I posted this quite a while ago but got no response, however I feel it is important information about the general story when everyone (well many people) is thinking about Myth 3 and how great it will be (btw it will be great, just saw the new screenshots...wow!). Anyway, I've also added some new information from Celtic Mythology that tie into this and other topics. The new stuff is - indented. Since I got no reply from the first one, I'm back with a vengeance and hope some of this will spark your imaginations into developing these ideas...PLEEASE?!
NOTE: Do not attempt to read this in one sitting unless you have immense stamina as it will require a little more than a skim-read to fully understand all my speculations.
I have found out some very interesting facts on the origins of the Trow names and their background form our own mythology.
For a start the name Rhi'anon comes I believe from the name Rhea - an ancient greek Titan (huge like Trow) who was also closely related to Ge - the mother of Titans and earth god who sprung out of Chaos - the same sort of thing that happenend with the Trow who came out of Wyrd's shattered one dream.
- There is a welsh goddess called Rhiannon (no apostroph') whose name derives from the word Rigantona meaning 'Great/Divine Queen. Only the name bears any resemblance to Myth.
Also Rhea is connected to the Asiatic goddess Cybele who was worshipped as a block of stone (much like damaged Trow.
Rhea was the wife of Cronus (or Kronos) who, because he was told one of his sons would kill him ate his children as soon as they were born- similar to the Trow wiping out any race as soon as they came into conflict with them.
He overthrew his father Uranus to summon in a Golden Age - like the Trow's Golden Age although they hadn't overthrown Nyx, their creator. He also had problems in his golden age from his children (like ther myrkridia for the Trow).
One child caused especial, Zeus who managed to defeat Cronus and imprison his Titans on Tartarus, a part of the underworld where you suffered for atrocities comitted on Earth in this case against his own relatives.
This is extremely similar to the Trow being imprisoned by Connacht (one of the humans, their younger brother race - not quite children I know but the rest is good) under Rhi'anon for their atrocities against their other brother races. Then Zeus later freed the Titans like alor freed the Trow.
- Connacht, incidentally is the name of an Irish Province.
Cronus is also associated with volcanoes. Now look at Tharsis which is called the forge of the Trow. Tharsis is also the name of a very high volcano on Mars and is the connecting link between East and West like it is in Mythworld. It takes its name from the ancient Spanish town 'Tartessus' or 'Tharsus' of Cilicia. Also in the bible it says:
"And Jonas rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord, and he went down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord"
This is similar to Soulblighter fleeing into the Eye of Tharsis to hide from the face of Alric.
- Other names I found were:
Fir B(h)olg: from the god 'Builg' who were the fourth group of invaders into Ireland who were subsequently defeated by the next lot the Tuatha Dé Danaan and were given the province of Connacht.
Balor: The king of the Fomorians, a group of pirates essentially. He was known as "The Baleful Eye" because a glance from his single enormous eye meant instant death to anyone watching. He also could not be killed with any weapon. He was killed by his grandson Lugh who fired a slingshot into his eye and drove it into the back of his head so his army behind him were massacred as well. He represents the negative forces of evil and the evil eye, the oppposite of his grandson the sun-god of the positive forces of light. This leads on to two points:
a) Did any hero or leveller have descendents in the opposite side or was it all reincarnation?
and b) Were the two sides' leaders related i.e. Alric was the reincarnated brother of the reincarnated leveller? Were they created at the same time by whoever set the cycle in motion?
These points are for a much more lengthy discussion in a separate post.
Plain of Mu(i)rtheimne (mur-THEV-nuh): Where the hero CúChulainn (koo-HULL-in) was raised and met his death during a battle there.
Cú Roi: 'The Hound of Roi', a sorceror and shape-shifter who could stop anyone from fiding the gate of his stronghold but himself presumably. Similar to the way in which Cu Roi can find the gate of the Tain.
This is complex but there is a lot of useful information in it:
Táin (Bó Cuailnge): The Cattle Raid of Cooley. Táin is pronounced 'toyne'. Irish Mythology is made up of four cycles: Mythological, Ulster, Fenian and Historicall. The Cattle Raid of Cooley is the principal story of the Ulster Cycle. It recounts the tale of Queen Medb (METH-iv) of Connacht's attack on CúChulainn and the men of Ulster where the Connachtmen are held off by CúChulainn alone. The Queen wanted the Brown Bull of Cooley in Ulster who is the seventh reincarnation of an extremely powerful sorceror (note the number) in the end the Brown Bull kills her White Bull who is also a seventh incarnation of an equally powerful sorceror. The Queen then returns to finish off CúChulainn and tricks him into throwing his spear at her warriors until they can pick it up and kill him with it. Every time he kills a soldier with it, nine others surrounding him die. Eventually they manage to kill him with the spear and cut off his head after he wraps his mantle around him binds himself to a standing stone so he can die standing up.
Basically, I think Bungie took this story and turned it into:
Alric (Medb) and the Light (the Connachtmen - men of Connacht, a light hero of the Wolf Age) attack Balor (CúChulainn), Balor easily holds them off. Then they return and trick him into giving them a chance to kill him. Then he is immobilised and wraps the mantle of the leveller around him before he dies and they chop off his head.
They then took the name of the tale, anglicised it and used it elsewhere in their story. The story of the bulls is similar to the Watcher and the Deceiver (two sorcerors of equal power) battling it out until one of them is dead. I thought the fact that nine more people were killed had some reference to the fact that Balor killed off the Nine (bar Alric of course).
Another name worth little consideration other than as a name: Crunniuc
I think that's extensive enough to grant at least a couple of responses. HEHE
Gholsbane
