# My world's mythology



## Gryphos (Jan 12, 2014)

I've been coming up with the (or at least one of the) mythology for my fantasy world, including the genesis story. It's slightly different in that it doesn't actually include 'gods' exactly, but it does have divine beings(ish).

'In the beginning' all there was were two mountains far apart amongst an endless ocean. The sun was static in the sky and therefore it was always day and always light. One of the mountains was tall, reaching into the clouds, and it was the home of the Drakes (or the 'Drafasche' as they're referred to). The greatest of the Drakes was called Kol-Sathos, the primal being as old as the sun, who lived on the very peak of the tall mountain. The other mountain was shorter and wider, as well as black and hollow. The inside of the black mountain was the only place of darkness and this darkness spawned a newer race, the Griffins (Grithalc). The griffins lived and multiplied in the darkness of the black mountain, growing in power.
     The original griffin, 'Gryphos', was the first and therefore the strongest. Eventually Gryphos grew enough in power to be able to break apart the black mountain. Gryphos split open the mountain, allowing the griffins to leave for the first time. The first ever encounter between drakes and griffins was one of bloodshed. The griffin Feldorii killed the drake Steksid and crippled another, casting it into the ocean.
     This led to war between the griffins and drakes, a great battle. Gryphos fought Kol-Sathos and eventually managed to kill him, blasting his body into nine pieces with his song. The drakes surrendered immediately after the death of Kol-Sathos. Then the griffins put Kol-Sathos' corpse, along with the drakes, inside the black mountain and sealed it again. However, some drakes hid in the ocean to avoid imprisonment, and lay in wait.

So Gryphos was basically king of the universe, but it was boring, static. Griffins like action, change, events. They also like darkness, so Gryphos diminished the sun to a smaller form and put the removed material in the sky (the stars). Then Gryphos created the moon and put one griffin, 'Norcunus', in charge of pulling the sun over the horizon and the moon over, creating a cycle of night and day.
     But the world was still boring, so Gryphos sung a song that brought up new land from the ocean, simple rock formations. The rain that once fell into the ocean now flowed over the land in rivers. It's this time that the drakes came out of the ocean and found places to hide in the rocky mountains.
     Then Gryphos had to take a long rest. During this rest, a griffin called Blaritos fell from the top of the tall mountain and died from the collision. Blaritos' blood created grass, plants. The other griffins thought this was pretty neat and decided that plants should be everywhere, so they carried the seeds to every piece of land in the Domain. So plant life developed and thrived into countless forms.

When Gryphos woke up he thought it was pretty neat, too, and it inspired him to create complex life. So he and the griffins created complex life in the form of animals. This life was very fulfilling to Gryphos, but he wanted life even more complex, sentient life that could comprehend its creators. So he made the Lunra (basically like humans but taller and with grey skin). The Lunra worshipped the griffins, but their civilisation was primitive.
   So a griffin called Ikbus came to the Lunra and gave them knowledge, things like language and writing, how to mine for materials etc. So the Lunra civilisation grew and thrived on the central island, never venturing onto the other islands.

Then the drakes were discovered and the second drake war was fought, this time mainly by the Lunra, though the griffins did fight alongside them, wearing metal armour fashioned by the Lunra. Gryphos' power was drained by creating life, so he abstained from the war. In his place the griffin Feldorii led the griffins and Lunra to victory, driving the drakes once more into hiding.

So there was peace again and the Lunra devoted themselves even more to the griffins. Soon the griffins started revelling in pleasures of the flesh. They let the Lunra decorate the with necklaces and had their ears and wings pierced with gems. The griffins would attend feasts and become drunk from wine, as well as high from the fumes of special leaves.
   One griffin, 'Brakku', loved it so much he wanted his own species to devote themselves to him and him alone. So Brakku went to a small mountain and created life from the rock. But Brakku was not as powerful as Gryphos, so the life he created was lesser than the Lunra, small and squat. He created the Dwarrow, who worshipped Brakku.
   He tried to keep the Dwarrow hidden but they were eventually discovered and brought to Gryphos' attention. Gryphos let the Dwarrow live so long as they worshipped all griffins. Brakku reluctantly agreed and the Dwarrow soon had their own small civilisation, having been shown knowledge by Ikbus.

But Gryphos couldn't help but be inspired by this, so he yet again decided to create more life. Weaker than before, he couldn't create Lunra, but he could create something almost as good as Lunra, humans. He put humans on the other islands, but told Ikbus to now give them knowledge for fear of them starting wars with the Lunra.
     But humans eventually ended up developing technology by themselves anyway, having far greater ingenuity than the Lunra or the Dwarrow. Humans spread to every island in the Domain other than the central one, where the Lunra lived.

Then there was the third and final drake war. This time the drakes were led by a traitor griffin, 'Vistakrii', who killed Feldorii in battle due to his armour being superior. This time the drake onslaught was unstoppable. It wasn't long before they completely wiped out the Lunra and advanced on the tall mountain, ignoring the Dwarrow. Gryphos sung a song one final song. The song killed Vistakrii and most of the drakes, causing the remaining ones to hide once more. But this final burst of energy was one too many. Gryphos collapsed dead on the peak of the mountain and what few griffins remained went on.

Millennia passed again and humans began to settle on the central island, developing as they did, creating their own history. But the Lunra were forgotten from the world by everyone but the Dwarrow, who still remembered and worshipped the griffins just as they always did.


Sorry about the length, but I went quite in-depth with this. The worst part is I had to skip over some stuff to make it not overly ridiculous in length.

But basically, I just want to know if this is good in any way. Is it original? Is it interesting? Can it be improved? etc.


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## MVV (Jan 12, 2014)

I find it interesting and nice. Even quite original. Yet, there is a childish question you might want to prepare an answer for: what was there before there were drakes and gryphons? Before there were these two mountains?


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## Gryphos (Jan 12, 2014)

Yeah, that's always a difficult question, isn't it?

Well griffins were spawned from the darkness itself within the black mountain. And the drakes are the spawn of Kol-Sathos, who himself is 'as old as the sun'. But yeah, where the sun, the ocean and the mountains came from… I suppose they're eternal, being as old as the universe. It's really just one of those things you're not really meant to think about too much.


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## MVV (Jan 12, 2014)

Well, it does make sense to me now. Seeing Kol-Sathos as an original force... yeah. It slightly reminds me of Ogdru Jahad in the universe of Hellboy. Good atmosphere, in my opinion.


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## HÃ«radÃ¯n (Jan 12, 2014)

why did the griffons and drakes fight to begin with? was the first meeting like "Hey there are dudes over there lets kill them."? It seems like the drakes are the victims of griffon ambitions, is that true?


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## Gryphos (Jan 12, 2014)

In a way yes. It's a two sided thing. The griffins wanted the world, but it was Feldorii who wanted the drakes dead, seeing them as 'the other'. The drakes responded with war and the griffins fought back in self defence. Also, the drakes hate change, so they would've seen the griffins as threatening the static nature of the world. Throughout the ages drakes would attack the griffins for revenge. They're just opposites in every sense, drakes are light and eternity, griffins are dark and like change.


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## Yellow (Jan 12, 2014)

I like it, I think it's rather fresh. There's just one thing that bothered me, it's the part where the griffin Blaritos falls from the mountain and creates grass from his corpse. What of the corpses of the griffins that had died in the previous drake war? Why didn't they spawn grass or other life forms once dead?


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## Gryphos (Jan 12, 2014)

You know, I actually didn't think about that, but thinking about it now...
During the drake war there was no land, so any griffin corpse would fall into the ocean. And the blood would just disperse and not soak into the seafloor. Blaritos was the first griffin to die on land.


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## Nagash (Jan 12, 2014)

Love the idea of creation through the sung word, and melody creating life. Even on a metaphorical level, it's very compelling.

Very Tolkien of you. Kudos


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## Gryphos (Jan 12, 2014)

Thanks, it means a lot.


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## Yellow (Jan 12, 2014)

Awesome, that makes sense. You may also have the origin of marine life forms right there, or at least some of them.


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## Ireth (Jan 12, 2014)

Yellow said:


> Awesome, that makes sense. You may also have the origin of marine life forms right there, or at least some of them.



Ooh, I like that! Makes me think of the Inuit legend of Sedna.


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## Gryphos (Jan 13, 2014)

That may well work, the griffins' blood accidentally giving rise to basic forms of underwater life like algae.


But anyway, I did say that I skipped over some aspects of the Dwarrow/Lunra mythology, and that namely includes the Meigir. After the second drake war, the one that the Lunra actually fought in, Gryphos 'promoted' some of the key Lunra warriors into a powerful order, the 'Meigir', giving them special powers of various kinds. For example, the Lunra Xyphos was given power over fire, while Rasche was given the eyes of a griffin. Gallikar, who healed many injured warriors during the war, was given the power to sing like a griffin, thus being able to create life. While Rydalc, an impeccable archer who manned a great ballista, was given even greater aim. And there were various others, and all of them were given a degree of magical power. They were also allowed the privilege of riding on a griffin's back (if anyone else tried it, they'd be dead in an instant).

The point is that with the final drake war that wiped out the Lunra, many of the Meigir fled or went into hiding. Then as millennia passed and humanity developed in various civilisations, they developed their own mythologies and religions, creating gods of their own. However, often the gods they worshipped were actually Meigir. Xyphos came to be known as 'Ignitious' the fire god, and worshipped as such, while Rydalc (who it was thought died in the war, falling into the ocean from his tower-mounted ballista) was worshipped in that same religion as 'Deio' the water god. But an entirely separate culture worshipped Rydalc as 'the warrior of the waves', not knowing that their warrior of the waves was also Deio, who in turn was actually Rydalc.

This is the same for all of the other Meigir that fled. They ended up being worshipped by various cultures under different names, but they were always the same being, and was never actually the god they were claimed by their worshippers to be.


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