Myth CodexRotA Wiki

All Heroes in the Codex

Mortals and demigods whose deeds the old stories were built around.

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Traditions
24 entries

C

Cu ChulainnThe Hound of UlsterThe Hound of Ulster — a boy-hero who holds an entire army at a ford, warps into a monster when he fights, and dies standing up, tied to a stone.Hero · Celtic

F

Finn McCool (Fionn mac Cumhaill)Leader of the FiannaWarrior-poet, leader of the Fianna, and the hero who burned his thumb on the Salmon of Knowledge — Ireland's most widely told legend.Hero · CelticThe Fisher KingThe Wounded Keeper of the GrailThe maimed king who guards the Grail and fishes because he cannot walk. His wound waits on a question no knight thinks to ask.Hero · Arthurian

G

GalahadThe Perfect KnightLancelot's son, invented to succeed where his father failed. The spotless knight who filled the Siege Perilous and achieved the Holy Grail.Hero · ArthurianGawainArthur's Nephew and the Courteous KnightThe courteous knight and Arthur's nephew: England's favourite of the Round Table, demoted by French romance and redeemed by an English poet.Hero · ArthurianGilgameshKing of UrukKing of Uruk, two-thirds god and one-third man — the hero of the world's oldest surviving epic, who went to the ends of the earth to escape death.Hero · MesopotamianGuinevereQueen of BritainQueen of Britain and Arthur's wife: a figure repeatedly stolen, blamed and reinvented, whose love for Lancelot brings the Round Table down.Hero · Arthurian

H

The Hero TwinsHunahpu and XbalanqueHunahpu and Xbalanque — the ballplaying twins of the Popol Vuh who outwitted the lords of Xibalba, avenged their father, and rose as sun and moon.Hero · MayanHouyi (Hou Yi)The Archer Who Shot the SunsThe archer who shot nine of the ten suns out of the sky, won the elixir of immortality, and lost it to his wife Chang'e.Hero · Chinese

K

King ArthurThe Once and Future KingThe once and future king: a shadowy British war-leader who medieval writers rebuilt into the emperor of Camelot and the Round Table.Hero · Arthurian

L

LancelotThe First Knight of the Round TableFirst knight of the Round Table: a French invention raised by a lake fay, whose love for the queen makes him the best knight and ruins the kingdom.Hero · Arthurian

M

MerlinProphet and Enchanter of BritainBritain's prophet and enchanter: a mad Welsh seer whom Geoffrey of Monmouth rebuilt as the wizard who made Arthur possible.Hero · ArthurianMordredThe Traitor of CamlannThe traitor of Camlann: Arthur's nephew and, in later tradition, his incestuous son, who seizes the crown and destroys the Round Table.Hero · ArthurianMorgan le FayThe Fay of AvalonThe fay of Avalon: healer, shape-shifter and Arthur's half-sister, who became the legend's great enchantress and its most useful enemy.Hero · Arthurian

O

OdysseusKing of IthacaKing of Ithaca and the man of many turns. Homer's cleverest hero, who took ten years to sail home from Troy and had to fight for his own house.Hero · Greek

P

PenelopeQueen of IthacaQueen of Ithaca and wife of Odysseus. She held a kingdom together for twenty years with a loom, a riddle, and a bow contest nobody could win.Hero · GreekPercival (Perceval)The Innocent Grail KnightThe forest-raised innocent who found the Grail castle and failed to ask the one question that mattered. Arthurian romance's first Grail knight.Hero · Arthurian

S

Sir BedivereThe King's Last CompanionThe one-handed spearman of Welsh tradition who became the knight who returned Excalibur to the lake and carried Arthur to the barge.Hero · ArthurianSir KayArthur's Seneschal and Foster-BrotherArthur's foster-brother and seneschal. A magic-gifted warrior in Welsh tradition who became the sharp-tongued butt of French romance.Hero · Arthurian

T

TelemachusPrince of IthacaPrince of Ithaca and son of Odysseus. The Odyssey opens with his coming of age: a boy with no father learning how to be a man in a hall full of enemies.Hero · GreekTiresiasThe Blind Seer of ThebesThe blind prophet of Thebes who lived seven generations, spent seven years as a woman, and kept his mind intact among the dead.Hero · GreekTristan and IseultThe Lovers of CornwallTristan and Iseult (Isolde) drank a love potion meant for another and could not stop. Europe's oldest great romance of adultery and doom.Hero · Arthurian

U

UtnapishtimThe Babylonian NoahThe Babylonian flood survivor who built the boat, released the birds, and was given eternal life — the one man Gilgamesh crossed the world to question.Hero · Mesopotamian

Y

Yu the GreatTamer of the Flood, Founder of the XiaThe hero who ended China's great flood by dredging channels instead of damming them, walked the Nine Provinces, and founded the Xia — if he existed at all.Hero · Chinese