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[Kadzar]

In the beginning there was formless chaos, for that is how a universe generally begins.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Inspired by this, but intended to follow how myths actually are rather than having any concern for logical consistency. Most especially inspired by Harbingerjm's post, which is a lot more like most myths than the rest of the thread. As far as I recall, the Chinese creation myth involves an egg appearing out of nowhere, and the first man hatches out of it, breaking it open with an ax despite the fact that there's no way axes could have been invented at this point; dude just had an ax, and you just have to accept that. Also, there's a lot of things that turn into other things when they die in myths, like when Dwarves were created from maggots that appeared in the body of the first living thing in Norse mythology (which was the frost giant Ymir, who was created where fire and ice met and the fire melted the ice).

So things can get a little crazy. The important thing to remember tone-wise is that this should be written from the point of view of an early civilization (like maybe bronze age or so), so there shouldn't be any sort of modern or future-type things referenced, though things that are like that but magic are okay (I am totally cool with gods having magic spaceships and whatnot). And from that, I think it goes without saying but I'll mention it anyway, you shouldn't include characters that come from other works unless they are expies that have been made to work in the universe.

Oh, and have fun.

[Mlamlah]

I'm flattered, and happy i could provide some inspiration. I'll probably duck out initially, see how other people put everything together, but i'll be watching! ^^
PTW

[Harbingerjm]

In the beginning, there was a rodent, and it was small, and very, very fluffy. From it came the land, the sea and the stars, from one bodily function or another. Best not to ask too many questions there.

[Descan]

apparently i'm not good at this.

[Kadzar]

In the beginning, there was a rodent, and it was small, and very, very fluffy. From it came the land, the sea and the stars, from one bodily function or another. Best not to ask too many questions there.

From the body of the rodent there arose a race of giant fleas. After a time without measure, one of the fleas first molted, and from this molting there came to be the first god, Xarokan.

In the beginning there was the chariot, gleaming in the formless cloud. And it formed the stars and the sky and the lifeless earth from the formless cloud. And the sun itself was formed from the formless cloud. The mountains and the hills were pulled from the lifeless earth, the valley furrowed, and the seas spilt from the heavens. The seeds of life were spilt into the seas and across the fields, and great forests of wood and kelp sprang from these seeds. Creatures that fed on the kelp and the wood were brought forth, and creatures that fed on them in turn were brought forth. Man himself was one such creature, both feeding on the wood and feeding on the creatures, chosen by the gods in their chariot to tend to the earth. There they dwell in their chariot in the sky, sleeping in the day and protecting us from the fanged beasts at night, keeping an eye on us all.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Basically aliens made the solar system out of a nebulae, seeded the earth with life and sculpted it, and uplifted humans, and they keep an eye on things to make sure we don't kill each other from their moon base. :3 I tried to keep the general creation myth style, with repetition and simple words.

I think I didn't really explain the early civilization point of view thing well. The idea isn't that these are things they saw and observed, more how they would think the world was created and how things work in the myth. Also, this is a bit Judeo-Christian with impersonal unknowable gods, which I want to steer away from since one of the most interesting parts of a cosmogeny is the origins and relationships of the gods with the world.

[Descan]

I thought it was a bit more free-form than all that... I just figured they were told about what happened, didn't understand, the aliens gave up and just decided to watch, and the humans incorporated what they were told into their creation myth, to the best they were able to.

[Kadzar]

Yeah, I get that, but the thing about creation myths is that they have very little to do with what supposedly actually happened, and more to do with why things are the way they are, and operates on a very symbolic level.

[Descan]

Never mind, then. I'll just delete it.

[Xantalos]

And lo! Xarokan looked upon the fleas and turned them into rice grains. He then wove a basket with them, and the basket was the world.

[mcclay]

But from the darkness around the basket came horde of great and terrible beings, unknowable in their heinousness.

[Harbingerjm]

And lo! Xarokan looked upon the fleas and turned them into rice grains. He then wove a basket with them, and the basket was the world.

*Cough*

In the beginning, there was a rodent, and it was small, and very, very fluffy. From it came the land, the sea and the stars, from one bodily function or another. Best not to ask too many questions there.

[Xantalos]

And lo! Xarokan looked upon the fleas and turned them into rice grains. He then wove a basket with them, and the basket was the world.

*Cough*

In the beginning, there was a rodent, and it was small, and very, very fluffy. From it came the land, the sea and the stars, from one bodily function or another. Best not to ask too many questions there.

The basket was on top of the land, and the people lived in it. Therefore it was the world.

[Kadzar]

Never mind, then. I'll just delete it.

Well, it doesn't actually have to be symbolic; it just has to seem symbolic. And, though you look at things through the lens of a bronze age person (who may or may not be human, depending on where things go here), the general point of view will be about god-level until you get to the point where you have heroes like Heracles and Perseus running around (though you might still have gods'-eye stories, especially if the gods are heroes themselves, like in the Norse myths), and the gods' motives will be understandable because they are basically just humans (or whoever else would be telling the myths in this world) with such great power that their doings cause massive changes to the landscape of the world and the world in general.

Though, now that I think about it, the idea of this game should be that the myths are true, probably. There could be some leeway, and it's not at all uncommon in mythology for there to be multiple conflicting myths about the same thing. It could be that there is a culture that believes the world was created by some gods in a flying sky chariot, who come into conflict with the ones who believe that the first god came from a giant flea that came from the body of a great rodent. And the crazy thing about mythology is that these two myths could be two different interpretations of the same thing. And you don't know for sure if people just made this story up about one of the gods or if it really is part of his backstory.

[Harbingerjm]

And lo, from the the fleas that had fed upon the blood of the Rodent Most Fluffy and been woven into the world, sprang forth more rodents, also fluffy and adorable if much less so, and often delicious.

[micelus]

And though divine, such rodents lacked sustenance. Quickly did brother begin to feast on brother while sisters hunted one another. From this depravity did the first demon emerge: Selekel The False-Fur.