Editing Mythology

In the old days, before science existed, people sought explanations for why the world existed as it did. Humans being humans, their first explanations revolved around ascribing humanlike characteristics to natural phenomena, which in turn became the first gods worshipped by humankind.

From there, stories spread about the nature of the gods, as well as other stories that sought to explain such things as the origins of humankind, what happens after death, or the exploits of ancient heroes. Many other mythical creatures are thought to have started the same way- for example, stories of giants being inspired from the fossilized bones of mammoths. As these stories passed down from generation to generation as either legends or religion, it gave birth to the fantasy genre we all knew 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 shaped by the worldview of its originating society. Even in the present day, more than a few such myths are still prevalent despite their no longer being openly supernatural (e.g. George Washington and the cherry tree). 

Older myths often contain bizarre and fucked up shit like incest and rape because people in ye olden times [[Slaanesh|were fucking deranged and kinky as all hell]], and as far as they were concerned, nothing was off limits. Of course with different cultures from country to country, mythology can be quite different and they all had their own angels and demons/spirits/energies based on how their own cultures perceive them.  

==Connection with Fantasy Genre==
As you can see, many an author took interest at the old legend 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.

== Mythologies ==
===Greco-Roman===
There's a god for every aspect of ordinary life, like smithing, governing and war. The most important gods/goddess you need to know are '''Jupiter/Zeus''', the guy with the lightning power who is the king of the gods; '''Juno/Hera''', wife of Zeus 
and goddess of marriage, childbirth, and women; '''Minerva/Athena''', goddess of wisdom and war born from Jupiter having a massive headache [[Sisters of Battle|fully grown up and armed]]; '''Dis Pater/Pluto/Hades''', Jupiter's eldest brother and the god of most of the Greco-Roman afterlife; '''Neptune/Poseidon''', Jupiter's other brother and the god of the seas; '''Apollo''', god of the sun, music, and archery; '''Diana/Artemis''', goddess of the moon and the hunt; '''Ceres/Demeter''', goddess of the harvest; '''Mercury/Hermes''', messenger of the gods; '''Venus/Aphrodite''', goddess of sex and love; '''Mars/Ares''', god of war; '''Vulcan/Hephasteus''', god of the forge; '''Vesta/Hestia''', goddess of the hearth; '''Bacchus/Dionysus''', god of wine and drunken revelry.  

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

Cronus sought to avoid this, so he 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.

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

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:'''Zeus (in his more positive depictions) Hercules/Heracles, Theseus, Perseus, Daedalus, 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), Hades (only a villain in media adaptions; the original Hades was considered highly honorable if rather dour), the Titans, Ares, various offspring of Echidna.

'''Artifacts:''' Pandora's box, Daedalus's inventions (especially the wings of Icarus), the sun chariot, the Nemean Lion skin, ambrosia, all sorts of stuff used by the gods.

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.

===Norse===
Like the Greeks, there's a god for every aspect and their most hated enemies are tower tall humanoid creature who the gods/goddess also related to, but were called Giants instead of Titans. The Norse mythos contains a lot more references to snow, winter and wolves than the Greek one. This is somewhat unsurprising.

Basically, in the early world's life cycle, there were these '''Frost Giants''' who [[wat|were sweats born from the armpit of '''Ymir''', the first of giants]]. There was also a giant cow, '''Audhumla''', the udder of which Ymir frequented. [[wat|Then that giant cow accidentally created a god by just licking a salty rock]], '''Buri''', who then "begat a son" - fuck knows how. This son, '''Bor''', had a wife '''Bestla''' who gave birth to '''Odin''' and his brothers. Odin does not like giants since they come out of Ymir's stinking armpits like rats and they eat a lot so he and his brothers '''Vili''' and '''Ve''' killed Ymir. [[Khorne|Ymir was so fuckhuge that his blood caused a massive flood that killed other Frost Giants]]. Odin then used Ymir's body to forge a new world. The death of Ymir also brought forth many life forms without Odin's touch like the Dwarves, who were basically [[Nurgle|Ymir's corpse maggots]]. Then like the Greek gods, Odin formed a government with gods/goddess of each daily life aspect. And then [[The End Times|Ragnorok]] will come.

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:''' Thor, Sigfried/Sigurd, the Valkyries (adaptions only).

'''Most notable villains in media adaptions:''' Loki, Fafnir.

'''Artifacts:''' Mjölnir (Thor's Hammer), Lævateinn, Gram, Gungnir, Megingjörð (Belt of <s>Giant's Strength</s> Power).

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==== Dwarf ====
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While there many mythologies that have different telling of the dwarf race, we will be talking about the norse version.

After Odin murderfucked Ymir and killed a bunch of giants through blood flooding (see above) maggots came out and were festering on Ymir's flesh. Yes. [[Nurgle|These corpse maggots are the will be precursor of the dwarfs.]] So god found these maggots and turned them into the dwarf we all knew and love. [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy Battle)|They have the talent of mead brewing, metal smithing and making magical artifact]]. Many of iconic weapon like Thor's hammer are crafted by the dwarfs. But most importantly of the dwarfs creation is perhaps Odin's spear, why? BECAUSE IT IS NAMED "GUNGNIR"!! that's like the name of the warhammer dwarf god "Grungni", only with the letter "r" in the wrong place.

Anyway, other things about dwarfs is that they can turned to stone if they exposed to the sun for too long (wtf were they vampires too?). They are sometimes refer to as "black elf" since they were corpse maggot and they were described as being dead or resembling human corpses.

There are also four known dwarfs in the mythologies: Austri, Vestri, Norðri, and Suðri (which means “East,” “West,” “North,” and “South”) and they got the crappy job of holding the corner of the sky (aka the Atlas treatment) just because they have super strength.
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==== Elves ====
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In Norse myth, they were demi-god like beings whose sole purpose is to be [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|more beautiful and superior-than-you]]. They are described as [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|"more beautiful than the sun"]] with their demi-god status apparently linked to the gods of Vanir and Aesir. Their lord is a Vanir god called Freyr, who rules the elves’ homeland, Alfheim. They commonly cause humans to suffer illness but have the power to cure any illness only if sacrifices are offered to them, what a bunch of dicks. It is also possible for humans to become elves upon death. Elf and human can also interbreed; the mix of human and elf is described as having the look of a human but possess extraordinary intuitive and magical powers.
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===Abrahamic (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)===
The one everyone most familiar with in the western countries since you can learn them in church. Or synagogue, or mosque, you get the idea.

Much of the Abrahamic mythology is drawn from the old Hebrew bible though 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. 

So in Abrahamic mythology there's 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. In fact, we don't even know how its pronounced, the two most common anglicizations being '''Yahweh''' and '''Jehovah'''. In Islam, he is instead called '''Allah'''. 

Before the world was born, according to Milton - there was this "war of heaven" [[War in Heaven|(not this one)]] where [[Horus|Lucifer]], [[Horus Heresy|the most perfect of the god's creation, the best of the archangels rebelled against God with some other angels, but was defeated and cast down to hell]] where - according to Dante ([[Dante|not this one]]) - there are nine levels of Hell [[Baator|(not these ones)]] and Lucifer is trapped in the lowest leyer, [[Butthurt|stuck inside a frozen lake of his own tears]]. Lucifer also has three faces, whose face is similar to the sinner he chewed on:  Judas (betrayed jesus), Brutus, and Cassius (betrayed Caesar).

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 girl, Eve was tempted by a winged serpent -who according to Milton, was actually Lucifer in disguise - to eat the fruit. 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. 

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 offer their produce to God, God only favored Abel's. ''(According to some, it was because Cain hid his best offering from god. 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 is to never farm ever again; wherever he spilled his brother's blood, the earth became cursed so that it can never grow anything. Basically denying Cain's favorite job and career. However, punishments differ in other mythologies and it's a [[skub|clusterfuck]]. Adam and Eve later had the third son Seth, which 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 descendents. 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|(<s>not this one</s> actually, probably yes this one)]] 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 where anyone can hear you unless you enjoy being hated by everyone. 

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:''' Jesus, Abraham, Samson, David, Moses, Noah.  God is rarely depicted as a particularly active hero, but may [[Just as planned|work in mysterious ways.]]

'''Most notable villains with lots of media adaptions:''' Satan/Lucifer/The Devil (may or may not be the same character), Judas Iscariot, Cain (the first murderer).  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]]).

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==== Noah's Ark ====
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Humankind had become incredibly corrupt  and sinful, so God decided to have the sea level to suddenly rise to the kind you see in disaster movie like [[/tv/|The Day After Tomorrow]]. He instructed the sole righteous man on Earth named Noah to build [[Imperial Navy|an ark big enough to contain every animals and in the world as well as his family]], or just each animal species with their own female and male pairing so that they could reproduce. God even instruct Noah to build the ark with the size he demands: 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in width and 30 cubits in height (450 × 75 × 45 ft or 137 × 22.9 × 13.7 m), [[just as planned|it's almost as if god intended this]]. The ark is also made out of some probably extinct wood called "Gopher" (that's just how the Hebrew word is pronounced, ''gofer'' -- it's not related to the furry critter), probably the best kind since the ark has to withstand waves after waves of tsunami for a long time and a tragically, all of them are probably used up just for the ship. After the flood came and everyone is on the ark, they basically float for 40 days until the water goes down.
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==== Moses and the Exodus of the Hebrew ====
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Another myth took place in Egypt. There once lives the Hebrew (Jewish) people, the  chosen people of God ([[high elves|yeah, they are arrogant like that]]). They had come to reside in Egypt were living in peacefully harmony until one day some asshole [[Tomb Kings|Pharaoh]] came and starts to oppress the shit out of them. The Pharaoh hates how the Hebrew breeds like rat so they had [[grimdark|every one of their male children to drown in the river of Nile]]. 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 theml but god basically said fuck you and send [[Nurgle|twelve powerful plague]] to fucked them over. [[Nagash|The plague is so effective that Egypt became a frigging wasteland, but no undead unfortunately]]. Later, Moses guide his people to close the red sea where he do the iconic sea splitting to make a crossing passage. The Pharaoh and his goons tried to take chase but was once again pwned by the sudden sea crushing them both side when they were on the sea. After traveling with his fellow Hebrews, Moses decided to talk to the god on the mountain for sometime and came back with the '''Ten Commandments''', ten rules willed by god and if these rules were crossed, the severity of the punishment will be depend on which rule was broke (Ex. commit [[heresy]] like [[Chaos God|worshiping other gods]] will be awarded with [[exterminatus|genocide]] of the entire cities of man, woman, chidren and animals). Unfortunately, some of his unfaithful followers were slacking off and was worshiping some chaos-looking-brother-fucking-golden-bull-idol and was ordered by Moses to have them execute. Moses and his follower arrived to their promised land after 40 years due to the Israelites' incessant disbelief in God, which is, unsurprisingly, Israel! The Israelites then spend a long chunk of their history trying to kill off the native Caananites, all while being repeatedly punished for continually abandoning God's worship in favor of false idols.
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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
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====Gnosticism ====
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A set of heretical beliefs mixing Abrahamic theology with Greek philosophy, Gnosticism believes in the existence of two gods; the true omnipotent God and the Demiurge, the false god who created the Earth. Seeing as the world was created by a flawed creator, it is inherently flawed itself, so your goal ought to be to transcend the physical plane and escape this prison. Typically the Demiurge was identified with the god of the Old Testament, while the true god was seen as the one preached by Jesus, in an attempt to explain the apparent dissonance between their depictions. Where Satan fits into the picture depends on the exact sect, some portraying him as a force of liberty that seeks to free mankind from the tyranny of the Demiurge while others see him as seeking to further mankind's imprisonment by distracting them from spiritual matters with his temptations. Often associated with the western occult tradition of Hermeticism, also a mixture of Abrahamic and Greek traditions, though not all Hermetics are necessary Gnostics.

While Gnosticism is hardly the most well-known religion, it has influenced several fantasy settings, like [[Kult]], [[The Elder Scrolls]] and both of the [[World of Darkness]] Mage games.  
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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're 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 practises of [[Mummy|mummification]] and the construction of elaborate tombs. 

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:''' Ra, Osiris, Horus (no, not that [[Horus]]), Anubis.

'''Most notable villains in media adaptions:''' Set.

===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]] analogs.

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:''' Susano-o (Anti-Hero), the Buddhas.

'''Historical people ascribed mystical powers''' Abe no Seimei (even by his contemporaries), Himiko, Masakado, Tomoe Gozen, various Sengoku leaders '''especially''' [[Ninja|Hattori Hanzo]] and self-proclaimed demon lord Oda Nobunaga.

'''Most notable villains in media adaptions:''' The Orochi, oni, various Buddhist demons and evil types of yokai.

'''Artifacts:''' The Imperial regalia (Kusanagi, Magatama and the Yata no Kagami) and various katana made by famous people.

===Arthurian Mythology===
The story of a boy who becomes a king 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.

'''Most notable heroes with lots of media adaptions:''' Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table (most famously Lancelot and Galahad), Merlin.

'''Most notable villains in media adaptions:''' Morgan le Fey, Mordred, the Green Knight, the Black Knight. Arthur's original nemesis of the Roman Empire virtually never shows up in adaptations.

'''Artifacts:''' Arthurian myth has some of the highest artifact density out there. Among the most famous are the holy grail (which has some connections to the life of Jesus, see above), the sword in the stone and/or Excalibur (in some versions of the myth they are the same sword, others not), the green girdle and occasionally the round table itself.

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

[[Category:History]]