Other Tales of MU: In The Beginning

Typo thread!

You know what to do.

Re: Typo thread!

They dwelt in the forests and the mountains and they haunted the deserts and the oceans they went wherever Man went and they undid his works and they slew his children and they bedeviled him without relief, but they could not destroy him, though Man’s suffering was great.

Something is missing after "oceans", whether a period or a comma or the word "and".

Wonderful as always!

I wonder who went through the trouble of getting the draconic account!

ooo(k)!

Fascinating!
Is it just me, or does the Goblin history sound vaguely as if Lovecraft might get a look-in?

Re: ooo(k)!

That's been hinted at before, though I don't remember which story offhand. The goblins and kobolds never refer to their gods by name, only by epithet/description, and mostly their prayers are for them to not wake up.

Re: ooo(k)!

This is the reference I remember, though it might have been mentioned another time. Very Lovecraftian, which makes me really happy. ^_^

Re: ooo(k)!

Yes, that was definitely my thought...

The different perspectives expressed in the myths are so interesting -- the way the same events can be framed in such a variety of different ways.

But on the whole I think I like the dragons' story best. :-)

Fascinating...

It's interesting the consensus and overlap in these stories - that Erin has a single, underlying prehistory of the world in mind, but each faction has a distorted view of.

So it sounds like there are three "original" factions who claim ownership of the world. The Lovecraftian "chaotic" Old Ones, who controlled the world before the dragons came, and are responsible for goblins, the undead, and demons; The Giants (Norse Jotnar), who are responsible for ogres and dragons, and who pushed the Old Ones into dormancy with their dragons before or after retreating up some Yggdrasilesque tree into another world; the Gods, who are responsible for the humanoid races and the "natural" animals (and Khersis Dei in particular for Men)... which is why this story is told from three perspectives, since each one claims ancestry from a different faction.

Also interesting that, for the most part, the Gods are non-corporeal (Mother Khaele being a notable exception). The Khersians admit Khersis Dei needed the Star Drake to create his physical manifestation as Khersis upon the world.

And the men and the other races have a different opinion on the origins of many creatures - the Khersians believe the Gods created all the creatures that walk the modern earth, except Dragons that were directly spawned by the Drake... while the Ogres and Goblins believe that they (and possibly others) were created by Giants and Old Ones, respectively. This distinction is significant - the humans are aware of the Old Ones' existence, since they acknowledge the dragons' role in wiping them out... but they believe that the "evil" creatures of the earth (undead, demons) were created by other "new" gods, and not the original Old Ones that ruled the world before the Dragons came.

Interesting that everyone agrees that the Gods are merely the most recent rulers of the Earth - although the Khersians do not acknowledge the Giants' role in ridding the world of evil (and possibly shaping the world), since the Giants left before the Gods arrived.

Also, only the Khersians have a story for the origin of the world itself, implying that it was an accidental creation of the chaos of the Old Ones - the Ogres merely describe its shaping. They also have different ideas for where the sky-shell comes from - Khersians believe it was made by the Star Drake and predates the great war between the dragons and Old Ones, while the goblins believe it was made by the Gods after the dragons' victory. Both believe it keeps their enemies out - the goblins believe it keeps out other Gods, and the men believe it keeps out other Old Ones.

And how are storm giants related to the original giants? Another creation, like the Ogres? Or their direct descendants? Is Pala actually some sort of minor Titan? Pala obviously has some sort of deity watching over for her, so perhaps they draw power from the modern Gods, or do the Giants still exert some power over the world from their other world?

Very cool.

So humans are the martyrdom squad (moreso than Christianity! Well done MU-humans!), goblins are the Cthulhu cultists (fortunately for the rest of the world, Cthulhu cultists in a non-Lovecraftian world are just kind of funny and sad), and ogres are "our destiny to conquer" assholes. Seems like an excellent inspiration *not* to find religion. Ever.

Oh, and dragons are awesome. There should be more (greater) dragons in ToMU.

Love the Dragon's

"In the beginning, there were dragons.

And it was good."

Plain simple and to the point. We exist and that's good enough for us. Don't need none of those fancy creation stories the rest of those creatures got.

This was truly moving AE. I had chills reading the goblin creation and The Draconian myth brought a tear to me eye.
I also Have to note that I find it odd no one's mentioned the Giants, which was lovely and full of Stalks and no Jacks. I adore it.
in Admiration
E
( don't make fun of me for signing everything! I HAVE to... )

OMG I'd totally missed the Giants/Beanstalks reference! Thank you!

I'm seeing a lot of parallels here to Warcraft lore (not that Warcraft has ever been accused of stunning originality.) The Titans come to find a world rampant with creatures of primordial chaos, subjugate said elder gods and bring order form to the world, then set up dragons as care-takers while they're away.

This is the greatest thing I've read on MU in a long time.

Truly, AE, you are a goddess among writers, a true weaver of stories. And I mean that, too. Thank you. *goes back to her doodles*

<3 Scraps the Shameless Werewolf

updates

getting pretty scarce - 2 updates in 10days?

anyways last one was good... but im checking in less often due to the recent sporadic nature of content.

Re: updates

Heh, and the first one shows up.

Re: updates

Same here. Of course, social life and playtime always take precedent over work.

Re: updates

Of course. And this after we were promised more frequent updates.

Re: updates

Hey, don't abandon ship. You stuck around this long and look what it got you... you finally have a valid complaint.

Man seems to have put
The Khersis before the Egg
Let alone the Drake

Stay tuned for Star Drake:
The Next Progenetration—
Hors d'œuvres from Chaos

The Manx are coming
And we won't come back 'til it's
Ogre, Ogre there