Dacians - Myths
Being very old, the mythology of the Dacians
is born from the desire of the humans to find their place in the world.
It contains very few moralizing motifs and doesn't have a manipulatory
function. Even the moralizing function is meant to protect the nature
that men tried to be in balance with, and doesn't contain social
elements like the more recent mythologies do. As an example, the
symbols and representations that the Dacian mythology contains do not
try to create a doctrine of submission to some political leaders and
there's no desire to impose any kind of subconscious order or respect
for a certain social class.
The myths of the Dacians are closely related
to their way of life. The harsh living conditions of the mountain areas,
the loneliness and wilderness of the geography lead to a set of myths
related to the primary elements of the nature. Weather, long distances
and the threat of the wilderness are an important part of this mythology
and of the dacian magic practices.
The dacian rituals and magic were performed by
both men and women, but there was a distinction in roles between the two
sexes. The men could become wizards that controlled the primary forces
of the nature, a kind of guardians of the world and the nation, while
the witches took care of enchantments, fertility and relations between
people. In Getica, the player will find spells based on real incantations
and magic formulas, as they were taken from the folklore.
The ancestral myths have been altered by the
adoption of Christianism as the official religion. Like in any other
assimilation process, the Christians have integrated the local beliefs
into their own system, but gave the old myths a negative, malefic value,
in order to turn the people away from them. The christian priests do
not deny the ancient rituals, but rather they describe them as satanic
manifestations, which is more effective than saying they are
inventions or superstitions. The myths that form the basis of the
Getica world have been found in this altered form, but we carefully
removed the parts that can be easily recognized as christian additions,
in order to present the original form of the dacian beliefs.
Articles in this section:
The Hultan
The Hultan was a powerful wizard who controlled the weather. The main character in Cult of the Elders is a hultan, so you should probably read this article.
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