Topic Brainstorm

 Topic 1: Underworld Stories

(Image Source: Glowworms Cave)

Across every ancient culture and many modern cultures is the belief in an afterlife or underworld. In each culture there were different requirements for the entering into a "good" afterlife and a "bad" afterlife. In this project I would like to create a fable about an individual who Death incarnate has taken a special interest in because even Death does not know where this person's soul belongs after death. I would like to use this as a framing narrative to explore and explain the nuances and niches of different Underworlds. I will most definitely be using the Greek version of Death as my tour guide of the Underworlds (using the less-than-common depiction of him as a handsome youth) but am open to tweaking his character based on the details of other Underworlds. Tentatively I plan on visiting Hel/Valhalla (Norse), Elysium/Asphodel (Greco-Roman), Mictlān/Tlalocan (Aztec), and Lua-o-Milu (Hawiian). 

Topic 2: Ageless Bystander

There have been innumerable moments in time historians would die to be able to witness and know actually what happened and what part of the myths may be true and which were simple fantasy. I would like to create a new story with a new ageless character who has been able to witness some of these truly unknowable events and create my own version of events that actually happened there. One of these stories has to be the tale of Atlantis, as it is one of the most hotly debated tales from mythology as to its validity in history. Other stories I would like to research and include are the Trojan War, the Battle of the Horatiī and Curatiī, and the truth of the Roanoke Island Colony. It is likely that none of these mysteries will ever be solved, so I am not afraid of taking some creative liberty and building on some of the most wild speculations of those myths and tying all of them to gather through the eyes of this character who has lived to witness it all.

Topic 3: Thousand and One Nights Retelling

Some of my favorite stories that I have heard in recent years have been those included in One Thousand and One Nights. I would like to to chose four of my favorite stories and retell them in a way very similar to our weekly Anthologies. Of the stories in Arabian Nights, I plan on including at least one Sinbad tale, the tale of the Valley of Diamonds being the most likely. Besides that one story, I do not know which stories from Scheherazade I would like to retell mostly because I like so many of the stories. I plan on skim reading through several of the stories in the next few days to get a rough grasp of which I like the most before I commit to any one of them.

Topic 4: Civilization Building Gods 

Many mythologies tell of gods who helped cultivate early human civilization, guiding them towards a stronger future. These gods are often forgotten when compared to the powerful nature gods like Zeus and Poseidon or the primordial gods like Hades and Demeter. These civilization creating gods are much more nuanced and focus on helping humanity grow in very specific ways that vary between civilizations. One of the most prominent examples of these Builder Gods is Prometheus, not technically a god but fulfills this role, as he brought fire to mankind to help them grow. Other gods which I would like to retell their story is Thoth of Egyptian mythology and how he was assigned the task of creating hieroglyphs for men to remember their past, Xipe Totec (Aztec agriculture deity) who would sacrifice himself so that mankind would have seeds to sow for their yearly harvest, and the Hindu god Ganesha who is the overseer of all beginnings and his efforts to aid the enterprises of men.