Ok, i'm goign to try to clarify things a bit for the newer guys who don't seem to clear on whats up with the trow. I've gone through the legends and lore section pretty well, and whats following is what i've picked up so far that i find relevant. Keep in mind, most of these are theories, and therefore only represent one persons view on the myth universe, but you can find a lot of useful information within.
First, from the all powerful encyclopedia:
http://myth.bungie.org/legends/encyclopedia/who.html#trow
From the Mythology section:
Greek Mythology
Ghölsbane fleshes out a possible connections between the Trow, the great Trow city of Rhi'anon, and foundational Greek mythology.
I believe the name Rhi'anon comes from the name Rhea, a greek Titan. Gaea, mother earth, gave life to the Titans and other earth gods, who were borne out of Chaos. You might say this is the same sort of thing that happenend with the Trow, who emerged from Wyrd's shattered one dream.
Alternatively, there is a Welsh goddess called Rhiannon (no apostrophe) whose name derives from the word Rigantona meaning 'Great/Divine Queen. Only the name bears any resemblance to Myth.
Cronus, or Kronos, husband to Rhea, was told one of his sons would kill him, so he 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.
One of Cronus's children was special. Zeus managed to defeat his father Cronus and imprison his Titans on Tartarus, a part of the underworld where you suffered for atrocities committed on Earth against your own relatives. This is extremely similar to the Trow being imprisoned by Connacht under Rhi'anon for the atrocities they perpetrated against their other brother races. Later, Zeus freed the Titans like Balor freed the Trow.
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. Last, in the Old Testament 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.
Last, Ghölsbane writes:
With regard to Rhi'anon, Rhea is connected to the Asiatic goddess Cybele who was worshipped as a block of stone (much like damaged Trow).
From The Tolkein section:
A classic example of Bungie "borrowing" from Tolkien are those ancient dwellers of Forest Heart, the Forest Giants. The corresponding creatures in Middle-Earth are the Ents. The meaning of of the word "ent" is actually "giant" in Anglo-Saxon which seems suitable. Once again, the tags.gor file come into play, in which the Forest Giants are called "ents" and the mini volcano in the level "Forest Heart" is labelled "ent god". Their names seem rather similar too, with elements of the tree such as: leaves, bark, roots, wood, branches and green combined with suitable adjectives. Their social skills match too as they seldom leave their forests except when in times of crisis when all races are held in ransom. Their emnity towards their stone counterparts match as well with the Trow "poisoning the soul of iron" and the Trolls of Middle-Earth actually being corrupted forms of Ents, created in mockery of them by Melkor. Also worthy of note is their tendency to turn into trees when they die or grow too old just as the Forest Giants are transformed into statues of their once motive selves.
Also from Tolkein Section:
The gigantic ass kicking Trow of the North take their name from various tales of lore and their is a close translation of Troll. The Trolls of Middle-Earth are only specifically related to them as they share their hostility with their wooden equivalents. They also, like most trolls from folklore and mythology, turn to stone.
And from principia mythica:
Sovereigns of the Time Before
Back to the Callieach. Why would they create a portal back to the other realm? Well, first lets put some more facts out on the table. GURPS tells us the creation myth accepted by most of the races of Myth, parts of which are also told in the "Antero's Bestiary" section of Tales From Myth TFL. It tells that Wyrd awoke from the One Dream and created the world, but apparently had some sort of differences with the goddess Nyx over this and they had a titanic battle. The volcano Tharsis was created in this battle, and Nyx created on Wyrd's world the Trow. It also mentions that the Dark Gods (aka Old Gods) felt somehow betrayed by this creation, and shattered the One Dream in retaliation.
But the question arises, if there were Old Gods before Wyrd, Nyx, etc, and Wyrd created the world, then what were the Old Gods the gods of? It is said that the Ghols alone remember their names, but the Trow are much older than the Ghols, or any other race, both as a species and as individuals.
This last, greatest leap occurred to me when I read a passage in GURPS which reffers to the Callieach, the last and greatest enemies of the Trow, as "Sovereigns of the Time Before."
Time before what? Time before the world? Well what was there before the world? Now we get into a bit of semantics. Common Mythworlders believe in the "Edge of All", an imaginary line in the east beyond which nothing really exists. You can walk over there, see and touch and kill things, but it's not really real because it was not a part of Wyrd's vision. So to common Mythworlders, "the world" is just the map we see in the games, and nothing beyond it really exists.
So perhaps Wyrd created his "world" upon an existing planet, transforming one continent of it into whatever vision he saw in the One Dream, from whence he (and perhaps Nyx too?) came - yet another dimension, perhaps? But what lived there before?
I suggest that the races of the other realm - the spiders, the Fetch, and the Callieach - were the original inhabitants of this world. There is evidence of relation: on the Tain gate on "Smiths of Muirthemne" there is an image of a pregnant (and hence female) thing with horns, that looks somewhat insectoid. The Fetch are priestesses, and hence female, and they have horns, and they wear human skins so we don't really know what they look like - could these images be the true form of the Fetch?
As for the Dark Gods, we don't know what happened to them, they just seem to have vanished somehow, as they have no real effect on our world - perhaps Wyrd banished them and all their kind to the other realm for shattering the One Dream? If so, then the Spider-gods ARE the Dark gods...
Now the Callieach attacked the Trow as the last of a series of millenial waves of enemies, who would appear out of nowhere and eventually come into conflict with the Trow. If the Callieach were servants of the Old/Dark/Spider Gods - lets just call them Old Gods now - then it makes sense that these other waves would have been as well. Which means that the Old Gods must have something to do with the Leveller, and the millenial cycles - though what exactly the connection is, not even I know. So when the Callieach were all but defeated, they created the Devoid, leading back to their gods' realm, where they were safe and any Trow who came with them were doomed.
Ok, so thats everything i could find here. Now, to kind of give you my views on them.
They were the first living things created on Wyrd's world. Created by Nyx as a sort of power struggle thing-like, wyrds got a world, but i ownz it. The trow worshipped her fervently. The trow are immortal, but not invincible. They do not eat, they do not sleep, they do not breathe. They are living stone fueled by seemingly undying magic.
The Dark Gods sent a number of creatures against the trow to try to gain control of a small corner of the world (which, by the way, they were furiously jealous of wyrd for). The trow stamped out to extinction each race, one by one, without much of a problem. Then the Callieach arrived (excuse my spelling!). I'm going to go with whoever wrote the theory about the spiders, fetch and callieach from being from the same dimension. Anyways, the Callieach were the most powerful magic users ever to walk the planet. They lived peacefully with the trow for a long time, until ambition began to overrule their commom sense, and they rebelled like all the other races. Furious battles ensued, in which the trow finally saw the deaths of many of their number. I'd be willing to bet that the population of the trow race after this conflict was, at the most, a third of what it used to be. They managed to wipe out the callieach, as we know, and the callieach gathered together for one last stand, and detonated themselves, killing a whole bunch of trow and creating the Great Devoid. It also lead waste to most of the trow's dominion.
A note: trows can NOT reproduce. This is why they are now so unwilling to take part in conflicts. They followed Balor because they owed him for releasing them from their vaults beneath Rhi'anon. Recall their refusal to fight for Soulblighter, and how they fought only a limited war for the light. They refused to put their survival at risk. If you are wondering why they wear clothes-perhaps it was more a ceremonial thing than anything else. I dont think there were male and female trow, just one sex of them. recall their belt of skulls-probably used to show off their station and fighting power. Think of their clothes as decoration instead of a covering of something.
After the destruction of the Callieach, the dark gods had little left to send against Nyx and Wyrd, so they were kind of thrust out of the three way power struggle for the time being. Wyrd began creating the younger races. By this time the trow were aware that their numbers were diminishing, and decided to avoid any unnecessary conflict. They lived side by side with another race, the Oghres, for many years. Then they realized that, hey, these guys are smaller than us, why do all of this work ourselves? and enslaved the oghres. The oghres rebelled, the trow discovered the use of iron as a weapon, and annihilated the oghre race. The trow realized what they had done, they had slaughtered old friends, and repented, putting aside iron as a weapon forevermore. Mr Connacht then showed up and threw em in the vaulghts, and they disappeared until their release by Balor.
Eh...I think thats enough :) That should give you new guys a little background to the trow. If you have any questions, post em up.
