How many people use mythology in their fantasy worlds?

[JaybieJarrett]

I have noticed that in my original works, I have many where I use actual mythology as a sort of starting off point for basing my fantasy worlds. I have one story with a parallel fantasy world called Olympus with countries named after the legendary kings and queens of old (who are of course, the greek gods) . In another I have a world where a multitude of mythologies are present and their 'gods' and huge figures are mages who have risen to the level of immortality. I also have another worlds with 'spirits' that are based on mythological figures and are patrons of some thing. They can take human form and interact with humans but have a lot of power and magic, and many of them are 'activated' by people finding or using some magical artifact of theirs.

Is this a common thing? Does anyone else tend to do stuff like this?

 

[DaFlaminUnicorn]

You are not alone. I usually have some sort of reference to Greek or Norse mythology. I love mythology so much. it is so interesting. anyway, I usually name people after things like medusa or gorgon. sometimes things like Excalibur or merlin. even Arthur.

 

[ScipioSmith]

Oh, god yes. The more I learn about mythology the more mythological stuff tends to go into my fantasy world, until it resemble the proverbial fantasy kitchen sink.

I remember going to the British Museum last year and seeing these Babylonian statues of creatures called Shedu, which are basically winged lions with the heads of men, with oiled and curled beards like persian kings. I just saw them and I thought 'right, I'm having some of them in my fantasy world'. And so it goes.

 

[Mythopoet]

Oh yes. I've been a lover of mythology since elementary school and my fantasy world partakes of all my favorite world mythologies: Egyptian, Greek, Celtic, Finnish, Japanese, Sumerian/Akkadian. I think most worlds are inspired, to some extent, my some mythology.

 

[Jabrosky]

Sometimes I will borrow place names from mythology. For instance, I may call a vast papyrus swamp "Aaru" after the Field of Reeds in the Egyptian afterlife. I think this technique can work if you want your fantasy world to have faint resemblances to real historical settings.

When it comes to the bestiary, I prefer prehistory as my resource pool. I've always loved dinosaurs, and even all the other prehistoric creatures could be as fantastic as anything humanity ever imagined.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

My stories always involve deities of some sort but they are all of my design, i never use pre-existing gods.

 

[Nagash]

I systematically build my own pantheons, mythologies and cosmogonies since Deities and their whereabout are at the center of my work. It's probably what i love the most in world-building. Using pre-existing figures, without the slightest change, is something i just find boring and uninspired.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I systematically build my own pantheons, mythologies and cosmogonies since Deities and their whereabout are at the center of my work. It's probably what i love the most in world-building. Using pre-existing figures, without the slightest change, is something i just find boring and uninspired.

Exactly! Btw, love your warhammer title. I'm a 40k fan myself

 

[Nagash]

Why thank you !

Who could possibly hate the tragic story that is the fall of Nehekhara ?

40k still awesome though - go necrons.

 

[Mythopoet]

Using pre-existing figures, without the slightest change, is something i just find boring and uninspired.

I have never seen a fantasy world that borrowed elements from some existing culture or mythology do so "without the slightest change". All the writers I have read take from the real world what they find interesting, often mixing up elements in new and interesting ways, adding their own unique ideas and presenting everything in fresh and different way. At least, that's clearly what they're trying to do. I've never seen anyone just take real world elements completely "as is" to use in their fantasy. You can argue about how successful individual authors are at this, but I don't think you can legitimately argue that authors aren't trying to use real world elements in interesting ways.

 

[Nagash]

I was actually avoiding to say that what inspired authors do are completely original works - every single things we incorporate in our world-buildings are pre-existing elements transformed by our imagination. Real-world cultures, ideas, characters, ideologies are omnipresent in any fantasy work. That is one thing.

On the other hand, i do known many people - not writers in particular - who often use real world elements (such as gods) and very thinly modify them, to such point that it just doesn't matter at all. I got this buddy of mine who created his own world for D&D; and while many things, such as geography, history, etc... are actually pretty neatly done, he basically copied and pasted the roman pantheon, at times not even changing the names. Granted, the civilization which worshiped said gods had very "Roman" traits, but it wasn't like his work was a uchronia or real-world fantasy stuff. In this case it juste appeared as lazy.

I do agree, however, on the fact, that most of the time writers elaborate a fairly original and personal universe based on real-life elements and historical figures.

 

[SM-Dreamer]

I pretty much spent my entire middle school years reading the section on mythology. Sadly they mostly only had Greek myths, but I reread them, and I think it's what cemented my fascination with fantasy; before that my interests varied.

I definitely use real world mythology as influences in my writing, but I don't do an exact copy-paste. I don't even take a god or such and just change the name. I try to look for what culture fits what I'm working with, what gods correspond, then how my culture would develop similar myths, figures, etc. If I need to tell a myth story, I might think of similar types and what elements need to be there.

So I guess I use real world myths as a base, and start molding it to what I need/want.

 

[Caged Maiden]

I think mythology is important to stories because it's important to human beings. It has been around since we could doodle on cave walls or scratch things into rocks or tell stories around a fire. We cherish our heroes, we worship our gods, we use stories to tell us how to life well.

Imagine a world without religion, without stories that glorified those who lived well and gave us the fate of those who made poor choices. Imagine a world without "what if's". It would be so hard to imagine. We as a species NEED stories, legends, gods, monsters, etc.

Every culture has history, oral or written. Their myths tell us what traits were sought and which were disgraceful. I'm thinking about Star Trek Deep Space 9 right now. Quark's Farengi (sp?) moral code. If you kill your brother because you hate him and got in a fight and he accidentally died, it's shameful, disgraceful. BUT, if you killed him for a profit...well then it's alright. Great, even. I think in fantasy, a mythology of sorts (whether expounded on or left as a background) gives depth, meaning and understanding to a culture, character, and world.

For my main fantasy series, I have a sort of loose mythology. I have gods, but not a pantheon who work together or interact. My gods are sort of like tigers. They come together to mate once in a while or get in a fight or defend their territory, but usually no one gets hurt and they have no direct use for each other in most cases.

I don't have a lot of mythology present in the books, as in story-telling of legends or whatever. A bit, but not much.

However, in short stories, I often do the opposite. I wrote on for Iron Pen that's written in the world of Norse Mythology. I also started a novella set in a world heavily leaning toward a fantasy Celtic culture, using their traditional law structure and societal structure. I invented my own superstitions/ magic/ world, but the monsters are right out of historical myths.