Do you like the Celtic mythology? Come show some support and ideas if you do! Here are some mythical units I would love to see in AoMII or Retold.
CELTIC
Dagda - God of Magic, Strength, Wisdom, and Druidry
Cernunnos - God of Animals, Nature, and Fertility
Morrigan - Goddess of Battle, War, and Fate
Lugh - God of Light and Justice
Arawn - God of Death, Revenge, and Terror
Brigid - Goddess of Healing and Passion
Celtic Bestiary:
Abhartach - the undying dwarf who keeps coming back for more blood.
Aillen - towering incendiary beings who can spit fire. They are known to carry harps and sing beautiful songs
Bean sidhe - terrifying banshees who herald death by shrieking and wailing.
Beast Glatisant - the strange creature has the head and neck of a snake, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion, and the feet of a hart. It produces a terrifying noise from its belly, a barking like âthirty hounds questingâ.
Caorthannach - a fire and toxic spitting monster.
Dobhar-chu - a dark massive sea dwelling creature that resembles a dog, a fish, and an otter. Capable of mutilating bodies within seconds.
Dullahan - an ominous and intimidating headless horseman who is cladded in black attire, rides a black horse, holds its own head, and carries a human vertebra as a weapon.
Ellen Trechend - a monstrous triple headed bird which can breath fire.
Fear Gorta - these phantom-like creatures/ghouls resemble an emaciated human.
Gwyllgi - a mythical dog and a frightening apparition of darkness with baleful breath and blazing red eyes.
Kelpie - a violent black colored horse-like spirit who prefers to devour and throw the victimâs entrails to the waterâs edge.
Leipreachan - Need I explain more?
Nuckelavee - the nuckelavee has a manâs torso attached to a horseâs back as if it were a rider. The male torso has no legs, but its arms can reach the ground from its position on top of the equine body, the legs of which have fin like appendages. The torso has a large head â possibly as much as 3 feet (90 centimeters) in diameter â that rolls back and forth. The monster described by Tammas has two heads; the equine head has an enormous gaping mouth that exudes a pungent, toxic vapor, and a single giant eye like a burning red flame. A particularly gruesome detail is that the nuckelavee has no skin; black blood courses through yellow veins, and the pale sinews and powerful muscles are visible as a pulsating mass.
Oillipheist - great sea serpent-like monsters that inhabit the lakes and the rivers.
Selkie - mythological creatures that can turn into a human on shore and seals in the water.
Sluagh - flying apparitions who will forcefully kidnap a victim from any direction and fly away. They can choose to drop units from the air to kill them in-game.
Titan:
Balor - He is often described as a horrifying colossal giant with a large eye that wreaks destruction when opened. It can be poisonous, incendiary, or otherwise malignant.
The Celtic myth has so many unique mythical creatures that it would be a shame if they donât get represented in the game. Iâm sure a ton of fans would love to play as them! Plus, they invoke some sort of woodland/nature feel and perhaps that itself appeals to some players.
Should the Celtic Mythology be added in Age of Mythology II?
YES! The Celtic mythology is rich and full of unique and terrifying creatures. It would be awesome to play as them!
Most Celtic mythologies that we know today (Irish, Welsh, Arthurian) come from the early medieval period similar to the Norse.
So it could be early medieval Celtic (Romano-British and Gaelic) human units with a combination of those myths.
Many of the legends feature some kind of warrior elite societies (Fianna, Ulster, Round Table, etc.) which could be its hero system. It could be an intermediate between Greek âunique heroesâ and Norse âmass heroesâ but we could be more creative on that.
Druids utilizing natural resources for special effects could be another unique feature.
But donât make the Arthurian knights wear full plate armor like most popular entertainment do.
I think Arthurain Knights would be cool to have though, but they should be limited to one Major God like the Greek Unique units.
Unique human Units are underused in AoM Iâd wish we would get more of them. Currently this feature is limited to the Greeks.
I really like the idea of adding the Celts because it closes a lot of geographical gaps.
They interacted with both the Greeks and Norse but where also very wide spread from Iberia to Anatolia so you can easily argue the also interacted with the Atlanteans.
Currently the Norse feel a little isolated on the AoM worldmap (if we ignore the Chinese, which everyone does anyway).
I was thinking of three major gods each with one of the most famous Celtic hero circles: Ulster, Fianna and Arthurian.
Ulster for Lugh because Cu Chulainn is his son.
Fianna for Nuada because Fionn is related to him.
Arthurian legend is a little trickier as the most well-known version is Christian. So maybe we should look for earlier origins like Mabinogi:
Rhiannon is sometimes interpreted as a version of Epona, the Gallic horse goddess, which fits the cavalry focus.
It would be nice to have the Continental Celts somewhat be represented by the civilisation too so they donât feel like they are just Irish.
But yes for many cultures it will be hard to draw the line between Pagan and Christian myths.
A lot of things related the the Norse are already close to the Line.
There are a bunch of references to the Nibelungenlied in relics and stuff which is a German Christian Epic not actually Norse mythology.
But itâs also based on older Pagan tales it itâs not that wrong.
Yeah Norse is centered on âNorseâ for sure but the mythologies trace back to earlier Germanic peoples. But unfortunately we donât have much knowledge about them. So the Nordic mythology is the most reliable and well-known version.
Similarly we can only find remnants of Celtic mythologies in Britannic and Irish legends. We know very little about pre-Roman Gallic religions.
the arthurian legends donât pull from celtic peoples but very romanized gallo-roman and gallo-briton populations. i would prefer a gallo-roman civilization, with a mixture of celtic, italic, and synthesized celto-italic deities like Jupiter-Taranis. king arthur could obviously be the principal hero, and campaign enemies could be saxons or attila the hun, there could be mercenary heroes like the early frankish and visigothic kings who helped the gallo-romans fight at the cataulanian plains. even the roster could have franks and visigoths as regulars as that is attested to historically. could have lightly armored gallic troops like the bagaudae and heavily armored imperial roman palace guards. taifali horse archers, barded cataphract cavalry, etc. would be awesome.
Yes, the Celts can feel good, they are in AoEO and they are quite interestingâŚ
Well now they will reach Retold xdâŚ
Yes, with the Celts you could fill the gap of all of Western and Central Europe and have a campaign that covers all European cultures (Greeks, Norse and Atlanteans)âŚ
Yes, it would have to be a mix between Irish, Britons, Gauls and Iberians (since they were all Celtic peoples)âŚ
Meh, I prefer it to be like in AoEO and that it be a Celtic campaign with Brennus, Viriatus, Vercingetorix or B04d1cea and the Atlanteans take the place of the RomansâŚ
Sorry, I strongly disagree with that. If we must have a celtic campaign featuring these historical characters and real events, the enemy should be the Romans, not the Atlanteans. I do not understand this uncontrollable need to associate Romans with Atlanteans. it has already been discussed how the Romans could be their own civ.
a proper gallic civilization would be very cool too, thereâs just not a whole lot we know about the gallic peoples before they were romanized, but we know more about them than the atlanteans, so⌠haha. i just am afraid if skybox designs a celtic civilization they will mix up gaelic and gallic.
if they do go with a roman civilization they could have an interesting option to adopt deities from other civilizations, while the core roman deities would be italic or specifically etruscan like juno, one of the biggest cults in rome in the late republic was isis.
Exactly! In my unfinished roman civ concept, I made a plan which associated every major god in the game to their roman counterpart. So basically, the Romans would have their own minor gods age up options as well as other options based on their enemies.
Both gaelic and gallic are interesting in my opinion. Of course, if they choose to make a âCeltâ civ, this would have to be a broad representation and not too specific. However, since they share many common gods (with smaller or bigger differences), maybe each major god could represent a different group? As an example, with 3 major gods, we could have the Gauls, The Gael and the Britons.
i think there is far too big a chasm between the celts of iron age france and the gaelic peoples of medieval british isles. they share a broader language group but they really donât share a culture or anything else. the britons and galli are similar enough and very contemporary with each other, but mixing the medieval irish and the la tene celts who fought against caesar in france (or against rome during the punic wars!) would be a terrible faux pas haha that would trouble me greatly. it would feel even worse than combining the norse with the germanics of the marcomannic wars.
however i am quite sure that if skybox do develop a celtic civilization they will pull from the medieval irish because that is simply a much more popular and present concept in the popular consciousness. but i think it would be a pity because they were not very geopolitically active whereas the iron age celts of continental western europe were involved in great wars and conquests and had a very interesting civilization.
as a final point iâm not sure scholarship is even certain that the celtic language existed in ireland until after! the galli of france were romanized.
Itâs because the Atlanteans use Roman units and it feels like playing with Romans, plus the Romans were technically an Atlantic empire, since they had control of the Iberian peninsula and in an alternative history I read where the lost continents exist, Atlantis is populated by the Romans in the 5th century and today it is a large empire like the British (which makes sense since both are island empires)âŚ
Yes, maybe the infantry is Gaelic and the cavalry Gallic⌠In AoEO the Celts are like this:
Stone Thrower (literally one big man launching big rocks)
Headhunter (itâs a Unique Scout Cavalry)
Gaesatae (itâs a Javelin Thrower)
Longbowman (like in AoE 2)
Dock
Swanship (Good all-around combat ship)
Sacred Grove (Unique Building like the Temple)
Druid (Adept in both combat and healing, the Druid also boosts the damage of friendly injured units)
Augur (Able to learn rites to sacrifice animals, the Augur also converts enemy units and heals friendly units out of combat) (The Augur has the ability to use four different Rites to improve certain aspects of the Celtic Civilization by sacrificing a deer (gaia or sacred) or any other natural animals).
Sacred Deer (A sacred animal that can be used as a source of food or can be sacrificed by the Augur to boost your military strength for a while)
It may be that they use mercenaries from other mythologies⌠although I would prefer to use Etruscans, since the Romans are already widely seen in the sagaâŚ
Age of Mythology Retold IS ALREADY Age of Mythology 2.
What does this mean? From now to 20 years in future, We are not going to have an âAoM2â. Why?
AoM Retold is a game doing from scratch, It maintain the tipical gameplay but improved with current features. Now AoM Retold is going to release new DLCs to complete it even more.
If an Hypothetical AoM2 would be released, it would be a fail because AoM Retold (a current game) is already on the market and the players of AoM Retold would not migrate en masse to a game that would likely be more incomplete and would not represent real advancements over Retold that would justify its existence.
SUMMARY: If you want some feature, ask for it in AoMr because AoM2 is not going to exist.
But I wasnât talking about the middle ages⌠The Gaels existed even during the Antiquity.
I think whether they choose to make the celts more gaelic or the La Tène, theyâll surely pick elements from all over the celtic world anyway. If we want a very specific celtic group to represent this potential new civ, we may be disappointed.
No, it doesnât feel like playing the Romans at all. Furthermore, most of the atlantean units are roman in name only (already told you on another thread but I repeat). It would be quite easy to give the roman civ its own unit roster and unique feel to make them distinct from the Atlanteans OR GREEKS (I put caps because I feel someone is going to come up with this).
Itâs not AoM 2 because itâs still the original game, but improvedâŚ
Thatâs true, especially if Relic does itâŚ
Yes, for me they are going to be similar to the Celts from AoEO but with mythological units, I donât expect them to burn their heads too muchâŚ
Yes, for me either they rework the Atlanteans and give them more Atlantic units (from Lusitania and Morocco, even the Caribbean) and add the Romans (with Italian and Mediterranean units) or else they leave the Atlanteans as they are and bring in the Etruscans (with Trojan units making a link between Troy and Rome)âŚ
I admit that Iâd rather see more non-European pantheon in AoMR than another European pantheon. However, if they do add a Celtic pantheon, wouldnât it be great if they included King Arthur and Camelot? We tend to think of Arthurian stuff as medieval, but IIRC, a large chunk of it has pre-Christian Celtic roots. Plus, given that we already have Viking Age Norse coexisting with classical Greeks, pharaonic Egyptians, and the upcoming imperial Chinese (not to mention the fictitious Atlanteans), I donât think Camelot would seem that out of place in the gameâs setting. Especially if it was based more on ancient Celtic culture and religion than the medieval cliches.
