Question: Another Native American question. We've already established that making a pan-cultural pantheon is a bad idea. But if one were to make a number of different pantheons (a lot of work, but doable), which do you feel would be most appropriate to get a good cross-section of Native American culture and religion? Say, three or four pantheons you feel would be ESSENTIAL to the Scion universe?
Ooh. If left to my own devices and tasked with choosing just a few Native American pantheons to try to get the best representation of different native cultures, I'd probably go with the Inuit, the Hopi and the Algonquin/Anishinaabe, and probably the Pawnee or Lakota to round things out.
Not that there aren't many other super interesting cultures that I'd like to include (Zuni, where you at?), but those seem like the best basic mix to me; the Inuit are unique in culture, environment and established pantheon, the Hopi are a strong example of a southwestern Native American religion and are both clearly individual but also share some interesting parallels with the Mesoamerican religions, the Algonquins cover a wide variety of famous northeastern Native concepts and ideas, and the Lakota and Pawnee are both plains religions with their own specialized concerns and deities. Those four together cover a wide range that includes the frozen wastes, the prairie grasslands, the Great Lakes and the southwestern desert and mesa tribes, which covers most of the Native American archetypes that I hear players usually asking about.
Of course, I'd rather have them all available... but that is because I am crazy and exceptionally bad at setting myself realistic goals.
I'd throw either the Cherokee or Iriquois in as Southeastern temperate and sub-tropic forest cultures. Probably the Cherokee, who have an incredibly rich mythology that really lends itself to lots of awesome monsters and Gods. That might be bias, since I've read a lot of Cherokee-inspired stories.
ReplyDeleteAny vague ideas what kind of PSPs some of these cultures might display? Something based on the Blessing Way and Enemy Way for the Mesa cultures?
The Cherokee were definitely on my short list as well, and I had to conquer my own soft spot for the Navajo - only three or four is a very small number to try to pare down to! Argh!
DeleteI'm mostly spitballing ideas for PSPs because I'd have to do a lot more research to be comfortable starting on a specific one, but for the Hopi, something to do with kachinas might be apropos. I'm also tempted to try to build something around the idea of religious secrecy - i.e., there are a lot of myths, that are only told to some members of the village, or to some genders or ages, or to those who are non-Hopi, etc. - because I think it's cool, but several of the mesa cultures do that, so I'm not sure if it's distinct enough to the Hopi themselves. The Blessing Way and Enemy Way are definitely the first place I'd go for the Navajo, though.
The Inuit are difficult because they're one of the most core animist mythologies and it's hard to do anything with that without tromping all over Tsukumo-gami. Something that works with the Inuit belief that you could gain aspects of something by taking on its name might be a good place to start, or else you could split them pretty cleanly from the Japanese by having their PSP be about working with those spirits of the world that are no longer attached to natural items - the tuurngait that the Inuit are in the constant process of placating, avoiding or trying to convince to help them, rather than the still-attached spirits of things like items or living beings.
I'm not sure I have a good suggestion for the Pawnee or Lakota - they're huge on astronomy and the veneration of the celestial heavens, but it's hard to build something off of that without getting in the way of Sky and Stars. They also do a lot with the idea of sacred bundle fetishes (which lots of other cultures including the Aztlanti also do, but I'm reaching), so that may also be a place to explore.
The Algonquin are probably the best candidates to do something with the concept of Midewin/Medouin, being the original "medicine men".
I've long felt that the Medicine Wheel is something a PSP could be based off as well, for the proper tribe. I know I've certainly spent some time pondering how it might be done. Even if a somewhat similar concept has begun spreading nowadays through modern Pagan beliefs it's undoubtedly a Native American concept. And archaeological evidence leaves little, if any, doubt that it was a part of their culture. I could definitely see it working well for a plains tribe, as a lot of the remaining medicine wheels seem to be located in the northern plains.
DeleteAs an aside I might also mention that the Iriquois were originally from around the area that's modern New York. So they're not really south-eastern or sub-tropic. Though I certainly would be interested in seeing an Iriquois pantheon. Which is undoubtedly due in part to me growing up not too far from the reservation of one of the Iriquois tribes.
Original questioner here. I have actually seen a rather good example of an Inuit PSP along the lines of what you describe, , from TerriblyUncreative's Vairgit Pantheon ("Pan-Arctic", but mostly Inuit with a few Siberian and Ainu deities added for good measure.) It was called Angakoonek, and is essentially a type of shamanism in the manner you describe, allowing the user things like access supernatural perception, summon local nature spirits, gain an extra soul for shunting over aggravated damage to, go on spirit quests, and temporarily assume a Titanic template by taking on the name of its spirits. Good place to mine for ideas, if nothing else. :)
Delete(And sorry for the low number, I was just thinking in terms of "doable within a few years". :P )
Hey, don't feel obligated to apologize for the rich pageantry of world mythology. It's just a cross we'll all have to bear. :)
DeleteI'm very familiar with TU's Vairgit, actually - we've corresponded about it in the past! He's a great creator and idea dude, no matter what his screen name says.
Here's the real stumper of a question: what would the Worthy Adversary (that is to say, Greater Titan/Titanrealm) be for each of these pantheons?
ReplyDeleteOh, blech, I don't even know. I usually have to cross that bridge when I figure out who a given culture hates on it.
Delete