Always planned to mention this, but never got around to it.
Clark Ashton Smith was a fantasy painter, poet and prose writer, mainly active in the first half of the twentieth century. He was a friend and colleague of Lovecraft (together with Robert E. Howard they made up the Big Three in American weird fiction of the '20s and '30s), and they featured many of the same lands and creatures in their writing. Smith never got nearly as dark as Lovecraft sometimes did, though.
Anyway, it seems quite evident to me that Myth borrows a lot from Smith. Which shouldn't be surprising, given that we know Bungie's big on Lovecraft. Here are a few connections.
1) Ghols. Lovecraft and Smith more or less jointly created a creature called the "Ghoul," inspired by a type of Arabian demon. Ghouls are primitive, doglike humanoids who live in small packs and eat mainly (by choice, not necessity) the corpses of humans and other sentient beings, though they're not averse to hunting live prey if the opportunity presents itself.
Each author provided a slightly different set of details (not necessarily inconsistent, since their stories were set in different eras). Lovecraft's Ghouls were basically anarchists living in squabbling, chaotic groups, and had neither a supreme leader nor a god; but Smith's Ghouls served the dark god of death known as Mordiggian. It's easy to see how Myth's Ghols evolved from a combination of the two.
2) Necromancy. More than any other major fantasy writer, Smith focused on necromancy as the primary branch of wizardry. All his powerful wizards--even the not-so-evil ones--talk to the dead, raise the dead, and even turn themselves into zombies at times. Armies of undead are a common sight in Smith stories, as they most definitely aren't in, say, Tolkien.
3) Time. Smith, like Lovecraft, uses vast lengths of time to make common humanity seem small and insignificant. Continents rise and sink over the length of his stories. Kingdoms last for millions of years, then fall and are forgotten for billions more. Wizards outlive entire countries, then lie dead in their city-sized palaces for eons. Ancient races dwindle to a few incredibly aged survivors, looking on modern humanity with scorn or hatred or pity. This is certainly a theme in Myth, with its millennia-old sorcerers and ancient ruined cities and beings like the Trow, who have existed since time began.
4) The impersonality of the universe. This obviously ties into the last one. Humanity, basically, doesn't matter. We fight wars and build cities and write poetry for a few thousand or million years; then everyone dies and the cities turn to dust and the universe forgets about us. Of course, this is the basic feeling of Myth--the cycle grinds onward and a few hyper-powerful sorcerers duke it out each turn, then die; everyone else scrabbles around antlike until some great Avatara or Fallen Lord wipes them out. Not much room for heroes.
There are some other connections--such as Smith's giant spiders (predating those of Tolkien) and the Smith/Howard-created Serpent Men as an influence on the Skrael--but I haven't read enough of Smith to be sure of them.
--SiliconDream
