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Non-European Fantasy

TheDivineDemon

TheDivineDemon

If you had to write a Fantasy story and were forbidden from using any European based myths (fire breathing dragons, snooty elves, man eating trolls, etc. Basically anything Tolkien) to help your world building what myths would you use?

For me I like the ideas of:
1. The Four God Beast from Chinese (and most of Eastern Asian myths) who protect humanity from their cardinal direction. I'd play them as each having a physical obstacle that stops invaders from coming to the homeland. To the east, a thick forest guarded by an azure Chinese dragon. To the South, a volcanic plane where a vermillion bird flies. To the West, a mountain quarry plagued by storms where a white tiger lays. To the North a black tortouse swims through a raging sea.

But due to humanities folly, the strength of the forest or the mountain has weakened thanks to towns and cities needing material. Allowing for horror to slip past humanities guardians. Plot point!

2. Thunderbirds are cool as hell.

3. Hyenas are kind the black cat of Africa in the sense that they are a witch's familiar. Would be interesting to see a magic user with one instead of a cat. There's also were-Hyena, could combine the myths...
 
I mean, you have man-eating trolls in any culture, not just European. Plenty of Asian, African and American cultures have the "big ugly X that eats humans so don't go near Y because it is unsafe" sort of myth/legend/cautionary tale.

I've always been a fan of the wendigo as a transformative curse that warns against cannibalising human flesh.
 
I like animal totem systems, so I'd start with one of those. No human gods at all, but totem animals can be characters in folktales. They could have totemic phratries (is there a gender-neutral term for that??) Plus some kind of reincarnation belief which isn't Hindu or Buddhist. Then, monsters could be animals which have a particularly high concentration of magic that mutates them.
 
I've always liked the idea of Tripura, three mobile cities of iron, silver and gold. That seems like a solid fantasy idea that hasn't really been capitalised on. Mobile cities in general need to show up in fantasy more often.
 
Hmmm.

Well, I won't talk too much since I'm building a fantasy setting myself, but something I like to do is to take certain mythos and displace them. I've also begun reading up on Australian Aboriginal mythology, and it has frankly outrageous power levels.

"The husband pursued his two wives; his arrows became Islands and his canoe turned into the Milky Way Galaxy."
 
StellarMonarch said:
Hmmm.

Well, I won't talk too much since I'm building a fantasy setting myself, but something I like to do is to take certain mythos and displace them. I've also begun reading up on Australian Aboriginal mythology, and it has frankly outrageous power levels.

"The husband pursued his two wives; his arrows became Islands and his canoe turned into the Milky Way Galaxy."
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Yeah, they've got rather wild mythology. Finding anything more than perfunctory discussion of the various legends is hard though, most of it is locked up in non-digitised sources, or is just super obscure because while each tribe had certain shared mythology aspects, a lot of it was very tribal-regional and lost or marginialised with the unification of tribes, standardisation of certain tribal languages as common, and of course the British cultural and tribal genocide that occurred. Makes researching it quite difficult at times.
 
Remember there was a thread on /tg/ where they talked about Ideas for Central Asian Fantasy (i.e. most countries ending in '-stan').

Speaking of rabbits, and my own namesake, the Lunar Rabbit has also appeared not just in Chinese and Japanese mythology, but also in Aztec and Cree (Native American) mythology too, its Aztec myth having it get to meet with Quetzalcoatl. Of course any Aztec/Mayan Fantasy could also mix genres with Sports Story too, what with the infamy of the pok-ta-pok ballgame (as feature in the myth of the Maya Hero Twins).

My Magical Star Raventale story (which I've been meaning to get back to for the longest time, but anyway), though set long after colonisation, has characters (loosely) themed on Raven and Coyote from Native American myth.
 
Lapin Lune said:
Remember there was a thread on /tg/ where they talked about Ideas for Central Asian Fantasy (i.e. most countries ending in '-stan').

Speaking of rabbits, and my own namesake, the Lunar Rabbit has also appeared not just in Chinese and Japanese mythology, but also in Aztec and Cree (Native American) mythology too, its Aztec myth having it get to meet with Quetzalcoatl. Of course any Aztec/Mayan Fantasy could also mix genres with Sports Story too, what with the infamy of the pok-ta-pok ballgame (as feature in the myth of the Maya Hero Twins).

My Magical Star Raventale story (which I've been meaning to get back to for the longest time, but anyway), though set long after colonisation, has characters (loosely) themed on Raven and Coyote from Native American myth.
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That was a ridiculously good thread, learned so much from that guy. I mean I was already interested in Central Asia because of the whole Tengri myth and how the Sky Father supposedly chose Temujin as his champion, but boy it was interesting to learn more of the practical aspects of the region.

I would wholeheartedly support things set in a Central Asia-esque fantasy land. Persian, Iranian, Zoroastrian, all that stuff is fascinating. Like how many people are familiar with the region's equivalent of Herakles, Rostam? There's all sorts of Good ThingsTM ​
 
^Er, while Central Asia's boundaries are blurry, Persia/Iran is usually not considered part of it. Nor is Mongolia (sometimes it's classified, but not usually), though it goes without saying that both countries have had a huge influence on the region.
 
Lapin Lune said:
^Er, while Central Asia's boundaries are blurry, Persia/Iran is usually not considered part of it. Nor is Mongolia (sometimes it's classified, but not usually), though it goes without saying that both countries have had a huge influence on the region.
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Well, I consider it Central Asia because I focus more on the era of history when Iranian influence was rife through Central Asian, as were the Mongols because they were invading everything. I don't refer much to the current geopolitical boundaries of Central Asia when considering fantasy because all the really fun fantastical stuff was happening between 500 and 1600 CE and there were plenty of cultural influences from other empires during that time that crossed into the region. If I want to use a fantasy version of CA where the Turkic influences and the Iranian influences and the Mongol influences all manage to harmonise, instead of the Turkic peoples basically overwhelming the Iranian folk when they moved in, I feel like it's not super major as an issue. Also, it fits the UNESCO definition of CA just fine, which does actually include parts of Iran and all of Mongolia.
 
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^Ah sorry about that, guess I was mostly stuck on the whole '-stan' ending.

Though moving just southeast to India, Sikhs are another people who seem like prime fantasy material, being likely the most traditionally 'knightly' people outside Europe and Japan (possibly even moreso than Europe or Japan). /Tg/ even once called the faith 'like a religion where every single adherent is a Paladin' (though Sikhs would probably use the term 'saint-soldiers').

Couple of Sikh links: Badass of the Week Entries for Baba Deep Singh, Mai Bhago and The 21 Sikhs (roughly the Sikh equivalent of the Alamo), along with Extra History's own take on the 21 Sikhs.
 
The Japanese mythos are filled with a quite ridiculous amount of various interesting beasties, as well as the concept of animism, so I'd imagine that a fantasy setting set in the world where Youkai and Kami exist would be quite interesting.
 
So I've always liked the idea of involving Hindu mythology (I am Hindu) in worldbuilding. Unfortunately, a lot of the magic in them is either

1) Not well elucidated.
2) Boring for the reader.

The works themselves are very interesting, but they never go into detail about how exactly combat works or how magic intersects with it. The gist is that both sides (hero and villain) fight with magically enhanced bows/arrows from atop chariots. I imagine it's a bit like Powder Mage - including that most magical capabilities are restricted to the nobility.

Aside from that, ritual, sacrifice, and prophecy play a very large role, as do deities themselves. In terms of otherworldly creatures (rakshasas), they are almost always monstrous in appearance (though they are shapeshifters), and they usually bear ill-will towards good people.

If I were to write a story with Indian motifs, it would certainly involve gunpowder and related things. Remember that in India, medieval politics coexisted with ever-advancing muskets and cannon. The idea of Fantasy Gun Control wouldn't make much sense.
 
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West Africa is a goldmine of various differing myths, monsters and plots to be used for fantasy settings.
 
Soverihn said:
West Africa is a goldmine of various differing myths, monsters and plots to be used for fantasy settings.
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Such as?

And if we're going for scary we should look into Filipino Monsters because seriously, damn.

Like the Aswang is the twisted cousin of vampires and werewolves. They are winged creatures who shapeshift to get close to a pregnant woman to eat the nummy snack they are carrying. Townsfolk used to patrol villages and towns when a woman finds herself with child to scare away random animals to prevent these things from attacking.
 
DestinyPlayer said:
The Japanese mythos are filled with a quite ridiculous amount of various interesting beasties, as well as the concept of animism, so I'd imagine that a fantasy setting set in the world where Youkai and Kami exist would be quite interesting.
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I'm kind of surprised that you don't see more fantasy based on Japanese mythology.
 
Thoughts on Persian mythology? I don't know much about Persian mythology, but given how it is the origin for Abrahamic Good Vs Evil tropes, it may seem familiar for Western readers. But I'd say one particular aspect that can be drawn on in the Arab Conquest of Persia, and the mythology that springs from that one historical event: namely, that of the Sayoshant, which becomes well developed as the century long war goes on. It could also be combined with Persian-Shia views on Martyrdom.
 
Isn't the Saoshyant basically Zoroastrianism's 'future messiah' figure, like the Second Coming of Jesus or the Maitreya Buddha?

There's also two other settings I've been interested in, Ethiopia's Civil War period the Zemene Mesafint/Era of Princes, and the glory days of the Argentinian cowboys the Gauchos, most famously in Martin Fierro. Both are what you'd call more historical than mythical, but both have been mythologised enough by their respective countries to count.

The Zemene Mesafint in particular reminds me of Japan's Warring States/Sengoku era, being both a major Civil War with the Imperial family lacking the power to do much as rival warlords fought for land, while also having a religious element in both of them.
With how over-exaggerated and even fantasised the Sengoku era is (even by the era's own propaganda), with Devil Kings, One-Eyed Dragons, Ogres of War, Warriors beyond Death, and Crimson War Demons that only come each Hundred Years, imagine what an Ethiopian version with Solomonic lineage thrown in could be portrayed as.
 
Lapin Lune said:
Isn't the Saoshyant basically Zoroastrianism's 'future messiah' figure, like the Second Coming of Jesus or the Maitreya Buddha?
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Uhuh. Three of them in fact, each coming of the Sayoshant seperated by a thousand years.
 
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