[MUD-Dev] RE: [MUD-Dev] RE: [MUD-Dev] Re: [MUD-Dev] RE: [MUD-Dev] Fantasy clichés (was: Acting casual abou t casualgamers)

[Raph Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
> Matthew Mihaly
> Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2000 10:58 PM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] RE: [MUD-Dev] Re: [MUD-Dev] RE: [MUD-Dev] Fantasy
> clichés (was: Acting casual about casualgamers)
>
>
> On Sun, 9 Jul 2000, Raph Koster wrote:
>
> > If this were the case, I'd expect to see Faerie in there, and it's damn
near
> > missing from AD&D. It's only the most central element of Western
mythology
> > after all.
>
> Hmm. I think a polytheistic pantheon seems more central to western
> mythology than Faerie.

Most of the Western Indo-European polytheistic pantheon melded with the
(primarily Celtic) myths of Faerie as we now know them. You can trace the
march of Indo-European languages and cultures across Europe with the ancient
cities named after one form or another of Lugh, for example (which includes
a startling number of cities that still exist today).

Among the key elements of prototypical Western polytheism are the tripartite
manifestation of a female anima, the fisher king and young stag/old stag
tropes, the horn/cauldron/grail of plenty, various forms of wild hunt/faerie
rade, and (in a manner quite telling of the way in which religion and myth
incorporate and modify history to their own uses) various overtakings of
sacred places or lands by other peoples, eg Milesians, etc.

In the more romanticized versions, these things become faerie; in the
religious manifestation, they are, well, religion. Given that actual
practice of the religion has by and large died out in terms of general
public impact, it all gets turned into faerie these days. But they are
inextricably intertwined.

And I think that as of this post, this thread is officially off-topic. ;)

-Raph




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