myth rambling for fic

[jukeboxhound]

For The Boatman, Crossed by Death.

I have a tendency to take on ambitious projects that may or may not betray my baseline level of pretension but WHATEVER, OKAY, I DO WHAT I WANT, THOR.  So in lieu of ALL the religion and mythos that I want in Dishonored, which is honestly an impossible level to reach because there will NEVER BE ENOUGH EVER, I thought I'd write my own.  Which, again, quite possibly very pretentious, but that just means I was right all along and Pottermore should've put me in Ravenclaw.

• A lot of this was based off info from the Dishonored Wiki, particularly the way the individual Isles relate to real-world nations.  More of it was inspired by Peter Jeans' Seafaring Lore and Legend, which I admit I bought purely because of this goddamn game.  I don't have the book on me because Boyfriend is borrowing it, and I can't cite specifics off the top of my head, but if you have any questions let me know and I will happily get back to you.
• A couple unnamed characters come from the cultist scribblings in the Knife of Dunwall DLC.
• I'm going to wait for the Brigmore Witches DLC before attempting anything about them; I figure enough of this is going to get Jossed as it is.

The Void

• the Heart says that the Void is the beginning and end of all things, as well as other things that implies the Void is almost equivalent to the Outsider?  it sounds like to me?  idk.
• a crazy number of mythologies have the world being created or renewed through kind of watery disaster, often a flood, and hey, babies are born in a rush of fluid, makes sense that the world was too
• (in much of Celtic myth, water and mist are often the prelude to the otherworld, such as Avalon, and there's a reason Manannan mac Lir is a good deity to contact for the revealing of otherworldly paths)
• more importantly, water is one of those metaphysical elements that's in a constant state of flux and transitions most easily from a solid to liquid to gaseous state; the very nature of in-between places, transitory states, neither-here-nor-there attributes is an attribute of the supernatural

The Outsider

• I've always been fascinated by the idea of a coiled-up serpent forming the ball of the planet, and lo, leviathan
• also the wonderfully morbid Norse idea of body parts = environment, e.g. a giant's skull cap being the heavenly vault
• so, the leviathan is a giant goddamn sea-serpent who may or may not one day swallow up the world, which, cool, she'll have good company with Jormangundr, I suppose
• I had more to say about this guy but I can't remember what that was now, oops

The ~War~

• because there's always a war between the new and the old, like the Olympians vs. the Titans or the apocryphal Satan vs. the loyal angelic hosts (there's a term for this and I CAN'T REMEMBER IT, shitfuck)
• Gristol says it lasted nine days and nights because that's how long Odin cross-dressed hung upside down and died to get the secret of the runes; Morley says there were seven big battles because the Lebor Gabála Érenn claims that Ireland was populated in seven 'invasions'; Serkonos says a week because Italy and Catholicism; Tyvia makes note of its numerical values because I know almost nothing about Slavic myth and this theme seemed like a huge deal in Russian creation myth, CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG PLZ - but mostly I was going for thematic similarities rather than strict parallels
• 'dividing up the sea and land (or day and night) to solve a conflict' is basically what happened with the Fomori/Tuatha de Danann, Tuatha de Danann/humans, Satan/loyal hosts, etc. Like putting a stripe of duct tape down the center of the backseat and each side claiming their own while still keeping a hairy eyeball on their sibling, and now my own spiritual practices will never be the same, jfc, self

Morley

• allegedly based off Ireland/Scotland/Wales, and since my interest lies specifically in Ireland, when I read "Festival of Churners" my immediate thought was Imbolc/Candlemas/St Brighid's Day, which usually falls on February 1st or 2nd.  Cows were a cornerstone of early Irish economy and are still a large part of Irish mythos, with the Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) probably being the most famous example of such.  Saint Brighid is often portrayed as accompanied by a white cow, and even the Morrigan had a habit of stealing Very Important cows and shapeshifting into one.  You don't fuck with people's cows.
• ANYWAY, February seems to fall not too far from the Month of Seeds?  which is when the Festival of Churners happens, and it's worth noting, since bare feet and red robes are common on this day, that Saint Brighid/the goddess Bríd is associated with fire, the color red, planting, butter-making, and general homestead-y things.
• so I used the brideog and Saint Brighid's crosses, of which there are a few different types.

Serkonos

• I'm thinking Serkonos' native religion(s) would be pretty syncretistic; in the parts closest to Pandyssia, I'd anticipate something not unlike a form of Vodun or Santeria, whereas in other locations I'd be thinking things more like Stregheria (nearer Gristol) or Hellenistic-style practices (in the west)
• just thinking aloud here for the future, idek

Sokolov

• is trying to use sympathetic magic, like, 'this body died because of carnivorous fish so it's naturally attuned to fishy supernatural things,' I think most people are perfectly aware of this idea
• although he'd be better served getting rid of chilblains by rubbing them with nine ivy leaves and then burying said leaves in a place untrodden by human feet
• just as useless but slightly less disgusting

Samuel

• is from Morley because I said so
• got most of his backstory from the wiki and I just took the liberty of adding to it
• fascinates me because he's basically the Greek Charon, ferrying doomed souls Corvo around, living mostly on water, which is so powerfully symbolic I just can't
• have I mentioned how in-betweens and thresholds are really goddamn important because that's basically who and what he is

And the Brigmore Witches!  The power of music for/against/within magic!  It's not my birthday but please, Bethesda, please give me moooooooore before I embarrass myself with more of this which I will, inevitably, do.