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Project Myra - Creating a Virtual World With You
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| Deities and Demigods (1) |
[Jul. 12th, 2005|02:03 pm] |
The Deities and Demogods of Myra (Part 1) - The Genealogy of the Gods
With one of the newly-found contributors here the topic of deities and demigods already came up, so I'll try to give you a brief overview over this worlds deities and demigods, who stands where, who is the goddess of cats, of fertility or amazons, who is the god of justice or dark magic or the sun... etc.
There is a unified myth that includes all the deities and demogods ever invented for Myra, by referencing any new deity for compatibility with the existing ones. This is pretty much what will happen if you invent a new cult, too.
Or as seen from inside Myra, there is a sage in Athanesia on Karcanon, who collected all the myths, made a synopsis and discovered the system behind all this, how the god of the scales of balance Artan is also revengefull Gondur, both obviously being the raven-gods... And this sage, Fra Martinus, Guildmaster of the Green Cross of Carthanc, presents you this genealogy of the gods. (As crooked and complicated as the greek, american indian, celtic, sumerian or norse mythologies, you'll see, therefore if you were inspired in your own storiesby any of these, we can fit them in)
A white circle indicates deities of light, a black one those of darkness. Gender should be obvious, except with old slimeball, Kuor-Tulmak, the patron deity of evil toads, where you can't even determine gender.
Chnum, is the father god and male head of the pantheon, the god of light, of gold, of fertile crops and successful leadership, formerly seen as the sun, Aro, too.
Dena is the mother goddess whith all the aspects you'd expect, from the moon and witchcraft to the waters etc.
Borgon is the earth (and chaotic god of earthquakes) and wolfgod, Norto is the great sea and whale-god (and of orderly sea-trade), Grewia the moon and cat-goddess. Marlilith is the mother of all evil, the dark mother of the three prime gods. So the moon and the sea act together with the tides, the wolves howl at the moon because Borgon wanted Grewia (or Ildru..hu...huuu...), and Marlilith seduced him in Grewia's shape to get his sons.
The strange part comes with the twin deities, Anur&Pura (one of the seven planets around Aro is the twin planet AnPur), who with their totem animals represent lion (Anur) and tiger (Pura) and in aspects luck (Pura, with the wheel of fortune) and death (Anur, guardian of the realm of death). While Anur is strict and deadly in protecting the realm of death (and killing those who want to interfere in order to bring back the dead), he is not utterly negative in aspects, and certainly not on the dark side. For some druids he also represents the circle of life, for something must die for something to grow again. And indeed besides Kandy, the hawk-winged huntress and goddess of amazons, his other daughter with Pura is Jaffna, the unicorn-loving goddess of spring, so from death with luck springs new life. This young life however was so attractive, that when Jaffna, the goddess of innocent love, went to her father Anur for the life of her mortal champion, more than once, he coerced her to stay with him for a while, and they had sons together, more than once. Dondra, the eagle-god, patron of rune-smith's and trickster-god of gypsies and happy pirates, was when grown up so much of a man that Jaffna fell in love with him - and how could he resist falling in love with the goddess of innocent love? In this world she never was his mother, for that was in the realm of death, not on Myra. So their union is the most love-struck one, they are the lovers on the tarot card, and never were untrue to each other. Another lucky couple was Anur&Jaffna's other son, Thagoth, the god of science and architects (and of neutral dragons), with Kandy, the paragon of self-discipline.
And while the son of Dandra&Jaffna, the dolphin-god Mannanaun (also called Argendor), was a jack-of-all-trades, he got megalomaniac after he became the consort of the mother-goddess Dena, and started a revolt against Chnum, in order to become the new head of the pantheon. Twice he started revolt, and twice (like Napoleon) he was thrown down in a concerted effort. At first he had the other gods of chaos on his side, (the first war of the gods: Chaos against Order) but got defeated, then he got tempted by Marlilith to join their side, and -insulted by his first defeat- he agreed (the second war of gods: darkness against light) and this time Dena had no inclination to join him in his exile, as she hates Marlilith most of all beings in all worlds. Powerless, nameless with most, he is now the nameless banished god in the exile of his tower in the middle of a deep sea lake somewhere in the deadly desert of Zun.
Manuijan, the bold and wild and aspriring chaotic leopard-god, who was bestowed by god-father Chnum with the task of driving the wagon of the sun over the skies, was seduced at night by Marlilith, who didn't want the sun Aro to rise anymore, so the only light would be the dark sun of her dark son Sethos-Eth. The child from this pair didn't turn out to be dark, it was Zamnait of the helping hand, the badger-god of healers. But Marliliths dark seed come to life in one of her grandchildren, Pottundy, the crazed deity of madness, mother of cannibalism and harpyie-goddess, patron-deity of assassins all over the world (think Kali from India to get an idea).
Parana, to make a long story short, is the dove-winged goddess of peace and healing magic, who's followers try to heal the world (the world is her card on the tarot deck) while Seeker is the god of the magic of light, who fought Marlilith in the second war of the gods so successful, that she in turn cursed him to fall out of heaven and live with the mortals he fought for, on the surface of Myra. He is the hermit in the desert, seeking the light of the heavens again, and the hermit is his card.
Continued here: Part2: Names and Aspects of all Deities and most Demigods
More in detail later, or you take a look at http://projektmyra.de/religionen2829.html (german!) with all the subpages to be found there. |
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| Myra, Machairas, Magic... |
[Jul. 10th, 2005|10:43 pm] |
Myra, Machairas, Magic...... and More
Some basics on MYRA to get you going with your imagination.
Sun(s):
Myra has two suns. Now that you know that, you can forget it again. The second sun, the dark sun Yino, is rarely seen except by dark magic, and only every eight years is it close enough to be seen as a glowing crimson ball near Myra. Some astronomers from the VFA of Athanesia say it is rather some kind of comet, but as I said, you're free to ignore that.
Moon(s):
Myra has two moons, a large light-moon which behaves pretty much like ours. If it is full moon here, it will be full moon on Myra too. There is a smaller, reddish dark-moon, kind of a spooky athmo-moon, with extremely regular moon phases, exactly 16 over the course of one year.
World-Map
MYRA is a globe (and there is an actual globe of this world offline in my room, on a pedestal) though for simulation purposes we have projected the globe on the surface of a icosahedron, a d20, so to speak. Each side of that d20 is covered with a hex grid (48 small hexes in one big hex), that gives us a rough idea what the terrain in a certain area is like, predominantly. How rough? One hex covers about 100x100 miles, all deeper detail is up to the person who adopts (or in the simulation: rules) that part of our world.
Therefore: while a rough map of the world is provided by the team, detail is up to the storyteller, gamemaster or artist.
Oh and the surface is three times as large as that of earth. So there is plenty of room for your imagination.
The Compass-Rose and the two halves of Myra
There are, as you can see from the compass-rose in the picture above, twelve winds, twelve directions and twelve major star-signs in the upper hemisphere. Six major directions (sides of a big hex), six minor (sides of a small hex). For the start you will need just two: the upper one (in other worlds called 'north') is Machairas the sign of the sword, the lower one (in other worlds 'south') is called Ophis, the sign of the serpent. (Please *do* use these terms, instead of north, south etc) (more on directions)
Machairas - The World of the Warrior
Myra is separated in two halves by a large chain of vulcanic mountains, the 'bloody belt'. Machairas is the world of the warrior, male dominated and mixed like a standard fantasy world on a medieval tech-level, though you'll find amazons and queens aplenty. Each of the 12 segments (continents) of Myra's Machairas is odd-shaped and has a guardian, a wise keeper who rarely interferes with politics and mortals and need (or should) not appear in the stories. Everyone can adopt a part of the Machairas of Myra, be it a single character, a whole country or a part thereof, or even, rarely, a whole continent. All gameplay is set here, most stories and pics will be
Ophis - The World of the Witch
Things are complety different in the Ophis of this world, which is one straight matriarchy, ruled by a circle of 12 wise women, witch-queens, who have split the ophis-world like a cake with 12 slices, where witches act like local queens and have amazons to act out their petty wars. Man-servants are nice playthings, but rather weaklings, bred and raised as the inferior species.The Ophis of Myra has no simulation of the politics and thus no gameplay, but stories can be set there.
Magic and Technology
Myra is a fantasy-world, so there is magic. If you know D&D or related D20 material, you will more or less know what is possible and what isn't. Exceptions can and will be made for an exceptionally good story, as long as the balance of the world isn't toppled. Some wise men control even greater magic that spans (or burns) hundreds of miles and affects thousands of people - but such magic is extremely rare and only taught in the great Schools of Wizardry, of which the MSM Esoteria, the Myra School of Magic, is the greatest.
The level of magic you'll find is much lower than in classic D20 worlds (but higher than for example in Tolkien's Middle-Earth), magic treasures and magic weapons will be extremely rare but can happen and can be very powerful.
Technology is on a comparatively low level also (many human nations are not above what you'd find on earth in the early middle ages between 500 and 1000 AD). More is possible though, basically what would have been possible in the middle ages, not what actually was there. Three notable exceptions, though:
(1) a magnetic compass would not work, as there are no magnetic poles in this world. This makes sea-travel slower and mostly coast-bound.
(2) gunpowder would not work as the Powers-that-be have ruled that out
(3) glass is (and thus effective mirrors are) only available for followers of the demigod of light and good magic, Seeker, the hermit in the desert of Zun. The mystery of glass-making is a well-kept holy secret, not common knowledge.
Any questions, so far? Feel free to comment and ask. |
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| Welcome to MYRA |
[Jul. 10th, 2005|03:48 pm] |
I'd like to welcome joiners and guests alike to our SharedWorld concept, the project Myra
MYRA is the third of seven known planets in a solar system which it's wisest inhabitants call "the fields of Aro". It is a fantasy world, created by, described, simulated and played on by an unlimted number of people (over 1000) over an unlimited amount of years (over 20).
Any creative contribution is welcome, as is anyone who just wants to play along with a character of her or his own, or who just wants to use the vast background of Myra, out SharedWorld which we share here with you, as a background for their own creativity or their own role-playing campaign.
We will use tags extensively to make this LJ community as accessible as possible for the different uses. Roleplaying gamemasters will look out for the tag D20, while those wanting to roleplay their character here will go look for the tag RPG istead. There will be tags for Art, Poetry, Stories, and regional tags to show where in the world of Myra any contribution is set, like the continent I administer, Karcanon.
As MYRA started out over 20 years ago, we had the time to do, create and write quite a lot. Why is so little of that on the webpage or in the forum? Because back then in the old days, we published in print. Nearly 15.000 pages on Myra are printed, about half-and-half stories and background material, I would guess. Scanlations of that take an awful lot of time. Hence my warning: Any links to Myra-related background information will probably lead to a page in German, but I'll try to remember making a note on the language for non-english links.
And now, again: Welcome to MYRA! :-) |
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