their successes. For example, the old line that goes "say what you want about them, but the Nazis/Hitler did make the trains run on time"? They didn't. Train service was as bad or worse under fascist leadership as it had been immediately before their rise to power. But they realized that they only had to ''say'' the trains were running on time, and strongarm anyone inside Germany who dared to publicly disagree. Doubly funny is that it was ''Mussolini'''s Italy that had trains running on time, and even then, it was because of pre-fascism era personnel improving it. In fact, the entire political/industrial structure of Nazi Germany was a nightmarish tangle of private businesses, government organizations, bureaucrats, and ambitious officials with overlapping portfolios and responsibilities. Hitler frequently gave out contradictory orders and deliberately pitted his subordinates against each other as part of his social Darwinist beliefs; the strongest and best would naturally rise to the top through competition while the others were weeded out, thus improving the whole. In practice, this system was dysfunctional, inefficient, unresponsive, wasteful, and full of more backstabbing bastardry than an average game of [[Diplomacy]]. People became too scared to make decisions without Hitler around, companies and factories wasted precious time and materials on design contracts that were ultimately awarded to other firms, there was an ongoing multi-way fight between the army, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, and Waffen-SS for resources, manpower, and money throughout the war, and people like Himmler and Goering carved out their own private spheres of influence in the middle of it all, further splintering the government.

Needless to say, this situation was the reason why the scenario of not waging war (like in Hearts of Iron or some alternate reality stories) simply wasn't a realistic option. Despite their multiple annexations of territory, the Nazis couldn't sustain their charade without the influx of riches, heavy machinery (they stripped Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other conquered territories to the bone, grabbing civilian factories' machinery, bolts, nuts and even the metallic building materials like [[Blood Ravens]] on meth, literally, Nazis loved their amphetamines) and material from other conquered territories to pay the MEFO bills. So they soon mobilized their armies and launched a war of expansion on the rest of the world, starting with Poland. (The question is still open among historians as whether they annexed and plundered enough reserves with Czechoslovakia to keep the charade up "peacefully" long enough to let their Red "ally" make the opening move instead, but that's a discussion for another place and time.)

Their goal (next to getting gold and industrial materials to pay the enormous gambling debt of an empire) was to impose their militaristic Social Darwinist ideology across Europe, outlaw any dissenting school of thought, enslave all the "sub-human" Slavs (after starving to death more than half of them to make room for German settlers in accordance to Generalplan Ost and assimilating anyone believed to be sufficiently Germanic), and exterminate any "undesirables" (Jews, Roma, homosexuals, etc) on which they blamed all their problems because they felt that they were superhumans without any flaws. Any problem which they suffered had to be the fault of some subversive "other" from outside who tried to cause the Master Race misery according to the Nazi philosophy of believing all ethnicities are a hivemind loyal to themselves and they all collectively fight over resources, therefore "weaker" races resort to social corruption (LGBT, porn, discouraging women from reproducing) of the glorious German master race to get ahead of them. But due to some severe strategic fuck ups from Hitler <s>who often overruled his military leadership</s> and his generals (the situation is more nuanced than that and would be too long and boring to explain fully; basically there was mutual mistrust and both sides routinely fucked up, but after the war the generals used Hitler as a scapegoat because the history is written by the living), Germany ended up in a three-way war with the Soviet Union (who provided blood), Great Britain (military intelligence, enough naval force projection to strangle all Axis naval trade and pure fucking grit) & the United States (more armaments than you can possibly dream of with an extra helping on top), while their allies such as Romania (the dudes with the European oil fields), Hungary (some light tanks and cavalry) & Italy (...more of a liability than bonus, so...) surrendered during the middle years of the war, Finland was doing their own thing the entire time and barely gave a shit about the Nazis beyond asking for supplies, and resource-starved Japan could do little more than be a distraction.

While Germany may have had some areas of technological/industrial advantage (at least initially, and this is often overstated), by the end of the war they were crippled by a lack of many strategic resources and widespread destruction of production lines and reverted to some crude and/or untested/outlandish solutions like using coal liquefaction as an oil substitute, potato alcohol for V-2 rockets and meth-filled chocolate bars for Eastern Front troopers (when they decided to use the logistic volume for ammo rather than thick clothes which they '''had''' but decided to workaround with untested drugs-typical Hitlerite solution-). Their situation was made worse by their late-war obsession with Wunderwaffen ("wonder weapons"), such as "flying wing" aircraft, the world's first ballistic missiles, multi-charge megacannons and retardedly big tanks, all of which wasted time, materials, and engineering effort that could have instead been used to churn out more regular tanks, artillery pieces, and aircraft, along with a chronic shortage of oil other than a trickle from Romania, which meant that the panzer divisions were routinely grinding to a halt for lack of fuel by the end. Because of all this, there was no hope of repulsing both the Western Allies and the Soviet Union at the same time; thus the Nazi regime finally met its end when the Russians marched into Berlin and Hitler {{*BLAM*}}med himself along with his mad-as-a-hatter common-law wife and their dog. While their hate-wagon managed to go far and temporarily overrun most of Europe, it simply had too much war to fight on multiple fronts, a lack of effective strategic planning in the form of Hitler and his cronies, and the fact that most powerful nations of the time opposed them either because they cherished their political freedoms, saw their economies fail, or simply were on the Nazi "to-exterminate" list.

So with all that baggage, how the hell did they manage to conquer most of Europe?

Two words: operational flexibility. Or "knockout artistry", whichever you prefer. In the early half of the war, the German military operated on a principle they called "mission tactics" (auftragstaktik) or "selbstandigkeit der Unterfuhrer" (independence of the subordinate commander). The field commanders were given clear overall goals (such as: secure this location by such and such time), and then given free rein in HOW they accomplished the goal. Left to their own devices, the German commanders in the field were creative and flexible, using everything they had at their disposal and making high risk, high reward maneuvers. They also entered the war with radios in every tank and the best close air support in the world (at the time). They also had a tactical/strategic philosophy called "Bewegungskrieg" (war of movement) that emphasized mobile operations and front-loaded shock assaults and sought to avoid getting stuck into prolonged fights, since they knew from experience that they couldn't win a "Stellungskrieg", a static war of positional fighting like WWI had been. This paid off brilliantly at first, since they blew through Poland, Belgium, France, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, the Balkans, Greece, and the British army (twice) without much trouble.

The French and British had stronger tanks, excellent defensive positions, and equivalent numbers, but it didn't matter. The Allies were expecting a war where both sides show up and shoot at each other, while the Germans had worked out that moving fast, surrounding the enemy, and smashing them from all sides was much easier and less costly than the kind of slow, grinding warfare that had bled them dry in WWI. One French general famously spent several days celebrating his promotion to the role of leading the defense, only to finally arrive at his command center and find the Germans one river away from Paris.

The German army did its best work when their commanders were allowed to make the most out of their situation and assets, and only started to suffer when they were micromanaged and squandered in operations that didn't play to their advantages in mobility (even Sun Tzu 2,500 years ago advised against armchair micromanagement and to let field commanders make decisions for themselves). Ironically, their primary enemy, the Soviets, experienced the opposite, going from a crippled military hampered by commissars being suspicious of the officers and meddling with everything due to undeserved authority bestowed by Stalin to Stalin learning to take a backseat and being content with focusing on allocating resources for the better military minds make use of as they saw fit, while he collected the lion's share of the credit like a master politician. This is really only partially true, however.

The problem was that the German generals of the period had inherited the traditional Prussian mindset of "when all else fails, just attack the fuckers" and "proper logistical planning is for pansies and Frenchmen". Also, for all its celebrated flexibility, ''auftragstaktik'' also meant that there wasn't much in the way of backup planning, since orders were supposed to be short, simple, and delivered verbally whenever possible, rather than being written down. In turn, this meant that when things inevitably went off the rails, the officers on the scene had to improvise, and not always with good results. For example, Erwin Rommel was basically allowed to do his own thing in Africa because the rest of the German high command was busy trying to stem the bleeding in Russia. While he had some successes early on, he outran his supply lines so often that he had to steal from the British to keep his troops fed and vehicles gassed up. This worked until the Brits got their shit together and kicked his ass at El Alamein. In the aftermath, he had to abandon many of his vehicles for lack of fuel and then made a series of bad decisions that got his army smashed into a bloody mess before being taken prisoner en masse. This same mindset led other German generals to do shit like feed division after division into the urban nightmare that was Stalingrad and beat their heads against the wall in the Caucasus while their overworked and poorly structured logistics pipeline struggled just to keep the troops fed and armed, let alone adequately replace losses in men and vehicles. Hitler and his dumbshittery didn't help any, to be sure, but the German army had exactly one tool in their box and didn't stop using it even when it was patently no longer working.

==Neo-Nazis==
Despite everything there are still some people out there which subscribe to the Nazi worldview, or at least something which has a lot of it in it's DNA. Yes, there is often some differences between these guys and the Nazi Party of old as well as differences between groups but this is only to be expected. There is no overarching body attempting to enforce a party discipline among Neo-Nazi groups and many people apply it to their context with local leaders putting their own spin on things.

Why do people end up here? Well there were some Nazis which did not give up on the cause even after the Third Reich went down and these guys were still an issue in Germany even after Nazism was formally banned (see the Socialist Reich Party in 1949-52, German Reich Party in 50-66 and a few more "no we are totally not Nazis even though Hitler had some good ideas..." far-right german parties). There are also a few people which by their own are pushed towards Nazism, often with similar fears. The McCarthy era Red Scare produced a number of American Neo-Nazis as a byproduct. Even so, most get led into established groups.

One source of recruits for neo-Nazis has been the edgelords who get off offending society and can't tell the difference between yelling "Fart Butt!" at a school assembly and "Sieg Heil!" at a Jewish Wedding. In and of itself, this does not mean one is actually a Nazi, but legit Nazis can hide among these jerks and try to funnel people towards their ranks. Usually they find success with people in that category who are dealing with a lot of emotional issues and have some fears about life or whatever and exploit those to lead them step by step into radicalization, along with a careful spoon-feeding of ideology. The other main source is blue-collar local Europeans who feel that they have been cheated out of a prosperous life by extensive post-war ''Gastarbeiter'' migration to Europe, especially their children who ended up being bullied by said migrants' children and ended up being drawn in to the brotherhood such Neo-Nazi organisations can sometimes offer.

To outline one path people have taken into neo-Nazism, it starts with things like "the Allies were not pure saints"<sup>1</sup> or "those uniforms were cool". Points which are, in and of themselves, not wrong. But in this specific context, they can be used as a stepping stone to other, dodgier talking points ("victor's history", "you're not getting the whole story"), especially those that make the Nazis look better ("Rommel and Manstein were the best generals of the war", "1 Tiger beats 5 Shermans") and the Allies look worse ("Russians only won through human waves", "the Dresden bombings were needlessly cruel"). If they find someone who can accept these claims, other less savoury points and active white-washing ("the cruelty of the Treaty of Versailles") can be added to the mix. Add in some "jokes" which get more and more hateful, then rinse and repeat until your new recruit is wearing a swastika armband and screaming at people about the "Jewish conspiracy". Of course, not everyone will fall for it, and even if someone buys into the first few arguments, there is a difference between uncritically accepting some Wehraboo talking points and going full Goebbels. But some get drawn deeper and deeper into the morass until they end up unironically believing the whole steaming Nazi load. The fact that as people go deeper down the rabbit hole they end up alienating themselves from friends and family more and more aids the process, since they're left with only other neo-Nazis to hang out with.

<small><sup>1</sup> ''Definitely true, even leaving aside Stalin. See the [[Wikipedia:Bengal famine of 1943|Bengal Famine of 1943]], the internment of Japanese-Americans, and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study for stuff done by the UK and US. Allied soldiers also weren't above shooting unarmed prisoners. Even so, these pale in comparison to the atrocities committed by the Nazis or those they had planned.''</small>

==Nazi Portrayals in Fiction==

Nazis are portrayed as an over the top wacky military who like leading extermination wars against the Jews (and other people) and build secret bases on the moon, under water, or some other silly place. Their technology is frequently exaggerated with [[Dieselpunk|laser weapons, armored suits, giant robots, walking tanks, and/or Robo-Hitler]]. Some vidya portrayals even goes so far as to put it all together in a big ball of [[LOLWUT]] and add a touch of magical [[Lovecraft]]ian shit because Nazi propaganda had a weird love for the occult.

Varying opinions on the perceived Nazi character allows them to be looked at from varying points of view, developing their character all the more. Take the [[Imperium of Man]], for example, which tends to blend German-fascist iconography with Soviet politics and a Roman-Catholic aesthetic sense. Some will say that the Imperium's a nuthouse since they're willing to allow an Inquisitor to turn an entire hive spire into a towering inferno if he so happens to find a single heretic in{{*BLAM*}} {{BLAM|SPEAKING ILL OF THE IMPERIUM IS EXTRA HERESY.}}

Others will say that the Imperium's just being pragmatic, and such an action is justifiable as the Imperium is constantly beset by merciless foes who will not think twice to bring them down, making their methods for survival cruel but necessary. Which, given the fact that daemons really do exist and can corrupt entire planets in a short amount of time and rape every corrupted soul forever and ever, is pretty justifiable. Even the Imperium's xenophobia is justifiable given how nearly [[Orks|all]] the [[Necrons|major]] [[Tyranids|races]] pretty much want to wipe everyone else out or [[Dark Eldar|enslave them to be tortured to death as sustenance]].

But that doesn't change the fact that these reasons are often just used as an excuse to torture and kill anyone who's even s{{BLAM}}

The idea of Nazi Germany being an advanced, sophisticated war machine has been heavily reevaluated in recent years to the point where it's now viewed as propagandistic bullshit. Closer examination of the war has shown that while advanced tactics and technology were used, the actual moment by moment commanding (WITH exceptions of course) wasn't especially fantastic, but relied on one-trick, all or nothing ponies like demoralizing the target country into surrender; it's one thing to knock out France on the brink of communist civil war or run roughshod over small, unprepared countries like Poland or Denmark and another entirely to conquer a country the size of Russia. Plus the same issue of logistics that ended up as the Wehrmacht's undoing during the Russian campaign had been happening since day one. The Third Reich had just assumed that once the Russians were beaten back to the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line they'd roll over and collapse, emphasis on THINKING, PRESUMING which should spell "Doom" by day one. It just wasn't readily apparent previously because all their campaigns up to that point were over fast enough that their lack of a well-organized logistical structure and reliance on front-loaded shock-and-awe assaults hadn't been a huge problem. We're talking about an army that refused to upgrade their paratroopers with steerable parachutes (which is WAY more important for a paratrooper then you would think)! Plus one can't ignore the fact most countries successfully invaded were either very minor powers or horribly horribly mismanaged or technologically stunted as far as the military was concerned. The view of the Wehrmacht as a mechanized force has also been dismantled in recent years. The popular image of the German military as a mechanized juggernaut was fostered by those same biographies mentioned above and below and by the cottage industry of writers, wargamers, and filmmakers who took those men at their word. Only about 20% of the German army was mechanized, mostly its elite divisions, and even they had lost most or all of their tanks and transports by the end of the war; by 1945 it wasn't uncommon for a so-called panzer division to contain few, if any, actual panzers. The majority of the army that invaded the USSR during Operation Barbarossa walked in, and their supplies and artillery pieces were pulled by horses. They didn't have anything like the insane levels of mechanization found in some of their enemies. Even the USSR, with American aid at first, and panic-driven manufacturing later, started outproducing the Wehrmacht around '43 in terms of supply trucks and troop transports.

This view of Germany as this massive intimidating force was mostly put in place by the biographies written by the German generals (Maybe you've heard of this before. "If Hitler just listened to his generals...") and the fact that perpetuating the myths benefited both Germany and the Western Allies. Germany got to feel like the war was a fair fight and all its failings could be blamed on that funny Austrian guy, in no small part due to Nazi officials wanting to clear their names after the war. Many of these men continued to work in the West German government way into the 60s and 70s, with one of them, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, even rising to the office of Chancellor in 1966. The British, meanwhile, got to feel better about the fact that the Wehrmacht had booted them out of France and Greece and nearly did the same in Africa, while America got to feel like the heroes who'd swept in to give those danged Natzees a righteous ass-kicking. And that's just the civilian side. The first generation of generals for the Bundeswehr were exclusively recruited from Wehrmacht and SS officers, many of them war criminals who'd done time in prison after the war, while the Allies just looked the other way because they thought they were assets, while America and Britain convinced the public that Germany could be a impressive threat. Even against a certain group of communists over the border...

===Impact on Fantasy===

In terms of military personnel, the Germans had hands down one of the best armies of the time, highly disciplined and well-trained with experienced mid-level officers and NCOs; this combined with borderline insane levels of morale at the start of the war due to years of giving the middle finger to the war-weary western nations which capitulated to their demands combined with revanchism from WW1, turned Germany into an unholy juggernaut. The Germans were known to have some of the best tanks in the war, the best darn LMG of the war, and somewhat pioneered several advanced technologies during their time. They also had the inheritance of the Prussian military tradition of relentless aggression and independence in the field. Tactics-wise, their eagerness to experiment with encirclement and mobile warfare while the Allies initially stagnated in Great War formations of firing lines gave them an incredible headstart and utterly broke the back of the French and British armies, shocking the whole world. Even Hitler expected a million Germans to die in the French war, yet France capitulated in weeks and the Germans lost at most 45,000 men KIA in the entire campaign, whereas they'd have lost that many in the last war just trying to take a random village along the Somme.

This, combined with their infamous cruelty have spawned the Nazi-esque villain template where the villains are both powerful and [[Eldrad|gigantic dicks]] to everyone else, making them completely despicable. This is because if the villain is significantly weaker than the protagonist of the setting, most people will still feel a few grains of sympathy towards the former or make them a laughing stock. But, when you make the villain both an enormous asshole and just as or more powerful than the protagonist, all bets are off and he's fair game.

Of course, the weaknesses of Nazism also need to be taken into account, in that a lot of their supposedly superior technology turned out to be highly unstable or otherwise impractical (such as behemoth tank designs that wasted time and resources that would have been better spent on dozens of more reasonable tanks), and would frequently be outclassed and definitely outnumbered by Allied designs once the latter got their shit together. This was even true at the start of the war: British Matilda IIs were all but immune to German tank fire (from the early Panzers, before the later Tigers), and a column of them almost stopped Rommel at the Battle of Arras. Add poorly managed industry and the fact that supplies at times were delivered by horse (which was not actually that atypical, since only America and early war Britain were that ridiculously mechanized), and you have a faction that is the epitome of [[Chaos Space Marines|style over substance]]. This really bit them in the ass later when the Allies, [[Imperial Guard|focusing on production and strategy over science fiction and "tactics"]], managed to get a leg up on the Third Reich, and battle-hardened Allied soldiers became the top dogs without question. To illustrate, by 1945 the typical American ''infantry'' division could expect to have as many tanks as a Nazi ''armored'' division, and an American armored division could simply zerg-rush their Nazi counterpart (and hell, the Panzer divisions frequently operated at less than half strength, even since the beginning of Barbarossa, let alone after having the country incinerated by firebombing and supply lines fucked by pissed off partisans who understandably did not want to leave the mass murder unanswered).

In fiction, expect the Nazi villains to eventually have their technology and logistics outclassed (FPS and RTS games like Call of Duty, Warfront: Turning Point or Company of Heroes), made irrelevant via gimmicks (Sniper Elite, Commandos, Velvet Assassin) or at least stolen and turned against them (Wolfenstein), and the hardened heroes to turn Nazi soldiers into cannon fodder.

Nazis are the progenitors of all acceptable targets where human bad guys are concerned. Be it in vidya games or movies, nobody has a problem with Nazis getting gunned down by the hundreds by the heroes, and they don't even have to resort to the dehumanizing full helmets that most other villain goons have to wear to make slaughtering them okay.

A more comedic take on Nazis in fiction owes to wartime cartoons, where the soldiers and Nazi command are all bumbling idiots, with comedy brought to you by Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Hitler today has essentially been turned into a punchline with all the gags centered around him, which is kinda awesome when you think about it, as dictators that wish to be feared would never want to be remembered as a joke, just watch any Downfall movie parody (Bruno Ganz's excellent performance in particular has become memetic for having Hitler rant about random things or meta rants about how he was reduced to a joke). The one exception would be Göring, who'd been a morphine addict since the Beer Hall Putsch and was so narcissistic that he thought people making jokes about him sitting on his belly for dinner and taking baths in admirals' uniforms were signs of popularity. Every other high level Nazi, especially Himmler (a failed chicken farmer who spent his last-resort field command in 1944 sleeping until noon, eating, drinking, jacking off and getting massages from a man in a special train) and Goebbels (who basically created all the modern populist tactics of dictators and was born crippled on account of a deformed leg, making him the most obviously hypocritical big name Nazi), took jokes at their expense only slightly better than Hitler did. So joke away and spit on the memory of the fools who bled the world dry.

===Examples===
*The [[Skaven]] from [[Warhammer Fantasy]] and later [[Age of Sigmar]] borrow many Nazi-esque elements, which in turn makes them the most vile and evil race in the World That Was... Only it's taken to its logical extreme, as with many things Warhammer. Nazis had a hatred for what they believed was untermenschen and believed the "Aryan" race was most pure, while the Skaven hate all other living things, including their own race, with each individual believing only themselves to be worth anything. Pack in some advanced Wunderwaffen, magical nuclear power in the form of Warpstone and chemical weapons as well and you have a solid, if over-the-top, Nazi fantasy faction.

*The [[Imperium]], to the point where they're commonly described as "Catholic '''Space-Nazis'''". Complete with gratuitous use of Nazi imagery, a doctine of racial purity and absolute hatred for the "untermenschen" (mutants, psykers, and xenos), rising to power as part of a miraculous socio-economic recovery in the wake of a catastrophe ([[Age of Strife]]/[[Great Crusade]]), a "glorious rebirth" myth harkening back to a lost golden age [[Dark Age of Technology]], numerous military structures with parallel chains of command that are all at each other's throat due to a culture-wide policy of social Darwinism, an army run by absolute fanatics with horrendously inefficient war machines they barely understand, an SS analogue in the form of the [[Adepta Sororitas]] (who coincidentally tend to be depicted as fair-haired, though skin color varies and not all orders dye their hair white). Not to mention the Imperium's justification for xenocide is almost word-for-word the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_myth| stab-in-the-back-myth] the Nazis used to try and justify their treatment of Jews and the Holocaust, only replace "Aryan" with "human" and "Jew" with "xenos".

*The Thalmor from Skyrim are a fantasy equivalent of the NSDAP, with robes that look like SS uniforms, racism, genocide of "impure elves" and religious persecution of an enemy people in a conquered realm.

*The most extensive take on the theme of Space Nazis would be the Helghast from ''Killzone'', where the people of Helgan see the ISA as Imperialist gits who forced them out of their planet for refusing their rule. Although by Shadow Fall, they become akin to Communist East Germans, being filled with political radicals and separated by a wall and all.

*If you have a fantasy/sci-fi world, it will almost certainly have some sort of Nazi analogue floating around. At the same time, Nazis also figure into a lot of [[Alternate History|alternate history]] fiction: Nazis invading England, Nazis invading America, Nazis successfully conquering the USSR, Nazis getting the Bomb first, Nazis creating an army of mutant uber-troopers, Nazis on the Moon, Nazis using occult powers to summon demons to aid them, Nazi zombies, all of these have been done. The Nazi obsession in alternate history is largely due to the fact that we consider them evil (for the right reasons), and our modern world is the result of an Allied victory. A Nazi victory would have been an mitigated disaster. That said, most people know the history of Nazi Germany in the broad strokes and can work out some of what that would mean. You might make an interesting story about a world where (for example) Toyotomi Hideyoshi conquered Korea, but most people in North America don't know a whole lot about the Imjin War or late 16th century East-Asia.

==Nazis and [[/tg/]]==
Long ago, /tg/ realized something that most competent GMs have: Nazis represent a great liberating force for any GM, for they represent a force that any player need not feel any remorse over resorting to violence against, because Nazis are the textbook template for villains in most settings. They desire world domination, see themselves as the apex species and view most others with utter contempt, wanton disregard for common life, have an industry primarily geared towards war, are the most powerful warmongers, and they have that evil-yet-sublime aesthetic to their armies. Nazis are a modern setting variant of using [[slavery|slavers]] as your enemy in a fantasy game: they have little to no redeeming values, so they're great enemy fodder.

The association gives the players a motivation and creates the understanding that these people are Completely Evil™, allowing the GM to focus on other aspects of the story. Indeed, one can get similar results by simply providing details that lead us to conclude that any group you are facing off against are this universe's version of Nazis. That said, that same context makes using Nazis a double-edged sword, and a lazy GM (or author, script writer, or whatever; this is hardly unique to roleplaying) can royally screw up if one uses them incorrectly. Used incorrectly, Nazis become a kitten-eating one-dimensional caricature of villains descended into self-parody, which ''can'' work if the world is built for it. Kitten-eating Nazis work best in "goofy" settings where it's fully possible, and indeed expected for the final boss to be Hitler himself riding a cyborg dinosaur, but in a setting trying to take itself seriously, such flat villains do just that - fall flat and fail to incite the proper emotional reaction. Remember that the '''key''' to successful Nazi use is that emotional reaction. That exportation of real world baggage is the point, perhaps the sole point to use Nazis over some other villain. Nazis have the additional problem of not even needing to be exaggerated that much to make the worst of them into something like this. So care must be taken when one plays the Nazi card, or it will come off as trite.

Entire stretches of [[d20 Modern|d20 Past]] are shown various ways to implement ''Indiana Jones''-style Nazis into any campaign during the early 1900s, and [[Savage Worlds]] has an entire supplement devoted to thwarting Nazi super-soldier plans during WWII. More clever GMs can do even more interesting things with it, such as backing up the savagery of the Nazis with [[Fist of the North Star|a humanizing element to make them more understandable, even if antagonists]], whilst another interesting setting, proposed for [[GURPS]], starts the players off ''as'' Nazis and has them turn against their former comrades as the movement becomes harder and harder to justify. It's also worth remembering that Nazis can be used for comedy as well; they ''ARE'' Germans after all, and when they're not conquering the world they're prancing around in lederhosen, drinking beer from steins and boots, and churning out hardcore bdsm pornography. All of these lead to some pretty great storytelling, just so long as the GM knows how to play them correctly and prevent them from becoming a wackier version of an [[Ork]].

...And then you have [[Racial Holy War|this bullshit]], which misses the point entirely and renders us all stupider for the knowledge of its existence.

==Nazi Gear, Weapons, and Vehicles==
If you decide to use Nazis as your bad guys at tonight's game, the link below is a brief run down of basic information on Nazi equipment. If you're planning to play them as protagonists, either make sure it's either just a historically neutral such as a combat oriented Axis and Allies game, or [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|well written with an enemy that rivals or]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Domination ''surpasses'' their evil], or you're likely playing [[Racial Holy War]] and should thoroughly reconsider your life choices.

''Main Article: [[Nazi Equipment]]''

==Things That Are Ruined Because Of Nazis==

-[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika The Swastika]. Once a visually pleasing design found in many different cultures that almost always symbolized "peace", it is now the most recognized symbol for hatred on earth and it can't be used for anything without attracting negative attention. The only place that could plausibly use the symbol and get away with it would be Southern and Eastern Asia where it's a predominant Dharmic religious symbol. On the other hand, said places have their own issues regarding the other third of the Axis powers.

-[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothbrush_moustache The Toothbrush Mustache]. For fuck sakes, its now called "The Hitler Stache". It used to be just another style of mustache, rocked by famous people like Charlie Chaplin. Now it's impossible to style one without being called a Nazi. Every guy who shaves in the privacy of his own home will, at some point, give himself a "hitler stache" just to see what it looks like. Imagine the pain certain guys must feel when they realize that it really looks flattering for their facial shape, and how they can never leave the house with it.

-[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniforms_of_the_German_Army_(1935%E2%80%931945) Being Able to Admire the German Army's Uniforms]. Face it, the Nazis looked fucking sharp. Crisp, clean, and professional looking, they dressed in various grays and blacks with gold trim. The officers wore leather trench coats! Even the average solder rocked the iconic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stahlhelm M35 Stahlhelm]. But you say any of this in public and inevitably some self-righteous jerk will be all like "Uhhhh you think ''Nazis'' looked cool?"

==See Also==
* [[/pol/]]: Having fanatical adherents who would ironically be the first to be exterminated for being physically frail weebs or obese neckbeards.
** [[SJW]]: /pol/s almost exact opposite in theory, some SJWs frequently accuse their opponents of being secret Nazis. We couldn't possibly comment.
* [[Communism]], which Nazism so heavily opposed that some of the features of the Nazi regime cannot be explained except by its complete opposition to, or imitation of, the Soviet Union or Marxism-Leninism. 
* [[Fascist Italy]], Diet Nazi Germany.
* [[Dictator|Dictatorship]], how it worked.
* The [[Skaven]], who play straight some of the Nazi tropes like the concept of the Master Race and seeing all the other races as inferior "things".
* The [[Imperium of Man]], which despite what most people think is not Fascist, barring planets ruled by [[Ecclesiarchy|shitheads]]. This does not stop Neo-Nazis from fawning over it, which just shows how little they know of their own ideology, Imperium, or the fact Imperium is supposed to be evil (if the lesser one) and not something to aspire for. Neo-Nazis will try to co-opt anything which could, out of context, be spun as pro-nazi.
{{WW2}}
[[Category:History]][[Category:Not related]][[Category:Pure Evil]]

Mythology

2026-04-30T18:13:52Z

TakahaReo: Undo revision 1010387 by 109.70.100.13 (talk)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

<s>{{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Believing in the existence of any other being than the God-Emperor is HERESY!}}</s> {{KRUMP}}

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 mythos most familiar to everyone outside the Indian sub-continent and East Asia, since you learn them in church. Or synagogue, or mosque, you get the idea. At the very least, you'll Learn and hear of it through pop culture due to its ubiquity.

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

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

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:'''
*God is rarely depicted as a particularly active hero, but may [[Just as planned|work in mysterious ways.]] How Yahweh/God/Allah operates tends to be a lot of [[skub]], as all three of these religions nominally pray to the same Deity, but each perceives and serves him differently;
**For the Jews, Yahweh (among many names) is the creator of the universe as well as the patron of their people. Most religions before theirs were polytheistic, believing in the existence of many gods suitable for worship. While there may have been many dudes and dudettes worthy of worship and maybe only one or two "creators", the Jews were unique in that they worshipped only '''one.''' While the other cultures around them had patron deities who were roughly analogous to their home cities (so while many of the Mesopotamian peoples would have the same pantheon, only their local god would be worthy of their worship, at least in general), Jews believe that there's only '''one true god''' and he has a special relationship with them, and the rest were lesser beings, unworthy of worship. From the Jewish perspective, their early covenant means they have already been saved, so long as they keep to their part of the bargain. Their difference in beliefs and practices meant their polytheistic neighbors didn't get along with them. This worsened with attacks from both sides and several wars, some of which the Jews won, some of which they didn't.
**Christians came second, and believe in the teachings of the famous Jew, Jesus. They believe that Jesus is the literal Son of God, did various miracles as well as teach, died to save humanity and [[Meme|got better]] after 3 days. Afterwards, his 12 [[Primarch|apostles]] [[Word Bearers|went all over the world]] getting polytheists to convert, sometimes through word or miracle, other times [[The Last Church|by force and cultural eradication]]. There are many flavors of Christian, and a pretty wide (or narrow) canon. Seriously, the [[Dark Angels|Roman Catholics]] who we get all the fun Gothic and Inquisitorial themes justify their doctrines from the works of <s>philosophers and theologians</s> fucking nerds from all the way to the Roman era. Fun little conclaves like the Council of <s>[[Council of Nikaea|Nikaea]]</s> Nicaea were basically just debates among leaders of the Early Churches about the nature of God and what beliefs are HERESY and what's not. Their reliance on <s>the catholic wiki</s> an entire body of secondary works and not the "primary source" that was the Bible along with some corrupt clergy here and there eventually caused the Reformation led to various sects from Protestants to Eastern Orthodoxy and more. '''Tl;dr''' Christians see God as their [[Spiritual Liege|Papa]], their [[The Emperor|Savior]], and also as the essence of God known collectively as the Holy Trinity (how this works is best studied for oneself).
**Islam came third, and their view on God is that Allah - their name for him - is beyond human understanding and comprehension, and from Allah comes all things, good and evil, but still infinitely good. Allah is infinite, and the only thing worthy of worship. It wouldn't be out of place to consider Allah a "concept", because even trying to portray Allah as one thing or another is [[HERESY|haram]]; it would simply be too limiting, or placing human qualities on the creator. Before Muhammad, the Jews and Christians received parts of the revelation through the prophets, but they consider Jesus to be the greatest Jewish prophet and not the son of God; besides them, only Muhammad ever got the chance to communicate with Allah, he is considered the gold standard of human morality according to Islam, and there will never be another until the End Times. And so just like the Catholics, any further questions regarding the qualities of God and morality would have to come from the Koran (the Muslim equivalent of the Bible) and hadiths, which were basically long oral histories of "Muhammad said this, according to X (his X), as told by Y, (X's Y), and passed down by Z, and so on." So while Islam wanted to [[Thousand Sons|bring the sort of mysticism of a single, indivisible, and infinite Allah that only contemplation of the Word and obedience to Muhammad could bring]], [[Horus Heresy|an almost immediate power struggle]] over who should succeed Muhammad as the leader of Muslim society caused Islam to split into two rival factions that defined themselves in opposition to the other known as Sunni and Shia, leading to skub, differences of tradition/theology that last to this day. Since forced conversions and wars of conquest have been present in Islam even with Muhammad himself (who both used and condemned them on occasion), needless to say it did not take very long for relations between Muslim sects and those of other faiths to go sour.
*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 - online or in a bookstore - and see for yourself. Trivia: "Christ" is not Jesus' last name, but is one of Jesus' titles.
*Abraham: A 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).
*Satan and the demons of Hell (see below) are sometimes depicted as an unpleasant but necessary part of the divine plan (compare to Hades, above), as the ones who punish sinners who escape mortal justice. In the early parts of the Old Testament, Satan is seen as a prosecutor of souls who puts people through spiritual trials to test their faith, rather than tempting people into evil for evil's sake, and to this day we speak of the "Devil's Advocate" who points out flaws in popular people or ideas (the term originates from the Catholic Church, of all places; when someone is considered for sainthood, the Devil's Advocate is specifically appointed to argue against them to hopefully ensure all sides of the story are considered).
** Alternatively, Satan is sometimes portrayed as a hero rebelling against an oppressive divine order. Obviously this is [[extra heresy]] (see also: Gnosticism).

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

'''Non-Biblical figures who show up in media adaptions'''
* Lilith, the fanon first wife of Adam, the first man. It must be emphasized that she '''does not exist in any biblical source'''<ref>Technically, the word "lilith" does appear in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_34#Verse_14 Isaiah 34:14], but the word is frequently translated to something similar to "night monster" or "screeching owl"</ref> (other then the first woman being created twice -- but then again, a lot of things happen twice, slightly differently described each time, in Genesis). That being said, she was reputed to be one of Satan's many wives and a mother of demons or Adam's first wife who disobeyed God, before God created Eve.
* The Wandering Jew and Longinus: Because Jesus implied that certain people listening to him speak would be around for the Second Coming (although two obvious alternate readings are that Jesus was talking about his shortly impending Resurrection, or referring to the then-future, but politically easy to foresee, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_War Great Revolt of 66 AD], whose results could easily be seen as something that would be talked about in the same tone as the end of the world at the time), two non-biblical figures show up, starting in medieval works: The Wandering Jew, an Jew of the era, cursed to immortality, and Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus' side with a spear during the Crucifixion, similarly cursed to immortality. Can show up as villains, heroes, or mere cameos. (Both are more likely to show up in literature and RPGs then visual media; Longinus in particular is the identity claimed by an important historical vampire in ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''.)
* Various non-Biblically mentioned Angels.
*[[Djinn]]: Originally an element of pre-Islamic Arabian mythology, they are mentioned in the Quran as spirits born of "smokeless fire". Unlike Islamic angels, they are capable of sin and can go to either Heaven or Hell. The Islamic version of Satan (called Iblis or Shaitan) is said to have originally been a djinn. Over time and several (mis)interpretations, they came to be portrayed as the figures we now know as [[genie]]s.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*The idea that Hell has Nine layers - [[Baator]] - though where Dante's layers have distinct punishments, Baator's layers are the realms of powerful lords.
**Names of significant demon/devil characters: [[Asmodeus]] - demon of Lust, '''Baalzebul''' ''(or other variants like Baalzebul, Beelzebub)'' - demon of gluttony, or '''Mammon''' - demon of avarice
*Different orders of Angels, or angel analogues such as [[Genie]]s (or djinn, as they were originally called in Islamic tradition)
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====Gnosticism====
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A wide family of dualistic beliefs and religious systems that formed around early Christian and Jewish sects that were influnced by Neoplatonism, Persian ideas, and Buddhism (maybe). The main belief of Gnosticism was that the material world was created by a Demiurge, who may or may not be the God of the Old Testament, is flawed/evil and the only way to be saved/ascend from earthly constraints is by obtaining ''Gnosis'', personal spiritual knowledge given by the hidden, supreme God pertaining to humanity's divine nature. This spiritual knowledge was emphasized by all gnostic faiths and was held superior to any teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions.

Gnosticism is by and large unknown to most people, with Christianity and Islam having largely wiped it out, with only Mandaeism and the [[China|Chinese]] branch of Manicheanism having survived of the original Gnostic religions. Modern gnostic religions tend to be more reconstructionist rather than revivalist. It has influenced several fantasy settings, like [[Kult]], [[The Elder Scrolls]] and both of the [[World of Darkness]] Mage games.
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===Arthurian Mythology===
The story of a boy who becomes king of England and his knights. Arthurian lore is unusual among mythology in that historians actually know the names and history of the authors who created most of it. This doesn't make it any more consistent, in-fact even authors directly continuing existing stories couldn't be assed to keep basic things consistent. The issue has to do with Arthur's story being used by every ambitious bard to introduce their own [[Original character, do not steal|OC]] Knight of the Round Table and why theirs is the best of the bunch, as well as many of Britain's monarchs adjusting his story for their own political gain.

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

For the closest thing to an official "canon" for Arthurian literature, it officially begins with Geoffrey Monmouth's ''The History of the Kings of Britain'', with some of the more prominent stories including ''Le Morte D'Arthur,'' ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,'' ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail,'' etc. There are much older, Welsh-based stories, but these little resemble the Medieval stories modern pop culture is more familiar with, and as such only fodder for ''actual'' historians.

(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. Plebs normally don't know that he's actually Arthur's nephew by his sister, as well as being the eldest of FOUR other Knights of the Round, including the infamous Mordred (Agravain, Gaheris, and Gareth). Due to this little-remembered fact, he's ''technically'' Arthur's heir, as Arthur and Guinevere had no (surviving -- the Welsh side of the mythos is iffy about this) children.
**Galahad: Lancelot's son (by his wife Elaine, not Guinevere). [[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/Cai: 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. Had either fire magic or ''[[Awesome|blood and temper so hot that it burned his enemies]]'', depending on translation and story.
**Tristan: Similar to Lancelot, it's assumed he was integrated into Arthurian mythos, but unlike him Tristan had an existing legend attached to him. In it, he was sent by his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, to bring back the maiden Isolde for him to marry. A love potion mishap caused Tristan and Isolde to fall in love with each other instead, and the tragic love affair that followed cost them their lives.
**'''Bors''': A name shared by two Knights, the father and son. Bors the Elder was a fellow king who got ganked when Arthur arrived to late to help him against Frankish invaders. Bors the Younger is actually Lancelot's ''cousin'', and was indeed raised in the same household before returning to Camelot. He was known by a knarly scar, and was one of the three Knights to have actually seen the Holy Grail, and the only one to return from the quest (as Percival and Galahad die in the Holy Land) to tell the tale, and what's more, the only one to survive Mordred's shenanigans, making him heir to the Camelot (as Arthur was a distant cousin).
**Bedivere: The Knight who returned Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake after Arthur's death.
**Mordred: Most commonly depicted as Arthur's bastard son with his half-sister (who may or may not be Morgan le Fay depending on the story) or possibly his aunt, but like a lot of things in Arthur Mythos his background is inconsistent as hell. The most consistent part is that he starts a rebellion against Arthur, and in their final battle he mortally wounds Arthur but is killed himself.
*Merlin: Arthur's wizard and mentor, as well as the template for almost every other wizard in fantasy fiction since the genre was a thing. Works vary wildly on how benevolent he is and how he got his powers. Originally named Myrddin, but that sounded too close to "shit" for audiences that knew French, which was a lot of people at the time, so it was changed. Since having a super OP wizard as a buddy would make things too easy for Arthur, some stories have him trapped by Morgan's apprentice Vivian or the Lady of the Lake so that Merlin can't warn Arthur of his impending doom.
*Morgan le Fay: Merlin's opposite number. Sometimes Arthur's half-sister because fuck consistency. Depending on the story, she is either an ally or an enemy of Arthur.
*Guinevere: Arthur's wife. Falls for Lancelot shortly after they meet, and somehow their affair goes unnoticed until exposed by Morgan le Fay and Mordred. Early Medieval Welsh stories have her provide Arthur ''at least'' two sons (who both die sadly), but Medieval Romances have her basically childless.
*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.
*Uther Pendragon: Arthur's father, prominent in Welsh versions of the story. In this cut, the Lady of the Lake gives Excalibur to Merlin, who in turn uses it to make Uther king. But Uther lusts after another lord's wife and asks Merlin to play magic wingman. Merlin does so, but expresses his disappointment in Uther by taking back Excalibur and driving it into the stone. Uther sires a bastard in the encounter (Arthur) who is mentored by Merlin and Sir Kay to become the good king Uther wasn't.
*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 Artifacts:'''
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.
* '''Rhongomyniad''': Arthur's ''other'' legendary weapon, an otherwise normal spear/lance that Arthur just so happened to use really ''really'' well in ganking other people.
* '''Carnwennan''': Arthur's sacred dagger. One of the three things given to him by God, its main feat is how it ''apparently'' sliced a witch clean in two, though in other tales it was also used to slay a giant.
* '''Prydwen''': King Arthur's ship in early Welsh myth, before Geoffrey of Monmouth decided ''for some reason'' that it was Arthur's '''shield''' . Welsh stories have since suggest that it can be '''both''', which is why F/GO ran with and made it a ''surfboard'' ...
*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: 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.
*Camelot: Arthur's castle and more broadly the domain it protects. A bastion of justice and compassion and ham and spam in the fundamentally unjust and cruel times of the Dark Ages. Camelot doesn't have any pretensions of trying to restore the fallen republics of antiquity, but it does strive to be a god-fearing, Christian kingdom despite being surrounded by warbands and fey worshipers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''Most notable villains in media adaptions:'''
*Zeus (in his more negative depictions): Zeus is also known as a serial philanderer/rapist, having slept with plenty of mortal women, nymphs, and goddesses just because he could (and sometimes doing so while shapeshifted into another form: among others, he's been a goose, a bull, and a shower of gold, don't ask how the last one works) and has created as many problems as he has solutions. One could also cast Zeus as being dickish and a control freak as the ultimate authority of Olympus, like when he had Prometheus bound and tortured for giving fire to humanity.
*Hades: A rather glaring case of typecasting, despite being the god of the dead Hades isn't actually as much of a villain as popular media casts him. In truth he's a rather decent fellow, if a bit on the gloomy side. Perhaps the most glaring of crimes he's done is the matter of kidnapping Demeter's daughter Persephone (guess who her father is; go on, guess) 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 looks even better when you bear in mind that Persephone didn't object; and for that matter neither did Zeus, which brings us to...
*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 (gods and otherwise).
*The Titans: See below as to why they hate the gods. They tend to be quite cross about it, and eager for revenge.
*Ares: God of War, who constantly feeds upon it. Thus, any matter of peace is bound to be disrupted.
*The various offspring of Echidna: Echidna is a monstrous [[lamia]] goddess who is known to have birthed many monsters, chief among them Cerberus (guardian to the gates of Hades), the Lernian [[Hydra]], and the Nemean Lion (which Hercules slays)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Furthermore, every deity is but a single aspect of the ''Brahman'', the transcendent Godhead from which all other things derive from. It cannot be understood directly, but by adhering to one's dharma (their duties in life) and working off karma over many lifetimes a human can attain ''moksha''- freedom from samsara and eternal communion with the Brahman.

Other related religions of course have different beliefs from the Hindu myths. Jainism doesn't have a creation myth, believing that the universe has simply always existed and will exist. Buddhism says that the universes come into being and dissolve in cycles lasting billions of years by themselves.
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====The Buddha====
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''' The Buddha''' is title used to refer to the religious teacher and founder of Buddhism, '''Siddhartha Gautama''', who lived somewhere around 563-400 BCE. Siddhartha was born in modern day city of Lumbini to an aristocratic family, his father being the elected head of the Shakya Clan in what's now modern day India and Nepal. Upon his birth, the local Brahmin came to read his future and told his father that he would become either a great king or a great religious teacher, with the first being guaranteed so long as the young Siddhartha never saw human suffering. This of course didn't work, and so Siddhartha came upon a sick man, then an old man, then a corpse, and finally an ascetic. These sights and his discussion with the ascetic eventually lead him to abandon his parents, wife, and child, and become a wandering ascetic himself, to find a way to stop suffering.

During this time he took up yogic meditation, but abandoned it as it didn't help him. He then took up ascetic practices, going to the point his bones showed through his skin, giving them up when he realized all it was doing was just making him weaker. After all this, he decided to meditate and contemplate under a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi_Tree Bodhi Tree] in Bodh Gaya, and after 10 days, he achieved liberation from the cycle of reincarnation and gained knowledge on how others could achieve it by letting go of their desires. He then spent the rest of his life teaching others and holding sermons, reunited with his family, and established the first monastic orders and communities. Though his date of death is disputed, it is said that he died at the age of 80, in what is the modern day town of Kushinagar.
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===Japanese Mythology===
Japanese laymen don't really bother separating their religions, taking up whatever is convenient or trendy at a particular phase in their life, and thus the major religions (Shinto, Buddhism), some more minor ones, and various folk heroes exist simultaneously. Rarely touched by non-Japanese works that aren't the pantheon for [[Japan]] analogues.

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

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

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

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

'''Historical People Shrouded in Myth'''
*Emperor Jimmu: [[God-Emperor of Mankind|THE GOD EMPEROR OF JAPAN]] as well as the first Emperor and the descendants of Goddess Amaterasu. Most of his records were old and depict him as a warrior hero-god character accompanied by Yatagarasu, a three-legged crow and wielding a longbow. He died at the age of 126 and has little to no worshipers in modern-day other than having at least a shrine and grave.
*Abe no Seimei: A court magician who lived between 921 and 1005. Fiction tends to make him an actual wizard.
*Himiko: Queen of Japan around 200 AD. Chinese records make it clear she existed but very little is known about her.
*Masakado: Samurai who led a brief rebellion in 940. He's considered the god of Tokyo. His shrine/grave occupies some of the most expensive real estates in the world, as it is thought that neglecting his shrine will cause his angry spirit to bring disaster upon Tokyo.
** Takiyasha Hime: His daughter. Fiction makes her a sorcerer with a toad [[Familiar]]. Possibly entirely fictional.
*Tomoe Gozen: A female [[Samurai]] that actually fought in battle in 1184. Famously known for being strong enough to pop men's heads off like corks when she headlocked them.
*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===
See the [[Norse Mythology]] page.

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

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

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

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

*'''Bermuda Triangle''' - A triangular region in the gulf of Mexico with Bermuda island, Puerto 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 than the Bermuda Triangle, but frequently mentioned in connection with the Triangle as well. The most famous "Ghost ship" other then the ''Mary Celeste''; unlike the ''Celeste'', the ''Dutchman'' was only reported to have been seen, but never boarded. The ''Dutchman'' was supposedly an omen of doom, but given that in order to see a ship that isn't there you'd probably have to be in very poor visibility conditions, this reputation has an obvious explanation.
*'''Bloody Mary''' - It is said to be a malevolent spirit who if you call its name "Bloody Mary" in front of a mirror three times, she will come and do something horrible to you. A pretty stupid game often participate by very small children and idiots.
*'''Cryptids''' - Various creatures of folklore that, other then being fucked up looking, are actually plausible animals of one sort or another. Some have been substantiated, but most are just fake or distorted stories of other, known animals (as is speculated having happened with the [[Unicorn]] and Rhinoceros). Such creatures include:
**'''Bigfoot''' - Also known as Sasquatch. It is some sort of ape/man creature, named after its big foot print on the ground. Its sighting are mostly around the Pacific Northwest.
**'''Chupacabra''' - A small bear size monster who likes to suck a goat's blood dry. First spotted in Puerto Rico, where it killed 8 sheep, it is said that its influence has spread across Latin America. Allegedly, the idea of the chupacabra was just stolen from the movie Species.
**'''Drop Bear''' - Australian joke: Take a Koala, and pretend it's an ambush predator who kills by jumping on its prey, with a taste for human flesh. While clearly originating as a joke, unlike most "real" cryptids, the concept has been used straight in several contexts in fantasy works. As if Australia's actual dangerous animals weren't enough.
**'''Jackalope''' - A rabbit with antelope horns. Possibly based on sightings of rabbits with Shope papilloma virus, which causes infected hosts to grow horn-like tumors. The most popular version seems to have originated as a 12-year-old taxidermist's idea of a joke.
**'''Jersey Devil''' - Weird monster supposedly lurking in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, thus making it the most interesting thing in the state.
**'''Loch Ness Monster''' - A long necked sea creature that allegedly lives in Loch Ness in the Scottish highlands. Presumably to be Mauisaurus, a pre-historical sea dinosaur who shares the similar long neck appearance.
**'''Mokele-mbembe''' - A weird African swimming beast with reptilian traits. Widely believed to be either a rhinoceros or a hippopotamus (the latter of which are responsible for killing more people per year than any other animal in Africa) though some have claimed it's a rediscovered dinosaur - a sauropod specifically, as numerous descriptions ascribe it a long neck alongside reptilian features.
**'''Mothman''' - There were a bunch of West Virginia sightings of a "Man with Wings". Later got overhyped as having supernatural powers, and associated in some way with a local bridge collapse when writers looking to cash in got involved. Side note: Most descriptions from the early, pre-overhype encounter match a unusually large crane.
**'''Rods/Sky Fish''' - Extraterrestrial lifeforms that move at an unseen speed that can only be caught by camera. Although there are many evidences and studies that could disprove its existence, it does not stop certain cryptozoologists or manga artists from fantasizing about it. One evidence suggests it might be just elongated visual artifacts appearing in photographic images and video recordings. Other insects like moths are mistakenly caught on camera and assumed to be them. It helps that there were no actual dissections of the creatures, and most of the videos about catching it are fake and exist for pure entertainment. In some fiction, e.g. [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]], they are portrayed as vaguely creatures with actual limbs and organs that feed on temperature and have the power to KILL or disable a person by absorbing the body heat from their vital organs.
**'''Tsuchinoko''' - Also known as "child of hammer", "child of dirt" or "bachi hebi" in Northeastern Japan, it is a snake that is 30 and 80 cm long, has a thin head and tail, and a wide girth in between. It was referenced in Kojiki (古事記) "Records of Ancient Matters" meaning it might have existed at some point in ancient Japan. [[Skub|Others would argue]] that it could be a type of slug who's features became exaggerated over thousands of years, an extinct 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. Takes its name from the much larger surrounding military reservation which is divided up into similarly numbered areas where the government plays with its most [[Ordinatus|Orky toys]]. Though the existence 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.
**'''Men in Black / Majestic-12''' - Another component that's common to UFO conspiracies is a secret branch of the government dedicated to keeping the public in the dark about the existence of aliens. Some stories of the Men in Black instead suggest they're aliens impersonating human government agents to keep the stories quiet. The urban legend version is significantly scarier and more malevolent than their movie counterparts, but a bit ''less'' malevolent than those in the comics the movies were adapted from. The only known evidence of their existence was long since proven to be a forgery.
*'''Jack the Ripper''' - Also known by the London old media as the "Leather Apron", ol' Jack was a real life serial killer in London during 1[[Khorne|888]]. Since he was never caught and the number of victims can't be verified - five are specifically attributed to him - his identity remains a mystery and he is therefore held as the greatest serial killer. Known for mutilating his victim in the most precise manner and the mocking letters he wrote to the police (which are still held in Scotland Yard). He was even suspected to be a woman, with new nicknames such as "Jill the Ripper" added to the long list of nicknames. Since nothing physical is known about the killer, fiction is free to attribute supernatural origin (such as a possessed human or being a monster outright) or that the killer's vileness resulted in transformation into some kind of monster. Making the killer supernatural allows it to be divorced from its time period.
** Various other uncaught serial killers can get this sort of treatment, but to a much lower degree, with the notable exception of the Zodiac Killer, who shared Jack's media savvy.
* '''D. B. Cooper''' - Short version: Guy Hijacks a commercial airplane, demands $200,000 ($1.28 Million in today's money) and four parachutes, gets them, jumps out of the plane over state park, and is never seen again. Long version: [[wikipedia:D. B. Cooper|Wikipedia is your friend]].
* '''John Henry''' - A black manual laborer who raced against his industrialized replacement and won, but died from exhaustion at the end. Even if it was loosely based on a real story, any accounts of a real John Henry existing have been lost to history.
** '''Casey Jones''' - Unlike Henry, Jones was definitely a [[wikipedia:Casey Jones|real life train conductor]] who died saving the lives of his passengers. One of his assistants wrote a song defending Jones' reputation<ref>There was some argument at the time that Jones should have seen the signal indicating a possible collision, but the night was foggy, and both signal lights and signalmen could be unreliable.</ref> that got very popular shortly thereafter, and soon turned into a popular figure around which a mythology developed.
*'''Kiyotaki tunnel''' - A haunted tunnel in Japan said to be built by slaves in 1927. It is said to have an unfortunate length of 444 meters 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 of the tunnel suddenly changing color and causing car accidents. The tunnel is frequently referenced by horror manga and anime where it is portrayed as a tunnel full of tormented spirits, dragging other passing travellers in to suffer with them.
*'''Radioactive Deer''' - Although decades have passed since the accident, the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant remains one of the most contaminated places on Earth. Every wildfire or severe storm that hits the area will inevitably spawn several days of doomsday fear-mongering from the press about nuclear tornadoes or toxic milk. Some recent horror stories have begun to weave the Slavic legend of Baba Yaga, the monstrous child-eating crone of the woods, into the story of the ruins of Pripyat.
*'''Slender Man''' - A fictional character that originated as an Internet meme created by [[Something Awful]] forums user Victor Surge in 2009. It is depicted as resembling a thin, unnaturally tall man with a blank and usually featureless face and wearing a black suit. The Slender Man is commonly said to stalk, abduct, or traumatize people, particularly children. The Slender Man is not tied to any particular story, but appears in many disparate works of fiction, mostly composed online, with the most famous being a series known as "Marble Hornets". Also famous for inspiring two girls to nearly murder their classmate in order to become his "proxies".

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

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

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

==Footnotes==

[[Category:History]]

2d4chan:General disclaimer

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Formatting Guidelines

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[[Image:Awesome.png|thumb|right|Relevant image goes here.]] The '''Formatting Guidelines''' detail how you should style proper content pages. Introductory paragraph goes here.

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Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar

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<center>

{|class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed table" style="border:2px solid black;padding:0.5em;"
|-
! colspan=3 | Playable Factions in [[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar]]
|- style="background-color:#eeeeee"
! align=center | '''Order'''
| {{flatlist
| [[Cities of Sigmar]]
| [[Daughters of Khaine]]
| [[Fyreslayers]]
| [[Idoneth Deepkin]]
| [[Kharadron Overlords]]
| [[Lumineth Realm-Lords]]
| [[Lizardmen|Seraphon]]|
| [[Stormcast Eternals]]
| [[Sylvaneth]]
}}
|- style="background-color:#fbfbfb"
! align=center | [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos|Chaos]]
| {{flatlist
| [[Beasts Of Chaos]]
| [[Blades of Khorne]]
| [[Tzeentch|Disciples of Tzeentch]]
| [[Chaos Dwarfs|Legion of Azgorh]]
| [[Nurgle|Maggotkin of Nurgle]]
| [[Hedonites of Slaanesh]]
| [[Slaves to Darkness]]
| [[Skaven]]
}}
|- style="background-color:#eeeeee"
! align=center | [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Death|Death]]
| {{flatlist
| [[Flesh-Eater Courts]]
| [[Nighthaunt]]
| [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]]
| [[Soulblight Gravelords]]
|
}}
|-style="background-color:#fbfbfb"
! align=center | [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Destruction|Destruction]]
| {{flatlist
| [[Gloomspite Gitz]] ([[Night Goblins|Moonclan]] - [[Forest Goblins|Spiderfang]] - [[Troll#Warhammer Fantasy|Troggoths]])
| [[Orruk Warclans]] ([[Bonesplitterz]] - [[Ironjawz]] - [[Kruleboyz Orruks]])
| [[Ogor Mawtribes]]
| [[Sons of Behemat]]
}}
|}
</center>

[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]
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Template:Nighthaunt-Units

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<center>
{|class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed table" border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em; border: 2px solid black;"
|-
!align=center colspan=4 bgcolor="#008080" | <span style="color:Dark Blue"> [[Nighthaunt]] Units </span>
|-
| align=right|'''Leaders:''' || [[Cairn Wraith]] - [[Dreadblade Harrow]] - [[Guardian of Souls]] - [[Knight of Shrouds]] - [[Krulghast Cruciator]] - [[Lord Executioner]] - [[Scriptor Mortis]] - [[Spirit Torment]] - [[Tomb Banshee]]
|-
| align=right|'''Troops:''' || [[Bladegheist Revenant]] - [[Chainrasp]] - [[Craventhrone Guard]] - [[Dreadscythe Harridan]] - [[Glaivewraith Stalker]] - [[Grimghast Reaper]] - [[Myrmourn Banshee]] - [[Black Coach]] - [[Hexwraiths]] - [[Spirit Host]]
|}
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Monster Girl Encyclopedia

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{{Promotions}}
{{Monstergirls}}
The '''Monster Girl Encyclopedia''' is a Japanese [[NSFW]] encyclopedia written and impressively illustrated by Kenkou Cross that fleshes out his [[monstergirl]]-focused setting. The entries are written in the style of a [[Monster Manual]], but without any [[crunch|stats]]. The artwork is great (if somewhat [[skub|contentious]]). Some of the premises are as interesting as they are [[/d/|"enjoyable"]].

So what's the problem?

Well, while everyone more or less likes the entries themselves, the setting around them is pure [[skub]], built on a mixture of fetishized [[rape]] and [[loli|other such sketchiness]], along with the sort of unintentional [[grimdark]] only a [[/d/M]] [[Magical Realm|building a world entirely for his penis to the exclusion of all other cocks]] could create. That didn't stop it from getting an English-translated hardcover first volume printed thanks to [[Life With Monstergirls]]. Time will tell if that was a mistake or not.

The first encyclopedia is written from the perspective of a human, a nameless Wandering Scholar. The second one is written by Saphirette Spherica, a formerly human monster girl. Whether or not this change in author actually results in a change in editorial viewpoint is... debatable. Kenkou Cross has tried to claim that the first paints the monsters in a harsher light due to faulty information, and the second in a more favorable light thanks to being written by one, but considering the first volume has nary a good thing to say about the monsters' enemies, stops just shy of all-but urging the reader to go fuck a monster right now, and is actually revealed to be cursed by a succubus at the end, well... doesn't really hold water upon any kind of inspection. Not to mention the idea that the monstergirl would not be biased in her writing is inherently stupid.

But, we're getting ahead of ourselves...

==The Setting==
To understand what happens, you must know of one thing: Dragon Quest. The first three NES games were to the Japanese RPG what DOOM was to first-person shooters, or Street Fighter II to fighting games. One of the concepts it popularized was the 「魔王」 ''Maou'' (or Ma-Oh or however you wanna spell it)<ref>The word Maou comes from Buddhism, and was originally used in modern Fantasy in the Japanese version of [[The Lord of the Rings]], as a translation of "Witch-King".</ref>, a.k.a. the Great Demon King. The BBEG of BBEGs for your stereotypical Japanese European Fantasy. Demons, Monsters, and even wild animals bow to their will, and will become more aggressive and hostile; many JRPGs will have somebody in the first town complaining about an increase in monster attacks, this dude is why; and their will is typically the conquest and/or destruction of Humanity, and they're usually not fond of Elves (with the usual exception of Dark Elves) or Dwarfs either. This usually leads to a war and a lone Hero who must gather their allies, journey to the Demon King's/Maou's castle, and slay them to bring peace to the land once more. This setup has been played straight, twisted, parodied, inverted, subverted and perverted in nearly every possible way in the thirty or so years since Dragon Quest came out. So here we go again...

A brief summary is pretty simple. A Succubus has overthrown the previous Demon King/Monster Lord and taken the throne for herself along with a new title; The Maou. Unlike the Demon Kings/Maou's of Dragon Quest, she doesn't have any particular hate-boner against Humanity, quite the opposite in fact, as she has fallen in love with us (and one Hero in particular). She sees Humanity and Monsters as equals and wants to end the cycle of violence between them. Her plan for peace is quite unique: transforming all Monsters into lusty succubus-based hybrids females, and setting them out to score themselves Human husbands. Peace through mutually-ensured copulation, you might say. These new [[Monstergirls]] are collectively called ''Mamano'', and have a bevy of additional abilities to aid them in their quest for love that read off like a [[Powergamer|munchkin-Bard's]] character-sheet [[Diplomancer|built for maximum dickplomancing.]] Greatly enhanced empathy to the point of being a pseudo-empath or low-level telepath, [[Detect Evil|an instinctual aversion to evil and wicked people]], a voracious species-wide instinct for romantic AND carnal love, a libido that is as high as the heavens, an innate knowledge of the art of sexual activity, ambient mana-emission that not only changes the environment into something easier to live in but also enhances the constitution (read: libido), body, and health of the Man who bonds to them through their mana, and of course; a rocking 10/10 body and positively heavenly assets that would not be out of place in a Hentai, which is good considering that this IS a work of Hentai.

By the era the Encyclopedia is written in she has completely succeeded in converting every variety of monster in existence into Monstergirls (apart from some [[:/d/|completely inhuman and debatably sapient tentacle monsters]]). She has also completed various humanitarian (monsteritarian?) efforts, most notably in the field of longevity so all the Human husbands don't end up dead centuries before their wives. Her long-term plans are to convert all Human women into Monstergirls and make it possible for Human Sons to be born from Monstergirls, essentially merging the two races wholly into one, with Human Men being the Males and Mamano being the Females.

Human civilization is largely theocratic and [[Medieval Stasis|low-tech]]. The average [[commoner]] is ignorant to the changes the world has gone through and still thinks Monsters want to eat them. The elites of Human society are well aware of Monstergirls but despise them for religious reasons. Human armies; when they are not busy LARPing [[Crusader Kings#Crusader_Kings_II|Crusader Kings II]]; are in a constant state of warfare with Monsters, and they're usually getting their asses kicked, [[Noblebright|as few men can muster themselves up to the level of cold-blooded sociopathy that is required to murder]] a [[Waifu|beautiful woman who earnestly and obviously truthfully professes their love for them.]] The Monster army loses more soldiers to them suddenly going on a AWOL honeymoon with their newly deserted/kidnapped husband than actual casualties. The tendency of the Human Kingdoms to utilize female soldiers and Heroes (as would be expected of such an anime-dosed setting) doesn't help, as Mamano "weapons"; which are almost always non-lethal; are designed to infuse the target with demonic energy, which usually renders them either cripplingly horny, temporarily paralyzed in the body part hit, or unconscious. Human women infused with demonic energy in this way will inevitably turn into more Monstergirls ([[Succubi]] by default unless there is non-generic demonic energy around), and several Monsters ''already'' have ways of doing that, like [[Werewolves]] and the various species of [[Slime|Slimes]]. The culture of the kingdoms are completely intolerant even of formerly-human Mamano, so the turned girls have to throw their lot in with the Demon Realms or Monster-aligned states, with the result being that the Human Kingdoms invariably hemorrhage troops in the many brief conflicts with the Mamano either due to them becoming husbands or being monsterized themselves.

Now why do the proud [[Imperial Guard|guardsmen]] ditch their duty at [[Extra Heresy|the drop of some monster-pussy]]? Because their societies are medieval shit-holes run by the exact kind of people you would expect to run such shit-holes, with a highly regimented and repressive caste system like culture that demonizes (ha!) and shames any sexual activity in general, and forbids relationships that either transcend social rank (e.g. a Lady Knight & a Male Commoner) or happen outside the permissions of an arranged marriage (e.g. Princess not wanting to be married off to Lord Farquaad). Just about everything in these societies is centered solely around extensive duties to the greater Order of the Chief God church or to the kingdom; and quite often those duties are one and the same with how entrenched and dependent on the Order the Human Kingdoms are, assuming of course that the Order just doesn't dispense with the pretenses and outright openly rules the kingdom. Essentially, Orderite Kingdom society boils down to nothing but work, duty, and sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom/Order, and you had better not step out of your assigned role in that society or else.

The real kicker though? The God that the primary religious order among humanity worships; The Chief God; does not hold humanity's best interests at heart. The Chief God wishes to undo the aforementioned transformation of the Mamano, and turn them back into murderous and decidedly not-sexy monsters that only desire to kill humans. Why? Because the previous cycle of violence and death that churned on through countless Heroes and Demon Kings of old was entirely controlled by the Chief God, who used it keep humanity dependent upon it. The rebellion of the current Maou is very much NOT part of its plans, and a return to the previous system of cyclical Demon Kings and Heroes would turn the world into a [[Grimdark]] nightmare on-par with [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Few know of the Chief God's true aims, with the vast majority of humanity and possibly the other gods remaining ignorant of their head god's malevolence, but it is implied that the very pinnacle of the religious leaders are aware; and supportive; of the true plan. The Chief God's side is not in anyway the [[Alpha Legion|"secret good-guys"]] of the story, [[Erebus|they are only fanatical sociopathic control-freaks who cannot tolerate the idea of someone living a happy life outside of their control.]]

Mamano societies and aligned Human states; by comparison to the Orderite Kingdoms run by an evil cabal of pseudo-Shinto-Catholic/Jesuit-[[/pol/|Jew]]-hybrids; are far more free and prosperous cultures that thrive off of love and romance, being essentially societies set up for the maximum enjoyment and success of romantic couples. With the many cheat codes that abound within Mamano biology as described above combined with the practically do-anything nature of demonic energy, these places are genuinely enjoyable and incredibly easy to live in, being essentially utopias; examples include a Venice-like city of [[Merfolk|Mermaids]] and other aquatic Mamano, and a Dragon kingdom that lives off of tourism (all Mamano societies seem to extensively focus on tourism, but this one seems to live off of it). So when it comes down to living in either a grimdark [[Monty Python|Monty-Python-tier]] parody of a medieval society, or living in a literal utopia with abundant [[Waifu|waifus]], it's really not that surprising that most choose the latter.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst up to several Monstergirl wives. It is to live in the lewdest and most erotic regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of abstinence and innocence, for many have been ravished, never to be divorced. Forget the promise of virginity and being single, for in the [[Grimbright|grim]] and [[Nobledark|noble]] past there is only [[Rape|true love]]. [[Noblebright|There are no bad ends amongst the Monstergirls, only an eternity of honeymoons and lust]], and the shlicking of thirsty goddesses.

==The Factions==
===Monster Lord===
The aforementioned Big Chief Succubus, her human husband, their daughters, and pretty much every freaking mamono in the world. Want to bring about peace between humans and monsters by making human man/monstergirl relationships the norm of the world. To be fair, though, the vast majority of "normal" mamono don't really have a lot of ideological indoctrination so much as help her goals by trying to find someone to slip 'em the d - the Monster Lord basically leeches off of their "mamono mana", which increases when they fuck, to boost her own strength.

Thanks to [[Mary Sue|blatant creator favoritism]], the Monster Lord has so many ludicrously-overblown advantages piled up on her side it's honestly more incredible she hasn't instantly won the conflict seconds after starting it. And the fact that her ideal world would look like ''Brave New World'' as run by a particularly sick combination of [[Nurgle]] and [[Slaanesh]] is something of a turn-off for a lot of readers. Seriously, go read [[Chakat|this page]], mentally find and replace all the furry stuff with this-setting stuff, and see how accurate all the descriptions still are.

Part of her eventual endgame involves causing monsters to have male human children, in addition to their own female offspring(so far, monstergirls can only birth other monstergirls, one of the few hiccups in her plan). Again, most monsters have no interest in actively conquering human lands so complete assimilation of humans into the "new humanity consisting of incubi and monster girls" will, probably, take a while. It's been a few centuries now and things are still in a relative stalemate, though every once in a while something dramatic happens, especially since lately one of her daughters, Derulla, has taken it upon herself to probe the human kingdoms for weak links, and has already destroyed the nation of Lescatier by exploiting its internal flaws and transforming its various heroines into ravenous and evangelical monster girls by exploiting their neuroses.

====Sabbath====
A sub-faction under the Monster Lord's banner, led by baphomet mamono and primarily staffed by cults of witches, many of whom joined for "eternal youth" without reading the side effects too closely. This group is comprised entirely of [[loli]] mamono and is dedicated to spreading lolidom (in both senses of the word) over the world. Or, in other words, they want to convert women into loli mamono, convert non-loli mamono into loli form, and convert human men into "Big Brothers" (lolicons). They're the monster's primary source of R&D for various weird and sexy inventions. While each branch of the Sabbath is run by a baphomet, the organization as a whole is led by the strongest baphomet of all. This same baphomet also leads the Mamono Lord's army and holds considerable influence in the world of monsters. Surprisingly, she is noted to still be single, perhaps because baphomet normally only marry men who can beat them in battle, but more-probably so the lolicons in the audience can still hold onto hope of tappin' dat semi-jailbait ass.

====Zipangu====
The not!Japan of the setting, not technically loyal to the Monster Lord but still held up as the shining example of what she wants to achieve, with humans and monstergirls living together relatively peacefully, though often with monsters dominating humanity in the bargain. Would be [[Mary Sue]] if they had a bigger role in the world instead of being in the ass end of nowhere, but what do you expect when the creator is Japanese? Often a source of various "[[weeaboo|Eastern]]" versions of already-released mamono. Whether this is a bad thing really depends on your perspective, as well as the degree to which they successfully differentiate themselves from their predecessors.

Supposedly has clans of exorcists who fight monsters with about the same success as the Order, but are tolerated since some vicious monsters really do need clearing out.

====The Land of Mists====
Like Zipangu, only not!Chinese instead of not!Japanese.

===Pandemonium===
A faction operating out of a timeless demiplane. Allied to a high tier god called "the Fallen God", they're basically extremists on the Monster Lord's plan who seek to convert men and women to go to a dimension (Pandemonium) that consists essentially of one eternal, never-ending orgy. KC only made three profiles for this faction - the Dark Angel, Dark Valkyries and the Dark Priest - and often doesn't touch it for ages between profiles, probably because they tended to be the biggest fuel for the "anti-mamono interpretation" of the setting in the early days due to the rather limited lifestyle they subject their converts to. Hilariously, compared to the Monster Lord, they're practically vanilla: since none of them seem to go in for rape when "conversion" is much more fun. Moreover, since they have their own dimension, they aren't all that interested in altering the rest of the world, instead seeking converts to leave with them for Pandemonium.

Of course, the featured Fallen God-aligned maiden in Lescatier went and raped a couple little girl orphans she'd been caring for immediately after converting to its worship (with some prodding by Derulla), then pimped out all the other orphan children to random perverts in the street, so maybe not ''as'' vanilla as many would like...

===The Gods===
The original masters of the world, led by a Chief God, who was gravely injured by the Monster Lord and her husband while trying to kill them both to stop their plans. Currently split between those who support the Monster Lord's plan and those who support the Chief God in trying to slay the Monster Lord and return things to the original cycle. Mentioned goddesses in the first faction include Poseidon, Eros, Ares, and Dionysus. Hilariously, [[Derp|the English translations refer to every single god thus far as a goddess, and most of them are named after a deity that was originally male]].

In all honesty, some fans find the Chief God (who isn't the ''original'' Chief God) far more sympathetic than the Monster Lord. Yes, she wants to bring back the old cycle, which is bad, but otherwise she doesn't really work as a villain and is written too sympathetically to be truly hateable. KC has admitted that she was a rookie, and she ''knows'' this and that she's over her head. She's still hurt from a thwarted attempt at smiting the current Monster Lord and her husband, and she has no idea what she's doing, but she's trying to do a good job and set things "right" as far as she understands it, because that's what's expected of her. She's so ineffectual as an antagonist, especially with how stacked things are in the Monster Lord's favor, that some fans want to comfort her rather than see her lose.

To try and counter this, KC has put out new lore that it's officially fact that the Chief God will accept nothing less than the restoration of the old cycle, and doing so will result in countless grisly deaths as every former-mamono reverts to a man-eating monster and devours her spouse. Unfortunately, rather than instantly silence his critics, it has only made the setting look like a [[Grimdark|"you're fucked either way"]] sort of deal. (Pun semi-intended.)

====The Order====
The chief religion of the setting and a fairly standard [[weeaboo]] take on Medieval semi-Christianity. Dedicated to the Chief God first and foremost, their duty is to ensure humanity lives safe, moral lives. To this end, they train divinely-empowered Heroes to go out and fight monsters. It's kind of unclear as to whether they don't know that the new Monster Lord wants to end the cycle, if they even know there ''is'' a cycle, or if they know everything and are deliberately lying to the general populace so they still believe that all mamono want to kill and eat them. The Wandering Scholar is worried he'll be killed if they catch him, and the original Encyclopedia had a warning about people being punished for being caught with it, but, well... remember how it ends with a call to arms for everyone to go out and become or fuck a monster, then with a ''second'' reveal that it's actually a cursed book that's either turned you into a monster or sent you off to stick your dick in the nearest one?

A lot of fans like to portray them as essentially a fantasy take on the [[Imperium of Man]], but, really, that particular interpretation doesn't hold much water. If nothing else they aren't racist, having been on excellent terms with a number of non-human races before current events left humankind alone. Shit, settings material outright states that monsters are always ''happy'' when the Order comes crusadin', because it means they're about to enjoy the fantasy equivalent of a massive speed dating party. Due to the very nature of their teachings, the Order's men are such good people that most of them can't bring themselves to actually hurt a mamono when they meet one. Consequently, mamono consider Order men damn fine husbando material, and are eager to capture and "convert" them when they show up.

There are Order soldiers and heroes who will kill monsters readily of course, but given monsters will still fight and even kill to defend themselves it's dangerous work. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on one's perspective), the goddess of war protects both side of the war, and getting killed in battle is rare, so lots of beaten knights just end up getting convinced "[[rape| the hard way]]" after a fight.

==(Unintentional) Grimdarkness==
{{cleanup}}
The original Chief God created humans, but was worried about overpopulation for reasons. So it created monsters to slaughter humans in sufficient numbers to cull them, before eventually creating the program of the Heroes and the Monster Lord: the Heroes get empowered when humans are too weak to disrupt the monsters' attack by killing their demigod leader, the Monster Lord, throwing monsterkind into disarray so that humanity has time to recover, and then eventually a new Monster Lord rises up and starts the same shit over again once humanity is waxing in strength. Said Chief God also forced the other gods to get in on this - Poseidon supports the new Monster Lord because she's sick of having to kill people with tidal waves, storms, and sea monster attacks.

Think the new Monster Lord is any better? Only if you don't mind the fact that she's bungling her job, and so mamono have swapped "kill and eat humans" for "seduce and fuck" humans. It would be a relatively tolerable subjugation were it not the fact her stated goal is to drive human women ''extinct'' so human men '''would have to''' marry monstergirls, and so she is actively seeking to convert (physically and mentally transform) all women into mamono. Someone teach that succubus about "sustainability", but we are getting ahead of ourselves. In fact, this is explicitly what happened to the Dwarves of the setting: Dwarf-scaled Succubi were readily welcomed into Dwarf society, and many years of accidental selective breeding later, the vast majority of the Dwarven population are monstergirls.

Also, a lot of the time when KC writes profiles he focuses ''so goddamn much'' on the aspect of how the men that monsters catch react sexually and how women caught by monsters end up going "Oh noes, how embarrassing, everyone can see my sexual repression!" that he forgets to ''actually write the profile'', causing several monsters to come across as significantly more horrible than he intended. Though this is still absolutely a rod this idiot has made for his own back, and he deserves your scorn rather than your pity for it.

(Significant mentions include the matango, which as written was in everyone's "least favorite" category for years, thanks to, in a reference to a classic Japanese horror picture, seeming more like a plague of mindless fuckmushrooms than a fun monster; the Mind Flayer, where he got so wrapped up in masturbating over how the mind flayer can make a woman slutty that he forgot to clarify basic facts like a man's ability to go back and forth between squid-monster form and human form and that women don't ''actually'' turn into lobotomized corpses after being fed on; and the Atlach-Nacha, which, in addition to being a [[DFC|loli]], and therefore [[heresy]], also fails to clarify that the human being they turn into their spider body can turn back in favor of going on and on about random minutiae. There are many other examples; these are merely the most infamous.)

Kenkou Cross has disagreed with observations on his setting's grimdarkness. According to him, the encyclopedia descriptions were exaggerating both the nymphomania of the monstergirls and the intentions of the Monster Lord - the unintended grimdarkness was in fact the product of shoddy translation work. As a result, he forced the most popular website supporting of his work to cease hosting translated versions of his material when a user there harassed him personally, among other reasons.

He also supposedly likes to argue that the "blame" lies squarely on his Western fandom, since they don't get the overworked-Japanese-salaryman mindset (because apparently a love of pedophilia/body horror/mindrape is a side effect of stress now?) that apparently makes his setting such a paradise. So if he didn't want it to be grimdark, he shouldn't have written himself into a corner where grimdarkness was the only logical explanation for how everything was still working. Though, admittedly, his attitude wasn't helped by Western anti-fans sending him hate-mail and death threats.

Oh, a reminder by the way: if the Chief God wins, then all those sexy monstergirls? They immediately revert back to being hideous monsters, and the mamono mindset of "love humans" will be forced to return to "kill humans" and most monsters will not be able to resist it. So a Chief God victory means restarting the original cycle, and anyone who has a mamono lover, is going to wind up being '''killed and eaten by his wife'''. And this time it isn't hyperbole, that's plain and explicit ''fact'', straight from KC -- one bit of grimdarkness he's actively promoting to make the Monster Lord seem the better choice than the old status quo.

The paradox is perhaps best exemplified by the infamous "Fallen Maidens" series, from a side book about the human kingdom of Lescatier, and a selection of unhappy heroines who got turned into monsters by a Lilim before all going after the boy they collectively like. KC's ''intent'' was to present a pallet of girls who were essentially incapable of finding happiness as humans... but, in the process, he made them deeply fucked-up people, and had them carry the scars of their fucked-up lives into their new existences as monsters. The tomboy soldier with a complex about her own womanhood thanks to her abusive mother that ran out on her family and caused her father to undergo a possibly-lethal breakdown becomes an obsessive pregnancy-fetishist who wants to force everyone to become like her and doesn't even think about her dad anymore. The half-elf with species-angst becomes a nearly-feral wolfgirl who leads "wild hunts" of forced transformation to feed her own sense of liberation-through-animalism. The two princesses, one a heroine put on an impossible pedestal and the other ignored and overlooked due to a weak constitution, find joy in almost literally screaming "fuck you got mine!" and abandoning all concern for the rest of humanity besides than her beau and in transforming into a [[/d/| massive tentacle-queen]] and turning the entire castle into her mind-controlled sex slaves, respectively. One of them does some ''extremely'' questionable things to the orphanage full of underage children that she was in charge of prior to her turning into a monstergirl. The list goes on.

TL;DR: Rather than actually finding happiness and peace, or acknowledging the ways in which their problems were all in their heads after being monsterized, the Fallen Maidens continue to unhealthily project their issues onto the world rather than healing from them, and their trauma creates such extremist monstergirls that it makes them almost impossible to like or relate to.

This is probably why later stories, set in the same continuity, heavily tone down both the wild debauchery of post-Lilim Lescatier and the severe mental issues of the post-conversion Maidens into something much more palatable.

[https://allthetropes.org "All The Tropes Wiki"] (an uncensored fork of TvTropes that hosts all the PROMOTIONS the advertising companies threw a shitfit over) theorizes the grimdark is actually intentional after all, a sort of saccharine-flavored crapsack world where the glass is only half full (as opposed to Warhammer 40k, where the glass is half empty with holes drilled along the bottom). It's not a nice place to live, rape and kidnapping are so common on the frontiers almost everyone is desensitized to it, and roving packs of [[Amazon]]s and [[Drow|Dark Elf]] slavers aren't sugar-coated at all... but there's plenty of people living decent lives and there's still plenty of ways things can get better.

''Maybe.''

...maybe not.

As an aside, many also criticize KC because his girls look like mundane cosplayers, but A) it's not necessarily exclusive to him, B) there's definitely plenty of more 'creative' monstergirl designs in his world too, and C) that's honestly like criticizing the [[Nazi]]s for their fixation on leather and jackboots. It's valid, sure, but ultimately rings as a jaywalking charge amongst the arson-murder orgy that is everything ''else'' wrong with the setting.

==<s>It's boring!</s> A Manwhore's take on the setting==
{{Flamewar}}
Okay, somebody has to say it: Kenkou Cross has managed to make a setting about hot rapist monstergirls boring... which is kinda astounding, in a way...

When you read the profiles, you will probably think MGE is sort of a porny fantasy sword-and-sorcery setting where adventurers travel the world facing sexy monstergirls and being raped by them if they lose... or raping them if they win... whatever.

In fact, MGE is a '''marriage fantasy'''(also a rape fantasy, and touches of loli fantasy here and there). It's all about bumping into a girl who will declare herself you wife, without any real effort from your part, but without any input either... which would be kinda great in the real world (since they tend to be nice to you and all are beautiful sex beasts), but, hey, in a fantasy setting with more than 200 species of monstergirls, I would expect something more...

Let examine the problem a bit more thoughtfully:

===Monogamy: You will probably have sex with only one girl during your whole life===

If I am to write, read or fantasize a story about a world full or rapist monstergirls, I want to travel the world and fuck them all, like perverted version of Ash Ketchum. But nope. You will only have sex with a single girl. Ever.

According to the latest lore, monstergirls are A LOT into monogamy. Like, they will only feel attracted to one man during their whole lives, the one they will give their virginity to, and who they will marry. Which is great because they will never cheat on you, but, on the other hand, forget about sleeping around... if you have sex with a girl, she is you wife forever.

When a monstergirl likes a man, she marks him even before they have sex, and from that point onwards, every other monstergirl will treat that man like a leper and refuse to even look at him. To make things worse, she doesn't need to tell him... some very young monstergirls mark a boy they like while they are still children, and the poor chump will spend years asking himself why all the hot monstergirls avoid him like he is trash, until the one who marked him deigns to claim him... which can happen very soon, or could take many years if she is shy...

Yeah, there are a few monstergirl species who are into polygamy and prefer to be part of a harem, and there are cases when two non-polygamous monstergirls fall in love with the same guy at the same time, none backs down, and both marry him(on the other side though, are the ones who let their daughters have a crack at daddy until they’re ready to strike out on their own) but the point is, the guy doesn't get to choose, the monstergirls are the one who decide if you get a harem or not... which brings the next point:

===Guys have zero initiative===

Men don't get to choose, and that's it.

Monstergirls are always in the lookout for Mr. Right. They can sense if a man is married or already has a lover, if he is in love, or if he has already been claimed by another monstergirl. If they see an unclaimed man, they will check him, and they will know at once if he is the one.

If a monstergirl decides that a man is her fated one, they are as good as married. Nothing will stop her.

The flip side of the coin is: If she decides he isn't her fated one, he won't even see her, or if he sees her, he won't notice that she's hot... he will be blind to her beauty... all monstergirls cast that magic instinctively to avoid unwanted suitors.

If a man goes deep into the wilderness, into No Man's Land, there is a good chance that any monstergirl he meets will be so thirsty that she will decide that he is her future husband, but sadly, the man won't get to choose what girl he will meet... he may be claimed by an unborn Harpy fetus, or be infected by a fungus girl... Also, that isn't of any help if the guy is into "civilized" monstergirls who live in cities and towns... a Kikimora or a Kejourou can observe thousands of men at their leisure and take their pick...

Kenkou Cross probably created his setting to cater to men who are very passive and have no idea of how to speak to a girl or to get her to like them. He also declared that you can just fantasize about the girl you like and you don't have to include anything you don't like in your fantasy... but the kind of stories that can be written is still severely limited by his constraints... what if you want to read a story about something else that a super-passive guy being chosen as husband by a monstergirl?

Which brings the next point:

===All the girls are basically the same===

The profiles seem to imply that there are all kind of girls who approach men differently, but it's a lie. In truth, all the girls are the same, the differences are merely cosmetic. All the stories in the MGE world are the same: A girl sees a man, she decides he is her future husband, she seduces and/or rapes him, and they are married forever. No other kind of story is possible.

Honestly, why bother creating a world full of monstergirls(the art, maybe)? If you are going to have sex with only one monstergirl ever, and all love stories are in fact the same, there only needs to exist one monstergirl in the world, the one you marry... what's the point of all the other monstergirls existing...?

==...What? You're still here?==
Oh, so you wanna know about the monstergirls we keep insisting prop the whole thing up?

* <s>[https://monstergirlencyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Monster_Girl_Encyclopedia Here, look at their wiki.]</s> Wikia is now purging all NSFW contents, so the wiki now moved to [https://monstergirlencyclopedia.miraheze.org/wiki/Monster_Girl_Encyclopedia Miraheze.]
* [https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Girl-Encyclopedia-Vol-1/dp/1626923612 Or go buy it, you /d/egenerate]

Also, specific answers from Kenkou Cross's [https://ask.fm/k_cross Q&A site], which briefly hint at the future of Monster Girl Encyclopedia world:
* [https://ask.fm/k_cross/answers/114716374101 The Order and the Chief God are, as anyone following the source material is unsurprised to learn, fated to lose, or at least never to win.]
* [https://ask.fm/k_cross/answers/127378863701 The plan to have mamono give birth to incubus children is going to succeed within one lifetime, so complete extinction is not on the table.]
* [https://ask.fm/k_cross/answers/117249680981 Even after completely defeating the Chief God, the Monster lord will not kill her.]

You can look it up and support him on Patreon if you want; but he updates sparingly, being older than the current internet system of content creator support. (That said, his Twitter is apparently pretty active.)

==So Why Is This Here?==
You may be asking just why this page is here, and what possible relevance it has to /tg/. Well, there's a couple of reasons.

Firstly, /tg/ loves [[monstergirls]], plain and simple - the average fa/tg/uy has grown up with plenty of media featuring settings where humans lived alongside other non-human sentient beings, and for all its many faults, the MGE is a widely recognized and well-detailed MG setting which both has consistently appealing artwork ''and'' does not shit it up with some of the more hardcore [[/d/]] fetishes, like vore. Whilst the MGE's setting could definitely be better, it could very, ''very'' easily be a lot worse than it is. Deviantart is full of artists who add cannibalism, hard bondage and slavery being common to monster-rich fantasy settings, and Kenkou, though misguided, still has a vague semblance of 'decency' in form of the monster wargods preventing death on both sides, so the victor can fuck/love the defeated to their hearts' content.

Secondly, every so often, a thread pops up on /tg/ about adapting the setting in some way. Sexuality aside there are good idea among the smut for interesting takes on monsters, spirits and other D&D creatures. If it's not anons asking how they can stat up a given mamono race as either PCs or NPCs, it's a thread asking how you might rework the setting for use in running your own campaigns, or even a simple "your last character/party gets dumped into the MGE world; what happens?" idle chatter-thread. In fact, this happened so loften that there is now a pretty much permanent [[/mgw/|"Monster Girl Worldbuilding"]] thread that has been running for months - in the grand tradition of /tg/ getting shit done, it's even produced four sets of homebrew rules for running a game in the setting:
*One using the WHFRP 2e system: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-khJ4fE5v2MyrumyZoauEJ4VIucMO-kP1MGHNVtaDkc/edit
*One using the Genesys system: https://docs.google.com/document/d/166447sk679VFybDfLoNwilCfYmtHZbCt3626u6BWPG0/edit
*One using the Dungeon World system: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tnxUNkYKWeDtVtyPk8sYAiTsfwBwcNeC1DKg_0GTb8U/edit?usp=sharing
*Monster Girl Adventures (An Original Game): <s>https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M6DO3eO7T1pxFK7eoGT2QvEy2kZAW0MIQLnjhYZsVXg/edit?usp=sharing</s> Link's dead, Jim.
*An Autist's Collection of Various Monster Girl Settings: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ePiGXhk7UW1hTwr6eRjh_BHpZ8vp5LcKDXzzLYXdf74/edit?usp=sharing

Thirdly, 4chan's wanna-be rival [[8chan]] has the board /monster/, for which this setting is basically their bible: all [[monstergirl]]s that don't follow KC's rules of sexuality and morality are banned from the site, with the virtually dead board /chaos/ existing as a gathering for those few fans of monstergirls who aren't MGE-vanilla, monsterboys and monsterfutas.

==/tg/ Races==
Being a Monstergirl Fantasy World, it's natural that a lot of the entries in the Encyclopedia correspond to various races and monsters present in more mainstream works.

* [[Amazon]]
* [[Angel]]
* [[Basilisk]]
* [[Beholder]]
* [[Catfolk]]
* [[Centaur]]
* [[Chimera]]
* [[Cockatrice]]
* [[Cyclops]]
* [[Demon]]
* [[Dhampir]]
* [[Doppelganger]]
* [[Dragon]]
* [[Drider]]
* [[Dryad]]
* [[Dwarf]]
* [[Elemental]]
* [[Elf]]
* [[Fairy]]
* [[Familiar]]
* [[Ghost]]
* [[Ghoul]]
* [[Girtablilu]]
* [[Gnome]]
* [[Goblin]]
* [[Golem]]
* [[Gremlin]]
* [[Griffon]]
* [[Harpy]]
* [[Hellhound]]
* [[Illithid]]
* [[Incubus]]
* [[Jiangshi]]
* [[Kappa]]
* [[Kitsune]]
* [[Kobold]]
* [[Kraken]]
* [[Lamia]]
* [[Lich]]
* [[Lizardfolk]]
* [[Manticore]]
* [[Medusa]]
* [[Merfolk]]
* [[Mimic]]
* [[Minotaur]]
* [[Mummy]]
* [[Nightmare]]
* [[Ogre]]
* [[Oni]]
* [[Orc]]
* [[Pixie]]
* [[Ratfolk]] (the Large Mouse in particular is based on the [[Giant Rat]])
* [[Redcap]]
* [[Roper]]
* [[Sahuagin]]
* [[Salamander]]
* [[Satyr]]
* [[Scylla]]
* [[Selkie]]
* [[Shoggoth]]
* [[Siren]]
* [[Skeleton]]
* [[Slime]]
* [[Sphinx]]
* [[Succubus]]
* [[Tanuki]]
* [[Therianthrope]]
* [[Troll]]
* [[Unicorn]]
* [[Vampire]]
* [[Werewolf]]
* [[Wight]]
* [[Will-o-Wisp]]
* [[Witch]]
* [[Yeti]]
* [[Yuki-onna]]
* [[Zombie]]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
File:MGE Large Mouse.jpg
File:MGE Dormouse.jpg
File:MGE Hinezumi.jpg
File:MGE Holstaur.jpg
File:MGE Gyobu Danuki.jpg
File:MGE Sphinx.jpg
File:MGE Minotaur.jpg
File:MGE Hakutaku.jpg
File:MGE Ogre.jpg
File:MGE Red Oni.jpeg
File:MGE Blue Oni.jpg
File:MGE Slime.jpg
File:MGE Red Slime.jpg
File:MGE Bubble Slime.jpg
File:MGE Dark Slime.jpg
File:MGE Slime Queen.jpg
File:MGE Orc.jpg
File:MGE Dragon.jpg
File:MGE Dragon Zombie.jpg
File:MGE Jabberwock.jpg
File:MGE Otohime.jpg
File:MGE Ryu.jpg
File:MGE Wurm.jpg
File:MGE Wyvern.jpg
File:MGE Jiangshi.jpg
File:MGE Cheshire Cat.jpg
File:MGE Ocelomeh.png
</gallery>
</center>

[[Category:NSFW]]

Monster Girl Encyclopedia

2026-04-03T02:43:56Z

TakahaReo: /* So Why Is This Here? */