So mythology is great for stuff other than just characters and fancy powers and stuff like that. We'll get into all that more later but for now I want to take a moment to focus on setting. And I don't just mean huge famous mythological settings, like... pyramids or jungles or crazy temples or secret islands. I mean mythology in the sense of that almost every local area has: even around Ponyville, there's all kinds of stories about what used to be here before Ponyville was built: about the Everfree Forest, and the Castle of the Pony Sisters, and... all of that. Folklore and superstition can still be seen as part of a larger mythology, and it's not just limited to... fancy things. Besides, your very own little area might have some damn impressive stories, whether it's a huge metropolis or a little village.
It's all a matter of how you use it. Say, the forests around here. Well, it's said that before ponies settled here, it was even wilder than it is now. Nature didn't require help... in fact, rejected help, and there were no weather controls and animals roamed the wilds, all... scary and nasty like they are in more remote regions of Equestria. That's pretty much fact; the myth part comes in where we say that there used to be forest spirits around here, that helped take care of the land: they didn't control it, but they rather... served its best interests, driving out evil spirits and helping keep the forests safe.
Now there's a few things you can do with that kind of setting. Say you want to use that mythology in the modern day: well, where did those spirits go now? Do they still want to keep the forest safe? Are they vengeful or peaceful? Is this a pony-versus-nature setting ,where the environment will be hostile, perhaps even sentient? Or is this an environment that will help protect and nurture the characters, or at least some of them? The more questions you can come up with to ask yourself about the setting, the better: the more you'll think about it, turn it over in your hooves. There's no such thing as not being creative: there's just not having enough faith in yourself to put that creativity to use. Also there's being lazy, which I admittedly suffer from now and then. But when I whine I can't come up with any ideas Luna hits me until I do.
So that's a basic primer on using mythology to modify your current setting. Do a little research, you might be surprised what you find and can incorporate, just from the land under your hooves. And that's before even getting into the whole. Monsters and mayhem thing. But we'll talk more about that later.
Speaking of ghouls and ghosts, Luna's calling me to help her with a costume. So. I'd better go make sure she's putting together something a little better than she's already tried. Especially since she had the particularly-creepy idea of trying to wear a 'Scrivy suit.'
Yeah. I don't want to know either.
~Scrivener Blooms
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