The REAL History Of Noita: Myth, History And Legend In Rogue-likes (Spoilers)

if you have been keeping your ear to the ground in roguelike games recently you may have realized that two of the biggest releases of 2020 both hades and neuter have been based on ancient mythologies histories myths and legends given the support for these games is this what we can expect in years to come from roguelike games and let me know down in the comments section while hitting that like and subscribe button if you enjoyed the video if you had a choice where would you like from anywhere based in myth history or otherwise the next big roguelite game to be influenced this is the subject of today's video focusing on noita made by nola games a finnish dev team creating one of 2020s most tough and brilliant roguelite while possibly not immediately apparent this game pulls from several historical influences we'll be examining today noita a game which i have had the absolute pleasure of playing here on youtube and on stream at twitch.tv forward slash let's suffer together it's a game where it's title meaning which in finnish you play as what we are led to believe as well a witch who wakes up from a nap after an initial cut scene with no clue or idea about who where or what you were doing at first sight is a weird and wonderful game filled with fantastical enemies an ever-changing backdrop of varied and unique biomes a mysterious main character who is not directly subject to any mission in any way from a cursory glance it speaks very little about its own inspiration if you take a deeper look into the game however with its subtle and slim mechanics and events to often hide ways it presents its own lore history and mythology then the world and how you see the game just grows and grows and with the hope of more updates in the future a lot more in-game context to come while many of these things stem from times when migration in europe and people's or intellectual pursuits and religious ideas were moving constantly in a constant set of looks i'll be somewhat simplifying things for the sake of continuity due to oral tradition and the previous reasons it can be even harder to nail down specifics from what i believe to be the main connecting elements we will get to next and with many references that are just background dressing and other things fundamental mechanics you'll need to keep in mind that the game is its own unique world not directly inspired by any one thing but a culmination of these things with a bit of artistic license thrown into boots and to see it in such a light allows for individuals to bring their own thoughts and ideas to less certain contextual elements leaving a lot to the imagination so without further ado let's get into the historical context of knighter after pulling the game apart and some research on connecting the dots you come to realize this game has four main branches of historical relevance the first of these is finnish mythology the 50 or so poems and all history brought together in the chao vala similar to other historical mythologies next up we have alchemy alchemy is the term used for the intellectual and spiritual pursuit that spans many philosophical traditions over four millennia and three continents often used to describe the tradition of chemical manipulation and not as often to the more spiritual elements in regard to many works before the modern advancement of science thirdly paganism is the catch-all term used after the christianization of the larger european continent to describe religions or sex or beliefs often dealing with mythology or religious belief of more than one deity often being flexible due to the small community-based nature of such spirituality intermingling between tribes would mold and shift such belief as and when it was convenient or otherwise seen as proper as with elsewhere in finland the pagan aspects were linked and shared by mythology via an oral tradition the final one we come to is the somewhat connection to the holiday of vulpergus knight which is the weakest connection of the four but i still feel is relevant due to its connection with the pagan aspects of the holiday celebrated for germanic and scandinavian countries while each country has adapted their own style there are connections with more spiritual elements where the boisterous nature of the event is said to help with warding off evil spirits and oftentimes connected with its similarities to halloween as you can see all four of these subjects have certain similarities and can overlap at times as we shall see next if looked for in the game these four areas all have their place in the feel and lore of the game and all have their place in featuring both heavily and subtly at times in their own way if you know what you're looking for i'll be showing by separating these individual subjects how they clearly inspire the greater whole which is neuter to give you a very brief description alchemists attempt to purify mature and perfect certain metals however this was considered a highly spiritual practice as the emerald tablet with pieces of in-game law will impart to you the start of western alchemy may generally be traced to ancient and hellenistic egypt where the city of alexandria was the center of alchemical knowledge the central figure in the mythology of alchemy is hermes trismegistus authorized great hermes his name is derived from the god thoth and his greek counterpart hermes according to clement of alexandria he wrote what were called the 42 books of hermes covering all fields of our chemical knowledge the hermetica of fries great hermes is generally understood to form the basis for western alchemical philosophy and practice called the hermetic philosophy by its early practitioners it is why on this tablet you swear an oath to anubis and kokoros possibly referring to the arborist symbol the or the infinity symbol we've become used to in our time i know not only to hermes who is connected to the greek god hermes but also the egyptian god anubis which hermes also is connected to crossing mythological boundaries to bring together the alchemical philosophy the game's attachment to alchemy and its main lore and story-based elements were solidified in the full release version of the game with the introduction of the abandoned alchemy lab while mechanical wise the mixture of certain chemicals was expanded even further to more interactions that could be made through a mixture of chemicals this minibus cemented the alchemy and alchemists were at the heart of notice central storyline with the minibus looking like a giant ghost version of the main character this led to wild speculation in the community due to the lack of concrete evidence of the main character's connection to the practical and spiritual elements of alchemy as a sect trying to affect change within the game's world however what is presented here can't be ignored towards the greater storyline the tablets continue to talk about the alchemical nature of a or maybe more specifically your mission or at least explaining the role of alchemists in the world and their own personal philosophy there is a lot of window dressing to fill out the world's alchemical feel and that you are a part of it given that nearly all these tablets are found next to orbs of true knowledge it is sure telling you something about the nature of these words when connected to the main character the single tablet that is not next to an orb is the secretorium hermertus based in the tree possibly a nod to the idea of a world tree and the knowledge of another mythos there is a symbol throughout the game with tremendous significance to alchemy the symbol of the magnum opus latin for the great work going slightly back to the tablets and the words they alluded to the great work also a possible connection to multiple areas of the map called the work it is connected via the spirituality and personal transmutation process you go through in the hemetic tradition to achieve the end result desired out of alchemy even the colours of the end of everything spell with the spell itself possibly noting the absolute danger of such an archaic process considering the outcome of using such a spell seem to roughly correlate to historical examples of its symbolism the great work is an alchemical term for the process of working with the primary material to create the philosopher's stone online nova described the role of the prima materia in the fundamental theory of alchemy and quote that there abides in nature a certain pure matter which being discovered and brought by r to perfection converts itself proportionally all imperfect body that it touches and realizing that the very last level is called the temple of the r and within that quote brought by art to perfection meaning you are taking yourself through the final level the art to achieve quote-unquote perfection at the end you see what i mean maybe it's a bit of a theory but i'm not sure on that one it's poetic however who knows maybe just maybe however maybe it's also coincidence other notable connections quickly are ways of producing gold and healing liquids within the game midas and lively concoction while the gold element is obvious with midas and its connection to alchemy the lesser common knowledge with alchemy is the use for alchemy in history to produce immortality via the elixir of life also produced by the philosopher's stone so bringing together the combination of creating gold seen as purity and the elixir of life immortality as the two end results of alchemy when you bring the sampo from finnish mythology which we'll get to to the end work certain endings to the game could be seen as a good attempt but in strict alchemic terms a bit of a failure there are certain things you can do but we have no need to get into that level of spoiler here but when you do end the game consider with what we've talked about with alchemy if you believe you have achieved the end result that would make the alchemists proud given those two end goals in mind purity and immortality but we shall move on to another aspect of neuter [Music] in finnish pagan society the bear was possibly one of the most important and sacred creatures so much so that it is often considered that the lack of artistic drawings of bears is because it was so sacred the bear was considered sacred in the pre-christian beliefs of the finns as noted by dubois quote in finno ulgric the ceremonial bear hunt sought to remove a fierce competitor from the local environment while winning its power for the hunter the possible reason for its lack of inclusion in the game however animals we do see is the elk also very important to the peoples of the region such as the komis who depict their sky god gemna as half human and half elk it appears much more than bears do and as theorized that the bear was such a holy animal it was forbidden to be depicted or to speak its name many water birds were holy to finns and other baltic things they were often depicted on petroglyphs it is believed that if you killed a water bird you'd die soon after the holiest water bird was the swan with its long neck it could look out to all levels of the world birds are often found in uralic mythology for example there are many stories about a bird creating the world possibly why a simple water bird the duck is included in the game as well as a very subtle nod to this pagan belief if you have spent much time in the game's third area you will have come across this lively fellow who may jump out of the dark to end your entire career there is very good reason for this and this dude this dude is uko either the god himself or a powerful creature named after one of the main gods of finnish paganism uko which means old man in english is the god of sky and thunder and the leading deity in a pagan society but also one of the main deities mentioned within the kalevala which we shall get to as well uko possessed a weapon often a hammer ukon vasura sometimes also an axe or a sword by which he struck lightning uko's weapon is largely compared to norse mythology for obvious reasons and mjolnir and ice age emblematic pendants depicted hammers and axes similar or identical to scandinavian specimens have been unearthed in finland like mjolnir uko's weapon has been linked by some to the boat-shaped battle axes in many traditions including finnish paganism it was believed that the world was created by the egg of a bird otherwise uncommonly referred to and known as the world egg while we shall extend in more detail on this shortly in the extended mythology for a basic reference to see how it's connected the very starting cut scene on your very first run of noita shows a bird and an egg and some classic examples of how to leave the details to people's imagination the visual reference an extended symbolic connection to the temple of the ark with the somewhat impenetrable doorway with glyphs and the visual reference on the wizard's den has five figures that are surrounding an egg a connection to the five hidden essences around the world and the moon being a historical stand-in for the egg and as you complete this quest collecting all five essences you will be able to metaphorically be able to crack the moon open in various different ways depending on your current situation while this myth leads itself to many other regions pagan and mythological branches focusing on finnish mythology this brings us right into the next section where mythology meets the pagan aspect yes i've been pronouncing it wrong this entire time well i'm going to commit the kale valley is regarded as a national epic of corellia and finland and is one of the most significant works of finnish literature the kalevala was instrumental in the development of the finnish national identity and the intensification of finland's language strife that ultimately led to finland's independence from russia in 1917. the kale valley is a 19th century work of epic poetry compiled by elias lomro from corellian unfinnish oral folklore and mythology telling an epic story about the creation of the earth amongst other epic tales the chaovalla whose creation myth and as an extension from the pagan belief most definitely influenced the lord of the game heavily as seen by the opening cut scene there is further deconstruction of noita's creation law given and is hidden deep within the game and as with all things neuter it has its own style so we shall take a look at the two first up we've got one of the poems from the chao valla about the creation from the finnish mythos one egg's lower half transformed and became the earth below and its upper half transmuted and became the sky above from the yoke the sun was made light of day to shine upon us from the white the moon was full light of night to gleam above us all the colored brighter bits rose to be the stars of heaven and the darker crumbs changed into clouds and cloudlets in the sky first of all thank you to fury forged for allowing me to use these stills from his own personal lore video i really do appreciate it brother and uh this is the hidden lore that you can find little glyphs in old finnish which you can translate using a certain means and ways shall we say this tells of the extended creation myth and how different it is from the main mythos black-throated loon of midsummer was flying over a swamp and landed at the foot of a large tree the bird laid three eggs first of the eggs rolled off of the nest and cracked from the crack blood flowed out for seven days and seven nights from that blood life and death was formed the egg white flowed to the west and from it formed the cold and the ice from the shell formed the lands and the mountains the yolk flowed to the east and from it formed the warmth and the fire at last from the egg hatched nature nature created the laws of nature placed the animals meadows rivers and hills and mountains night and day passed once and nature worked by itself the nature looked at what it has done and was content in his creations there was harmony in the world another one of the eggs cracked and from it magic was born magic looked at what nature had created and gave them a soul not only to animals but also to substances the weight of the soul refined and twisted the creations of nature the noblest of gold gave it to shine the inefficiency of mud gave it a pungent smell the last of the eggs hatched and from the technology was born technology allowed the animals of nature the ability to use devices and machines as you can see the noise creation myth works in the three noticeable factions in the game magic technology and nature which has been a known thing for some time in noita that there is this sort of conflict or imbalance with each other the comparison however is uncanny as you can see not only has it simply taken the creation myth and adapted it they've also put their own style in the way the noita world works in the kale violet the poem is simply a part of a greater whole also where this guy had a daughter named ill martyr one day almata descended upon the waters and became pregnant gestated for a long time in the waters not being able to give birth a golden eye one day a water bird if you remember before we were talking about birds was seeking a resting place and flew into the knee of limtar where it laid its egg as the bird incubated her eggs her knee grew warmer and warmer eventually she was burned by the heat and responded by moving her leg dislodging the eggs and that then fell and shattered in the waters land was formed from the lower part of one of the eggshells where while sky formed from the top the egg whites turned into the moon and the stars and the yolk became the sun so they're very similar and it's simply a really interesting adaption they've managed to create in working in the alchemic kind of magic and the kind of lore of the game it's a great adaption into an original material from an old mythology next up we have the connection with the kalevala and the anvil that has been placed in the game since 1.0 the anvil has a big significance in the chaovalla a god by the name of ilmarnin the eternal hammer of blacksmith and inventor is a goddamn archetypal artificer for unfinished mythology he is immortal and capable of creating practically anything but is portrayed as being unlucky in love as with most protagonist characters from the mythology he is described as working the known metals of the time including brass copper iron gold and silver the anvil in the game has a few uses where you can take broken spells or ones to get them fixed the great works of iman in it include the crafting of the dome of the sky and more importantly for this context the forging of the sampo the cog you use at the end of the game to start the cogs moving to fulfill the alchemic destiny now you may ask what is the anvil that may have forged the sampo doing in the he see base well first let's take a look at the he see he see is a term in affinic mythologies originally denoting sacred localities and later on various types of mythological entities in later christian influence folklore they are depicted as demonic or trickster-like entities often the pagan inhabitants of the land similar in this respect to mythological giants heisi was originally a spirit of hill forests it has been supposed that he sees evil nature has been magnified over time with the christianization of finland in the 12th and 13th centuries being the star of the change in portrayal in more recent times this nature is nearly synonymous with that of a christian devil heci is also used as a very mild swear word in a finnish language he see was often used as a prefix in figurative expressions referring to certain things in finnish life when casting spells in such incantations hece's name often carries negative connotations being associated with waste pain punishment and so on however not all associations were negative he see is associated with good horses often the english goblin is translated to he see in finnish due to the numerous similarities between the typical goblin and he see in the finnish translations of the works of j.r.r tolkien where the word goblin is a synonym for orc he see is used as a translation for goblin so the deal with ahisi is still a huge mystery but to continue on the feeling in the community are we the bad guy the he sees are using technology after all and protecting the anvil who knows but still a great connection to the old finnish stories when it comes to the sampo that was created by ilmarnin on the anvil me and the most of the noted community have one word to describe it mcguffin but what a mcguffin it is the sample has been interpreted in many ways a world pillar or a world tree a compass an astrolabe a chest containing a treasure in the chao valla compiler londra interpreted it to be a quern or a mill of some sort that made flower salt and gold out of thin air the sampo is a tool that brings the finished mythology and the alchemy together for the final result of the game and as such could be anything however considering when put in place there are cogs in the background turning with the sampo makes it look like a machine that needed to be completed i believe the dev team used the gold out of thin air definition for the sampo in order to facilitate this marriage of finnish mythology and alchemy in finnish mythology the sampo was a magical artifact of indeterminate type constructed by ilmonan that brought riches and good fortune to its holder akin to the cornucopia of greek mythology when the sampo was stolen it is said that ilmana in his homeland fell upon hard times and he sent an expedition to retrieve it but in the ensuing battle it was smashed and lost at sea the only real connection to witches i could find in a carvalho is luhi is a wicked queen of the land known as pujala in finnish mythology and a villain of michael varla as many mythological creatures and objects easily conflated and separated in finnish mythology lou here is probably an alter ego of the goddess loviata luhi is described as a powerful and evil witch queen ruling over the northern realm of pujala with an ability to change shape and weave mighty enchantments that she is also the main opponent of vainamoan in him and his group who ill marnin leben kanan and other heroes attempt to win in various legends in true fairy tale form luhir sets them difficult to impossible tasks to perform in order to claim such a prize which leads them to forging the sample and to continue the theme of are we the bad guy i wonder if we have any connection to that particular piece of mythology while valpargus knight has less to do with the previous three subjects i still feel like as important to raise as at least the germanic version of vulpergus knight is more associated with witches than perhaps the scandinavian versions all the countries have their own style of celebrations for vulpergus now also called vapou or vathan in finnish celebrated on the 30th of april annually it's a modern day european and scandinavian festival derived from the merging of an ancient pagan celebration a beltane with the commemoration of the canonization of the christian saint volperga the celebration of vulpergus night has little to do with either christianity or saint volperga instead the origins of this festival may be found in the period before the arrival of christianity in northern europe as the festival falls during the period when spring arrived the pagans conduct rituals to welcome spring and ensure the fertility of the land the festival is often referred to as a second halloween by neo pagans in the present day it also bears a number of similarities with its roots firmly in the beltane festival with celtic celebrations of renewal the night of the 30th of april was considered either the awakening of troublesome spirits in the spring or the last chance for the dark forces of the winter months to trouble a living the germanic version of the celebration the night before may day was known as witches night when when witches had unusually potent powers and rituals were observed to keep them at bay reduce their ability to cast spells and drive them from whatever forces they unleash away from the community alcohol said to be consumed in great volume was not only to celebrate the arrival of better weather but also acted as a preventative against unwelcome supernatural guests while serving as a kind of beacon for the souls of the departed ones wishing to attend the event the more people drank the louder they became and the sounds of the boisterous living were thought to drive away dark spirits and welcome those who would recognize and respond to the sounds of a grand party well that's it thank you for joining me today i've been suffering let's suffer together if you like what we do here always consider dropping us a like and subscribe on youtube if you liked the video we also stream live at twitch.tv forward slash let's suffer together enjoying roguelike games such as noida i'd love for you to join us there and enjoy some good live interactive content but i hope you learned something today about the forge subjects we've been talking about and i think it's been entertaining i've really enjoyed researching it but uh until next time my friends you take care take it easy i hope to see you in the next youtube video for the next stream take it easy guys you

Channel: Let's Suffer Together

Views: 22,495

Keywords: myth, legend, history, edited, 33orbs, 33 orbs, 33 orb help, beyond 33 orbs, hints, tips, full game, twitch, rogue-like, rougelike, letssuffertogether, wands, noit, noit'ed, review, no hit, nohit, meta, death, full, release, fullrelease, action-adventure, building, weird, damageless, damage-less, 1.0, lets suffer together, wandcrafting, wand-crafting, exclusive

Id: Pffz1RXpGF8

Length: 25min 43sec (1543 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020