Difference between revisions of "User:Green riding hood/Notes"

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collected messages from the discord lore channel as they include comments from devs about their interpretation of the lore.
collected messages from the discord lore channel as they include comments from devs about their interpretation of the lore.


From Doug
== x ==
“A loose list, as far as I know, of confirmed gods:
Lochias, the Woof God
Daylig Dayn, the Stoneshearing God
Mo-Atona, the Godbeast Who Makes Balance By Being
Oruwe, the Mourning God of Borders
as does the pilgrim who helps the hero who comes down with Igochorr
Damoot
five magic rings.
NateAustin
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
17.08.2021
01.03.2019
Kralar is an old character we made in Wizardry VII, years ago, a mage type guy, and we used him to get a handle on how research might work in the game, way back when we thought that was going to be a thing. It's useful to have a character you can picture sometimes, when establishing some fiction.
Here's some real old stuff I wrote, way back when.
Heroic Death:
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/heroic-death.html
Zinylle:
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-eyes-of-zinylle.html
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/zinylle.html
Elmnic Wolfhue:
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/curses.html
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/elmnic-wolfhue.html
Steelhorns:
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/steelhorns-is-that-you.html
Heroic Death
I'm knocked to the stone floor of the cavern by the clacking claws. My bow is broken, so is my leg, and my shoulder is torn. I'd really pref...
The Eyes of Zinylle
Zinylle was a promising warrior. On her third battle, she was splashed in the face with the acidic venom of a Thrixl, and blinded. Even blin...
Zinylle
(See  this post  for story.)    The idea is that I illustrate these as a way of forcing myself to do character concepts, which in turn w...
Bild
Curses
Elmnic Wolfhue of Ogergin's Crossing faces down the last beast, as his comrades circle behind it. Suddenly it lunges, and its jaws tear at h...
Elmnic Wolfhue
Get like half a dozen more of these guys together and they'll summon Captain Planet.    PS- In case anyone cares about this kind of th...
Bild
Bild
I think the general themes of each monster is that the Gorgons reflect selfish desire that which corrupts, Morthagi tells of the fear of time and the perishable nature of life, Deepists talk about manipulation of desperation, Thrixl tell of the fragility of reality and ideology, and the Drauven are supposed to compare with humanity in terms of monstrous behavior
This channel is for fiction and lore set in the Yondering Lands, bring your stories!
I think the monster groups are all variations and twists on traditional enemy types in epic fantasy. Morthagi are a twist on the undead (being soulless constructs with a sort of skeleton aesthetic), Drauven are a variation of your classic kobold/goblin types, deepists are your Drow and dark elves, with Gorgons being a mixture of both Mind-flayers and the general 'monsterous beasts' category (chimera, dire wolves, etc).
== x ==
 
PocketLocket
There might be a thing where those lineages relate to common anxieties, hence their popularity. Or they fulfill some kind of narrative gap (Orcs, undead, and goblins are common enemies because you can fight scores of them and they aren't too difficult).
Anxious_Leopard
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  —  
12.08.2021
08.03.2019
Very late reply - I think the definition of a monster is what a human does not understand and therefore fears. I was doing some basic leopard lore research tonight for a personal project, and good old Pliny the Elder pops up with a theory that leopards are the spawn of a 'pard' and a wayward lioness. Pards have various definitions throughout the ages ranging from the antichrist to a very feisty cat beast, but some have stuck in heraldry including the fire-breathing type. The panther part of leopard lore taps into the subconscious - the dreamscape and the unconscious or subconscious darkness too. My point is it's a human creation in the mind based on fear, not fact. Monsters are human creations either the human self,  human manufactured or the human imagination. There are very few real monsters in the world that were not created by humans. I think Wildermyth weaves this philosophy in a bit too, although that could be me having some confirmation bias. Many "monsters" came into being with human interference.
Soooo what's the story behind our oh-so infamous gorgons? If we may know that is, understandable if the story is best saved for ingame experience. I feel as if they may be one of the more iconic threats simply due to their presence in the tutorial and their general Lovecraftian asthetic. Well just had my team mutilated by the deepest, feeling a lilttle like the cult/cosmic horror vibe might be a trend among the various foes of the yonderinglands.
nixylvarie
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
11.08.2021
08.03.2019
Who is Kralar? I’ve heard the name mentioned by in-fiction lore on the wiki several times. Some kind of researcher from one Yondering or another?
Here's some old lore, written back when "research" was a thing we wanted in the game. It gives a bit of flavor. https://wildermyth.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gorgon_Lore
Mōmoke
index.php%3Ftitle%3DGorgon_Lore
PocketLocket
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  —  
08.08.2021
08.03.2019
Embarrassed that only now I am realising how much of Wildermyth is inspired by Wheel of Time.
oooooo now that is interesting, not only the gorgon entry on the wiki but out of curiosity for the other entities I discovered the thrixl..... That led to the discovery of the "Draegon" and a Gorgon queen?!? Sounds like the universe may have deeper stories to uncover 😋
Oldwane's dagger specifically
== x ==
Nonin
Dakede
  —  
  —  
19.07.2021
23.05.2019
For me there are two meaning of the word monster.
Is Amdina Night actually part of the lore/fiction in the game or this would be where the legacy option for a hero not be playable comes in?
 
Bild
First one is about understanding. Or more like about not wanting to understand. Making world an easy place to understand. Just call them monsters and dont care anymore. They are monsters why should I try to understand them. They are dangerous, everyone knows that. Ask what they did in the past. They. Them. The other. Never, never me. Very dangerous word.
NateAustin
 
The second one is about feelings hidden inside of us. It exists there, somewhere. The feeling we try to forget. The feeling we were maybe born with. The ancient fear. The fear that we fight. When we are alone at night and we cant look both forward and behind. When we have to go long dark hall to the toilet. When we have to jump on our bed to avoid the darkness under it. When we are in front of fire and are glad for its protection because of the freezing feeling on our back. When something awakens inside us, something hidden, the monsters appear.
Lucidnonsense
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  —  
29.06.2021
23.05.2019
the term monster derives from a warning or an omen, the presense of a monster indicates something, the result of some action, some sin of mankind, some god getting drunk one night, a hungry creature taken out of its habitat. usually the term monster is used to describe something that goes against what the user of the word believes to be "natural" killing a monster might not actually make a difference, the monster is a symptom of some deeper issue (or non-issue) as was said before its can be a very personal question. an unnatural event might be one someone just doesn't have an explanation for.
Right now it's a randomly generated legend, we do that in a few places. It would be fun to hook those up to legacy heroes somehow but we haven't done that yet.
(I actually make my mindflayers questionably sentient but also less clearly evil)
== x ==
(but thats just like, something I made up because I find it interesting)
Magero
douglas
  —  
  —  
23.06.2021
13.06.2019
Some of this may be spoilers for folks, so keeping it vague (and also it's just vague by nature haha).
So, the fellow posts are the fiction I was planning to submit to the writing contest. Unfortunately, I badly understood the limit of the discord post. It wasn't a 2000 words limit but a 2000 characters limit. So, I'm out for the contest coz' I've absolutely 0 motivation to scrap down the story I took 2 days to come up with.
 
Please, be a bit indlugent with my grammar, english is not my native language. So, enjoy !
Mo-Atona from the first campaign is some kind of god. She doesn't do a lot, kind of just chills. And maintains balance. Probably fun to hang with.
(As a reminder, the theme for the writing contest was : Sacrifice)
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's a kind of forgotten god of borders and inbetweens in the Nostalgic hook. There's a stoneshearing god that the Deepists call upon, and whose gem turns your character into a crystal.
« Victory belongs to the one who is ready to make many sacrifices to achieve it. He must be ready to sacrifice everything, even his own happiness. »
 
These words, Dulahan had heard them all too often from his late father who, in the past, delivered the lands from the plague that was incarnated in the form of a Drauven horde. These words resonated in his mind as he prepared to enter a dark and deep cave with his fellow companions. It had been several months since the Morthagi had "woken up" thanks to the call of the Great Matron. Dulahan, proud descendant of the hero who pushed back the Drauven horde, could not remain idle and, without delay, formed a group composed of the sons and daughters of the former heroes who accompanied his father during his noble quest. During his journey to occipitate the Great Matron, which would end the Morthagi's awakening and save the lands, Dulahan had heard of a cave that would allow him and his companions to find a power powerful enough to accomplish their quest.
There's dragons dormant, now, all except for one who no longer lives on this side of existence, which are not gods, but have great power.
Among them was Eurydice, a lovely and flamboyant young woman who had inherited the sacred and burning fire from her late mother. Her presence alone radiated a warm and reassuring atmosphere in the group despite the fact that the number of Morthagi waking up kept growing, causing chaos and panic among the populace. Dulahan was deeply in love with her and, already, he saw himself succeeding in his perilous quest and founding a home with her. To his delight, Eurydice shared the same feelings and it is with love pleasure that on a warm summer night, she consented to their hearts burning in unison in a passionate embrace.
 
The cave was cold, dark, the gaze drowned in the darkness of the latter. Dulahan and his companions shuddered with every step. Their souls trembled but so did their bodies too. They felt that with each step, they were sinking deeper and deeper into increasingly icy depths. The torches themselves seemed to be shivering.
I think I like gods in crannies and places you don't expect, with powers and domains, sometimes, but not a lot of interest in us. There's all the spirits and things. They're a lot more like just very powerful creatures, generally.
Suddenly, a deep and cavernous voice was heard.  
 
« Ô, you who have descended into these dark and unknown depths, what is the purpose of your quest ? »
There's room for more godstuff! There's always room. Like anything in this universe, I think their importance waxes and wanes with time and place and story.  
Dumbfounded, the group answered nothing. Eurydice then waved her torch towards the direction from which the voice seemed to come. However even if she stimulated and strengthened the flame of the torch with the will and fire of her soul, the latter illuminated only a tiny part of a dark abyss that had suddenly appeared behind the altar. She shuddered and stepped back several steps to get closer to Dulahan.
 
They drew their weapons and the voice answered them.
lord evergreen who isn't a god perfer but pretty darn powerful
« Ô, you who have descended so deeply under the earth, know that I know your intentions but I ask you again: what is the purpose of your quest ? »
douglas
Recalling his father's past exploits, Dulahan took his courage with both hands and spoke out.
« We seek to defeat the Great Matron to save our lands from the threat of the Morthagi. »
« So, you came here to get more power, didn't you? » replied the cave.
« Our intentions are just and noble, we want to save our kind and we believe that the power contained in this cave would allow us to accomplish this quest ! »
« Ô, ignorant and naive mortals, the search for power is never innocent and on its way is strewn by the blood of the sacrificed loved ones who had to give their lives to those who sought it. Thus, they became forever the shadows of those who obtained power, accompanying them forever in their glory but also in their misery. And thus, solitude was their fate even if they were not really alone. »
Suddenly, a violent gust from the disturbing abysses behind the altar struck the group. The torches went out and darkness invaded the room. Dulahan grabbed Eurydice's hand and held it tightly. Its natural warmth invigorated him.
« Hold hands ! Hold hands ! Don't let them go ! This will prevent us from getting lost in this darkness ! »
The cavernous voice continued her speech in a compelling and solemn tone.
« Ô, you who seek power, who among you would be willing to make the sacrifice necessary to obtain it ? Who would be strong enough to carry this burden all his life ? WHO ? »
These lasts words echoed and the cave began to tremble from all sides. A real storm seemed to be unfolding in the room even if they were several kilometres below the surface ! Dulahan's companions were afraid and no one dared to answer the voice. Several minutes passed and Dulahan remembered what his father said. He shook Eurydice's hand tightly, having one last thought for her and, thinking that his answer would lead him to death as the voice implied, he answered.
« ME ! I'M READY TO SACRIFICE MYSELF FOR OUR CAUSE ! »
The voice then answered one last time.
« So be it, your courage is brave and your sacrifice will be respected. »
With these words, the storm stopped but the darkness remained. Dulahan thought he was going to die and he expected it to happen at any moment. The group remained still in the dark for several minutes, waiting for the next words of this deep voice. But nothing came. So, they decided to go up to the surface and continue to hold hands because unfortunately, they no longer had enough material to light the torches again.
They struggled to get to the surface, groping to avoid missing a step or bumping into the walls. Dulahan held Eurydice's hand tightly to not lose it. The road was long and difficult, only the spirit and flamboyant aura that Eurydice emitted allowed Dulahan not to collapse from fatigue. Finally, they felt a small gust of wind coming from the entrance of the cave. Dulahan and his companions let out a sigh of joy. They hurried out of the cave.
All of his companions went out first, rejoicing to see the sun's rays again and to feel the warmth of summer on their bodies. Dulahan then came out and then....
It was like a light breeze sweeping the leaves in autumn. The feeling of touch between his hand and that of his beloved one disappeared instantly. Dulahan turned around hastily, believing that Eurydice had fallen or something had happened to her, but he saw nothing. However, he still felt the warm diffused by Eurydice's inner flame, he still felt it as warm and reassuring as ever, but she was still not visible to his eyes.
Dulahan turned to his companions, stunned. The latter became petrified with terror and together they rushed towards the entrance of the cave, calling loudly the name of Eurydice.
There was no answer. For many minutes, a deathly silence reigned over them. Warm tears began to flow down Dulahan's cheeks as his companions took their heads in their hands, filled with despair and sadness at Eurydice's loss.
Tears flowed down Dulahan's cheeks. And then, delicately, they went away as if a gentle warm hand had taken them away. Dulahan believed he could actually feel the contact of a delicate hand on his cheek drying his tears. Confused, he tried to remember the words of the cavernous voice and...Strangely...those of his father.
And finally, everything seemed clearer to him.
Eurydice was no longer there, but she was also still there. From now on, she would be constantly present at his side. Like a shadow following him for all eternity. A shadow emanating a deep love, stronger than the hottest fire. The cave had demanded a sacrifice and in return, Dulahan felt empowered even more. He felt a new magic and bubbling power gradually spreading throughout his being. He now truly felt able to complete his quest. And, even if he was never really alone because because he was always accompanied by his fellow companions, today, in his heart, mind and soul, he was really no longer alone because his soul would forever remain bound to his beloved. Eternally together. A single stronger shadow, a single more ardent sacred fire. A true sacrifice to achieve a greater goal for a greater cause than his own happyness.  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do not hesitate to share your thoughts about it.
Magero
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  —  
22.06.2021
13.06.2019
Yeah, they were this wealthy and magic-rich family, who may have been more of a cult than a family, though no one's quite sure. They lived in this large secluded swamphouse, and often got up to eldritch things. They may or may not have been truly dangerous to folks, but they got a reputation for being weirdos, and were eventually rooted out and scattered by Concerned Citizens of a kind. That's the basic story, and there aren't many details, or many things known about them. I think the only parts that're fairly absolute/proven are what you get from the ghosty: that the dagger was made as a tool of vengeance, is evil/destructive, and its maker is regretful.
The story has been invented to be gameplay-lore-possible because one of the "reward" of the contest was to be able to "design"/write the lore of an object/item. And in my imagination, I was thinking about an "object"/artefact you can't let go but that is very powerful : The shadow/spirit of a deceased companion you sacrified (thru an event) or lost during a fight, "fused" with your shadow/spirit. Thus, granting you powerfull bonuses. If you "willingly" sacrified your companion for the greater good, you obtain more powerfull bonuses, if he died before that, you obtain moderate bonuses. I don't know, I'm not qualified AT ALL as a gamedesigner or writer, or anything else associated but I tought it was "cool" since the game let you "write"/"live" your own epic journey ^^
NateAustin
NateAustin
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  —  
07.06.2021
13.06.2019
I mean the whole thing is a sort of pyramid scheme religion set up by the founders, if you believe the "Monarchs" plot...
@Magero This is super cool, thanks for sharing it!
bhoss bhabie
== x ==
NateAustin
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  —  
29.05.2021
25.10.2019
I have a plan for the Deepists basically being an old race that built the Morthagi as well. The Gorgons can be from a disease with the True Gorgons being people taken completely over BY the disease, and the Thrixl can be Fae! Now it all comes down to the Drauven. I'll do some brainstorming on them, however I do like the idea of them being my versions equivalent of elves. Instead of slender and graceful, they adapted to take the form of the wild.
sure ok.
GamingOwl
yeah we use reaction shots a fair bit. Dunno.
doubt
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  —  
29.05.2021
25.10.2019
Don't know if this would help you out at all, but I think the most Fae like creatures in the game are the Thrixl. The wiki describes an encounter with the insect/dragon like Thrixl:
I think it is fine btw
'They were weaving, it looked like, and digging patterns into the earth, turning the soil up, and marking it with pigments scraped off their own underbellies.
to be not helpful at all. 😉
They noticed me. It was unavoidable. Three sets of eyes turned on me: six eyes in this face, five in this one, one eye on the largest of them, a long-limbed, bony creature with armored joints.
I looked in those eyes expecting to see nothing. The mute marble orbs of an animal, a drone. What I saw instead was coyness. Deliberation. The turbid fire of dreamers, thinkers, artists.
The skinny cyclopean nightmare hooted from its horned mouth and wrapped itself in its clear glass wings.
And later I woke, far from the spot, by a lakeside. A travelling leather merchant saw me attempting to drown myself in the water, pulled me ashore. I came out of it like a man rising from a night-terror.
And I was both relieved and inexplicably heartbroken.'" Which just sounds a lot like a Fae like encounter to me. They use lots of magic, like dreamtrap (which is basically a stun) and dominate (makes you attack allies). In the game they're described twisting perceptions of reality itself and thematically have a lot to do with dreams. The main aesthetic difference is that they're more insect looking and psychic based, less like the nature spirits you mentioned.
NateAustin
NateAustin
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  —  
29.05.2021
25.10.2019
canonically in our lore, the True Gorgons  (the big blue ones) spread the corruption, infecting animals. The Gorgons themselves are old, but could have been the subject of a curse, ages ago. why not?
heheh
douglas
writing is hard! I don't do much of our writing myself.
== x ==
TamTroll
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  —  
18.05.2021
25.10.2019
Sadly, it's just because I thought it sounded cool, like a woofgod. The "lo" probably comes from Latin lupus/Spanish lobo in my head. I am sure it comes from something, in the wildermyth world, i just have never written down to it.
So Gorgon lore question if i may be so bold: Can just any infected creature spread the infection to other animals? Or does it specifically need to be higher-level True-Gorgons to spread it?
Religious following? The Wolfway? Hm. Wolfgang.
 
Oops that's an old question, sorry!
I ask because the idea of wildermyth Gorgons in a pathfinder game has been running around in my head since last night.
Muninn
NateAustin
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  —  
11.04.2021
25.10.2019
i ment more in terms of in the background of the cityscapes. even just the occasional lost limb on a townsfolk or something (since monster attacks seem rather common?). yea, its just minor flavor stuff and of no consequence. just me running my mouth mostly 😆
oooh. I think canonically only True Gorgons can, but I don't know that we ever completely nailed it down. What do you think @douglas ?
TamTroll
douglas
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  —  
29.05.2021
25.10.2019
Gorgonoid rabbit... * Sideglance at joke "Rabbit god pantheon" from years ago * ... New god...
Yeah, the way I always thought of it was the True Gorgons themselves would have to plant each specific seed, creature by creature. Which sounds like a lot of work! But it's better for all of us, let's be honest. I don't think it needs to be one way or the other, but I prefer the more labor-intensive version for our world, simply because we have small territories that would become absolutely overrun if it was like a disease that spread passively. For a tabletop RPG, maybe you want to have a more endless and overwhelming supply of monsters, and less ultra-dangerous "True Gorgons" running around, so it would make sense to alter the rules somewhat.
Drauven could be the natives of the land, while the humans, deepists, and others all came from another continent or world or something? Might hit a bit too close to home for some though.
 
In any case, think it can be done either way, and perhaps we'll break our own rule later at some point, hehe...
TamTroll
TamTroll
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29.05.2021
25.10.2019
Gorgonoids are pretty much the definition of a living disease if that's a road you want to go for. You could see a majority of them as infected individuals, and the true gorgons as the disease incarnate.
think having true gorgons be the only ones to do it in an rpg makes sense too. means the players could encounter some infested hogs or whatnot without worry of becoming infected themselves
douglas
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
10.04.2021
25.10.2019
Yeah! There's not much development there, of the Lochias stuff. I've always wondered a little about it. TamTroll's comment there seems like how I'd think to summarize it also, but I haven't really thought of anything solid or specific. I'd be excited to see someone explore that : )
yeah. If you end up making stat blocks, you should share them on here 😄 I'd love to see them
(Also, generally, feel free to @ me, anyone. Or even DM, if that's possible on here? I just find myself slowed down/stopped from work when I come on here without a specific reason, but am always happy to answer questions and discuss weird stuff 😁)
== x ==
PatrickBelanger
Foolproof
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07.04.2021
17.11.2019
Canonically (from what I can remember Doug saying), Lochias really loves being worshipped, and is just a little bit desperate for more people to take his oath; his following isn't nearly what it once was. But our lore overall is very flexible, and Lochias is mostly unexplored as a character, so take it where you want!
What's the philosophy of deciding whose names to hard-code and whose to randomly generate? e.x. the Enduring from Enduring War and the founder of the Library of Light have random names, but the Oldwane family from Humble Ends, Nan from Another Time, and Troygan the Enchanger are pre-determined
https://discord.com/channels/505370324750172170/550344844770410516/651652693504557072
NateAustin
To quote Doug, "he cared so much, guys"
TamTroll
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  —  
07.04.2021
17.11.2019
at one point he was widely worshiped as a hunter god, now he's pretty unknown
Whatever the writer prefers, mostly. @douglas
douglas
douglas
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  —  
19.03.2021
17.11.2019
Yeah, there's a lot of loops and cycles in the mythos of the world. There's certain old civilizations that get referenced: Kyor and Thnarrland. There's a time in antiquity when Mortificers made their bone-a-matons. But in current Wildermyth, we're always in a space of discovery/rediscovery, while certain old things last, and certain stories get told, retold, recast. This or that Yondering are by definition unspecific geographical places, oriented around the characters and fledgling societies that make their lives and way within them. There's a grim interpretation of this that's basically: no one is ever allowed to thrive beyond certain thresholds in this monster-plagued world. But there's also room to interpret it as a frontier, or as a youthful and slowgrowing culture with a different technological timeline than earth history, and that's often canonically preferred (by me? sometimes?).  
Troygan is because his name is in the title. Nan... I forget why. Maybe because it's weird if he's named "Rusty" or something. Wanted the character to be kind of simple and anachronistic in a way... Oldwane was because again, randomized names can sometimes be a bit goofy, and/or there is a chance of no lastname, which would be a problem. Oh, and also, I wanted to use the name in the item name.


It's soupy, basically, but intentionally so. It centers the characters, and gives them room for whatever their stories might become. It does direct us away from a lot of more medieval-metropolitan type elements, but that's not necessarily, and for all cases, out of the question.
basically there are times generated names can't be inserted into parts of the game, and there are places where the character/circumstance kind of wants to have a certain flavor of name, and we don't have banks of "Serious Wizard" names. Yet.  
== x ==
_RaZeR_
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04.12.2019
The pantheon of gods of wildermyth contains only animal-ish gods in it?
Or there's somekind of human-ish gods in it? Or any other kind of gods than animals? Demigods? Or powerful spirits?Or anything? I mean already we have: Crow, Bear, Wolf, Frog, Somekind of spirits which are everywhere, Mo Atona, Ulstryx(he's octopus for me xd), Minotaur(aka Horn, cuz "Mark of the Horn"), Rat, Hawk and im not sure about Child of the Hills ability and who from u get it. all of them are animals for some reason.
Really interested in that part of lore.  
NateAustin
NateAustin
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  —  
17.03.2021
04.12.2019
we wanted a game where the band of heroes would be the main force in the world -- there's no king with his army to fall back on, or get quests from, or politic with, none of that. Just a few souls making decisions about how to protect their land and people.
Tree, Hill, plant, gem, fire, water/river all have presences too... I'll let @douglas speak to humanesque gods and spirits specifically, except to say, wouldn't it be cool if some day your heroes could fill that role?
douglas
_RaZeR_
—
04.12.2019
x_x
Victor Reinhardt
—
04.12.2019
That blew my minddddd
TamTroll
  —
04.12.2019
kinda thought some of those, such as hill, fire, wood, etc. were more spirits then gods.
_RaZeR_
—
04.12.2019
so the right question is:
What is GOD in wildermyth and how he's working?
Foolproof
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19.02.2021
04.12.2019
Never gave much specific thought to how the final transformation might've looked like, except to say that it would've been on the Eluna/Mothman spectrum. Maybe with a few unique features, as the two of them are quite different. But, yeah, imagining what all the beings in her version of the world might've looked like is a pretty weird, maybe fun thing.
afaik Mo-Atona and Lochias are the only gods actually confirmed as gods.  Lots of spirits and miscellaneous mystical beings
douglas
_RaZeR_
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  —  
29.01.2021
04.12.2019
Yeah, there's been a lot of iteration over the years that's made some of the "lore" in the wiki kind of obsolete. Most of the specifics aren't important. The reality kind of takes the shape of whatever story is being told, or it at least has that sort of malleability. I should get around to consolidating and publishing more specific and comprehensive lore. But there's tons of space, and the nature of the world is meant to conform to the whims of whoever's interpreting/creating/relating it.
we need to wait for Douglas guys
NateAustin
== x ==
_RaZeR_
  —  
  —  
29.01.2021
04.12.2019
canon - they're mostly close enough. I think there might be some stuff there that we've drifted away from, but you shouldn't worry about it. The lore is loose on purpose to give us room to tell different stories, so please go for it.
If we're talking like that
True Gorgons are somekind of spirits aswell
TamTroll
TamTroll
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11.01.2021
04.12.2019
was honestly surprised to see that my heroes even knew what a king / queen / prince / princess was to be honest. Was kind of expecting it to just be a made-up word for them. Suppose they still have fairytales with the term, like we know what an "Elf" is, despite it never existing.
kinda see them more as either living disease/infection, or just some kind of powerful animal. don't seem very mystical to me. granted it's been awhile since i've seen the Gorgon boss-monster.
buriedinfrost
_RaZeR_
—
04.12.2019
if we'll look at Gorgon boss
it's kinda badass
and their equipment is kinda ancient
TamTroll
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11.01.2021
04.12.2019
Or, maybe in the past those civilizations all crumbled and this is what is left
can't say. can't remember them 😛
The less you explain it, the more people use their own minds to fill in the blanks
_RaZeR_
NateAustin
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11.01.2021
04.12.2019
yeah
xd
NateAustin
Also Ulstryxs Spear which is water-enchanted does looks like it's something powerful and it was created as artefact for purpose we cant know
Victor Reinhardt
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11.01.2021
04.12.2019
we specifically wanted to get away from kings, nobility, and all that. So instead of a king or council telling you what to do, it's up to you (the company) to take up the burden. It might not be the most realistic political simulation, but yeah I find it way more pleasant.
I always thought that Gorgons were reminiscent of some Lovecraftian creatures. Beings from some other dimension or plane that brought their disease with them, and began infecting the wildlife. Ulystryx's spear wouldn't make much sense being wielded by a spirit or living disease, but some sort of other-dimensional being would use weapons, right? Just a thought.
TamTroll
TamTroll
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11.01.2021
04.12.2019
from the various lores of ancient civilizations, it does look like kindoms and nobility did happen quite a few times. for one reason or another though they could just never quite get it to stick.
is it really his spear? thought it was just an ancient spear.
probably a lot of people going "You're the king? well i didn't vote for you." and not recognizing the king's probably self-imposed title. Wouldn't be surprised if most monarchies didn't even make it past three generations.
Foolproof
NateAustin
—
04.12.2019
I think the spear is just an ancient spear with some historical/spiritual significance to the gorgons. It's his in the sense that he takes it if you don't, but it wasn't made for him specifically
Feral
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11.01.2021
04.12.2019
yeah that makes sense. you need a bunch of physical and cultural infrastructure before feudalism starts to "work" I think
The Gone Ox has some insight into how the corrupted creatures feel about no longer being corrupted. But while under the corruption, I wonder if it takes them over, like a madness, and they don't have any other choice.
well I'm not a historian.
douglas
douglas
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  —  
22.11.2020
04.12.2019
Hehe, it's really all more conversant with literature/mythology than Earth societies and history. While there's elements that have historical basis (swords and stuff), a lot of that is a product of the genre, and the context within which the game exists, I guess. There's an intent to separate the fantasy world from the real world, and to recognize that history, society, and invention don't play out the same way to twice. Furthermore, there's the possibility that scientific laws may not function the same way here as on real earth. Probably the most actual-Earth stuff is the generic European medieval outfitting and the contemporary American English language usage.  
Hmmmmm. It's complicated, I guess, the gods and un-gods, the beliefs, traditions, etc. We angled pretty strongly for  a folk-tale style, where there's this intersection of The Old Gods, the natural gods, the spirits, and the tall tales. You can imagine something akin to the layering that has happened in Earth history, as far as religions go, where some beliefs and deities survive, either in modified or in complete form from one civilization to the next. I think as a fan of folklore and storytelling, I enjoy the ambiguity this creates, and think that contradictions are exactly where gods like to live.
 
With that being said, so far we're working with the godbeast Mo-Atona and the sort of defunct (it's basically implied) wolfgod Lochias. These aren't necessarily deities of anyone's pantheon, at this point. They might be survivors of a pantheon no one remembers. Mo-Atona may have her devotees somewhere, but I think she's not likely to care. Lochias once had people walking his myth around (and he cared so much, guys). Beyond that, it's intentionally difficult to parse what is a god, what is a spirit, and what maybe is the difference between those two ideas? The word god is a tricky one to ascribe to things, because it tends to come with some authority... Perhaps we'll tackle it more moving forward.
 
I've been heavily influenced by the work of the late, honored, great Terry Pratchett, if that helps understand some of how I think of gods. Small Gods is maybe my favorite book of his, and is a great read regardless of this conversation. Other influences in this area pertinent to Wildermyth are probably Hayao Miyazaki, Tolkien, and various poets, pop-culture, and folklore (as previously mentioned).


Folklore, myth, pop-culture that we pull on tends to be from all over, but I can kind of point to a few that matter most. The poetry of W.B. Yeats and Irish folklore inspired Eluna and the Moth in a lot of ways. Much of the poetic core of the game is Anglo-Saxon-inspired. Hayao Miyazaki's films are a constant inspiration, and French writer Jean Giono is a huge influence on my sentences and style. Native American folklore has a voice here. The Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying games and resources (especially 2nd Edition) are deeply foundational to my centering in fantasy.  
It's interesting, we don't specifically have any humanish gods yet. I have a feeling they're on their way. Whether that's through monsters, or stories, or whatever else.
Ultimately, in all aspects of the game, I feel we've always been flexible, ready to sort of tell the next story, whatever that might be, and weave it in. We've purposely avoided rigid objective truths in favor of more supple subjective beliefs. It's a little bit of a cheat, maybe, but it feels more real to me, since I don't think we can accurately deliver truth in any reality. The point is that this culture and that culture will bring their stories to the fire, and those might mix or not, but they both legitimately exist.


Apologies for this long-winded answer. Feels like the closest I can come to answering your question, but I'm sure I'm forgetting/misrepresenting some things too.
So... I apologize. This was way too long.
Annie
One thing I'm making a concerted effort to do is to bring more specific ideas into the world, of what folklores or traditions might exist. What I'm working on currently (rework of the Nostalgic hook) is a good example:
Bild
== x ==
_RaZeR_
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21.11.2020
04.12.2019
I know I definitely play a little fast and loose with e.g., the pieces of scenery and what time/place they might be from
@Foolproof there's actually a sprite of ulstryx with that spear in gamefiles. So, knowing guardian is somekind of gorgon and he defended spear, gorgons sure knew about spear and they needed it, as they trying to stop you from retreating with all their infected units. Also the gate is in "gorgonian" style. And cuz of that, for me, Gorgons ain't just ancient creatures and that spear isn't just a spear with historical significance.
i don't think we had particular geographic locations in mind (though british isles often ends up being the default for that sort of thing). Dunno if Doug took from certain mythologies for the lore though
(Thanks Douglas for reply)
(we do have minotaurs and enemies called "gorgons" even though we're not aiming for ancient greece specifically. we're just lore-vultures, lol)
Foolproof
douglas
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22.11.2020
04.12.2019
Real... world...?
Right, ulstryx ends up with the spear if you fail the mission to recover it. In that case, he has it during the final battle. Unpuzzling the Puzzle explains that ulstryx and his followers want to find the spear to use it as a symbol to unite all the gorgons against the rest of the world. I’m guessing it’s the same idea as the Siege of Antioch in the 11th century, where a monk found a spear he claimed was an ancient Christian relic, and the spear inspired the crusaders to break the siege and take Antioch. It’s more about what the spear represents than the actual, physical object.
Not Courith Cold
== x ==
Foolproof
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13.08.2020
09.12.2019
Lol.
Is there any lore or general plans for Netherflare? It's only really mentioned in the Dark Curiosity event and all we really know about it is that there are Leechlords and Lostlings living there, and that it has a "flaming maw." We want to use it as part of a villain story, is there anything we explicitly should or shouldn't do with it? Should we treat it as hell, or like a Mordor-ish homeland for the concept of "Evil," or like an immaterial spirit world?
Bild
NateAustin
Alright. Who invented that "Greatest Weapon of All Time"?  
IntellectMaster
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13.08.2020
09.12.2019
Remember when you were asking about scythes and sickles in
@douglas
gameplay-questions? Uh, yeah, that’s what I was hinting at. I think I’ve only taken it once, but it’s a great weapon nonetheless!
douglas
douglas
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12.08.2020
09.12.2019
Yeah, that's very cool! I like that it plays on the power of storytelling/shaping narrative. Feels nice and thematic.  
Yeah, I would say thinking of it as an analogue for hell is generally fine. Or I might call it more of a fae-hell.
 
Leechlords is probably more of a colloquialism for something the mortals in the event really can't explain, while Lostlings are meant to inhabit the role of anything from faeries to devils. Like a lot of the lore, it's meant to be sort of expansive, and there's tons of room to imagine within it. A lot of that is because it's being viewed through the lens of what the humans in this world can know of it, which is not a lot. (Perhaps this sounds like a cop-out, but it feels important to me that each folktale can recast, or subtly recolor the character/geography/hierarchies of the creatures and lands they deal with.)


Yeah, I also feel that point about, why go to the trouble/accidental injury/intellectual frustration/etc. of attempting to create a scientific answer to question answered by magic. (Semi-restricting it beyond that is a lot because I want to avoid the villain from the incredibles happening.)
Ultimately, yeah, I think of it as a faerie realm where shadows and monsters live, and also devilish evils, and perhaps more than a few lost souls who took wrong turns at some point. I wouldn't suppose it to be organized in any overarching way, though you might have "Leechlords" and Queens of Shadow, etc., and they might create armies, or lead great efforts at one point or another to reach the standard world. (Standard world?)
Anyway, it seems like the only place you'll find stuff that is pure Evil, but I wouldn't limit it to only those beings. I wouldn't say it's totes on fire, either. There's probably Different Things and regional differentiation...
_RaZeR_
—
09.12.2019
physical world probably? xd
Foolproof
—
09.12.2019
Awesome, thanks. Just wanted to make sure our interpretation fits within the canon lore of Wildermyth (insofar as that's a thing) and that we aren't trying to explain things that can't/shouldn't be outright explained
douglas
douglas
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12.08.2020
09.12.2019
Yeah, I would very much resist any sort of gunpowder development. I'm still disappointed it happened in our own timeline 😁 . I like (insist) that technology in a fantasy world doesn't develop at the same pace, or in the same order as it happened to here. Not just owing to coincidence, but also that the physical laws might be fundamentally different. As IntellectMaster said above, the technologoical heights of the world were and are achieved in some marriage of magic and science, and the civilizations that once thrived here were far beyond what the scattered, self-governing people of today can manage. That being said, their lives still have conveniences, and they still hold viewpoints, that medieval people of our world didn't, owing mostly to magical means and the cultural progress of long-ago people. I try to keep to my general intention of avoiding any direct analogues or artifacts from either real world history, culture, or else other fiction. Unless the joke/story is worth it.
Cool! Thank you!
 
== x ==
But ultimately, there aren't hard rules for what can happen here, and it's only as detailed as our broad strokes and pointed stories can imply. I don't want this to feel like a limiting environment. If someone wants to tell any story here, they should feel free to, I think this world can take it.
Catfish Waterdancer
IntellectMaster
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11.08.2020
31.12.2019
The morthagi are crafted using a long-lost set of technological inventions with a touch of magic. From what I’ve seen of this game, there used to be a much more advanced civilation in the Yondering Lands, but something happened and all that was lost. There were great libraries, massive towers, grand armies, and probably sprawling cities with majestic castles, but now most of these locations have been lost to the ages, crumbling into dust and forgotten by the people. Only a select few will ever relearn of these fantastical places on their quest to rid the land of its many dangers and evils, and even then their stories will be quickly forgotten by those who here them and relegated to just being myths or legends. No one else will even think of going back to those places to see of they are even real, not for a long time. And so the Yondering Lands continue to stagnate, unchanging as no one ever ventures too far from what they know to forever rid the lands of the monsters who terrorize them. Evil will continue to always crawl back and threaten everyone you love, as there are never enough heroes willing to venture to the very edge of the known to truly take back what was lost.
I'm new to WIldermyth (well, 68 hours new) and it's fascinating that there are 5+ intelligent races that have developed on a planet alongside each other to the point of establishing distinct cultures, technologies (?) and beliefs. It's almost as if the planet sits on a conjunction or nexus of alternate universes where the races exist alongside each other. I'd be curious if there might be an area where they all coexist in peace - except their respective 'Gods' don't approve and do their best to tear the settlement apart.  It would lend itself to having a party with mixed races as your team.
IntellectMaster
douglas
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10.08.2020
01.01.2020
Toast in Wildermyth, can it be?
I think such a reality is certainly possible, but is currently quite far from the stories we're focused on telling. I think while there are these multiple intelligent species, there is an essential incompatibility to them that makes peaceful coexistence a long shot in most cases. Leaving each other alone is the most viable peace we tend to explore... for now. There are one-off cases where, for instance if one species is threatening multiple others in a drastic way as in the Ulstryx campaign, you do see mutual survival becoming a strategy for the threatened monster species and humanity.
Examine the facts, then we'll see
If toast can in fact be in this game
Or if the Yondering lands believe toast to be lame!
Burned bread is toast, that is the fact.
Beyond that, it's all just flourish!
But let's say it needs butter to properly nourish
And be be properly absorbed by the digestive tract.
Wildermyth has cows, and berries for jam,  
As well as fruits and canning for that delectable spread.
Add in other livestock for bacon and lamb
And you get a wonderful meal for breakfast in bed.
All that needs doing is to cook the break longer,
Anyone can do it, men and women!
People do weird things to sate their hunger,
And so, in conclusion, toast won't break cannon.


NateAustin
All that being said, I think of different playthroughs of the game as representing different versions of reality, different tellings of a story. The rules and "canon" can change from game to game, as they would from one version of a myth to another. So imagining a world where the different species live in some sense of harmony is absolutely valid. I don't know if we'll write it, but I don't think others should be afraid to.
== x ==
Catfish Waterdancer
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10.08.2020
02.01.2020
well bread definitely exists
I think the possibility of there being an instance where a member of another race wishes to become part of the team would present a unique opportunity to expound upon a different philosophy and worldview.  For a single campaign, of course - you could remove the possibility of he/she/they becoming a legacy character.
electric toasters don't
douglas
people used to make it
by holding bread near fire
so break lore it won't?
hm was going for a poem but couldn't land it
IntellectMaster
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19.07.2020
07.01.2020
New lore tidbit from  
Yeah, I think it's great for one-off situations/individuals. Makes a lot of sense for specific Villains/Campaigns where the writing can account for that character's presence. Getting that monster character into the generic events would be a lot trickier.  But yeah, I think it's super interesting to get those outliers from the other species that have enough in common with you or are eccentric enough to interact with you and bring with them various pieces of lore or insight.
game-development: Thrixl like music and are daredevils.


== x ==
Catfish Waterdancer
—
06.02.2020
This is a work in progress.  Herewith, the next three chapters.
Dateityp des Anhangs: acrobat
The_Collective_Art_Versus_Science456.pdf
195.56 KB
douglas
douglas
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29.06.2020
07.02.2020
Ancient Things, eldritch beings asleep in the world... we do like to surface these. But understanding all of where they come from, and what else dwells under the strata of time and apocalypses would sort of ruin it.
That's a lot of fun! I find the action of the initiation super compelling. Love how you imagine the magic working, the concept of asking the soil to move, showing patience. Feels very Wildermyth, but with plenty of unique interpretation which is great to read. The paragraph where Sal's considering the star-myths feels designed just to intrigue and excite me, haha. Tons of good stuff. Thank you!
Other environments is a post 1.0 thing, realistically. I agree it would be cool. Just being that we're a small team, we weigh down our sole artist so much already, haha. But yeah, totally feel you on that.
== x ==
TamTroll
TamTroll
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29.06.2020
10.02.2020
the problem with Eldrich is that the moment it's touched upon, you know that world is fudged.
So is there a reason that Humans don't seem to go traditionally Gorganoid like animals do? Or do Gorgons just give them a higher dose of the infection so they turn to stone faster?
"K'ssurkushk the ender of existance" and "they all lived happily ever after" can not exist in the same universe together. Once Eldrich gets involved, that world is doomed.
douglas
douglas
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29.06.2020
11.02.2020
Yeah, we get an averted cataclysm  in the Gorgon campaign. It's easy to imagine global traumas happening here that get mythologized and become memories with the passing of generations. The scale of the world is also something we don't really describe, but I operate from a place where someone might be able to say "This and many other Yonderings." The ever-changing map for your playthroughs reflects that. So what happened one place hasn't necessarily happened other places.
Good question. Where I'm at currently on this is that the human brain is much more complex and reasoning than the animal brain, and so they don't become (or don't reliably become) suggestible under the Gorgon influence. This makes a corrupted human basically useless to a Gorgon (on top of being quite dangerous), which is why, yes, I'd say the dosage or even delivery method of the Gorgon corruption is intentionally made more deadly for humans than for animals. May reexamine this later.  
 
TamTroll
—
11.02.2020
and what about animals that turn to statues? Is that a higher dose thing? or will all infected animals eventually turn completely to stone?
douglas
douglas
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28.06.2020
11.02.2020
Hm, I can't think of any extra little key bits like that at the moment. The presence of printing and wide availability of books/widespread literacy might be it, though. That does make a huge difference, I think, culturally, here.
I think it's an eventuality that they'll all turn to stone, or else tear themselves apart as the associated madness becomes more violent and consuming.
Also, there's flushing toilets and people brush their teeth 😁
== x ==
TamTroll
PatrickBelanger
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28.06.2020
16.02.2020
Kingless middle ages with better education and hygine. Sounds nice 😛
This is so cool! I haven't tried Pathfinder yet, but I love seeing players using Wildermyth for DnD related things. Lore all looks good as far as I can see (though Nate and Doug definitely have a better idea of that)
Popcornia
NateAustin
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28.06.2020
16.02.2020
Yes gods, no masters. I can vibe with that.
Awesome, this looks pretty thorough and true to the spirit. I haven't played pathfinder but the numbers seem basically reasonable to me 🙂 Fun stuff!
douglas
douglas
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28.06.2020
16.02.2020
Yeah! I also think the gods that exist are not human-centric for the most part. If you interact with them, they become interested in you, but they mostly inhabit their own unlives, fulfill their own inscrutable purposes. Except that desperate wolf god, of course.
Yeah, that's awesome! Never played pathfinder either, but it makes me think about how I would add these creatures to a D&D game. This captures, as nate said, the spirit (and really, the form and function) of the Gorgonoids really well.
Popcornia
== x ==
Catfish Waterdancer
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28.06.2020
19.02.2020
Yeah, the one god we've seen in person was a cool Sphinx.
Here are the next three chapters. Some members have anagrammed cameos (Phrum, Eraina, Fofoprolo.)  
I do think them just, straight up ignoring everything (even the Gorgons) was interesting from an outside perspective.
Dateityp des Anhangs: acrobat
(Or maybe they were asleep the whole time.)
The_Collective_Art_Versus_Science789.pdf
TamTroll
170.75 KB
douglas
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28.06.2020
24.02.2020
honestly i'd wonder if they're all less gods, more just powerful spirits. if there is a difference at all i suppose.
Another enjoyable entry! Thanks for writing. The Morthagi perspective at the beginning certainly drew me in. Found myself sympathizing with its concerns, which was really cool to feel. As always, love seeing how you put your twist on this world and these creatures, and adapt it to prose : )
douglas
== x ==
Baconside (She/Her)
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28.06.2020
24.02.2020
Yeah, I think that's a good way to look at it. Doesn't super matter what they're called, or how they're categorized. Both are words in this world that are used for metaphysical things, with physical-seeming forms, whose powers and desires are mostly immeasurable.
So, are the Thrixl.... I assume their home habitat is more of caves. But, from what I can gather, they seem to have a want for emotions and passion. I'm thinking of playing around with that to make a story.
 
Currently the idea I am spinning around in my head is based on this in-fiction line:
 
"And they hold the power to turn the imagined into truth..."


Popcornia
Would a possible plot be that an Thrixl invasion would begin to get the necessary... 'food' so they can 'think' a god into existence?
Honestly I am thinking about how AD&D Beholders tend to go to sleep then create via imagination their nightmares. Would that lil bit be a fair comparisson?
NateAustin
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24.02.2020
yeah that sounds thrixl AF.
re beholders - yeah, that makes sense, but I think the thrixl are more intentional with it, they use it to craft what they want, for whatever purposes.
Baconside (She/Her)
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24.02.2020
Gotcha, so they won't think up anything by accident.
NateAustin
—
24.02.2020
hmm
I mean that does sound fun too
heheh I'm not really the lorekeeper around here
== x ==
TamTroll
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28.06.2020
24.02.2020
Yeah, it’s actually an interesting use of a similar concept from Anglo-Saxon literature / life. Their territory was filled with the remnants of a past society (aka, the Roman Empire) they know little about, and so they can only wonder what those buildings the people who used them were like.
there was one other monster you might want to look too... hang on one sec
For Wildermyth, that concept is transplanted into a roughly medieval era, where it’s remnants of the past seem like remnants of roughly the same aesthetic / people who lived like they do now.
the Kuo Toa. you can see a small video on them by looking up " (Animated DM) Kuo Toa D&D " on youtube and looking for Zee Bashew. Basically when one of them dies and they believe in something enough, there's a chance they'll spontaneously create an infant god, that grows stronger the more Kuo Toa see it, beleive in it, and die with it in their thoughts.
I wouldn’t say they’re stagnated as a society, just from that observation; they just don’t have a need for consolidating power, resources, etc.
might be able to get some ideas from that
It also keeps the world as a whole somewhat thematic, it’s a world where the imagination and folklore of the scattered and isolated can easily be something that can come from the dark of the Woods.
douglas
douglas
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28.06.2020
24.02.2020
Yeah, a lot of people are covering most of it. I think the Wildermyth world is much less solidly tied to the concreteness of reality/time than ours. There's some Discworld-y stuff underlying it all, where what is believed becomes manifest. While Wildermyth's setting is kind of standard medieval fantasy in a lot of ways, it doesn't have any single cultural or historical analogue in our world. Technologies like printing exist here. Gunpowder doesn't. There's no churchly influence, though there are gods, wild gods mostly, which maybe at one point received more organized worship. Ancient things have been left over in this place, and the world's haunted by a mostly inaccessible past, which we like to explore in glimpses. Basically, I'm echoing what Popcornia said above, and yeah Anglo-Saxon writing was a big influence, and part of the twist on that is sort of in making them ordinary, making the language contemporary and mannerisms American-ish.  
Yeah! To give my take, I think there's plenty of potential for accidents in the Thrixl dreamspace/funzone/operatic reality/etc. In fact, the campaign that will come out for Thrixl eventually involves an accident at its inception, I would say. I really like the idea of Thrixl imagining a god for themselves. I enjoy what that implies about what led them there, why they feel it is the next step for them, etc. However, if it is more accidental, there's probably tons of interesting reasons why that would spring from a Thrixl mind, and I'd love to hear what you'd come up with.
 
Thrixl should feel really malleable as a storyteller, I hope. They can craft solutions, but another way I might think of it is that they'd change the problem to fit their solution. Beyond that, I think we could think of them as even more imaginative than humans, in terms of what they see as possible, while being, for strange inhuman reasons, less individualistic and more collectivist by nature (in ways that don't make sense, even in very collectivist human societies).


SOGA
But the principle thing I would say when working with any of our lore is just, like, I don't know. Have fun. Break rules. We like to keep things vague so there's plenty of room to explore stories that cast anyone--Gorgons, Deepists, Thrixl, Drauven, Morthagi--in roles they don't fill by default.
TamTroll
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28.06.2020
24.02.2020
I think another important difference is that while the world seems to be in a feudal medieval age, there are no lords, armies or religions.
i could totally see a hypothetical Thrixl god that is IS the dreamspace / hive-mind they share. It's not even a really physical entity, just their little shared mind thing that came to life or something. like they started thinking together, and then their thinking together became alive. and now they think together in it's body or something
 
Baconside (She/Her)
IntellectMaster
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28.06.2020
24.02.2020
IntellectMaster.exe has resumed working
Oh! I have a few ideas on what. A lot of them have to do with Thrixl and maybe them thinking 'bonding' is the next step to becoming more 'whole.' To my head-canon, the Thrixl have an alien mindset that they should embrace, but due to being an outlier they think they have to conform to the other races way of thinking.


Oh! So similar to pteranodons, the classic wyverns and drakes from western stories, and similar bipedal winged creatures that walk with their wings! OK.
The first step? Trying to feel the emotions humanoids love so much. Gorgons want a home to feel safe in. Deepists want to be loved by the god they worship. Drauven have close knit bonds and pride with family. Morthagi have a purpose. And humans have all of that.


Thrixl to me on the other hand, they want to advance. For the betterment of the whole, which is why they will willingly risk themselves for the hive and the greater purpose. Their combined knowledge lets them see what could possibly be ahead. But, this collective type of thinking has them feeling strange. Alien. Why do the other races scream and get angry when one of their own passes away, when it was simply an exchange of knowledge (to them?)
I just need to figure out Scratchpad <w>
TamTroll
TamTroll
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28.06.2020
24.02.2020
Other then the obvious ones (gorgons, Drauven, Thrixl, etc), what are some differences between our world and the Yondering Lands? that you feel okay talking about anyways.
When a human dies, their mind goes away. When a Thrixl dies, their mind just floats around in the collective consciousness without a physical body for awhile. Probably either being re-born into a new body eventually, or just merging with the background thoughts over time.
Saikonaifu
Baconside (She/Her)
—
24.02.2020
Dang. Thats brilliant ^u^
douglas
—
24.02.2020
Urg. You guys should write the canon  😅
Baconside (She/Her)
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  —  
28.06.2020
24.02.2020
I would assume that the soul is a tangible thing, being one of them
Pfff. Thanks >w> We wouldn't of come up with this stuff without you and your team setting up a great world to work in.
IntellectMaster
douglas
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  —  
28.06.2020
24.02.2020
The soul IS a tangible thing, since there are a couple of Opportunities that end up with you doing combat against ghosts. There is also a scrabbling of pantheons, one of them including Mo-Atona and whatever other god-beasts may exist and another following the more druidic path of worshipping the land and elements themselves (evidenced by an event that includes the characters deciding whether an offering at a shrine is for the hills or the forest, with an incarnation of each of those waiting for your response; and the various events that all deal with shrines and the like to different elements). There are also the Lostlings, who we know nothing about except that they are ancient, powerful, and either incredibly chaotic or incredibly evil (not enough evidence to draw a concrete conclusion). There's also magic, and the elemental spirits are capable of fusing themselves with both people and objects (a more unique idea than merely having powers because you were blessed by the spirits).
Haha, appreciate it. Naw, yeah, it's all very collaborative. One of the thoughts that obsesses me, and how I prefer to explain legacy heroes and marked changes in the tone or methods of group of monsters or heroes, is that this whole world is comprised of multiple continuums, basically a spectrum of realities reflecting all the range and potential of myths getting told different ways by different people. So anyway, it's very exciting and interesting to hear your cool ideas!


Catfish Waterdancer
== x ==
TamTroll
—
24.02.2020
So hmmm... One dimention is a point. Two is a flat plane, three is depth, fourth is time, fifth is an alternate timeline by changing the past, sixth is jumping between those timelines, seventh is every possible timeline... Wildermyth exists in the Seventh Dimention. Confirmed.
douglas
—
24.02.2020
haha, that's awesome
TamTroll
—
24.02.2020
Possibly eighth, which is a completely different set of possible timelines set as a result of a different organization of matter after the big-bang. hard to tell.
douglas
—
24.02.2020
I'll be thinking about that for a while, now
TamTroll
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24.02.2020
just look up "ice age in 4-D " that's where i got all that information sevral years ago 😛
== x ==
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
25.05.2020
08.03.2020
In the Yondering Lands, the four elements of Air, Earth, Fire and Water seem to possess intelligence - Earth and Fire in particular. There are the character transformations that come about during events with the jewel in the rock, and the fire altar in the forest. You could see the 'Celestial' transformation (star-hair) as personifying Air. Imagining the primal elements as 'forces' is something found in cultures all throughout Earth's history.
Thrixl honestly have to be my favourite enemy faction. Dreams are emotional, poignant, frightening and hopeful, the private processing of subconsciousness done by intelligent and empathetic beings. They are also incredibly alien. Thrixl themselves are perhaps the most alien of the factions as a group of godlike beings with nebulous goals. A Gorgon's motives are at least understandable, to seek a silence that is eternal. Thrixl seem to create and judge life itself, literally toying with the fabric of reality. What are they after?


Professor Ocecat
(Don't mind me, just headcanon dumping some late night brain vomit.)
 
I really like what someone said about the Thrixl being a hive mind, perhaps even many different dimensional hives with queens, either competing or coexisting. Each egg a queen produces might come from a stream of consciousness cut abruptly off as her mind drifts from subject to subject, her children manifesting from broken trains of thought over her daily musings and think tanks. If Thrixl were not a hive mind, maybe personality would form from the Queen's desire and emotion at the time.
 
Thrixl have some seriously godlike powers if they can imagine anything into existence. Perhaps they haven't claimed what they are after because they all share some part of each other's thoughts and dreams, a collective mind cluttered and tormented with constant information overload (their mental processing could be far superior to any other species, but we're talking about millions of lizard bugs thinking and living all at once in a interconnected stream of consciousness). How can Thrixl feel passion if the mental buzz of brothers and sisters makes it hard to grasp it? Perhaps that's why they feed on emotions. It grounds them, like building a dream web in the overworld might bring them calm and focus through laying out their hazy narrative into a seamless whole.
== x ==
davea
  —  
  —  
24.05.2020
09.03.2020
So there's gods and such in the Yondering Lands (of a sort, at least) for sure; going of some of the events. I'm just internally toying with ideas of the sorts of forces that might be at play, for some unecissarily epic storyline that has to do with the actual forces at play behind the Yondering lands.
What is the government structure?  Nate posted in another channel that there aren't nobles.  i am considering some campaign involving bandits, but it would help to know how towns would normally defend against bandits, or if there could be rebels.
Would you guys feel that angels, fiends or some other cosmic-level forces may be working their power behind the scenes to influence things, more so than the monstrous factions? Or would that be too far of a stretch for the Canon?
NateAustin
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
24.05.2020
09.03.2020
(the official position is: do whatever you want, don't worry if it's something we would do.)
You're definitely free to do what you want. We didn't want a strong central government, because then
a) why isn't this their problem?
b) do the heroes work for them?
c) what happens if the king is a jerk? how does that impact the player?
 
We really just wanted the player to call the shots with a small number of heroes.


IntellectMaster
Bandits - sure - it's a totally legit threat, that probably the lands (such as they are) would be badly equipped to deal with. I mean that's sorta what governments are for, right? and we just said we don't have one. That may be a reason we shy away from bandits in general, but certainly feel free to use them for your stories.
davea
—
09.03.2020
thanks.  what would a rebel be rebelling against?  i was playing with the idea of incursions by one group of humans, which looks like rebels, but i can't figure out how the lore would treat that.
TamTroll
—
09.03.2020
rival village / group of villages who just really don't like this village in particular? whole hatfeilds and the Mcoys kinda thing?
NateAustin
—
09.03.2020
rebels - yeah doesn't really make a ton of sense with our lore. invading armies from elsewhere certainly could work though.
davea
  —  
  —  
04.05.2020
09.03.2020
Why stronger, and not just different? A monster with unexpected abilities can easily make an encounter more dangerous without the monster itself being more powerful than other monsters of the same type. Just trade off hit points and/or damage per attack with new AoE abilities, paralysis/restraints/grapple etc., mobility, resistances, etc. Your players will (might) appreciate the more unique challenges rather than the tougher challenges, but I don't know. Maybe you guys like to pound away at increasingly more powerful enemies for hours on end (which, ironically, is what the current situation in my campaign is).
Are there different countries from which other humans might invade?
 
I do like the Hatfield's idea
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
03.05.2020
09.03.2020
yeah. True Gorgons i want to make as a full creature.
kinda get the feeling that countries / kingdoms just kind aren't a concept in the yondering lands. They kinda never got past the tribal stage, and quickly adapted "other tribes are people too" when they moved on to permanent villages.
IntellectMaster
annother continent or landmass maybe. something like raiders who come from a land with very few natural resources, so they need to go out and raid other settlements for it.
Victor Reinhardt
—
09.03.2020
Another country with a much more warlike group of people that move into the yondering lands to raze them of resources could be interesting
Rizelea
—
09.03.2020
they could go on a certain route that rather than raiding, they're invading due to certain reasons
can lead to an episode 2 if done properly wherein the heroes would go to the new continent
certain reasons can range from: a rebellion that failed, something bad is happening to their land, etc
Thad
  —  
  —  
03.05.2020
09.03.2020
That would make sense, as True Gorgons are their own unique entities. I do not know the Lathfinder system well at all, but I have a knack for this kind of thing and your templates look pretty balanced for what they’re trying to accomplish. However, I think CR change should not be a static increase regardless of starting CR, since that could be misleading. Squirrels that become gorgonoids would change at a different rate than bears, for example. Just a thought, as I’ve also considered running a D&D 5e campaign set in this universe. Gotta finnish up my Terraria-based one first, though.
Frost taken raiders pillaging bright sunny lands as for the cause of a creeping cold is consuming their land, killing their crops, stock, and families. As once sacred hunting grounds are filled with unimaginable beasts. Their raiding as a means to prepare a proper invasion. If done properly give the players a choice between extermination or to go and aid the raiders to save their land and stop them from raiding. Something like that. Love the idea


TamTroll
== x ==
douglas
—
10.03.2020
I do like the idea of explorers from over seas. Even if it's just a one-off event, and perhaps you can choose what your reaction will be, or what theirs will be, and guide the story the way you want it. Hmmm. Cool!
== x ==
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
05.04.2020
11.03.2020
okay i got it.
Are there naming conventions for non-human species like Gorgon or Drauven? I'd assume Morthagi don't have the ability or desire to name, but I considered how I might go about naming a reoccurring Drauven character that could speak a limited human tongue if I ever get around to fleshing out my ideas for a campaign. If there really aren't any canon conventions, I felt "my name in your language roughly translates to ..." or a nickname might work.
i think
I've been considering Dutch names or the name of a constellation for my Drauven fellow as well.
there was a new clutch of eggs, and when they hatched, there were 13 males and 18 females, which is read as a good omen. BUT! of the 13 males, 8 had red frills, while the others had green frills. this means danger is afoot. Leader A believes they should drown every odd-numbered hatchling to appease the spirits, but leader B is arguing that two of the females were born with black spots above their left eyes, leaving them blessed by the ancestry of the black dragon of hurmaturg. by leader A's plan, both of those females would be on the drowned list, which would very much upset the ancestry. So leader B instead proposes that they strip down the second, fifth, seventh, and eighth red-frilled males and send them out into the woods along with the first, third, eighth, ninth, and seventeenth females to begin a new colony, which will then become beset by plague according to the feathers in the bowl, thus cleansing the tribe of their sins and appeasing an Ancestry for another 27 winters.
To a Drauven, all of this makes perfect sense.


TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
05.04.2020
11.03.2020
Honestly, Drauven seem like the type to argue over things like territory, food, or even mating rights. Perhaps one of the leaders is younger then the other, and is trying to overthrow the elder, so it keeps questioning every order the elder gives to challenge it's authority.
i always figured their names were kinda just * incomprehensible screech *
@Dust  as far as I've seen, they don't. they seem to be more concerned with themselves then any higher power.
NateAustin
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
05.04.2020
11.03.2020
@davea - politics and religion are classics. they're ostensibly "dragon-descended" or so they say, and the dravonne unit is there to play with.
We don't have strong canon for that, you can really go with anything you like. We do have a couple of examples of drauven talking so that's definitely on the table.
Gorgon religion - unestablished, I think it would fit fine with them if you want to tell that story.
== x ==
douglas
Catfish Waterdancer
—
11.03.2020
Aren't the Drauven drawings discovered in a cave that of a dragon, or dragon-like creature?  Are the Drauven's ancestors saurian or draconian?
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
11.03.2020
Yeah, the elemental aspects are still fairly new. Seem to remember them going in late summer of last year? Anyway, there's definitely room for spirits, elemental or otherwise to exist and deviate from the four we regularly see. I don't quite remember why those four are the four our system's based on, haha 😅
they will certainly tell you draconian.
 
it's how they see themselves
Catfish Waterdancer
== x ==
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
12.03.2020
The Primal Spirits - Stone, Leaf, Fire and Water - could perhaps be linked to each species, with the exception of the Morthagi - which are constructs. Night!
That begs the question of how the general Drauven populace feels about birds evolving from dinosaurs, if they even knew that information. But since the group are quite elitist in general, it's fair to say that they merely respect the symbolism of birds yet strive to dominate the skies themselves. Birds could be beneath them, inspirational but lesser beings.
I also like the idea that all dragons in Wildermyth that aren't Thrixl are feathery bois to separate them from the traditional green, gold hoarding types. So possessing Draconian blood might be considered greater than that of extinct beasts and diminutive avians.  
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
12.03.2020
later disciple
Drauven seem to be alright with birds. they got Terrorbirds and hawks on their team after all.
Catfish Waterdancer
this just spoorts my theory that Avien life is a lot more present then Mammalian life is in the yondering lands. at least moreso then on earth.
gotta come up with some bird-like cattle or beasts of labor or something.
== x ==
Lightning
—
12.03.2020
isnt it in the lore that the Thrixl attack the mind and soul? If so, I find it interesting that the gorgons infect and "attack" the living body
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
12.03.2020
Kweh!
That is interesting. There are a lot of similarities between the different enemy factions that could make for unstable allegiances, with differences ultimately driving them apart.
 
Drauven and Thrixl both possess draconic attributes, one being passionate dreamers of obtaining flight and the other dreamers lacking in passion.
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
12.03.2020
stone would be gorgon of course. i could see water as being deepists... mayybe gorgons... stone could also be gorgon i guess. Fire seems like a human thing. and Drauven live in Trees, so Leaf?
maybe the Gorons are the Thrixl's fault. they were like "Boy it sure is a waste that we leave behind these perfectly good bodies when we kill our victims." and then BAM! Gorgons.
Catfish Waterdancer
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
12.03.2020
Unless they are draconian, which suggests fire.
Thrixl gave birth to the cleanup crew, but kicked the teenagers out of the house when they began rambling about eternal silence and great, corrupting sickness.
Just a thought I've been bouncing around.
I'm surprised there's no Air spirit, though.


TamTroll
== x ==
Catfish Waterdancer
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
12.03.2020
but the Gorgons are still here. Can't have the gorgons up and leave when they're still around right? 😛
@Disciple of the Thrixl What is it that makes you surmise that the Thrixl lack passion? I'm curious.
oh that's nothing. Try picturing Wildermyth Fish... i don't think that'll work. No matter how far you stretch penguin evolution.
Disciple of the Thrixl
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
12.03.2020
Drauven and dragons appear to have a very close relationship with birds in appearance, not just religion and culture.
Hold on, I'll be with you in a bit
Wildermyth fish... but it's just parrot fish.
Catfish Waterdancer
Not even parrot fish, fish parrots
—
TamTroll
12.03.2020
With bated breath, I wait.  😉
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
12.03.2020
i'm thinking there was no sudden extinction event for dinosaurs, so some of the larger dinosaurs turned into dragons and / or drauven, while the smaller ones became birds. Over the years the remaining dinosaurs and / or dragons died out due to natural causes, allowing the mammals to step up to the plate to fill what niches remained. but Mammals may have still been stifled by Gorgons since the beginning, giving Birds more time to develop into land-dwelling creatures, and Drauven enough time to grow intelligence.  
I say they lack passion, but this comes from my interpretation of the nameless scribes who speculate the Thrixl's behaviour and lifestyle in the Thrixl lore page. I may have gotten headcanons confused with canon again, as I did with Gorgons coming from the seas 😛
i'll be honest, about 50% of my reasoning for Bird-horses having re-purposed wings as front legs is because i don't want people making the comparison to Chocobos. the other 50% is because the lucky coin critter looks like a bird and has four legs.  
 
I like to think they have ascended beyond more base instincts and feelings, yet have a suppressed and denied primal desire from their long lost lizard brain. Passion is fiery, consuming, something that calls for you to follow your gut and put your heart into what you love. Thrixl are thinkers, plotters and dreamers. They are creative and driven, but nothing is done with that invigorating spark.


It's mentioned here also (or speculated, as the writers tell us) that they might not have base feelings. I really need to reel myself in when my inner fangirl gets speculating herself lol.
== x ==
Lightning
—
12.03.2020
It feels to me like the Thrixl are a cursed race.  Like, they reached too far, and as punishment, they have an endless hunger for passion and emotion.
Disciple of the Thrixl
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
12.03.2020
TamTroll, maybe you could consider Gorgon interference with the ecosystem a way for the avians to rise and rule? They have corrupted mostly mammals like boar and deer, perhaps a great extinction happened long ago where the birds escaped the calcifying clutches through the advantage of flight. The Gorgons failed their conquest and returned to where they lurked, allowing what remained to evolve and adapt.
Lightning surmised it perfectly. That's why I compared and contrasted Thrixl to drauven: drauven seem very passionate, following their dreams to conquer land and sky with no way to make it a reality like magic. Thrixl and Drauven might form an alliance, but nothing of use would be taken or given in the end.
TamTroll
== x ==
Dust
—
13.03.2020
Also, foxes are such creatures of legend in this world. In the Ulstryx opening scene for the starting Mystic, they read a story about a fox and a crow. Numerous weapons get named after foxes, and if I recall correctly, places do as well. Then there's the obvious influence in Foxflight.
Just felt like pointing that out
I wonder if we'll see more stuff with herons mentioned...
Or if foxes and herons exist in this world as more than statues and legend
Lightning
—
13.03.2020
I think its up to us to badge modders into creating fox and heron lore
Just like its up to us to convince the world that Thrixl are the secret manipulators of all world events, and that they are and always will be our divine overlords
Dust
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
13.03.2020
Mhh that could work yea. might not quite fit with the idea of four-legged flightless birds buuhht... maybe birds just aren't affected by the gorgon corruption or something? 😛
You say that as though the world needs to know
i mean, other then the bogmoor... we really only see infected mammels.
The Thrixl needn't let the entire public have knowledge of their influence
maybe that one species of frog is just an exception
douglas
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
13.03.2020
They could evolve to be flightless 😜 and perhaps some missing link in the style of archeopteryx adapted to the forest floor as pheasant-like birds or such.
Confirmed foxes and herons.


I'd like to see an uninfected bogmoor tbh. The frogs are huuuuge, man.
Catfish Waterdancer
Catfish Waterdancer
  —  
  —  
22.03.2020
13.03.2020
Devolution - avian becoming saurian?  Makes sense.
Someone mention birds...have you looked - I mean, really looked at Mo-Atona?  The God/dess of Balance?  The one the Gorgonoids turned into...pewter?
 
Lightning
samuraidad
—
13.03.2020
wait, confirmed they exist? or confirmed theyre all statues now?
Catfish, I think you're behind the times.  Birds have been the focus of
lore-and-fiction and
art-house for days now lol
but i should probably take a look at that
douglas
—
13.03.2020
not all statues, haha. i mean, that's certainly A plot.
Lightning
  —
13.03.2020
ah, gotcha
douglas
  —  
  —  
20.03.2020
13.03.2020
One thing I’m thinking is that this is a fantasy setting where magic and mystical happenstance are constant realities.  That is to say, evolution, though instructive need not be the end all to be all. Iow, if you want dinosaurs or bird horses or wolves or bears or whatever....put them in.  How do they exist?  Magic! Ha!
We pepper in some aminals from time to time, but usually just as background figures.
Annie
== x ==
Lightning
  —  
  —  
21.03.2020
13.03.2020
I mean, we have fire chickens and giant tree-creatures, I think almost everything is on the table. 😉
any word on whether the Thrixl have influenced the creation of all other evil races as well as caused all great tragedies through secretive manipulations so that they can cause mayhem and breed passion and desperation in humans so that they can feed on these emotions at their leisure?
 
Dust
Joefred
  —  
  —  
19.03.2020
13.03.2020
Arent they riding a horse in the ending sequence of the chapters
I just realized
they ride into town on horses dont they?
You can choose to be kind to and have kindness returned by members of every antagonistic faction
MintyMiamice
Which is kinda cool
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
19.03.2020
13.03.2020
That sounds like mandella effect
No word is needed, Lightning. It concerns me that you would even doubt our Gods' power.
douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
19.03.2020
13.03.2020
Hmm. Not quite sure which portion you're referencing. Is it in a panel that you see?
No word is needed.
Annie
== x ==
Deleted User
  —  
  —  
19.03.2020
13.03.2020
Unless somebody modded horses in already, I know I've never drawn a horse in the game. 😉
We need a Drauven recruit
 
douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
19.03.2020
13.03.2020
Think horses exist, or can exist, but are not common. The concept of riding them certainly doesn't exist. Who would even think of riding a horse?
We were originally going to do more with monsters-related histories and such. Could see it being a follow-up to an event somewhere.
 
Catfish Waterdancer
Feral
  —  
  —  
16.03.2020
13.03.2020
From the theme: Crow woman is mysterious, and hero would be mysterious + bookish.
Actually - having different 'Books' to WIldermyth that are told from the viewpoint of each faction is not a bad idea at all.
I'd like to see it centered on the Hunter class! Crow currently has 3 melee attacks, hoping it can get changed to 2 melee and 1 ranged!
My favorite thing about crow is how @Annie captured its bluish/purple iridescence.
douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
16.03.2020
13.03.2020
That certainly sounds like it could be a compatible facet. Regardless, any story we set forth will sort of be as reliable as an origin myth in most cultures. There's room to deviate, and explore a side of it, and for contradictory components of it to coexist
Wow, yeah. that's a huge idea
 
== x ==
Dust
—
13.03.2020
I could see anyone but Gorgons working with humans or each other temporarily
Gorgons aren't stupid, but they'd probably just rather infect other species and use them that way than break their Gorgon pride and utilize diplomacy
Catfish Waterdancer
—
13.03.2020
It would be 'very strange' if it didn't.
douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
16.03.2020
13.03.2020
Hm, no specific lore has been written at this time. I'll probably be updating that encoutner at some point. One thing I'm considering is relating the crow woman, (and any concept of crowfolk in general) to the goddess Oruwei who you sort of encounter in the hook quest for the Nostalgic hook "For an Old Wish Passing." A lost people, essentially. But should be fairly flexible for story-things. Did you have a specific thing you were worried about?
It's always fun to imagine the edge cases
 
I have this weird ancient Gorgon mythos thing sort of gestating in the back of my head. Of them being more heroic at one point. I like to dig up parts of it, sometimes, but I mostly just leave it buried, haha
 


== x ==
Deleted User
Deleted User
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Line 534: Line 754:
13.03.2020
13.03.2020
I need to go work on my Thrixl campaign
I need to go work on my Thrixl campaign
Catfish Waterdancer
 
—
== x ==
13.03.2020
Not completely incompatible.  I see them using dreams and imaginative power to create an artwork, or tapestry, which represents their history and the realities they travel to.
Lightning
—
13.03.2020
ooh, thats a cool idea
Catfish Waterdancer
—
13.03.2020
The novella/fan fiction I'm writing lays some groundwork.  Pieces of it are here in this section.
TamTroll
TamTroll
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Line 562: Line 772:
and one write on it
and one write on it


douglas
== x ==
Lightning
—
15.03.2020
I think the wildermyth book should be considered something outside of time and space.  As in, like some sort of akashic record
Catfish Waterdancer
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
16.03.2020
It's always fun to imagine the edge cases
And yet...methinks it appears only in the prologue quest, in the hands of your first Mystic, and is not mentioned again - not even in the final ending panels of the Ulstryx quest. It would be interesting if Wildermyth had a series of introductory panels before or on the very first playthrough after downloading and beginning the game where two parents and a child are seen. The child asks if they can read a story from the special book, and is given a very brief explanation about it, and ultimately it is opened, as we see the frontispiece and title page.  A hand turns the page (maybe wearing a wolf ring or some such) and as we see the page of contents, one parent asks: "What story would you like to read (or 'live through?' 'take part in?' or more eerily 'relive?')"
I have this weird ancient Gorgon mythos thing sort of gestating in the back of my head. Of them being more heroic at one point. I like to dig up parts of it, sometimes, but I mostly just leave it buried, haha


douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
16.03.2020
We were originally going to do more with monsters-related histories and such. Could see it being a follow-up to an event somewhere.
Hm, no specific lore has been written at this time. I'll probably be updating that encoutner at some point. One thing I'm considering is relating the crow woman, (and any concept of crowfolk in general) to the goddess Oruwei who you sort of encounter in the hook quest for the Nostalgic hook "For an Old Wish Passing." A lost people, essentially. But should be fairly flexible for story-things. Did you have a specific thing you were worried about?
Catfish Waterdancer
== x ==
Feral
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
16.03.2020
Actually - having different 'Books' to WIldermyth that are told from the viewpoint of each faction is not a bad idea at all.
From the theme: Crow woman is mysterious, and hero would be mysterious + bookish.
I'd like to see it centered on the Hunter class! Crow currently has 3 melee attacks, hoping it can get changed to 2 melee and 1 ranged!
My favorite thing about crow is how @Annie captured its bluish/purple iridescence.
douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
16.03.2020
Wow, yeah. that's a huge idea
That certainly sounds like it could be a compatible facet. Regardless, any story we set forth will sort of be as reliable as an origin myth in most cultures. There's room to deviate, and explore a side of it, and for contradictory components of it to coexist
 
== x ==
 
SOGA
Lightning
—
19.03.2020
If I recall correctly adding horses involved a lot of work (art and codewise) for the little impact they could make.
douglas
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
19.03.2020
any word on whether the Thrixl have influenced the creation of all other evil races as well as caused all great tragedies through secretive manipulations so that they can cause mayhem and breed passion and desperation in humans so that they can feed on these emotions at their leisure?
Think horses exist, or can exist, but are not common. The concept of riding them certainly doesn't exist. Who would even think of riding a horse?
Dust
Joefred
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
19.03.2020
I just realized
Arent they riding a horse in the ending sequence of the chapters
You can choose to be kind to and have kindness returned by members of every antagonistic faction
they ride into town on horses dont they?
Which is kinda cool
MintyMiamice
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
19.03.2020
No word is needed, Lightning. It concerns me that you would even doubt our Gods' power.
That sounds like mandella effect
douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
19.03.2020
No word is needed.
Hmm. Not quite sure which portion you're referencing. Is it in a panel that you see?
 
Annie
Lightning
—
19.03.2020
Unless somebody modded horses in already, I know I've never drawn a horse in the game. 😉
== x ==
samuraidad
—
20.03.2020
One thing I’m thinking is that this is a fantasy setting where magic and mystical happenstance are constant realities.  That is to say, evolution, though instructive need not be the end all to be all.  Iow, if you want dinosaurs or bird horses or wolves or bears or whatever....put them in.  How do they exist?  Magic! Ha!
Annie
—
21.03.2020
I mean, we have fire chickens and giant tree-creatures, I think almost everything is on the table. 😉
== x ==
Catfish Waterdancer
—
22.03.2020
There are no elemental opposites, which is surprising.  For instance, hitting a fire-based enemy with a water-blessed weapon should cause extra damage.
shrugs
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
22.03.2020
A valid point. But what else can a devout follower of Thrixli belief do than convert all others to the Grand Church of Thrixl
they do it like that because other systems don't do it like that. simple 😛
Catfish Waterdancer
Catfish Waterdancer
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
22.03.2020
Someone mention birds...have you looked - I mean, really looked at Mo-Atona?  The God/dess of Balance?  The one the Gorgonoids turned into...pewter?
I'm all for originality.
Lightning
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
22.03.2020
wait, confirmed they exist? or confirmed theyre all statues now?
ye
Catfish, I think you're behind the times.  Birds have been the focus of
lore-and-fiction and
art-house for days now lol
but i should probably take a look at that
douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
22.03.2020
not all statues, haha. i mean, that's certainly A plot.
Yeah, the elemental aspects are still fairly new. Seem to remember them going in late summer of last year? Anyway, there's definitely room for spirits, elemental or otherwise to exist and deviate from the four we regularly see. I don't quite remember why those four are the four our system's based on, haha 😅
Lightning
Annie
—
22.03.2020
(because those are the ones i just happened to draw a few years ago, and then when we decided to make weapon enchantments based on them, adding more would mean we'd have to draw and design another 50+ weapons)
TamTroll
—
22.03.2020
pff
Annie
—
22.03.2020
(the lore can be something prettier though) 😂
== x ==
Catfish Waterdancer
—
23.03.2020
Mo-Atona is a bird god/dess - pewterized, to be sure - but definitely avian.
MintyMiamice
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
24.03.2020
ah, gotcha
If something in the woods was very strange I simply would not venture into them
douglas
No offense to the adventurers of the yondering lands, but I'm different
nixylvarie
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
24.03.2020
We pepper in some aminals from time to time, but usually just as background figures.
”Oh something in the woods is strange? I’ll get right on that. Tomorrow.” goes back to bed
 
Catfish Waterdancer
 
Dust
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
24.03.2020
Also, foxes are such creatures of legend in this world. In the Ulstryx opening scene for the starting Mystic, they read a story about a fox and a crow. Numerous weapons get named after foxes, and if I recall correctly, places do as well. Then there's the obvious influence in Foxflight.
🎶 Into the woods and out of the woods, and home before dark! 🎵
Just felt like pointing that out
zuesîn
I wonder if we'll see more stuff with herons mentioned...
Or if foxes and herons exist in this world as more than statues and legend
Lightning
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
27.03.2020
I think its up to us to badge modders into creating fox and heron lore
Many heroes venture forth, their hearts so every brave
Just like its up to us to convince the world that Thrixl are the secret manipulators of all world events, and that they are and always will be our divine overlords
For they know not the dangers, they aren't heroes nay they're knaves
Dust
== x ==
davea
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
05.04.2020
You say that as though the world needs to know
Asking for a friend, what's a lore reason that two drauven leaders could be arguing about? Maybe a religious or cultural difference?
The Thrixl needn't let the entire public have knowledge of their influence
Joefred
douglas
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
05.04.2020
Confirmed foxes and herons.
the best way to eat a human
 
or the best way to torture
Lightning
👍
Dust
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
05.04.2020
Would it be a paradox to be created by yourself, become all-powerful, go back in time, and create yourself?
Do the Gorgons have a religion with a specific deity?
Disciple of the Thrixl
Catfish Waterdancer
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
05.04.2020
Some questions are just best left unanswered.
@davea Good question. Perhaps the specific form of punishment for a comrade who sympathizes with another race - and led an ambush meant to deal with intruders of that race astray, rather than intercept them?  Or, whether or not the Elder Drauvens (i.e. dragons) still exist in the Yondering Lands?
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
05.04.2020
yup
Honestly, Drauven seem like the type to argue over things like territory, food, or even mating rights. Perhaps one of the leaders is younger then the other, and is trying to overthrow the elder, so it keeps questioning every order the elder gives to challenge it's authority.
Lightning
@Dust  as far as I've seen, they don't. they seem to be more concerned with themselves then any higher power.
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
05.04.2020
You're just afraid of our divine Thrixl overlords
@davea - politics and religion are classics. they're ostensibly "dragon-descended" or so they say, and the dravonne unit is there to play with.
Hiya2527
Gorgon religion - unestablished, I think it would fit fine with them if you want to tell that story.
davea
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
05.04.2020
So wildermyth is a cyclical epic? Like Zelda sorta
I was hoping to find something more alien, any human can argue about these things.
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
05.04.2020
Maybe? Everything we talked about was primarily speculartion and silly theories
okay i got it.
Lightning
i think
there was a new clutch of eggs, and when they hatched, there were 13 males and 18 females, which is read as a good omen. BUT! of the 13 males, 8 had red frills, while the others had green frills. this means danger is afoot. Leader A believes they should drown every odd-numbered hatchling to appease the spirits, but leader B is arguing that two of the females were born with black spots above their left eyes, leaving them blessed by the ancestry of the black dragon of hurmaturg. by leader A's plan, both of those females would be on the drowned list, which would very much upset the ancestry. So leader B instead proposes that they strip down the second, fifth, seventh, and eighth red-frilled males and send them out into the woods along with the first, third, eighth, ninth, and seventeenth females to begin a new colony, which will then become beset by plague according to the feathers in the bowl, thus cleansing the tribe of their sins and appeasing an Ancestry for another 27 winters.
To a Drauven, all of this makes perfect sense.
 
== x ==
douglas
  —  
  —  
13.03.2020
04.05.2020
Silly? I think not.  The Thrixl are our divine overlords. It has been written in the stars.
@Briar Rose Fire feels like a very head-on hero-type element, and to me, that's what Aria would have wielded. But! That said, I can see a version of her with any of our elements. There's a desert/fire aspect to Vulta, and I can see the hero who defeated Vulta could have fought fire with fire, or overcome it with a different energy, smothering earth, flowing water, or rejuvenating root and leaf.


Lightning
It's really neat that you'll make her a part of your legacy : ) Thanks for playing our game.
== x ==
Professor Ocecat
—
24.05.2020
So there's gods and such in the Yondering Lands (of a sort, at least) for sure; going of some of the events. I'm just internally toying with ideas of the sorts of forces that might be at play, for some unecissarily epic storyline that has to do with the actual forces at play behind the Yondering lands.
Would you guys feel that angels, fiends or some other cosmic-level forces may be working their power behind the scenes to influence things, more so than the monstrous factions? Or would that be too far of a stretch for the Canon?
NateAustin
—
24.05.2020
(the official position is: do whatever you want, don't worry if it's something we would do.)
== x ==
SOGA
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
28.06.2020
Thought: Thrixl are the big bad.  They influenced the creation of the Morthagi in the far past to cause mayhem throughout the generations, and their actions drove those early humans underground, with them forming cults and hiding away from the Thrixli influence.  They created the Gorgons to bring fear and desperation to humans. They fed the dreams to the Drauven, cultivating a rich society of emotion to use as feedstock in the later centuries.  
I think another important difference is that while the world seems to be in a feudal medieval age, there are no lords, armies or religions.
 
Popcornia
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
28.06.2020
I say they lack passion, but this comes from my interpretation of the nameless scribes who speculate the Thrixl's behaviour and lifestyle in the Thrixl lore page. I may have gotten headcanons confused with canon again, as I did with Gorgons coming from the seas 😛
Yeah, it’s actually an interesting use of a similar concept from Anglo-Saxon literature / life. Their territory was filled with the remnants of a past society (aka, the Roman Empire) they know little about, and so they can only wonder what those buildings the people who used them were like.
 
For Wildermyth, that concept is transplanted into a roughly medieval era, where it’s remnants of the past seem like remnants of roughly the same aesthetic / people who lived like they do now.
I like to think they have ascended beyond more base instincts and feelings, yet have a suppressed and denied primal desire from their long lost lizard brain. Passion is fiery, consuming, something that calls for you to follow your gut and put your heart into what you love. Thrixl are thinkers, plotters and dreamers. They are creative and driven, but nothing is done with that invigorating spark.
I wouldn’t say they’re stagnated as a society, just from that observation; they just don’t have a need for consolidating power, resources, etc.
 
It also keeps the world as a whole somewhat thematic, it’s a world where the imagination and folklore of the scattered and isolated can easily be something that can come from the dark of the Woods.
It's mentioned here also (or speculated, as the writers tell us) that they might not have base feelings. I really need to reel myself in when my inner fangirl gets speculating herself lol.
douglas
 
https://wildermyth.com/wiki/index.php?title=Thrixl_lore
Bild
^^^Little excerpt screenshotted above.
 
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
28.06.2020
Ya know, a Thrixl controlling an undead army, or even just a particularly ambitious bug trying to tap into the spirit when the mind is gone, would make for an interesting plot. If it was distanced from tropey zombies enough, that is.
Yeah, a lot of people are covering most of it. I think the Wildermyth world is much less solidly tied to the concreteness of reality/time than ours. There's some Discworld-y stuff underlying it all, where what is believed becomes manifest. While Wildermyth's setting is kind of standard medieval fantasy in a lot of ways, it doesn't have any single cultural or historical analogue in our world. Technologies like printing exist here. Gunpowder doesn't. There's no churchly influence, though there are gods, wild gods mostly, which maybe at one point received more organized worship. Ancient things have been left over in this place, and the world's haunted by a mostly inaccessible past, which we like to explore in glimpses. Basically, I'm echoing what Popcornia said above, and yeah Anglo-Saxon writing was a big influence, and part of the twist on that is sort of in making them ordinary, making the language contemporary and mannerisms American-ish.  
 
TamTroll
Disciple of the Thrixl
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
28.06.2020
Thrixl gave birth to the cleanup crew, but kicked the teenagers out of the house when they began rambling about eternal silence and great, corrupting sickness.
So it's not any small things, like how the fallout universe never invented the microprocessor then i'm guessing?
 
douglas
Lightning
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
28.06.2020
their head shape sorta screams illithid
Hm, I can't think of any extra little key bits like that at the moment. The presence of printing and wide availability of books/widespread literacy might be it, though. That does make a huge difference, I think, culturally, here.
Also, there's flushing toilets and people brush their teeth 😁
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
28.06.2020
either the ocean, the darkest depths of the eldrich beyond, or the living embodiment of the infection itself. one of those three.
Kingless middle ages with better education and hygine. Sounds nice 😛
maybe something else
Popcornia
Lightning
—
28.06.2020
Yes gods, no masters. I can vibe with that.
douglas
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
28.06.2020
isnt it in the lore that the Thrixl attack the mind and soul? If so, I find it interesting that the gorgons infect and "attack" the living body
Yeah! I also think the gods that exist are not human-centric for the most part. If you interact with them, they become interested in you, but they mostly inhabit their own unlives, fulfill their own inscrutable purposes. Except that desperate wolf god, of course.
Disciple of the Thrixl
Popcornia
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
28.06.2020
That is interesting. There are a lot of similarities between the different enemy factions that could make for unstable allegiances, with differences ultimately driving them apart.  
Yeah, the one god we've seen in person was a cool Sphinx.
 
I do think them just, straight up ignoring everything (even the Gorgons) was interesting from an outside perspective.
Drauven and Thrixl both possess draconic attributes, one being passionate dreamers of obtaining flight and the other dreamers lacking in passion.
(Or maybe they were asleep the whole time.)
 
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
28.06.2020
wouldn't be surprised if there weren't too many creatures that ate / adapted to Gorons. they seem like a relitively recent addition to the world. not sure how long ago, but not since the dawn of time.
honestly i'd wonder if they're all less gods, more just powerful spirits. if there is a difference at all i suppose.
hard to say
douglas
Disciple of the Thrixl
—
28.06.2020
Yeah, I think that's a good way to look at it. Doesn't super matter what they're called, or how they're categorized. Both are words in this world that are used for metaphysical things, with physical-seeming forms, whose powers and desires are mostly immeasurable.
== x ==
Selemas
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
29.06.2020
Anti-Gorgon adaptations would definitely be limited to a niche in the animal kingdom. If Gorgons came from the sea, perhaps they could be crustaceans with powerful pincers. I don't see land animals adapting so quickly, but if Thrixl can dream up whatever form they desire for their kin then I suppose they may favour a body that will support their species in a Gorgon uprising. But that's less evolution and more playing their own god.
Well, maybe you can't live happily ever after, but perhaps you can put it to sleep for another thousand years
Lightning
IamGroot
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
29.06.2020
I think that your gorgon eater is literally called gorgonEater in the files.  Maybe called devourers in game?
Reminds me of norse mythology about Ragnorak
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
29.06.2020
yeaa. only ever saw it once in someone else's game.
and then in a thousand years it wakes up and consumes the world. like i said, the world is doomed.
it was blue and had a tube-mouth i think. that's all i got.
safe for now but teetering on the edge of oblivion is not a safe world.
 
Selemas
TamTroll
—
29.06.2020
Safe for a a thousand years is not teetering on the edge of oblivion, at least, not as far as mortals are concerned
Popcornia
—
29.06.2020
I think it's well within the world's purview to have alternating times of oblivion and creation.
The origins of the world are vague enough that it could have easily come from ex nilhio, possibly multiple times.
Popcornia
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
29.06.2020
Drauven seem to be alright with birds. they got Terrorbirds and hawks on their team after all.
(Now the fact that we consistently get humans, drauv, thriskl, morthagi,  gorgons, and Deepists, thats a different story)
this just spoorts my theory that Avien life is a lot more present then Mammalian life is in the yondering lands. at least moreso then on earth.
douglas
gotta come up with some bird-like cattle or beasts of labor or something.
Deleted User
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
29.06.2020
I'll look at getting a couple ideas sketched up around that. Could be fun building out the lore.
Yeah, we get an averted cataclysm  in the Gorgon campaign. It's easy to imagine global traumas happening here that get mythologized and become memories with the passing of generations. The scale of the world is also something we don't really describe, but I operate from a place where someone might be able to say "This and many other Yonderings." The ever-changing map for your playthroughs reflects that. So what happened one place hasn't necessarily happened other places.
 
Popcornia
Catfish Waterdancer
  —  
  —  
11.03.2020
29.06.2020
Hmmm. If a Drauven equivalent of a paleoanthropologist discovered bones and artifacts that suggested a saurian ancestry, they'd face possible censorship, ostracism, and possibly even death threats?  Very interesting.
I do think the world could be open to some more tile types. Some arid or desert landscapes might add some more interesting vista to the world.
Disciple of the Thrixl
douglas
  —  
  —  
12.03.2020
29.06.2020
That begs the question of how the general Drauven populace feels about birds evolving from dinosaurs, if they even knew that information. But since the group are quite elitist in general, it's fair to say that they merely respect the symbolism of birds yet strive to dominate the skies themselves. Birds could be beneath them, inspirational but lesser beings.  
Ancient Things, eldritch beings asleep in the world... we do like to surface these. But understanding all of where they come from, and what else dwells under the strata of time and apocalypses would sort of ruin it.  
I also like the idea that all dragons in Wildermyth that aren't Thrixl are feathery bois to separate them from the traditional green, gold hoarding types. So possessing Draconian blood might be considered greater than that of extinct beasts and diminutive avians.  
Other environments is a post 1.0 thing, realistically. I agree it would be cool. Just being that we're a small team, we weigh down our sole artist so much already, haha. But yeah, totally feel you on that.


Catfish Waterdancer
== x ==
Not Courith Cold
  —  
  —  
11.03.2020
10.08.2020
Aren't the Drauven drawings discovered in a cave that of a dragon, or dragon-like creature?  Are the Drauven's ancestors saurian or draconian?
I have a question.
Has toast been invented in the Wildermyth world?
👀
Because I assume that it hasn't yet.
NateAustin
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
11.03.2020
10.08.2020
they will certainly tell you draconian.
well bread definitely exists
it's how they see themselves
electric toasters don't
 
people used to make it
Disciple of the Thrixl
by holding bread near fire
so break lore it won't?
hm was going for a poem but couldn't land it
IntellectMaster
—
10.08.2020
Toast in Wildermyth, can it be?
Examine the facts, then we'll see
If toast can in fact be in this game
Or if the Yondering lands believe toast to be lame!
Burned bread is toast, that is the fact.
Beyond that, it's all just flourish!
But let's say it needs butter to properly nourish
And be be properly absorbed by the digestive tract.
Wildermyth has cows, and berries for jam,
As well as fruits and canning for that delectable spread.
Add in other livestock for bacon and lamb
And you get a wonderful meal for breakfast in bed.
All that needs doing is to cook the break longer,
Anyone can do it, men and women!
People do weird things to sate their hunger,
And so, in conclusion, toast won't break cannon.
Not Courith Cold
—
10.08.2020
:thinkDerp:
SaltySweet Ren
—
10.08.2020
Imagine if someone came up wuth the brilliant idea to halve the cooking time for toast... by setting up two fires and holding the bread between them!
IntellectMaster
  —  
  —  
11.03.2020
10.08.2020
There are names that mean a bird in other languages too, like Aquila and Alouette.
"And that's the story of how your father became a flamesoul, kids!"
Could even take from a dinosaur, like Archeopteryx. "Pteryx" with a silent P sounds deliciously primal, fitting a lithe Drauven marksman stalking a party from dense treetops. Maybe even the title of a feathered ancient one.
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
11.03.2020
10.08.2020
i always figured their names were kinda just * incomprehensible screech *
flamesoul person just picks up bread, smooshes it between their hands, two minutes later they have toast.
== x ==
Not Courith Cold
—
11.08.2020
What stage of technology is Wildermyth in?
No muskets or cannons seen.
But there's steampunkish monsters (Morthagi).
So there could've been some gun robot amongst its ranks and then gunpowder stuff.
NateAustin
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
11.03.2020
11.08.2020
We don't have strong canon for that, you can really go with anything you like. We do have a couple of examples of drauven talking so that's definitely on the table.
yeah gunpowder would be exotic but wouldn't be out of the question.
IntellectMaster
—
11.08.2020
The morthagi are crafted using a long-lost set of technological inventions with a touch of magic. From what I’ve seen of this game, there used to be a much more advanced civilation in the Yondering Lands, but something happened and all that was lost. There were great libraries, massive towers, grand armies, and probably sprawling cities with majestic castles, but now most of these locations have been lost to the ages, crumbling into dust and forgotten by the people. Only a select few will ever relearn of these fantastical places on their quest to rid the land of its many dangers and evils, and even then their stories will be quickly forgotten by those who here them and relegated to just being myths or legends. No one else will even think of going back to those places to see of they are even real, not for a long time. And so the Yondering Lands continue to stagnate, unchanging as no one ever ventures too far from what they know to forever rid the lands of the monsters who terrorize them. Evil will continue to always crawl back and threaten everyone you love, as there are never enough heroes willing to venture to the very edge of the known to truly take back what was lost.
 


douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
10.03.2020
12.08.2020
I do like the idea of explorers from over seas. Even if it's just a one-off event, and perhaps you can choose what your reaction will be, or what theirs will be, and guide the story the way you want it. Hmmm. Cool!
Yeah, I would very much resist any sort of gunpowder development. I'm still disappointed it happened in our own timeline 😁 . I like (insist) that technology in a fantasy world doesn't develop at the same pace, or in the same order as it happened to here. Not just owing to coincidence, but also that the physical laws might be fundamentally different. As IntellectMaster said above, the technologoical heights of the world were and are achieved in some marriage of magic and science, and the civilizations that once thrived here were far beyond what the scattered, self-governing people of today can manage. That being said, their lives still have conveniences, and they still hold viewpoints, that medieval people of our world didn't, owing mostly to magical means and the cultural progress of long-ago people. I try to keep to my general intention of avoiding any direct analogues or artifacts from either real world history, culture, or else other fiction. Unless the joke/story is worth it.


NateAustin
But ultimately, there aren't hard rules for what can happen here, and it's only as detailed as our broad strokes and pointed stories can imply. I don't want this to feel like a limiting environment. If someone wants to tell any story here, they should feel free to, I think this world can take it.
== x ==
IntellectMaster
  —  
  —  
09.03.2020
12.08.2020
You're definitely free to do what you want. We didn't want a strong central government, because then
My thinking for shying away from guns and other technological advancements in medieval-fantasy settings is this: Why go through the time and effort of inventing an entirely new way of doing something if you can already achieve the ends you need to through a well-documented and effective process? (In this case magic.)
a) why isn't this their problem?
Sure, in most settings spellcaating and the like is usually very difficult to learn/master, and getting even a simple spell right can take years, but you know what else can take years? Getting gold enough with a bow to trust yourself to not only hit your target, but not also hit the ally standing 3 feet to the left. Same goes for guns, but with less time for your ally to try and avoid the stray projectile.
b) do the heroes work for them?
c) what happens if the king is a jerk? how does that impact the player?


We really just wanted the player to call the shots with a small number of heroes.
@TamTroll What a wonderful story! Love it! 😆
douglas
—
12.08.2020
Yeah, that's very cool! I like that it plays on the power of storytelling/shaping narrative. Feels nice and thematic.  


Bandits - sure - it's a totally legit threat, that probably the lands (such as they are) would be badly equipped to deal with. I mean that's sorta what governments are for, right? and we just said we don't have one. That may be a reason we shy away from bandits in general, but certainly feel free to use them for your stories.  
Yeah, I also feel that point about, why go to the trouble/accidental injury/intellectual frustration/etc. of attempting to create a scientific answer to question answered by magic. (Semi-restricting it beyond that is a lot because I want to avoid the villain from the incredibles happening.)
 
== x ==
Disciple of the Thrixl
Not Courith Cold
—
21.11.2020
I wonder what real world counterparts inspired the Yondering Lands?
Middle ages England?
Or Scotland?
Other Celtic lands?
Eastern Europe?
Annie
—
21.11.2020
Medieval Europe is pretty common inspiration in fantasy settings, and we're no exception, but we did try to give the land a slightly more American feel when it came to animals, plants, and the lack of any kinds of kings or nobility for the humans.
Not Courith Cold
—
21.11.2020
Where in Medieval Europe?
Annie
—
21.11.2020
I know I definitely play a little fast and loose with e.g., the pieces of scenery and what time/place they might be from
i don't think we had particular geographic locations in mind (though british isles often ends up being the default for that sort of thing). Dunno if Doug took from certain mythologies for the lore though
(we do have minotaurs and enemies called "gorgons" even though we're not aiming for ancient greece specifically. we're just lore-vultures, lol)
Not Courith Cold
—
21.11.2020
:thonkOwO:
douglas
—
22.11.2020
Real... world...?
douglas
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  —  
08.03.2020
22.11.2020
Thrixl honestly have to be my favourite enemy faction. Dreams are emotional, poignant, frightening and hopeful, the private processing of subconsciousness done by intelligent and empathetic beings. They are also incredibly alien. Thrixl themselves are perhaps the most alien of the factions as a group of godlike beings with nebulous goals. A Gorgon's motives are at least understandable, to seek a silence that is eternal. Thrixl seem to create and judge life itself, literally toying with the fabric of reality. What are they after?
Hehe, it's really all more conversant with literature/mythology than Earth societies and history. While there's elements that have historical basis (swords and stuff), a lot of that is a product of the genre, and the context within which the game exists, I guess. There's an intent to separate the fantasy world from the real world, and to recognize that history, society, and invention don't play out the same way to twice. Furthermore, there's the possibility that scientific laws may not function the same way here as on real earth. Probably the most actual-Earth stuff is the generic European medieval outfitting and the contemporary American English language usage.  


(Don't mind me, just headcanon dumping some late night brain vomit.)
Folklore, myth, pop-culture that we pull on tends to be from all over, but I can kind of point to a few that matter most. The poetry of W.B. Yeats and Irish folklore inspired Eluna and the Moth in a lot of ways. Much of the poetic core of the game is Anglo-Saxon-inspired. Hayao Miyazaki's films are a constant inspiration, and French writer Jean Giono is a huge influence on my sentences and style. Native American folklore has a voice here. The Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying games and resources (especially 2nd Edition) are deeply foundational to my centering in fantasy.  
 
I really like what someone said about the Thrixl being a hive mind, perhaps even many different dimensional hives with queens, either competing or coexisting. Each egg a queen produces might come from a stream of consciousness cut abruptly off as her mind drifts from subject to subject, her children manifesting from broken trains of thought over her daily musings and think tanks. If Thrixl were not a hive mind, maybe personality would form from the Queen's desire and emotion at the time.
 
Thrixl have some seriously godlike powers if they can imagine anything into existence. Perhaps they haven't claimed what they are after because they all share some part of each other's thoughts and dreams, a collective mind cluttered and tormented with constant information overload (their mental processing could be far superior to any other species, but we're talking about millions of lizard bugs thinking and living all at once in a interconnected stream of consciousness). How can Thrixl feel passion if the mental buzz of brothers and sisters makes it hard to grasp it? Perhaps that's why they feed on emotions. It grounds them, like building a dream web in the overworld might bring them calm and focus through laying out their hazy narrative into a seamless whole.  


Apologies for this long-winded answer. Feels like the closest I can come to answering your question, but I'm sure I'm forgetting/misrepresenting some things too.
== x ==
NateAustin
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11.01.2021
we specifically wanted to get away from kings, nobility, and all that. So instead of a king or council telling you what to do, it's up to you (the company) to take up the burden. It might not be the most realistic political simulation, but yeah I find it way more pleasant.
TamTroll
TamTroll
  —  
  —  
24.02.2020
11.01.2021
So hmmm... One dimention is a point. Two is a flat plane, three is depth, fourth is time, fifth is an alternate timeline by changing the past, sixth is jumping between those timelines, seventh is every possible timeline... Wildermyth exists in the Seventh Dimention. Confirmed.
from the various lores of ancient civilizations, it does look like kindoms and nobility did happen quite a few times. for one reason or another though they could just never quite get it to stick.
douglas
probably a lot of people going "You're the king? well i didn't vote for you." and not recognizing the king's probably self-imposed title. Wouldn't be surprised if most monarchies didn't even make it past three generations.
NateAustin
—
11.01.2021
yeah that makes sense. you need a bunch of physical and cultural infrastructure before feudalism starts to "work" I think
well I'm not a historian.
== x ==
buriedinfrost
—
11.01.2021
Or, maybe in the past those civilizations all crumbled and this is what is left
The less you explain it, the more people use their own minds to fill in the blanks
NateAustin
—
11.01.2021
yeah
== x ==
Eresian
—
29.01.2021
Are the lore pages on the wiki "canon?" What is the order of Kralar?
IntellectMaster
—
29.01.2021
As far as I can remember, they are, but last I saw was quite a long time ago.
IntellectMaster
—
29.01.2021
I thought that was the order of knights found in one of the hook quests, but I could easily be wrong. Out of thousands of events and hundred or so hook quests I've done, I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen that specific hook quest.
Eresian
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  —  
24.02.2020
29.01.2021
haha, that's awesome
Oh, the one where the knights teach you balance? I've had it trigger twice in 60 hours
TamTroll
What I'm wondering is, if I start writing for this game, can I rely on the wiki to give me accurate background information and worldbuilding?
Oops wrong server lol
NateAustin
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  —  
24.02.2020
29.01.2021
Possibly eighth, which is a completely different set of possible timelines set as a result of a different organization of matter after the big-bang. hard to tell.  
canon - they're mostly close enough. I think there might be some stuff there that we've drifted away from, but you shouldn't worry about it. The lore is loose on purpose to give us room to tell different stories, so please go for it.
douglas
douglas
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24.02.2020
29.01.2021
I'll be thinking about that for a while, now
Yeah, there's been a lot of iteration over the years that's made some of the "lore" in the wiki kind of obsolete. Most of the specifics aren't important. The reality kind of takes the shape of whatever story is being told, or it at least has that sort of malleability. I should get around to consolidating and publishing more specific and comprehensive lore. But there's tons of space, and the nature of the world is meant to conform to the whims of whoever's interpreting/creating/relating it.
== x ==
TamTroll
TamTroll
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24.02.2020
17.02.2021
just look up "ice age in 4-D " that's where i got all that information sevral years ago 😛
So i had a thought earlier today. Eluna spoilers:


Was an image of what the one sibling WOULD have looked like had they gone through with Eluna's full transformation ever thought up? or did it never go past "moth wings"? Found myself idly wondering what my sibling would have looked like had she spent enough time to end up like the Mothman or Echthis.
douglas
douglas
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  —  
24.02.2020
19.02.2021
Haha, appreciate it. Naw, yeah, it's all very collaborative. One of the thoughts that obsesses me, and how I prefer to explain legacy heroes and marked changes in the tone or methods of group of monsters or heroes, is that this whole world is comprised of multiple continuums, basically a spectrum of realities reflecting all the range and potential of myths getting told different ways by different people. So anyway, it's very exciting and interesting to hear your cool ideas!
Never gave much specific thought to how the final transformation might've looked like, except to say that it would've been on the Eluna/Mothman spectrum. Maybe with a few unique features, as the two of them are quite different. But, yeah, imagining what all the beings in  her version of the world might've looked like is a pretty weird, maybe fun thing.
 
== x ==
Louis_Mlayer
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17.03.2021
Is there a reason as to why there are so few people in the world? Most of the biggest villages only hit 200 (ish) people max and always look like small villages. Even the characters refer to them as villages and not cities. Is there a reason that these villages are so small ? Or are there bigger "capital" cities with more people in them in the world ?
TamTroll
TamTroll
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24.02.2020
17.03.2021
When a human dies, their mind goes away. When a Thrixl dies, their mind just floats around in the collective consciousness without a physical body for awhile. Probably either being re-born into a new body eventually, or just merging with the background thoughts over time.
think the place is just very primitive.
 
NateAustin
TamTroll
—
17.03.2021
we wanted a game where the band of heroes would be the main force in the world  -- there's no king with his army to fall back on, or get quests from, or politic with, none of that. Just a few souls making decisions about how to protect their land and people.
== x ==
Slomoloblo!
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  —  
24.02.2020
19.03.2021
i could totally see a hypothetical Thrixl god that is IS the dreamspace / hive-mind they share. It's not even a really physical entity, just their little shared mind thing that came to life or something. like they started thinking together, and then their thinking together became alive. and now they think together in it's body or something
A little bit I felt like it was a frontier, the edges of an explored land, or maybe a land that is being resettled
Baconside (She/Her)
GrossorMD
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  —  
24.02.2020
19.03.2021
Oh! I have a few ideas on what. A lot of them have to do with Thrixl and maybe them thinking 'bonding' is the next step to becoming more 'whole.' To my head-canon, the Thrixl have an alien mindset that they should embrace, but due to being an outlier they think they have to conform to the other races way of thinking.
I like to think that there are huge gaps of time between stories, with most heroes reincarnating wheel-of-time style; with maybe the liches staying the same from age to age ("restless bones")
 
The first step? Trying to feel the emotions humanoids love so much. Gorgons want a home to feel safe in. Deepists want to be loved by the god they worship. Drauven have close knit bonds and pride with family. Morthagi have a purpose. And humans have all of that.
 
Thrixl to me on the other hand, they want to advance. For the betterment of the whole, which is why they will willingly risk themselves for the hive and the greater purpose. Their combined knowledge lets them see what could possibly be ahead. But, this collective type of thinking has them feeling strange. Alien. Why do the other races scream and get angry when one of their own passes away, when it was simply an exchange of knowledge (to them?)
I just need to figure out Scratchpad <w>
 
douglas
douglas
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24.02.2020
19.03.2021
Yeah! To give my take, I think there's plenty of potential for accidents in the Thrixl dreamspace/funzone/operatic reality/etc. In fact, the campaign that will come out for Thrixl eventually involves an accident at its inception, I would say. I really like the idea of Thrixl imagining a god for themselves. I enjoy what that implies about what led them there, why they feel it is the next step for them, etc. However, if it is more accidental, there's probably tons of interesting reasons why that would spring from a Thrixl mind, and I'd love to hear what you'd come up with.
Yeah, there's a lot of loops and cycles in the mythos of the world. There's certain old civilizations that get referenced: Kyor and Thnarrland. There's a time in antiquity when Mortificers made their bone-a-matons. But in current Wildermyth, we're always in a space of discovery/rediscovery, while certain old things last, and certain stories get told, retold, recast. This or that Yondering are by definition unspecific geographical places, oriented around the characters and fledgling societies that make their lives and way within them. There's a grim interpretation of this that's basically: no one is ever allowed to thrive beyond certain thresholds in this monster-plagued world. But there's also room to interpret it as a frontier, or as a youthful and slowgrowing culture with a different technological timeline than earth history, and that's often canonically preferred (by me? sometimes?).  


Thrixl should feel really malleable as a storyteller, I hope. They can craft solutions, but another way I might think of it is that they'd change the problem to fit their solution. Beyond that, I think we could think of them as even more imaginative than humans, in terms of what they see as possible, while being, for strange inhuman reasons, less individualistic and more collectivist by nature (in ways that don't make sense, even in very collectivist human societies).
It's soupy, basically, but intentionally so. It centers the characters, and gives them room for whatever their stories might become. It does direct us  away from a lot of more medieval-metropolitan type elements, but that's not necessarily, and for all cases, out of the question.
 
Muninn
But the principle thing I would say when working with any of our lore is just, like, I don't know. Have fun. Break rules. We like to keep things vague so there's plenty of room to explore stories that cast anyone--Gorgons, Deepists, Thrixl, Drauven, Morthagi--in roles they don't fill by default.
 
Baconside (She/Her)
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24.02.2020
19.03.2021
So, are the Thrixl.... I assume their home habitat is more of caves. But, from what I can gather, they seem to have a want for emotions and passion. I'm thinking of playing around with that to make a story.
in my runs i often consider a 'new game' as generations later after the end of prior runs (that could get nifty. have names of past adventuring parties randomly get referenced in a current run)
 
douglas
Currently the idea I am spinning around in my head is based on this in-fiction line:
 
"And they hold the power to turn the imagined into truth..."
 
Would a possible plot be that an Thrixl invasion would begin to get the necessary... 'food' so they can 'think' a god into existence?
Honestly I am thinking about how AD&D Beholders tend to go to sleep then create via imagination their nightmares. Would that lil bit be a fair comparisson?
NateAustin
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24.02.2020
19.03.2021
yeah that sounds thrixl AF.
Yeah! I think that's right in line with how we imagine it. We could definitely make it more referenced, but then, there's cases where that could not be the fiction we want to tell, so it might also be limiting
re beholders - yeah, that makes sense, but I think the thrixl are more intentional with it, they use it to craft what they want, for whatever purposes.
Muninn
Baconside (She/Her)
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  —  
24.02.2020
19.03.2021
Gotcha, so they won't think up anything by accident.
true. well, one idea: word is the check boxes in the legacy screens will allow for past heroes to show up as NPCs (once time and priority get to it). could add a box in there for allowing parties to be referenced if desired in the options?
NateAustin
douglas
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  —  
24.02.2020
19.03.2021
hmm
Yep! Seems like those things can probably go hand in hand!
I mean that does sound fun too
GrossorMD
heheh I'm not really the lorekeeper around here
 
Catfish Waterdancer
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  —  
19.02.2020
19.03.2021
Here are the next three chapters.  Some members have anagrammed cameos (Phrum, Eraina, Fofoprolo.)  
(Case in point. I love the feeling of "seen it all" that this start conveys)
Dateityp des Anhangs: acrobat
Bild
The_Collective_Art_Versus_Science789.pdf
170.75 KB
douglas
douglas
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24.02.2020
19.03.2021
Another enjoyable entry! Thanks for writing. The Morthagi perspective at the beginning certainly drew me in. Found myself sympathizing with its concerns, which was really cool to feel. As always, love seeing how you put your twist on this world and these creatures, and adapt it to prose : )
Yeah, certain characters and cases in particular kind of cry out for it, huh?
 
== x ==
TamTroll
TamTroll
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16.02.2020
20.03.2021
Thiiink this might be the right place to put this. correct me if it's not. Spent the day attempting to translate smaller Gorgons (Roe, Raccoon, Charger, etc) into Pathfinder as an acquired template. This is kinda-sorta the first draft, but a quick review by a friend who knows a lot about Pathfinder suggests that at first glance at least, it's not too powerful or whatnot. Have not actually applied this template to any creatures yet. Whole thing likely needs some tweaks. Eventually want to do Major gorgonoid for the Bogmoors, Ursas, and such. and then a full-on monster for the True gorgon. Those might need to wait until another day though. it's getting late and i want to do other things :P
if i ever became immortal, I'd like to think that at some point or another, I'd just stand or sit in the same position unmoving and just watch the years pass.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C5ryMTrT8bln79XjuwlLlCq3j2elbqFIvZKgw1hYF0c/edit?usp=sharing
apparently the longer you're immortal, the more likely that you'll get trapped somewhere forever though. so that might be a bad idea.
Google Docs
Muninn
Gorgonoid, Lesser template
The creature is unmistakably an animal, though it's proportions and features are twisted and wrong. Skulls morph and re-shape into large crests, stone-like protrusions just out from awkward angles along their body, additional tails, teeth, spikes, or other features jut out whe...
Bild
Douglas, Nate, anyone else, let me know if any of this goes against established Lore A'ight? ;P
PatrickBelanger
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16.02.2020
20.03.2021
This is so cool! I haven't tried Pathfinder yet, but I love seeing players using Wildermyth for DnD related things. Lore all looks good as far as I can see (though Nate and Doug definitely have a better idea of that)
thats one of the big reasons immortality is overrated IMO 😆
NateAustin
just not digging being buried alive 😏
jake
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16.02.2020
20.03.2021
Awesome, this looks pretty thorough and true to the spirit. I haven't played pathfinder but the numbers seem basically reasonable to me 🙂 Fun stuff!
Gives you a lot of time to think
douglas
TamTroll
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16.02.2020
20.03.2021
Yeah, that's awesome! Never played pathfinder either, but it makes me think about how I would add these creatures to a D&D game. This captures, as nate said, the spirit (and really, the form and function) of the Gorgonoids really well.
i think i could go for an old fashiond highlander style immortality. you won't age or die of illness, but if someone shoots you you're still dead. presumably that'd count to lack of air too.


Personally though if it was full on invulnerable immortality, i figure some method of digging yourself out would be possible eventually.
unless it was like, a black hole or something... pretty much screwed at that point.
Muninn
—
20.03.2021
highlander immortality includes bullets. i remember a scene or two in the TV series where an immortal took a bullet intentionally cause they got right back up and knew who they were with wouldnt
TamTroll
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20.03.2021
more mean "if someone kills you you're dead" rather then specifically just decapitation. but ye.
TamTroll
TamTroll
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11.02.2020
26.03.2021
and what about animals that turn to statues? Is that a higher dose thing? or will all infected animals eventually turn completely to stone?
i'm bored. you think deepists ever have kids? or do they rely soley on new recruits from the surface to replenish their numbers?
douglas
IntellectMaster
—
26.03.2021
How else do you get so darn many horn children? They have to come from somewhere, and converts alone can't bring in that many offspring.
TamTroll
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26.03.2021
there's an event that shows that actually. horn children aren't human. they're more like stone golems birthed by some powerful spirit and given to the deepists as minions.
== x ==
Stanfreed
—
07.04.2021
Any official lore on Lochias, or do we make our own?🐺
IntellectMaster
—
07.04.2021
Lochias is the wolf god/spirit/thing, and can transform select people into wolf-human hybrids. Beyond that... nope, Wildermyth is a pretty open place with only soft lore, few hard lines anywhere.
Gustavius
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11.02.2020
07.04.2021
I think it's an eventuality that they'll all turn to stone, or else tear themselves apart as the associated madness becomes more violent and consuming.
Depending on who is with you, that event seems to go different ways too. A perfect example of the multifaceted world they have built.
 
TamTroll
TamTroll
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10.02.2020
07.04.2021
So is there a reason that Humans don't seem to go traditionally Gorganoid like animals do? Or do Gorgons just give them a higher dose of the infection so they turn to stone faster?
at one point he was widely worshiped as a hunter god, now he's pretty unknown
PatrickBelanger
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07.04.2021
Canonically (from what I can remember Doug saying), Lochias really loves being worshipped, and is just a little bit desperate for more people to take his oath; his following isn't nearly what it once was. But our lore overall is very flexible, and Lochias is mostly unexplored as a character, so take it where you want!
https://discord.com/channels/505370324750172170/550344844770410516/651652693504557072
To quote Doug, "he cared so much, guys"
Stanfreed
—
07.04.2021
Thanks for your responses! I'm just thinking up a script for my future campaign, don't want to break any lore, lol
douglas
douglas
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11.02.2020
10.04.2021
Good question. Where I'm at currently on this is that the human brain is much more complex and reasoning than the animal brain, and so they don't become (or don't reliably become) suggestible under the Gorgon influence. This makes a corrupted human basically useless to a Gorgon (on top of being quite dangerous), which is why, yes, I'd say the dosage or even delivery method of the Gorgon corruption is intentionally made more deadly for humans than for animals. May reexamine this later.  
Yeah! There's not much development there, of the Lochias stuff. I've always wondered a little about it. TamTroll's comment there seems like how I'd think to summarize it also, but I haven't really thought of anything solid or specific. I'd be excited to see someone explore that : )
 
(Also, generally, feel free to @ me, anyone. Or even DM, if that's possible on here? I just find myself slowed down/stopped from work when I come on here without a specific reason, but am always happy to answer questions and discuss weird stuff 😁)
== x ==
ChestnutPie
—
18.05.2021
dose lochias' name mean anything or is it random?
Stanfreed
—
18.05.2021
@douglas probably knows. But 'Lochias' does sound like a name worthy of a wolf God, like Tybalt would  for felines
douglas
douglas
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07.02.2020
18.05.2021
That's a lot of fun! I find the action of the initiation super compelling. Love how you imagine the magic working, the concept of asking the soil to move, showing patience. Feels very Wildermyth, but with plenty of unique interpretation which is great to read. The paragraph where Sal's considering the star-myths feels designed just to intrigue and excite me, haha. Tons of good stuff. Thank you!
Sadly, it's just because I thought it sounded cool, like a woofgod. The "lo" probably comes from Latin lupus/Spanish lobo in my head. I am sure it comes from something, in the wildermyth world, i just have never written down to it.
 
Religious following? The Wolfway? Hm. Wolfgang.
Catfish Waterdancer
Oops that's an old question, sorry!
== x ==
bhoss bhabie
—
29.05.2021
However. I am struggling with incorporating an abstract idea of the Fae into the story while also having them involved in the Gorgonoids. I want the Gorgonoids to be corrupted by angered Fae, but I also want the fox-like nature spirits to be animals taken by the Fae as well, just more peaceful. I have some ideas? But I'd love to hear your input!
NateAustin
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29.05.2021
canonically in our lore, the True Gorgons  (the big blue ones) spread the corruption, infecting animals. The Gorgons themselves are old, but could have been the subject of a curse, ages ago. why not?
bhoss bhabie
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01.02.2020
29.05.2021
This a work in progress.  I've tried to keep true to the lore which is firmly established in the wiki, the website, and this Discord Channel; and used my own musings to create what I hope will be an interesting tale.  Many characters' names are anagrams of Wildermyth folk 😉 and where an anagram wouldn't suffice, I've gotten creative.  This is the first installment, Chapters 1-3.
Ooo! I really like that! Also I don't wanna make you guys feel like your lore is bad or anything, I just love the idea of taking it and making it my own.
Dateityp des Anhangs: acrobat
The_Collective_Art_Versus_Science123.pdf
187.57 KB
NateAustin
NateAustin
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01.02.2020
29.05.2021
@Catfish Waterdancer thanks for posting, was a fun read!
nah nah, go for it!
Catfish Waterdancer
== x ==
GamingOwl
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01.02.2020
29.05.2021
Glad you enjoyed it!  I'll work on the next 3 chapters, then. :hook~1:
Don't know if this would help you out at all, but I think the most Fae like creatures in the game are the Thrixl. The wiki describes an encounter with the insect/dragon like Thrixl:
douglas
'They were weaving, it looked like, and digging patterns into the earth, turning the soil up, and marking it with pigments scraped off their own underbellies.
They noticed me. It was unavoidable. Three sets of eyes turned on me: six eyes in this face, five in this one, one eye on the largest of them, a long-limbed, bony creature with armored joints.
I looked in those eyes expecting to see nothing. The mute marble orbs of an animal, a drone. What I saw instead was coyness. Deliberation. The turbid fire of dreamers, thinkers, artists.
The skinny cyclopean nightmare hooted from its horned mouth and wrapped itself in its clear glass wings.
And later I woke, far from the spot, by a lakeside. A travelling leather merchant saw me attempting to drown myself in the water, pulled me ashore. I came out of it like a man rising from a night-terror.
And I was both relieved and inexplicably heartbroken.'" Which just sounds a lot like a Fae like encounter to me. They use lots of magic, like dreamtrap (which is basically a stun) and dominate (makes you attack allies). In the game they're described twisting perceptions of reality itself and thematically have a lot to do with dreams. The main aesthetic difference is that they're more insect looking and psychic based, less like the nature spirits you mentioned.
bhoss bhabie
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01.02.2020
29.05.2021
Gorgeous, thanks for sharing it! Love how different all the voices sound, first between the weaver and the maker, and then between all the heroes as well. Beautiful descriptions throughout. The image of the boy in the alley is particularly memorable. Love the idea of a musical instrument being a unique mystic's weapon too 🤔
Oooo!!! Okay, change of plans, Thrixl are the new Fae, I'll work something out for Gorgonoids.


haha, truly, thanks for writing and for sharing!
TamTroll
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29.05.2021
Gorgonoids are pretty much the definition of a living disease if that's a road you want to go for. You could see a majority of them as infected individuals, and the true gorgons as the disease incarnate.


douglas
bhoss bhabie
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07.01.2020
29.05.2021
Yeah, I think it's great for one-off situations/individuals. Makes a lot of sense for specific Villains/Campaigns where the writing can account for that character's presence. Getting that monster character into the generic events would be a lot trickier. But yeah, I think it's super interesting to get those outliers from the other species that have enough in common with you or are eccentric enough to interact with you and bring with them various pieces of lore or insight.
I have a plan for the Deepists basically being an old race that built the Morthagi as well. The Gorgons can be from a disease with the True Gorgons being people taken completely over BY the disease, and the Thrixl can be Fae! Now it all comes down to the Drauven. I'll do some brainstorming on them, however I do like the idea of them being my versions equivalent of elves. Instead of slender and graceful, they adapted to take the form of the wild.


douglas
TamTroll
—
29.05.2021
Gorgonoid rabbit... * Sideglance at joke "Rabbit god pantheon" from years ago * ... New god...
Drauven could be the natives of the land, while the humans, deepists, and others all came from another continent or world or something? Might hit a bit too close to home for some though.
== x ==
Stanfreed
—
07.06.2021
Do the Deepist/Cultist have any gods/deities that they worship? I'd rather reference one that exists than make up one
ChestnutPie
  —  
  —  
01.01.2020
07.06.2021
I think such a reality is certainly possible, but is currently quite far from the stories we're focused on telling. I think while there are these multiple intelligent species, there is an essential incompatibility to them that makes peaceful coexistence a long shot in most cases. Leaving each other alone is the most viable peace we tend to explore... for now. There are one-off cases where, for instance if one species is threatening multiple others in a drastic way as in the Ulstryx campaign, you do see mutual survival becoming a strategy for the threatened monster species and humanity.
there is the stone statue from one of the deepist combat events. but idk
 
Stanfreed
All that being said, I think of different playthroughs of the game as representing different versions of reality, different tellings of a story. The rules and "canon" can change from game to game, as they would from one version of a myth to another. So imagining a world where the different species live in some sense of harmony is absolutely valid. I don't know if we'll write it, but I don't think others should be afraid to.
 
douglas
  —  
  —  
09.12.2019
07.06.2021
Yeah, I would say thinking of it as an analogue for hell is generally fine. Or I might call it more of a fae-hell.
the minotaur?
 
ChestnutPie
Leechlords is probably more of a colloquialism for something the mortals in the event really can't explain, while Lostlings are meant to inhabit the role of anything from faeries to devils. Like a lot of the lore, it's meant to be sort of expansive, and there's tons of room to imagine within it. A lot of that is because it's being viewed through the lens of what the humans in this world can know of it, which is not a lot. (Perhaps this sounds like a cop-out, but it feels important to me that each folktale can recast, or subtly recolor the character/geography/hierarchies of the creatures and lands they deal with.)
 
Ultimately, yeah, I think of it as a faerie realm where shadows and monsters live, and also devilish evils, and perhaps more than a few lost souls who took wrong turns at some point. I wouldn't suppose it to be organized in any overarching way, though you might have "Leechlords" and Queens of Shadow, etc., and they might create armies, or lead great efforts at one point or another to reach the standard world. (Standard world?)
Anyway, it seems like the only place you'll find stuff that is pure Evil, but I wouldn't limit it to only those beings. I wouldn't say it's totes on fire, either. There's probably Different Things and regional differentiation...
 
Foolproof
  —  
  —  
09.12.2019
07.06.2021
Is there any lore or general plans for Netherflare? It's only really mentioned in the Dark Curiosity event and all we really know about it is that there are Leechlords and Lostlings living there, and that it has a "flaming maw." We want to use it as part of a villain story, is there anything we explicitly should or shouldn't do with it? Should we treat it as hell, or like a Mordor-ish homeland for the concept of "Evil," or like an immaterial spirit world?
i dont remember what it looks like.
NateAustin
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
09.12.2019
07.06.2021
@douglas
I mean the whole thing is a sort of pyramid scheme religion set up by the founders, if you believe the "Monarchs" plot...
== x ==
IntellectMaster
—
19.06.2021
Here’s a fun question: What is the in-world limit on the types of creatures that can be affected by Gorgonism? Is it only mammals with the exception of of frogs, or can any sufficiently large terrestrial creature be afflicted? Can fish, whales, and squid also be turned into half-stone monsters, and are arthropods immune? Is there even a limit on the variety of potential victims for this disease, or can any living organism, even certain species of plants and fungi, become gorgonoids?
I realize that, in-game, we only ever see boars, deer, bears, oversized raccoons, frogs, and cows, but are those merely the ones that have stats?
ChestnutPie
—
19.06.2021
stone an entire town
make the grass blue >:D
Muninn
—
19.06.2021
@IntellectMaster  gorgonize the cheese. we need more gorgonzola! (yes, i made that joke before, but it still makes me get the giggles! 🤣 )
douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
09.12.2019
19.06.2021
Yeah, I would say thinking of it as an analogue for hell is generally fine. Or I might call it more of a fae-hell.
Just more reasons to stay away from water.
(Yeah, there's certainly no established lore on this)
== x ==
IntellectMaster
—
19.06.2021
I see no reason why any generic creature would be immune to the process, so I imagine that gorganized crocodiles, wolves, eagles, and even sharks could exist. We just don’t see any of those in-game for... reasons.... I think it’s been asked+answered before, but the reason why the gorgons turn people into stone instead of monsters is because their intelligence makes them unpredictable and hard to control, right? It’s technically the same process, turning fully into stone instead of semi-rock soldiers, but humans are given a more potent dose and thus the transformation is quick and full with no mutations, just murder? Or was all this from a dream of mine long enough ago that’s it’s manifesting as memory instead of theory?
TamTroll
—
19.06.2021
no i recall that too. They're given a larger dose so they instantly petrify instead of mutate. iirc all gorgonoid creatures eventually petrify, it just takes them a long time.


Leechlords is probably more of a colloquialism for something the mortals in the event really can't explain, while Lostlings are meant to inhabit the role of anything from faeries to devils. Like a lot of the lore, it's meant to be sort of expansive, and there's tons of room to imagine within it. A lot of that is because it's being viewed through the lens of what the humans in this world can know of it, which is not a lot. (Perhaps this sounds like a cop-out, but it feels important to me that each folktale can recast, or subtly recolor the character/geography/hierarchies of the creatures and lands they deal with.)
h'uh, guess it can be anything. thought it was just mammals, and the bogmoore was the one exception. guess not.
Smoker
—
19.06.2021
well true gorgons are octopus are they not? X)
TamTroll
—
19.06.2021
they're not like the other gorgons though. True gorgons aren't infected animals, they're like, the source of the infection. everything else is just sick because of them.
Smoker
—
19.06.2021
They come from outer space i knew it 🙂
IntellectMaster
—
19.06.2021
We actually don’t know where exactly their true origin is. In my headcannon, they’re a sentient aquatic race that used to be much more advanced. They evolved in the water, developed cool technologies and magics, and spread onto land, creating their own great civilizations everywhere they could. Then humans came along and wrecked everything, destroying the Gorgons’ civilization and almost making them go extinct. Later, the human civilizations and their great cities with their own advanced technologies and magics experienced some sort of disaster and were reduced to ruins, allowing the Gorgons time to rebuild in peace. Now they’re returning to the Yondering Lands with burning vengeance, their stone monster armies ready to help them retake the world.
TamTroll
—
19.06.2021
i like to think the true gorgons are kind of like Alex Mercer from Prototype. that game was released in 2009, so i'm not going to bother with spoilers.
Basically Mercer WAS the disease/infection. the virus had gained sentience and the ability to act like a multicellular organism when in large enough numbers. i could see True Gorgons as something similar, they are the living embodiment of the infection itself, whatever form that may be. That's why they're able to infect other creatures, because they ARE the disease.


Ultimately, yeah, I think of it as a faerie realm where shadows and monsters live, and also devilish evils, and perhaps more than a few lost souls who took wrong turns at some point. I wouldn't suppose it to be organized in any overarching way, though you might have "Leechlords" and Queens of Shadow, etc., and they might create armies, or lead great efforts at one point or another to reach the standard world. (Standard world?)
Considering we don't see infected creatures turning into true gorgons though, they probably aren't given an identical infection. perhaps the disease having a host reduces it's intelligence somewhat.
Anyway, it seems like the only place you'll find stuff that is pure Evil, but I wouldn't limit it to only those beings. I wouldn't say it's totes on fire, either. There's probably Different Things and regional differentiation...


_RaZeR_
== x ==
Stanfreed
—
22.06.2021
Is there lore on 'Oldwane'? Is he/she a skeleton God? Lol
Sophos (Tom)
  —  
  —  
04.12.2019
22.06.2021
@Foolproof there's actually a sprite of ulstryx with that spear in gamefiles. So, knowing guardian is somekind of gorgon and he defended spear, gorgons sure knew about spear and they needed it, as they trying to stop you from retreating with all their infected units. Also the gate is in "gorgonian" style. And cuz of that, for me, Gorgons ain't just ancient creatures and that spear isn't just a spear with historical significance.
The Oldwanes were a family of necromancers
(Thanks Douglas for reply)
douglas
Foolproof
  —  
  —  
04.12.2019
22.06.2021
Right, ulstryx ends up with the spear if you fail the mission to recover it. In that case, he has it during the final battle. Unpuzzling the Puzzle explains that ulstryx and his followers want to find the spear to use it as a symbol to unite all the gorgons against the rest of the world. I’m guessing it’s the same idea as the Siege of Antioch in the 11th century, where a monk found a spear he claimed was an ancient Christian relic, and the spear inspired the crusaders to break the siege and take Antioch. It’s more about what the spear represents than the actual, physical object.
Yeah, they were this wealthy and magic-rich family, who may have been more of a cult than a family, though no one's quite sure. They lived in this large secluded swamphouse, and often got up to eldritch things. They may or may not have been truly dangerous to folks, but they got a reputation for being weirdos, and were eventually rooted out and scattered by Concerned Citizens of a kind. That's the basic story, and there aren't many details, or many things known about them. I think the only parts that're fairly absolute/proven are what you get from the ghosty: that the dagger was made as a tool of vengeance, is evil/destructive, and its maker is regretful.
 
ChestnutPie
 
Feral
  —  
  —  
04.12.2019
23.06.2021
The Gone Ox has some insight into how the corrupted creatures feel about no longer being corrupted. But while under the corruption, I wonder if it takes them over, like a madness, and they don't have any other choice.
what are the canon god we have in the yondering lands?
i only know lochias. and lord evergreen who isn't a god perfer but pretty darn powerful
douglas
douglas
  —  
  —  
04.12.2019
23.06.2021
Hmmmmm. It's complicated, I guess, the gods and un-gods, the beliefs, traditions, etc. We angled pretty strongly for  a folk-tale style, where there's this intersection of The Old Gods, the natural gods, the spirits, and the tall tales. You can imagine something akin to the layering that has happened in Earth history, as far as religions go, where some beliefs and deities survive, either in modified or in complete form from one civilization to the next. I think as a fan of folklore and storytelling, I enjoy the ambiguity this creates, and think that contradictions are exactly where gods like to live.  
Some of this may be spoilers for folks, so keeping it vague (and also it's just vague by nature haha).


With that being said, so far we're working with the godbeast Mo-Atona and the sort of defunct (it's basically implied) wolfgod Lochias. These aren't necessarily deities of anyone's pantheon, at this point. They might be survivors of a pantheon no one remembers. Mo-Atona may have her devotees somewhere, but I think she's not likely to care. Lochias once had people walking his myth around (and he cared so much, guys). Beyond that, it's intentionally difficult to parse what is a god, what is a spirit, and what maybe is the difference between those two ideas? The word god is a tricky one to ascribe to things, because it tends to come with some authority... Perhaps we'll tackle it more moving forward.  
Mo-Atona from the first campaign is some kind of god. She doesn't do a lot, kind of just chills. And maintains balance. Probably fun to hang with.


I've been heavily influenced by the work of the late, honored, great Terry Pratchett, if that helps understand some of how I think of gods. Small Gods is maybe my favorite book of his, and is a great read regardless of this conversation. Other influences in this area pertinent to Wildermyth are probably Hayao Miyazaki, Tolkien, and various poets, pop-culture, and folklore (as previously mentioned).
There's a kind of forgotten god of borders and inbetweens in the Nostalgic hook. There's a stoneshearing god that the Deepists call upon, and whose gem turns your character into a crystal.


It's interesting, we don't specifically have any humanish gods yet. I have a feeling they're on their way. Whether that's through monsters, or stories, or whatever else.
There's dragons dormant, now, all except for one who no longer lives on this side of existence, which are not gods, but have great power.
Ultimately, in all aspects of the game, I feel we've always been flexible, ready to sort of tell the next story, whatever that might be, and weave it in. We've purposely avoided rigid objective truths in favor of more supple subjective beliefs. It's a little bit of a cheat, maybe, but it feels more real to me, since I don't think we can accurately deliver truth in any reality. The point is that this culture and that culture will bring their stories to the fire, and those might mix or not, but they both legitimately exist.


So... I apologize. This was way too long.
I think I like gods in crannies and places you don't expect, with powers and domains, sometimes, but not a lot of interest in us. There's all the spirits and things. They're a lot more like just very powerful creatures, generally.
One thing I'm making a concerted effort to do is to bring more specific ideas into the world, of what folklores or traditions might exist. What I'm working on currently (rework of the Nostalgic hook) is a good example:
Bild


Really interested in that part of lore.  
There's room for more godstuff! There's always room. Like anything in this universe, I think their importance waxes and wanes with time and place and story.
== x ==
nixylvarie
—
11.08.2021
Who is Kralar? I’ve heard the name mentioned by in-fiction lore on the wiki several times. Some kind of researcher from one Yondering or another?
== x ==
NateAustin
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
04.12.2019
17.08.2021
Tree, Hill, plant, gem, fire, water/river all have presences too... I'll let @douglas speak to humanesque gods and spirits specifically, except to say, wouldn't it be cool if some day your heroes could fill that role?
Kralar is an old character we made in Wizardry VII, years ago, a mage type guy, and we used him to get a handle on how research might work in the game, way back when we thought that was going to be a thing. It's useful to have a character you can picture sometimes, when establishing some fiction.
 
Bild
_RaZeR_
Fae of the Starlit Wood
  —  
  —  
04.12.2019
17.08.2021
The pantheon of gods of wildermyth contains only animal-ish gods in it?
c. Does the lore from the wiki appear in the game anywhere?
Or there's somekind of human-ish gods in it? Or any other kind of gods than animals? Demigods? Or powerful spirits?Or anything? I mean already we have: Crow, Bear, Wolf, Frog, Somekind of spirits which are everywhere, Mo Atona, Ulstryx(he's octopus for me xd), Minotaur(aka Horn, cuz "Mark of the Horn"), Rat, Hawk and im not sure about Child of the Hills ability and who from u get it. all of them are animals for some reason.
Really interested in that part of lore.
NateAustin
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
04.12.2019
17.08.2021
Tree, Hill, plant, gem, fire, water/river all have presences too... I'll let @douglas speak to humanesque gods and spirits specifically, except to say, wouldn't it be cool if some day your heroes could fill that role?
Not as such, it was mostly just stuff we wrote for ourselves to establish the world.
 
== x ==
Foolproof
FrogTheToad
—
04.09.2021
Is there a canonical time when the Mortificiers disappeared? It says Antiquity on the wiki, but I don't know if the start year is the same time now or is this world's medieval era?
RisingDusk
—
04.09.2021
We know it's at least "thousands of years ago", but I think that's as specific as it ever gets.
== x ==
PatrickBelanger
—
01.10.2021
For training, I'd say it's less that you're choosing what the party is teaching them about, and more that you're choosing what that hero is already adept in, to a certain degree. I'm not positive if that's the consensus held by the team (@douglas?) but I've always thought of my mystics as having a propensity toward the mystic arts beforehand, and the team just helping them to refine it.
== x ==
mindtheblob
  —  
  —  
17.11.2019
29.11.2021
What's the philosophy of deciding whose names to hard-code and whose to randomly generate? e.x. the Enduring from Enduring War and the founder of the Library of Light have random names, but the Oldwane family from Humble Ends, Nan from Another Time, and Troygan the Enchanger are pre-determined
Hi, new to this discord. Does anybody know if there's some kind of lore compilation of the kinds of gods and beings (e.g., lostlings) in the Wildermyth lore?
NateAustin
Zel
  —  
  —  
17.11.2019
29.11.2021
Whatever the writer prefers, mostly. @douglas
The hook quest For an Old Wish Passing for the nostalgic hook mentions Oruwei, a female deity who is called a goddess of borders between life and death. She rules over an area where the heros go in that quest.
douglas
Buecherweber
  —  
  —  
17.11.2019
29.11.2021
Troygan is because his name is in the title. Nan... I forget why. Maybe because it's weird if he's named "Rusty" or something. Wanted the character to be kind of simple and anachronistic in a way... Oldwane was because again, randomized names can sometimes be a bit goofy, and/or there is a chance of no lastname, which would be a problem. Oh, and also, I wanted to use the name in the item name.
In the event 'Music from the Deep', the 'Heart of Stone' god gets another spotlight.


basically there are times generated names can't be inserted into parts of the game, and there are places where the character/circumstance kind of wants to have a certain flavor of name, and we don't have banks of "Serious Wizard" names. Yet.
But in general, I think that divinity as a whole is a rather ... open concept in the Yondering Lands. I vaguely remember someone even mentioning it in the Developer Q&A ... It is probably unclear enough to be expanded upon, if that is what you were up to.
Bailey
—
29.11.2021
From Doug
“A loose list, as far as I know, of confirmed gods:
Lochias, the Woof God
Daylig Dayn, the Stoneshearing God
Mo-Atona, the Godbeast Who Makes Balance By Being
Oruwe, the Mourning God of Borders


== x ==
TamTroll
—
17.01.2022
Different question, Was there ever any idea on how tall full-grown Thuvayn was? He seems to be about twice the height of a human, so something like 9ft? 10ft? ish?
NateAustin
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
25.10.2019
17.01.2022
oooh. I think canonically only True Gorgons can, but I don't know that we ever completely nailed it down. What do you think @douglas ?
9-10 feet seems right. Yandric, yes.
douglas
Hm, maybe 8-9? anyway.
== x ==
Khanofallorcs
  —  
  —  
25.10.2019
23.01.2022
Yeah, the way I always thought of it was the True Gorgons themselves would have to plant each specific seed, creature by creature. Which sounds like a lot of work! But it's better for all of us, let's be honest. I don't think it needs to be one way or the other, but I prefer the more labor-intensive version for our world, simply because we have small territories that would become absolutely overrun if it was like a disease that spread passively. For a tabletop RPG, maybe you want to have a more endless and overwhelming supply of monsters, and less ultra-dangerous "True Gorgons" running around, so it would make sense to alter the rules somewhat.
In Monarchs, you find out that there's at least two different ways to becoming a Deepist, the one that most people get (90% of the Deepist enemies you fight), where they transform and get deformed, and seemingly lose reason (although some can regain it) and a less traumatic version which allows them to be very persuasive speakers to get more members. The Monarchs themselves seem to have had a pretty easy transformation.


In any case, think it can be done either way, and perhaps we'll break our own rule later at some point, hehe...
The theme they're going for is that it's a cult designed to be parasitic from the top down (but presumably didn't have to be)
 
== x ==
NateAustin
Khanofallorcs
—
24.01.2022
Actually, I did have a bigger question. Is the implication that the Deepists across all campaigns have an origin story more or less as described in Monarchs?
Or is the more hazy timeline(s) supposed to make that just one story?
Buecherweber
  —  
  —  
25.10.2019
24.01.2022
sure ok.
I agree with Tam. Not even a spirit, but a god, she calls him Daylig Dayn (my spelling might be off here) and I think she even calls them his 'children' - hence the word Horn Children, I guess? But probably, all that is intended as hazy, yes. It's still The Yondering.
yeah we use reaction shots a fair bit. Dunno.
TamTroll
doubt
  —  
  —  
25.10.2019
24.01.2022
I think it is fine btw
i mean the Morthagi Engchanger guy was apparently intentionally prevented from appearing in Enduring War because he conflicts with the Mortagi lore established in that campaign. Does that mean that Morthagi in non-enduring campaigns have different lore? or have they just not gotten around to retconning the Enchanger to fit better yet? 🤷‍♂️
to be not helpful at all. 😉
 
NateAustin
For now i think it's the former, as to my knowledge the latter isn't planned.
Tammabanana
  —  
  —  
25.10.2019
24.01.2022
heheh
I don't think the Monarchs/Enduring campaign origin stories are necessarily in conflict with the other stories. There could be different factions within each... uh, Faction.
writing is hard! I don't do much of our writing myself.


Magero
The Monarchs didn't invent the magic they're using, and the Enduring antagonist is unlikely to have programmed all the Morthagi in use across the world.
Taart
—
24.01.2022
Thats my take. Since the Monarchs say they met a deepist woman, learned from her, then did all their jazz
Tammabanana
  —  
  —  
13.06.2019
24.01.2022
So, the fellow posts are the fiction I was planning to submit to the writing contest. Unfortunately, I badly understood the limit of the discord post. It wasn't a 2000 words limit but a 2000 characters limit. So, I'm out for the contest coz' I've absolutely 0 motivation to scrap down the story I took 2 days to come up with.
The Enchanger might not conflict with Morthagi lore across the Yondering; maybe it just would've thrown a red herring into the Enduring story.
Please, be a bit indlugent with my grammar, english is not my native language. So, enjoy !
RisingDusk
(As a reminder, the theme for the writing contest was : Sacrifice)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
« Victory belongs to the one who is ready to make many sacrifices to achieve it. He must be ready to sacrifice everything, even his own happiness. »
These words, Dulahan had heard them all too often from his late father who, in the past, delivered the lands from the plague that was incarnated in the form of a Drauven horde. These words resonated in his mind as he prepared to enter a dark and deep cave with his fellow companions. It had been several months since the Morthagi had "woken up" thanks to the call of the Great Matron. Dulahan, proud descendant of the hero who pushed back the Drauven horde, could not remain idle and, without delay, formed a group composed of the sons and daughters of the former heroes who accompanied his father during his noble quest. During his journey to occipitate the Great Matron, which would end the Morthagi's awakening and save the lands, Dulahan had heard of a cave that would allow him and his companions to find a power powerful enough to accomplish their quest.
Among them was Eurydice, a lovely and flamboyant young woman who had inherited the sacred and burning fire from her late mother. Her presence alone radiated a warm and reassuring atmosphere in the group despite the fact that the number of Morthagi waking up kept growing, causing chaos and panic among the populace. Dulahan was deeply in love with her and, already, he saw himself succeeding in his perilous quest and founding a home with her. To his delight, Eurydice shared the same feelings and it is with love pleasure that on a warm summer night, she consented to their hearts burning in unison in a passionate embrace.
The cave was cold, dark, the gaze drowned in the darkness of the latter. Dulahan and his companions shuddered with every step. Their souls trembled but so did their bodies too. They felt that with each step, they were sinking deeper and deeper into increasingly icy depths. The torches themselves seemed to be shivering.
Suddenly, a deep and cavernous voice was heard.
« Ô, you who have descended into these dark and unknown depths, what is the purpose of your quest ? »
Dumbfounded, the group answered nothing. Eurydice then waved her torch towards the direction from which the voice seemed to come. However even if she stimulated and strengthened the flame of the torch with the will and fire of her soul, the latter illuminated only a tiny part of a dark abyss that had suddenly appeared behind the altar. She shuddered and stepped back several steps to get closer to Dulahan.
They drew their weapons and the voice answered them.
« Ô, you who have descended so deeply under the earth, know that I know your intentions but I ask you again: what is the purpose of your quest ? »
Recalling his father's past exploits, Dulahan took his courage with both hands and spoke out.
« We seek to defeat the Great Matron to save our lands from the threat of the Morthagi. »
« So, you came here to get more power, didn't you? » replied the cave.
« Our intentions are just and noble, we want to save our kind and we believe that the power contained in this cave would allow us to accomplish this quest ! »
« Ô, ignorant and naive mortals, the search for power is never innocent and on its way is strewn by the blood of the sacrificed loved ones who had to give their lives to those who sought it. Thus, they became forever the shadows of those who obtained power, accompanying them forever in their glory but also in their misery. And thus, solitude was their fate even if they were not really alone. »
Suddenly, a violent gust from the disturbing abysses behind the altar struck the group. The torches went out and darkness invaded the room. Dulahan grabbed Eurydice's hand and held it tightly. Its natural warmth invigorated him.
« Hold hands ! Hold hands ! Don't let them go ! This will prevent us from getting lost in this darkness ! »
The cavernous voice continued her speech in a compelling and solemn tone.
« Ô, you who seek power, who among you would be willing to make the sacrifice necessary to obtain it ? Who would be strong enough to carry this burden all his life ? WHO ? »
These lasts words echoed and the cave began to tremble from all sides. A real storm seemed to be unfolding in the room even if they were several kilometres below the surface ! Dulahan's companions were afraid and no one dared to answer the voice. Several minutes passed and Dulahan remembered what his father said. He shook Eurydice's hand tightly, having one last thought for her and, thinking that his answer would lead him to death as the voice implied, he answered.
« ME ! I'M READY TO SACRIFICE MYSELF FOR OUR CAUSE ! »
The voice then answered one last time.
« So be it, your courage is brave and your sacrifice will be respected. »
With these words, the storm stopped but the darkness remained. Dulahan thought he was going to die and he expected it to happen at any moment. The group remained still in the dark for several minutes, waiting for the next words of this deep voice. But nothing came. So, they decided to go up to the surface and continue to hold hands because unfortunately, they no longer had enough material to light the torches again.
They struggled to get to the surface, groping to avoid missing a step or bumping into the walls. Dulahan held Eurydice's hand tightly to not lose it. The road was long and difficult, only the spirit and flamboyant aura that Eurydice emitted allowed Dulahan not to collapse from fatigue. Finally, they felt a small gust of wind coming from the entrance of the cave. Dulahan and his companions let out a sigh of joy. They hurried out of the cave.
All of his companions went out first, rejoicing to see the sun's rays again and to feel the warmth of summer on their bodies. Dulahan then came out and then....
It was like a light breeze sweeping the leaves in autumn. The feeling of touch between his hand and that of his beloved one disappeared instantly. Dulahan turned around hastily, believing that Eurydice had fallen or something had happened to her, but he saw nothing. However, he still felt the warm diffused by Eurydice's inner flame, he still felt it as warm and reassuring as ever, but she was still not visible to his eyes.
Dulahan turned to his companions, stunned. The latter became petrified with terror and together they rushed towards the entrance of the cave, calling loudly the name of Eurydice.
There was no answer. For many minutes, a deathly silence reigned over them. Warm tears began to flow down Dulahan's cheeks as his companions took their heads in their hands, filled with despair and sadness at Eurydice's loss.
Tears flowed down Dulahan's cheeks. And then, delicately, they went away as if a gentle warm hand had taken them away. Dulahan believed he could actually feel the contact of a delicate hand on his cheek drying his tears. Confused, he tried to remember the words of the cavernous voice and...Strangely...those of his father.
And finally, everything seemed clearer to him.
Eurydice was no longer there, but she was also still there. From now on, she would be constantly present at his side. Like a shadow following him for all eternity. A shadow emanating a deep love, stronger than the hottest fire. The cave had demanded a sacrifice and in return, Dulahan felt empowered even more. He felt a new magic and bubbling power gradually spreading throughout his being. He now truly felt able to complete his quest. And, even if he was never really alone because because he was always accompanied by his fellow companions, today, in his heart, mind and soul, he was really no longer alone because his soul would forever remain bound to his beloved. Eternally together. A single stronger shadow, a single more ardent sacred fire. A true sacrifice to achieve a greater goal for a greater cause than his own happyness.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do not hesitate to share your thoughts about it.
Magero
  —  
  —  
13.06.2019
24.01.2022
The story has been invented to be gameplay-lore-possible because one of the "reward" of the contest was to be able to "design"/write the lore of an object/item. And in my imagination, I was thinking about an "object"/artefact you can't let go but that is very powerful : The shadow/spirit of a deceased companion you sacrified (thru an event) or lost during a fight, "fused" with your shadow/spirit. Thus, granting you powerfull bonuses. If you "willingly" sacrified your companion for the greater good, you obtain more powerfull bonuses, if he died before that, you obtain moderate bonuses. I don't know, I'm not qualified AT ALL as a gamedesigner or writer, or anything else associated but I tought it was "cool" since the game let you "write"/"live" your own epic journey ^^
We already know there were multiple, different mortificers. Some were involved with the Enduring War, and some did other things entirely.
NateAustin
The same is true of Deepists. We know there are multiple different monarchies.
== x ==
Khanofallorcs
  —  
  —  
13.06.2019
24.01.2022
@Magero This is super cool, thanks for sharing it!
I forget, is there a clear gender/pronoun for Vulta?
 
Bailey
 
PocketLocket
  —  
  —  
08.03.2019
24.01.2022
Soooo what's the story behind our oh-so infamous gorgons? If we may know that is, understandable if the story is best saved for ingame experience. I feel as if they may be one of the more iconic threats simply due to their presence in the tutorial and their general Lovecraftian asthetic. Well just had my team mutilated by the deepest, feeling a lilttle like the cult/cosmic horror vibe might be a trend among the various foes of the yonderinglands.
No, Vulta's gender is randomized per campaign
NateAustin
Khanofallorcs
  —  
  —  
08.03.2019
24.01.2022
Here's some old lore, written back when "research" was a thing we wanted in the game. It gives a bit of flavor. https://wildermyth.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gorgon_Lore
are they always "Lord" Vulta, or does that get randomized as well?
index.php%3Ftitle%3DGorgon_Lore
Bailey
PocketLocket
  —  
  —  
08.03.2019
24.01.2022
oooooo now that is interesting, not only the gorgon entry on the wiki but out of curiosity for the other entities I discovered the thrixl..... That led to the discovery of the "Draegon" and a Gorgon queen?!? Sounds like the universe may have deeper stories to uncover 😋
Lord Vulta = he/him, Queen Vulta = she/her
 
== x ==
 
IntellectMaster
NateAustin
  —  
  —  
01.03.2019
27.01.2022
Here's some real old stuff I wrote, way back when.
We’re not “supposed” to think anything. It’s only in the story campaigns that we are given a deep dive into lore stuff for a faction, and even then most of that is true only for that particular campaign. Now, each campaign does reveal some more general informatiom about its respective faction that seems to remain true for that faction across all games, like how Deepists are a heirarchal cult or how Thrixl are from another realm of existence (although those things were kind of obvious even before their campaigns were written), but other than that they are left ambiguous, malleable to the story that is currently being told and the events that may occur therein.
Heroic Death:
Yes, the Morthagi are the way they are in the story camapigns for their respective reasons, and those reasons can give us insight into why they are possible enemies in other story campaigns and generic campaigns, but to assume that all enemies are hostile to the party for the exact same reasons in every campaign is not how this game was designed. Lots of stuff is left purposefully ambiguous so we can write our own stories, design our own campaigns to fill any percieved gaps if we so wish, and even then the lore established in those campaigns just might not apply to other stories that get told by other people. This loose lore is something I approve of, and I think arguing for others to only think of a faction in only one way is contrary to the intent of the game’s method of storytelling.
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/heroic-death.html
Zinylle:
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-eyes-of-zinylle.html
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/zinylle.html
Elmnic Wolfhue:
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/curses.html
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/elmnic-wolfhue.html
Steelhorns:
http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/steelhorns-is-that-you.html
Heroic Death
I'm knocked to the stone floor of the cavern by the clacking claws. My bow is broken, so is my leg, and my shoulder is torn. I'd really pref...
The Eyes of Zinylle
Zinylle was a promising warrior. On her third battle, she was splashed in the face with the acidic venom of a Thrixl, and blinded. Even blin...
Zinylle
(See  this post  for story.)    The idea is that I illustrate these as a way of forcing myself to do character concepts, which in turn w...
Bild
Curses
Elmnic Wolfhue of Ogergin's Crossing faces down the last beast, as his comrades circle behind it. Suddenly it lunges, and its jaws tear at h...
Elmnic Wolfhue
Get like half a dozen more of these guys together and they'll summon Captain Planet.    PS- In case anyone cares about this kind of th...
Bild
This channel is for fiction and lore set in the Yondering Lands, bring your stories!
 
 
 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C5ryMTrT8bln79XjuwlLlCq3j2elbqFIvZKgw1hYF0c/edit

Revision as of 01:32, 2 February 2022

collected messages from the discord lore channel as they include comments from devs about their interpretation of the lore.

x

NateAustin 

—

01.03.2019 Here's some real old stuff I wrote, way back when. Heroic Death: http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/heroic-death.html Zinylle: http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-eyes-of-zinylle.html http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/zinylle.html Elmnic Wolfhue: http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/curses.html http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/elmnic-wolfhue.html Steelhorns: http://yonderinglands.blogspot.com/2014/08/steelhorns-is-that-you.html Heroic Death I'm knocked to the stone floor of the cavern by the clacking claws. My bow is broken, so is my leg, and my shoulder is torn. I'd really pref... The Eyes of Zinylle Zinylle was a promising warrior. On her third battle, she was splashed in the face with the acidic venom of a Thrixl, and blinded. Even blin... Zinylle (See this post for story.) The idea is that I illustrate these as a way of forcing myself to do character concepts, which in turn w... Bild Curses Elmnic Wolfhue of Ogergin's Crossing faces down the last beast, as his comrades circle behind it. Suddenly it lunges, and its jaws tear at h... Elmnic Wolfhue Get like half a dozen more of these guys together and they'll summon Captain Planet. PS- In case anyone cares about this kind of th... Bild This channel is for fiction and lore set in the Yondering Lands, bring your stories!

x

PocketLocket 

—

08.03.2019 Soooo what's the story behind our oh-so infamous gorgons? If we may know that is, understandable if the story is best saved for ingame experience. I feel as if they may be one of the more iconic threats simply due to their presence in the tutorial and their general Lovecraftian asthetic. Well just had my team mutilated by the deepest, feeling a lilttle like the cult/cosmic horror vibe might be a trend among the various foes of the yonderinglands. NateAustin 

—

08.03.2019 Here's some old lore, written back when "research" was a thing we wanted in the game. It gives a bit of flavor. https://wildermyth.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gorgon_Lore index.php%3Ftitle%3DGorgon_Lore PocketLocket 

—

08.03.2019 oooooo now that is interesting, not only the gorgon entry on the wiki but out of curiosity for the other entities I discovered the thrixl..... That led to the discovery of the "Draegon" and a Gorgon queen?!? Sounds like the universe may have deeper stories to uncover 😋

x

Dakede 

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23.05.2019 Is Amdina Night actually part of the lore/fiction in the game or this would be where the legacy option for a hero not be playable comes in? Bild NateAustin 

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23.05.2019 Right now it's a randomly generated legend, we do that in a few places. It would be fun to hook those up to legacy heroes somehow but we haven't done that yet.

x

Magero 

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13.06.2019 So, the fellow posts are the fiction I was planning to submit to the writing contest. Unfortunately, I badly understood the limit of the discord post. It wasn't a 2000 words limit but a 2000 characters limit. So, I'm out for the contest coz' I've absolutely 0 motivation to scrap down the story I took 2 days to come up with. Please, be a bit indlugent with my grammar, english is not my native language. So, enjoy ! (As a reminder, the theme for the writing contest was : Sacrifice)

« Victory belongs to the one who is ready to make many sacrifices to achieve it. He must be ready to sacrifice everything, even his own happiness. » These words, Dulahan had heard them all too often from his late father who, in the past, delivered the lands from the plague that was incarnated in the form of a Drauven horde. These words resonated in his mind as he prepared to enter a dark and deep cave with his fellow companions. It had been several months since the Morthagi had "woken up" thanks to the call of the Great Matron. Dulahan, proud descendant of the hero who pushed back the Drauven horde, could not remain idle and, without delay, formed a group composed of the sons and daughters of the former heroes who accompanied his father during his noble quest. During his journey to occipitate the Great Matron, which would end the Morthagi's awakening and save the lands, Dulahan had heard of a cave that would allow him and his companions to find a power powerful enough to accomplish their quest. Among them was Eurydice, a lovely and flamboyant young woman who had inherited the sacred and burning fire from her late mother. Her presence alone radiated a warm and reassuring atmosphere in the group despite the fact that the number of Morthagi waking up kept growing, causing chaos and panic among the populace. Dulahan was deeply in love with her and, already, he saw himself succeeding in his perilous quest and founding a home with her. To his delight, Eurydice shared the same feelings and it is with love pleasure that on a warm summer night, she consented to their hearts burning in unison in a passionate embrace. The cave was cold, dark, the gaze drowned in the darkness of the latter. Dulahan and his companions shuddered with every step. Their souls trembled but so did their bodies too. They felt that with each step, they were sinking deeper and deeper into increasingly icy depths. The torches themselves seemed to be shivering. Suddenly, a deep and cavernous voice was heard. « Ô, you who have descended into these dark and unknown depths, what is the purpose of your quest ? » Dumbfounded, the group answered nothing. Eurydice then waved her torch towards the direction from which the voice seemed to come. However even if she stimulated and strengthened the flame of the torch with the will and fire of her soul, the latter illuminated only a tiny part of a dark abyss that had suddenly appeared behind the altar. She shuddered and stepped back several steps to get closer to Dulahan. They drew their weapons and the voice answered them. « Ô, you who have descended so deeply under the earth, know that I know your intentions but I ask you again: what is the purpose of your quest ? » Recalling his father's past exploits, Dulahan took his courage with both hands and spoke out. « We seek to defeat the Great Matron to save our lands from the threat of the Morthagi. » « So, you came here to get more power, didn't you? » replied the cave. « Our intentions are just and noble, we want to save our kind and we believe that the power contained in this cave would allow us to accomplish this quest ! » « Ô, ignorant and naive mortals, the search for power is never innocent and on its way is strewn by the blood of the sacrificed loved ones who had to give their lives to those who sought it. Thus, they became forever the shadows of those who obtained power, accompanying them forever in their glory but also in their misery. And thus, solitude was their fate even if they were not really alone. » Suddenly, a violent gust from the disturbing abysses behind the altar struck the group. The torches went out and darkness invaded the room. Dulahan grabbed Eurydice's hand and held it tightly. Its natural warmth invigorated him. « Hold hands ! Hold hands ! Don't let them go ! This will prevent us from getting lost in this darkness ! » The cavernous voice continued her speech in a compelling and solemn tone. « Ô, you who seek power, who among you would be willing to make the sacrifice necessary to obtain it ? Who would be strong enough to carry this burden all his life ? WHO ? » These lasts words echoed and the cave began to tremble from all sides. A real storm seemed to be unfolding in the room even if they were several kilometres below the surface ! Dulahan's companions were afraid and no one dared to answer the voice. Several minutes passed and Dulahan remembered what his father said. He shook Eurydice's hand tightly, having one last thought for her and, thinking that his answer would lead him to death as the voice implied, he answered. « ME ! I'M READY TO SACRIFICE MYSELF FOR OUR CAUSE ! » The voice then answered one last time. « So be it, your courage is brave and your sacrifice will be respected. » With these words, the storm stopped but the darkness remained. Dulahan thought he was going to die and he expected it to happen at any moment. The group remained still in the dark for several minutes, waiting for the next words of this deep voice. But nothing came. So, they decided to go up to the surface and continue to hold hands because unfortunately, they no longer had enough material to light the torches again. They struggled to get to the surface, groping to avoid missing a step or bumping into the walls. Dulahan held Eurydice's hand tightly to not lose it. The road was long and difficult, only the spirit and flamboyant aura that Eurydice emitted allowed Dulahan not to collapse from fatigue. Finally, they felt a small gust of wind coming from the entrance of the cave. Dulahan and his companions let out a sigh of joy. They hurried out of the cave. All of his companions went out first, rejoicing to see the sun's rays again and to feel the warmth of summer on their bodies. Dulahan then came out and then.... It was like a light breeze sweeping the leaves in autumn. The feeling of touch between his hand and that of his beloved one disappeared instantly. Dulahan turned around hastily, believing that Eurydice had fallen or something had happened to her, but he saw nothing. However, he still felt the warm diffused by Eurydice's inner flame, he still felt it as warm and reassuring as ever, but she was still not visible to his eyes. Dulahan turned to his companions, stunned. The latter became petrified with terror and together they rushed towards the entrance of the cave, calling loudly the name of Eurydice. There was no answer. For many minutes, a deathly silence reigned over them. Warm tears began to flow down Dulahan's cheeks as his companions took their heads in their hands, filled with despair and sadness at Eurydice's loss. Tears flowed down Dulahan's cheeks. And then, delicately, they went away as if a gentle warm hand had taken them away. Dulahan believed he could actually feel the contact of a delicate hand on his cheek drying his tears. Confused, he tried to remember the words of the cavernous voice and...Strangely...those of his father. And finally, everything seemed clearer to him. Eurydice was no longer there, but she was also still there. From now on, she would be constantly present at his side. Like a shadow following him for all eternity. A shadow emanating a deep love, stronger than the hottest fire. The cave had demanded a sacrifice and in return, Dulahan felt empowered even more. He felt a new magic and bubbling power gradually spreading throughout his being. He now truly felt able to complete his quest. And, even if he was never really alone because because he was always accompanied by his fellow companions, today, in his heart, mind and soul, he was really no longer alone because his soul would forever remain bound to his beloved. Eternally together. A single stronger shadow, a single more ardent sacred fire. A true sacrifice to achieve a greater goal for a greater cause than his own happyness.

Do not hesitate to share your thoughts about it. Magero 

—

13.06.2019 The story has been invented to be gameplay-lore-possible because one of the "reward" of the contest was to be able to "design"/write the lore of an object/item. And in my imagination, I was thinking about an "object"/artefact you can't let go but that is very powerful : The shadow/spirit of a deceased companion you sacrified (thru an event) or lost during a fight, "fused" with your shadow/spirit. Thus, granting you powerfull bonuses. If you "willingly" sacrified your companion for the greater good, you obtain more powerfull bonuses, if he died before that, you obtain moderate bonuses. I don't know, I'm not qualified AT ALL as a gamedesigner or writer, or anything else associated but I tought it was "cool" since the game let you "write"/"live" your own epic journey ^^ NateAustin 

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13.06.2019 @Magero This is super cool, thanks for sharing it!

x

NateAustin 

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25.10.2019 sure ok. yeah we use reaction shots a fair bit. Dunno. doubt 

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25.10.2019 I think it is fine btw to be not helpful at all. 😉 NateAustin 

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25.10.2019 heheh writing is hard! I don't do much of our writing myself.

x

TamTroll 

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25.10.2019 So Gorgon lore question if i may be so bold: Can just any infected creature spread the infection to other animals? Or does it specifically need to be higher-level True-Gorgons to spread it?

I ask because the idea of wildermyth Gorgons in a pathfinder game has been running around in my head since last night. NateAustin 

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25.10.2019 oooh. I think canonically only True Gorgons can, but I don't know that we ever completely nailed it down. What do you think @douglas ? douglas 

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25.10.2019 Yeah, the way I always thought of it was the True Gorgons themselves would have to plant each specific seed, creature by creature. Which sounds like a lot of work! But it's better for all of us, let's be honest. I don't think it needs to be one way or the other, but I prefer the more labor-intensive version for our world, simply because we have small territories that would become absolutely overrun if it was like a disease that spread passively. For a tabletop RPG, maybe you want to have a more endless and overwhelming supply of monsters, and less ultra-dangerous "True Gorgons" running around, so it would make sense to alter the rules somewhat.

In any case, think it can be done either way, and perhaps we'll break our own rule later at some point, hehe... TamTroll 

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25.10.2019 think having true gorgons be the only ones to do it in an rpg makes sense too. means the players could encounter some infested hogs or whatnot without worry of becoming infected themselves NateAustin 

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25.10.2019 yeah. If you end up making stat blocks, you should share them on here 😄 I'd love to see them

x

Foolproof 

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17.11.2019 What's the philosophy of deciding whose names to hard-code and whose to randomly generate? e.x. the Enduring from Enduring War and the founder of the Library of Light have random names, but the Oldwane family from Humble Ends, Nan from Another Time, and Troygan the Enchanger are pre-determined NateAustin 

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17.11.2019 Whatever the writer prefers, mostly. @douglas douglas 

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17.11.2019 Troygan is because his name is in the title. Nan... I forget why. Maybe because it's weird if he's named "Rusty" or something. Wanted the character to be kind of simple and anachronistic in a way... Oldwane was because again, randomized names can sometimes be a bit goofy, and/or there is a chance of no lastname, which would be a problem. Oh, and also, I wanted to use the name in the item name.

basically there are times generated names can't be inserted into parts of the game, and there are places where the character/circumstance kind of wants to have a certain flavor of name, and we don't have banks of "Serious Wizard" names. Yet.

x

_RaZeR_ 

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04.12.2019 The pantheon of gods of wildermyth contains only animal-ish gods in it? Or there's somekind of human-ish gods in it? Or any other kind of gods than animals? Demigods? Or powerful spirits?Or anything? I mean already we have: Crow, Bear, Wolf, Frog, Somekind of spirits which are everywhere, Mo Atona, Ulstryx(he's octopus for me xd), Minotaur(aka Horn, cuz "Mark of the Horn"), Rat, Hawk and im not sure about Child of the Hills ability and who from u get it. all of them are animals for some reason. Really interested in that part of lore. NateAustin 

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04.12.2019 Tree, Hill, plant, gem, fire, water/river all have presences too... I'll let @douglas speak to humanesque gods and spirits specifically, except to say, wouldn't it be cool if some day your heroes could fill that role? _RaZeR_ 

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04.12.2019 x_x Victor Reinhardt 

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04.12.2019 That blew my minddddd TamTroll 

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04.12.2019 kinda thought some of those, such as hill, fire, wood, etc. were more spirits then gods. _RaZeR_ 

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04.12.2019 so the right question is: What is GOD in wildermyth and how he's working? Foolproof 

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04.12.2019 afaik Mo-Atona and Lochias are the only gods actually confirmed as gods. Lots of spirits and miscellaneous mystical beings _RaZeR_ 

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04.12.2019 we need to wait for Douglas guys

x

_RaZeR_ 

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04.12.2019 If we're talking like that True Gorgons are somekind of spirits aswell TamTroll 

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04.12.2019 kinda see them more as either living disease/infection, or just some kind of powerful animal. don't seem very mystical to me. granted it's been awhile since i've seen the Gorgon boss-monster. _RaZeR_ 

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04.12.2019 if we'll look at Gorgon boss it's kinda badass and their equipment is kinda ancient TamTroll 

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04.12.2019 can't say. can't remember them 😛 _RaZeR_ 

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04.12.2019 xd Also Ulstryxs Spear which is water-enchanted does looks like it's something powerful and it was created as artefact for purpose we cant know Victor Reinhardt 

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04.12.2019 I always thought that Gorgons were reminiscent of some Lovecraftian creatures. Beings from some other dimension or plane that brought their disease with them, and began infecting the wildlife. Ulystryx's spear wouldn't make much sense being wielded by a spirit or living disease, but some sort of other-dimensional being would use weapons, right? Just a thought. TamTroll 

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04.12.2019 is it really his spear? thought it was just an ancient spear. Foolproof 

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04.12.2019 I think the spear is just an ancient spear with some historical/spiritual significance to the gorgons. It's his in the sense that he takes it if you don't, but it wasn't made for him specifically Feral 

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04.12.2019 The Gone Ox has some insight into how the corrupted creatures feel about no longer being corrupted. But while under the corruption, I wonder if it takes them over, like a madness, and they don't have any other choice. douglas 

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04.12.2019 Hmmmmm. It's complicated, I guess, the gods and un-gods, the beliefs, traditions, etc. We angled pretty strongly for a folk-tale style, where there's this intersection of The Old Gods, the natural gods, the spirits, and the tall tales. You can imagine something akin to the layering that has happened in Earth history, as far as religions go, where some beliefs and deities survive, either in modified or in complete form from one civilization to the next. I think as a fan of folklore and storytelling, I enjoy the ambiguity this creates, and think that contradictions are exactly where gods like to live.

With that being said, so far we're working with the godbeast Mo-Atona and the sort of defunct (it's basically implied) wolfgod Lochias. These aren't necessarily deities of anyone's pantheon, at this point. They might be survivors of a pantheon no one remembers. Mo-Atona may have her devotees somewhere, but I think she's not likely to care. Lochias once had people walking his myth around (and he cared so much, guys). Beyond that, it's intentionally difficult to parse what is a god, what is a spirit, and what maybe is the difference between those two ideas? The word god is a tricky one to ascribe to things, because it tends to come with some authority... Perhaps we'll tackle it more moving forward.

I've been heavily influenced by the work of the late, honored, great Terry Pratchett, if that helps understand some of how I think of gods. Small Gods is maybe my favorite book of his, and is a great read regardless of this conversation. Other influences in this area pertinent to Wildermyth are probably Hayao Miyazaki, Tolkien, and various poets, pop-culture, and folklore (as previously mentioned).

It's interesting, we don't specifically have any humanish gods yet. I have a feeling they're on their way. Whether that's through monsters, or stories, or whatever else. Ultimately, in all aspects of the game, I feel we've always been flexible, ready to sort of tell the next story, whatever that might be, and weave it in. We've purposely avoided rigid objective truths in favor of more supple subjective beliefs. It's a little bit of a cheat, maybe, but it feels more real to me, since I don't think we can accurately deliver truth in any reality. The point is that this culture and that culture will bring their stories to the fire, and those might mix or not, but they both legitimately exist.

So... I apologize. This was way too long. One thing I'm making a concerted effort to do is to bring more specific ideas into the world, of what folklores or traditions might exist. What I'm working on currently (rework of the Nostalgic hook) is a good example: Bild

x

_RaZeR_ 

—

04.12.2019 @Foolproof there's actually a sprite of ulstryx with that spear in gamefiles. So, knowing guardian is somekind of gorgon and he defended spear, gorgons sure knew about spear and they needed it, as they trying to stop you from retreating with all their infected units. Also the gate is in "gorgonian" style. And cuz of that, for me, Gorgons ain't just ancient creatures and that spear isn't just a spear with historical significance. (Thanks Douglas for reply) Foolproof 

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04.12.2019 Right, ulstryx ends up with the spear if you fail the mission to recover it. In that case, he has it during the final battle. Unpuzzling the Puzzle explains that ulstryx and his followers want to find the spear to use it as a symbol to unite all the gorgons against the rest of the world. I’m guessing it’s the same idea as the Siege of Antioch in the 11th century, where a monk found a spear he claimed was an ancient Christian relic, and the spear inspired the crusaders to break the siege and take Antioch. It’s more about what the spear represents than the actual, physical object.

x

Foolproof 

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09.12.2019 Is there any lore or general plans for Netherflare? It's only really mentioned in the Dark Curiosity event and all we really know about it is that there are Leechlords and Lostlings living there, and that it has a "flaming maw." We want to use it as part of a villain story, is there anything we explicitly should or shouldn't do with it? Should we treat it as hell, or like a Mordor-ish homeland for the concept of "Evil," or like an immaterial spirit world? NateAustin 

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09.12.2019 @douglas douglas 

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09.12.2019 Yeah, I would say thinking of it as an analogue for hell is generally fine. Or I might call it more of a fae-hell.

Leechlords is probably more of a colloquialism for something the mortals in the event really can't explain, while Lostlings are meant to inhabit the role of anything from faeries to devils. Like a lot of the lore, it's meant to be sort of expansive, and there's tons of room to imagine within it. A lot of that is because it's being viewed through the lens of what the humans in this world can know of it, which is not a lot. (Perhaps this sounds like a cop-out, but it feels important to me that each folktale can recast, or subtly recolor the character/geography/hierarchies of the creatures and lands they deal with.)

Ultimately, yeah, I think of it as a faerie realm where shadows and monsters live, and also devilish evils, and perhaps more than a few lost souls who took wrong turns at some point. I wouldn't suppose it to be organized in any overarching way, though you might have "Leechlords" and Queens of Shadow, etc., and they might create armies, or lead great efforts at one point or another to reach the standard world. (Standard world?) Anyway, it seems like the only place you'll find stuff that is pure Evil, but I wouldn't limit it to only those beings. I wouldn't say it's totes on fire, either. There's probably Different Things and regional differentiation... _RaZeR_ 

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09.12.2019 physical world probably? xd Foolproof 

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09.12.2019 Awesome, thanks. Just wanted to make sure our interpretation fits within the canon lore of Wildermyth (insofar as that's a thing) and that we aren't trying to explain things that can't/shouldn't be outright explained douglas 

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09.12.2019 Cool! Thank you!

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Catfish Waterdancer 

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31.12.2019 I'm new to WIldermyth (well, 68 hours new) and it's fascinating that there are 5+ intelligent races that have developed on a planet alongside each other to the point of establishing distinct cultures, technologies (?) and beliefs. It's almost as if the planet sits on a conjunction or nexus of alternate universes where the races exist alongside each other. I'd be curious if there might be an area where they all coexist in peace - except their respective 'Gods' don't approve and do their best to tear the settlement apart. It would lend itself to having a party with mixed races as your team. douglas 

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01.01.2020 I think such a reality is certainly possible, but is currently quite far from the stories we're focused on telling. I think while there are these multiple intelligent species, there is an essential incompatibility to them that makes peaceful coexistence a long shot in most cases. Leaving each other alone is the most viable peace we tend to explore... for now. There are one-off cases where, for instance if one species is threatening multiple others in a drastic way as in the Ulstryx campaign, you do see mutual survival becoming a strategy for the threatened monster species and humanity.

All that being said, I think of different playthroughs of the game as representing different versions of reality, different tellings of a story. The rules and "canon" can change from game to game, as they would from one version of a myth to another. So imagining a world where the different species live in some sense of harmony is absolutely valid. I don't know if we'll write it, but I don't think others should be afraid to.

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Catfish Waterdancer 

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02.01.2020 I think the possibility of there being an instance where a member of another race wishes to become part of the team would present a unique opportunity to expound upon a different philosophy and worldview. For a single campaign, of course - you could remove the possibility of he/she/they becoming a legacy character. douglas 

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07.01.2020 Yeah, I think it's great for one-off situations/individuals. Makes a lot of sense for specific Villains/Campaigns where the writing can account for that character's presence. Getting that monster character into the generic events would be a lot trickier. But yeah, I think it's super interesting to get those outliers from the other species that have enough in common with you or are eccentric enough to interact with you and bring with them various pieces of lore or insight.

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Catfish Waterdancer 

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06.02.2020 This is a work in progress. Herewith, the next three chapters. Dateityp des Anhangs: acrobat The_Collective_Art_Versus_Science456.pdf 195.56 KB douglas 

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07.02.2020 That's a lot of fun! I find the action of the initiation super compelling. Love how you imagine the magic working, the concept of asking the soil to move, showing patience. Feels very Wildermyth, but with plenty of unique interpretation which is great to read. The paragraph where Sal's considering the star-myths feels designed just to intrigue and excite me, haha. Tons of good stuff. Thank you!

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TamTroll 

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10.02.2020 So is there a reason that Humans don't seem to go traditionally Gorganoid like animals do? Or do Gorgons just give them a higher dose of the infection so they turn to stone faster? douglas 

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11.02.2020 Good question. Where I'm at currently on this is that the human brain is much more complex and reasoning than the animal brain, and so they don't become (or don't reliably become) suggestible under the Gorgon influence. This makes a corrupted human basically useless to a Gorgon (on top of being quite dangerous), which is why, yes, I'd say the dosage or even delivery method of the Gorgon corruption is intentionally made more deadly for humans than for animals. May reexamine this later. TamTroll 

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11.02.2020 and what about animals that turn to statues? Is that a higher dose thing? or will all infected animals eventually turn completely to stone? douglas 

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11.02.2020 I think it's an eventuality that they'll all turn to stone, or else tear themselves apart as the associated madness becomes more violent and consuming.

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PatrickBelanger 

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16.02.2020 This is so cool! I haven't tried Pathfinder yet, but I love seeing players using Wildermyth for DnD related things. Lore all looks good as far as I can see (though Nate and Doug definitely have a better idea of that) NateAustin 

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16.02.2020 Awesome, this looks pretty thorough and true to the spirit. I haven't played pathfinder but the numbers seem basically reasonable to me 🙂 Fun stuff! douglas 

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16.02.2020 Yeah, that's awesome! Never played pathfinder either, but it makes me think about how I would add these creatures to a D&D game. This captures, as nate said, the spirit (and really, the form and function) of the Gorgonoids really well.

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Catfish Waterdancer 

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19.02.2020 Here are the next three chapters. Some members have anagrammed cameos (Phrum, Eraina, Fofoprolo.) Dateityp des Anhangs: acrobat The_Collective_Art_Versus_Science789.pdf 170.75 KB douglas 

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24.02.2020 Another enjoyable entry! Thanks for writing. The Morthagi perspective at the beginning certainly drew me in. Found myself sympathizing with its concerns, which was really cool to feel. As always, love seeing how you put your twist on this world and these creatures, and adapt it to prose : )

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Baconside (She/Her) 

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24.02.2020 So, are the Thrixl.... I assume their home habitat is more of caves. But, from what I can gather, they seem to have a want for emotions and passion. I'm thinking of playing around with that to make a story.

Currently the idea I am spinning around in my head is based on this in-fiction line:

"And they hold the power to turn the imagined into truth..."

Would a possible plot be that an Thrixl invasion would begin to get the necessary... 'food' so they can 'think' a god into existence? Honestly I am thinking about how AD&D Beholders tend to go to sleep then create via imagination their nightmares. Would that lil bit be a fair comparisson? NateAustin 

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24.02.2020 yeah that sounds thrixl AF. re beholders - yeah, that makes sense, but I think the thrixl are more intentional with it, they use it to craft what they want, for whatever purposes. Baconside (She/Her) 

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24.02.2020 Gotcha, so they won't think up anything by accident. NateAustin 

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24.02.2020 hmm I mean that does sound fun too heheh I'm not really the lorekeeper around here

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TamTroll 

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24.02.2020 there was one other monster you might want to look too... hang on one sec the Kuo Toa. you can see a small video on them by looking up " (Animated DM) Kuo Toa D&D " on youtube and looking for Zee Bashew. Basically when one of them dies and they believe in something enough, there's a chance they'll spontaneously create an infant god, that grows stronger the more Kuo Toa see it, beleive in it, and die with it in their thoughts. might be able to get some ideas from that douglas 

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24.02.2020 Yeah! To give my take, I think there's plenty of potential for accidents in the Thrixl dreamspace/funzone/operatic reality/etc. In fact, the campaign that will come out for Thrixl eventually involves an accident at its inception, I would say. I really like the idea of Thrixl imagining a god for themselves. I enjoy what that implies about what led them there, why they feel it is the next step for them, etc. However, if it is more accidental, there's probably tons of interesting reasons why that would spring from a Thrixl mind, and I'd love to hear what you'd come up with.

Thrixl should feel really malleable as a storyteller, I hope. They can craft solutions, but another way I might think of it is that they'd change the problem to fit their solution. Beyond that, I think we could think of them as even more imaginative than humans, in terms of what they see as possible, while being, for strange inhuman reasons, less individualistic and more collectivist by nature (in ways that don't make sense, even in very collectivist human societies).

But the principle thing I would say when working with any of our lore is just, like, I don't know. Have fun. Break rules. We like to keep things vague so there's plenty of room to explore stories that cast anyone--Gorgons, Deepists, Thrixl, Drauven, Morthagi--in roles they don't fill by default. TamTroll 

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24.02.2020 i could totally see a hypothetical Thrixl god that is IS the dreamspace / hive-mind they share. It's not even a really physical entity, just their little shared mind thing that came to life or something. like they started thinking together, and then their thinking together became alive. and now they think together in it's body or something Baconside (She/Her) 

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24.02.2020 Oh! I have a few ideas on what. A lot of them have to do with Thrixl and maybe them thinking 'bonding' is the next step to becoming more 'whole.' To my head-canon, the Thrixl have an alien mindset that they should embrace, but due to being an outlier they think they have to conform to the other races way of thinking.

The first step? Trying to feel the emotions humanoids love so much. Gorgons want a home to feel safe in. Deepists want to be loved by the god they worship. Drauven have close knit bonds and pride with family. Morthagi have a purpose. And humans have all of that.

Thrixl to me on the other hand, they want to advance. For the betterment of the whole, which is why they will willingly risk themselves for the hive and the greater purpose. Their combined knowledge lets them see what could possibly be ahead. But, this collective type of thinking has them feeling strange. Alien. Why do the other races scream and get angry when one of their own passes away, when it was simply an exchange of knowledge (to them?) I just need to figure out Scratchpad <w> TamTroll 

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24.02.2020 When a human dies, their mind goes away. When a Thrixl dies, their mind just floats around in the collective consciousness without a physical body for awhile. Probably either being re-born into a new body eventually, or just merging with the background thoughts over time. Baconside (She/Her) 

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24.02.2020 Dang. Thats brilliant ^u^ douglas 

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24.02.2020 Urg. You guys should write the canon 😅 Baconside (She/Her) 

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24.02.2020 Pfff. Thanks >w> We wouldn't of come up with this stuff without you and your team setting up a great world to work in. douglas 

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24.02.2020 Haha, appreciate it. Naw, yeah, it's all very collaborative. One of the thoughts that obsesses me, and how I prefer to explain legacy heroes and marked changes in the tone or methods of group of monsters or heroes, is that this whole world is comprised of multiple continuums, basically a spectrum of realities reflecting all the range and potential of myths getting told different ways by different people. So anyway, it's very exciting and interesting to hear your cool ideas!

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TamTroll 

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24.02.2020 So hmmm... One dimention is a point. Two is a flat plane, three is depth, fourth is time, fifth is an alternate timeline by changing the past, sixth is jumping between those timelines, seventh is every possible timeline... Wildermyth exists in the Seventh Dimention. Confirmed. douglas 

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24.02.2020 haha, that's awesome TamTroll 

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24.02.2020 Possibly eighth, which is a completely different set of possible timelines set as a result of a different organization of matter after the big-bang. hard to tell. douglas 

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24.02.2020 I'll be thinking about that for a while, now TamTroll 

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24.02.2020 just look up "ice age in 4-D " that's where i got all that information sevral years ago 😛

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Disciple of the Thrixl 

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08.03.2020 Thrixl honestly have to be my favourite enemy faction. Dreams are emotional, poignant, frightening and hopeful, the private processing of subconsciousness done by intelligent and empathetic beings. They are also incredibly alien. Thrixl themselves are perhaps the most alien of the factions as a group of godlike beings with nebulous goals. A Gorgon's motives are at least understandable, to seek a silence that is eternal. Thrixl seem to create and judge life itself, literally toying with the fabric of reality. What are they after?

(Don't mind me, just headcanon dumping some late night brain vomit.)

I really like what someone said about the Thrixl being a hive mind, perhaps even many different dimensional hives with queens, either competing or coexisting. Each egg a queen produces might come from a stream of consciousness cut abruptly off as her mind drifts from subject to subject, her children manifesting from broken trains of thought over her daily musings and think tanks. If Thrixl were not a hive mind, maybe personality would form from the Queen's desire and emotion at the time.

Thrixl have some seriously godlike powers if they can imagine anything into existence. Perhaps they haven't claimed what they are after because they all share some part of each other's thoughts and dreams, a collective mind cluttered and tormented with constant information overload (their mental processing could be far superior to any other species, but we're talking about millions of lizard bugs thinking and living all at once in a interconnected stream of consciousness). How can Thrixl feel passion if the mental buzz of brothers and sisters makes it hard to grasp it? Perhaps that's why they feed on emotions. It grounds them, like building a dream web in the overworld might bring them calm and focus through laying out their hazy narrative into a seamless whole.

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davea 

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09.03.2020 What is the government structure? Nate posted in another channel that there aren't nobles. i am considering some campaign involving bandits, but it would help to know how towns would normally defend against bandits, or if there could be rebels. NateAustin 

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09.03.2020 You're definitely free to do what you want. We didn't want a strong central government, because then a) why isn't this their problem? b) do the heroes work for them? c) what happens if the king is a jerk? how does that impact the player?

We really just wanted the player to call the shots with a small number of heroes.

Bandits - sure - it's a totally legit threat, that probably the lands (such as they are) would be badly equipped to deal with. I mean that's sorta what governments are for, right? and we just said we don't have one. That may be a reason we shy away from bandits in general, but certainly feel free to use them for your stories. davea 

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09.03.2020 thanks. what would a rebel be rebelling against? i was playing with the idea of incursions by one group of humans, which looks like rebels, but i can't figure out how the lore would treat that. TamTroll 

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09.03.2020 rival village / group of villages who just really don't like this village in particular? whole hatfeilds and the Mcoys kinda thing? NateAustin 

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09.03.2020 rebels - yeah doesn't really make a ton of sense with our lore. invading armies from elsewhere certainly could work though. davea 

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09.03.2020 Are there different countries from which other humans might invade? I do like the Hatfield's idea TamTroll 

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09.03.2020 kinda get the feeling that countries / kingdoms just kind aren't a concept in the yondering lands. They kinda never got past the tribal stage, and quickly adapted "other tribes are people too" when they moved on to permanent villages. annother continent or landmass maybe. something like raiders who come from a land with very few natural resources, so they need to go out and raid other settlements for it. Victor Reinhardt 

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09.03.2020 Another country with a much more warlike group of people that move into the yondering lands to raze them of resources could be interesting Rizelea 

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09.03.2020 they could go on a certain route that rather than raiding, they're invading due to certain reasons can lead to an episode 2 if done properly wherein the heroes would go to the new continent certain reasons can range from: a rebellion that failed, something bad is happening to their land, etc Thad 

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09.03.2020 Frost taken raiders pillaging bright sunny lands as for the cause of a creeping cold is consuming their land, killing their crops, stock, and families. As once sacred hunting grounds are filled with unimaginable beasts. Their raiding as a means to prepare a proper invasion. If done properly give the players a choice between extermination or to go and aid the raiders to save their land and stop them from raiding. Something like that. Love the idea

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douglas 

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10.03.2020 I do like the idea of explorers from over seas. Even if it's just a one-off event, and perhaps you can choose what your reaction will be, or what theirs will be, and guide the story the way you want it. Hmmm. Cool!

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Disciple of the Thrixl 

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11.03.2020 Are there naming conventions for non-human species like Gorgon or Drauven? I'd assume Morthagi don't have the ability or desire to name, but I considered how I might go about naming a reoccurring Drauven character that could speak a limited human tongue if I ever get around to fleshing out my ideas for a campaign. If there really aren't any canon conventions, I felt "my name in your language roughly translates to ..." or a nickname might work. I've been considering Dutch names or the name of a constellation for my Drauven fellow as well.

TamTroll 

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11.03.2020 i always figured their names were kinda just * incomprehensible screech * NateAustin 

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11.03.2020 We don't have strong canon for that, you can really go with anything you like. We do have a couple of examples of drauven talking so that's definitely on the table.

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Catfish Waterdancer 

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11.03.2020 Aren't the Drauven drawings discovered in a cave that of a dragon, or dragon-like creature? Are the Drauven's ancestors saurian or draconian? NateAustin 

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11.03.2020 they will certainly tell you draconian. it's how they see themselves

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Disciple of the Thrixl 

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12.03.2020 That begs the question of how the general Drauven populace feels about birds evolving from dinosaurs, if they even knew that information. But since the group are quite elitist in general, it's fair to say that they merely respect the symbolism of birds yet strive to dominate the skies themselves. Birds could be beneath them, inspirational but lesser beings. I also like the idea that all dragons in Wildermyth that aren't Thrixl are feathery bois to separate them from the traditional green, gold hoarding types. So possessing Draconian blood might be considered greater than that of extinct beasts and diminutive avians. TamTroll 

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12.03.2020 Drauven seem to be alright with birds. they got Terrorbirds and hawks on their team after all. this just spoorts my theory that Avien life is a lot more present then Mammalian life is in the yondering lands. at least moreso then on earth. gotta come up with some bird-like cattle or beasts of labor or something.

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Lightning 

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12.03.2020 isnt it in the lore that the Thrixl attack the mind and soul? If so, I find it interesting that the gorgons infect and "attack" the living body Disciple of the Thrixl 

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12.03.2020 That is interesting. There are a lot of similarities between the different enemy factions that could make for unstable allegiances, with differences ultimately driving them apart.

Drauven and Thrixl both possess draconic attributes, one being passionate dreamers of obtaining flight and the other dreamers lacking in passion. TamTroll 

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12.03.2020 maybe the Gorons are the Thrixl's fault. they were like "Boy it sure is a waste that we leave behind these perfectly good bodies when we kill our victims." and then BAM! Gorgons. Disciple of the Thrixl 

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12.03.2020 Thrixl gave birth to the cleanup crew, but kicked the teenagers out of the house when they began rambling about eternal silence and great, corrupting sickness.

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Catfish Waterdancer 

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12.03.2020 @Disciple of the Thrixl What is it that makes you surmise that the Thrixl lack passion? I'm curious. Disciple of the Thrixl 

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12.03.2020 Hold on, I'll be with you in a bit Catfish Waterdancer 

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12.03.2020 With bated breath, I wait. 😉 Disciple of the Thrixl 

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12.03.2020 I say they lack passion, but this comes from my interpretation of the nameless scribes who speculate the Thrixl's behaviour and lifestyle in the Thrixl lore page. I may have gotten headcanons confused with canon again, as I did with Gorgons coming from the seas 😛

I like to think they have ascended beyond more base instincts and feelings, yet have a suppressed and denied primal desire from their long lost lizard brain. Passion is fiery, consuming, something that calls for you to follow your gut and put your heart into what you love. Thrixl are thinkers, plotters and dreamers. They are creative and driven, but nothing is done with that invigorating spark.

It's mentioned here also (or speculated, as the writers tell us) that they might not have base feelings. I really need to reel myself in when my inner fangirl gets speculating herself lol.

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Lightning 

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12.03.2020 It feels to me like the Thrixl are a cursed race. Like, they reached too far, and as punishment, they have an endless hunger for passion and emotion. Disciple of the Thrixl 

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12.03.2020 Lightning surmised it perfectly. That's why I compared and contrasted Thrixl to drauven: drauven seem very passionate, following their dreams to conquer land and sky with no way to make it a reality like magic. Thrixl and Drauven might form an alliance, but nothing of use would be taken or given in the end.

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Dust 

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13.03.2020 Also, foxes are such creatures of legend in this world. In the Ulstryx opening scene for the starting Mystic, they read a story about a fox and a crow. Numerous weapons get named after foxes, and if I recall correctly, places do as well. Then there's the obvious influence in Foxflight. Just felt like pointing that out I wonder if we'll see more stuff with herons mentioned... Or if foxes and herons exist in this world as more than statues and legend Lightning 

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13.03.2020 I think its up to us to badge modders into creating fox and heron lore Just like its up to us to convince the world that Thrixl are the secret manipulators of all world events, and that they are and always will be our divine overlords Dust 

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13.03.2020 You say that as though the world needs to know The Thrixl needn't let the entire public have knowledge of their influence douglas 

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13.03.2020 Confirmed foxes and herons.

Catfish Waterdancer 

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13.03.2020 Someone mention birds...have you looked - I mean, really looked at Mo-Atona? The God/dess of Balance? The one the Gorgonoids turned into...pewter? Lightning 

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13.03.2020 wait, confirmed they exist? or confirmed theyre all statues now? Catfish, I think you're behind the times. Birds have been the focus of lore-and-fiction and art-house for days now lol but i should probably take a look at that douglas 

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13.03.2020 not all statues, haha. i mean, that's certainly A plot. Lightning 

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13.03.2020 ah, gotcha douglas 

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13.03.2020 We pepper in some aminals from time to time, but usually just as background figures.

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Lightning 

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13.03.2020 any word on whether the Thrixl have influenced the creation of all other evil races as well as caused all great tragedies through secretive manipulations so that they can cause mayhem and breed passion and desperation in humans so that they can feed on these emotions at their leisure? Dust 

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13.03.2020 I just realized You can choose to be kind to and have kindness returned by members of every antagonistic faction Which is kinda cool Disciple of the Thrixl 

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13.03.2020 No word is needed, Lightning. It concerns me that you would even doubt our Gods' power. douglas 

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13.03.2020 No word is needed.

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Deleted User 

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13.03.2020 We need a Drauven recruit douglas 

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13.03.2020 We were originally going to do more with monsters-related histories and such. Could see it being a follow-up to an event somewhere. Catfish Waterdancer 

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13.03.2020 Actually - having different 'Books' to WIldermyth that are told from the viewpoint of each faction is not a bad idea at all. douglas 

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13.03.2020 Wow, yeah. that's a huge idea

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Dust 

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13.03.2020 I could see anyone but Gorgons working with humans or each other temporarily Gorgons aren't stupid, but they'd probably just rather infect other species and use them that way than break their Gorgon pride and utilize diplomacy Catfish Waterdancer 

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13.03.2020 It would be 'very strange' if it didn't. douglas 

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13.03.2020 It's always fun to imagine the edge cases I have this weird ancient Gorgon mythos thing sort of gestating in the back of my head. Of them being more heroic at one point. I like to dig up parts of it, sometimes, but I mostly just leave it buried, haha

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Deleted User 

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13.03.2020 We had a nice conversation going a day or so ago about how the Gorgons and Thrixl were once the same race, and aspired towards greatness, but the reached too far. Some higher being cursed them and the race split into two, one being Gorgons who corrupt the flesh, the others being the Thrixl who corrupt the mind and soul. douglas 

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13.03.2020 That's very cool Dust 

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13.03.2020 Woah Deleted User 

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13.03.2020 I could see that tying in with them once being noble and heroic in the past, and what they are now is a twisted version that has fallen from grace Catfish Waterdancer 

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13.03.2020 My view of the Thrixl is a bit different. For one thing, they were never corporeal, but energy beings that were inhabiting a star before it went to becoming a red dwarf. They travel solar winds, and their 'shapes' get determined by the type of place they migrate to. Deleted User 

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13.03.2020 An interesting view. I could see how their current home could determine their shape, since they feed on passions and mind stuff and such. Catfish Waterdancer 

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13.03.2020 It's why they are most drawn to dreams, which is close to the dimension they occupy. Lightning 

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13.03.2020 In my mind, they were once passionate, imaginative beings, but when they were cursed, they lost that and it was replaced by an everlasting hunger for that passion and imagination. douglas 

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13.03.2020 I need to go work on my Thrixl campaign

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TamTroll 

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15.03.2020 While probably not related, i wonder if the Grimblade and the Sword! Avenger could be considered opposites... Catfish Waterdancer 

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15.03.2020 Interesting observation, although their attributes aren't elemental (Water, Fire, Stone or Leaf) their names & history suggest ties to what could be considered spiritual or ethereal (Shadow and Light) of which there are indications of sinister and divine forces in some skills (Aid, Quellingmoss, Blind, Pin, Stone shield), myths and events. Smoker 

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15.03.2020 well in my opinion all wildermyth is a dream, the caracters are writing their own story but they themself form part of the dream gorgons in the first campaign seem to be created by the fears of the caracters one found the wildermyth book and one write on it

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Lightning 

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15.03.2020 I think the wildermyth book should be considered something outside of time and space. As in, like some sort of akashic record Catfish Waterdancer 

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16.03.2020 And yet...methinks it appears only in the prologue quest, in the hands of your first Mystic, and is not mentioned again - not even in the final ending panels of the Ulstryx quest. It would be interesting if Wildermyth had a series of introductory panels before or on the very first playthrough after downloading and beginning the game where two parents and a child are seen. The child asks if they can read a story from the special book, and is given a very brief explanation about it, and ultimately it is opened, as we see the frontispiece and title page. A hand turns the page (maybe wearing a wolf ring or some such) and as we see the page of contents, one parent asks: "What story would you like to read (or 'live through?' 'take part in?' or more eerily 'relive?')"

douglas 

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16.03.2020 Hm, no specific lore has been written at this time. I'll probably be updating that encoutner at some point. One thing I'm considering is relating the crow woman, (and any concept of crowfolk in general) to the goddess Oruwei who you sort of encounter in the hook quest for the Nostalgic hook "For an Old Wish Passing." A lost people, essentially. But should be fairly flexible for story-things. Did you have a specific thing you were worried about?

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Feral 

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16.03.2020 From the theme: Crow woman is mysterious, and hero would be mysterious + bookish. I'd like to see it centered on the Hunter class! Crow currently has 3 melee attacks, hoping it can get changed to 2 melee and 1 ranged! My favorite thing about crow is how @Annie captured its bluish/purple iridescence. douglas 

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16.03.2020 That certainly sounds like it could be a compatible facet. Regardless, any story we set forth will sort of be as reliable as an origin myth in most cultures. There's room to deviate, and explore a side of it, and for contradictory components of it to coexist

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SOGA 

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19.03.2020 If I recall correctly adding horses involved a lot of work (art and codewise) for the little impact they could make. douglas 

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19.03.2020 Think horses exist, or can exist, but are not common. The concept of riding them certainly doesn't exist. Who would even think of riding a horse? Joefred 

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19.03.2020 Arent they riding a horse in the ending sequence of the chapters they ride into town on horses dont they? MintyMiamice 

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19.03.2020 That sounds like mandella effect douglas 

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19.03.2020 Hmm. Not quite sure which portion you're referencing. Is it in a panel that you see? Annie 

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19.03.2020 Unless somebody modded horses in already, I know I've never drawn a horse in the game. 😉

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samuraidad 

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20.03.2020 One thing I’m thinking is that this is a fantasy setting where magic and mystical happenstance are constant realities. That is to say, evolution, though instructive need not be the end all to be all. Iow, if you want dinosaurs or bird horses or wolves or bears or whatever....put them in. How do they exist? Magic! Ha! Annie 

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21.03.2020 I mean, we have fire chickens and giant tree-creatures, I think almost everything is on the table. 😉

x

Catfish Waterdancer 

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22.03.2020 There are no elemental opposites, which is surprising. For instance, hitting a fire-based enemy with a water-blessed weapon should cause extra damage. shrugs TamTroll 

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22.03.2020 they do it like that because other systems don't do it like that. simple 😛 Catfish Waterdancer 

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22.03.2020 I'm all for originality. TamTroll 

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22.03.2020 ye douglas 

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22.03.2020 Yeah, the elemental aspects are still fairly new. Seem to remember them going in late summer of last year? Anyway, there's definitely room for spirits, elemental or otherwise to exist and deviate from the four we regularly see. I don't quite remember why those four are the four our system's based on, haha 😅 Annie 

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22.03.2020 (because those are the ones i just happened to draw a few years ago, and then when we decided to make weapon enchantments based on them, adding more would mean we'd have to draw and design another 50+ weapons) TamTroll 

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22.03.2020 pff Annie 

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22.03.2020 (the lore can be something prettier though) 😂

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Catfish Waterdancer 

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23.03.2020 Mo-Atona is a bird god/dess - pewterized, to be sure - but definitely avian. MintyMiamice 

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24.03.2020 If something in the woods was very strange I simply would not venture into them No offense to the adventurers of the yondering lands, but I'm different nixylvarie 

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24.03.2020 ”Oh something in the woods is strange? I’ll get right on that. Tomorrow.” goes back to bed Catfish Waterdancer 

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24.03.2020 🎶 Into the woods and out of the woods, and home before dark! 🎵 zuesîn 

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27.03.2020 Many heroes venture forth, their hearts so every brave For they know not the dangers, they aren't heroes nay they're knaves

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davea 

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05.04.2020 Asking for a friend, what's a lore reason that two drauven leaders could be arguing about? Maybe a religious or cultural difference? Joefred 

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05.04.2020 the best way to eat a human or the best way to torture 👍 Dust 

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05.04.2020 Do the Gorgons have a religion with a specific deity? Catfish Waterdancer 

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05.04.2020 @davea Good question. Perhaps the specific form of punishment for a comrade who sympathizes with another race - and led an ambush meant to deal with intruders of that race astray, rather than intercept them? Or, whether or not the Elder Drauvens (i.e. dragons) still exist in the Yondering Lands? TamTroll 

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05.04.2020 Honestly, Drauven seem like the type to argue over things like territory, food, or even mating rights. Perhaps one of the leaders is younger then the other, and is trying to overthrow the elder, so it keeps questioning every order the elder gives to challenge it's authority. @Dust as far as I've seen, they don't. they seem to be more concerned with themselves then any higher power. NateAustin 

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05.04.2020 @davea - politics and religion are classics. they're ostensibly "dragon-descended" or so they say, and the dravonne unit is there to play with. Gorgon religion - unestablished, I think it would fit fine with them if you want to tell that story. davea 

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05.04.2020 I was hoping to find something more alien, any human can argue about these things. TamTroll 

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05.04.2020 okay i got it. i think there was a new clutch of eggs, and when they hatched, there were 13 males and 18 females, which is read as a good omen. BUT! of the 13 males, 8 had red frills, while the others had green frills. this means danger is afoot. Leader A believes they should drown every odd-numbered hatchling to appease the spirits, but leader B is arguing that two of the females were born with black spots above their left eyes, leaving them blessed by the ancestry of the black dragon of hurmaturg. by leader A's plan, both of those females would be on the drowned list, which would very much upset the ancestry. So leader B instead proposes that they strip down the second, fifth, seventh, and eighth red-frilled males and send them out into the woods along with the first, third, eighth, ninth, and seventeenth females to begin a new colony, which will then become beset by plague according to the feathers in the bowl, thus cleansing the tribe of their sins and appeasing an Ancestry for another 27 winters. To a Drauven, all of this makes perfect sense.

x

douglas 

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04.05.2020 @Briar Rose Fire feels like a very head-on hero-type element, and to me, that's what Aria would have wielded. But! That said, I can see a version of her with any of our elements. There's a desert/fire aspect to Vulta, and I can see the hero who defeated Vulta could have fought fire with fire, or overcome it with a different energy, smothering earth, flowing water, or rejuvenating root and leaf.

It's really neat that you'll make her a part of your legacy : ) Thanks for playing our game.

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Professor Ocecat 

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24.05.2020 So there's gods and such in the Yondering Lands (of a sort, at least) for sure; going of some of the events. I'm just internally toying with ideas of the sorts of forces that might be at play, for some unecissarily epic storyline that has to do with the actual forces at play behind the Yondering lands. Would you guys feel that angels, fiends or some other cosmic-level forces may be working their power behind the scenes to influence things, more so than the monstrous factions? Or would that be too far of a stretch for the Canon? NateAustin 

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24.05.2020 (the official position is: do whatever you want, don't worry if it's something we would do.)

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SOGA 

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28.06.2020 I think another important difference is that while the world seems to be in a feudal medieval age, there are no lords, armies or religions. Popcornia 

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28.06.2020 Yeah, it’s actually an interesting use of a similar concept from Anglo-Saxon literature / life. Their territory was filled with the remnants of a past society (aka, the Roman Empire) they know little about, and so they can only wonder what those buildings the people who used them were like. For Wildermyth, that concept is transplanted into a roughly medieval era, where it’s remnants of the past seem like remnants of roughly the same aesthetic / people who lived like they do now. I wouldn’t say they’re stagnated as a society, just from that observation; they just don’t have a need for consolidating power, resources, etc. It also keeps the world as a whole somewhat thematic, it’s a world where the imagination and folklore of the scattered and isolated can easily be something that can come from the dark of the Woods. douglas 

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28.06.2020 Yeah, a lot of people are covering most of it. I think the Wildermyth world is much less solidly tied to the concreteness of reality/time than ours. There's some Discworld-y stuff underlying it all, where what is believed becomes manifest. While Wildermyth's setting is kind of standard medieval fantasy in a lot of ways, it doesn't have any single cultural or historical analogue in our world. Technologies like printing exist here. Gunpowder doesn't. There's no churchly influence, though there are gods, wild gods mostly, which maybe at one point received more organized worship. Ancient things have been left over in this place, and the world's haunted by a mostly inaccessible past, which we like to explore in glimpses. Basically, I'm echoing what Popcornia said above, and yeah Anglo-Saxon writing was a big influence, and part of the twist on that is sort of in making them ordinary, making the language contemporary and mannerisms American-ish. TamTroll 

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28.06.2020 So it's not any small things, like how the fallout universe never invented the microprocessor then i'm guessing? douglas 

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28.06.2020 Hm, I can't think of any extra little key bits like that at the moment. The presence of printing and wide availability of books/widespread literacy might be it, though. That does make a huge difference, I think, culturally, here. Also, there's flushing toilets and people brush their teeth 😁 TamTroll 

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28.06.2020 Kingless middle ages with better education and hygine. Sounds nice 😛 Popcornia 

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28.06.2020 Yes gods, no masters. I can vibe with that. douglas 

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28.06.2020 Yeah! I also think the gods that exist are not human-centric for the most part. If you interact with them, they become interested in you, but they mostly inhabit their own unlives, fulfill their own inscrutable purposes. Except that desperate wolf god, of course. Popcornia 

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28.06.2020 Yeah, the one god we've seen in person was a cool Sphinx. I do think them just, straight up ignoring everything (even the Gorgons) was interesting from an outside perspective. (Or maybe they were asleep the whole time.) TamTroll 

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28.06.2020 honestly i'd wonder if they're all less gods, more just powerful spirits. if there is a difference at all i suppose. douglas 

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28.06.2020 Yeah, I think that's a good way to look at it. Doesn't super matter what they're called, or how they're categorized. Both are words in this world that are used for metaphysical things, with physical-seeming forms, whose powers and desires are mostly immeasurable.

x

Selemas 

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29.06.2020 Well, maybe you can't live happily ever after, but perhaps you can put it to sleep for another thousand years IamGroot 

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29.06.2020 Reminds me of norse mythology about Ragnorak TamTroll 

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29.06.2020 and then in a thousand years it wakes up and consumes the world. like i said, the world is doomed. safe for now but teetering on the edge of oblivion is not a safe world. Selemas 

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29.06.2020 Safe for a a thousand years is not teetering on the edge of oblivion, at least, not as far as mortals are concerned Popcornia 

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29.06.2020 I think it's well within the world's purview to have alternating times of oblivion and creation. The origins of the world are vague enough that it could have easily come from ex nilhio, possibly multiple times. Popcornia 

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29.06.2020 (Now the fact that we consistently get humans, drauv, thriskl, morthagi, gorgons, and Deepists, thats a different story) douglas 

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29.06.2020 Yeah, we get an averted cataclysm in the Gorgon campaign. It's easy to imagine global traumas happening here that get mythologized and become memories with the passing of generations. The scale of the world is also something we don't really describe, but I operate from a place where someone might be able to say "This and many other Yonderings." The ever-changing map for your playthroughs reflects that. So what happened one place hasn't necessarily happened other places. Popcornia 

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29.06.2020 I do think the world could be open to some more tile types. Some arid or desert landscapes might add some more interesting vista to the world. douglas 

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29.06.2020 Ancient Things, eldritch beings asleep in the world... we do like to surface these. But understanding all of where they come from, and what else dwells under the strata of time and apocalypses would sort of ruin it. Other environments is a post 1.0 thing, realistically. I agree it would be cool. Just being that we're a small team, we weigh down our sole artist so much already, haha. But yeah, totally feel you on that.

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Not Courith Cold 

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10.08.2020 I have a question. Has toast been invented in the Wildermyth world? 👀 Because I assume that it hasn't yet. NateAustin 

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10.08.2020 well bread definitely exists electric toasters don't people used to make it by holding bread near fire so break lore it won't? hm was going for a poem but couldn't land it IntellectMaster 

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10.08.2020 Toast in Wildermyth, can it be? Examine the facts, then we'll see If toast can in fact be in this game Or if the Yondering lands believe toast to be lame! Burned bread is toast, that is the fact. Beyond that, it's all just flourish! But let's say it needs butter to properly nourish And be be properly absorbed by the digestive tract. Wildermyth has cows, and berries for jam, As well as fruits and canning for that delectable spread. Add in other livestock for bacon and lamb And you get a wonderful meal for breakfast in bed. All that needs doing is to cook the break longer, Anyone can do it, men and women! People do weird things to sate their hunger, And so, in conclusion, toast won't break cannon. Not Courith Cold 

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10.08.2020

thinkDerp:

SaltySweet Ren 

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10.08.2020 Imagine if someone came up wuth the brilliant idea to halve the cooking time for toast... by setting up two fires and holding the bread between them! IntellectMaster 

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10.08.2020 "And that's the story of how your father became a flamesoul, kids!" TamTroll 

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10.08.2020 flamesoul person just picks up bread, smooshes it between their hands, two minutes later they have toast.

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Not Courith Cold 

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11.08.2020 What stage of technology is Wildermyth in? No muskets or cannons seen. But there's steampunkish monsters (Morthagi). So there could've been some gun robot amongst its ranks and then gunpowder stuff. NateAustin 

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11.08.2020 yeah gunpowder would be exotic but wouldn't be out of the question. IntellectMaster 

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11.08.2020 The morthagi are crafted using a long-lost set of technological inventions with a touch of magic. From what I’ve seen of this game, there used to be a much more advanced civilation in the Yondering Lands, but something happened and all that was lost. There were great libraries, massive towers, grand armies, and probably sprawling cities with majestic castles, but now most of these locations have been lost to the ages, crumbling into dust and forgotten by the people. Only a select few will ever relearn of these fantastical places on their quest to rid the land of its many dangers and evils, and even then their stories will be quickly forgotten by those who here them and relegated to just being myths or legends. No one else will even think of going back to those places to see of they are even real, not for a long time. And so the Yondering Lands continue to stagnate, unchanging as no one ever ventures too far from what they know to forever rid the lands of the monsters who terrorize them. Evil will continue to always crawl back and threaten everyone you love, as there are never enough heroes willing to venture to the very edge of the known to truly take back what was lost.


douglas 

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12.08.2020 Yeah, I would very much resist any sort of gunpowder development. I'm still disappointed it happened in our own timeline 😁 . I like (insist) that technology in a fantasy world doesn't develop at the same pace, or in the same order as it happened to here. Not just owing to coincidence, but also that the physical laws might be fundamentally different. As IntellectMaster said above, the technologoical heights of the world were and are achieved in some marriage of magic and science, and the civilizations that once thrived here were far beyond what the scattered, self-governing people of today can manage. That being said, their lives still have conveniences, and they still hold viewpoints, that medieval people of our world didn't, owing mostly to magical means and the cultural progress of long-ago people. I try to keep to my general intention of avoiding any direct analogues or artifacts from either real world history, culture, or else other fiction. Unless the joke/story is worth it.

But ultimately, there aren't hard rules for what can happen here, and it's only as detailed as our broad strokes and pointed stories can imply. I don't want this to feel like a limiting environment. If someone wants to tell any story here, they should feel free to, I think this world can take it.

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IntellectMaster 

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12.08.2020 My thinking for shying away from guns and other technological advancements in medieval-fantasy settings is this: Why go through the time and effort of inventing an entirely new way of doing something if you can already achieve the ends you need to through a well-documented and effective process? (In this case magic.) Sure, in most settings spellcaating and the like is usually very difficult to learn/master, and getting even a simple spell right can take years, but you know what else can take years? Getting gold enough with a bow to trust yourself to not only hit your target, but not also hit the ally standing 3 feet to the left. Same goes for guns, but with less time for your ally to try and avoid the stray projectile.

@TamTroll What a wonderful story! Love it! 😆 douglas 

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12.08.2020 Yeah, that's very cool! I like that it plays on the power of storytelling/shaping narrative. Feels nice and thematic.

Yeah, I also feel that point about, why go to the trouble/accidental injury/intellectual frustration/etc. of attempting to create a scientific answer to question answered by magic. (Semi-restricting it beyond that is a lot because I want to avoid the villain from the incredibles happening.)

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Not Courith Cold 

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21.11.2020 I wonder what real world counterparts inspired the Yondering Lands? Middle ages England? Or Scotland? Other Celtic lands? Eastern Europe? Annie 

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21.11.2020 Medieval Europe is pretty common inspiration in fantasy settings, and we're no exception, but we did try to give the land a slightly more American feel when it came to animals, plants, and the lack of any kinds of kings or nobility for the humans. Not Courith Cold 

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21.11.2020 Where in Medieval Europe? Annie 

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21.11.2020 I know I definitely play a little fast and loose with e.g., the pieces of scenery and what time/place they might be from i don't think we had particular geographic locations in mind (though british isles often ends up being the default for that sort of thing). Dunno if Doug took from certain mythologies for the lore though (we do have minotaurs and enemies called "gorgons" even though we're not aiming for ancient greece specifically. we're just lore-vultures, lol) Not Courith Cold 

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21.11.2020

thonkOwO:

douglas 

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22.11.2020 Real... world...? douglas 

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22.11.2020 Hehe, it's really all more conversant with literature/mythology than Earth societies and history. While there's elements that have historical basis (swords and stuff), a lot of that is a product of the genre, and the context within which the game exists, I guess. There's an intent to separate the fantasy world from the real world, and to recognize that history, society, and invention don't play out the same way to twice. Furthermore, there's the possibility that scientific laws may not function the same way here as on real earth. Probably the most actual-Earth stuff is the generic European medieval outfitting and the contemporary American English language usage.

Folklore, myth, pop-culture that we pull on tends to be from all over, but I can kind of point to a few that matter most. The poetry of W.B. Yeats and Irish folklore inspired Eluna and the Moth in a lot of ways. Much of the poetic core of the game is Anglo-Saxon-inspired. Hayao Miyazaki's films are a constant inspiration, and French writer Jean Giono is a huge influence on my sentences and style. Native American folklore has a voice here. The Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying games and resources (especially 2nd Edition) are deeply foundational to my centering in fantasy.

Apologies for this long-winded answer. Feels like the closest I can come to answering your question, but I'm sure I'm forgetting/misrepresenting some things too.

x

NateAustin 

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11.01.2021 we specifically wanted to get away from kings, nobility, and all that. So instead of a king or council telling you what to do, it's up to you (the company) to take up the burden. It might not be the most realistic political simulation, but yeah I find it way more pleasant. TamTroll 

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11.01.2021 from the various lores of ancient civilizations, it does look like kindoms and nobility did happen quite a few times. for one reason or another though they could just never quite get it to stick. probably a lot of people going "You're the king? well i didn't vote for you." and not recognizing the king's probably self-imposed title. Wouldn't be surprised if most monarchies didn't even make it past three generations. NateAustin 

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11.01.2021 yeah that makes sense. you need a bunch of physical and cultural infrastructure before feudalism starts to "work" I think well I'm not a historian.

x

buriedinfrost 

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11.01.2021 Or, maybe in the past those civilizations all crumbled and this is what is left The less you explain it, the more people use their own minds to fill in the blanks NateAustin 

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11.01.2021 yeah

x

Eresian 

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29.01.2021 Are the lore pages on the wiki "canon?" What is the order of Kralar? IntellectMaster 

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29.01.2021 As far as I can remember, they are, but last I saw was quite a long time ago. IntellectMaster 

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29.01.2021 I thought that was the order of knights found in one of the hook quests, but I could easily be wrong. Out of thousands of events and hundred or so hook quests I've done, I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen that specific hook quest. Eresian 

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29.01.2021 Oh, the one where the knights teach you balance? I've had it trigger twice in 60 hours What I'm wondering is, if I start writing for this game, can I rely on the wiki to give me accurate background information and worldbuilding? Oops wrong server lol NateAustin 

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29.01.2021 canon - they're mostly close enough. I think there might be some stuff there that we've drifted away from, but you shouldn't worry about it. The lore is loose on purpose to give us room to tell different stories, so please go for it. douglas 

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29.01.2021 Yeah, there's been a lot of iteration over the years that's made some of the "lore" in the wiki kind of obsolete. Most of the specifics aren't important. The reality kind of takes the shape of whatever story is being told, or it at least has that sort of malleability. I should get around to consolidating and publishing more specific and comprehensive lore. But there's tons of space, and the nature of the world is meant to conform to the whims of whoever's interpreting/creating/relating it.

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TamTroll 

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17.02.2021 So i had a thought earlier today. Eluna spoilers:

Was an image of what the one sibling WOULD have looked like had they gone through with Eluna's full transformation ever thought up? or did it never go past "moth wings"? Found myself idly wondering what my sibling would have looked like had she spent enough time to end up like the Mothman or Echthis. douglas 

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19.02.2021 Never gave much specific thought to how the final transformation might've looked like, except to say that it would've been on the Eluna/Mothman spectrum. Maybe with a few unique features, as the two of them are quite different. But, yeah, imagining what all the beings in her version of the world might've looked like is a pretty weird, maybe fun thing.

x

Louis_Mlayer 

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17.03.2021 Is there a reason as to why there are so few people in the world? Most of the biggest villages only hit 200 (ish) people max and always look like small villages. Even the characters refer to them as villages and not cities. Is there a reason that these villages are so small ? Or are there bigger "capital" cities with more people in them in the world ? TamTroll 

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17.03.2021 think the place is just very primitive. NateAustin 

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17.03.2021 we wanted a game where the band of heroes would be the main force in the world -- there's no king with his army to fall back on, or get quests from, or politic with, none of that. Just a few souls making decisions about how to protect their land and people.

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Slomoloblo! 

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19.03.2021 A little bit I felt like it was a frontier, the edges of an explored land, or maybe a land that is being resettled GrossorMD 

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19.03.2021 I like to think that there are huge gaps of time between stories, with most heroes reincarnating wheel-of-time style; with maybe the liches staying the same from age to age ("restless bones") douglas 

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19.03.2021 Yeah, there's a lot of loops and cycles in the mythos of the world. There's certain old civilizations that get referenced: Kyor and Thnarrland. There's a time in antiquity when Mortificers made their bone-a-matons. But in current Wildermyth, we're always in a space of discovery/rediscovery, while certain old things last, and certain stories get told, retold, recast. This or that Yondering are by definition unspecific geographical places, oriented around the characters and fledgling societies that make their lives and way within them. There's a grim interpretation of this that's basically: no one is ever allowed to thrive beyond certain thresholds in this monster-plagued world. But there's also room to interpret it as a frontier, or as a youthful and slowgrowing culture with a different technological timeline than earth history, and that's often canonically preferred (by me? sometimes?).

It's soupy, basically, but intentionally so. It centers the characters, and gives them room for whatever their stories might become. It does direct us away from a lot of more medieval-metropolitan type elements, but that's not necessarily, and for all cases, out of the question. Muninn 

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19.03.2021 in my runs i often consider a 'new game' as generations later after the end of prior runs (that could get nifty. have names of past adventuring parties randomly get referenced in a current run) douglas 

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19.03.2021 Yeah! I think that's right in line with how we imagine it. We could definitely make it more referenced, but then, there's cases where that could not be the fiction we want to tell, so it might also be limiting Muninn 

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19.03.2021 true. well, one idea: word is the check boxes in the legacy screens will allow for past heroes to show up as NPCs (once time and priority get to it). could add a box in there for allowing parties to be referenced if desired in the options? douglas 

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19.03.2021 Yep! Seems like those things can probably go hand in hand! GrossorMD 

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19.03.2021 (Case in point. I love the feeling of "seen it all" that this start conveys) Bild douglas 

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19.03.2021 Yeah, certain characters and cases in particular kind of cry out for it, huh?

x

TamTroll 

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20.03.2021 if i ever became immortal, I'd like to think that at some point or another, I'd just stand or sit in the same position unmoving and just watch the years pass. apparently the longer you're immortal, the more likely that you'll get trapped somewhere forever though. so that might be a bad idea. Muninn 

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20.03.2021 thats one of the big reasons immortality is overrated IMO 😆 just not digging being buried alive 😏 jake 

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20.03.2021 Gives you a lot of time to think TamTroll 

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20.03.2021 i think i could go for an old fashiond highlander style immortality. you won't age or die of illness, but if someone shoots you you're still dead. presumably that'd count to lack of air too.

Personally though if it was full on invulnerable immortality, i figure some method of digging yourself out would be possible eventually. unless it was like, a black hole or something... pretty much screwed at that point. Muninn 

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20.03.2021 highlander immortality includes bullets. i remember a scene or two in the TV series where an immortal took a bullet intentionally cause they got right back up and knew who they were with wouldnt TamTroll 

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20.03.2021 more mean "if someone kills you you're dead" rather then specifically just decapitation. but ye. TamTroll 

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26.03.2021 i'm bored. you think deepists ever have kids? or do they rely soley on new recruits from the surface to replenish their numbers? IntellectMaster 

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26.03.2021 How else do you get so darn many horn children? They have to come from somewhere, and converts alone can't bring in that many offspring. TamTroll 

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26.03.2021 there's an event that shows that actually. horn children aren't human. they're more like stone golems birthed by some powerful spirit and given to the deepists as minions.

x

Stanfreed 

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07.04.2021 Any official lore on Lochias, or do we make our own?🐺 IntellectMaster 

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07.04.2021 Lochias is the wolf god/spirit/thing, and can transform select people into wolf-human hybrids. Beyond that... nope, Wildermyth is a pretty open place with only soft lore, few hard lines anywhere. Gustavius 

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07.04.2021 Depending on who is with you, that event seems to go different ways too. A perfect example of the multifaceted world they have built. TamTroll 

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07.04.2021 at one point he was widely worshiped as a hunter god, now he's pretty unknown PatrickBelanger 

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07.04.2021 Canonically (from what I can remember Doug saying), Lochias really loves being worshipped, and is just a little bit desperate for more people to take his oath; his following isn't nearly what it once was. But our lore overall is very flexible, and Lochias is mostly unexplored as a character, so take it where you want! https://discord.com/channels/505370324750172170/550344844770410516/651652693504557072 To quote Doug, "he cared so much, guys" Stanfreed 

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07.04.2021 Thanks for your responses! I'm just thinking up a script for my future campaign, don't want to break any lore, lol douglas 

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10.04.2021 Yeah! There's not much development there, of the Lochias stuff. I've always wondered a little about it. TamTroll's comment there seems like how I'd think to summarize it also, but I haven't really thought of anything solid or specific. I'd be excited to see someone explore that : ) (Also, generally, feel free to @ me, anyone. Or even DM, if that's possible on here? I just find myself slowed down/stopped from work when I come on here without a specific reason, but am always happy to answer questions and discuss weird stuff 😁)

x

ChestnutPie 

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18.05.2021 dose lochias' name mean anything or is it random? Stanfreed 

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18.05.2021 @douglas probably knows. But 'Lochias' does sound like a name worthy of a wolf God, like Tybalt would for felines douglas 

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18.05.2021 Sadly, it's just because I thought it sounded cool, like a woofgod. The "lo" probably comes from Latin lupus/Spanish lobo in my head. I am sure it comes from something, in the wildermyth world, i just have never written down to it. Religious following? The Wolfway? Hm. Wolfgang. Oops that's an old question, sorry!

x

bhoss bhabie 

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29.05.2021 However. I am struggling with incorporating an abstract idea of the Fae into the story while also having them involved in the Gorgonoids. I want the Gorgonoids to be corrupted by angered Fae, but I also want the fox-like nature spirits to be animals taken by the Fae as well, just more peaceful. I have some ideas? But I'd love to hear your input! NateAustin 

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29.05.2021 canonically in our lore, the True Gorgons (the big blue ones) spread the corruption, infecting animals. The Gorgons themselves are old, but could have been the subject of a curse, ages ago. why not? bhoss bhabie 

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29.05.2021 Ooo! I really like that! Also I don't wanna make you guys feel like your lore is bad or anything, I just love the idea of taking it and making it my own. NateAustin 

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29.05.2021 nah nah, go for it!

x

GamingOwl 

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29.05.2021 Don't know if this would help you out at all, but I think the most Fae like creatures in the game are the Thrixl. The wiki describes an encounter with the insect/dragon like Thrixl: 'They were weaving, it looked like, and digging patterns into the earth, turning the soil up, and marking it with pigments scraped off their own underbellies. They noticed me. It was unavoidable. Three sets of eyes turned on me: six eyes in this face, five in this one, one eye on the largest of them, a long-limbed, bony creature with armored joints. I looked in those eyes expecting to see nothing. The mute marble orbs of an animal, a drone. What I saw instead was coyness. Deliberation. The turbid fire of dreamers, thinkers, artists. The skinny cyclopean nightmare hooted from its horned mouth and wrapped itself in its clear glass wings. And later I woke, far from the spot, by a lakeside. A travelling leather merchant saw me attempting to drown myself in the water, pulled me ashore. I came out of it like a man rising from a night-terror. And I was both relieved and inexplicably heartbroken.'" Which just sounds a lot like a Fae like encounter to me. They use lots of magic, like dreamtrap (which is basically a stun) and dominate (makes you attack allies). In the game they're described twisting perceptions of reality itself and thematically have a lot to do with dreams. The main aesthetic difference is that they're more insect looking and psychic based, less like the nature spirits you mentioned. bhoss bhabie 

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29.05.2021 Oooo!!! Okay, change of plans, Thrixl are the new Fae, I'll work something out for Gorgonoids.

TamTroll 

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29.05.2021 Gorgonoids are pretty much the definition of a living disease if that's a road you want to go for. You could see a majority of them as infected individuals, and the true gorgons as the disease incarnate.

bhoss bhabie 

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29.05.2021 I have a plan for the Deepists basically being an old race that built the Morthagi as well. The Gorgons can be from a disease with the True Gorgons being people taken completely over BY the disease, and the Thrixl can be Fae! Now it all comes down to the Drauven. I'll do some brainstorming on them, however I do like the idea of them being my versions equivalent of elves. Instead of slender and graceful, they adapted to take the form of the wild.

TamTroll 

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29.05.2021 Gorgonoid rabbit... * Sideglance at joke "Rabbit god pantheon" from years ago * ... New god... Drauven could be the natives of the land, while the humans, deepists, and others all came from another continent or world or something? Might hit a bit too close to home for some though.

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Stanfreed 

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07.06.2021 Do the Deepist/Cultist have any gods/deities that they worship? I'd rather reference one that exists than make up one ChestnutPie 

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07.06.2021 there is the stone statue from one of the deepist combat events. but idk Stanfreed 

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07.06.2021 the minotaur? ChestnutPie 

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07.06.2021 i dont remember what it looks like. NateAustin 

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07.06.2021 I mean the whole thing is a sort of pyramid scheme religion set up by the founders, if you believe the "Monarchs" plot...

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IntellectMaster 

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19.06.2021 Here’s a fun question: What is the in-world limit on the types of creatures that can be affected by Gorgonism? Is it only mammals with the exception of of frogs, or can any sufficiently large terrestrial creature be afflicted? Can fish, whales, and squid also be turned into half-stone monsters, and are arthropods immune? Is there even a limit on the variety of potential victims for this disease, or can any living organism, even certain species of plants and fungi, become gorgonoids? I realize that, in-game, we only ever see boars, deer, bears, oversized raccoons, frogs, and cows, but are those merely the ones that have stats? ChestnutPie 

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19.06.2021 stone an entire town make the grass blue >:D Muninn 

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19.06.2021 @IntellectMaster gorgonize the cheese. we need more gorgonzola! (yes, i made that joke before, but it still makes me get the giggles! 🤣 ) douglas 

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19.06.2021 Just more reasons to stay away from water. (Yeah, there's certainly no established lore on this)

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IntellectMaster 

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19.06.2021 I see no reason why any generic creature would be immune to the process, so I imagine that gorganized crocodiles, wolves, eagles, and even sharks could exist. We just don’t see any of those in-game for... reasons.... I think it’s been asked+answered before, but the reason why the gorgons turn people into stone instead of monsters is because their intelligence makes them unpredictable and hard to control, right? It’s technically the same process, turning fully into stone instead of semi-rock soldiers, but humans are given a more potent dose and thus the transformation is quick and full with no mutations, just murder? Or was all this from a dream of mine long enough ago that’s it’s manifesting as memory instead of theory? TamTroll 

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19.06.2021 no i recall that too. They're given a larger dose so they instantly petrify instead of mutate. iirc all gorgonoid creatures eventually petrify, it just takes them a long time.

h'uh, guess it can be anything. thought it was just mammals, and the bogmoore was the one exception. guess not. Smoker 

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19.06.2021 well true gorgons are octopus are they not? X) TamTroll 

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19.06.2021 they're not like the other gorgons though. True gorgons aren't infected animals, they're like, the source of the infection. everything else is just sick because of them. Smoker 

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19.06.2021 They come from outer space i knew it 🙂 IntellectMaster 

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19.06.2021 We actually don’t know where exactly their true origin is. In my headcannon, they’re a sentient aquatic race that used to be much more advanced. They evolved in the water, developed cool technologies and magics, and spread onto land, creating their own great civilizations everywhere they could. Then humans came along and wrecked everything, destroying the Gorgons’ civilization and almost making them go extinct. Later, the human civilizations and their great cities with their own advanced technologies and magics experienced some sort of disaster and were reduced to ruins, allowing the Gorgons time to rebuild in peace. Now they’re returning to the Yondering Lands with burning vengeance, their stone monster armies ready to help them retake the world. TamTroll 

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19.06.2021 i like to think the true gorgons are kind of like Alex Mercer from Prototype. that game was released in 2009, so i'm not going to bother with spoilers. Basically Mercer WAS the disease/infection. the virus had gained sentience and the ability to act like a multicellular organism when in large enough numbers. i could see True Gorgons as something similar, they are the living embodiment of the infection itself, whatever form that may be. That's why they're able to infect other creatures, because they ARE the disease.

Considering we don't see infected creatures turning into true gorgons though, they probably aren't given an identical infection. perhaps the disease having a host reduces it's intelligence somewhat.

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Stanfreed 

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22.06.2021 Is there lore on 'Oldwane'? Is he/she a skeleton God? Lol Sophos (Tom) 

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22.06.2021 The Oldwanes were a family of necromancers douglas 

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22.06.2021 Yeah, they were this wealthy and magic-rich family, who may have been more of a cult than a family, though no one's quite sure. They lived in this large secluded swamphouse, and often got up to eldritch things. They may or may not have been truly dangerous to folks, but they got a reputation for being weirdos, and were eventually rooted out and scattered by Concerned Citizens of a kind. That's the basic story, and there aren't many details, or many things known about them. I think the only parts that're fairly absolute/proven are what you get from the ghosty: that the dagger was made as a tool of vengeance, is evil/destructive, and its maker is regretful. ChestnutPie 

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23.06.2021 what are the canon god we have in the yondering lands? i only know lochias. and lord evergreen who isn't a god perfer but pretty darn powerful douglas 

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23.06.2021 Some of this may be spoilers for folks, so keeping it vague (and also it's just vague by nature haha).

Mo-Atona from the first campaign is some kind of god. She doesn't do a lot, kind of just chills. And maintains balance. Probably fun to hang with.

There's a kind of forgotten god of borders and inbetweens in the Nostalgic hook. There's a stoneshearing god that the Deepists call upon, and whose gem turns your character into a crystal.

There's dragons dormant, now, all except for one who no longer lives on this side of existence, which are not gods, but have great power.

I think I like gods in crannies and places you don't expect, with powers and domains, sometimes, but not a lot of interest in us. There's all the spirits and things. They're a lot more like just very powerful creatures, generally.

There's room for more godstuff! There's always room. Like anything in this universe, I think their importance waxes and wanes with time and place and story.

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nixylvarie 

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11.08.2021 Who is Kralar? I’ve heard the name mentioned by in-fiction lore on the wiki several times. Some kind of researcher from one Yondering or another?

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NateAustin 

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17.08.2021 Kralar is an old character we made in Wizardry VII, years ago, a mage type guy, and we used him to get a handle on how research might work in the game, way back when we thought that was going to be a thing. It's useful to have a character you can picture sometimes, when establishing some fiction. Bild Fae of the Starlit Wood 

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17.08.2021 c. Does the lore from the wiki appear in the game anywhere? NateAustin 

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17.08.2021 Not as such, it was mostly just stuff we wrote for ourselves to establish the world.

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FrogTheToad 

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04.09.2021 Is there a canonical time when the Mortificiers disappeared? It says Antiquity on the wiki, but I don't know if the start year is the same time now or is this world's medieval era? RisingDusk 

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04.09.2021 We know it's at least "thousands of years ago", but I think that's as specific as it ever gets.

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PatrickBelanger 

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01.10.2021 For training, I'd say it's less that you're choosing what the party is teaching them about, and more that you're choosing what that hero is already adept in, to a certain degree. I'm not positive if that's the consensus held by the team (@douglas?) but I've always thought of my mystics as having a propensity toward the mystic arts beforehand, and the team just helping them to refine it.

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mindtheblob 

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29.11.2021 Hi, new to this discord. Does anybody know if there's some kind of lore compilation of the kinds of gods and beings (e.g., lostlings) in the Wildermyth lore? Zel 

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29.11.2021 The hook quest For an Old Wish Passing for the nostalgic hook mentions Oruwei, a female deity who is called a goddess of borders between life and death. She rules over an area where the heros go in that quest. Buecherweber 

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29.11.2021 In the event 'Music from the Deep', the 'Heart of Stone' god gets another spotlight.

But in general, I think that divinity as a whole is a rather ... open concept in the Yondering Lands. I vaguely remember someone even mentioning it in the Developer Q&A ... It is probably unclear enough to be expanded upon, if that is what you were up to. Bailey 

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29.11.2021 From Doug “A loose list, as far as I know, of confirmed gods: Lochias, the Woof God Daylig Dayn, the Stoneshearing God Mo-Atona, the Godbeast Who Makes Balance By Being Oruwe, the Mourning God of Borders

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TamTroll 

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17.01.2022 Different question, Was there ever any idea on how tall full-grown Thuvayn was? He seems to be about twice the height of a human, so something like 9ft? 10ft? ish? NateAustin 

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17.01.2022 9-10 feet seems right. Yandric, yes. Hm, maybe 8-9? anyway.

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Khanofallorcs 

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23.01.2022 In Monarchs, you find out that there's at least two different ways to becoming a Deepist, the one that most people get (90% of the Deepist enemies you fight), where they transform and get deformed, and seemingly lose reason (although some can regain it) and a less traumatic version which allows them to be very persuasive speakers to get more members. The Monarchs themselves seem to have had a pretty easy transformation.

The theme they're going for is that it's a cult designed to be parasitic from the top down (but presumably didn't have to be)

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Khanofallorcs 

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24.01.2022 Actually, I did have a bigger question. Is the implication that the Deepists across all campaigns have an origin story more or less as described in Monarchs? Or is the more hazy timeline(s) supposed to make that just one story? Buecherweber 

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24.01.2022 I agree with Tam. Not even a spirit, but a god, she calls him Daylig Dayn (my spelling might be off here) and I think she even calls them his 'children' - hence the word Horn Children, I guess? But probably, all that is intended as hazy, yes. It's still The Yondering. TamTroll 

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24.01.2022 i mean the Morthagi Engchanger guy was apparently intentionally prevented from appearing in Enduring War because he conflicts with the Mortagi lore established in that campaign. Does that mean that Morthagi in non-enduring campaigns have different lore? or have they just not gotten around to retconning the Enchanger to fit better yet? 🤷‍♂️

For now i think it's the former, as to my knowledge the latter isn't planned. Tammabanana 

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24.01.2022 I don't think the Monarchs/Enduring campaign origin stories are necessarily in conflict with the other stories. There could be different factions within each... uh, Faction.

The Monarchs didn't invent the magic they're using, and the Enduring antagonist is unlikely to have programmed all the Morthagi in use across the world. Taart 

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24.01.2022 Thats my take. Since the Monarchs say they met a deepist woman, learned from her, then did all their jazz Tammabanana 

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24.01.2022 The Enchanger might not conflict with Morthagi lore across the Yondering; maybe it just would've thrown a red herring into the Enduring story. RisingDusk 

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24.01.2022 We already know there were multiple, different mortificers. Some were involved with the Enduring War, and some did other things entirely. The same is true of Deepists. We know there are multiple different monarchies.

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Khanofallorcs 

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24.01.2022 I forget, is there a clear gender/pronoun for Vulta? Bailey 

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24.01.2022 No, Vulta's gender is randomized per campaign Khanofallorcs 

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24.01.2022 are they always "Lord" Vulta, or does that get randomized as well? Bailey 

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24.01.2022 Lord Vulta = he/him, Queen Vulta = she/her

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IntellectMaster 

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27.01.2022 We’re not “supposed” to think anything. It’s only in the story campaigns that we are given a deep dive into lore stuff for a faction, and even then most of that is true only for that particular campaign. Now, each campaign does reveal some more general informatiom about its respective faction that seems to remain true for that faction across all games, like how Deepists are a heirarchal cult or how Thrixl are from another realm of existence (although those things were kind of obvious even before their campaigns were written), but other than that they are left ambiguous, malleable to the story that is currently being told and the events that may occur therein. Yes, the Morthagi are the way they are in the story camapigns for their respective reasons, and those reasons can give us insight into why they are possible enemies in other story campaigns and generic campaigns, but to assume that all enemies are hostile to the party for the exact same reasons in every campaign is not how this game was designed. Lots of stuff is left purposefully ambiguous so we can write our own stories, design our own campaigns to fill any percieved gaps if we so wish, and even then the lore established in those campaigns just might not apply to other stories that get told by other people. This loose lore is something I approve of, and I think arguing for others to only think of a faction in only one way is contrary to the intent of the game’s method of storytelling.

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