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| Thread: Mythology of Might and Magic |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 · NEXT» |
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Mitzah
Promising
Supreme Hero
of the Horadrim
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posted August 17, 2004 10:18 PM |
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Mythology of Might and Magic
I, like all of you, have noticed from the first hour playing HoMM that 20% of the creatures are taken from the mythology as well as life from past centuries:the Hydra(altough it would be cooler to multiply it's heads during battle), the minotaur, the harpy, the medusa(most of them belong to the Dungeon). But where do the other ones come from? And I mean the troglodytes, beholders, gnolls...
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Draco
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted August 17, 2004 10:42 PM |
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they all come from books and whatnot, ever notice the wyvern is almost the same as the wyvern looking thing in LOTR??
gnolls and that were all created as far as i can tell back in the D&D ages, companies that made games needed races and whatnot and the general populous contributed
my cousin for instance was paid 100$ for a race he and his friend created (i dont remember what they were called now) but they were never used, this tells me that they must get sent speciese ect.. and they use what they like.
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mitzah
Promising
Supreme Hero
of the Horadrim
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posted August 17, 2004 10:50 PM |
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I also noticed another creature taken from LotR...the Dendroid(or Ent, the same thing)...
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Svarog
Honorable
Supreme Hero
statue-loving necrophiliac
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posted August 18, 2004 03:35 AM |
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Quote:
I, like all of you, have noticed from the first hour playing HoMM that 20% of the creatures are taken from the mythology
huh, unlike us all, you didnt notice that nearly 100% of the creatures are taken from mythology. 
btw, excellent thread. I'm into mythology very much, and I can answer any questions you might have about the creatures origin. Anything in particular?
- Troglodytes are a race of cave men. The word itself refering to men who live in caves. As you can see they evolved significantly from men, so they now have long skinny arms, humpbacks, no eyes and man-eating apetite. Yummy! One of the rare non-mythological creatures.
- Gnolls are hyena-men. I think they are from the RPG genre, not mythology.
-Beholders also RPG genre. I remember one of the first PC beholders. Have you played Doom? LOL. Really there was a one-eyed brain walking around there too.
Beholder (for non-native english speakers) comes from "behold" (wow, that was hard), meaning "to observe" so basically the name concentrates on the eye.
Damn, you picked just those that are not from mythology. Hit me again. 
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The meek shall inherit the earth, but NOT its mineral rights.
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Ste
Promising
Famous Hero
Passed away
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posted August 18, 2004 08:47 AM |
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there is one great thread at the heroes round table explaining everything about creature origins(there is even info about the arcane which imo is the more interesting part). i will try to find it and will post the link here
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Ste
Promising
Famous Hero
Passed away
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posted August 18, 2004 09:55 AM |
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ok i've found it. it really has it all
http://www.forumplanet.com/StrategyPlanet/homm/topic.asp?fid=3802&tid=683793&p=1
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TitaniumAlloy
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Professional
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posted August 18, 2004 04:32 PM |
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Quote:
-Beholders also RPG genre. I remember one of the first PC beholders. Have you played Doom? LOL. Really there was a one-eyed brain walking around there too.
Beholder (for non-native english speakers) comes from "behold" (wow, that was hard), meaning "to observe" so basically the name concentrates on the eye.
correct. i believe beholders are from the D&D game "Eye of the Beholder" (pretty nice game actually, really funny 'YOU CANNOT GO THAT WAY' type game)
old game, maybe not as old as Might and Magic which has been around since the stone age, but ok.
Heroes of Might, Magic and Mythology is a quite appropriate name, though. rather cheesy. i say this because most of it is from mythology, even after Svarog just proved himself wrong.
but please tell me how Archers are myth units? im sorry, but almost all of the castle is NOT mythologic. Monks are just extreme Christians who follow a strict set of rules and live in groups in solitude. Saying monks are magical or mighty or mythologic is like saying the same for Nuns (remember Sound of Music), who are the female counterpart.And, well Angels are just the extreme of the extreme as far as Christianity goes.
SO even in castle, there is remnants of myths. or ledgends, i should say.
please tell me, again, how Dragonflies are mythologic.
these ones, like the monk, are normal parts of life adapted into something much cooler.
correct me if im wrong, but behemoths are something made up by NWC? they are in MM8 too, but called something else. like Dark Monsters or something less cool than they really are. and, they are miniature. same sprite as the H3 Ancient counterpart.
great thread!
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John says to live above hell.
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Lord_Woock
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Daddy Cool with a $90 smile
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posted August 18, 2004 04:36 PM |
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Actually, behemoths were mentioned at some point in the Bible. They didn't look like the HoMM behemoths, but still...
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Yolk and God bless.
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My buddy's doing a webcomic and would certainly appreciate it if you checked it out!
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Frick
Known Hero
and eternal n00b.
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posted August 18, 2004 05:32 PM |
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Behemots: From the Bible. God spoke to Job about behemots, but nowadays most people think the behemot in the Bible was actually a ... hippo-whatever they're called in English. You know, the huge, heavy, black-grey-blue things in Africa. 
Troglodytes: This can also come from the legend about the world within the Earth. There was a legend (a couple of hundreds years ago it was science though) about a ûber-race that lived inside the earth. Sometimes these "better" creatures was called troglodytes. There was also a Russian woman (she also had "physical gifts") that claimed she had troglydytes in her basement.
Then we have the huge mistake about Medusas and Gorgons... Medusa was someting of a queen among the gorgons. Gorgons in the game probably come from ... the place where they worshiped bulls. I don't remember it's name.
But the most fascinating creatures to read legends ant myths about are Basilisks and Manticores. The manticore come from India (I think), and was some sort of lion with a scorpion tail and a human face. The basilisk... I don't remember. But it was interesting.
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kwahraps
Adventuring Hero
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posted August 18, 2004 07:49 PM |
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>>>You know, the huge, heavy, black-grey-blue things in Africa.
Elephant???
I always likened the behemoths to Wooly Mammoths, or even the Oliphant/Mumakil from LOTR.
As for basilisks/medusae, I still remember the AD&D games where you could equip mirrors on your shield hand to become impervious to the petrifying gaze.
The great thing about mythologies are the similarities that are found between cultures halfway across the world. Collective unconscious, indeed.
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Lord_Woock
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Daddy Cool with a $90 smile
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posted August 18, 2004 08:05 PM |
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No, not elephant. He meant hippo
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Yolk and God bless.
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My buddy's doing a webcomic and would certainly appreciate it if you checked it out!
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kwahraps
Adventuring Hero
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posted August 18, 2004 08:29 PM |
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Comparing a behemoth to a hippopotamus????
That's like asking what do you do to an elephant with three balls????
Walk him and pitch to the rhino.
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kwahraps
Adventuring Hero
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posted August 18, 2004 08:33 PM |
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>>please tell me, again, how Dragonflies are mythologic.
these ones, like the monk, are normal parts of life adapted into something much cooler.
Actually, there are dragonfly mythologies in both American Indian and Japanese cultures. I'm almost certain they are found elsewhere.
Now, why do they dispel beneficial effects and cause weakness when upgraded . . . that's another story.
Amazing when you think about what one dragonfly can do in a battle. Dispel all beneficial effects, cause weakness, and soak up retaliation.
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sirzapdos
Promising
Famous Hero
Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
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posted August 18, 2004 08:40 PM |
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Quote:
Amazing when you think about what one dragonfly can do in a battle. Dispel all beneficial effects, cause weakness, and soak up retaliation.
Yeah, and that's all on the first turn. Speedy little things.
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So I try to live a complicated world...
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Ste
Promising
Famous Hero
Passed away
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posted August 18, 2004 08:49 PM |
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Quote:
Comparing a behemoth to a hippopotamus????
afaik behemoth in russian means exactly "hippopotamus". and in the bible the behemoth is herbivorous creature so in may be a hippopotamus
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ratmonky
Famous Hero
Abu Hur Ibn Rashka
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posted August 18, 2004 09:56 PM |
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and, btw hyppopotamus means in Greek (or Latin, don't remember exactly) a river horse!!!
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Ste
Promising
Famous Hero
Passed away
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posted August 19, 2004 01:18 AM |
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Quote:
and, btw hyppopotamus means in Greek (or Latin, don't remember exactly) a river horse!!!
well they spend almosta all their time in the water so this is close.
p.s. have you looked the url i gave earlier?
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The ultimate WoG tester
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sirzapdos
Promising
Famous Hero
Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
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posted August 19, 2004 01:24 AM |
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I looked at it. Very cool.
I've seen the Nightmare idea of a flying dark horse before. There's a trading card game called Magic: The Gathering, and there is a card called Nightmare, which is exactly like the Chaos unit of the same name.
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So I try to live a complicated world...
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Ste
Promising
Famous Hero
Passed away
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posted August 19, 2004 02:16 AM |
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Edited By: Ste on 18 Aug 2004
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There's a trading card game called Magic: The Gathering, and there is a card called Nightmare, which is exactly like the Chaos unit of the same name.
do you know any computer based game based on Magic: the gathering? i played it once in the train while travelling home from one olympiad in informathics with 3 other ppl and this is the BEST game i ever played. but regretfully i couldn't find anyone with desire to play it(and i have no cards either ) so i was looking for a game and found one at the underdogs but i made a mistake and now i am enemy of teh site  and i can't dl
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The ultimate WoG tester
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Svarog
Honorable
Supreme Hero
statue-loving necrophiliac
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posted August 19, 2004 02:26 AM |
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Castle is not mythology, but seeing that humans indeed took part on all mythology, then you cant have heroes without humans.
Quote:
Then we have the huge mistake about Medusas and Gorgons... Medusa was someting of a queen among the gorgons. Gorgons in the game probably come from ... the place where they worshiped bulls. I don't remember it's name.
Homm gorgons came from god knows where. There were originally three gorgons in Greek mythology. Medusa (the name of the gorgon) was one of them, the mortal one. So not basically a queen, but the loser among the three sisters.
They were ugly, with bronze wings, and stone gaze.
A nice fact is that Medusa was the mother of Pegasus. Have that in mind next time you force those Medusas into infanticide.
Quote:
But the most fascinating creatures to read legends ant myths about are Basilisks and Manticores. The manticore come from India (I think), and was some sort of lion with a scorpion tail and a human face. The basilisk... I don't remember. But it was interesting.
Manticore was actually Persian. It roamed the deserts of Persia eating travelers. He had wings, body of a lion and spikes on the tail (and from there often, its said a scorpion tail).
Basilisks were huge lizards with multiple pairs of legs believed to kill with their lethal look and breath. They were a common symbol in European heraldry and folklore.
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The meek shall inherit the earth, but NOT its mineral rights.
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