User:Green riding hood/Notes

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

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 as does the pilgrim who helps the hero who comes down with Igochorr Damoot five magic rings. 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 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 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).

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 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. 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? Mōmoke

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08.08.2021 Embarrassed that only now I am realising how much of Wildermyth is inspired by Wheel of Time. Oldwane's dagger specifically Nonin

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19.07.2021 For me there are two meaning of the word monster.

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.

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 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. (I actually make my mindflayers questionably sentient but also less clearly evil) (but thats just like, something I made up because I find it interesting) 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.

lord evergreen who isn't a god perfer but pretty darn powerful

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. 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... 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. 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. 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? 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! Muninn

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11.04.2021 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 😆 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. 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

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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 😁) 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" TamTroll

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

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11.01.2021 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. 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 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. 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. 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) douglas

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22.11.2020 Real... world...? Not Courith Cold

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13.08.2020 Lol. Bild Alright. Who invented that "Greatest Weapon of All Time"? IntellectMaster

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13.08.2020 Remember when you were asking about scythes and sickles in 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

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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.) 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. 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. 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.

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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19.07.2020 New lore tidbit from game-development: Thrixl like music and are daredevils.

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. TamTroll

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29.06.2020 the problem with Eldrich is that the moment it's touched upon, you know that world is fudged. "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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

IntellectMaster

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28.06.2020 IntellectMaster.exe has resumed working

Oh! So similar to pteranodons, the classic wyverns and drakes from western stories, and similar bipedal winged creatures that walk with their wings! OK.

TamTroll

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28.06.2020 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. Saikonaifu

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28.06.2020 I would assume that the soul is a tangible thing, being one of them IntellectMaster

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28.06.2020 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).

Catfish Waterdancer

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25.05.2020 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.

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.)

IntellectMaster

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04.05.2020 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).

TamTroll

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03.05.2020 yeah. True Gorgons i want to make as a full creature. IntellectMaster

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03.05.2020 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.

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.

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. 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 😅

Catfish Waterdancer

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22.03.2020 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! TamTroll

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22.03.2020 later disciple Catfish Waterdancer

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22.03.2020 Kweh! TamTroll

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22.03.2020 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? Catfish Waterdancer

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22.03.2020 Unless they are draconian, which suggests fire. Just a thought I've been bouncing around. I'm surprised there's no Air spirit, though.

TamTroll

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22.03.2020 but the Gorgons are still here. Can't have the gorgons up and leave when they're still around right? 😛 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

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22.03.2020 Drauven and dragons appear to have a very close relationship with birds in appearance, not just religion and culture. Wildermyth fish... but it's just parrot fish. Not even parrot fish, fish parrots TamTroll

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22.03.2020 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'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.

Disciple of the Thrixl

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22.03.2020 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. TamTroll

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22.03.2020 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? 😛 i mean, other then the bogmoor... we really only see infected mammels. maybe that one species of frog is just an exception Disciple of the Thrixl

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22.03.2020 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.

I'd like to see an uninfected bogmoor tbh. The frogs are huuuuge, man. Catfish Waterdancer

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22.03.2020 Devolution - avian becoming saurian? Makes sense.

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. 😉

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. 😉

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?

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

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?

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 Catfish Waterdancer

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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

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13.03.2020 ooh, thats a cool idea Catfish Waterdancer

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13.03.2020 The novella/fan fiction I'm writing lays some groundwork. Pieces of it are here in this section. 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

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

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

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.

Lightning

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13.03.2020 A valid point. But what else can a devout follower of Thrixli belief do than convert all others to the Grand Church of Thrixl 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.

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.

Lightning

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12.03.2020 Would it be a paradox to be created by yourself, become all-powerful, go back in time, and create yourself? Disciple of the Thrixl

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12.03.2020 Some questions are just best left unanswered. TamTroll

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12.03.2020 yup Lightning

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12.03.2020 You're just afraid of our divine Thrixl overlords Hiya2527

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13.03.2020 So wildermyth is a cyclical epic? Like Zelda sorta TamTroll

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13.03.2020 Maybe? Everything we talked about was primarily speculartion and silly theories Lightning

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13.03.2020 Silly? I think not. The Thrixl are our divine overlords. It has been written in the stars.

Lightning

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12.03.2020 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.

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.

https://wildermyth.com/wiki/index.php?title=Thrixl_lore Bild ^^^Little excerpt screenshotted above.

Disciple of the Thrixl

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12.03.2020 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.

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.

Lightning

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12.03.2020 their head shape sorta screams illithid TamTroll

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12.03.2020 either the ocean, the darkest depths of the eldrich beyond, or the living embodiment of the infection itself. one of those three. maybe something else 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 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. hard to say Disciple of the Thrixl

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12.03.2020 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. Lightning

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12.03.2020 I think that your gorgon eater is literally called gorgonEater in the files. Maybe called devourers in game? TamTroll

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12.03.2020 yeaa. only ever saw it once in someone else's game. it was blue and had a tube-mouth i think. that's all i got.

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. Deleted User

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12.03.2020 I'll look at getting a couple ideas sketched up around that. Could be fun building out the lore.

Catfish Waterdancer

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11.03.2020 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. 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.

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

Disciple of the Thrixl

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11.03.2020 There are names that mean a bird in other languages too, like Aquila and Alouette. 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

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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.

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!

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.

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.

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 😛

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!

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.

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>

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.

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

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 : )

TamTroll

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16.02.2020 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 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C5ryMTrT8bln79XjuwlLlCq3j2elbqFIvZKgw1hYF0c/edit?usp=sharing Google Docs 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 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.

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.

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.

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!

Catfish Waterdancer

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01.02.2020 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. Dateityp des Anhangs: acrobat The_Collective_Art_Versus_Science123.pdf 187.57 KB NateAustin

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01.02.2020 @Catfish Waterdancer thanks for posting, was a fun read! Catfish Waterdancer

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01.02.2020 Glad you enjoyed it! I'll work on the next 3 chapters, then. :hook~1: douglas

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01.02.2020 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 🤔

haha, truly, thanks for writing and for sharing!

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.

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.

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...

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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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.

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

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 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?

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.

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...

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.

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)

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« 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.

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Do not hesitate to share your thoughts about it. Magero

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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!

PocketLocket

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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

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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

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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 😋

NateAustin

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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!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C5ryMTrT8bln79XjuwlLlCq3j2elbqFIvZKgw1hYF0c/edit