The Army of Leodysseus. Xylona’s Flock. The Convocation of Bassylia. The Order of Eathyron. The names of these heroic factions of Mythoss have been a part of Mythic Legions since the earliest days of the line. Beyond these names, there once existed a foursome of Great Beasts whose strength and bravery saved a Realm from evil, and whose example set the stage for the factions that would eventually bear their names. In this “Lore of Mythoss” article, we open the history books to see what we can learn about these heroic protectors of the Realm, just as we wonder where they may have gone once their noble work was done.
The First Great War
As has been revealed in the past, the Realm of Mythoss was once threatened with destruction as the hands of four evil entities known by some as the “Dark Four” and by others simply as “The Horsemen.” These bastions of evil led their terrible armies with the sole intention of destroying the paradise that Mythoss had once been. This dark plot was only thwarted thanks to the intervention of four other warriors, commonly referred to as the “Great Beasts” in the historical literature of this time.
No one knows exactly where these warriors came from, but the name “Great Beasts” is appropriate since each of them bore a beastly appearance – Leodysseus the lion, Xylona the frost deer, Bassylia the great serpent, and Eathyron the golden eagle. Wielding weapons of immense power, the Great Beasts rallied the good denizens of Mythoss to fight back against the evils that sough to oppress them, and eventually those evils were defeated. The Dark Four were banished from Mythoss, and their shattered armies scatted back to the shadows from where they came.
The image below, taken from an illustrated account of the First Great War, relates some of this history.
Four Heroic Factions
With the Dark Four defeated and banished, the Great Beasts also left the Realm of Mythoss. Knowing that evil could one day rise again, the Beasts left behind their weapons to be used to keep the darkness at bay. Around these weapons and the Great Beasts who once held them, four heroic factions formed.
The Army of Leodysseus became the most militaristic of these new factions. Led by the Leossyr family, they built a great army in order to defend their kingdom and the Realm of Mythoss as a whole. The visage of the godlike lion can be seen in their faction symbol. It is emblazoned on the banners the army flies and it adorns the shields they strap to their arms as they head into battle.
The great weapon that this faction was left with is the mighty Leossyr Hammer.
Xylona’s Flock is the faction that rose up behind the memory of the elder frost deer, Xylona. Members of this faction gain their power from, and help protect, the elements of nature that give life to the people of Mythoss. Of all the heroic factions, the Flock are the ones most connected to the Great Beasts and the beings of the Old World, in large part because of their purity and close ties to nature. This inherent connection grants Xylona’s Flock a certain reverence and a measure of celebrity in the modern age.
The powerful weapon that was left behind for this faction was the Silverchord Bow.
The great serpent, Bassylia, lent her name to the faction of magic users, scholars, and teachers called the Convocation of Bassylia. The most mysterious of the heroic factions, they are also the most secluded, rarely leaving their towers and libraries to mingle in the affairs of the rest of the Realm.
The ancient weapon that Bassylia gifted this faction with is the Serpenspire Staff.
Finally, the Order of Eathyron rose in reverence to the crowned eagle. The Order is an organization steeped in religious tradition, and which boasts warriors whose faith is as strong as the swords they wield and the shields they hold up to defend the Realm from the unholy terrors of the Undead.
The weapon left in the care of the Order is the Heavensbrand Sword.
Each of these four weapons not only connected the wielders and their factions to the Great Beasts who once held them, but the weapons themselves also each included a specific ability of great power. The exact nature of these mysterious and awesome powers has yet to be revealed.
With these weapons at their side, the leaders of these four factions helped usher in a new age for the Realm of Mythoss, one of great peace and prosperity. Today, three of the four weapons remain in their rightful places. The young would-be queen, Artymss Silverchord, wields the bow of Xylona. Herra Serpenspire, the leader of the Convocation of Bassylia, holds the serpent staff. A righteous and noble man, Sir Gideon Heavensbrand fights with the sword of the eagle in his grasp. The hammer of the lion, however, has been lost. Attila Leossyr, the current leader of the Army of Leodysseus, fights without his family’s legacy weapon by his side.
The Legacy of the Beasts
Years of relative peace have come to an end in the Realm of Mythoss. The finding of the dreaded Aetherblade has allowed the evil warmonger, Gorgo, to recall his dark master from where the Great Beasts had banished him.
With the return of Arethyr, a new age of darkness descends on the Realm. The vampire queen, Illythia, rises, as does the lord of disease known as Poxxus. With their evil weapons of power in hand, weapons whose terrible abilities rival those of their heroic counterparts, three of the Four Horsemen once again ride in Mythoss. Only the fourth Horseman, Necronominus, remains in his exile. Thankfully, the foul weapon this dark power once wielded, the Godrazor, remains lost. This has kept the final Horseman imprisoned, for now at least.
As the Dark Four rise anew, one must wonder whether or not the Great Beasts will also return to Mythoss to once again fight for the protection of the Realm? If not, how will the denizens of Mythoss ever hope to stand against powers so ancient and so evil?
The Great Beasts Thus Far Released
Only two of the four “Great Beast” characters have been released in the Mythic Legions line thus far.
The crowded eagle, Eathyron, was actually released all the way back in the “Eathyron’s Dozen” wave (he is pictured above). While this wave made use of the tooling found on the Gothitropolis Kickstarter wave of “bird” figures, it featured all new decos and some brand new head sculptures, including on the Eathyron figure. Canon-wise, Eathyron is really the only release from that wave that is part of the larger story of Mythic Legions, and the figure was packaged with a pair of golden wings and the mighty Heavensbrand sword (the only other place that sword was available was in the “Weapons Pack 1” set from the first Kickstarter wave of Mythic Legions).
The elder frost deer, Xylona, was a stretch goal in the second Mythic Legions Kickstarter, for the “Advent of Decay” wave. Xylona of course came with her Silverchord Bow, which was also included with the Artymss Silverchord figure from that same wave.
Neither of these Great Beasts figures have ever been eligible as a possible All Stars selection, and the other two members of the Great Beasts foursome, Leodysseus and Bassylia, have yet to make an appearance in the Mythic Legions toy line.
Published on 03.22.22