Originally Posted by
ignorantoftheshow
Alright, so I made an account just so I can get some advice on a servant idea.
I really wanted an insanely awesome psuedo-Grail War scenario for a Nasuverse RP campaign, so I searched mythologies for months to compile a good list of candidates (already on my list was Gilgamesh, obviously). The problem came when I started getting into proto-Indo-European mythology. Gilgamesh is generally considered to be the oldest known hero with a complete story, but the Nasuverse considers him the first hero ever (thereby being the origin of all heroes).
However, from a brief viewing of reconstructed proto-Indo-European myth and other mythologies unrelated to Sumeria, this is incorrect. As far as I remember, Gilgamesh kills no dragons (unless one considers Humbaba a type of serpent) and his myth has no real thematic connections to Indo-European mythologies (Norse, Greek, Hindu, etc.). While the myths of Perseus, Hercules, Houyi, Thor, Indra, and Zeus are connected at least through a form of serpent slaying (respectively, the serpents killed being Medusa, the Hydra, Bashe, Jormungandr, Vritra, and Typhon), there exist no real dragons that I know of in the Epic of Gilgamesh (there are some, however, in Ninurta's myth). Unless dragon killing is not typical of heroic myths and of one's status for becoming a hero (which it definitely is), Gilgamesh is likely not the first hero ever.
I don't expect Nasu to go into that much research, but the problem isn't that there are older heroes (historically) than Gilgamesh; the problem is that I'm having difficulties reconciling ideas for certain heroes that are likely older than Gilgamesh into a campaign with Gilgamesh. For example, I have an idea for Narmer, the historical unifier of upper and lower Egypt, being mixed with Menes, the mythological unifier of upper and lower Egypt (giving him a nice NP involving riding a giant primordial crocodile). This was further going to be supplemented by giving him some of the abilities of the Egyptian god Osiris, as Osiris' penis was thrown into the Nile and eaten by a catfish; somehow, I would conflate the mentioning of that catfish eating a God's junk into Narmer being of divine origin through the meaning of his name (Narmer can be translated as "The Striking Catfish").
So, we'd have at least an NP involving a crocodile, an NP symbolizing the unification of Egypt, and a divinity skill. The rest can be filled in easily (bar the lore), and we have a decent draft for a servant. Except I can't have Narmer exist as a hero if Gilgamesh is the oldest.
Narmer lived in the 3000's BCE while Gil is somewhere between 2800-2500 BCE. This means one of three things: Gil is not the oldest hero (Not an option according to his lore), Narmer doesn't exist in the Nasuverse (kind of a shitty option since I want to have him on board), or that modern science doesn't know how to age artifacts and literature (not a great option, but the best I can think of).
This might also mean I can't include the Yellow Emperor Huangdi, as he is supposedly the inventor of many weapons and goods while existing alongside Gilgamesh. He's a little easier to deal with as he has been dated to about 2697 BCE to 2597 BCE, so I can just assume Gil to be as far back as he's been dated (2800's BCE).
Any suggestions to fit Narmer into Type-Moon lore? Should I just ignore it? Starting to consider just dropping Narmer and finding a way to bullshit Ninurta in.