mythology is meant to give morals to a society. they feature creation/end times myths as there center and then they have all kinds fo myths to make a given point such as dont do this because it is bad or love conquers all or something like that. keep in mind religion and mythology are differnt things, mythology is a term reserved for religions that are mostly debunked so are you creating an old now out of use religion or a currently running religion? it matters only in that the people in your world will look at it in a certain light if it is a mythology or a religion.

IMO trickster figures seem to represent a force for change. Someone to keep humans on their toes to help us grow and change (we can get pretty lazy otherwise).

No offense anyone, but this is a forum on mythology in games and how it can be used to place an a new element into them, not a forum on the spelling of the word "Christian."

That being said... Mythology can be used in any way in a game to make it more interesting, not just revolving around a trickster character. A whole set of myths can be created to better your total story, or you can make one to state a lesson at a specific part. My personal favorite mythology use(and the one I think was used best) was in Final Fantasy Tactics. The whole story was a myth in itself. It was a heroic myth to those in the game, as well as a myth showing how something as vast as history can be skewed as easily as a game of telephone.

~Good topic sunandshadow!

"Stop it mister!!! I don''''t even know you!!!"

quote: Original post by Captain Of The Day
No offense anyone, but this is a forum on mythology in games and how it can be used to place an a new element into them, not a forum on the spelling of the word "Christian."

Sorry, but if I'm in the mood to bitch, the topic of the forum isn't going to stop me.

[edited by - orionx103 on December 24, 2003 1:31:07 AM]

Found an awesome book today!
Encyclopedia of Creation Myths

Amazon doesn''t have it for sale unfortunately, but I''m reading it at http://emedia.netlibrary.com/

An excerpt from the introduction:

quote:
Creation myths convey the great struggle to exist in several basic symbolic structures about which, with some variations, scholars are in general agreement. Creation occurs primarily in one of five ways: 1) from chaos or nothingness (ex nihilo), 2) from a cosmic egg or primal maternal mound, 3) from world parents who are separated, 4) from a process of earth-diving, or 5) from several stages of emergence from other worlds. In every case there is a sense of birth-both of the world and of humans. Several of these structures can appear in a given creation myth.

A myth often attached to the creation myth is that of the Deluge. In this story the creator feels a mistake has been made or is disgusted with early humanity and clears the boards by sending creation back to the chaos of the Flood; although destructive of the old creation, the waters are also the maternal source for a new birth. They often support an ark or similar structure in which the seeds of a second creation are protectively contained.

Several archetypal characters appear consistently in creation myths. These include 1) a creator or the creatrix—the primal, ordered form that wrenches cosmos from chaos, sometimes from clay, sometimes from the fluids of its own body, and sometimes in conjunction with an equal and opposite natural power; 2) the trickster, who is sometimes a negative force and sometimes a culture hero who dives to the depths of nothingness to find form; 3) a first man and first woman, who continue the process of creation in our time and space and who sometimes fall from the creator''s grace and are punished; and 4) the flood hero, who, floating in the placental ark, represents our never-ending urge for a new beginning.

I''m working on writing the creating myth for my dragon culture - I''m thinking of doing a cosmic egg one since the dragons are egg-laying and I already decided they have a taboo against eating eggs. I''m (slowly ) reading the whole encyclopedia and it''s giving me lots of interesting ideas for making my own myths.

''Nother interesting quote, this one about trickster figures:

quote:
Tricksters appear in many cultures. Hermes in Greece is a trickster of sorts, and so is Brer Rabbit in the folklore of the American South. The figure is especially popular among Native American and African peoples. He usually plays an important role in creation (see also Coyote; Raven) because he represents the amoral, creative power that exists in the preconscious stages of human development. Often he uses his wiles to steal things, such as fire, for humans. He has what might be called the creative power of dream. Thus, the trickster is often highly erotic and apparently immoral. He is almost always funny and is frequently the butt of his own tricks.

Hmm, amoral creative power. So a trickster is kind of the opposite of a solar hero who is a moral destructive power (usually espressed by his killing a monster to create or preserve order in the world). Anybody know anything about solar heroes? I just learned about them in the encyclopedia, but it didn''t define them since they aren''t directly relevant to creation myths. I googled the term and came up with a list of solar heroes which included Mithras, Apollo, Osiris, and Christ, all of whom apparantly have birthdays around winter solstice (i.e. when the sun is reborn from death the same way most solar heroes are in their myth cycles. Solar heroes are naturally symbolized by the sun and the local culture''s sun-affiliated animal e.g. a lion or a bull. But I couldn''t find a good definition of what a solar hero is, so if anyone else wants to share what they know, I''d be grateful.

It''s funny that you should mention the Trickster figure.
I jsut got a new Roleplaying game (a pen and paper one, that is), which has an interesting creation myths.
The humans, after having survived a sort of apocalypse, are now organised in 7 tribes, eac worshipping a goddess figure called a Fatima. Each has her own "specialty" (there is the Crone, the Mother, the Lover, the Judge, the Warrior, the Child and the Trickster. the Forgiver sacrificed herself and the Ravager died in the fight to free mankind).

One of those, called Dahlia, is the Trickster. On the surface, she is a playful, shadowy figure that "teach lessons" to the rest of the tribes. She is here to remind people about laughter, spectacles, and her tribe are usually travelling in caravans, transmitting news from town to town, and making shows as a living.
On the other side, though, we discover that her real purpose is to create Chaos in the well organised tribal society, not in order to destroy it, but to bring about Change. Her greatest lesson is that Change is necessary, complacency a danger, and only through change can humanity hope to better themselves.

Like Hermes/Mercury, she is a patron of tricksters AND messengers, which is interesting given that they both deliver messages, although in a slightly different manner

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

Just an idea that came to me while I was cooking.

Lucifer/Satan, in the light of my previous post, is your typical two sided trickster too.
He plays a "trick" on Adam and Eve, he brings about Change. And although it is seen as a bad thing, and certainly a traumatic experiment (one could say a rite of passage, almost ?) there is something to be said for it.
Lucifer/Satan can be seen either as the enemy (the meaning of "Satan" ... in Hebrew IIRC); we fear change and would rather not face it.
But he can also be seen as "teaching us a lesson", which is his role of "carrier of light" (the meaning of "lucifer" in Latin).
He then becomes a more promethean figure.

Maybe this explains better what I think the Trickster myth is for, rather than the previous example which you might have a hard time to relate to if you dont know about Tribe 8 (your loss).

BTW I have a feeling that maybe what you call a solar hero is simply that : a promethean figure. would that be correct ?

Oh, for those with religious convictions, please dont preach to me, I am not interested and am not trying to offend your convictions, thank you

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

Satan was basically a disgruntled angel. You see, he wanted to rule, and for this, he was cast down. "Tis better to reign in hell, than to serve in Heaven," I think the saying goes. (Paradise Lost.) He was said to even be the most beautiful of the angels and the leader of the angelic choir (the singing choir, not the war choir). Lucifer was a name given to him for some reason, which I can''t remember. Lucifer was originally a name for the planet Venus as the morning star.

Satan fits into more than just the "trickster" category, but also the "villain" category. Hermes was just a trickster, and there''s an obvious difference in the two. Loki is also both a trickster and a villain.

The name Lucifer was his angel name because before he fell he was the best, most beautiful, and brightest angel, second only to god.