Editing Mythology (section)

===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><!--No shit he's notable, but maybe actually inform the reader about him?-->
*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.