More of a question for the random role play section than anything else...
So, among those of us who have OCs (not taken directly from the Land Before Time or other media), settings, and other aspects of a world in which to role-play, what are some of the things which influenced you?
Here are some of mine for the Fantasy RP and it's spin off, Free-Form Fantasy. I will add to the list as I have time to write more:
Dungeons and Dragons: An obvious influence on many if not most roleplaying games, the elements most directly inspired by the series were the various "classes" or heroes, the Dragonborn race which was the basis for the Dracons.
Pirates of Dark Water: The most excellent animated series to ever be canceled mid-season, in my opinion. This show was about a band of misfits sailing on a stolen ship to recover 13 lost treasures in order to save their world from the corrosive dark water that is threatening to consume it. A major inspiration for Adykon came from the character Ioz, who is described as:
"A mercenary with dubious integrity who will do almost anything for a handful of gold. He is a rugged adventurer who has been in more battles and street brawls than he can remember."
Source:
http://piratesofdarkwater.net/characters/Quest For Glory: An old Sierra Adventure game series that, to a large extent, provided the basis for the desert theme of the Dracons, as well as the dancer motif. It also provided the basis for the characters of Arcantas and Asthia in the original form of Ad Avis and Katrina. A major departure from the series is that the "Dark Master" WAS Katrina in Quest for Glory, but in the Fantasy RP, Asthia and the Dark Master are two different characters entirely.
Hero With a Thousand Faces: Although I have only read it briefly, I am quite familiar with the basis of the Hero's Journey, which is a recurring element in myths across all world cultures. Generally, it involves a young man receiving a quest from an older man or other herald, and the hero is left with the choice whether or not to accept the call. Refusing the call generally has dire consequences for the hero (such as Luke Skywalker's farm being burned down.)
Accepting the quest can be just as hard; it requires the hero to leave behind the everyday world and enter into a mythic "other world" in which the rules of everyday life are suspended. Getting to this place requires the defeat of a "threshold guardian" and once in the other world, the hero finds himself in a place of tremendous challenges, but also finds supernatural aid in the form of helpers, magic, and lessons learned. Eventually, this journey culminates in a great ordeal, which, if the hero is triumphant, he will emerge with the "Ultimate Boon", a kind of "Holy Grail" or item that he was searching for the whole time. After this, he takes the boon back past the threshold into the world of everyday, and bestows it on his fellow man.
I've modified parts of the mythos structure in this RP... at least in the first story arc. In that, the "wise old man" figure who announces the quest is really the villain, and the boon the hero was searching for was the source of danger the whole time. In the second arc, the "boon" is Rhiga, a party member who was captured by the villains.
Here's a diagram:
Here's a link to a site that explains it better than I can:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main...TheHerosJourneyWizardry Series: Like Quest For Glory, another defunct computer game series (they will ALL be defunct at some point, to be fair), this one was a pioneer in its time. The most obvious influence is the Dracon race itself, from which I derive the name, the acid breath, and even some of the appearance. Specifically, the most influential one on my RP is, Wizardry 8.
Mystery Cults: While some of this influence has not yet appeared in the RPs of mine, the religious and philosophical reality that the Dracons live in is highly influenced by various syncretic cults that appeared in the Hellenistic and Roman worlds, making a splash in late antiquity and (to a lesser extent), the early middle ages. Keep in mind that until Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and some offshoots) came forward, the gap between religion and philosophy was far more blurred, as it still is in non-Abrahamic lands.
Note that some "pure" religious and philosophical systems, such as Judaism, Zorastrianism, Platonism, Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, Christianity, And Islam are not considered mystery cults, as the latter are defined by the secrecy associated with the particulars of the initiation and the cult practice, which may not be revealed to outsiders.
Here are a few:
Gnosticism: A Greek philosophy/religion which was based on the idea that matter is evil (or at the very least, a divine mistake), and that salvation comes from enlightenment and revelation, as opposed to faith, hope, and love. It developed out of Greek polytheism, Neoplatonism, and in some strains, fused with Christian thought. Different strains of Gnostic thought existed, so the particulars of what each one believed vary from place to place. The "gnosis" referred to in the term is a form of revealed, esoteric knowledge through which the spiritual elements of humanity are reminded of their true origins within the superior Godhead, being thus permitted to escape materiality. I mentioned it without naming it in the free-form RP, in the book Kria was reading.
Mithrianism: A Persian cult which grew out of Zoroastrianism that revered a bull-slaying hero who grew out of a rock in a cave. It only allowed men into it, which killed its prospects for long-term survival, but was very popular among soldiers in late antiquity, due to its insistence that heaven is on the side of those who win battles, because victory is a sign of divine favor. A version of this will be seen in Dracon armies later.
Manichaeism: Considered a Gnostic religion in its own right, this cult grew out of Zoroastrian thought fusing with Greek philosophy. Founded by a prophet named Mani, Manichaeism is distinguished by its elaborate cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light from which it came. St. Augustine was a Manichean before he converted to Catholicism.
"Manichean" today refers to any system of thinking which is too divided between extremes of darkness and light.
Dionysus Mysteries: This one is much easier to understand.
. Dionysus, or Bacchus in his Roman name (also called "Liber"), was the God of wine and revelry. For anyone who's played the RP for any length of time, it is easy to see how the Dracons would be influenced by an analogous cult. I am toning it way down, though, as this is still a PG-13 rated RP. The Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual which used intoxicants and other trance inducing techniques, such as dance and music, to remove inhibitions and artificial societal constraints, liberating the individual to return to a more natural and primal state. It also afforded a degree of liberation for the marginals of Greek society: women, slaves and foreigners.
