If there is AOM2 I hope some of them could fit the lore better.
Most of the MUs and GPs are either quite generic (earthquake, meteor, etc.) or not related to specific gods in mythology (centaur, troll, etc.) so they can be given to anyone, but some others need better representations.
Greeks
Summary
Medusa: Medusa had no relation with Hera but a strong relation with Athena, so it fits better as the MU of the latter (while Minotaur has nothing to do with Athena).
Underworld Passage: Apollo is the god of art, light and medicine, and I have no idea why he got this as the GP…simply does not fit the theme.
Norse
Summary
Giants: Frost Giant for Skadi is probably reasonable because Skadi herself is a giant, but most of the giants are the arch-enemies of the Norse gods. Baldr is the son of Odin so he should not get Fire Giant as his MU (not to mention his GP is Ragnarok, where giants are the major opponents of the Norse Gods).
Fenris Wolf and Jormundgard: Same issue as above. However, giving them to the “right” minor god might push too many MUs to Loki’s side, so we may need to come up with some other MU options.
Egyptians
Summary
Wadjet and Petsuchos: They are gods themselves. It makes little sense why most gods are gods while these two are mythological creatures. However the designs are quite cool so we could probably invent some names like “Anubite” to denote these creatures.
Atlanteans
Summary
The entire civilization is basically Titans + “Greek mythological creatures that haven’t appeared in game yet” so most of them do not make much sense and it’s a waste of time to list all of them. But a few that are worth mentioning:
Behemoth: This is the very few non-Greek MUs for the Atlanteans. However, as Leviathan has been given to the Egyptians, so should Behemoth since they both come from the Hebrew Bible, which is closer to Egypt (and the names might also have Egyptian roots) than the fictional Atlantis.
Argus: Argus was an actual humanoid giant not this…D&D beholder? The “scientific name” in the description refers to Amoeba so this entire creature is purely made up. I’m okay with the Clash of the Titans Medusa but this one is too far away from the lore.
Chinese
Summary
The selection of gods (not to mention the MU) is already quite messy with a combination of Taoism and folk beliefs from multiple sources, and some of them are anachronistic as the popularity began much later than the time span of the game. So if there is an AOM2, it would need a serious re-design. Because the Chinese folklore has been influenced by multiple different sources throughout time, I’d suggest referring more to the older source of Shan Hai Jing (or the Classic of Mountains and Seas) for better consistency.
But there are still a few that is worth mentioning:
Salamander: I know the giant salamander is quite an iconic animal of China…but why is it a myth unit? There aren’t many myths about it. (Thankfully they did not make panda a myth unit)
Jiangshi: The legend itself became popularized in the Qing Dynasty, and so does the appearance of the in-game unit, which is very anachronistic. If one is looking for an underworld mythological creature that fits Zhong Kui’s theme, the Ox-Head & Horse-Face guardians would be better options.
Please correct me if I made any mistakes and also provide your thoughts on this topic.
Here’s what Bruce Shelley had to say about this back in the day:
Letters from Gamers: The most noteworthy letter I have received recently came from a 10 year old boy who wanted to point out 10 mistakes he believes we made in Age of Mythology. He disagreed with what roles we had assigned to various gods (“Anubis is not a god of judgment”) and our spelling of a god’s name (Ra or Re). He finished his letter by saying the mistakes he points out may not be absolute but that he believes he is correct and that he hopes we do better in our next game.
I am going to completely disregard the fact that a ten-year old is playing a game rated T and say good for him for getting so into it that he takes the trouble to contact us. I think it is great that he was so interested in the topic of mythology that he obviously has done a lot of research.
I did write him back with several lame excuses for our different interpretations, including these. First, I doubt many scholars today completely agree on how the different gods of Egypt were perceived in ancient times and I expect the roles of individual gods may have changed over the multiple thousands of years that they were worshipped. I have been to Egypt and I believe I recall being told that the roles of various gods changed over the millennia as the underlying culture went through changes. And secondly, we were making a game to be entertainment, not educational software.
When we decided we wanted a special effect or power in the game, we matched as we wished a god to that power, whether he or she was directly correlated or not. Gameplay came first, not mythological accuracy. We borrowed from what we could learn about the different mythologies to make a game that was fun to play. Beyond entertaining people we did hope that the topics of the Age games had the secondary benefit of encouraging people, especially young people, to learn more. In this case it sounds like we succeeded.
We receive communications from gamers regularly, often suggesting ideas for improving one of our games like the one above, or just saying thanks for games particularly enjoyed. Since the announcement that Ensemble Studios was to be closed by Microsoft, we have received a lot of support and thanks from many of you as email, forum comments, and even actual letters. We appreciate all of this.
I think that they are fine the way they are. Some of the myth units changed around for balance reasons. Assigning the myth units to their proper gods would really cut down the number of Asgardian gods. I don’t quite understand why Bragi the Poet gets the flaming weapons, or Freyr’s metallic boar, but they eventually did it because of design choices. I understand why Tyr has the fenris wolf. Because his myth is all about the Fenris.
Petsuchos is not exactly a god. Sobek is the crocodile god, and Petsuchos are the bejewelled or mummified crocodiles that represented Sobek’s earthly form. They were present in ancient temples of sobek. Some of them are represented as crocodiles with a falcon head.
They really shouldn’t mess with the existing list too much.
For AOM of course.
But for the potential AOM2, which would be a completely new game, there is plenty of room for re-design. Just compare AOE2 to what has been revealed publicly about AOE4. The unit roster is quite different.
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Only a small number of the myth units are actually aligned with the Asgardians. Even with a redesign it wouldn’t really work in my opinion. Fire, Frost and Mountain Giants, Nidhogg, Fenris Jormungard, Kraken, and Trolls are all dark sinister creatures in actual mythology. It only leaves the Battle Boar, Valkyrie, and Einherjars.
In Greek myths most myth units are associated with specific heroes or Zeus and Hera. Nemean Lion, Hydra, Carcinos, Stymphalian Birds, Hippolyta, Hesperides, Cerberus, are all associated with Hercules. Cyclops, Syclla Circe etc, are all associated with Odysseus. While Minatour is associated with Thesus. While Talos is associated with Jason.
I think it’s best to avoid association. It will only get messier.
I mostly agree with you, but I’d like to distinguish “unrelated” from “direct opposite”.
For example, most Norse MUs are unrelated to their minor gods, but something like Fire Giant/Baldr or Fenris Wolf/Tyr violate the lore too much so these had better be fixed. This may be mostly fine for Greeks because most of the minor gods and MUs are unrelated but are not arch-enemies of each other.
In short, giving minotaur or earthquake to any god is acceptable, but giving Fenris wolf to Tyr does not make much sense.
Tyr took care of the Fenris, that one makes sense. He had sympathy for the wolf. He put his hand inside it’s mouth, while Odin tied the wolf up. He was unrelated to the jormungard though. I am more upset about Freyr’s metal boar belonging to anyone else other than Freyr.
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