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Myth making is hard stuff. Our own mythologies of Earth often repeat the same themes and elements because they work. That is why I don't hold it against the good folk at Paizo when the bit of myth-mashing they did for their new setting of Golarion borrowed heavily from epic episodes of other D&D settings. These stories cannot be solely claimed by previous authors because they too borrowed them from someone and so on, all the way back to the caveman. But just to get them off my chest, here they are a few I've touched on... 1. "Age of Darkness" is a classic pre-history theme. If I was making a world I'd use this appellation too. 2. The struggle against the God of Destruction by the combined might of all the gods is straight from the World of Greyhawk. A no-brainer as half the people at Paizo worked on the Greyhawk for years. Instead of Tharizdun, they've created Rovagug who is just as nihilistic and not as over-used. This is one of my favorite themes as it resonates well from myths like the Greek gods usurping the Titans or the Norse gods defeating Ymir, god of the frost giants. 3. "Earthfall" is another theme I enjoy. There is something about prehistoric asteroid collisions that gets me in the fantasy mood. Such objects fall on game settings with regularity it seems, leading to many uses like metal for magic weapons. Some asteroids however destroy entire civilizations, like the Cataclysm in Dragonlance where a "fiery mountain" fell on Istar when its Kingpriest demanded that he be given godlike powers. That story is interesting for comparison because now with Golarion we have a similar cataclysmic event that leads to a way mortals CAN be given godlike powers (The Test of the Starstone in Absalom). 4. When I attended the Secrets of Golarion seminar at Gencon 2010, they didn't dish on the mysteries of the Starstone, but I learned some other interesting tidbits about the possible future development of the setting. It looks like there will be no need to expose their oldest secrets any time soon which I agree with Pelor is for the best. That certainly doesn't stop me from coming up with my own version of events though. Myth making is fun. 5. My thanks go out to the people behind the Pathfinder wiki. Wee Jas would be proud. Oh yes, speaking of mysteries, before I forget. This week's hint to the cultist identity mystery is: A) Cultist #2 (the illogical one) said long ago that he had travelled all over the Flanaess (What he was doing in canon I cannot say). B) Both cultists often refer to each other as "brother" in a religious context. Neither are referred to as "sister" so I will qualify now that both are indeed male NPCs. Happy? More next week! -mortellan |
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