Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nations.
 

This is a post with the purpose of collecting and discussing the mythology behind Dominions 3, and the mythic influences we'd like to see in the game, that don't already have a clear, strong representation.

The rules for this thread-to keep it from going OFFTOPIC (OFT)-are simple.
1: Only post about, and discuss, things that are already in the game, where they come from, their nature, etc., and things that you think belong, or deserve to be in, Dominions 3.
2: Those things discussed should only pertain to (as per the title of the thread): Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, real-world Nations, novels, series, comic books, movies, etc. that you seriously believe either relate to the current version of Dominions, or think would add to it, and have been overlooked, set aside, or ignored.
3: The purpose of the thread is to share knowledge, to discuss; and to expose the uninitiated to, areas of mythology, history, literature, etc. that they may not be familiar with. So if you have a favorite, but obscure hero, legend, god, author, graphic novel, or corner of the map that you think would make good Dominions fodder, then please feel free to share, so we all can enjoy!

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nations.
 

White Man Hill
- provides 100 Supply
- creates 1 Nature gem/turn
- increases Growth


Originally from Silhouette in You have been playing to much dominons when..., October 07.




It seems the Aurgelmer/Aurgelmir (Sword of A, the artifact) is the same as Ymir/Ymer, father of all giants in the Scnadinavian mythology. I always wondered, but never bothered to find out, what that was all about.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

I've beeen wondinering about some modern folklor, like lousiania creole inspired nation. would be3 pretty damn cool. hell i'm drunk.

hey kids, dio't do drugs.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

May be some kind of nomads?
arabic-inspired nation?
Mesopotamian?
Primitive cultures of far-north (they worth looking for)

Some kind of fairy-tales inspired nation)
and possibly animal kingdom&)

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

European mythologies ae quite well represented:
Celts (Irish - Tir na'n Og, Eriu, Welsh/Bretons - Man, Gauls - Marverni)
Norse (Jotunheim, Vanheim)
Latins (Rome - Ermor, Pythiumn)
Greeks (Pythium, Arcoscephale, Pangaea)
Slavs (Russia - Bogarus)
Generic Medieval Europe (Ulm, Marignon, Oceania)

Africans get a small share:
Egypt is hinted at with some animal headed pretenders and eater of the dead if I'm right, among others (C'tis).
Zulus (Machaka)

Near East gets several:
Sumerians (Agarthan names, C'tis)
Isrealis (Gath)
Many angels from this region.
Persia's Shedu are there too.

Far east:
Japan (Yomi)
China (T'ien Ch'i)

India (Lanka, Kailasa)

Americas
Aztecs (Mictlan)
Inuit? (LA Atlantis)

So I'd say North America, Arabia, Africa have a quite small share. I'm not sure about Indonedia, since I believe the Ramayana is quite big there. Vietnam, Khmer, Korea maybe? I'm not very knowledgeable about these, although I have some Korean myth book somewhere.
Pacific islands are also lacking but I don't think their folklore or myths could provide much in terms of armies and monsters or spells.

I believe a North American inspired nation could do something with totems and animal spirits for instance.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Sri Lanka and India probably share the same myths, but if there's any difference then Lanka takes from Sri Lanka. No surprise there...

Greece: The Kokythiad, Naiad and water/death nymph summon are from Greece myth. Several pretenders. What's greek about Pythium? Do you mean the LA Pyth exlcusively?

Sauromatia is inspired by legends about Scythians.



The excellent Haida Gwaii mod makes a tribal nation that is pacific-inspired IIRC. It could be North-American as well. There was a DomII mod about American Indians, horses and walking tree summons and something.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Pythium is Byzantium. That strange hybrid lovechild between Rome, Greece, and Turkey.

I'd be curious to see a nation themed around Aboriginal mythology, from Australia. I know very little about it, but it seems to have an interesting flavor.

Also, a Native American nation that perhaps had things like the bear tribe and deer tribe recruitable in their castles, with a late game that revolved around various totemic animal spirits, with Coyote being one of the most powerful, and needing high Astral, of course. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif



My favorite that I would like to see though, is something based off of the Sumerian Annunaki. Some believe that they were alien visitors, and the mystery shrouding the mythos makes it very compelling to me. The Annunaki were said to be giants (not huuuuge, but say 10ft tall), and had godlike powers with which they ruled the Sumerians. The stranger websites claim that they educated humans, and they were the reason that we developed civilization, in exchange for using us as slaves to mine gold that they needed to repair/fuel their spaceship and get off of this planet, or some such thing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif It's pretty far out, but even just using the stuff that we can reason to be true, it's very interesting (and no reason not to include hints of alien visitation, it's fun!).

Anyway, the wiki has an interesting taste of it, unfortunately the only websites I have bookmarked, are kind of crazy. >.> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anunnaki

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

I'll point out that Caelum is very Iranian/Zoroastrian in its flavoring. Also the Mountain aspects of it are quite Himalayan.

As I've stated elsewhere, the Japanese nations (Yomi, Shinuyama, and Jomon (Hepburn romanization looks so weird to me now)) are based off of Japanese folklore, not their religion or their mythology. My Wakoku mod is almost ready for testing, and I hope that it reflects a more 'mythohistorical' view of Japan.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Jim,

Isn't that the source for Hinnom/Ashdod/Gath? Huge alien beings with godlike powers that educated humans for mysterious reasons and spawned a race of giants?

-Max

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Actually, Lanka is the name of the Rakshasa kingdom in the Hindu epic poem 'Ramayana'. It's not Sri Lanka, unless you accept the thesis which says that the Ramayana was written by vedic priests to fight against Asoka's buddhist faith, a faith which is still prevalent in Sri Lanka today. So Sri Lankans wouldn't consider themselves Lanka, although Hindus could consider them that way.
Kailasa is supposed to be located in the Himalayas btw.

About Mesopotamians, Voice of Apsu and Voice of Tiamat are obviously mesopotamian (I think the names are babylonian, not sure of the sumerian names, if any). The Annunaki were just 'the gods' in the same way Vanir were norse gods. Just don't get me started on what I think about people who would have them be aliens... Scorpion men are also sumerian (as found in Gilgamesh epic).

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

I'd really like to see something based on Lord Dunsany's "The Gods of Pegana", "Time and the Gods", "The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories". Is anyone else familiar with them? I've got a lot of interest in these "pre-Tolkien" fantasy authors, and Lord Dunsany's maybe the best of all of them.

As much as I enjoy Lovecraft's works, I hate to see him overshadow so many other authors at this time-not that he doesn't deserve the credit for being a huge influence as a writer-but there's a huge body of work that doesn't have anything like the popularity of the C'thulhu Mythos-even Lovecraft's Dreamlands cycle is comparatively little known.

Aside from that, he had his own influences, and Lord Dunsany was one of them.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Endoperez: The White People sound really interesting-thanks for sharing! Where does the legend come from? as in what geographical location? I know there are Native American legends about the Sky People that sound somewhat similar-but I'm guessing not, because of the reference to "soldiers". I've never heard of the Kommagene Kingdom or the Taurus mountain range.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Pre-colonial and early Colonial America was, in many ways, a VERY creepy place. Survival was hard, and the indigenous peoples had many stories that we today would recognise as horror stories. Ritual sacrifice, use of hallucinogenic plants in religious ceremonies, communion with spirits on a day to day basis, and cannibalism-which may have been much more myth than reality-atleast before the Donner Party-but was no less frightening-Add to that the stories about devils, witches, and ghosts that the Pilgrims and other settlers brought over from Europe, and it's no wonder that we're fascinated by the scary, creepy, gruesome and gory-we inherited that fascination from our forefathers!

Ofcourse, everybody's heard of the Chupacabra-if you haven't, it's a part lizard, part frog, part vampire, that exanguinates goats and other livestock, as well as often removing the livestock's internal organs with surgical precision, in the SouthWest-but here's a few more legends that may be part myth, part urban legend, and part fact-or atleast truth:


1: There are stories, fairly recent ones, about a mysterious city that lies somewhere in the Grand Canyon, in an area that is closed off to the public due to supposedly "unsafe" conditions-so unsafe infact that they won't even allow expert rock-climbers into the area. It's pretty easy to Google this one.

http://www.xpeditionsmagazine.com/ma...on/canyon.html

Years ago I read a version of this story that suggested the city was infact a "city of ghouls", and that the "ghouls" came out at night to steal people-which is why the area has been sealed off, to contain the hordes of nightmarish, immortal CHUDs.

2: Other stories from the 18th and 19th century concerns settlers and farmers discovering gigantic humanoid bones buried in various "Indian" burial grounds. This one can also be Googled.

3: There's supposedly a ranch in Utah, known as the "Skinwalker Ranch" where mysterious supernatural and UFO events supposedly occur. This one's in Wikipedia (the article is a bit vague, but contains lots of interesting ideas). The Ute Skinwalkers themselves are pretty interesting-being either a sort of monstrous lycanthrope, an extremely powerful shaman, or both at the same time. Apparently, the Skinwalkers were either sent by the Gods to punish the Ute, or the Ute all used to be Skinwalkers, but they used their power for selfish reasons, and were cursed, so most of them set their powers aside, but a few held on to them and hid themselves away.

I've often thought that it would be interesting to have either a nation of ghouls, or a Native American undead nation (or both!). Maybe with Skinwalker and giant units/summons.

Here are a few links to sites with Native American stories:

http://www.livingmyths.com/Nativesum.htm

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/loreindx.html

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Le...egends-AB.html

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

I'd absolutely love to see an aboriginal Australian nation complete with bunyips and all sorts of supernatural nasties (like the vampire who's specific name I can't recall that looked like a tiny man with octopus suckers for fingers that'd find people asleep under trees, swallow them whole, and then spit them out slightly drained night after night until they gradually transformed into another vampire).

I'd also love a native american nation complete with skinwalkers and totemic spirits. The problem is of course that there were a whole lot of native american nations with a very diverse set of mythologies. I'm certain that wouldn't be a problem to abstract though, maybe their pretender god united the nations or somesuch. If I recall correctly, skinwalkers were supposed to be shamans that had given up their humanity and wore animal skins that allowed them to transform into animals. They were tremendously powerful and subtle when they wanted to be, and were figures to be both revered and feared.

On the literary side, I'd like to see some influence from Michael Moorecock, he's an awesome and influential writer from back in the days when science fiction and fantasy were considered to be pretty much the same thing. I wouldn't really want a nation based on his work per say as it was generally your standard high fantasy fare, but a few summons that referenced his work would be nice. Maybe the major players of the war between law and chaos could make an appearance, as I'd imagine they'd have something to say in the war for ultimate godhood.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Yes, I've read the King of Elfland's Daughter, which is an incredible book, and the Book of Wonder. I would love to read more, but his other fantasy is extremely hard to find.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Ehh, I am pretty sure Hinnom et al are Jewish. Actually, I just looked it up, that is certainly the case. Did IW throw in the Annunaki to get the giant aspect? Not sure, as the Annunaki mythos in Sumeria does not include things like flesh-eating and such.

And as far as I know, there was no evidence that in Sumerian tradition, there was any interbreeding. In fact, from what we know, the Annunaki did not let ordinary people even into their presence, they had "temples" erected where they would take audience using their "priests" as mediators, IIRC.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Something about Dom3 I found interesting. The spell Streams of Hades summons a Kokythiad; but such a thing does not exist in Greek mythology. It is a perfectly reasonable type of naiad that could have existed, but apparently it didn't. It's very cool to blend mythology and fantasy in such a seamless way that you almost feel like the Greeks were the ones who messed up. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

The idea could be futher expanded. Here's a little excerpt from wikipedia:

"These rivers had names and symbolic meanings: the five rivers of Hades are Acheron (the river of sorrow), Cocytus (lamentation), Phlegethon (fire), Lethe (forgetfulness) and Styx (hate)"

Cocytus (Kokytos -> Kokythiad) and Styx are the popular rivers, but there's room for additional content to be created around the other rivers.

Ague of Acheron - Ritual that spreads disease and sorrow through a province by poisonous water bubbling up from Hades. (Same alliteration as Claws of Cocytus, just a different effect. Could be Agony of Acheron if you don't like the word Ague.)

Summon Phlegethiad - W/D path to summon a F/D or F/W mage

Alright, no more brainstorming. I'm keeping the rest of these ideas to make my own game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Good point. I tend to equate early Hebrew <=> Sumerian (it sure looks like they're drawing on the same source material, filtered through different lenses) but they don't have to be the same thing from a game perspective. And you've pointed out one big difference between the Annunaki and Hinnom's Grigori.

-Max

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

that just gave me a great idea for a race based off of scientology mythology http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/stupid.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Hahaha, I love it!

There needs to be a Xenu pretender too. 8 )

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Lingchih: Are you familiar with Project Gutenburg?

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/d#a2685

It's an amazing resource.

That's where I found The Gods of Pegana, as well as quite a few other writings of his.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Oh my. I had forgotten about Project Gutenberg. There they all are. And I had been about to spend over $100 buying them online.

Thanks Honeybadger!

(alhtough I am still glad I bought a copy of the King of Elfland's Daughter... the cover is beautiful, and I much prefer reading from a book than reading onscreen). And it appears that it is not available on the Gutenberg site anyway.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

that's perfect. perhaps a Tom Cruise rainbow mage one too.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Lingchih: You're allowed to do whatever you like with the free Gutenberg ebooks, even publish them for sale, so feel free to print them out if you want http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Although I'd personally prefer you do so on recycled paper, or best quality rag paper for that matter, treehugger that I am.

Should I ever retire with enough money to do so, I might decide, as a part time business, to publish some handmade Gutenberg editions for sale.

I'm currently reading the Worm Ouroboris, which is another classic. It's not on Gutenberg, but it can be found here:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ring/two/index.htm

I have no idea how "free" it is, though, so you may want to research the site before you print out a copy.

Here's the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft on a different site: Again, I've no idea of it's copyright availability, but his work is generally considered to be in the Public Domain. It also includes links to works by Poe and others, as well as the complete texts of Dracula and Frankenstein, the Picture of Dorian Gray, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and the Phantom of the Opera.

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

And, just to round it out, here's a link to the Baen free library, which contains numerous more modern fantasy and sci-fi titles.

http://www.baen.com/library/

I wasn't able to locate a copy of the King of Elfland's Daughter online.

Here's a book by William Morris that might be of interest to us Dominions fans: There's a link to the Gutenberg text at the bottom of the page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Wolfings

This link is to as complete a collection of the works of William Morris that I could find online:

http://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/index.htm

and to Shakespeare-and certainly, he wrote some fine fantasies:

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/

As far as Moorcock goes, I consider him to be the most important author of fantasy after Tolkien-and far, far more relevant. Here's a fun little essay of his called "Epic Pooh" that lays out extremely well my own viewpoint on fantasy-which is that fantasy, myth, the spirit, our soul and our beliefs are an integral part of who we are at every age, in every situation.

http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.php?id=953

You'll note that he's kind enough to introduce us to quite a diverse group of well known, and lesser known, fantasy authors-which he makes a good case for being better writers than J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

I hope you enjoy!

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

By the way, concerning the last link, and considering that the question of age being balanced against maturity comes up often enough on these forums that it's worth discussing.

I'm finding, the more I age-and I'm aging quite fast and not terribly well-the more I recognise that I'm the same person I always was. The thing that has made me who I am-this person that I consider to be more or less an adult, has been accumulated knowledge and experience, added on to-but not replacing-the child that I was. There was no great transition, no vast shifting from one form to another, just a recognition that I was expected to 1: grow--in depth, knowledge, power, competence, dignity, open-mindedness, whatever the things are that lead to the respect we wish for ultimately as adults (for, after losing all the greatness, the godliness, of youth, that respect is the only thing we have to replace it with, love-however wonderful, being no trump to time, your mind however quick and sharp, inevitably becoming outmoded and outpaced by the sheer speed of the world as it passes you by, and dignity perhaps having gone last, but most thoroughly of all.)--and 2: to make a bunch of really hard choices, the first of which was what kind of adult-and how much of an adult-did I want to be?

Being an "adult" and being a "child" both have their benefits, and downsides. There's no reason you have to lose your sense of wonder, your spirit and energy-atleast mental energy-your beliefs, your own legends, and the magic that lives within you-as an adult. I think we often fear that to keep the good parts of being a child will cost us something-cost us some of that respect that we dearly, desperately crave as an elixer against Time. And it may. There's often a price to pay for magic, after all. But, if we hold on to that inner child, the fantastical child of wonder that we carry within us, then that child will grow, as we grow, into an adult-powerful, knowledgeable, dignified, mature. Demanding and deserving of respect, even as our bodies grow and age.

Because as we grow, and make the hard choices, and live the hard lives that this world demands, and keep our Selves from being swallowed up by Despair, our spirits grow, even as our bodies age. And as we use our imaginations, building upon them, creating an inner world of ever-increasing complexity and depth, our spirits are able to live and breath and open up windows through which our inner worlds and the outer World can flow together, and we can come to recognise each within the other. And our spirits, through our child's belief and faith, and our adult's open eyes and hard-gained wisdom, might indeed live on forever, beyond the respect, beyond a lovely well-attended funeral of this world, to a Heaven of our own making-born from every myth that we embrace and reality that we endure-that we build in our own imaginations, and live every day, and in dying, pass on to Something that we have Foreseen.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Tom Cruise should be one of their heroes. Stealthy, Awe..... 4 arms. >.>



And Badger Badger Mushroom Badger, that was deep, I am thoroughly impressed by your clarity of expression. <3

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Thanks! I don't want this post to go too much off-topic, since I'm the one responsible for the topic, but I seem to have as much philosophic angst about getting older as I did when I was young, about growing up.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

what a beautiful existential reflection.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Australia-themed nation is an absolute must! And I love those vampire squid-hands guys. We really, really need an early age "The Dreaming Time" Australian nation. It's the only continent-including Antarctica! (LA Atlanteans? maybe? ok I admit they're based on Alaska through Lovecraft-tinted lenses-but until someone makes a Penguin nation, it'll have to do...Caelum: The Penguining? Anyone?). But still, it's a woeful lack. A woeful lack I say!

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

EA: Auborea - Dream Time
MA: Auborea - Enter The Penguin
LA: Auborea - The Iceman Cometh


>.>

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

I don't think penguins are quite right for Australia...I don't think I'm the authority to judge what would be, though. Are there Australians or New Zealanders among us?

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Well it's mostly a matter of relative proximity. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Though, I believe there is a variety of small penguins living off of Tasmania, but maybe it's just puffins. God I love puffins. >.>

I don't think any nation would have a strong case for penguins other than an Australian one, or Mictlan. Those two are seriously the closest you might get. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Well, Machaka being Zulu, they come from more southern parts of Africa, right? Just not many people/cultures near the south pole.....

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

I thought they were Shona (p.118).

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati *DELETED*
 

Post deleted by HoneyBadger

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Shona's a real possibility. My own theory is that they're meant to be Ashanti.

They could also concievably be Maasai, or based on Great Zimbabwe.

I'd love to see nations based on the Zulu, the Maasai, Zimbabwe/Great Zimbabwe/the Shona, the Lemba (with their Jewish heritage and possible connection to the Ark of the Covenant, the Nubian kingdoms (maybe once a colony of C'tis and then Ermor, and influenced by them, but with their own culture and take on things), the Pygmis/the Congo (African Pangaea? or a very unusual Hoburg nation? Both?), Aja/Fon/Dahomey/Benin (perhaps a blood nation not unlike Machaka?), The San of the Kalahari (perhaps centered on the Tsodilo site? Maybe something similar to MA Agartha, only with giant stone paintings, instead of giant stone statues, coming to life, in combination with sacred undead and spirits?). The Malagasy (and other tribes) of Madagascar (Lost World, anyone?), and Sheba/Zanzibar/Ethiopia (for an African themed nation that gradually becomes more Arabic, and then more Judeo/Christian-giving us a strong, relatively good nation in LA, and/or is influenced by the Kingdom of Prester John stories.)

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Manual mentions that the Eye/Ear/Mouth is based on Shonai, and DryaUnda provided the page where this is stated. The military might have something from the Zulu. I know their Assegai spears were famous somehow, and Machakans have their own type of spears.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

I don't know enough about the Shonai to speculate about that, so I'll have to do some research before I comment, but the Assegai spears were very short, with long leaf-like blades, almost like machetis or swords.

The Assegai spear, by the way, was originally a Berber weapon, that spread throughout Africa-and don't be confused, because the Zulu actually refined the original Assegai design, making the blade larger and broader, and naming the new weapon the "Iklwa" or "Ixwa". So, there's a little bit more to the story than was told in the Shaka Zulu miniseries (quite good, though) that ran when I was younger man.

http://therionarms.com/antiques/central_africa.shtml

This website has some nice pictures of African weaponry. There was also, years ago, a very good Dragon Magazine article (atleast for fantasy purposes) on the more unusual African weapons, but I couldn't tell you which issue it was in.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Well actually I lifted the Zulu claim from that specific post, Badger. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif To be honest, I do think they are an amalgamation of African content (which complicated things, as numerous potential nations are already represented), and consider that with actual Hoplites, it would seem that one of the influences is in fact Nubian.....

Anyway, I think the penguin warriors should actually be a part of Kiwikuna, which would be a paradoxical blend of Zealand and Hawaiian cultures. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/redface.gif The penguins would be their sacred, amphibious shock troops, of course. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Honestly, I've got to be one of the few people who just don't like penguins. I don't really dis-like them, but I dated a woman for a time who adored them, and as badly as that relationship ended, it forever tainted them for me. Not their fault, admittedly, but they don't really interest me enough to bother finding any special affection where I naturally have none.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

That said, it might be interesting to see a sort of Arctic version of Kailasa-with anthropomorphized penguins of various sizes replacing monkeys, polar bears replacing gorillas, arctic foxes for scouts, and amphibious walrus troops.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Bonus trivia I found out this weekend:

Sedna (ie "Prison of Sedna") is from Inuit mythology.

Loosely retold: She was drowned by her suitors for choosing an animal as her mate instead of a human, and now she sits at the bottom of the sea, with the sins of mankind collecting in her hair. She had her fingers cut off while trying to hold onto the boat, so shamans have to go underwater (spirit trance style) and comb her hair or else the sea won't have its bounty of huntable animals.

Re: Epics, Sagas, Fantasies, Mythos, Legends, Nati
 

Nice http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif