What would a fantasy or sci-fi setting based on Australian Aboriginal mythology/culture/society look like?

KARKAN AND THE VALLEY OF BLOOD

Karkan was a man of fine build and a great hunter. His tribe admired these qualities but they disliked his vanity and conceit. When Winju, a modest and likeable man, came to stay with the tribe, the friendliness extended to him amde Karkan so frenzied with jealousy that he made plans to kill him. So Karkan persuaded Winju to go hunting, and on the night before they set out he sharpened a number of hardwood sticks at both ends. He took these to a place where there were many kangaroo-rats, and pushed them into the earth, points upwards, in the tall grass. Karkan also tied a cord around some of the grass and trailed it to a nearby bush, and then his trap was ready for Winju.

When the two hunters reached the spot, Karkan told Winju that his method of catching the kangaroo-rat was to run to a spot where movement showed in the grass, then jump so that he could land on the animal with both feet. As he said this he twitched the cord so the grass quivered. The trusting Winju jumped into the grass and drove the sticks deep into his feet and legs. For many days Winju, in his agony, thrashed and crawled about until he made a deep valley, and his blood stained the whole area red.

But because Winju was a good man, his ancestral spirits restored him to health and a great strength. Some days later, Karkan had only a brief glimpse of his rival before WInju's spear killed him. The body fell into the campfire and sparks flew in all directions. They started a bushfire which swept over most of the country, and from the ashes a brown bird rose to hover above the same spot day after day.

The Aborigines of the Coolgardie area believed that the blood shed by Winju created the precious red ochre, used for body decoration, in the sacred source which they knew as the Valley of Blood. The brown bird is a kestrel, destined to keep watch on the ground forever because it contains the spirit of Karkan, still wary of another surprise attack by Winju.

by the way lads, if you wanna see some cool aboriginal legends check this out, used to be broadcast on aussie kids tv like a decade ago

abc.net.au/dustechoes/

Thank you

LINGA OF AYERS ROCK

This myth, handed down by the Pitjandjara tribe, relates how Linga, a little lizard-man, lived by himself near the place where Ayers Rock (Uluru) now stands. Linga had spent many days making a boomerang, and when it was finished he threw it to test its balance. The boomerange flew higher and higher into the air and spun across the desert until it buried itself in the soft sand of the great red sandhill from which Ayers Rock was later created,

Greatly distressed at the loss of such a fine waepon, Linga hurried to the spot and dug everywhere with his bare hands to find it. Today, many of the spectacular features of Ayer's Rock are the result of Linga's frantic digging. The deep holes and gutters, which he made in the sand, have since been transformed into large rpot-holes and vertical chasms in the seep face of the monolith huge monolith.

Linga, forever associated with the sand in which he lost his boomerang, became the little sand-lizard. And, if you are quiet enough, and quick enough, you may surprise him alonside a small hole in some red sandhill.

CREATION OF THE JENOLAN CAVES

The Aboriginies of New South Wales believed that, in the Dreamtime, Mirragan the hunter tried to spear Gurangatch, a huge half-fish, half-reptile which lived ina deep waterhole in the Wollondilly River. After failing many times, Mirragan tried to poison the water with Hickory bark. But Gurangatch escaped by tearing up the ground along a near-by valley, so that the water in the river flowed along after him.

Mirragan was relentless in his ambition to capture such a large creature, and he caught up with Gurangatch many times. Each time they fought fiercely, but each time Gurangatch escaped. Finally he burrowed into the mountains and created a huge cave.

The determined Mirragan then climbed to the top of the range, and drove his spear deep into the ground to frighten Gurangatch out of the cave. He drove his spear down in many places, and each time Gurangatch dug further into the mountains until he had created a labyrinth of caves. At last he broke out on the other side and siappeared into the Joolundoo waterhole. Mirragan returned with the tribe's best divers, but none of them could dislodge the creature from the deepest of all waterholes.

The encounter between Mirragan and Gurangatch resulted in the formation of the Wollondilly and the Cox Riversm the Jenolan and Whambeyan caves, the blowholes on top of the Blue Mountains and, in places where they fought, the many deep waterholes in the two rivers.

The Aboriginies always avoided these waterholes, believing that they were inhabited by the descendants of Gurangatch.

THE CAPTURE OF FIRE

Many different types of terrain and climate may be found within the continent of Australia, and because Aboriginal beliefs were intimately associated with the type of country in which the tribes lived, many myths with a common basis varied according to the locality.

One of the most important factors in Aboriginal life was fire and its benefits. There are many different stories explaining how it was first obtained. Some stories say that a bird broungt it to the people, others describe a tribesman's dangerous journey to obtain fire from a burning mountain, and in some myths the gift of fire resulted from lightning which set fire to a tree.

Most fire-myth variations share common themes of greed and reprisal. There is a selfish person who discovers the secret of fire, but keeps it to himself, and there are those who use courage and ingenuity to take it form him so that it can be shared.

A fire-myth from the Murrumbidgee region is typical of this construction. It says that Goodah, a noted magician, captured a piece of lightning as it struck a dead tree during a storm. He imprisoned it as a convenient way to make fire for his own use, and ignored demands that he share this wonderufl discovery.

At last the tribe became so enraged with Goodah that a group of elders called up a whirlwind just as Goodah had made a fire with his piece of lightning. The whirlwind picked up the fire and scattered it all over the country, and fire became common property when members of the tribe picked up enough burning wood to make fires for themselves.

To escape the jeers and laughter of the tribe, Goodah fled to the hills to sulk, and to plan revenge.

THE SAVING OF FIRE

After Goodah lost his precious fire in the whirlwind called up by the tribal elders, the selfish magician soon thought of a way to revenge himself. He was a noted rainmaker and he began to conjure up a great storm to extinguish it forever.

In the tribal camp, the people were still ecstatic with excitement over the gift of fire. Without thought for the future they feasted and danced for many days, delighted with the fires that cooked their food and kept them warm.

But the wise tribal elders knew that Goodah's revenge would not be long delayed. They changed themselves into bats, and in this form they picked burning coals form the fires and flew with them to the countless trees on hills surrounding the camp. They hid coals in every tree, safe from the rain which was fire's only enemy.

They barely completed this task before Goodah's great rainstorm came flooding over the hills. It deluged the country and put out all the tribal fires.

Cold and sorrowful, the tribesfolk gazed gloomily at the ashes until bats flittered overhead, chirping the news that the spirit of fire could now be found int every tree.

The people soon discovered this was true, When they rubbed dry wood together, the fire spirit that Goodah had made from a piece of lightning soon came ot life again. And for countless centruies since then the Aborigines have made fire in that way.

Thank you

THE BURNING ANT HILL

In this myth from Melville Island two women, caught in a heavy thunderstorm, were near a tree which was shattered by a flash of lightning. After the storm, one of them picked up a piece of wood, which glowed in a manner she had never seen before. But she dropped it immediately and called out, "Yakai! That thing bit me! It's not a snake, what can it be?"

They saw the glowing wood burst into flames, and found its heat warmed their bodies and that their meat and seed cakes tasted much better when thrown on the hot coals. The two women decided to keep their discovery to themselves. They hid the fire ina huge termite mound well away from the camp, took it out to cook their food, and hid it again afterwards.

Their two sons soon discovered this secret, and were so angry at their mother's selfishness in not sharing this good fortune that they change dthemselves into crocodiles. They waited until the women were gathering waterlily bulbs in the lagoon, then pulled them under and drowned them.

The sons, like their selfish mothers, planned to keep the fire for themselves, but when they hurried back to the great anthill they found that the fire was growing larger and larger. It burst from its hiding place, and the flames leapt and danced in all directions until they hid themselves in every piece of dry wood.

Since then, Aborigines have only had to rub two dry sticks together to bring out the hidden fire, but the sons were changed back into their crocodile forms, to live in cold and gloom and never to enjoy their mother's discovery.

KOOLULLA AND THE TWO SISTERS

The Aborigines of southern Australia had a belief that two sisters lived deep in the coean in a vast forest of kelp. Sometimes they came up on the shore to search for crabs and shellfish among the rocks, and on one of these occasions they were so busy at their task that they did not see that Koolulla, who was a renowned hunter, was camped nearby.

Koolulla had been casting his net in the shallows, and had jsut finished cooking his catch when he saw the sisters. He was so impressed by their beauty that he resolved to capture them, and so he picked up his net and a large firestick from the fire and crept close enough to the two women to throw his net over them. One wriggled out from under it and jumped back into the sea. Quickly, Koolulla secured the net around his one captive and leapt into the water in chase of her sister. AS the firestick sank it created a burst of sparks which floated up into the sky.

Koolulla swam all that day in pursuit of the woman, but she finally led him into the kelp forest. There, exhausted and entangled in the rgeat mass of seaweed, he sank to the bottom and was transformed into the shark, compelled always to hunt the deep waters ins earch of the woman he lost.

The sister on the shore, unable to free herself from Koolulla's net, eventually died and was changed into the evening star. The sparks from Koolulla's firestick may still be seen in the sky. They are the first stars to appear as night falls, and the brightest of them all is the evening star, keeping watch over her sister who still lives in the underwater forest.

So abo fire mage would probably be seen as some sort of Great Power

CREATION OF BLACK MOUNTAIN

(This painting) depicts a myth from nothern Queensland. The Aborigines of the Cooktown area related how, long ago in the Dreamtime, there lived two brothers, Tajalruji and Kalruji. Since childhood they had been close companions, and in manhood they became mighty hunters. They supplied the tribe with food gained almost daily from their journeys to the tribal hunting grounds. The country in this region was flat and covered in shining black bounders.
One day, when the brothers were hunting on the farthest edge of their land, they saw a beautiful girl digging for yams. She was of the rock python totem, and would have been an acceptable mate for either of the men, who were of the wallaby totam.
In that moment, when each wanted the girl for himself, the previously unseperable brothers became enemies. They decided to fight for her, but this decision was hard to carry out. They both knew that their tribal laws forbade them from using hunting weapons against another member of the tribe. Eventually they decided that each should make a mound of the great black stones so that he who built the highest could cast a boulder down to destroy his rival.
Watched by the girl, the men toiled day after day until two huge piles rose from the plain. First one and then the other would be just a little taller, but not enough for either brother to cast the final boulder. So preoccupied were they with the deadly task that neither of them saw the first shreds of cloud that Kakahinka, the cyclone, flew as a warning that he was near.

The cyclone struck, and in its devastation the two brothers died on their mounds of stones. The girl was blown away by the wind and lost in the tangle of boulders and vegetation left in the wake of the cyclone.
Today the great mass of stones still remains and is known as Black Mountain, or the Mountain of Death. The story explains why the only living creatures to be found there are the huge rock pythons and the black wallabies.

(cont')

Hans Looser of Cooktown, who recorded this myth, describes Black Mountain as "the most evil place in Australia". The mountain of black boulders, two miles long and 1,000 feet high, rises bare and sinister out of the tropical rainforests a few miles south of the old gold-mining port. Honeycombed with caves and tunnels, it has always been a place of tragedy. A man was first recorded as having disappeared there in 1877, and since then eleven men ar eknown to have ventured onto Black Mountain and vanished without a trace. Straying cattle and horses have also disappeared. No Vegetation grows on the slopes of the mountain, birds and animals shun the area, and the ABorigines would never approach it.

That...
That Is...

HOLY SHIT THAT IS AWESOME!

I love these "explaining mundane stuff" kind of myths (I'm sure there's a word for it, but I'm not a religious studies major). Thank you for sharing based user!

As mentioned in JARAPA AND THE MAN OF WOOD

Jarapa, a man of the Waddaman tribe in the long-distant past, fancied himself as a magician and tried to create a human being. He cut a piece of wood from a tree, shaped it to look like the body of a man, and added sticks for the arms and legs, and rounded stones for the knee and arm joints. All day and night Jarapa beat his tap sticks and sang a secret song over the image until his voice became hoarse, but it did not respond. At last Jarapa gave up in disgust and walked away.

But he ahd not gone far when he heard the crashing of trees behind him, and he saw that the man of wood, grown hugely, had come to life and was following him. A white cockatoo clung to the monster and screeched warnings to all creatures in its path.

Terrified, Jarapa could not escape the man of wood until he realised that it was pursuing him by sight only. It became confused when Jarapa was out of sight. So he hid behind a large rock, and his creation blundered past and at last disappeared over the horizon.

For countless generations of Aborigines, the spirit of Jarapa's man of wood was known as the Wulgaru, the self-appointed judge of the dead. Some believe that it still wanders around northen Australia in search of its creator.

>based on Australian Aboriginal culture/society

Magical realm as fuck

This is pretty standard native mythology fare and it's easy to find books chock full of this stuff in anthropology and folk religion.

Fantastic! That's a short campaign right there - stealing fire amd later protecting it from the greedy rain wizard.

>Black Mountain
>Mountain of Death
>"the most evil place in Australia
>Honeycombed with caves and tunnels

Yep that's a dungeon alright.

THE CREATION OF KULPUNYA

The impact of the imposing beauty and vivd colouring of Ayers Rock on a modern traveller is an unforgettable experience. The relationship between Ayers Rock and the Aborigines of the surrounding desert adds a mystical significance to this massive geological feature.

The Pitjandjara tribe believed that Ayers Rock, their Uluru, rose miraculously out of a large red sandhill. The creation of all it's natural features such as the great bays, the chasms in it's steep sides, the waterholes, fretted surfaces, huge pot-holes,a nd caves, is explained in the rich store of myths handed down from generation to generation of the Pitjandjara.

One major myht relates that, in the Dreamtime, the Mala men of Uluru and the Windulka men of Kikingura became enemies. The WIndulka had invited the Mala people to attend one of their ceremonies, but recieved sucha rude refusal that they instructed their medicine-man to create Kulpunya, a huge and evil dingo.

The medicine man laid out a framework consisting of a mulga branch for the backbone, sticks for the ears, moles' teeth at one end and a bandicoots tail at the other, and women's hair along the back. For many days he sang his magic songs and lethal chants over the framework, until it stirred, rose upright, and came to horrid life as Kulpunya the spirit dingo. Full of hatred and malice, Kulpunya reached Uluru so swiftly that the Mala people were taken by Surprise, and most of them were killed.

Today, the camps of the Mala men and initiates are the huge fretted areas on the Rock's Northern face, the Naldawatta pole used in their ceremonies is an immense semi-detached slab of rock over five hundred feet high, the initiates are the boulders at its base, and dozens of minor features of the rgeat monolith bear witness to Kulpunya's ferocity.

THE BIRTH OF THE MOOGOORA

In the Dreamtime of the Encounter Bay tribe of South Australia, an old man called Lime was visited by a friend, Palpangye, who brought with him some bream, a river fish not then known in the area. Lime returned the favour by giving Palpangye some sea mullet he had caught that day. AS the two men sat by the campfire after eating the two kinds of fish, Lime told his friend that he had enjoyed the bream so much that he wished there were rivers in the neighbourhood, so that he might catch bream for himself.

So that night Palpangye, who was a noted man of magic, went into the hills and pulled a huge dead gum tree out of the ground. He turned it upside down, then thrust it into the earth and twisted it round and round. Water and fish flowed up and filled the hole he had made.

Palpangye did this in many places, and the great pools overflowed into each other until the water formed the Moogoora river and reached the sea. He then walked some distance to the east, where he created the Yalladoola River in the same way. These are the rivers known today as the Inman and the Hindmarsh, and theya re still a favourite breeding waters for the bream.

When the time came for the old mant o die, Palpangye transformed himself into a bird. Lime became a large rock on the shores of the bay, and the sea in its vicinity has ever since abounded in mullet. The myth records that women and children were never allowed to tread on the rock, but old people, because of their long acquaintance with Lime, were allowed to do so.

NARUWILYA AND THE INTRUDER

In the early days of the world a human creator, Naruwilya, made his home in the rugged and inhospitable Wessel islands of north-western Arnhem Land.

After a while Naruwilya became dissatisfied with human existance. He was attracted by the colour and life of the sea, and so he changed himself into a fish. But even this did not suit him, so he took the form of an octopus and spent his time searching for food among the outcrops or coral.

Finally he decided that the trees and the open sky would make the best home of all, and so he transformed himself into a flying fox. he has remained in that form ever since.

On the Wessel Islands there is a place where flying foxes live. This area is forbidden to all Aborigines. Should anyone trespass there, and particularly if he should injure or kill one of the flying foxes, Naruwilya will change himself again into an octopus, enter the body of the intruder, wrap his tentacles around his heart, and kill him.

Will be back with more, just need to run an errand.

Tonanga, the narrator of this myth, was Albert Namatjira, who related that the Aranda tribe originated in the Creation days when an old man started out on a long journey from a cave in Haasts Bluff. He carried a big churinga stone, a spear, and a spear-thrower. Siz namatoona (smaller copies of the churinga) were his sons, which he carried in a dilly-bag around his neck.

When the old man wanted his sons to hunt for meat he took the namatoona out of the dilly-bag and rubbed them with goanna fat. This magic caused them to stand up as six men, each with a spear and spear-thrower.

For a long, long time the old man wandered over a large part of Central Australia. Each time he met a group of women, the old man instructed them to prepare siz camps for he had six sons to give to them in marriage. When the old man decided it was time to move on, he changed his sons back into namatoona stones and put them in his dilly-bag.

Always that old man travelled on, carrying his churinga, his pear and spear-thrower, and his six namatoona. Always he gave his six sons in marriage to the women he met. But at last he became very old and very tired, and died.

He made his last camp and laid down with his dilly-bag beside hime. When the old man was dead, the six namatoona wanted to get out. They started to roll about in the dilly-bag, and the dilly-bag rolled around and around in a circle. The old man turned to stone, and underneath that stone is a big churinga. And close to it is a smaller stone which is the dilly-bag with the six namatoona inside.

THE FIRST DAWN

The Aborigines of the Dieyerie Tribe, in the far north of SOuth AUstralia, believed that all living creatures were created by Pirra, the moon. This task was carried out under the direction of the Mooramoora, the great spirit who made all things. Pirra created man by first making two small black lizards. He then divided their feet into toes and fingers and, with a forefinger, formed the noses, eyes, ears and mouths. Pirra placed the creatures in a standing position, which they could not retain, and so he cut off their tails and the lizards walked erect. They were then made male and female, to perpetuate the race.

But when these first mena nd women began to move about the land, guided only by the moon's light, they found it dark and bitterly cold because the sun had not been created. Hunting weapons had not been developed, and the small animals they caught for food had to be run down on foot.

The biggest creature in that far-off Dreamtime was the emu. It was many times larger than it is now, and the hunters knew that the flesh of an emu, could they capture but one, would provide food for the tribe for a long time. They made many attempts to capture the big bird, but it was so fast, and the world so dark and cold, that they never succeeded. The emu always vanished into the darkness.

So the hunters held a great gathering, performed many ceremonies, and pleaded with Mooramoor to make their world warmer and brighter so that they could capture the emu. And Mooramoora listened to their troubles and made the sun, thus creating day and night.

THE MIMICS

In the great creation period of the Australian Aborigines, the animals and the birds enjoyed a common language. In their communal life there were no sorrows and no antagonism, and always there was an abundance of food. Each year they held many corroborees and feasts.

But at one of these gatherings was the frog, who in those days was a wonderful mimic, started imitating the voices of his companions. He was so pleased with his effots, and at the perfection of his gift, that he could not stop. He went on and on, making ruder and ruder remarks until many quarrels and fights broke out.

The eagle, the native cat, the kangaroo, the noble platypus, the goanna, and the crow all seemed to be hurling insults at each other, until the frog, in the voice of the wombat, called out "To battle, to battle," and in the resultant fight many creatures were killed or hurt. Only the lyrebird took no part in the uproar, and tried in vain to stop it.

This fighting annoyed the spirits so much that they took away the common language and made each creature adopt a language of its own. But as reward for the lyrebird's part in the affair, the spirits gave it the power to imitate all the animals, birds, reptiles, and insects.

And so the lyrebird became the greatest mimic of all, and the Aborigines took care not to annoy it. They knew, through their mythology, that what happened because of the frog might well happen again if the lyrebird was not kept in a happy frame of mind.

THE ORIGIN OF THE PLATYPUS

Naruni, youngest and most beautiful woman in her tribe, had been promised in marriage to a tribal elder. But she was attracted to the younger and more attractive Kuralka, who persuaded her to run away with him to the hills country. After many months the pair became conscience-strickena nd returned to the tribe in disgrace. Naruni was transformed into a duck, and Kuralka was punished by being changed into a giant water-rat. Both were banished to a far-distant river.

Rejected by the land and her people, Naruni in due course hatched two eggs. To her horror, she found that they did not contain ducklings, but strange creatures with bodies of fur, webbed feet, and duck bills.

So great was Naruni's disappointment, and so strong was her yearning for the solid ground and her lost tribal life, that she pined away and died. But her two children thrived in their new watery home, and multiplied to establish the platypus family.

This is how the Aborigines explained the origin of the noble platypus to the early settlers of New South Wales, and they also described its habits and how it reproduced. When the first noble platypus skin was shown to European scientists it caused a sensation, and they were so astonished that they said the beak and feet of water birds had been sown to the skin of some animal.

After that, controversy raged for eighty years over how the noble platypus produced its young, until it was proved that the creature laid eggs and suckled its offspring. This strange link in the biological chain is unique to Australia.

The myth in which Aborigines explained the origin of the noble platypus is characteristic of the way in which they used fantasy to account for phenomena which baffled scientists.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF BURNBA

The hawk-man, Wabula, was without a wife. One day he visited a neighbouring tribe and was attracted to an unmarried girl, Burnba. Wabula went to the enarby beach, caught some lobsters, and cooked them. Then he returned to the camp and offered them to the girl who, much to his disgust, would have nothing to do with him.

Wabula was determined to capture her. He retired to a spot out of sight and hearing of the camp, and there he built a bark hut. That night he returned to the sleeping camp and carried Burnba away by force, placed her in the hut, and blocked up all openings so that she could not escape.

Afraid and lonely, Burnba cried all night for her father to help her. He was a skilled magician and had a spear-thrower with which he had performed many wonders. The first time he rubbed it, a heavy wind sprang up and grew stronger and stronger. It blew violently upon the bark hut, which shook so much that cracks appeared in it everywhere. The magician rubbed the spear-thrower a second time, and transformed his daughter into a butterfly. In this form she was able to escape through one of the cracks.

At last the wind lifted the bark hut off the ground and Wabula discovered that Burnba had gone. Still yearning for the girl, he changed himself ina hawk, so that he and Burnba could always live in the same element.

BARACUMA'S FISHING NET

In a myth from South Australia, Baracuma owned the only fishing net in the world. It was so good that when he cast it into the water the net immediately filled with fish. Wandi, a friend froma neighbouring tribe, heard the story of the wonderful net and begged Baracuma to allow him to use it.

Baracuma refused to lend the net, because he knew that if it was out of his possession for any length of time he would die. Wandi pleaded with Baracuma, assuring him that he would return the net promptly. Baracuma, persuaded against his better judgement, allowed Wandi to take the net away.

However, the fish were so plentiful that Wandi forgot his promised until darkness forced him to return the net. To his dismay, he found that Baracuma was dead. He tried all night to bring his friend back to life, but without success.

Wandi was so ashamed over the result of his selfishness that he changed himself into a hawk and flew to the top of a high tree.

And old Kangaroo-man heard that Baracuma had died for his generosity, and used his magical powers to restore him to life in the form of a native cat.

The Aborigines believed that this is why Wandi the hawk lives and nests high in the treetops, and hunts for food during the day, while Baracuma the native cat avoids the selfish Wandi by making his home underground and catching lizards and other small creatures during the hours of darkness.

THE SONGMAN AND THE TWO SUNS

During the long-distant past, Junkgao, a mythical creator, his wife Walo the sun-woman, her daughter Bara, and his sister Madalait, lived in a country to the east of Arnhem Land.

One day, Junkgao and his sister Madalait set out in their bark canoe to cross the sea to Arnhem Land. As they neared their destination, they enjoyed the lines of light that were reflected from the crests of the waves and the beauty of the long white sandhills on the distant shore. They thought these sandhills resembled the waves of the sea.

At the same time, Walo the sun-woman and her daughter Bara rose in the east to make their daily journey across the sky. But Walo always sent her daughter back, being afraid that the heat of two suns in the sky at one time would not only scorch the hair of the Aborigines, but might even set the whole world on fire.

The early morning spectacle so please Junkgao that he composed many songs on the beauties about him; the sunrise, the light on the crests of the waves, the sound of the waves breaking on the beach, and the parallel lines of white sandhills.

At the same time, Junkgao decreed that the lines of light on the waves, and the lines of the sandhills, should be his sacred marks and those of his descendants for ever.

BIRTH OF THE BUTTERFLIES

When the world was young, the birds and animals had a common language and there was no death. No creature had any experience of its mystery, until one day a young cockatoo fell from a tree and broke its neck. The birds and animals could not wake it, and a meeting of the wise ones decided that the spirits had taken back the bird to change it into another form.

Everyone thought this was a reasonable explanation, but to prove the theory tthe leaders called for volunteers who would imitate the dead cockatoo by going up into the sky for a whole winter, During this time, they would not be allowed to see, hear, smell or taste anything. In the spring they were to return to earth to relate their experiences to the others. The caterpillars offered to try this experiment, and when up into the sky in a huge cloud.

On the first warm day of spring a pair of excited dragonflies told the gathering that the caterpillars were returning with new bodies. Soon the dragonflies led back into the camp a great pageant of white, yellow, red, blue and green creatures - the first butterflies, and proof that the spirits had changed the caterpillars bodies into another form.

They clustered in large groups on the trees and bushes, and everything looked so gay and colourful that the wise ones decided this was a good and happy thing that had happened, and decreed it must always be so. Since then caterpillars always spend winter hidden in cocoons, preparing for their dramatic change into one of spring's most beautiful symbols.

CONDULA AND BAK-BAK

Long years ago, an old Aboriginal made a cloak from the skin of a red kangaroo for his young daughter Condula. This gift made Condula very happy, for it was more beautiful than any of the cloaks owned by the other tribeswomen. As she took the gift, she was told that as soona s her lover Bak-bak had completed his training for tribal manhood, they could be married.

Every evening, when Condula finished her food-gathering, she climed to the top of an isolated rock to watch for the return of her lover; and every evening the heart of Bak-bak was gladdened by the sight of that red-cloaked figure waiting for his return.

But one night Condula was sad, for she heard that Bak-bak, together with other young men of the tribe, ahd been sent out to fight some enemies for trespassing on their land. Again she climbed the pillar of stone, this time to watch for the return of the warriors, but Bak-bak was not among them. Visualising her lover lying silent and still on an open plain, she refused to leave her lonely post. Finally, in her grief, she died.

The body of Bak-bak was changed into the rock on which COndula had spent so many happy hours watching for her lover to come back from the hunt, and so many hopeless hours waiting for his return from the battle.

Condula and her red cloak were transformed into a beautiful waratah that grew up beside the rock so that, even in death, the lovers were not separated.

THUNDERSTORMS

The Aborigines of northern Australia have a number of myths that explain the thunder, the lightning, the wet-season clouds, and the rain.

One Melville Island it is a woman, Bumerali, who strikes the ground with her stone axes mounted on long flexible handles. These are the lightning flashes which destroy the trees and sometimes the Aborigines.

The Arnhem Land Aborigines believe that the thunder-man, Jambuwul, travels from place to place on the large cumulus clouds of the wet season, shedding the life-giving rain on the earth beneath. These thunder-clouds are also the home of tiny spirit children, the yurtus, who travel on the raindrops to descend to earth and find a human mother.

The painting is an interpretation of a myth from further south, where the Aborigines describe how their thunder-man, Mamaragan, lives in the wet-season clouds, and how the billows of clouds that form ont he summits of those clouds are huge white boulders.

In the wet season Mamaragan, with roars of laughter, beats the great stones of the sky together. His laughter is the rolling thunder; the sharper crack of lightning is the sound of the stones striking each other; the lightning is the sparks flying from them. The rain caused by this distrubance falls to the thirsty earth and gives life and food to mankind and all other creatures.

THE VOICE OF NATURE

The Australian Aborigines' complete identification with their enviroment was not only their solution to the problem of survival but also a rich and rewarding spiritual experience. The great Ancestral Being of the creation period - the Dreamtime - made their world and all forms of life, and dictated the laws and patterns of behaviour that governed their tribal life. They felt secure in a belief that the voice of their creative Ancestor spoke to them in everything.

But they were not always faithful to this belief. AN Aboriginal myth from southern Australia relates how, in the beginning, the voice of the Ancestor spoke each day from a great gum tree, and the tribe gathered around to listen. But as time went by the people grew weary of hearing his words of wisdom. One by one they turned their backs on the voice to pursue their own pleasures, and a vast silence settled over the whole of the land and the sea. There was no wind and the tides were still, no birds sang, and the earth seemed to be dying.
The tribe soon wearied of the pleasures of their own making and began to be afraid and lonely. They returned to the great tree again and again, hoping to hear the words that would ease their misery. And one day the voice of their Ancestor spoke again.

He told them it was the last time his voice would be heard, but he would give them a sign. The great tree split open, a huge tongue of light came down into its trunk,a nd then close up again.

Since that time the Aborigines have known that the voice of their Ancestor exists in all things, and speaks to them through every part of nature.

IN THE BEGINNING

The storytellers, who handed down the beliefs from generation to generation, preserved the wealth of detail about the Aborigines' concepts of the creation of life. All their creation myths were based on an Ancestral Being, but the details and name of this creator varied between different tribes.

In the desert areas in the west of South Australia, the Aborigines explain how their creator, Bunjil, made the world and all things on it. First he made the sun, the moon, and the stars. Then he amde the hills, the valleys, the great plains, and all the trees and plants. Next he created all the creatures to inhabit the land.

Having done all this, Bunjil became lonely. He felt the need for companionsw ith whom to sing and dance, and so he decided to make a man. He searched for the finest clay, fashioned a man to his own likeness, and added some finely-shredded tree-bark for the hair. Bunjil was so pleased with his creation that he immediately made another.

When both figures were finished he breathed on them to give them life. His breath was a wind of great violence that blew for many days and sweapt every growing thing from that area, When the land grew still again the two figures came to life, and the clay that was left over became the oddly shaped rocks that are in the region today.

Bunjil stayed with the two men for a long time. He taught them to sing and dance, and under his guidance they gradually became wise in all things. Eventually they, in their turn, could pass on Bunjil's wisdom to all the Aborigines who followed them.

CREATION OF THE COORONG BIRDS

During the Dreamtime, when all the birds were still Aborigines, they ahd a favourite fishing spot near the Murray mouth. When they used their nets they worked as a teaam, and the only man who was misfit was the Magpie-man. He was lazy and disliked the water. It was his duty to carry the firesticks so that a fire could be made to cook the fish.

One cold day, after the men in the water had made a good catch, they called out to the Magpie-man to build a fire, so that they could warm themselves and cook the fish. But the lazy Magpie-man, being away from the water and not feeling cold, said there was not enough wood around to build a fire and urged the others to go on fishing.

This happened again and again, until the disgusted fishermen waded ashore and made their own fire. When all the cod, mulloway, and perch had been shared, the only fish left were the bony bream. These are so bony that they were seldom eaten, and so the fishermen gave them to the Magpie-man as punishment for his laziness.

This so angered the Magpie-man that he took a bream in each hand and attacked the rest of the party. In the commotion that followed the men turned themselves into birds, and many of them were splashed white with flying scales.

The pelican, his previously black body now partly white, jumped into the water, and the net he once carried was changed into the large pouch under his bill. The cormorants and ducks dived under water to escape harm, and the coots ran into the reeds. The magpie, his black body also marked with the silvery scales, flew to the top of a cliff. To this day he keeps away from the water and the fishing birds with whom he once quarrelled.

THE ISLAND OF SPEARS

The Murrumbigee River was once the dividing boundary between two tribes. Each group respected the laws of the other, but there came a day when Gobba-gumbalin, a young warrior from the southern tribe, spoke to Pomin-galana, a young woman of the neighbouring tribe who was swimming by the bank.

After this they took every opportunity to meet, even though the woman was promised to a warrior of her own tribe. Their desire for each other became so strong that they planned to run away to the nearby hills, where they hoped they would be safe from the vengeance of both tribes.

Their love was so strong that they became incautious, and both tribes came to know of their nightly meetings. The elders decided that, for the sake of tribal peace, the lovers should be destroyed. So on the night when they swam to meet each other in the centre of the river, intending to escape by swimming downstream, many spearmen from both tribes were hidden in the reeds lining each bank. Just as the lovers reached each other they were peirced by a hail of spears and sank to the river bottom.

Today, a reed-covered island in mid-river marks the spot where they died. The Aborigines say that the reeds are the spears that killed the lovers; that the red cliffs further downstream were stained by their blood; and that the frogs on either side of the river still mourn their fate, because those on one side call "Gobba-gumbalin," and the frogs on the opposite bank reply with the sound of "Pomin-galana."

THE WEEPING OPAL

A myth of central Queensland relates that in the days of the Dreamtime, when the world was young and the great creation events were taking place, a giant opal ruled over the destinies of men and women. This Ancestral Being lived in the sky, made the laws under which the tribes should live, and dictated the punishments to be inflicted on those who broke the laws.

The creation of this Aboriginal Ancestor came about as a result of a war between two tribes. The fighting had gone on for so long that, at last, the combatants had broken or lost all their weapons. So they began hurling boulders at each other, and a tribesman threw one so hard that it flew upwards and lodged in the sky.

The boulder grew rapidly as the frightened warriors watched, until it burst open and revealed the flashing colours of a huge opal. And as the opal saw the dead and wounded warriors lying on the ground below, it wept in sorrow.

Tears streamed from the opal in such profusion that they became a great rainstorm, and when the sun shone on the opal-coloured tears the Aborigines saw their first rainbow.

From that time on, the Aborigines of that area believed the rainbow was a sign that someone had comitted a crime against the tribal laws laid down so long ago, and that the tears of the opal were again falling in sorrow.

THE RAINBOW SERPENT

In the mythology of the Australian Aborigines, the most widespread of their beliefs was in the existence of a huge serpent which lived in waterholes, swamps, and lakes. In most myths it was associated with the rainbow. Rainbow-serpent myths were Australia wide, but the greatest variety came from northern Australia, where the thunder-clouds and violent rains of the monsoonal season provided the ideal environment.

The Rainbow-serpent myths vary widely in their telling, and in the names given to the serpent, but the creatures themselves had many characteristics in common.

Most myths describe a huge snake that spent the dry season resting in a deep waterhole. In the wet season, it went up into the sky as a rainbow. It was of immense size, brilliant in colouring, and often had a mane and a beard. Usually it was an object of fear to the Aborigines, especially when resting in its waterhole, and the greatest care was taken not to annoy or offend the mighty snake. Should anyone distrub its rest, the Rainbow-serpent would inevitably create some disaster, from simply eating the offender to making the waterhole overflow and thus drowning everyone in the world.

In some myths, Rainbow-serpents appear as Ancestral Creators. Their bodies contained not only the first Aborigines, but all the natural features of the land which in that remote time was flat and featureless. In others, the appearance of a rainbow meant that the serpent was travelling from one water-hole to another. Sometimes it was linked with the rainbow colours of quartz crystals, which the medicine-men of many tribes used as objects of magic.

But whatever its shape or name or habits, the Rainbow-serpent was an awesome creature of power and importance.

And that's it. Hope all these tales have given you all some ideas for possible world-building and campaigns. And if not, I hope you found it entertaining.

it was entertaining, thank you user

Holy shit, I clicked on this thread expecting it to be filled up with /pol/tards because they seem to be drawn to aboriginal threads, but this is amazing. I feel like it's 2009 again.

Storyanon, you rock

Veeky Forums is on fire today, all is almost right.
It is like 2009 again.

Good thread

Dark Sun with no magic.

Holy fuck my sides
>abbos huffing dark matter at all the space ports

Thank you so much, friend. These myths are awesome.

also rampant drug/alcohol/child abuse: they should be genocided along with the roma.

Worth a bump