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.

[Mithras]

Does taking over a priestly beaurocracy ala LA Mictlan count as inspiring cults?
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. To me the underwater nations should at least have a theme along the lines of the northen and middle eastern themed nations (dilution of blood lines, invasion of humanity.) Or those nations affected by Ermor (Corruption.)

I would suggest that the seas start in diversity and slip into a uniformity (i.e. everyone goes mad) 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.

Or they're just generic fish/frog men taken out of D and D and dressed up a bit.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by Mithras

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. To me the underwater nations should at least have a theme along the lines of the northen and middle eastern themed nations (dilution of blood lines, invasion of humanity.) Or those nations affected by Ermor (Corruption.)

I would suggest that the seas start in diversity and slip into a uniformity (i.e. everyone goes mad) 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.

Or they're just generic fish/frog men taken out of D and D and dressed up a bit.

Umm.. I'm pretty sure that no one is saying that Atlantis is inspired by D&D. The three ages of R'lyeh sort of are. Aboleths are D&D monsters that have powers of mind control and live in the deep seas. Illithids also are iconic D&D monsters.

This overall discussion is also sort of confusing me. Isn't it pretty obvious that both the R'lyeh and Atlantis use mythos influences? They just do not take all of their aspects from the mythos but have other stuff too mixed in with their theme and units. They are not direct conversions of just "mythos -> dom3 nation", more like "mythos + idea A + idea B -> Dom3 nation". In the case of atlantis, idea A could be the whole theme of decline and with R'lyeh the mixing with the D&D monsters. This of course a cross simplification, do not take the "formula" I presented too literally.