Mythological Things

[wilderbean]

I've been going through all my old stories, and all the cool beasties that I thought were teh secks (at the time) are really outdated.
I mean, everyone's got phoenixes and griffins and dragons nowadays. Posers.

So I've been looking for new myth creatures to exploit, and looking it up on the interweb has been useless.

You guys got any?

[The Star Fox]

Kitsune, Angels, and Demons are over done. You could always talk about golden sheep, hydras, Mer people, Golems, Golden cows, large serpents, Faeries in general, Celtic and or other Gods, and the loche ness monster... I can think of tons of things, but I don't feel like typing it all...^^

[Joe Shmoe]

I bring you an awesome link - webhome.idirect.com/~donlong/monsters/monsters.htm/ .
I love this, it's still a work in progrees, though.

[child-of-fae]

CTHULHU!

Merpeople! I've been dying to see something of the sort that has a significant role in any story.

And my personal favorite, BROWNIES! I fell in love with Frenchi and Rune in the movie with Mad Martigan and Willow *forgets name of the movie*. I was very young when I first saw it, but I watched a recorded version of it a few months ago at my aunt's house. I'll try and find the name....They were so funny.

[redsky]

Ok, you've already got griffins, try going further on the whole mix'n'match thing. Hippogriff, Sphinx, Manticore, Cockatrice, Hippocampus... Or invent your own.

Hyena-chimps will inherit the earth!

[wilderbean]

No man, the cockroaches will.

Scream: The movie was actually named 'Willow', after the weird little dwarfy thing that was main character

Ooh! *faved* except he hasn't got the Aspidochelone, meaning 'Asp turtle' or 'Shield turtle'. It's shell is so craggy and rough, and it's so huge, that when it rests on the surface of the sea people have mistaken it for an island.
These innocents make camp on the Aspidochelone's hide, and when it sinks down below the waves it takes the people with it.

Duh duh DUH!!

I have a site home.comcast.net/~chris.s/myth.html
It's got all the old folktales from all over the world. Seriously, everywhere. There were places I hadn't even heard of until I saw them on there. The site's a bit rough, but the information is there.

[redsky]

Cockroaches! What can they do apart from withstanding radioactivity?

Anyway, how do you plan to exploit these myth creatures? What purpose will they serve in these stories?

[Joe Shmoe]

Yeah, it was awork in progress, he hasn't updated for more than a year now, though.

[wilderbean]

Oh yeah?!? Cockroaches mutate into maneating swarms after we blow ourselves up with nuclear weapons!!
What can your friggin hyena-chimps do(besides creep people out)!?!

redsky said:

Anyway, how do you plan to exploit these myth creatures? What purpose will they serve in these stories?

Well...it's just that you have stuff like Lord of the Rings, that used up all the true coolness of things like dwarves or elves ect.
The next person to come up with an awesome beast will be proclaimed King...King I tell you, KING!!.

Up yours J.R. Tolkein!!

[redsky]

wilderbean said:

Oh yeah?!? Cockroaches mutate into maneating swarms after we blow ourselves up with nuclear weapons!!
What can your friggin hyena-chimps do(besides creep people out)!?!

If the cockroach swarms are maneating, and we've all blown ourselves up with nuclear weapons, they'll starve.

Anyway, hyena-chimps are a lot less creepy than cockroaches.

Meanwhile, of course, the penguins will evolve at super speed, take over the world and finally blow themselves up with nuclear weapons. If they don't all fall down first.*

^{*If a penguin falls on it's back, it can't get up. Ever. This is compounded by the fact that, if a plane flies over a penguin's head, it will turn to look at it, then keep leaning back until it falls over.}

[wilderbean]

Oh come on!! Nuclear-world-destruction 101 states that their will always be a few miraculous survivors, and they will have to brave the terrors of our war-torn planet, probably so they can repopulate the world or some such.

Jees, what do the teach in schools these days?!

Poor, poor penguins.

[redsky]

Miraculous Suvivors? And just how many of those do you think it's gonna take to feed every cockroach on the planet?

Meanwhile the Hyena-Chimps get on fine on a diet of scavenged vegetables. They're a bit radioactive, but how do ya think Hyena-Chimps were first created?

wilderbean said:

Jees, what do the teach in schools these days?!

Well, today, we had a very informative discussion on boxes...

[Clover]

Also... I dunno if you're looking for animals, and beasties to that extent, or if you're just looking at myths in general, but there's always spooky things.
For example, North America has legends of the Wendigo and the Skin Walkers...and I know for a fact that where I'm from [The Dominican Republic], there's oodles of legends.
Like, say, La Chupacabra, or La Cijuapa.

So... I dunno if you're aiming for those, but I could likely find some information for those. The Chupacabra falls more into the 'beastie' category.

[wilderbean]

Ooh please do!
I love old stories and the local ghosties etc (doesn't everyone?). Dying to know what the Skin Walkers do...

La Chupacabra sounds nice when you say it. Like 'Adachigahara', a Japanese dragon woman who eats children*shudder*.


P.S. to redsky...yeah, you've got me there. Stupid cockroaches*grumble*.
I hereby renounce cockroach supremity, and replace it with...erm...something.

[Clover]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker_%28mythology%29 <---here's the Wikipedia article on Skin Walkers. They're Navajo, and seem to be the closest affiliated with the 'werewolves' of European myth---but they also seem to have some parallels to witches [of the icky variety, not Wicca], and so, they're a bit of a cross over legend.

Okay. I know two legends that are all over the place in the Dominican Republic. I'll repeat them here, though hopefully the post won't get too long. I'd feel bad for hogging space.

La Ciguapa is a myth exclusive to the Dominican Republic. Long ago, when the Island was first 'discovered' by the Spaniards, the Taino population was large and prosperous. The Spaniards, seeing their successes in Mexico and the other Caribbean islands, wanted the silver that was found in the Sierra Occidental.
The Spaniards were ruthless in their pursuit of the silver, and massacred entire villages on the off-chance of profit.

One Taino chief decided to try and barter-- he gave the leader of the Spanish platoon in his area his youngest daughter---and all the silver that his village possessed, thinking to placate this man with women and riches.
But the Spaniard was greedy, and thought there would be more silver and emeralds and precious metals. He tortured the girl, twisted her feet backwards in his cruelty--and made her watch as her village was slaughtered.

There was no more silver to be found, and the girl died. Some say of grief, some say out of the Spaniard's rage in being thwarted.
But the Ciguapa came back. Naked and covered only by her long black hair, she came to the spanish settlement. By night, she would lure away the men on patrol, further and further from the camp--until they were lost in the woods.
And then, she would kill them, slowly and painfully, in revenge.
To this day, the mountains, on cold and dead nights, still ring with the Ciguapa's laughter, and the shrieks of the men.

But her revenge does not stop there.
Families with high percentages of Spanish blood in them, descended from the original platoon, are said to be attended with special care by the Ciguapa, ensuring that even the most distant descendants of the bloodline are haunted by the deeds of their forebearers.
There are quite a few 'sangre pura' families that have their stories of La Ciguapa, even today.

And here is the information on 'La Chupacabra'.
Creepy thing, that. There have been a few reported Chupacabra sightings in the east of the Dominican Republic, namely Samana and El Portillo--which is strange, since geographically, those areas are close to Puerto Rico.
It's spooky!