Idea Info Name: Myth Index: Primary Category: RPG Submitted: 10/17/2003 9:19:07 PM Written By: Juggernaut Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition Book Highly Recommended !

This game idea focuses on mythology and incorporates original fantasy and science fiction elements as well. That is because of the little variety of games that use mythology as its center. I see many games out there that have used characters and terms that originated from mythology such as Ragnarok, Yggdrasil, Odin, Sleipnir, Sol, and Thanatos just to name a few. Huge game developers don’t mind using ideas and characters from two thousand year old civilizations; but they haven’t considered what could be produced if the right amount of creativeness was combined with the various realms of mythology that is known today. But don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that no games are based on mythology because I am sure that there are. I am just saying that mythology has much more potential than being a database for names to call you creatures, items and characters. I created this game to use my own creativity with the rich history of mythology to do something that isn’t just fun, but also give a sense of gratitude to mythology for it‘s role in literary history. Also, the world in my game will be a reflection of the real world in an era in the future. I have never played an RPG that is situated in any world similar to that of Earth. I decided to do this because it allows the game to have a more direct effect on someone when you speak of his or her own world. I can create science fiction elements to enhance the game. But don’t get me wrong, there isn’t any gigantic warships that travel at light speed. I am tired of people convincing themselves that the future will have man searching the galaxy with advanced weaponry when they aren’t going to be alive to experience it themselves. I just mean that technology will play a role in the game.

Long ago, before the Egyptians created the pyramids of Giza; the Greeks revolutionized the field of mathematics; and the Norsemen fought their first fight, the world was in a state of darkness and despair. Man was protected by the Gods, a race of beings that possessed unimaginable powers. Even though the Gods harnessed great power, their power was not unrivaled. Besides the Gods and humans, there were the Demons, a vicious race of monsters that were violent and destructive by nature. The Demons existed everywhere and constantly terrorized humans. The Gods knew that the Demons could become a serious threat; however, they were unorganized and often fought amongst themselves. The Gods believed that the Demons would never be able to unite and decided that it is best to just leave them alone and not worry too much about them. For years, everything went as the Gods expected. The Demons frequently attacked villages, however, the attacks were never a threat because the Demons would just charge in, wound a few people, and cause a little destruction before the Gods would intervene and drive them back. This was the way things were for a long time, but as time goes on, change is inevitable.

The first sign of problems occurred in the skies at Valhalla. Odin and his Valkyries were confronted by an army of over ten-thousand winged Demons. It was the first organized attack ever done by the Demons, but because Odin and his Valkyries had superior skills, they were able to fend against the odds and forced the enemy to retreat. The attack was unexpected and soon battles were taking place in all parts of the world. Zeus and his fellow Gods on Mount Olympus were the next to be attacked by the Demons. Once again, the Demons were pushed back and forced to retreat by the Gods on Mount Olympus and Mount Olympus escaped the battle fully intact. The land of Egypt was next on the Demons attempts at an attack on the Gods. Three of Egypt’s greatest Gods: Ra, Horus and Anubis banded together with the other Gods in Egypt and fought the Demons in a fierce battle. Egypt almost fell to the Demons but the Gods eventually drove them back; however, the fighting reduced much of the once green land of Egypt to a barren desert. The continent of Atlantis was were the Demons finally achieved a victory. The Gods that were living at Atlantis fell to the might of the Demons and after the battle, the Demons sank the entire continent of Atlantis into the depths of the ocean.

The fall of Atlantis was a dismal omen to the rest of the world. Many began to panic, because neither God nor mankind thought one organized attack from the Demons, let alone several, was possible. The switch from simple raids to well-organized attacks caught the Gods off guard. The Gods gathered to discuss how to deal with the Demons. The Gods knew that they were stronger than any of the Demons, but the Demons had far greater numbers. During their meeting at Odin‘s palace of Valhalla, one of Odin’s Valkyries interrupted the meeting with a report that an immense number of Demons had begun to gather at the area where Atlantis used to be. The Gods then realized that an all-out war with the Demons was inevitable and a war of that magnitude could last for thousands of years. So the Gods agreed on a risky strategy that would seal all of the Demons, along with themselves, in another dimension so that they could fight the Demons while those left behind on Earth could create their own world, free from the influence of the Demons.

The Gods confronted the Demons forces over the waters where Atlantis used to be. The Demons had the Gods outnumbered a hundred to one, yet the Gods still charged into battle. The sun rose and set eleven times before the fighting ceased. The fight ended in a stalemate, with both sides suffering severe losses and fatigue beginning to get the best of many. The Gods took the opportunity to cast the seal and together they combined their powers in order to open a doorway to the other dimension. The sky began to turn dark, as if night had fallen, and a series of lightning bolts began to shoot down from the sky in an angry flurry. The crashes of thunder that followed echoed across the world, the zephyr changed to a fierce gale, and the water below went from still, to raging, in moments. As the Demons watched on, confused and uncertain of what was really going on, a bluish-purple portal began to form in the sky above them. The portal slowly began to grow bigger and as it did, the wind began to blow even more fiercely and cyclones began forming on the water. Suddenly the portal stopped growing and the Demons stared at the portal in the sky, clueless to the purpose it had. As the Demons stared at the portal in curiosity, the gales continued to gradually become more intense and that’s when it happened. The Gods created the portal to act as a doorway, but they had no way to get all of the Demons into the portal. So the Gods created an extremely powerful gale so that when the gale reached its peak, it could be used as a vacuum of some sorts and pull all of the Demons into the portal. The Gods used the wind to pull the Demons into the portal, but they knew that they would not be able to avoid the gale and were blown into the portal as well. The planet was saved from the onslaught of the Demons by the Gods, but the Gods were gone too. The people of Earth were given the opportunity to prosper and began to create their own world.

As the years passed by, humans quickly rose to the top of the food chain and became the dominant species on the planet. Soon, great civilizations began to take shape and the future of mankind never looked brighter. The stories of the Gods and other great beings continued to be told through the centuries; but as time passed, the stories began to lose credibility and were eventually thought of as only myths. Even though the stories were beginning to fade away, many of the wounds that were left behind by the strife long ago still remained. The desert that was created by the battle at Egypt, later called the Sahara Desert, was still there and just as barren as it was eons ago. Another wound, which was left behind by the actions of the Gods, was the portal to the other dimension. The portal remained closed, but the amount of force the Gods used to open the portal made the entire area unstable. Fierce squalls would appear from out of nowhere and the turbulent waves that were created could bring down the mightiest of vessels. The place was later called the Bermuda Triangle. Also, deep beneath the waters of the Bermuda Triangle, the remnants of Atlantis rests untouched since its exile thousands of years ago.

However, the long era of peace was about to end and an old wound was going to open once again. It was the year 2023, in the midst of World War III, that the unfathomable occurred. One day, dark clouds covered the sky making it as dark as night; tornadoes began to appear without warning on land; while hurricanes, cyclones and tidal waves raged the seas. Lightning lit up the sky and the thunder’s roar echoed for miles. A strange light began to emit in the Bermuda Triangle and, in an instant, the portal that was keeping the Demons in the other dimension opened. All of the Demons that were inside were released and then carried off by the powerful winds. The people watched the sky, no clue to what was in the sky above them, and the Demons were so numerous that it appeared as if the sky itself were alive. Suddenly the fierce gales shifted to a gentle breeze and the black clouds parted to reveal the cerulean sky. All of the weather anomalies suddenly vanished and many began to feel a sense of relief. However, it wouldn’t last long because the Demons were free and were about to change history.

At the time, mankind thought that the ancient stories of monsters and gods were just myths, but on March 13, 2023, otherwise known as “The Day of Shadows,” the Demons first struck and myth began to be a reality. The people were unprepared for anything like what they going to see and while their weapons were somewhat effective, the Demons were just too powerful and easily crushed every major city within a couple of weeks. The Demons reduced the human population to a mere half a million within almost two months after the “Day of Shadows“. The armed forces that were left in the once great nations of the world gathered together in order to execute a final plan of action against the Demons. They met a large army of the Demons at the ruins of New York City on May 7, 2023. They fought with all of their might and then more, but it was to no avail. The Demons were just too powerful and mankind had never experienced anything like them before. They had never before met a force that came even close to the power and abilities that the Demons possessed and for the first time in a very long time the soldiers experience something that mankind hadn‘t experience since the Gods were battling the Demons thousands of years before. They experience something that had been buried over the generations by their ancestors.... Fear. Not just any fear, but the fear of being completely helpless and unable to do anything at all. The fear that you are inferior; and being unable to do anything about it. A fear that felt like being all alone and the world falling beneath you, yet you knew that you were surrounded by many and standing on solid ground. A fear so real, so hard to bear that many of the soldiers stood motionless, paralyzed by the fear. When the soldiers stared into the endless void of Demons that were marching towards them, the self-conviction that the end of humanity was imminent haunted them as they faced their own demise. However, just as the soldiers were about to give up hope and submit their lives to the Demons, humanity’s forlorn hope appeared. It was the Gods, who had not been seen at all since the Demons reappeared, who came to humanity’s aid. The appearance of the Gods lifted the veil of fear that had engulfed the soldiers and together the Gods and the soldiers managed to drive back the Demons.

The Gods were powerful and with that power came knowledge as well. The knowledge that the Gods possessed revived magic, a powerful force that centered on the six element of nature: Earth, Wind, Water/Ice, Flame, Shadow and Light. The Gods also passed on the knowledge on how to use runes. Runes are symbols or drawings that can imbue magical properties in objects. However; soon after the Gods passed on the knowledge of magic and runes to man, the Gods disappeared. The Gods left just as swiftly as they came and no one knew were the Gods went, but because of the knowledge that they left behind the humans that were left were now able to defend themselves from the Demons and avoided the extinction of the human race.

Four hundred and sixty years has passed since “The Day of Shadows” and mankind continues to survive due to the efforts of the Hunters Guild. The Hunters Guild is an organization that was created for the sole purpose of fighting the Demons and it is situated in the area of what was once New York City. The Hunters Guild is where the Hunters are stationed. Hunters are elite soldiers that possess amazing skills in the arts of magic and combat. They are trained to specifically fight the Demons and are the only ones trained to do so.

There are only a handful of people who make it into the elite league of Hunters, but one unit is very unique. This is partly because they are the youngest unit to ever be commissioned into the rank of Hunter. The unit is led by Zero Armada, a daring 21 year-old man with a strong sense of right and wrong. He is about six-feet tall and has platinum hair and eyes that gleam with a silvery essence. Zero is a master of light magic and wields a photon sword named Twilight. The next member of the unit is Vlad Drega, an enigmatic 20 year-old man who is skilled in the ways of the assassin. He is about 6’ 2” tall, with black hair and a pair of empty black eyes. Vlad is an expert at stealth tactics and is a master of shadow magic. Vlad uses a giant scythe called Prophecy to slay his victims. The third member of the unit is Skye Valkyrie, a zealous 20 year-old woman with short green hair and a pair of emerald eyes. Skye is the shortest member of the unit at only 5’ 4” and possesses amazing speed. Skye is a communications expert and a master of wind magic. Skye uses a bow called Tempest that fires bolts of wind. The fourth member of the unit is Crystal White, a beautiful 21 year-old woman with long blue hair and a pair of sapphire eyes. She is 5’ 10” tall and has amazing agility. She is a medical expert and is also a master of water/ice magic. Her weapon is the Glacier; an eight-foot spear made of crystal and has a tip that can freeze anything it pierces. The fifth member of the unit is Flint Hardrock; a quiet, intellectual 21 year-old man who has blond hair and yellow eyes. Flint is the biggest member of the unit and is about 7’ 2” tall. Flint is a master of mechanics and earth magic. Flint’s large size allows him to wield the massive battle-ax, Granite. The last member of the unit is Deacon Volcannon, a clever 20 year-old man with crimson hair and blazing red eyes. Deacon is about 5’ 8” and has a serious need for anger management. Deacon is an excellent strategist and is also a master of flame magic and several forms of martial arts. His weapons are the Hellfire; a pair of gloves that burst into flames at will and are extremely effective in hand-to-hand combat.

This is the Yggdrasil unit, and this is the story of their journey to end the threat of the Demons.

When it comes to combat, there will be three different types of combat styles and they will be used according to the situations you are in.

Turn Based (ex. Final Fantasy 6&7)- this style of combat will be used when you in a group. This is because it will allow an easier management of multiple characters and also allow for more strategic tactics to be required.

Action/RPG (ex. Kingdom Hearts)- this style of combat will be used when one of the characters is alone. Exp. is still gained from viciously pummeling your opponents. I like this style for when you are alone because I feel that controlling a single character freely is fun and adds a more active enjoyment to combat.

First Person Shooter (ex, Halo)- this style of combat will be used less frequently than the other two, but used none the less. In certain situations, you will have to resort to a gun instead of magic and brute strength.

The Rune System is a way to upgrade weapons throughout the game. Unlike most RPG’s, you have the same weapons the entire game. However, the Rune System allows you to change the stats on your weapon. Runes can be found in many places such as: a shop, a tree, a trolls stone club, an apple, a piece of parchment, a piece of armor, a weapon, etc. It doesn’t matter where the symbol is, as long as it is visible and possesses magical properties. Every time you come across a rune, your character copies the symbol on a notebook so that it can be analyzed later at the Hunter’s Guild to determine its uses. The runes are classified into Primary and Secondary. Primary is the main rune and effects everything from weapons appearance to stats. However, Primary runes only work on the weapon they were designed for and a weapon can only possess one Primary rune. Secondary runes are lower leveled runes and can be used by any weapon. Secondary runes can raise stats and resistances toward statuses and elements. The weapons can each hold four Secondary runes.

This is all that I have gotten to so far. I hope that you enjoy it and soon I intend to add more to the gameplay section, but for now I must give you what I got.  I am committed to this idea because I believe that it has a possible future beyond that of an idea. Also, please continue to send me your opinions on my idea because I like getting to hear what people say about my ideas, whether or not it is good or bad.