Myth Direction: the Faerie Courts
A quick thought experiment, today. The Manual of the Planes contains some information about the Faerie Courts, the Seelie and the Unseelie, in its Feywild section. I don’t plan to use that particular take on it in my game, since I have something else worked out. But it did inspire some ideas about a third way.
This probably owes something to The Dresden Files
One of the more obvious bits of the construction was a simple emphasis on the duality: the Seelie Court, the Court of Summer, is right at home in the Feywild, with its preternatural wilderness. So where else should the Unseelie Court, the Court of Winter, be, than the Shadowfell? In fact, I picture the Feywild as an eternal summer, warm and vibrant. The Shadowfell isn’t entirely locked in winter — but certainly parts of it are, as I picture it, a frozen waste of eternal cold.
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Myth Direction: Dragons’ Teeth
Dragons’ teeth figure in two tales from Greek mythology: the story of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, and the story of Jason and the golden fleece. In both cases, the teeth, when planted in the ground, would grow into armed human warriors eager for battle.
Cadmus, a Phoenician prince, arrived at the site of Thebes following the advice of the oracle at Delphi, who had instructed him to follow a cow and to build a city wherever it stopped. Having found his site, Cadmus wished to sacrifice the cow, and in order to do so had to fetch water from a spring sacred to Ares, which was guarded by a dragon. Cadmus slew the dragon, but not before it killed many of his men. Athena gave Cadmus half the dragon’s teeth, and told him to sow them; when he did, the warriors appeared. He threw a stone among them, and, each thinking another had thrown the stone, they began to fight, until only five remained. These five, along with Cadmus, became the founders of Thebes.
Athena gave the other half of the teeth to Aeetes, king of Colchis, who later offered the golden fleece to Jason if Jason would sow them. Jason did, employing a similar strategy and successfully overcoming the challenge.
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Myth Direction: Excalibur
Arthur’s sword Excalibur (or Caliburn, in some translations) is perhaps the single most iconic of legendary weapons — its particular part of the Arthurian legend is fairly widely known among the general public, and of course Arthurian legend is a major influence for many fantasy campaigns. Anything with knights in shining armor probably owes at least a little to Arthur and his Round Table. They weren’t the earliest tales of heroic warriors, but they’re some of the most recognized.
And Arthur’s wondrous sword wasn’t the first magical weapon, but it’s one of the best known. Meanwhile, the legendary weapon is a trope that applies well to many fantasy roleplaying campaigns. So let’s take a look at implementing it in 4e terms.
Caledfwlch, as the sword was known in Welsh, is described as having a design of two chimeras on the hilt, and its blade is like two flames springing from the chimeras’ mouths. The sword shed light, apparently; sufficient light that it was difficult for anyone to look at it. This is backed up by a later tale, in which the blade of Excalibur shines as brightly as thirty torches when drawn, blinding Arthur’s enemies. Some versions also state that Excalibur’s blade could cut through metal; in Malory, its name is translated as “cuts-steel.”
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Myth Direction
Mythology is among the best sources of inspiration for a fantasy roleplaying game. Delving into myth and legend can help you develop both your scenarios and your worlds, and it can lend a sense of verisimilitude to your world if your players recognize the similarities.
My recent series, Seeking, Defining, and Encountering the Raven Queen, gave an example of one methodology for using mythological motifs in action: starting with a basic concept or character (in this case, one defined in the rulebooks, but it could also have been one of my own making), I did a little research and took note of myths and stories that seemed to have similar themes to the character I was looking for. I took elements of those stories and wove them together to define the character within my game world, and finally I did a bit of brainstorming and laid out some ways in which I could use that character.
It’s equally possible to reverse the initial steps: start with a myth you’d like to reference, strip out the themes or other elements you find useful, and then create your character or situation to suit.
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Seeking the Raven Queen
The Raven Queen is one of the most mysterious deities of fourth edition, and, judging by various forum posts, one of the most popular. This is what’s known of her: She’s the unaligned goddess of death; she’s also the goddess of fate and winter. She opposes Orcus and undeath in general. Unlike most gods, she does not make her home within a dominion in the Astral Sea; instead, she rules from the palace Letherna in the Shadowfell.
And that’s about it.
There are some obvious parallels to Greek myth here. “Letherna” suggests Lethe, the river of Hades, whose waters caused total forgetfulness in any who drank of them. The word lethe literally means forgetfulness, but also concealment or deception — and it’s related to the Greek word often translated as truth, aletheia. (The actual meaning is something more akin to disclosure or non-concealment, from what I understand, and connotes recognition.)
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