Editing Mythology (section)

===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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