Creation myths are the quickest way to give a culture or race history when building your RPG world. They are common across all human societies as they provide an answer to the obvious question of “where did we come from?” and there is no reason to think that fantasy races or alien species would not also ask the same question. A good creation myth does more than explain the origin of the people. They can shape the culture, giving people a shared set of values and sense of community.
Below are the six creation myths from the minds of the 6d6 RPG team of writers and artists, from this week’s RPG Brainstorming session.
Pat – Angels with Plasma Guns
It was the silent time, before Jupiter Ascending, before the world anew. In that time mankind was mighty, we fled the antique world of our forefathers and took to the heavens. In space we thought our greatest destiny awaited us, but it was not to be. Humankind was a latecomer in a universe that seemed determined to destroy us, everywhere we went were nightmares. The worst demons of imagined literature, the Kesh who hunted us for sport, the Galliant who used our colonies for target practice, the Pryx war machines and worse, the Nanophage. They hounded us at every turn, burned our bodies, tore our colonies apart but worse, they followed us home. At the battle of Jupiter Ascending the Nanophage ate the antique world, scattering humankind to the vast deserts of eternity. Lost half-mad and wandering we stuttered from world to world, derelict to derelict, seeking some respite and then we encountered His Grace. We entered His Grace and met his servants, the archangels, who rewarded our faith and devotion with the weapons and the might to build anew. We were filled with His Grace. We built the World Anew and in His Name and with His Grace… We will redeem this hellish cosmos.
Josh – From the jaws of Giants.
Though the stories from the daemon lords can’t be trusted, there is one story that falls through the lies like a blade. During the war of the gods, the king of darkness Baphomet was struck by the mace of the lord of light. Several teeth were struck from his mouth which landed in the primal earth. This sharpness allowed them to burrow deep into the earth into a location now known as the Umbradepths. The teeth slowly transformed into the first daemon lords. In turn they created the lesser demons from their own teeth who repeated the process. The umbradepths were filled with evil which has since ravaged the land and brought the world to its knees several times. It is said that the cultists of the daemon lords sacrifice their teeth in order to gain favour with daemons. Though they may be duped into believing such things. Daemons speak many things, the truth is not one of them.
Emily – The second world
Our time is not the first time, we not the first people and this is not the first world. In the first world the magic was great, but people were far too curious.. One day a wizard the greatest of his age pushed the limit of the world and it was destroyed. The world reformed, humans reformed, some humans and animals reformed together making centaurs and beast men, animals got blended making dragons and beasts. We are the second world all that remains of the first is ruin, all magic is lost.
Jaye – Pushed Up From Below
In the time of formation, the god Jimano found himself mocked and teased by the other gods. He could shape only matter whereas the other gods could shape energy. Hurt and wounded by their taunts, Jimano fled the greater court. Determined to find a hiding place, he built our world around himself. It is his body warmth that makes the underground warmer, it is his sweat that bubbles up the oceans, it is his breath that causes the winds, it is his movements that shape our landscape and it is his aura that fuels our magic. Jimano is not asleep. He is simply enjoying his solitude, as those prone to deep thought are.
Jimano’s world is geographically active. It is unknown if the shy god knows of the life that has emerged on the exterior of his home but that life is very aware of him. His every action changes drastically changes the face of the planet. As he moves, mountain ranges form in a matter of years. As he breathes, storms and seasons change direction. For a population struggling to get out of the middle ages, the constantly shifting world is a source of both wonder and terror. Sometimes great riches are push to the surface, other times entire island chains are drowned as the sea level rises metres in a week.
Mark – Cargo Cult
A tribe living in a rain forest with a smattering of rusted modern items who believe the items were dropped there by the sky people, who came in houses lifted by fire. Actually the people are the descendants of failed human colonists and natives.
Chris – The Mars Three
Extract from “Human History – An Introduction”, Chapter 9 – Mars & Beyond
Though the first manned landing was in 2031 it was not until 2064 that the first substantial effort was made to establish a permanent base on Mars. Unlike the lunar or Earth-orbital bases, travel times to Mars prevented the base being manned by a rotating crews and it would be a one-way trip for the settlers. Prior to first wave’s arrival a pathfinder crew would oversee the base’s construction using robots before returning home.
The pathfinder mission took longer than planned but when it was nearing completion as the first group of twenty settlers were launched from Earth. They would pass the returning three pathfinders about two-thirds of the way to Mars. However two days before the three pathfinders left Mars there was a serious malfunction and the bio-dome began venting atmosphere. If it was not solved the base would be seriously depleted of oxygen but the optimum launch window for the pathfinder’s return had already passed. Each day they spent on Mars meant a two day longer journey home and their supplies were already very limited.
The equation was simple to the pathfinders. Leave now to save their own lives without fixing the atmosphere leak would seriously endanger the settlers. But staying and fixing the leak would mean three extra people in the base and place a significant extra drain on the settlers resources. There was only one solution. After fixing the leak, the three astronauts turned off their radios and walked away from the base to die in the barren landscape of a planet they had come to love. The oxygen and food which should of been used for their return journey was left for the settlers and it ensured the base survived and prospered.
Mars has been occupied by humans ever since the first settlers arrived and though now home to a billion people, martians still remember the sacrifice of the three pathfinders. Three hands are on the Martian flag and phrases invoking “the three” are part of martian dialect.”