City of Mist - Japanese Mythology?

[sox7d]

This is kind of a stretch, but I noticed that the City of Mist is... well called the city of mist, has japanese architecture and half the mobs have something to do with fog, haze, etc... Then I was playing a game of Legend of the Five Rings (eastern fantasy game) in which there is also a city full of undead that is completely shrouded in dense mist/fog.

Would anyone happen to know if there is anything like this in actual japanese/chinese mythology which both games were taking it from?

[loramin]

I don't think so; a quick Google search turns up nothing. L5R borrows VERY loosely from the history and myths of many different Asian cultures, so while Rokugan is certainly influenced by Japan, only the basic stuff (samurai and courtiers and such) is really drawn directly from it. Just about everything else is either an amalgamation of various ideas from various Asian cultures, or else it comes entirely from the writers' imagination.

This is even more true for modern L5R; while the original storylines may have been more Japanese-influenced, the subsequent ones became more and more Rokugani and less Japanese as the writers fleshed the world out more and more.

The common tie is probably just that a "city shrouded in mist" sounds foreign and exotic, so both the L5R people and the EQ people used the trope.

[Sinder]

both "mist" and "haze" are adopted words in Japanese being written in Katakana and not Hirigana. Fog has a Kanji in Japanese though so maybe City of Fog? could also be a Tibetian thing perhaps?

[Man0warr]

The EQ2 City of Mist has some golems that look very chinese/japanese relgious shrine inspired.

[sox7d]

I don't think so; a quick Google search turns up nothing. L5R borrows VERY loosely from the history and myths of many different Asian cultures, so while Rokugan is certainly influenced by Japan, only the basic stuff (samurai and courtiers and such) is really drawn directly from it. Just about everything else is either an amalgamation of various ideas from various Asian cultures, or else it comes entirely from the writers' imagination.

This is even more true for modern L5R; while the original storylines may have been more Japanese-influenced, the subsequent ones became more and more Rokugani and less Japanese as the writers fleshed the world out more and more.

The common tie is probably just that a "city shrouded in mist" sounds foreign and exotic, so both the L5R people and the EQ people used the trope.


Yeah, games pull from mythology constantly though, just thought it was suspicious that "Japanese city full of fog and undead" was prevalent in two different games.

[myriverse]

Fog and mist are pretty common things in Asian folklore/myths (and others), especially when undead stuff is concerned.

[Sinder]

so figured I'd "go deep" on this one and see if there was anything. the closest i can come so far to anything of the sort is Izanami(wife) and Izanagi(husband) who gave birth to the Archipelago of Japan. these could be a parallel to Lord Rak'Ashiir and Queen Nah'Ashiir and the founding of Torsis, the original name for CoM. When Izanami died, Izanagi traveled to Yomi, the mythological Japanese underworld to retrieve her, only to find her rotting away in the land of the dead. Following this Izanagi went into a fit of rage, blocked access to Yomi with a great boulder and further created a couple other shinto deities.

also there is mention of the Amenonuhoko- the Heavenly Jeweled Spear which was given to them by the old gods to help them form the land. this could be where the inspiration for the Spear of Fate shaman epic comes from. Since Rak'Ashiir is the final fight kinda makes sense.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenonuhoko
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Iz-Le/Izanagi-and-Izanami.html

Like i said before. the japanese word for mist is Misuto which is borrowed from english/german roots. I know the japanese got their word for "work" arubaito from the germans during WW2ish so its possible this is another borrowed word from that time in their histories. Japan has two alphabets. Katakana for borrowed words from other languages, and hirigana for their own. the name CoM is probably just the writers and devs coming up with a clever name for the city from Yomi and the japanese fable? anyways thats all i got.

[sox7d]

so figured I'd "go deep" on this one and see if there was anything. the closest i can come so far to anything of the sort is Izanami(wife) and Izanagi(husband) who gave birth to the Archipelago of Japan. these could be a parallel to Lord Rak'Ashiir and Queen Nah'Ashiir and the founding of Torsis, the original name for CoM. When Izanami died, Izanagi traveled to Yomi, the mythological Japanese underworld to retrieve her, only to find her rotting away in the land of the dead. Following this Izanagi went into a fit of rage, blocked access to Yomi with a great boulder and further created a couple other shinto deities.

also there is mention of the Amenonuhoko- the Heavenly Jeweled Spear which was given to them by the old gods to help them form the land. this could be where the inspiration for the Spear of Fate shaman epic comes from. Since Rak'Ashiir is the final fight kinda makes sense.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amenonuhoko
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Iz-Le/Izanagi-and-Izanami.html

Like i said before. the japanese word for mist is Misuto which is borrowed from english/german roots. I know the japanese got their word for "work" arubaito from the germans during WW2ish so its possible this is another borrowed word from that time in their histories. Japan has two alphabets. Katakana for borrowed words from other languages, and hirigana for their own. the name CoM is probably just the writers and devs coming up with a clever name for the city from Yomi and the japanese fable? anyways thats all i got.

Thanks for digging that up, but I don't get why you guys keep bringing up katakana. (I took 4 years of japanese... I suck but I know what katakana is.) It's not the word that matters, they know what mist/fog is and have several kanji for it. I curious about the trope/concept/motif.

[Sinder]

just the idea that if it was borrowed in the last 100 years its not really mythology. the mythology stems from elsewhere and your original question was relating to the name of the city of/having mist and undead being common in two games. still pretty cool all in all. ive only taken some Japanese so im not familiar with the kanji for mist.

perhaps reading more into Yomi or looking at some ancient art might link mist and fog to the name and depiction in the games

[OmgLemurs]

Short answer: No.
Long answer: With enough speculation and digging, sure.

I know of nothing truly Japanese that in any way relates to Torsis though. I think Loramin nailed it, it's just foreign and exotic sounding.

[Swish]

Would be a quick/cheap way for a zone designer to give the expansion a theme... they've got to draw inspiration from somewhere, right?

[Aradune]

If it was japanese inspired, NPCs would be drinking feces and anime characters that look 12yrs old would be raping eachother.

Mongoloid asians

[Clark]

Fog and mist are pretty common things in Asian folklore/myths (and others), especially when undead stuff is concerned.

:D