That is true about western myths and western creatures, however I will say
that a lot of myths from other countries are becoming more widely known now.
One example is dragons. In the west, dragons were always traditionally seen
as large, slow moving and cunning, where as the idea of more sinuous
snakelike dragons, and of cragons who are benevolent, magic and powerfull
comes very much from China and japan.
Also, look at capas, which also appear in harry potter, (i've even heard
before that some capas resemble turtles, and the cooper turtles from the
mario games were enspired by this idea, though I've also heard this is an
urban myth so take your pick).
?
Another is the idea of a wendigo, obviously a native american myth, which
I've seen used in variouscircumstances , eg, pet cemetory by steven king.
?
I do however agree, to translate vampires to japan would be quite a tasks,
especially from a religious point of view, sinse unless you changed them
completely, vampires are very much tied to christian symbolism.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <[email protected]>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2012 3:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark,
That's precisely my problem. I don't know enough about Japanese
history or culture to make a credible game. While I know something
about Zen Buddhism I don't see a Buddhist monk or priest fighting
vampires as it would totally be out of character for that faith. Not
only that but all of the vampire mythology we have comes from a
Christian point of view where a cross, ash stake, holy water, and so
on would be effective tools against a vampire. Even Castlevania, which
was written and produced by a Japanese company, chose to use western
mythology rather than Japanese mythology.
In fact, if you think about it most of the monsters we have originated
in Europe. Werewolves, vampires, goblins, trolls, and so on all are
products of European cultures. Its no wonder therefore that once
Catholicism became the main religion people would believe that things
like a wooden cross and some holy water would be a powerful weapon
against such creatures. Take them out of their historical context and
you end up with nothing to hang a story on. As an author I'd have to
end up reinventing the vampire from scratch if we don't use a
Christian hero as the vampire Slayer, and have to do extensive
research into some other religion and how it deals with evil spirits,
demons, whatever..
Cheers!
On 9/3/12, dark <[email protected]> wrote:
Interesting ideas kieth.although I get a little sick of some people
thinking
japan was the only country in the world to have an epic history or
interesting weapons, it is true it could provide soem interesting vampire
ideas, ---- for instance imagining a vampire shogan cosealing his vampire
status from his samurai, or a vampire official in the maigi era
government
using his position in the beurocracy to aide his blood drinking could be
quite different, though I don't unfortunately know enough about shinto or
Japanese buhdist traditions to suggest how the western ideas of vampires
being affected by faith, holy water, holy symbols etc would translate,
though there are probably enough japanese Demon legends and ghost stories
(there's a pretty major horror tradition in Japan), to create some
credible,
if not strictly accurate mythology.
?
This would however in order to feel authentic and not be just the generic
samurai vs vampires in D&D land need to have the touches of culture and
history attached to it, which might, if Tom doesnt' already know about
that
part of the world require a little more research than Tom would be
willing
to do.
?
futuristic vampires could work too, indeed I've seen Doctor who use them
on
several occasions, sinse in the Doctor who mythos one explanation for
vampires is that they are an elder universal race who had a war with the
timelords but were scattered across all time and space when the time
lords
kicked their rear. In fact the 4th doctor story state of decay involves a
vampire living as lord over a village of primative people on an alien
planet
in a crashed spaceship who's old fuel tanks he is filling with the blood
from villagers, sinse he can use the blood to fuel the ship if he gets
enough, which is again quite a unique take on the usual evil vampire
nobleman, lots of peasants version of that story.
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
[email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the
list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
