What are /tg/'s favorite bits of mythology/folklore to grab inspiration from?
Djinn are pretty badass. Beings from another dimension with their own politics, goals, and sense of morality that can't be understood by mortals, and they can be summoned to do bidding.
I usually go with the parts of Genesis before and immediately after the Deluge.
>Cain and Abel
>Lamech's children as the founders of civilization
>The Tower of Babel (although that's after the Deluge)
>People living for centuries and not giving a fuck
>Mosaic law hadn't been written yet, so morality and ethics were hazy
Pretty much the only time in the Bible when humans could really leave their inhibitions at the door and get some real advancement/regression done. Since there's not a whole lot in that part of the Bible aside from "X begat Y", there's plenty of room for fantasy.I draw the line at ancient aliens though. Kind of defeats the purpose of the whole "humanity fuck yeah" of that period.
>>47299704
> Lamech fathering civilization
> When his Great Great (etc) Grandfather Cain founded the first city and his sons were the first shepherds, musicians, and metallurgists
Goy please...
>>47300620
And Lamech was a descendant of Cain. Cain built the first city, but Lamech's sons Jubal, Jabal, and Tubal-(Cain) were the first shepherd, musician, and metallurgist respectively. Cf. Genesis 4:17-24.
>>47300667
I stand corrected!
Hindi tantra.
Neoplatonism.
Cunning Craft.
SE Asian social structures and monsters.
Zoroastrian material via Ferdowsi.
Crowley-type personalities for book wizards.
>>47299704 - I love this period and study it pretty thoroughly, but I have a hard time adding Hebrew mysticism, Kabbalah, Merkavah/Hekhalot, or Apocalyptica to a game, generally, as I tend to avoid Abrahamic material...it feels lazy in a game, and most folks can't wrap their head around the concepts, while tantra, et al., tend to be alien enough for me to do some color swaps and have something that folks won't notice or recognize immediately.
>>47299704
>>47300831
Ancient and pre-Roman fantasy is my favorite fantasy. I'm still very surprised that nobody in Hollywood has seen the potential of a Gilgamesh movie. I hope Gods of Egypt hasn't killed the genre.
>>47299623
Anything Aztec related is terrifying as fuck. Seriously, their GOOD gods demand gratuitous sacrifice and bloodshed or else they'll fuck off and leave the planet to die.
>>47301760
Yeah, that too. But it's too easy to go "ripping hearts lol" and not go any further into the background like the Five Suns.
>>47301829
Yeah, I always liked their cosmology and the concept of Teotl too. It's really fun to play around with.
>>47299704
Don't forget all those goddamn half-angel giants running around.
>Persian/Middle Eastern myth
>Native American mythical creatures/spirits
>The Fair Folk
>Slavic folktales/folk beliefs, especially old vampire lore
>Assorted otherworlds/underworlds from multiple cultures
>London urban myths/tosher sewer tales
>Sea myths from various cultures
>>47299623
>Different dimension
Yeah the Classic D&D mythos of Djinn is cool. But honestly i think the Traditinal Arabic version of Djinn as one of the three sentient creatures of god is a bit better.
Beings made from smokeless fire, while humans were made from Clay, and angels made of light. They wern't reality warpers with wish granting, they just had a bunch of cool superpowers like super strength and speed, with a tendency for poor impulse control.
>>47302557
The traditional Arabic version also came from a different dimension, usually called Qaf or The Mountains of Qaf, though sometimes that seems to have been interpreted as just a far away land; these concepts of "other worlds" in ancient and medieval cultures can be hard to define." Djinn were also sometimes held to reside in a spirit world of sorts, invisibly moving all about us.
Personally I go for Gaelic and Celtic polytheism, maybe some elements from germanic fairytales, and Nordic mythology.
>>47302557
That makes them more or less analogous to fair folk.
Which I have no issues with, as this is how I run them in my own campaign. Efreet/Djinn/Dao/Marid aren't races of genies so much as they're elementally aligned noble houses. Any individual genie is free to align with or act independently of these houses as they see fit.
>>47303520
Even in the folklore, those terms weren't really about different "species" of djinn. They were just terms for djinn with different habits. Efreet were the most evil, marids the most powerful, etc.
