It’s a Mythic Setting...

What does that mean? Really? Did the battle of Themopylae happen? Marathon? Cannae? Kadesh? Is it "Historical unless otherwise stated", or "Mythic unless we say else"? How can I design a character without knowing the complete history of the world! .

"It’s a mythic setting" has been one of the major planks around which we’ve constructed the world and the in-game history. From the very outset, we wanted to make sure this wasn’t going to be a game that only appealed to classics students and ex-members of the Ermine Street Guard - the oft-quoted phrase "as much Harryhausen as Homer" catches quite nicely that Jason and the Argonauts feel we wanted for the game. Our goal was to use elements of history, mythology and legend to create a game world where stop-motion skeletons would be absolutely at home - not one where you had to be a Ph.D in obscure Mesopotamian mythology to "get it".

Having said that, I’m a firm believer that the best stories - the real epics - are the ones that have stood the test of time and that are built into our own cultural backgrounds. History and mythology is the richest and most varied source of material for background, story and plot. A quest to recover the Golden Fleece from Colchis and face the Hydra is far more resonant than a quest to recover the Platinum Throw-rug of Zorg from the land of the Hoobies and face the Soup Dragon. When there’s all this incredibly cool stuff lying around that has powerful name-recognition and that we are used to hearing about from the time we were kids it seems frankly criminal not to use it. So expect to see things you recognise from classical legend, from childhood storybooks and from history - but don’t expect them to re-enact those legends and stories word for word in front of you.

"It’s a mythic setting" means that history, mythology and imagination have all been blended to create a world that looks and acts like the one you see and read about in the legends of the time; a world where capricious and violent gods play games with their subjects, where monsters guard hidden treasures in the wilderness and where heroes can act to change the fate of the world. But it’s not our own "real" world, and while history can give you a good idea of what’s going on across the broad sweep of the game background, the innumerable subtle differences might mean that you end up getting very lost indeed if you stick too closely to it. Imagine it as "history rounded to the nearest whole number".

And let’s not forget: arguments in favour of historical accuracy tend to founder in the face of a background where Alexander the Great is defeated by a combined coalition of the Gods...

In other words, History is subordinate to Cool, but he’s still a senior partner.

Ian A