It would be easy to just jump to the obvious book to come up with the mythologies that should be available in The First Age – we aren’t going to do that. I only want to look at what the PB, MM and perhaps what the DMG provides. With Titans, Medusa, Minotaur, Triton, Satyr, Pegasus, Nymph, Merman, Hydra, Harpy and Centaur – its clear we have a strong Greek presence. But there are many, many creatures taken from mythologies from around the world.
I asked the opinion of the folks over on The RPG Site about this in the Pantheon Must Haves for a 1st Edition Default World thread; many thought, as did the Pundit, that to do it right all the pantheons of the original MM need to be there.
But this doesn’t mean that all gods and mythologies are equal. It is suggestive of a number of possible implementations of divinity within the world:
- The relative presences could be a reflection of the strength of the specific pantheon in The First Age. There are many monsters of the mythology of Ancient Greece, therefore its an indicator that the Greek Pantheon is strong within The First Age world relative to others.
- These monsters are supportive of the individual legends of the mythology, therefore the perpetuation of legend may be linked to an individual god’s strength, or the power of the pantheon.
- The availability of sub-classes with divine connections such as the Paladin, Ranger, Druid and Bard also are indicators of the relative strengths of mythologies i which these sub-classes are possibly associated