Dominions 3 lore and nation backgrounds !

[thejeff]

Atlantis is definitely the Lovecraftian version. Deep Ones are out of Shadow over Innsmouth and probably other places. I think the Atlantis connection is not from Lovecraft. More just a water based name, I guess.

EA Ry'leh is not directly related to the other two, though they have the same types of powers and empire. The Aboleths were destroyed by the falling star that brought the Illithid.
Oddly, other than the name and some of the void creatures, R'lyeh has less direct connection to Lovecraft. Both Aboleths and Illithids are D&D monsters. Definitely inspired by, but not directly from the Cthulhu Mythos.

[NooBliss]

But aren't the Illithids inspired by CTulhu in the first place? They even look like C'tulhu, bar dragon wings and size.
I'd say that both Atlantis and Rlyeh are inspired by Lovecraftian myths; but R'Lyeh seems to be a hybrid between the Deep Ones and the Ancients.

[thejeff]

Inspired by, sure. But they're definitely gaming monsters, not literary ones.

I don't see a lot of Deep One influence in any of the R'lyehs, other than the enslaved creatures from Atlantis.

[Sombre]

The coastal wells where women are impregnated - that's very mythos. And the cultists and general madness, alien dreams etc

[NooBliss]

Yep. Not to mention that R'Lyeh Illithids actually remind of lovecraftian Deep Ones much more than Atlanteans. Ironically, yes.
Think of it - Illithids are sinister, reclusive underwater beings that serve some ancient otherwordly evil, plot and inspire cults etc etc, just like lovecraftean Deap Ones.
Whereas Atlanteans are just a race of fishlike beings who simply live there, underwater. Well, perhaps there was something special about them in EA, with that weird orb and the terrible secret of Deep One mages, but it died with them. In MA, when Atlanteans interact with humanity, they are just soothingly mundane aquatic humanoids.

[Zeldor]

Crxyxll

[kennydicke]

Many of the sacreds that MA/LA R'yleh may summon are taken, in name, directly from Lovecraftian works (Elder Thing, Thing That Should Not Be, Old One); as is the name R'yleh (R'lyeh); even the recruitable Deep Ones.

The ideas of twisted hybrids, mass insanity, deranged cults, star-spawned 'things', and bizarre events are all indicative of Lovecraftian works. Although, this mythos is on a much more cosmic scale than dom3.

However, the three ages of R'yleh more closely resemble the D&D re-imagining of the Cthulhu mythos (Aboleths & Illithids, not so much from the Kuo-Toa) than the actual Lovecraft/Derleth stories.

Atlantis may draw a little from the Cthulhu mythos but is, almost certainly, more of a 'generic' aquatic race. Although, I've read some old, Lovecraft-inspired, 50's sci-fi books with similar creatures.


Fhtagn!

[Corporal Clegg]

Anecdote. Read over the shoulder of a girl reading 'Book of the Jungle' the other day. Seems that the name 'Bandar log' is the name of the tribe or place where the great apes rule or something. To bad there isn't a big ape god one could name 'King Louie'.

Also I think Agartha is a reference to jewish myth about some subterranian monsters.

[kennydicke]

Does taking over a priestly beaurocracy ala LA Mictlan count as inspiring cults?

I was thinking more along the lines of the 'Mad' and 'Dreamer' chaff being the cultists. Not LA Mictlan.

And perhaps I'm reading to much into it but the idea that Atlantis is just some generic fish/frog men thrown in for the sake of it doesn't sit very well with me.

Sorry, I kind of meant 'original' more than truly 'generic'. Although, fish/frog men have become a bit of a trope, which is why I used the term generic.

More than everyone else the story of Atlantis is the story of disaster and exodus, surviving on the fringes of the world they once knew.

Of course, and fitting with many of the 'stories' made up about Atlantis.

Anecdote. Read over the shoulder of a girl reading 'Book of the Jungle' the other day. Seems that the name 'Bandar log' is the name of the tribe or place where the great apes rule or something. To bad there isn't a big ape god one could name 'King Louie'.

Close, it's what they call the 'monkeys' in the book; they had no ruler, that's a Disney thing. Looks like joining the Cub Scouts was good for something.

Kailasa is a specific, holy site in Buddhism.

Patala, I'm unfamiliar with.

Also I think Agartha is a reference to jewish myth about some subterranian monsters.

I think it might be Hindu or Buddhist myth. I am sure it regards the mountains north or northeast of India - so, possibly, Tibetan.

Although, as someone pointed out previously, Hinnom, Ashdod and Gath are all ancient Hebrew locations; golems are from Hebrew myth.


Yomi is the Japanese hell, and Jomon is an ancient (BC) period in Japanese history. I don't know about Shinuyama, but Shinoyama is a Japanese name.


T'ien Ch'i actually means something like "Energy of Heaven" or "Heavenly Energy", but I don't know of any historical or mythological connection. In these cases, 'energy' refers more to a 'life's-breath' or 'the force' kind of thing.


Btw, Corporal Clegg, I recognize your avatar and I'm impressed.

[13lackGu4rd]

[quote=kennydicke;739709]

Yomi is the Japanese hell, and Jomon is an ancient (BC) period in Japanese history. I don't know about Shinuyama, but Shinoyama is a Japanese name.

well, Shinu in Japanese means death, and Yama means mountain, so it could be Death Mountain or Mountain of Death. of course it could be something else too, cause well, quite a few Japanese words are written the same(at least in Hiragana, different Kanji of course) and with different meanings, and others have a different spelling(in Hiragana) but will remain the same in English, so it's really hard to translate it...