In previous posts, I've shown you how to create documents for a tabletop roleplaying setting. I'm adding this more in-depth post because you can get much more involved with the process if you want to. In a session I recently played with my mystery campaign folks, the players ended up at a bookstore, and Beor was interested in finding a book on dwarven creation myths. It was a halfling-centric shop, so there were no books dedicated specifically to dwarven history, but I decided that the was in fact a book in which a halfling author compared each race's respective creation myths. This felt to me to be a good compromise given the situation. And once Beor had paid for the book, I told his player, "If you want, I'll actually write that book." He was very into it. So I'll be showing how to draft something like this.
(If creating a book sounds too intimidating--and I promise, it isn't--you can also create notes for in-game documents as though your player character wrote them themselves.)
The first thing to do is create an outline. We know that we need each race's creation myth so we can compare them, and we also need to have meaningful points of comparison. So there first draft of our outline should start from what is common to all creation myths. Let's start there.
Whatever the creation myths share, the points of commonality should be noteworthy but still allow for variance. Let's say that each creation myth has about five beats, and we want to make two or three of those beats somewhat similar. We want to have some things be common to all creation myths and have a few things common between specific examples. So let's start by writing a base creation myth to work from.
In the beginning was the earth. Then humanoids appeared, with reasons causing their physical differences. Then the humanoids developed civilization, which spread between the races.
It's not much, but it's enough of a start. We have room to determine how and why humanoids appears, what the reasons for physical differences are, and how civilization was built and moved. But we want something more specific to tie the stories together.
Humanoids lived in chaos until the formation of civilization. Their physical differences caused troubles. Civilization acted as a uniting force.
These details will allow us further differentiation while providing more context for each race's creation myth and uniting them at certain points. Since we're still only drafting, we don't want too much detail. That comes in the next step: writing each myth.
We need a total of 7 creation myths for this book. There are ones for each race (elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, orcs) and two for humans since my homebrew setting has two distinct bloodlines for humans (Faninite and Daltoner, neither of whom had arrived on the main continent until fairly recent history). Each myth needs something unique about it. So we'll use inspiration from our feelings about each race. As a GM, you likely have opinions about what each race is like--use that to influence your information about them. I'm starting with halflings since the book is from a halfling perspective:
In the beginning was the earth. Winds blew and formed the earth into little piles. The piles grew and grew in ever-stranger shapes until they formed into the shape of humanoids. The differences in soils between each homeland was enough that the soil formed into slightly different shapes. These soil bodies stood for hundreds of years until finally it rained. The water combined with the soil and awakened the bodies. For hundreds of years more, the soil bodies moved around, unspeaking. Finally, a great wind blew and filled the bodies with breath. Awakened, the humanoids began to build civilization, using their work together to benefit all people. The halflings tried to bring the secrets of civilization to the elves, but the taller humanoids did not believe the halflings could discover something of such value. Neither would the dwarves nor the orcs accept the gift of civilization. But with the helpful gnomes, the halflings spread the awareness of working together across the world. Eventually, the world took the form as we know it.
This will work for now; we're going to expand this a bit more so that it can be analyzed more closely. But first, let's work on the elven creation myth:
In the beginning was the earth. The gods were fighting and did not speak to each other, so they became lonely. They took elements of the earth and created immortal beings in their own likenesses. From the trees came elves, from stone came dwarves, from metal came gnomes, from air came halflings, and from fire came orcs. These new beings walked the earth, clashing with the other races. For a thousand years, the races warred over territory and resources. Eventually the gods had to step in again. They took away the immortality of the beings. War became more costly and devastating. The races called an end to wars and pledged to cooperate to build something for everyone. The elves led the cause toward civilization. Today, each culture adds its best to the collection of humanity.
The elven story departs from the halfling story in that the cause of life is different, and the nature of life is different, but they still follow a basic pattern of life coming from nothing. The elves and halflings disagree about who created civilization, which is a natural difference we might expect. But the basic story beats are the same: nothing, humanoids, civilization invented, civilization spread. Let's tackle the dwarves:
In the beginning was the earth. Animals ruled the world. Moradin, god of the dwarves, believed that there was something greater than animal life, so he took a bull and changed it to make the first dwarf. Seeing what Moradin had done, the other gods set to work turning animals into humanoids. Deer became elves, foxes became gnomes, bears became orcs, and sparrows became halflings. The gods became stuck in a cold war, building armies of their humanoids in case another god tried to control the earth. Before long, there was thousands of humanoids across the continent. But the humanoids were wretched and behaved still as animals. So Moradin called a meeting with the other gods, and they agreed to create a joint effort to improve the lives of all humanoids. This was called civilization, and it caused the races to set aside their differences and work together.
Now we have some real differentiation. The dwarves have different origins than either the halfling or elves, and civilization has gone from an invention of the humanoids to a gift from the gods. We're picking up some steam now. Let's do the orcs:
In the beginning was the earth. There was a tribe of humanoids who lived in the center of the continent, and before long, there were disagreements about how to live. So the tribe split into several tribes, and each went a different way across the continent. Each tribe farmed the unique plants and animals of their new regions, and the diets they ate changed their bodies. The harsh diet of what would become orcs turned their bodies big, strong, and resistant. The lush diet of what would become halflings turned them into small, lithe beings. So followed the other races. But as humanoids spread further across the world, the races reencountered each other and once again had disagreements. By sharing their food supplies, the humanoids became ever more like each other. They eventually formed into one people, all focused on the survival and benefit of everyone. Such was the birth of civilization and life as we know it.
The orcs believe that all people come from the same stock. This is actually a reference to my podcasted campaign years ago, where one scholar theorized that all humanoids shared a genetic ancestor. I intended this theory to be correct, so I thought it would be fun to have one of the races get pretty close to this theory. We still have a few creation myths to write, though, so here is the gnomes':
In the beginning was the earth. The gods reigned on the earth and created ever-more complicated machines to satisfy their needs. But the gods created so many machines that they could not operate all of them, so they created assistants. These assistants were formed of earth and the gods' spirits, and they were made to function well given the machine they were meant to operate. Gnomes were made to service small machines with delicate parts, while the orcs were made to lift great machines. Each race had its specialty. Humanoids went on working for the gods for thousands of years, until finally, the gods grew tired of their lives on the earth. They resolved to move to the heavens with their machines but leave the humanoids behind. Without machines to operate, the humanoids dealt different with the loss. Gnomes built new machines, while elves returned their focus to nature. With the help of the gnomes' machines and the cooperation of all the races, the humanoids built civilization and began anew without the gods.
This creation myth is a little further away from typical creation myth fare, but I love how the gnomes (in general and in particular in my homebrew setting) are so practically-minded, so I wanted to honor their focus on machines in their myth. Now for the humans, imperialistic Daltoners first:
In the beginning was the earth. The island from which humans sprang was a desolate, challenging place. No life could be sustained there in great number, but the gods had different plans. They placed a village of humans on the rock and kept hard storms coming to prepare the humans for the worst. Great Pelor, the sun god, demanded sacrifices to sustain the village. The humans sacrificed their food, their loved ones, and their homes depending on what Pelor asked. But it was not enough. And so the humans created civilization to better serve Pelor. Together, they were able to satisfy the sacrifices needed by the god and make a meager living on the island.
I have written in my setting notes that Daltoners are religiously governed and that they do not shy away from violence, so this sacrifice story fits their mythology well. It's also worth noting that because the Daltoners arose on an island without non-human, their creation myth doesn't involve other races. This will allow us to analyze the myth in more detail later on. But for now, the final creation myth--the peaceful Faninites:
In the beginning was the earth. The earth was massive, but it had small places, places like the island of Fanin. The island was home to one of the greatest forests on earth. For centuries, the trees released seeds and spores which spawned new trees. But one year, the gods smiled upon Fanin and blessed it with the same life they had spread across the earth in years past. Instead of seeds and spores, the trees released human life. The humans who were born of the trees were the first generation of humans, combinations of all the traits of the races that came before. The humans set to work making life for themselves away from the rest of the earth, and they soon realized that their efforts combined were greater than their individual efforts. So they celebrated with a great feast, the first reward of their cooperation, and so was born civilization again, miles from where it had been first discovered by the other races. That humans did so on their own was a sign from the gods that they were just as valued as anyone else.
Here, the Faninites are actually aware of other races despite not being in contact with them until only a few thousand years ago. My backstory for this is that the Faninites arrived by boat on Evanoch and immediately assimilated into the Evanine way of life. Thus, this background is honored by the creation myth and gives a certain humility to the Faninites.
Now we have each of our creation myths in brief form, and we have three steps to go: (1) expand these creation myths into more complete stories to analyze, (2) analyze these stories, and (3) do any necessary editing to get this thing into a proper shape. But now we want the creation myths to be addressed as the author of the book would, not as we've written them already. So it's time to add some details and flair to accomplish steps 1 and 2 as we go. Back to the halfling myth, along with the author's additions:
When we consider the halfling creation myth, it is immediately apparent that a reverence of nature and a sense of specialness associated with being a halfling. Consider this translation of a set of stories about how halflings believe the world came to be as we know it:
In the beginning was the earth. The earth was bare except for dirt and winds. The winds blew and formed the earth into little piles. At the direction of the wind, the piles grew and grew in ever-stranger shapes until they formed into the shape of humanoids. The differences in soils between each homeland was enough that the soil formed into different shapes. These soil bodies stood for hundreds of years until finally, for the first time, it rained. The water combined with the soil and awakened the bodies. For hundreds of years more, the soil bodies moved around, unspeaking. These bodies had no needs nor the ability to serve any needs. Finally, a great wind blew and filled the bodies with breath. Fully awakened, the halflings began to build civilization, using their work together to benefit all people. The halflings tried to bring the secrets of civilization to the elves, but the taller humanoids did not believe the halflings could discover something of such value. Neither would the dwarves nor the orcs accept the gift of civilization. But with the helpful gnomes, who were also small of stature but strong of heart, the halflings spread the awareness of working together across the world. Eventually, the world took the form as we know it, with people cooperating to sustain us all.
We see from this story that halflings do not attribute their creation to the gods as many cultures do. Rather, they believe that nature is a self-fulfilling mechanism which creates and sustains. It also casts the halflings as heroes among humanoids for creating civilization. Unlike any other creation myth, the halflings give credit to another race for help in forming the world. And this creation myth ends on the note of the world as we know it, suggesting that the myth was formed at least in part after tribes had progressed to larger settlements. Halflings, then, celebrate the move from nature to civilization as the moment we became more than nature.
You can see in the short paragraph before and the paragraph after the creation myth that the analysis consists mostly of describing what makes the myth unique. This is information that I gathered/generated while writing the other myths, so having outlined all the myths before analyzing them really pays off. In the second section, we can get into commonalities, but for now, we want to be summarizing the myth as it stands alone. Then the elves again, now with author additions:
The elves' creation myth, in contrast, is related more to the actions of the gods. There is still a respect paid to nature via the way that each race was formed. Pay close attention to the use of civilization to resolve war:
In the beginning was the earth. The gods, who had been alive for thousands of year, were fighting and no longer spoke to each other, so they became lonely. They took elements of the earth and created immortal beings in their own likenesses, each trying to outdo the others. From the trees came elves, from stone came dwarves, from metal came gnomes, from air came halflings, and from fire came orcs. These new beings walked the earth, clashing with the other races because they each meant to serve their gods. For a thousand years, the races warred over territory and resources. Eventually the gods had to step in again. They took away the immortality of the beings. As a result, war became more costly and devastating. In a grand conference, the races called an end to wars and pledged to cooperate to build something for everyone. The elves led the cause toward civilization, developing new ways to work together. Today, each culture adds its best to the collection of humanity.
We see here that the elves believe war and clashes to be central to the humanoid condition. The humanoids and gods again and again must interfere with the worst impulses of humanity. To include this in a creation myth means that elves implicitly understand the struggle between living things and have resolved this struggle by forming a cooperative civilization. Unlike the halflings, they do not see civilization as a way to work towards our best but rather as a means to subvert our worst actions. The ending about each culture adding its best is a new addition, a manner of post script offered by the perspective of modern scholars.
Here we have the author guiding the conversation about creation myths in a way that moves the reader through a series of ideas. This will get increasingly difficult to manage as we deal with more and more creation myths, but we'll stay grounded by keeping the author's perspective on things front and center. Let's return to the dwarves:
Dwarves, on the other hand, have a more colorful approach to the differences between races--not a product of the gods, and not something related to the way life naturally occurs on earth, but a space between the two.
In the beginning was the earth. Animals ruled the world. Moradin, god of the dwarves, believed that there was something greater than animal life, so he took a bull and changed it to make the first dwarf. Seeing what Moradin had done, the other gods set to work turning animals into humanoids. At the hands of the gods, deer became elves, foxes became gnomes, bears became orcs, and sparrows became halflings. The gods became stuck in a cold war, building armies of their humanoids in case another god tried to control the earth. Before long, there were thousands of humanoids across the continent, each trying to serve the gods who had made them. But the humanoids were wretched and behaved still as animals. So Moradin called a meeting with the other gods, and they agreed to create a joint effort to improve the lives of all humanoids. This was called civilization, and it caused the races to set aside their differences and work together.
Like the halflings, dwarves believe we come from natural parts of the world, but like the elves, they believe that the gods guided those formations. The animal lineages of each race express what is believed to be unique about each race in a similar fashion to the halflings, but from recognizable forms of life instead of raw earth. And in the dwarves' rendition, civilization is a gift from the gods, not something developed by the humanoids. These differences tell us that dwarves view order and cooperation as something beyond the realm of humanoid possibilities. These differences make the dwarven creation myth more focused on history than a traditional story of life-giving.
Our author is mixing in individual analysis and comparisons, so we're moving along. On to the orcs:
The creation myth of the orcs posits that all humanoids are genetically the same but have distinct dietary changes that account for the different races. This change makes the orcish creation myth fairly unique.
In the beginning was the earth. There was a tribe of humanoids who lived in the center of the continent, and they had always lived there. Before long, there were disagreements about how to live. Make war or peace? Grow food or hunt? So the tribe split into several tribes, and each went a different way across the continent according to their beliefs. Each tribe farmed the unique plants and animals of their new regions, and the diets they ate soon changed their bodies. The harsh diet of what would become orcs turned their bodies big, strong, and resistant. The lush diet of what would become halflings turned them into small, lithe beings. So followed the other races, each according to what it consumed and became. But as humanoids spread further across the world, the races reencountered each other and once again had disagreements. By sharing their food supplies, the humanoids became ever more like each other. They eventually formed into one people, all focused on the survival and benefit of everyone. Such was the birth of civilization and life as we know it.
The implication of this story is that the races were once much more different that they are today, but the more important detail is that we have all sprung up from the same life which was once united. Like the other creation myths, disagreements between the races forms the reason for creating civilization. This means that all life remained tribal for a majority of the time they have existed. In fact, orcs believe humanoid life always existed, meaning that cooperation above a tribal scale is a relatively new phenomenon. Like the halflings and elves, the orcs believe that civilization was created by humanoids, though unlike those other races, the orcs do not place a claim on the invention themselves.
You might notice that the first short paragraph in these sections is a big idea represented in the creation myth, and that the paragraph that follows the myth does the comparison and detail work. This is generally how academic writing functions, and I'm emulating that in order to make this feel like a real book. On to the gnomes:
The gnomes' creation myth takes a wide step away from the typical fare of creation myths and places great emphasis on the role of machines in gnomish culture. Consider the social structure implied by this myth:
In the beginning was the earth. The gods reigned on the earth and had many needs, so they created ever-more complicated machines to satisfy those needs. But the gods created so many machines that they could not operate all of them, so they needed assistants. They formed these assistants of earth and the gods' spirits, and they were made to function well given the machine they were meant to operate. Gnomes were made to service small machines with delicate parts, while the orcs were made to lift great machines. Each race had its specialty, and their bodies were formed accordingly Humanoids went on working for the gods for thousands of years, until finally, the gods grew tired of their lives on the earth. They resolved to move to the heavens with their machines but leave the humanoids behind. Without machines to operate, the humanoids dealt differently with the loss. Gnomes built new machines, while elves returned their focus to nature. The other races each learned to live without machines to give them purpose. With the help of the gnomes' machines and the cooperation of all the races, the humanoids built civilization and began anew without the gods.
At the risk of editorializing, this sounds like a nightmare more than a creation myth. Living in order to service machines is a dark outlook on life. It makes one wonder why the gnomish people are so cheerful. I submit that this story explains the gnomish sense of duty and ingenuity--creating devices like the gods did brings us closer to those gods and to our original purpose. And given the gnomish government's tendency toward social support systems, it is not hard to understand the role of service to others. Like in the dwarves' story, gods take on an important role, but it's worth noting that there are no great relationships between the gods and the people (as there is in the elves' creation myth). Gnomes therefore honor their modern tendencies via their creation myth, divergent as it may be from typical tales like it.
Now we've got something different. The author is voicing a non-academic opinion. You could argue that this is a bad thing--an academic might not be willing to editorialize. But imagine that you are the author in question, and you come across this gnomish creation myth. It's weird! I deliberately designed it to be weird, in part because I like the idea of gnomes always being a little weird, and in part because I wanted gnomes' cultural values to be expressed by their myth, even if that means it's off a little bit. And it makes sense that the author, especially when viewing these compared myths, would notice and comment. And trust me: the more colorful your commentary in documents like this, the better. You're not giving homework to your players, you're creating something fun for them. It should fit the form of what the player asked for (creation myth comparisons), but it should still appeal to them stylistically. We only have the humans' stories left, so let's dig in:
In the realm of humans, Daltoners were the last to appear on the shores of Evanoch. Accordingly, their myth only accounts for the life on the island they came from. Unlike any other myth, it is fixated on sacrifice.
In the beginning was the earth. The island from which humans sprang was a desolate, challenging place. No life could be sustained there in great number, but the gods had different plans. They placed a village of humans on the rock and kept hard storms coming to prepare the humans for the worst. Great Pelor, the sun god, demanded sacrifices to sustain the village, or else he would not shine his light down to their settlement. The humans sacrificed their food, their loved ones, and their homes depending on what Pelor asked. He always wanted more, but kept providing for them, and so they kept sacrificing. But it was not enough. And so the humans created civilization to better serve Pelor. Together, they were able to satisfy the sacrifices needed by the god and make a meager living on the island.
For anyone who has ever read of Daltoner politics, this myth is what will make it make sense. Daltoners believe that they must sacrifice to live, a reality for them due to the harsh conditions on the island of Dalton. Their lack of access to easy living goes back as far as their memories do, and their practice of colonizing the world around them extends from that striving for more when they have so little. Like the halflings, elves, orcs, and gnomes, the Daltoners believe that civilization came from them, that it was their creation. Combining these traits, we see that Daltoners believe as a core concept of their origins that they are driven to create ever-better ways to live or else perish. This dangerous mindset complicates global politics to this day.
Again, we're editorializing. I have established in my homebrew setting that Daltoners are something of bad guys due to societal beliefs, and they historically had to be repelled by a military coalition during a colonizing attempt in recent history. So a bit of judgment about Daltoners is natural. Finally, we have the Faninites:
Of all the races, the one that accepts the least credit for their creation and development is the Faninite people. In their creation myth, life develops almost as its own mechanism, and Faninites accept their place as figures in a larger, more complicated history.
In the beginning was the earth. The earth was massive, but it had small places, places like the island of Fanin. The island was home to one of the greatest forests on earth, tall and mighty and unyielding. For centuries, the trees released seeds and spores which spawned new trees. These new trees would grow strong and large as well. But one year, the gods smiled upon Fanin and blessed it with the same life they had spread across the earth in years past--fish, birds, beasts, and even humanoids. Instead of seeds and spores, the trees released human life. The humans who were born of the trees were the first generation of humans, combinations of all the traits of the races that came before. The humans set to work making life for themselves away from the rest of the earth, and they soon realized that their efforts combined were greater than their individual efforts. So they celebrated with a great feast, the first reward of their cooperation, and so was born civilization again, hundreds and thousands of miles from where it had been first discovered by the other races. That humans did so on their own was a sign from the gods that they were just as valued as anyone else.
Unlike any other creation myth, the Faninite version never establishes the race as the first to do anything. Instead, Faninites are bestowed with the gift of life by the gods, who grant this gift all together. But unlike the elves and dwarves, who also believe life was magically granted to them, the Faninites imagined themselves as existing after the other races. There is no scientific evidence that humans are a newer race than the rest of us, but Faninites began this belief nonetheless. And like the elves, they imagined themselves descended from trees. Many credit the similarity of Faninites and elves on a cultural level with the rise of half-elves after Faninites landed on Evanoch's shores.
So now I've offered a bit more information supplied by my world-building work, and we have all of the races' creation myths and analysis ready to go. But I want to add a bit more analysis afterwards to get to what commonalities there are between myths.
What we notice when considering each of these myths side-by-side is the common form of the myths. Each begins with an earth. In fact, my inclusion of the first line of each myth being the same is not stylistic or driven by any agenda--each myth in spoken and written forms includes some variation of the same sentence, which I have standardized by the halfling utterance, "In the beginning was the earth." I take this to mean that all races understand, and have always understood, that could not come before a place to live. Even the orcish myth that people had simply always lived on the land does not suggest that people made the land or were granted it by the gods. We might assume that this much of the myths is true: first, there was a place, and then there were people.
There is variance between how we were formed and became different, but each myth posits that something natural caused these differences. Whether it is the halflings' soil differences, the orcs' dietary differences, or the dwarves' version of the gods' forming us from animals, each race keenly understands that there is something unique about each race. This much is not highly scientific--it is easily observable that an orc and a gnome are different in certain ways at least physically speaking, so it is no question that the early races would want to explain this.
Then there is the cause for founding civilization. Some races pose this as a matter of resolving vital struggles; others discuss it as a way to maximize our collective efforts; still others consider it a gift from the gods on high. But underlying each of these ideas is the notion that something about the world was fundamentally out of balance. Even the Daltoner's version of Pelor is based on keeping survival in balance. No matter the cause, creation myths contain a fundamental problem that civilization solves better than anything else.
Finally, we have the role of civilization itself. In each myth, it acts as a book end--we started somewhere, and then there was the present moment. But this is a key change from other creation myths. When we study the creation myths of human-like creatures such as kobolds, beholders, or lycanthropes, their creation myths end well before the era of civilization. They simply tell the tale of creation and end with the race existing. But humanoids tell the story differently. They carry it through to the moment that humanoids join hands in common cause. What about Evanoch's history of humanoids is so dependent on civilization as a part of the story? The myths themselves cannot tell us. We must look elsewhere for answers. I suggest philosophy--it may tell us why we view the creation of humanoids as dependent on our working together.
Now we have essentially everything we need. We just need to string together each step of the process, add an introduction, edit a bit, and we're done. Here's that introduction--just something to give context and prepare the reader for the meat of the book:
Creation myths are the realm in which magic and superstition shape the way we view ourselves. We are each told the stories of our ancestors as we grow up, and the ways that those stories unfold tell us vital things about the world around us. And more than we realize, those stories tell us about ourselves. By comparing the creation myths of each race, we can learn about what makes us different and what we share.
I plan to send my player this story as a google document, but we could take it a step further and photoshop it into a book with actual pages as I've covered before. But for now, this book is done. We've completed what we set out to do, which was entertain a player with information that isn't strictly speaking part of the story, but which is in the realm of interest of the player. You don't have to do things like this, but your players will appreciate that the world is full and real enough to have digressions away from the main story you're handling.
Oh, and at only a few pages, this may not seem like much of a book. But for two reasons, I say it's just the right length. (1) You don't want to assign your players to read an actual book-length document. That's way too much work unless you're using documents as a crucial part of the story. Just a few pages like this is more than enough to add some color and not get wrapped up in that instead of GMing. And (2) if you were to photoshop this onto book pages, it would be about 10-20 pages depending on your formatting. I guarantee that if you give your players that much material, they'll get the sense of reading a book. Remember, just like a little taste of a scene feels like a lot due to the way TRPGs work, a little taste of a book feels like a lot.
On the other hand, if this seems like a whole lot of work to do, it's really not that bad. A quick first draft that you expand and then clean up won't take forever, and you can get a lot out of the experience. Had the subject of the book been closer to the plot material for the mystery, I would have slipped in a handful of tidbits of information related to the story in the book. I might even make it particularly geared toward the interests of the player who requested the book. Documents are broadly useful, and you really can make them work for you.
Coming soon: how to describe scenes, how to write a fun dungeon, and how to spice up combat, plus the fourth session of the mystery campaign. Stay tuned!
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