I need to do some reading up on different mythologies before entering my next phase of design. Anyone know any good reference sites or books? The more unknown the better (celtic, sumerian, etc.) but sites on the common ones would be good also (greek, roman, etc.). Also what different mythos would you like to see that you think is under developed in games right now? Thanks for any info.

http://www.pantheon.org/

-- Mulligan

The Golden Age of Myth & Legend - Thomas Bulfinch
The book is mainly focused on Roman, Greek and Norse mythology (with some small references to other eastern civilisations). It is also quuite old (the author died in 1867) but it is a pretty comprehensive reference. It also gives a lot of literary references, explaining how more m odern authors have used or refered to these myths in their work.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions
Game Development & Design consultant

Heres a nice one that I found.
http://folkloreandmyth.netfirms.com/index.html

I took a ancient history course in college last semester that covered a bit of Sumerian-Babylonian-Hittite religion. Basically, all you have to do is remember this much:

Theres a sky god: Anu
He''s killed by another god: Ea
Whos son is this god: Marduk
who kills this demon: Tiamat
Then theres a love pair: Dimuzi and Innana
and a goddess of Fertility: Ninhursang

This all resolves around a three fold Life-Death-Rebirth concept, which ancient man came up with after observing life and season cycles. For instance, trees are lush and green, then die during the winter, and then sprout leaves in the spring. Because of this observation of stuff growing out of the earth, Women who bore children were considered to be part the earth, and men were seeding the "earth" so that man would be reborn.

That concept keeps repeating itself in almost all of religion. In egypt, Osiris (Serapis) is killed by Seth and Isis enters the earth to bring him back.

Hope that helps.

All of the above post are great. pantheon.org is great when you know what your looking for, I have a book by Thomas Bulfinch don''t remember the name of it it''s the one that came with the age of mythology colletors edition. So far I''m having trouble finding a book on chinese or especialy japanes that is both in english and has been reviewed by someone. Thanks for all the post so far.

spigunk:
That''s Bulfinch''s Mythology, a great mythology reference. Includes The Golden Age of Myth & Legend and some more
It''s avaible @ Project Gutenberg(http://www.promo.net/pg I think... hmm... they might only have the parts Bulfinch''s Mythology is build of actually... same thing ) if you do not want to get it from the library.

Very little is ever done on asian mythlogies, which is strange considering how strong an element they play in their cultures even to this day. In many ways, hinduism is the oldest extant religion in the world that still has multiple gods. The whole Vishnu, Kali, Shiva triumvrate is interesting.

Chinese mythology, myths, and legends are equally fascinating. Their version of vampires, the Jade Emperor and his Celestial court, the Yama kings of hell...and the former lords of hell before them. The Dragon Kings, the quest for the alchemical elixir of immortality and many of the martial legends are extremely interesting.

Even Japanese mythology is cool, as some of it survives in their Shinto beliefs today. I always found it odd that with such a male dominated society, it was a woman goddess that they venerated the most, and that they believed that the Emperor was the divine heir of this goddess. Folktales of heroes like Yoshitsune and even semi-mythic heroes like Miyamoto Musashi or the 48 Ronin still dominate Japanese culture today.

Since I consider American Indians as asiatics, little is ever talked about American Indian mythology and myths. Of course, with such diverse tribes it''s hard to peg them down, but there are several common "branches" of Indian culture. For example the Algonquians (north western and northern Indians), the Iroquis Confederation (Mohawks, Seneca, Cayuga, Onendaga, Seneca....I forgot the other two), the Southeastern Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Blackfoot, Seminole, for example), the SouthWestern (Apache, Commanche, Pueblo, Navajo), the Dakota indians (Dakota, Lakota, Sioux, Crow, Nez Perce for example) all had slightly different Gods, beliefs and cultures.

If you''re going to do a "traditional" mythos, then I think the Nordic pantheon is fascinating for a couple of reasons. One is that they are the only gods I can think of that were mortal. That alone is fascinating. Secondly, the Norse gods actually were split into two camps...The Vanir who were the older Gods, and the Aesir who were the younger and more familiar Gods. When the Nordic myths were collected in the 13th century, even they weren''t sure exactly about theorigins of either set of Gods, but it is believed that the Vanir, being mostly fertility gods and goddesses were the older set, and as the Vikings themselves became more warlike, they worshipped the warlike Aesir Gods more (Thor, Heimdall, Odin, and Tyr were all Vanir...the only well known Vanir gods are Frey and Freya).

I highly recommend a book called the Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology written by Arthur Cotterell and Rachel Storm. Unfortunately, it''s just an enclyclopedia, but it should give you some leads to finding ancient epics, and texts (for example to read Beowulf).

One thing I caution against is the Celtic myth unless done well. If not done well, it will feel very much like your common fantasy game, since fantasy games are very strongly based off of the Anglo-Celtic myths. The strange thing though is that much fantasy folklore is a combination of Celtic, Pictish, and Nordic myths. Afterall, the world Anglo-Saxon is derived from the two major Germanic tribes that invaded england in ancient times (the other major invader being the Jutes....a Danish or nordic tribe). For example, The Fellowship of the Ring is in some ways an extension of the Germanic theme of cursed rings. And Tolkein was a professor of old English....essentially old German.