The Batlord

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Janszoon

Very interesting thread, Trollheart! I don't know how I missed it until now. I especially liked reading about the ones I was unfamiliar with, like Cuchulainn and Nergal. And it's always nice to see the coolest of the cool, Quetzalcoatl, get a shoutout. Are you doing lesser mythical beings too? It would be cool to see some djinn in here.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Trollheart

Oh yeah, I'll be covering them all, from the better-known Roman and Greek and Norse gods to the little-known Polynesian, Japanese, Native American or Eskimo house gods. Big and small, important and inconsequential, they'll all be here.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

The Batlord

They prefer "Inuit", you racist.

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Trollheart

Shut it, Yank!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Pantheon: Greek
Class: Hero
Level: Top Tier
Lineage: Mortal
Alignment: Good
Linked with: Pegasus, Zeus, Athene, Poseidon, The Chimera

A hero of ancient Corinth, Bellerophon caught sight of the winged horse Pegasus, as it alighted near the citadel of Corinth, and tried in vain to catch it. Thwarted, he appealed to the seer Polyidos for help, and was told to lay down to sleep at night beside the altar of Athene. Doing so, Bellerophon dreamed that the goddess herself came to him, and presented him with a golden bridle, bidding him show it to his father, Poseidon, and at the same time sacrifice a white ox to him. On waking, he found he held the bridle in his hand, sacrificed the ox as instructed, and further dedicated an altar to Athene. Pegasus proved susceptible to the bridle, and Bellerophon became his master.

Having accidentally slain a Corinth noble, the hero went to Argos, where he was kindly received by the king, Proetos. However, the king's wife, Stheneboea, took a fancy to Bellerophon, and when the young man rejected her advances, she dragged him before her husband, accusing the hero of trying to violate her. Shocked by this claim, Proetos sent Bellerophon to the court at Lycia, to King Iobates, giving the youth a letter in which, unbeknownst to him, were orders to kill the bearer.

Arriving at the Lycian court, Bellerophon was entertained hospitably for nine days, and on the tenth the king asked the youth what his business was, received the letter Bellerophon bore, and dispatched the youth to slay the Chimera, a monster with a lion's front half, a serpent's rear and a goat in the middle. This monster infested the mountains, and slaughtered all who attacked it. But riding Pegasus, far out of the reach of the monster, Bellerophon killed the Chimera with his spear, and returned to Iobates triumphant. Next the king sent the hero to fight against the Solymi, a hostile neighbouring tribe, and again Bellerophon returned victorious. A third time the Lycian ruler sent his guest into danger, this time against the fierce warrior-women, the Amazons, and again he defeated them. When the final attempt to slay him failed (an ambush comprised of all Iobates' finest knights), the king realised that Bellerophon must be the son of a god, and gave the hero the hand of his daughter in marriage, plus half of his kingdom.

But the gods, fickle and cruel as ever, decided that joy should not be Bellerophon's lot. His son Isandros was slain by Ares, his daughter Laodaemia by Artemis, and Bellerophon himself wandered the world, insane, sad and alone, avoiding the company of his fellow men, till in an attempt to climb Mount Olympus itself on the back of his mighty horse Pegasus, he was struck by one of Zeus' thunderbolts, fell to earth and died.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Oriphiel

Even though it's technically accurate to call him that (from the Roman point of view), I always get a little bothered when movies set in ancient Greece don't use his original name!

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Trollheart

I know: the Hercules/Heracles argument goes back and forth. I just always knew him as Hercules, so I stick with that. In fairness, Heracles is more accurate, as his mother was Hera, but what ya gonna do? Talk to Kevin Sorbo!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Pantheon: Swedish/Scandinavian
Class: Hero
Level: Top Tier
Lineage: Mortal
Alignment: Good
Linked with: Hrothgar, Grendel, Wiglaf

For years now, the great hall of Heorot had bustled by day but been deserted by night. Hrothgar, king of the Danes, had been forced to abandon his mighty castle once darkness fell, as the inhuman monster Grendel, who lived in the nearby swamps, had made it his feeding and hunting ground. Champions from all over the land had come to do battle with the creature, and their bones littered his lair, testament to his invulnerability, and his cruelty. Word of the king's plight reached as far as Sweden, where a young man who was beginning to make a name for himself set sail and arrived on the shores of Denmark, requesting leave from Hrothgar to be the one to destroy Grendel. Although he was young, Beowulf had a certain determination in his eyes, and the king, knowing him as he was the son of one of his friends, and certainly desperate to rid his land of this evil, readily agreed, though he held little hope that this young Swede would prevail where all his greatest knights and heroes from Denmark had failed.

What is more, Beowulf swore that he would use no weapon against the creature, that he would face him on his own terms, without armour. He knew, as did all, that Grendel's scaly skin was able to deflect even the sharpest blade, and that no armour could stand against his marauding claws. As he and his men settled down for the night in the otherwise deserted hall, Grendel came calling as was his wont. Seizing one of Beowulf's men he tore him apart and ate him, but when he reached for Beowulf he encountered that for which the young man was famed in his own land: it was said that Beowulf's grip was so strong that not thirty men could unfasten it, and it was this that secured around Grendel's arm as they danced and fought and struggled through the night. Unable to break his grip, and realising he had been bested and was to die, Grendel frantically tried to pull away but only succeeded in escaping by leaving behind in the grip of his enemy his arm to the shoulder. With such a grievous wound, it was agreed when Hrothgar and his retinue returned in the morning, the creature could not survive and must surely die.

And die he did. But unbeknownst to anyone, Grendel was not alone in the swamp fastness in which he lurked and lived. His mother, almost as terrible as he, set out to avenge her son and fell upon the men of Denmark who, having celebrated long into the next morning, were drunk and drowsy and unprepared for a further attack, believing their enemy vanquished. Beowulf had by this time departed, laden down with gifts from the king, his quest over, his mission complete. But when King Hrothgar sent for him, and told him that his wisest counsellor and dearest friend had been taken by the fiend's mother, Beowulf swore to track her to her lair and put an end to her forever. Accompanied by the king and his men, they made their way to the dread swamp where Beowulf dove into the boiling, noxious lake under which Grendel's mother made her home.

As he swam down he was attacked by various marsh creatures, but fought them off until something huge gripped him and pulled him down, down towards the very seabed itself. There he was released and came face to face with the hideous Grendel mother. He fought her to the death, eventually taking her head off with a mighty sword he found there, but when the blood from the Grendel hit the metal of the sword it dissolved it entirely, leaving only the hilt. Returning to Hrothgar, Beowulf was again hailed as a hero and a friend, an ally and all but a son to the old king. He decided then that he must return to Sweden, and Hrothgar bade him farewell.

Beowulf performed many other acts of heroism during his life, ascending eventually to the throne of his people, but his life ended in one more magnificent feat of glory, courage and self-sacrifice. He had been ruling for fifty years by now, when the land was afflicted by the scourge of a terrible dragon. Enraged that its hoard of gold and jewels had been robbed, the dragon set out to punish all who lived in the surrounding area, and every day the land was laid further waste by his terrible fiery breath. Beowulf travelled to his lair with eleven handpicked men, and knowing that he could not defeat this enemy with his famous handgrip, he had a shield of iron made, that would stand against the dragon's breath. He knew though, being an old man at this point, that this would be his last battle.

And so it proved. Though he defeated and killed the dragon with the aid of his friend Wiglaf, the monster managed to seize him in its jaws and mortally wounded him. A short time later, relieved that he had once again saved his country from a predatory monster, Beowulf passed beyond the veil, but the tales of his deeds would live forever.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Pantheon: Greek
Class: Minor Goddesses
Level: Mid Tier
Lineage: Divine
Alignment: Evil
Linked with: Odysseus, Acheloos, Demeter, Persephone, Phorkys

The daughters of Phorkys and Acheloos, the Sirens had been nymphs and playmates of Persephone, and as punishment for their not trying to prevent the carrying off of her daughter by Hades, Demeter transformed them into beings half woman and half bird, then changed her mind later and gave them the lower half of fish. There were three whose names are known, and they are Parthenope, Ligeia and Leukosia.

During the time when they were half bird in form, the Sirens challenged the Muses to a competition in singing, but they lost, and the Muses plucked their feathers from the Sirens, bedecking themselves with them. When they had been further transformed into marine beings, the Sirens inhabited the cliffs of the islands between Sicily and Italy, the sweetness of their singing luring unwary travellers on the seas to their deaths. The song of the Sirens would compel them to land on the islands, where they would be torn apart and eaten by the daughters of Phorkys.

The first to successfully pass by the Sirens was Orpheus, who, in company with the Argonauts, kept the attention of the crew fixed on his own beautiful and haunting music, and then came Odysseus, who had his crew stop their ears, while he himself, bound to the mast but having given strict instructions that he was not to be released for any reason until they were safely by, heard their ghostly music and survived.

This feat was sufficient to break the power of the Sirens forever, and they hurled themselves into the sea, where they became cliffs.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018