post-0 AD idea: mythology

[oshron]

DPFAR: i DID manage to squeeze in another authentic critter for the aztecs, the Tlahuelpuchi. its a shapeshifting vampire, but its technically of tlaxcallan origin (i gave it it Nanauatzin partly because i decided that minor god wouldnt be available to the major god Quetzalcoatl because the tlaxcallans hated the aztecs). now i just need to bullshit up a myth unit for Mixcoatl

Edited January 6, 2012 by oshron

[oshron]

i finally got a myth unit for Mixcoatl! i call it the Tlacotleyoalli, but its technically an invented myth unit. the name is (roughly) nahuatl for "night lord", and is based on the Lords of the Night from mesoamerican calendars, nine deities who ruled a particular night, cycling every nine nights. there will probably be reference to the Black Sun of mesoamerican myth as well

based on conversations elsewhere on the board, ive been considering most closely basing Godstorm's romans on the hypothetical imperial romans that would be included in part 2 of 0ad itself, and thus make them of Trajan's era. this would probably work best since it would also provide justification for them having deified emperors (caesar, augustus, aeneas, and romulus are who i decided on, iirc) as well as present them at their greatest extent and strength

this makes me wonder, though, what should their hero types be? i had originally planned to make them a "heroic" civilization since they have alot of historical characters that i could use (remember, "heroic" civs would receive named characters as opposed to generic heroes like the norse jarl or "rulers" like the egyptian pharaoh). i suppose i still could, though, but just give them different figures like military commanders (scipio comes to mind), as well as whether or not i should include those who would later become the byzantines.

Edited March 18, 2012 by oshron

[Mythos_Ruler]

Some non-Empreror notables for heroes: Belisarius, Agrippa, Agricola.

[oshron]

agrippa sounds like he'd be a good choice if the romans are a heroic civ, but belisarius wouldn't work since these are supposed to be pagan romans

[Mythos_Ruler]

Yeah, Belisarius will definitely be a hero for the Eastern Romans if we include them in Part 2.

Agrippa is one of the cooler figures in the early Empire.

[oshron]

ill have to look more into him, then. which agricola did you mean, though? cuz im not very well informed on ancient roman historical figures '

[Mythos_Ruler]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Julius_Agricola

[oshron]

oh, he DEFINITELY works, then!

one thing i still want to figure out, though, is which of the roman major gods will get what heroes. one thing i decided on is that, in general, heroic civs should have more varied sets of heroes (the greeks get a different set for each major god while the hittites will get a different hero depending on what gods they worship). any ideas for what could work best for the romans?

[oshron]

since the romans are on-topic, i thought i'd just repost what i have for the romans so far, kinda for quick reference on my part since all the information i have otherwise is on an external harddrive:

Major Gods

1. Quirinus (deified Romulus)
   
2. Vesta (goddess of the hearth)
   
3. Mars (god of war)

Minor Gods

• Pomona
  

Available to: Quirinus, Vesta

Phase: Town

Myth Units: Arachne (giant spider, or possibly spider-woman, that uses webs to tangle up enemies)

Janus

Available to: Vesta, Mars

Phase: Town

Myth Units: Automaton (metal soldier that can heal wounded automatons and even repair dead ones if they are fast enough)

Vulcan

Available to: Quirinus, Mars

Phase: Empire

Myth Units: Cacus (fire-breathing giant)

Augustalis (deified Augustus)

Available to: Vesta, Mars

Phase: Legend

Myth Units: Charybdis (sea monster that creates whirlpools), Laistrygonian (cannibal giant)

Bacchus

Available to: Quirinus, Mars

Phase: City

Myth Units: Faun (goat-man bard that boosts allied morale with music, and can be upgraded to have a powerful sound-based attack, "Panic")

Julius (deified Caesar)

Available to: Quirinus, Mars

Phase: Legend

Myth Units: Gigantes (giant myth unit that looks like a half-man half-dragon)

Neptune

Available to: Quirinus, Vesta

Phase: City

Myth Units: Khalkotaur (giant bronze bull), Siren (ocean nymph that uses sound to paralyze ships)

Cybele

Available to: Vesta, Mars

Phase: City

Myth Units: Ladon (multi-headed serpent)

Venus

Available to: Quirinus, Vesta

Phase: Empire

Myth Units: Polyphontid (based on Agrius and Oreius), Scylla (multi-headed sea monster, essentially a naval version of the Greek Hydra)

Saturn

Available to: Vesta, Mars

Phase: Empire

Myth Units: Python (giant snake)

Carmenta

Available to: Quirinus, Mars

Phase: Town

Myth Units: Teumessian Fox (teleporting fox)

Indiges (deified Aeneas)

Available to: Quirinus

Phase: Legend

Myth Units: Vrykolakas (vampire-werewolf)

i dont think i ever actually made any plans for what the roman mortal units would be, but i think my intention was always to make it a composite of the republican roman and what would eventually be the imperial roman units, cross-comparing each one

Edited March 20, 2012 by oshron

[Mythos_Ruler]

Hmmm. The obvious major gods should be the Capitoline Triad.

EDIT:

Also, you can use the indent button on the right side to add additional steps to the outline, like so:

Minor Gods

• Town Phase
  • Pomona
    • Available to: Quirinus, Vesta
    • Myth Units: Arachne (giant spider, or possibly spider-woman, that uses webs to tangle up enemies)

    [*]Janus

    • Available to: Vesta, Mars
    • Myth Units: Automaton (metal soldier that can heal wounded automatons and even repair dead ones if they are fast enough)

Or something like that. Makes things extra tidy.

[oshron]

figured as much tbph, this board isnt as versatile as some others, but it honestly doesnt need to be. in fact, my own message board is alot clunkier

i based the roman gods here (most of them, at least) on ones that were assigned a flamen historically, but i also didnt want to just copy the greek gods, hence why a fair number of the gods in there aren't ones that were part of the planned greek pantheon. i made Quirinus (Romulus), Vesta, and Mars the good, neutral, and evil roman gods, respectively, based on the roman foundation myth: that Romulus and Remus were the sons of a Vestal virgin who was raped by Mars. so Quirinus (Romulus) is cast as the good guy and Mars as teh villain even though he was much more likeable than Ares, with Vesta as a "filler" neutral god. of the major gods, Vesta is the only one that wasn't assigned a flamen maior (at least according to wikipedia ).

and, of course, the legend phase gods are all deified emperors. Indiges (Aeneas) is given to Quirinus because of the alternative Roman foundation myth, that Aeneas fled the destruction of Troy and eventually settled in what would become Rome; his myth unit, the Vrykolakas, is supposed to be in vague reference to the she-wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus, part of the reason why its only available to Quirinus (i actually based the minor god setups for alot of deities based on what myth units would therefore become available to each major god, like Poseidon for teh greeks getting the minor gods that grant the Cyclops and Minotaur based on mythology, as well as all of the greek naval myth units)

EDIT: i decided to go back and fix up the list with indentations for easier future reference

Edited March 20, 2012 by oshron

[oshron]

what does everyone think would be some good demigod/champion units that i could include for the romans? these can derive from the entirety of roman history rather than just from trajan's era, because Godstorm focuses on mythology rather than absolute history (though is supposed to be accurate otherwise). Praetorian Guards are pretty much a must, so those'll probably go in for either Quirinus or Mars (probably Quirinus since he basically represents deified emperors), but another one that i planned for inclusion as the champion unit available to all romans is the Gladiator, which would be armed with a trident and have a special net attack whereby he throws a net over a single infantryman to tangle them up, leaving them open to attack for a few seconds

[Veridagorin]

I Got an idea for a Japanese god power the Kamikaze it means divine winds these storms destroyed 2 Mongolian fleets when they tried to invade Japan

basically this power will destroy all human ships in its area off effect and scatter all sea myth units if done on land it will scatter an army doing minimal damage.

[oshron]

I Got an idea for a Japanese god power the Kamikaze it means divine winds these storms destroyed 2 Mongolian fleets when they tried to invade Japan

basically this power will destroy all human ships in its area off effect and scatter all sea myth units if done on land it will scatter an army doing minimal damage.

i think there was always gonna be a hurricane/typhoon godpower in for the japanese (or perhaps tsunami) in reference to that, but keep in mind that im also considering other civs as well; if the japanese get tsunami, then hurricane might go to the mississippians or aztecs

any other input you might have would be much appreciated

[oshron]

quick question, id like some second opinions. im working on revising the articles for all the civilizations on my database site and decided to work on teh greeks first. my question is this: Should the second Champion unit available to Poseidon be the Hetairoi or a Cataphract?

[Mythos_Ruler]

quick question, id like some second opinions. im working on revising the articles for all the civilizations on my database site and decided to work on teh greeks first. my question is this: Should the second Champion unit available to Poseidon be the Hetairoi or a Cataphract?

The Cataphract is more of an Eastern thing. "Hetairos" is more closely associated with Greeks/Macedonians.

[oshron]

The Cataphract is more of an Eastern thing. "Hetairos" is more closely associated with Greeks/Macedonians.

thanks for your input maybe ill relegate greek cataphracts to a unique technology, then; im pretty sure ive got a cavalry-oriented greek minor god in there somewhere

[oshron]

another request for second-opinions: im thinking of replacing Zeus' champion unit, the Myrmidon, with a Hypaspist or Pezhetairos, and am also thinking of just making the unique champion units for each of the greek major gods a macedonian unit (or at least macedonian-themed, since ive already got poseidon having the companion cavalry). alternatively, each one will be from a different major culture in ancient greece, with poseidon having macedonia, zeus having athens, and perhaps sparta for hades. thoughts?

Edited May 23, 2012 by oshron

[oshron]

its sort-of intended as a spiritual successor to AOM

[Asterixfan]

The carthaginians seemed to include a bunch of different gods/deities. They had a lot of Phoenician gods though

[Loki1950]

The carthaginians seemed to include a bunch of different gods/deities. They had a lot of Phoenician gods though

To be expected as they where a Phoenician colony

Enjoy the Choice

[oshron]

the Phoenicians/Carthaginians are, indeed, planned for inclusion as part of the Semitic civilization, along with the Hebrews and the Canaanites

[oshron]

this is partly just to bump the thread in the hope of getting more input, but an idea also occurred to me recently pertaining to the Hindus. perhaps the archaic Indian caste system could be simulated with the Hindus by making each basic unit available to them more economically-specialized (e.g., perhaps infantry swordsmen could only farm) but they would be exceptionally good at that one task (aside from fighting). another is that their Major Gods could be redefined as bieng Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva; going on the "good-neutral-evil" setup for every other civilization, this means that Shiva would technically be the "evil" Hindu god and i don't like this definition, but it fits him better than the other two because he's the Destroyer in Hindu cosmology (Brahma is the Creator and Vishnu is the Preserver, to put this in context)

[Lion.Kanzen]

We can Share Units. i think all mod can Support each to others. even with Idawin can think in Giant Baal as Cheat for Bronze Mod(Aristeia).

We have Already Egyptian Units for New Kingdom.

Edited April 13, 2013 by Lion.Kanzen

[Pedro Falcão]

We could break that 3-gods standard, Oshron, and just make a shared god-worshiping tree for them, then for those who don't have as many major gods could have more minor gods. I'd like to see Ares as a fourth Greek major god, too. Then instead of good/neutral/evil, it would be more like air/sea/dark/fierce units.

I am fond, too, of other cultures besides these mainstream AoM cultures, I'd personally love to see some mesoamerican gods/entities.

A personal comment: I don't like that stereotype of "good-neutral-evil", mostly because i think Zeus is sometimes much more evil than Hades, Prometheus fate's just an example.