278 replies to this topic

[NiGHTMARE]

I think he got rather annoyed with them when they failed to defeath Lolth.

[Archmage Silver]

The only thing more dangerous than an annoyed mad god is a bored kender locked with you in a room with no door.

[Stone Wolf]

There's nothing dangerous about a kender, they're simply very, very, very f*****g annoying. But if you slit the little creep's throat, he won't annoy you much at all.

Loviator is Ao's sister, she's not even Amaunator's sister. She is an interloper goddess from the real-world Finnish pantheon.

Oh, even a dead kender will find a way to annoy you.

[Archmage Silver]

She is an interloper goddess from the real-world Finnish pantheon.

Eh? I don't think so...

[NiGHTMARE]

Several FR gods are clearly inspired by the Finnish pantheon, but I'm not sure they're neccessarily supposed to be the Finnish gods. I say this because the Finnish Ilmatar is female while the FR Ilmater is male, and their respective portfolios (creation and sky vs. endurance and suffering) aren't particularly similar either. The other FR deity whose name is from Finnish mythology is Mielikki.

On the other hand, the members of the Mulhorandi patheon are supposed to be aspects of the real-world Egyptian pantheon.

[Archmage Silver]

Yep, you got my point. And I'm quite amused whenever I see things inspired by the Finnish culture, like some of the gods and the place called Vaasa which is a real world city's name also. One of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's invented languages, Qenya, was heavily influenced by Finnish. And I'm from Finland myself, so its indeed amusing to see things like these and others, like in Icewind Dale II the Wandering Village's npc names.

[NiGHTMARE]

FR gods, place names and all kinds of other things are taken from numerous real-world mythologies. For example, there's Baal (Semitic god of rain, thunder, and lightening; Christianity turned him into Beelzebub, one of the fallen angels), Oghma (Celtic god of communication and writing), Orcus (Roman god of the Underworld), Selene (Greek goddess of the moon), Silvanus (Celtic & Roman god of stags), Tyche (Greek goddess of chance and fortune) and Tyr (Norse/Germanic god of law and war).

Then there's Baldur (Norse god of peace and innocence) and Tethys (Greek goddess of the oceans), both of which sound remarkably similar to places in Faerun. Balors are probably named after Balor (Celtic god of death and King of the Fomorians).

[Archmage Silver]

Tolkien's gods are his own inventions? Or did he take something from here and that thing from there when he was writing his books?

[igi]

It's always annoyed me that people take 'inspiration' from real-world things, it ruins suspension of disbelief imo

[Stone Wolf]

FR gods, place names and all kinds of other things are taken from numerous real-world mythologies. For example, there's Baal (Semitic god of rain, thunder, and lightening; Christianity turned him into Beelzebub, one of the fallen angels), Oghma (Celtic god of communication and writing), Orcus (Roman god of the Underworld), Selene (Greek goddess of the moon), Silvanus (Celtic & Roman god of stags), Tyche (Greek goddess of chance and fortune) and Tyr (Norse/Germanic god of law and war).

Then there's Baldur (Norse god of peace and innocence) and Tethys (Greek goddess of the oceans), both of which sound remarkably similar to places in Faerun. Balors are probably named after Balor (Celtic god of death and King of the Fomorians).

Heck, they've even got the different pantheons straight out of mythology. I had a wizard that worshipped Loki once.

[Archmage Silver]

Hmm... I don't think that Tolkien took any political or real world material from his life time when he created the middle-earth, since he hated allegories, but he did use some mythology and languages as sources of inspiration when writing.

[NiGHTMARE]

Middle Earth clearly has the most in common with Celtic mythologies (he was trying to create a new British mythology after all), though there are strong Norse influences as well.

[Archmage Silver]

And Finnish mythology as well, specifically from Kalevala.

[fallen_demon]

On the other hand, the members of the Mulhorandi patheon are supposed to be aspects of the real-world Egyptian pantheon.

Thats suprising, any plotlines realating to connections with real world, (which sound fun in theory but would probably turn out terrible)

I think rakshasas(sp?) are also from hindu mythology, although neither version are gods exactly.

[NiGHTMARE]

IIRC in 1st Edition D&D, Earth was an actual campaign setting .

[Archmage Silver]

That is surprising.

[Stone Wolf]

Not as surprising as the module with a spaceship.