History Main / ShroudedInMyth

Contrast KingInTheMountain, MaliciousSlander. Anything from TheTimeOfMyths is invariably Shrouded in Myth. Compare TheMunchausen, LegendFadesToMyth, and SelfMadeMyth.

* Gandalf, specifically in ''Literature/TheHobbit'': "Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion."

* At the end of ''Literature/WatershipDown'', an elderly Hazel overhears a young doe telling some rabbit babies a folk tale, which is a ''very'' heavily-mythologized account of Hazel's own adventures in establishing the Watership warren.

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan,'' rumor said that the Colossal Titan was so large that it had actually stepped over the fifty-meter wall of Shinganshina to get into the city. Eren, one of the few survivors of that attack, tells his fellow cadets that it was actually around sixty meters (still huge even by Titan standards) and managed to break in the door.

* ''Art/TheMonaLisa'': A lot of fiction revolves around theories on who sat for the Mona Lisa painting. Particular theories even argued that it was Leonardo himself in drag, because apparently, some think [[LadyLooksLikeADude Lady Lisa looks like a Dude]]. Of course, these were all retroactively debunked in 2005, when the Louvre revealed a letter confirming that the model was Florentine noblewoman Lisa del Giocondo.

* Agent 47 in the ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' games, sort of. He's considered nothing but a legend by most, because of ridiculous rumors that describe him as a giant bald perfect clone with a BarCodeTattoo. I mean, who could believe that nonsense? Except it's all, uh, ''true''.

You've heard [[FamedInStory the stories]]. There's someone out there, a LivingLegend, mysterious and untouchable. Rumors and hearsay seem to surround their every word and deed. And not just the normal sort either, but the utterly ridiculous kind. Like that he's thirty feet tall and [[Film/{{Braveheart}} shoots lightning bolts out of his arse]]. Sure, there's a kernel of truth in there somewhere, [[TheTysonZone but who even knows where or what it might be with all the stories surrounding the truth?]] This all may set up [[ExpectingSomeoneTaller a moment of disappointment]] when [[TheReveal the truth gets revealed]].

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' played with this in the episode introducing Ed. When Jet tried to track Ed down by getting descriptions on the street, the compilation was something along the lines of "He's a seven foot tall ex-basketball pro, hindu guru, drag queen alien." (Ed is actually 13 year old girl who is an excellent PlayfulHacker and a CloudCuckoolander).
** One of the rumors happened to be true purely by chance; it described her as a whimsical child, a brat who loves horrible pranks.

* ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' has The Laughing Man, who, in addition to being a VillainWithGoodPublicity, also benefits from this, to the point where an entire episode of ''Stand Alone Complex'' is dedicated to discussing whether or not he even exists, or is some sort of spontaneous cultural phenomenon, or spontaneous artificial intelligence phenomenon.
* The titular ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' has bards singing praises of him in faraway towns, and even the elves, dwarves and lizardmen have heard of him as a selfless, relentless warrior who heroically protects the common people from goblins. The adventurers who have met him personally, however, don't think quite so highly of his goblin obsession, and even High Elf Archer is dismayed to learn that the famed "[[RedBaron Orcbolg]]" [[BrokenPedestal is just a guy in cheap, dirty armor]] with NoSocialSkills. Nevertheless, for all his flaws, Goblin Slayer's endless quest to erradicate all goblins ''does'' make the world a better place, [[SmallStepsHero even if sometimes people don't fully understand the pain and suffering he's saving them from.]]
* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'':

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'':

* Lina Inverse of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' has an impressive - and mostly negative - reputation, as demonstrated very nicely in the first episode of ''Slayers Revolution''.

** First in "Suns and Lovers" while pretending not to know who "John Crichton" is. The act is ruined pretty quickly by John's need to set the record straight:
--->'''Borlik''': You know, I heard he destroyed a Peacekeeper Gammak Base, murdered an entire Nebari battalion, even laid waste to a Shadow Depository. The guy was a devil: he raped and pillaged, he popped eyeballs-\\
'''Crichton''': Whoa-whoa! Where do they get these stories? Let's set the facts straight. First off, there was no raping, very little pillaging, and Frau Blucher popped all the eyeballs.
** Happens again in "Scratch and Sniff" when an alien who has been playing Crichton and D'Argo from the start reveals her game when she realizes the stories are a bit...exaggerated:
--->'''Raxil''': '''''2 guns'''''? I mean - I thought you were the Great Crichton & D'Argo! I mean - you blew up a shadow depository! I thought you'd bring pelshfer charges! And a plasma bomb! And a really big gunship! BUT NO! YOU BRING NOTHING! YOU BRING 2 LITTLE WEAPONS THAT WOULDN'T KILL A NIKNIK!\\
'''D'Argo''': (hesitantly) You - have heard of us?\\
'''Raxil''': Yeah - I've heard stories. But obviously they aren't worth a bucket of dren!

* An in-universe example on ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': In "Jaynestown", Jayne is regarded as a folk hero shrouded in myth by the working-class mudders of Canton, and even given a statue and a song in his honor. (The song is apparently sung nightly at the bar.) Of course, [[spoiler:they think he dropped a bunch of money in their town square because he was a [[JustLikeRobinHood Robin Hood type]]; in reality, he was just trying to escape and had to push the money out of the ship. He even pushed his partner out first.]]
** It actually goes farther than that. In the Serenity comic ''Better Days'', the crew gains an absolute ''shitload'' of money. Now having enough cash to be able to waste some, Jayne gives a handful of bills to a monk, who then remarks: "The Hero of Canton... he's real!" This is happening on a ''completely different planet.''

* In the ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' episode "Cigarette Burns", ''[[ArtifactOfDoom La Fin Absolue du Monde]]'' has been buried years ago after the initial massacre at the premiere and is nearly untraceable. Kirby remarks that everywhere he goes to look there's a wall of silence surrounding the topic.

** Conversely, according to snopes, Kilroy was an inspector who got tired of his supervisors not believing that he had inspected some out of the way place on a ship or vehicle, so he started putting "Kilroy was Here" in places that could be seen easily, but to write it there would require actually worming your way into place. That way he'd only have do to the inspection once. Other [=GIs=], stumped by Kilroy's ability to be there first (get a new tank, Kilroy was here was written on it) began scrawling it themselves, and the various resistance movements picked it up from them. Supposedly an American diplomat stationed in Moscow even scribbled "Kilroy Was Here" in the bathroom, leading to a furious Stalin demanding that this "Kilroy" be found.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': There is Quincy folklore centring around a prophecy regarding a Sealed King. The prophecy states that the Sealed King will regain his heart after 900 years, his reason after 90 years and his power after 9 years. [[spoiler: Six years before the story begins is when he regains his reason, resulting in the {{Plot Triggering Death}}s of Ichigo and Uryuu's [[TheLostLenore mothers]]. Nine years after their deaths, the storyline's final arc kicks off with the [[TheEmperor Sealed King's]] power being restored, along with the revelation of a hidden stanza to the prophecy: 9 days after he regains his power, he reclaims the world. It turns out a lot of the story ties into this prophecy, even Aizen's actions.]]

* ''Anime/{{K}}'' has the Silver King, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Adolf K. Weismann]]. To normal people, he might be an ordinary eccentric billionaire... or a cult leader... or an ''actual god''. Those involved with the Kings and Clans know that he is the First King, and that he is immortal, but not much else, since he's [[AllPowerfulBystander lived in a blimp for 70 years]] without much (if any) contact with anyone. It turns out [[spoiler: he's a sweet guy with not much of a sense of grandeur about himself at all, though he will use his immense power to help others when it comes down it it.]] The OneLetterTitle also might refer to his [[MysteriousMiddleInitial initial]].

* Though not explicitly stated in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4245303/1/KOTOR-The-Prodigy-of-Revan-Book-One KOTOR: The Prodigy of Revan,]]'' it's heavily implied the Jack's father and sisters are regarded like this, as well as his ancestry. Jack himself has garnered a great deal of repute himself, though for maintaining a command position in the military when [[spoiler: all of his elder brothers had been killed early in their careers]] than his actions as an officer.

*** Doctor Strange has a staggering (and as per a throwaway remark in the sequel, carefully cultivated) reputation as an omniscient, invincible, immortal super wizard. He's none of these things, but he is extremely close to all of them. He isn't omniscient, but he is very, very close, being a mixture of time traveller and {{Seer|s}} whose powers were boosted by [[spoiler: the Time Stone]] and this, along with his mastery of the BatmanGambit, allows him to run the plot almost entirely offscreen until the finale of the first book (these manipulative tendencies, and a habit of only showing up when the excrement is about to hit the fan, do not make him popular). He's not invincible, either, but it takes a fragment of the Elder God Chthon possessing a necromancer who was already on Loki's level to beat him in a straight fight - others who have tried and failed include a demonically supercharged [[PhysicalGod 'godlike']] Grindelwald (the duel lasted for days. By the end of it, Berlin was mostly rubble, Grindelwald was exhausted and [[BroughtDownToBadass largely stripped of his enhancements]], and Strange, by all accounts, strolled off whistling), the aforementioned necromancer, and the Disir. The latter are 13 nightmarish Valkyries who devoured entire Asgardian armies and who Bor, a Skyfather at the height of his powers, could only banish. Strange, displeased by the way they went after/were sent after Harry, caught up with them and demonstrated his displeasure by restoring their consciences and trapping them in a crystal ball for as long as he wishes them to remain there. And while he's not immortal, he's [[spoiler: 500,000]] years old and counting, hasn't aged since the 6th century, and occasional remarks that he's getting a bit old and tired aside, shows little or no sign of slowing down.

*** Merlin. It's a vast surprise when it's revealed that not only [[spoiler: does he have grandchildren]] but he's still meddling.

** Or does he? After all, most of what we know of him comes from [[spoiler: [[UnreliableNarrator the man himself]]]]. Hardly the most trustworthy source.
*** Well, even if we take away everything from said source, we still keep a villainous character who is wanted on an international scale and whose face isn't even known[[spoiler: until the end. Maybe.]]

--->"I think he's still alive." [[spoiler: He's right.]]

** As a more existential threat, Outsiders are also barely understood. All that's known is that magic doesn't affect them, and that they are little more than mindless animals from "outside" that cause havoc whenever they come into our reality. [[spoiler: Harry finds out that they are very much ''not'' mindless animals, and worse, that Outsiders ''all'' work together: ever single Outsider that's been encountered in the series has been working towards an objective, even when it seems like they aren't. And no one knows what that objective is.]]
** As revealed in ''Skin Game'': [[spoiler: Hades.]] All of the stories about him are accurate to a degree, but the motives behind them are obscured. Harry asks him about it, and [[spoiler: Hades]] says that the myth outlives the reality for everyone.

** [[EvilOverlord The Lord Ruler]] himself as well, in this case backed up officially by [[CorruptChurch his priesthood]]. A large part of the plot of the first book concerns the heroes trying to find out where his myth ends and the man begins. [[spoiler: As it turns out they ''drastically underestimated'' his power, which was enough to slaughter entire armies by himself.]]

** And River Song definitely counts by [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang "The Big Bang"]], as when a [[spoiler: Dalek informs her that as an associate of the Doctor, she'll show him mercy. She tells him her name and tells him to check again. The Dalek proceeds to beg for its life, which she encourages]]. When Amy and Rory ask what happened [[spoiler: to the Dalek]], she just says "[[spoiler: It died]]."

* An in-universe example on ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': In "Jaynestown", Jayne is regarded as a folk hero shrouded in myth by the working-class mudders of Canton, and even given a statue and a song in his honor. (The song is apparently sung nightly at the bar.) Of course, [[spoiler: they think he dropped a bunch of money in their town square because he was a [[JustLikeRobinHood Robin Hood type]]; in reality, he was just trying to escape and had to push the money out of the ship. He even pushed his partner out first.]]

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the mysterious [[VigilanteMan vigilante]] terrorising criminals and mercenaries on Omega, known only as "Archangel" [[spoiler: (or [[FriendlySniper Garrus]] [[TookALevelInBadass Vakarian]])]].
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', [[spoiler: the epilogue reveals that the actions of "The Shepard" are remembered far into the future, though [[LegendFadesToMyth the exact details of the story have been lost to the passage of time]].]]
** Played with in the ''Leviathan DLC'', in regards to the Leviathan. Part of the reason that there's so little known about them is because [[spoiler: they've been using [[MoreThanMindControl mind]] [[PeoplePuppets control]] to [[{{UnPerson}} erase any evidence]] of [[InternalRetcon their existence]], so the Reapers don't discover that some of [[NeglectfulPrecursors their creators]] survived being Harvested and have been in hiding for millions of years]].

* ''VideoGame/MinecraftStoryMode'': [[spoiler: Contrary to what the narrator said, this is what happened to the "Legend of the Order of the Stone". At least one detail is different than what actually happened, namely that there was an extra member of the team the legend doesn't mention. But that's not the only deception...]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'', Quain'tana is shrouded in myth to her daughter [[spoiler: (actually granddaughter)]] Ariel, who daydreams of the day she'll meet her famous mother. Unfortunately, when her wish is finally granted, Quain isn't exactly the warmest parent.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "Your Mother and Mine", the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits Off-Colors]] all have wildly different ideas about who [[PosthumousCharacter Rose Quartz]] is (Rhodonite thinks she's an organic beast created on Earth, the Rutile Twins think she's a mutated Quartz that escaped, Fluorite thinks she doesn't exist at all, etc.). Garnet tells them the true story of Rose, how she was an ordinary Quartz soldier who rebelled against the oppressive Pink Diamond... [[spoiler: except Garnet's story ultimately turns out to be false as well. Rose Quartz ''is'' Pink Diamond, who secretly turned against the other Diamonds. The only Crystal Gem who knew the truth was Pearl; everyone else was told the false story.]]

You've heard [[FamedInStory the stories]]. There's someone out there, a LivingLegend, mysterious and untouchable. Rumors and hearsay seem to surround their every word and deed. And not just the normal sort either, but the utterly ridiculous kind. Like that he's thirty feet tall and [[Film/{{Braveheart}} shoots lightning bolts out of his arse]]. Sure, there's a kernel of truth in there somewhere, but who even knows where or what it might be with all the stories surrounding the truth. This all may set up [[ExpectingSomeoneTaller a moment of disappointment]] when [[TheReveal the truth gets revealed]].

** Druss is introduced in ''Literature/{{Legend}}'' as a sixty-year-old RetiredBadass. He's fully aware that he's mortal and fallible and that the bards have exaggerated his prowess, but he also knows the value of his legend to morale.

* [[TheChick Lucy]] from ''Manga/FairyTail'' is often given credit for things that the rest of the team has done, and it spreads fast so she barely gets the chance to correct those myths. On the flip side, most of the fights she has won are known to only a select few.

* Few tanks (or weapons for that matter) in history inspire as much fear and reverence than the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era Tiger I. The German heavy tank was developed as a response to the lack of tanks comparable to French and British heavy tanks encountered during the Battle of France in the German army, and was deployed for the first time on the Eastern Front in late 1942. Heavily armored, and armed with an 8.8 cm [=KwK=] 36 [=L/56=] cannon capable of destroying most Allied armored vehicle from ranges exceeding 2,000 yards, it caused a mass OhCrap reaction among Allied command, which spurred the development of several up-gunned and more heavily armored Allied tanks (such as the [=M26=] Pershing and [=A41=] Centurion) and anti-armor ammunition. Despite the fearsome reputation, it was far from perfect. The over-engineered nature of the tank and the sheer difficulty in transporting such a large fighting vehicle made it a considerable strain on the already-taxed logistics management of the German army, and were produced in too few numbers to impact the overall war effort on their own. In the years following the Second World War, the legend of the Tiger grew to such proportions that it has since gained the reputation as an invincible superweapon, spawning such myths as the "five Shermans to kill one Tiger" fable, and often used as the example of the supposed superiority of ''all'' German tanks against Allied fighting vehicles, especially the American Sherman tank.

* The titular ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' has bards singing praises of him in faraway towns, and even the elves, dwarves and lizardmen have heard of him as a selfless, relentless warrior who heroically protects the common people from goblins. The adventurers who have met him personally, however, don't think quite so highly of his goblin obsession, and even High Elf Archer is dismayed to learn that the famed "[[RedBaron Orcbolg]]" [[BrokenPedestal is just a guy in cheap, dirty armor]] with NoSocialSkills. Nevertheless, for all his flaws, Goblin Slayer's endless quest to erradicate all goblins ''does'' make the world a better place, even if sometimes people don't fully understand the pain and suffering he's saving them from.

* The titular ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' has bards singing praises of him in faraway towns, and even the elves, dwarves and lizardmen have heard of him as a selfless, relentless warrior who heroically protects the common people from goblins. The adventurers who have met him personally, however, don't think quite so highly of his goblin obsession, and even High Elf Archer is dismayed to learn that the famed "[[RedBaron Orcbolg]]" [[BrokenPedestal is just a guy in cheap, dirty armor with]] NoSocialSkills. Nevertheless, for all his flaws, Goblin Slayer's endless quest to erradicate all goblins ''does'' make the world a better place, even if sometimes people don't fully understand the pain and suffering he's saving them from.

* ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'':

* ''Literature/TheWarGods'': Quite a few mentions are made of the fall of an ancient civilization called Kontovar, and how Wencit of Rum was the last white mage who helped people survive. Then they meet him, and he proves that yes, being an ancient wyldmage does make him a badass.

* Hettar in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' has a somewhat...exaggerated description among the Murgos, who he has dedicated most of his life to killing. As in, enormous height and a habit of biting off heads, exaggerated. At one point Urgit [[ExpectingSomeoneTaller comments that he doesn't quite match the stories]], and Hettar remarks "[[DeadpanSnarker I'm in disguise]]."

Contrast KingInTheMountain, MaliciousSlander. Anything from TheTimeOfMyths is invariably Shrouded in Myth. Compare LegendFadesToMyth and SelfMadeMyth.

* Comicbook/{{X 23}} to an extent. The mere mention of her name involved in events surrounding ''Messiah Complex'' sets off red flags with Comicbook/{{SHIELD}}, and prompts them to send a team (actually H.A.M.M.E.R. agents infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D.) after her. Her reputation as an assassin is certainly justified. What ''nobody'' expects is that this accomplished killer is outwardly.