Norse gods built Scandanavia out of giant bones; Olympian gods built Greece out of Gaia; Ptah built Egypt out of spittle and mud; Ahurah Mazda built Persia out of primordial Flame and Jehovah built Israel by writing the Law.
Each pantheon CLAIMS to have built the whole world, but in fact each pantheon only built their own country. Outside their homelands, the power of gods diminshes. Poseidon rules the Sea near Greece, Aegir rules the Sea near Scandanavia, Leviathan rules the Sea near Israel, Tiamat rules the Sea near Babalon.
So, in the Celestial Empire, the world realy does lie on the backs of the elephants and tortoises, and if you sail too far, you will fall off the edge of the World.
Foreign devil Merchants come to the Celestial Empire to buy porcelain and spices. Foreign devil Merchants do NOT fall off the edge.
edited 20th May '11 4:38:47 PM by Trotzky
Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!Correction, they built the world Scandinavia in your case out of every part of Ymir's body, not just his bones. But that is a good way to juxtapose things.
How are you going to incorporate all the different cosmologies? In Norse cosmology there are nine major worlds connected with a giant ash tree called Yggdrasil, and in the beginning there was just a world of fire and a world of ice, and inbetween a gap of water and mist where Ymir formed.
edited 20th May '11 4:42:04 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.I accept the detailed correction, but my point still stands. Poseidon and Aegir are mightier Sea-gods than the Celestial Sea-God precisely because there are more Foreign devil Sailors praying to them than Celestial Sailors praying to the "True" God of the Sea.
"Edda" CLAIMS to be the History of how the Aesir built the WHOLE world. Hesiod's "Theogony" CLAIMS to be the History of how the Olympians built the WHOLE world. "Torah" CLAIMS to be the History of how Jehovah built the WHOLE world.
I propose each god built their own country and PRETENDED they built the whole world.
Dimension hopping: Egyptian cosmology includes live-world and dead-world, a high lvl wizard or priest can cast Tardis spells, but the power of these spells decreases if you leave Egypt. Celtic cosmology also has Sidhe-world. Only high lvl Druids can cast Go to Sidhe-land spells and theses spells only work if they are near to Celtic lands.
I propose each god built their own country and PRETENDED they built the whole world.
Greek and Norse Dead-lands are so similiar that Necromancers from either country could probably get by.
Greek and Norse Giant-lands are very different. So the spells wouldn't work. Norse Giants are in a parallell dimension to our own. Their war with the Gods is an on going process. Olympian gods defeated the Ice Giants in the long ago time.
You wanna go to Ice giant Land? If you are in Denmark, a 10th lvl Priest casts the Climb to a different branch of Yggdrasil spell. OR in Athens, a 15th lvl priest casts a 2000 year Tardis spell OR in Egypt a 30th lvl casts a million year Tardis spell. Egypt is further away from Ice giant Land, so you need a bigger spell.
edited 20th May '11 5:41:17 PM by Trotzky
Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!Dudeawesome.
But I'll beg to differ about the Greek Underworld and Norse Helheim being essentially same place. I'll accept them being different, possibly overlapping regions on the same plane, though.
Take care to avoid hijacks by Jesus, you'll find a lot of that in the history of myth's recording and study.
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens."How Can All Myths Be True Without Being Confusing?"
A number of ways. firstly, by all mythical creatures existing, but none of their mythologies being correct.
Basically, you still have your hydras and your Kitsune, but the world was not made from Yimir’s corpse nor from gaia’s body.
Another way could be having all mythological creature being invaders from other worlds, where their creations myths hold true.
Finally, you could have each mythology replace and Retcon the ones before it. The world really was made from Gaia’s body, right up until Yahweh came around, and then it is instead a ball of rock decorated in 7 days. Earth was Gaia, for a time, until the next mythology’s influence, but when observed from after that point in time, it seems like it had always been built like Yahweh. However, despite these retcons, the mythological creations of the old worlds still survive, and have managed to break into the current instant of creation.
Granted, that last one doesn’t make it any less confusing…
edit: In light of Trotzky's post, i have to say that is proably the best possible soluotion, as it is both coherent, and has a lot of conflcit inherint within the system.
edited 22nd May '11 2:17:44 AM by doorhandle
A taverna in Olympus: Thor and Hercules drink. God the Holy Trinity comes in through the wall, He is 3 cherubic faces gazing lovingly at each other. Trinity passes through Herules' back, emerges out of Herc's chest and moves in a mysterious way.
Hercules: I hate it when he does that.
Thor: Ja. He acts as if ve don't exist at all.
Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!

Thread Hop: Riordan did an interesting take on the Greek and Roman myths, saying that they're the same gods... which basically have multiple personality disorder.
He also says that gods and monsters take on aspects of the place they currently reside (for instance, Zeus has taken to reality television and a Chinese restaurant in New York)
This may be helpful.
edited 17th May '11 5:20:57 PM by Diamonnes
My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.