Welcome to the Wizard101 Message Boards

AngelcatDemondog on Jan 1, 2014 wrote:

Wizard101 has alot of mythology allusions (references) in the game. Some of the mythology isn't well explained sometimes or doesn't match up to my research. Also there is some common questions that keep on reappearing wherever i go in the wizards community (Wizards fan section of deviantart, youtube, etc.) so i am going to answer them here

Medusa: The story Ivan told us about Medusa isn't even close to any of my sources! (there are a lot) I think Kingsisle is trying to censor some of the content in the medusa story. According to my research, Medusa and Poseidon were, umm... kissing in Athena's temple. Athena being enraged turned Medusa's hair (her most loved feature) into snakes

Orthrus: Orthrus really has a serpentine tail, not a dog tail

Kirin: Ms. Courtney Olivia, this is for you since you commonly asked this question in your videos, Kirins are Chinese unicorns. They ride through town when a sage or emperor is coming.

Drake: There are a few versions of a drake. My mom's version is a smaller and tamer version of a dragon. There are no such things as dragon riders, dragons are too wild, people ride drakes. I also THINK this is the view Kingsisle is taking. I found Drakes to be wingless male dragons.

Anyway, i hope that helped y'all out some. If you have anymore questions you can post them below or do research (the web is a wonderful thing)

~Angelcatdemondog- Mythology, astrology, and astronomy nerd

Yes!!! I'm not the only nerd!!! I have a question. Orthrus doesn't have a dog tail?! Gosh darn it. Oh well, Iapetus have mercy on me...

Goodbye, Bob says hello.

AngelcatDemondog on Jan 4, 2014 wrote:

Hehe. Yeah, Orthrus has a serpentine tail, not a regular dog tail. I am not sure why Kingsisle did that though...
I don't know who Iapetus is though. I focus more on beasts and monsters in mythology.

~AngelcatDemondog

Iapetus is a figure from Greek Mythology, which I am very familiar with....

Iapetus: Name means "The Peircer" in Greek; One of the 12 Titan Children of Gaea (Earth) and Ouranos (Sky); Titan Lord of the West; Apparently the least cruel of the 6 elder Titans; Titan of Mortality, Pain and Violent Death; Position as Pillar of the West later taken up by Atlas (Whose punishment for supporting the Titans in their war against the Olympian Gods was to hold up the sky); Held up the sky with his brothers Krios, Koios, and Hyperion while his other brother Kronos chopped their father, Ouranos, into many pieces at the bidding of their mother, Gaea.

This is just a basic description of Iapetus. More can be found through searching.

How about krampus?? He's based on a similar German folklore creature that steals children that misbehaves on Christmas. KI did a real good job on the animation and trying to not make it too scary.

XD when I get my Medusa spell I'm gonna go to Athena and cast it on her.

Malorn AshThorn446 on Jan 5, 2014 wrote:

Yes. In case you haven't payed close attention to some of the worlds, I can let you know the basis of some of them and that not all of them are from mythology.

Krokotopia:
Based on the ancient kingdom of Egypt and Egyptian Mythology

Marleybone:
Based on industrial England.

Mooshu:
Based on ancient Japan.

Dragonspyre:
Based on the ancient roman city of Pompeii.

Celestia:
Based on the mythological underwater city of Atlantis.

Zafaria:
Based on the ancient kingdoms of Africa.

Avalon:
Based on the tale of King Arthur.

Azteca:
Based on the ancient American tribal kingdoms known as the Aztec, Inca and Maya and their mythology.

Grizzleheim (Including Wintertusk):
Based on Norse mythology and the ancient group of warriors known as the Vikings.

Aquila:
Based on the ancient city states of Greece, the ancient empire of Rome, and Greek and Roman Mythology.

Spells with roots in mythology and ancient events and kingdoms:

Fire:

Rain of Fire- Symbolizes the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii.

Ice:

Frost Giant- Meant to symbolize the Norse King of Frost Giants, Ymir

Storm:

Kracken and Leviathan- Symbolize ancient mythological creatures of the sea

Triton- Name represent the Ancient Greek God Triton

Sirens- Represent the Ancient Greek and Roman ladies of the sea whose voices were so beautiful, men would jump off their ships or wreck their ships when they heard the sirens song.

Life:
Imp, Sprite, Fairy, Pixie, Satyr, Centaur, Leprechaun, Unicorn, Dryad- Represent Mythological Creatures from various cultures.

Myth:
Troll, Cyclops, Talos, Minotaur, Orthrus, Medusa, Basilisk- Represent Mythological Creatures.

Death:
Banshee, Wraith- Represent Mythological Creatures

Dr. Von's Monster- Represents the monster from Mary Shelly's classic novel, Frankenstein.

Vampire- Represents the villain of Brahm Stoker's classic novel, Dracula.

Balance:
Ra- Represents the Ancient Egpytian God of Creation and the sun by the same name.

Hydra, Chimera- Represent Ancient Greek and Roman Mythological Monsters of the same names.

All Schools:
King Artorius- Represents the character King Arthur.

All other spells are either based on real things, such as scarab and scorpion, or natural disaters such as earthquake.

What about Phoenix and the helephant? Doesn't helephant represent an oni? Aren't they some sort of demon from... let me think...some mythology or culture.

David The SwashBuc... on Jan 5, 2014 wrote:

How about krampus?? He's based on a similar German folklore creature that steals children that misbehaves on Christmas. KI did a real good job on the animation and trying to not make it too scary.

Krampus is legit,man! I've never been kidnapped by the guy, so that's good.

AngelcatDemondog on Jan 1, 2014 wrote:

Wizard101 has alot of mythology allusions (references) in the game. Some of the mythology isn't well explained sometimes or doesn't match up to my research. Also there is some common questions that keep on reappearing wherever i go in the wizards community (Wizards fan section of deviantart, youtube, etc.) so i am going to answer them here

Medusa: The story Ivan told us about Medusa isn't even close to any of my sources! (there are a lot) I think Kingsisle is trying to censor some of the content in the medusa story. According to my research, Medusa and Poseidon were, umm... kissing in Athena's temple. Athena being enraged turned Medusa's hair (her most loved feature) into snakes

Orthrus: Orthrus really has a serpentine tail, not a dog tail

Kirin: Ms. Courtney Olivia, this is for you since you commonly asked this question in your videos, Kirins are Chinese unicorns. They ride through town when a sage or emperor is coming.

Drake: There are a few versions of a drake. My mom's version is a smaller and tamer version of a dragon. There are no such things as dragon riders, dragons are too wild, people ride drakes. I also THINK this is the view Kingsisle is taking. I found Drakes to be wingless male dragons.

Anyway, i hope that helped y'all out some. If you have anymore questions you can post them below or do research (the web is a wonderful thing)

~Angelcatdemondog- Mythology, astrology, and astronomy nerd

Orthurus is'nt real! It is a copy of Cerberus

AntonioFiremender lvl46 fire

AntonioFireMender on Jan 7, 2014 wrote:

Orthurus is'nt real! It is a copy of Cerberus

AntonioFiremender lvl46 fire

Orthrus is a real thing. Orthrus is brother to Cerberus. Orthrus was the pet of Geryon, a six armed, six legged, and 3 headed giant who guarded red cattle. Orthrus had a master name Eurytion. Hercules came along a slayed both the giant and dog in his Ten Labours quest. You should look it up.

AngelcatDemondog on Jan 7, 2014 wrote:

Malorn Ashthorn 446- I thought that Dragonspyre was based off of Russia. And you know, Malistare reminds me of a dictator that lost his wife to a cold and kill thousands of people, but i am not to sure of that. I don't know his name, but i heard about him from a friend that was doing a picture of him i art class and told me about him- anyone want to fill in the details? It is kind of hard to research someone when you don't know their name, but i know it begins with a S

~AngelcatDemondog

Polaris closer alludes to Russia (and France) than Dragonspyre. But many worlds a mixing-pot of several themes. Dragonspyre's architecture is strongly Greek and Byzantine Empire influenced, while the idea of making organized, war-like and conquering people brought about the use of Russian accents. There are some Spanish accented inhabitors of Dragonspyre. It's primary allusion though, is the erruption of Mount Vesuvius.

They're are quite a number of mythological references throughout KI's games. For example, while Pirate101 Aquila had tons of Greek references stuffed in it, Wizard101 had many tidbits such as:
-the appearance of Ladon in the Garden of Hesparides
-Silenus was a satyr and real figure in Greek mythology.
-the Dimachaerus, which were actual warriors who fought with dual-swords and little armor
-Lamia, who, in reality, was a women cursed by Hera to be blind and eat children
-Arion, who was an actual poet that ended up pirated by, well, pirates
-Akheilos was, in real Greek myth, a beautiful man who was cursed to be a water demon by Aphrodite for being better looking than her and even mocking her.
-Stheno, in Tartarus, is one of the two sisters of Medusa, who actually made an appearance as a boss on Pirate101
-Cronos was sealed away in the Cave of Nyx in Tartarus in real Greek mythology, and Nyx is the goddess of Darkness

Our main story does have some Norse mythological references. In cosmology, it was believed that there were nine worlds surrounding a center tree named, Yggdrasil. This is very close to how Bartleby is the center of the Spiral and all other worlds circle around him.

There are many more references, but I'll stop there. You'll find many more as the story goes on.

Spiral emperor on Jan 7, 2014 wrote:

What about Phoenix and the helephant? Doesn't helephant represent an oni? Aren't they some sort of demon from... let me think...some mythology or culture.

Phoenix- No. It was brought into being around the medieval times of Europe, along with dragons and unicorns (from my understanding that is).

Helephant- I dunno about that one... Yes, the helephant spell is very similar to the oni of Mooshu, but I am unfamiliar with other such types of mythology. My real knowledge lies with the Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse myths... I know a tiny bit of Aztecan, Incan and Mayan mythology but I am not interested enough to get into learning these myths... I know of Japanese, Chinese and Hindu myths... I have a friend who may be able to enlighten me in Hindu mythology, since he is Hindu himself...

Malorn AshThorn446 on Jan 7, 2014 wrote:

Phoenix- No. It was brought into being around the medieval times of Europe, along with dragons and unicorns (from my understanding that is).

Helephant- I dunno about that one... Yes, the helephant spell is very similar to the oni of Mooshu, but I am unfamiliar with other such types of mythology. My real knowledge lies with the Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse myths... I know a tiny bit of Aztecan, Incan and Mayan mythology but I am not interested enough to get into learning these myths... I know of Japanese, Chinese and Hindu myths... I have a friend who may be able to enlighten me in Hindu mythology, since he is Hindu himself...

But then wouldn't it be medieval mythology?!

Malorn AshThorn446 on Jan 7, 2014 wrote:

Phoenix- No. It was brought into being around the medieval times of Europe, along with dragons and unicorns (from my understanding that is).

Helephant- I dunno about that one... Yes, the helephant spell is very similar to the oni of Mooshu, but I am unfamiliar with other such types of mythology. My real knowledge lies with the Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse myths... I know a tiny bit of Aztecan, Incan and Mayan mythology but I am not interested enough to get into learning these myths... I know of Japanese, Chinese and Hindu myths... I have a friend who may be able to enlighten me in Hindu mythology, since he is Hindu himself...

I really love Aztecan and Mayan mythology. When Azteca came out, my interest in the world just sky-rocketed. I wanted to know as much about the world as possible because Azteca presented Aztecan and Mayan mythology and scenery as such a colorful and beautiful culture. I also like Aztecan and Mayan mythology because it's different from the very popular Egytian and Greek/Roman mythology. Not many people give this mythology a lot of recognition and it's nice that KI built an entired world based off of a culture that I had barely heard of before. I just get very excited about Aztecs (and Azteca)

For example, the Sun Serpent spell and the Quetzals (more so the Sun Serpent) are based off of Quetzalcoatl who was the Aztecan diety of wind, art, the dawn, knowledge, and merchants (I guess he's similar to Athena in a way). His name Quetzalcoatl means "feathered serpent."
Or the nine Lords of Night. In Aztecan mythology, there was an actual council of nine Lords of Night. Each god would rule over a different night. There was also a council of the Lords of Day, but they had thirteen members.
Or how Jaguars are a major inhabitant of Azteca, because many Mesoamerican empires valued the jaguar immensely. The Mayans saw it as a communicator between life and death and used it as a simble to protect royal household. The Aztecs as the jaguar as a totem to their rain god, Tezcatlipoca, who Tezcat Threestars is named after and, to further that, Tezcatlipoca, in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs (but I think other Mesoamerican tribes used it as well), means "Smoking Mirror" which was used to name the Raptor warriors.

I could go on, but I won't. I'm really into the Aztec mythology and I'm really glad that KI, through Wizard101, introduced it do me. I really think Aztecan and Mayan mythology are very unique, cool, and mainly different mythologys for people to learn about. Not many people look at the Americas for mythology. Most are magentized toward mostly European mythologies (like Greek, I think Norse, and Celtic). Even if you're not someone completely interested in being immersed in a mythology, I think it's a good idea to know enough of it to at least get a good understanding of it (like how Greek myths mostly are about heros, wars, or perilous, challenging adventures and Aztec myths are about the creation of the world).