Introduction
What Is This?
Let's imagine you need to crack together a world, or a story, or a video game.
There are a few ways to start writing a story - with a story outline, or by doing impressive amounts of worldbuilding.
The Groovelet: Portable Mythology is intended to help with either of these things, as a creative exercise/aid.
It is a Creative Commons framework, so you can do whatever you like with it! Copy it whole and make your own! You're free to do that - heck, you're encouraged to do that.
Okay, but What IS It?
The Groovelet: Portable Mythology describes a set of 12 interlinked archetypes, arranged on a wheel, with a web of symbolic interconnection linking and unifying the 12 "spokes" of the wheel.
12 archetypes, grouped into 4 suits, each with themes, oppositions, and a role in a larger story cycle, with contrasting elements arranged opposite from one another.
Each archetype in the Groovelet pantheon is thematically unique, distinct, with a built-in conflict with another Groovelet on the opposite side of the wheel.
Think of this like someone rammed the Greek Gods, the Tarot, TVTropes, and the Dan Harmon Story Cycle all together into one short, easy-to-read document.
How to Use It
You could take these archetypes and make them into
- Twelve gods
- Twelve characters
- Twelve factions
- Twelve superheroes
- Twelve corporations
- Twelve alien species
- Twelve RPG classes
- Twelve schools of magic
Use them in your fantasy novel, video game, TTRPG, or weird erotic fanfiction!
If twelve is too many you can also leave some out.
Audience
You are a writer, or a worldbuilder, or a gamemaster.
You want to build your own canon, rather than using someone else's, but you want that canon to be built on a robust and interconnected thematic framework.
Maybe you've thought of basing it off of something like the Four Elements, the Tarot, or the rich thematic archetypes in The Writers' Journey!
Maybe you're making a game and you're starting to divide your mechanics up into Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, and thinking "this could use a little more verve". Why not twelve elements?
Constraints breed creativity. Structure and patterns are a good way to get the juices flowing, and plus: people like it when things line up evenly.
Why not Just Use The Tarot, or the rich thematic archetypes in The Writers' Journey?
Well, for one thing, these resources are very dense, open-ended, and a little hard to work with. The Tarot is bogged down with occult mysticism, The Writers' Journey is bogged down with academia.
And, honestly: there are 22 Major Arcana in the Tarot. have you ever tried to write 22 of a thing? Nobody wants to wander into a story with 22 schools of magic. You'll get as far as The Fool, The Magician, and the High Priestess and your well of ideas will run bone dry.
The Groovelet framework is intended to be modular, remixable, easy to adapt, and flexible: it's ready to fit right in to your project. Heck, 12 is the perfect number for a thing to be made out of. Two halves, four quadrants made of triplets, six pairs, it's beautiful.
Why not use the Four Elements?
It's been done, so, so, so many times.