Archetypal Heroes: Who was what?

[Judging__Eagle]

At the end of a paper that I submitted for an english class dealt with gaming, since the proff was a non-gamer, I used the loosest possible terms to describe the issue that I was describing and why it was an issue.

As part of my closing statement I talked about how, in an ideal world, the people taking part in the co-operative storytelling could

... for people to tell and retell stories in different manners.

Perhaps they could tell the epic saga of how Hercules, Roland, Buddha and Merlin stopped the evil hordes of Loki’s Fire and Ice Jotunbrud (giants) from overrunning the Seven Mounting Heavens of the Middle Kingdom of Chin(a). Followed then by these same heroes gaining the friendship of Loki’s wolf sons Fenris, Haati and Garm and helping them travel to the roots of Yggdrasil to appease the great serpent Nidhogg with golden apples connived from the gods of Mount Olympus.

Of course, the story of how Conan, St. George, Gilgamesh and Sir Lancelot worked with Elijah and his student Elisha to prevent the goblin legions of the Lord of Mordor of from invading the valley of Shangri-La at the request of Sinbad the Sailor could be told instead.

When I re-wrote the essay I got to thinking about the last part and thought of how often a character that someone plays is probably based on an idea that has already existed in mythology as well as what sort of roles different heroes in myths and legends played.

[Voss]

In most cases, probably only indirectly. Most gamers only have the most passing familiarity with myth and legend, and any connection is going to go through several generations of pop culture before hitting the good stuff.

I mean if you tie an NPC wizard into your game, and he ends up turning a corrupt lackey into a doe for a year, ensuring the doe gets pregnant, and turning the resulting fawn into a human so he has a better lackey, you'll probably just get blank looks.

[JonSetanta]

One correction: the fire giants were not Loki's. They existed pre-Asgard, and long after its fall.. hell, they were the ones that sacked the place (if indeed Ragnarok is in past-tense, who the hell knows)

Ice giants were in an alliance probably because, technically, Loki is a giant too. He was only an Asgardian god because Odin said so, but never fit in nor functioned as a member of the pantheon, sort of like if the DC comics JLA had the Joker as a temporary member only when the States came under attack from an outside foe.

IMHO, his contingency plan of spawning three beings to be analogous to the Greek Titans, inherently powerful (by blood? training? luck?), one set up as ruler of the very place gods go when they die, one that envelops and poisons the entire world, and one that
Fuck... Loki's grandkids by Fenrir chase the sun and moon in orbit.
That's badass.

He led Asgard threw smashing victories, only to ball it all up at the end in one long, well-planned (or incredibly lucky) scheme.
With someone like Loki, in reading the myths one can't even be sure if he's gone forever.
Probably faked his own death, and I don't mean the comics but in the actual Prose Edda...
Odin, too.

I like to play characters like that whenever possible, in RPGs.
Not the titan-power or divine birthright, but a "hero" that breaks the very definition of "saving the day", "defeating the dragon", and "winning the maiden".
In Loki's case, he had Norse gods eating out of his palm (seriously, Thor was his bitch), fathering monsters with a harem of giant chicas, and gaining ultimate revenge/justice on the same ones that slaughter his own kind and imprison him.

In retrospect, for all the pranks he played, if they were taken in jest and good humor rather than eye-for-eye (Sif's hair, for instance), would Loki have betrayed Odin and Asgard?

The fire giants would have destroyed everything anyway, but it makes me wonder... could have things been different if someone in Asgard just said "Thanks for saving our asses, Loki! You're a real pal" just once?

Could he have made a difference?

[Aktariel]

1196989734[/unixtime]]I mean if you tie an NPC wizard into your game, and he ends up turning a corrupt lackey into a doe for a year, ensuring the doe gets pregnant, and turning the resulting fawn into a human so he has a better lackey, you'll probably just get blank looks.

Math son of Mathonwy? Other than that I'm out of ideas, yes.

That, and if it was, then Gwydion wasn't really corrupt. Just... stupid? Traitorous?