That the old gods of Hammerstein! (and My-Stara) are exiled on the Moon is an idea that draws on a number of sources. Of course, the Moon has been associated with one god or another, or with the supernatural, in most human cultures. That something lives on the Moon isn't a particularly Modern myth either; Lucian of Samosata, in the second century AD, wrote a story of Ulysses' journey to the Moon. Flying boats, eh? I told you that they were cool.
Mystara has its own Moon dwellers, the samurai cats of Myoshima. Not the Samurai Pizza Cats (my wife refused to believe such a thing ever existed, until I showed her the YouTube video [warning: awaful theme tune]). But the real superhumans on the Moon that I'm referencing are these:
Kirby also drew The Mighty Thor (and the rest of the Asgardians), and characters such as Hercules also find a home in the Marvel Universe, and so the idea that the once Gods of the world of Hammerstein! exiled on the Moon is meant to evoke these kind of characters. Superhumans, immortals (some of THE Immortals of Mystara, perhaps), but diminished greatly since the era in which they made the world from clay, now trapped in their Olympian domain. Some still worship them, for sure (some of the Vikings of the Northern Reaches are confirmed Lunatics), but the main religious focus in the Modern Age is the Church of Humanity, and its myriad saintly cults.
P.S. My vision of extra-planar travel has always been VERY Kirby...
I thought there might be an Inhumans influence there. Good man.
ReplyDeleteI really like the history you've sketched out for Hammerstein! It feels familiar without being derivative, and is packed full of fun stuff. Also, your elves are bastards, and of that I approve.
The samurai pizza cats are awesome! I even gave them a mention on my blog, again talking about rakasta and samurai.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I see Black Rod taking part in the opening of Parliament, I always think he looks pretty boring for an Inhuman...
ReplyDeleteIt's all derivative. I just hope that I can play the nth-rate Alan Moore in mixing and matching existing bits and pieces of gaming, fantasy, and mythic culture.
As we're playing D&D-ish, I'm using My-stara (I'll think of a better name for it soon - hey, how about the Known World?) to test out a lot of the stuff that will make the world of Hammerstein! when we get back to OpenQuest. I'm no cartographer, so reskinning Mystara's cartoon geography according to the ideas that I tried to set out in the earlier posts on Titan and Mystara is an interesting exercise that doesn't necessitate me drawing wholly original[ly poor] maps.
The danger, as always, is leaving enough of the world unexplored, uncivilised, and fantastical.