Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
0 A.D. Mythological Modpack
#1
So for my first request, I suppose, I'd love if you guys had some suggestions for possible myth units for a modification that I'm doing for the upcoming game 0 A.D.

The mod will consist of 30 myth units (5 per faction) and a possible assortment of god powers (if I can work them into the game engine somehow, which is geared towards historical warfare rather than mythological..regardless..).

I need help working out the outline for the units, which I kinda threw together this morning just to get the word out to the team that will be developing the mod. I figured this would be the best place to validate the information.

Quote:Carthaginians

--

Celts

Blodeuwedd
*Armament: Some sort of nature-related attack, possibly natural disaster type stuff.
*Appearance
-Body & Clothing: A woman made from (and for our sake, clothed in) flowers and leaves
*History: A Blodeuwedd is a woman made from the flowers of broom, meadowsweet and the oak by Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion to be the wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Her story is part of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, the tale of Math son of Mathonwy.

Gwydion
*Armament: Spells and such.
*Appearance
-Body: A magician. Hopefully I'll find more on this later.
*History: Gwydion is a magician appearing prominently in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi and the ancient poem Cad Goddeu. He is the brother of Gilfaethwy and Arianrhod, and the nephew of Math fab Mathonwy. In the Mabinogion he is called the son of the goddess Dôn, making it likely he is an euhemerized god or demi-god.

Giant
*Armament: Strength
-Upgrade: Clubs and mallets
*Appearance
-Body: An unusually over-sized human with tattoos and such covering his body.
-Clothing: A small loin cloth
-Upgrades: Tunic for advanced, light armor plates for elite
*History:

Helenes

Cyclops
*Armament: Large wooden club, strength
-Upgrade: Spiked club
*Appearance
-Body: Giant, one eye, small ears, horn varies
-Clothing: Loin cloth, uprgade to crossed belts and thick armbands
*History: A cyclops is a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single round eye in the middle of its forehead. Commonly, the term "Cyclops" refers to a particular son of Poseidon and Thoosa named Polyphemus who was a Cyclops. Another member of this group of Cyclopes was Telemus, a seer.

Cerberus
*Armament: Sharp teeth
*Appearance
-Body: Three-headed dog
-Upgrades: Add spiked collar and extra snake heads to the tail.
*History: Cerberus or Kerberos was the hound of Hades, a monstrous three-headed dog with a snake for a tail (sometimes said to have 50 or 100 heads) called a hellhound. Other hell hounds included Orthus, his two headed brother. Cerberus guarded the gate to Hades and ensured that spirits of the dead could enter, but none could exit (additionally, no living person was to come into Hades). Among his siblings are Chimera and the Hydra. He is the offspring of Echidna and Typhon.

Centaur
*Armament: Bow/Sword/Spear/Axe
*Appearance
-Body: Horse body with a human torso
-Clothing: None until advanced, then gains crossed belts and finally a sash and armbands
*History: Centaurs are a race of creatures composed of part human and part horse. In early Attic vase-paintings, they are depicted as the torso of a human joined at the (human's) waist to the horse's withers, where the horse's neck would be. This half-human and half-animal composition has led many writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, and as the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the Lapiths, or conversely as teachers, like Chiron.

Gorgons/Medusa
*Armament: Eyes that turn men to stone, sharp talons and tusks
*Appearance
-Body: Wings of gold, a human head with hair of snakes, brazen claws and the tusks of boars
*History: Gorgon was a vicious female monster with sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous snakes.Gorgons are sometimes depicted as having wings of gold, brazen claws, and the tusks of boars. According to the myths, seeing the face of a Gorgon turned the viewer to stone. Homer speaks of only one Gorgon (Medusa, the only mortal gorgon who could not fly), whose head is represented in the Iliad as fixed in the center of the aegis of Zeus.[/i]

Pegasus
*Armament:
*Appearance
-Body: A winged horse, but everyone knows what Pegasus is.
*History: Pegasus was a winged horse that was the son of Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and the Gorgon Medusa. Athena caught and tamed Pegasus, and presented him to the Muses at Mount Parnassus. After he became the horse of the Muses, he was at the service of the poets. Pegasus aided the hero Bellerophon (or in later versions Perseus) in his fight against both the Chimera and the Amazons.

Iberians

--

Persians

Manticore
*Armament: Ranged scorpion spines, thundering voice and lion head can attack.
*Appearance
-Body: Although legend says that the manticore possesses a human head, we will use a lion head because it doesn't look weird.
*History: The manticore is a legendary creature similar to the Egyptian Sphinx. It has the body of a red lion, a human head with three rows of sharp teeth, and a trumpet-like voice. Other aspects of the creature vary from story to story. It may be horned or not. The tail is either of a dragon or a scorpion, and it may shoot poisonous spines to either paralyze or kill its victims.

Roc
*Armament: Wings, talons.
*Appearance
-Body: A huge beautiful bird. But not too huge. You could compare the size of 0 A.D.'s ships to their full-size components for a good ratio.
*Notes: This unit will not transport units or carry that stupid tent around in its talons like it does in Age of Mythology. ES was just trying to create an interesting advantage for the Egyptians.
*History: A roc or rukh is an enormous mythical bird of prey in Persian Mythology (that's right, AoM stole from the Persians), often white, reputed to have been able to carry off and eat elephants.

Angha/Simorgh
*Armament:
*Appearance
-Body: A colorful flying peacock with the head of a dog and the claws of a lion.
*History: Simorgh also known as Angha is the modern Persian name for a fabulous, benevolent, mythical flying creature. The figure can be found in all periods of Greater Iranian art and literature, and is evident also in the iconography of medieval Armenia, Byzantium and other regions that were within the sphere of Iranian cultural influence.

Karkadann
*Armament:
*Appearance
-Body: The literal translation to English is rhinoceros, so I'm assuming that it's just a rhino, and we'll decorate it.
*History: The Karkadann was a mythical unicorn-like creature said to live on the grassy plains of India, Persia and North Africa. The karkadann was an extremely ferocious beast, driving away from its territory animals as big as the elephant. It is said it would fight an elephant and kill it. It would then hoist it above its head in triumph using its horn, before going blind as the elephant's fat flowed into its eyes as it melted in the sun.

Huma
*Armament: Healing abilities
*Appearance
-Body: A phoenix-like bird that joins both the male and female natures together in one body, each sharing a wing and a leg.
*History: The Huma, also known as the "bird of paradise," is a Persian mythological bird, similar to the Egyptian phoenix, which consumes itself in fire every few hundred years, only to rise anew from the ashes. It is considered to be a compassionate bird. The touch of the huma bird is said to bring great fortune. The huma joins both the male and female natures together in one body, each sharing a wing and a leg. It avoids killing for food, rather preferring to feed on carrion. The Persians teach that great blessings come to that person on whom the huma's shadow falls. It avoids killing for food, rather preferring to feed on carrion.

Romans

Harpy
*Armament: breathes fire and has lion/snake attacks.
*Appearance
-Body from Homer's brief description in the Iliad is the earliest literary reference: "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire"; from Hesiod's Theogony following the Homeric description: "a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Although some myths tell us that it was the serphant or either the third head which in some descriptions is a dragon would breath a most dreadful blaze of fire. Here did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay."
*History: Harpies were mainly winged death-spirits (Harrison 1903, p 176ff), best known for constantly stealing all food from Phineas. The literal meaning of the word seems to be "that which grabs" which means to grab.The Harpy could also bring life. A Harpy was the mother by the West Wind Zephyros of the horses of Achilles (Iliad xvi. 160). In this context Jane Harrison adduced the notion in Virgil's Georgics that mares became gravid by the wind alone, marvelous to say.

Chimera
*Armament:
*Appearance
-Body: The head of a lion, the tail of snakes and a goat in the middle.
*History: The Chimera is a monstrous creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, which was made of the parts of multiple animals. Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and sister of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra.

Griffin
*Armament:
*Appearance
-Body: Body of a lion, head and wings of an eagle
*History: The Griffon (alternate spellings include griffin and gryphon) is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. As the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of the birds, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature.[3] In antiquity it was a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.

Basilisk
*Armament:
*Appearance
-Body: body and head of a chicken, tail of a snake and the wings of a dragon or eagle (mixed sources).
*History: A basilisk is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power of causing death by a single glance. According to the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk is a small snake that is so venomous that it leaves a wide trail of deadly venom in its wake, and its gaze is likewise lethal. The rooster's crow is deadly to the Basilisk.

Minotaur
*Armament: An axe
*Appearance
-Body: A human with the head, legs and tail of a bull
-Clothing: A loin cloth or the lower half of a tunic, very minimal
-Upgrades: Greaves, armbands, waistbands, light armor similar to gladiators are all upgrading indicators that we'll decide on later.

The units in the Celtic category are pretty much completely off, and I'm looking for a way to correct that. As for the Greeks vs. Romans thing, I know that the Minotaur isn't a Roman beast, but I'm trying to fit it all into a mod without overworking ourselves. Suggestions are more than welcome, of course.

Paul, the lead historian fronting 0 A.D. (registered here as 'Paullus'), mentioned that I should look into Phoenician and Canaanite mythology for Carthaginian units. He also mentioned that there are a ton of Iberian experts here, so hopefully one of them will surface. Tongue
Bob Kimball [aka The Purple People Eater]
0 A.D. Texture Artist
Reply
#2
Any help? I'm not here to advertise this btw, I'm just here to get expert advice on what to include, what not to include etc.
Bob Kimball [aka The Purple People Eater]
0 A.D. Texture Artist
Reply
#3
Hi Bob,
I think the problem is that you're asking on a very history-focussed forum. People tend to steer as far away as possible from mythological stuff. It smells 'Hollywoody'. :wink:
I'd repost the question about The Roman Legion as a separate thread. That'll probably do better.
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
Reply
#4
You can't have Romans or Greeks without Mythology though. They pretty much did everything in favor of the gods, and almost every military account reeks of mythical beasts and supernatural happenings.

I'll post about the Legion in another thread though. Thanks for your help man. Smile
Bob Kimball [aka The Purple People Eater]
0 A.D. Texture Artist
Reply


Forum Jump: