All Myths Are True: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

{{quote|''"Believe what?" asked Shadow. "What should I believe?"''<br />

 

In fantasy settings, the idea that all myths, [[Famed in Story|legends]], folk tales and [[Prophecies Are Always Right|prophecies]] are either accurate descriptions of past events or accurate predictions of the future is so often used that it could be called a cliche. It's used so often, in fact, that exceptions to the rule are far more notable.

* ''[[Devilman]]'' has Akira's friend Ryo tell him that Demons once roamed the Earth before being frozen in the arctic while humans dominated the planet. He also mentions that some demons got free, and could be the true causes of monster myths like Wolfmen, Dracula, and Ogres.

* ''[[Guyver]]'' suggests that the zoanoids changing between human and monster forms is the origin of myths like werewolves and vampires.

* This is brought up in the second season of ''[[Spice and Wolf]]'' when Holo's past is being discussed.

* ''[[Saiunkoku Monogatari]]'' begins with Shuurei telling her students the story of their country's founding, ending it by saying that according to legend, the eight immortal sages who helped the first emperor found Saiunkoku are still alive in secret among the people. This is absolutely true, and Shuurei goes on to become personally (albeit unwittingly) acquainted with several of them.

** A little later in the first arc, Shuurei begins to tell Ryuuki the story of the Rose Princess and how she married a mortal man. This story is not only ''also'' true, it's {{spoiler|the story of her parents' marriage}}.

 

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Lampshaded in issue #4 of the [[Marvel Universe]] miniseries ''Wisdom.''

{{quote| '''Maureen Raven:''' Oh, for God's sake, the I Ching is true? Is there anything that ''isn't'' true?}}

* In the [[Marvel Universe]] you have [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]] and [[The Incredible Hercules|Hercules]] able to work together.

** In the [[Marvel Universe]], ALL pantheons are real. Their leaders have the occasional meeting, for crises such as, say; [[Secret Invasion|Skrull invasions]]?

*** There ''are'' exceptions to this policy, but not many. Mostly creator-owned comics like their Epic line of comics are exempt. But even leased properties that they once published but no longer have the rights to- such as [[Conan]], [[Godzilla]] or [[ROM Spaceknight]] are ''still'' technically part of their universe, even if they can no longer reference them directly! [[Transformers]] and [[G.I. Joe]] are notable exceptions, they never were part of the Marvel Universe even though it was Marvel that developed them.

* In the [[DC Universe]], even if you just look at the Marvel Family, you've got [[Shazam|Captain Marvel ]] whose powers come from Solomon and a selection of Greek and Roman figures, as well as his rival, Black Adam who gets HIS powers from the Egyptian pantheon. Both collections of myths spell out "SHAZAM", so they both have the same magic transformation word.

* [[Word of God]] says ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' deliberately plays on this.

* The overarching plot of both ''[[Fables (Comic Book)|Fables]]'' and ''Jack of Fables'' is, of course, that all fictional characters really exist and are living in New York. ''Jack of Fables'' introduces characters that represent literary devices, the most amusing of which is probably the Pathetic Fallacy.

** '''2''', also, never mind all that. We're destroying most of the Multiverse and erasing history. You, [[Power Girl|The Old Superman's busty cousin]], your homeworld never existed. You, [[Huntress|Batman's Daughter]], You never existed and no one knows who you are. You might want to get a new driver's license.

*** DC is like Marvel in its 'everything we published counts' approach, though with a few more notable exceptions- which of their Vertigo line of comics stories count and which don't isn't terribly clear, for example.

{{quote| '''Ganesh:''' The Earth is so old, and home to so many strange things, that there is hardly an inch of ground that was never home to a shrine, or a god, or a battle, or some magical oddity. Even under the ground, you yourself have said, there are old gods, old prophecies, old lost things. It is not odd that this {{spoiler|bound god}} should be here, in this place. If anything, it is odd that we are not constantly hip-deep in such magical echoes of the past.}}

* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[The Sandman (Comic Book)|The Sandman]]''. Where we learn that not only are all myths true, they themselves take a back seat to an even deeper and all-encompassing group of seven siblings known as The Endless, who embody seven big forces powering all the mythos throughout the entire universe.

** To be fair, this is a fairly solid theme in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''anything''.

** The Sandman series even basically gives the trope a deliberate nod when one character observes that "A thing need not have happened in order to be true."

* The ''CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations'' series has this at its core. The titular squad of vampires fights all sorts of supernatural threats. In fact, the only major human member of CVO is their boss Overmars, whose orders the vampires follow without question (most of the time). Overmars's [[Number Two]] is an [[Wicked Cultured|erudite demon]] named Nikodemus (who looks a little weird, being all red with large horns while wearing a suit). Their scientific expert is a nerdy zombie (who hasn't lost his mind or gained a taste for human flesh). In later issues, they get two more operatives, one of which is a human [[Genius Bruiser]] the size of a defensive lineman and a Japanese [[Katanas Are Just Better|katana]]-wielding girl who can [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|turn into]] a [[Snake People|snake-like creature]] complete with [[Sssssnaketalk]]. Their normal enemies include everything from zombies and demons to aliens and [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]. They also have [[Magitek]] called Artillica, which appears to be the focus of many issues.

** Following this, there's the ''Infestation: Outbreak'' mini-arc, which has aliens allying with demons to escape from the first circle of Hell and invade Earth. The CVO team requires the help of the little grey alien Archibald from the ''[[Groom Lake]]'' series (apparently, the guy leading the invasion is his drunk uncle Ng, who managed to escape from the [[Area 51|facility]]).

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* A variation shows up in ''[[Undercover Brother]]'', when Eddie Griffin learns from "The Brotherhood" that all the supposed conspiracy theories about black people are true:

{{quote| '''Conspiracy Brother''': What do you think? Things don't just happen by accident! Sometimes people -- mostly ''white'' people -- make things happen!<br />

''everyone looks away and mumbles'' }}

* In ''[[Laputa]]: Castle in the sky'', Pazu believes the city of Laputa exists from the start when other say it's just a myth. He's not wrong, otherwise the movie would be a lot less interesting..

** Although the curator who said that knew very well that Hamunaptra wasn't a myth. He was a [[Ancient Tradition|Medjai]] who was ''trying'' to discourage Evy and Jonathan from looking for Hamunaptra.

** The sequels add the [[Dwayne Johnson|Scorpion King]] and the [[Jet Li|Dragon Emperor]].

{{quote| '''Wendy''': The stories are true! I swear to you! I swear on everything I adore. And now he's come back to seek his revenge. The fight isn't over for Captain James Hook. He wants you back. He knows that you'll follow Jack and Maggie to the ends of the earth and beyond. And by heaven, you must find a way. Only you can save your children. Somehow, you must go back. You must make yourself remember.}}

** That's far less "all myths are true" as it is "those books that were written are true; I know because I'm the one that experienced it, and [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|told the stories to the writer]]."

{{quote| '''Jerry (reading from a list of questions):''' "'Is Jesus Christ the son of God?'"<br />

'''God:''' "Jesus was my son. Buddha was my son. Mohammed, Moses, you, the man who said there was no room at the inn, was my son." }}

* In Erika Griffin's novel, ''[http://www.amazon.com/One-Who-Waited-Erika-Griffin/dp/1411627164 The One Who Waited]'', Alice ponders this during the course of the story, as she comes to realize that there are such things as Boogeymen and wonders if other monsters might exist as well.

* Stephen Marley's ''[[Chia Black Dragon]]'' trilogy ''Sorceress'', ''Spirit Mirror'', and ''Mortal Mask'', take place in 2nd century China, but there also appear Indian Buddhists, ancient Egyptians (in the back story) and a few Christians. It is suggested that the mythologies and afterlives of all four religions (Chinese, Buddhist, Egyptian and Christian) all exist. In addition to the Stephen Marley's own original myths and creatures, of course

* In K.A. Applegate's ''[[Everworld]]'' series, ''every'' god from ''every'' mythology gets together, and they create a parallel universe where they ''all'' rule. Complete with mythical creatures in addition to humans and mundane wildlife. This causes some problems when ''every'' god has an extensive cult, and they're ''all militant.'' Kill the heretic for worshiping Aphrodite and not Quetzalcoatl! Furthermore, several alien gods from other universes decide to crash the party, including the god-eating god Ka Anor of the Hetwan.

** On top of that it is also revealed in another of his series the Ancient Egyptian Pantheon exists too.

*** And the Roman Gods are the Greek Gods' other personality. Is there any god that doesn't exist?

* [[Harry Potter]]'s world uses this trope, much to Uncle Vernon's dismay.

* Children's author [[Robin Jarvis]] loves this trope. The ending of the ''Wyrd Museum'' series features {{spoiler|the deaths of the Nornir by the Spear of Antioch, as well as the ice giants being finally defeated by the Eye of Balor on a spinning weathercock}}.

* The ''[[Harold Shea]]'' series of short stories features a multiverse much like that of ''The Number of The Beast''.

* While the [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] of ''[[Kitty Norville]]'' makes this trope fairly self-evident, a particularly effective and even insightful example occurs in book two when Ahmed explains that [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy|Daniel of the lion's den was really a werelion]] and Enkidu of ''Gilgamesh'' was a werecreature as well.

** In his ''Shadowspawn'' series, the title beings are the basic for just about every legend of magic or monsters, especialy vampires and werecritters, there is.

* In Anthony C. Gilbert's ''[http://www.lulu.com/content/553426 Farther Up and Farther In]'' [[All Myths Are True]] about life after death. Except, apparently, the belief that there isn't any, because the narrator is an atheist but gets sent to Hell, the Christian afterlife being the default for Westerners without other positive beliefs. Escaping from Hell (!) leads to a [[Crossover Cosmology]] where he meets Freja, Pan, Monkey and others: the final message (logically, given the opening premise) is that {{spoiler|All Gods Are One and we are One with them.}}

** I Ching also has a truth, as do other "impossibilities".

* In ''Rainbow Mars'' by [[Larry Niven]], all of the Martian legends are true, from H. 'G. Wells to Edgar Rice Burroughs.

* [[The Dalemark Quartet]] by [[Diana Wynne Jones]] features its own in-universe pantheon and myths, all of which are far more real than people believe (and far more factual than recorded history).

* As previously noted, [[Neil Gaiman]] - [[Shrouded in Myth|just... Neil Gaiman]].

* [[The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries]]: In addition to vampires, there are {{spoiler|Meaneds, shifters, Weres(not just wolves), fairies, demons, witches, goblins, and even vampire Elvis}}.

* [[The Dark Is Rising]] has several examples of this.

* From ''[[Principia Discordia]]'':

** ''[[Prince Caspian]]'' gives us an in-universe example: Caspian was always taught that the "old Narnians" were myths and fairy tales, then he learns that they are in fact real. The appearance of the Pevensies and Aslan also turns out to be this for many old Narnians.

* In [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''[[The Lost Gate]]'' the Westillian Families are the basis of all Indo-European pantheons. It is inferred that other cultures deities, including the Abrahamic one have similar origins.

* ''[[Bionicle]]'' in most cases, the Matoran consider most of the Turaga's stories as mere fairy tales. But most of them wind up becoming painfully true. From giant [[Giant Enemy Crab|Manas]] to the hellish [[Place Worse Than Death|Karzahni]].

* Vasili Golovachev's novel ''The Envoy'' claims that all fairly tales and myths are all true in parallel worlds and the stories are based on the information that is seeping through the walls between them. Any sort of world you can imagine, you can bet it exists somewhere in the Worldfan (yes, even a [[World Tree|world that's a giant tree]]).

* [[The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel]] has ''loads'' of this, although the characters sometimes inspired more than one myth (and therefore go by multiple names) and sometimes differed from what mundane history and literature said about them. For example, book 4 notes that Aten and Pharaoh Akhenaten were the same being.

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* In the 2000s ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]'', the humans and Cylon androids both have their own, conflicting, sets of prophecies regarding their mutual future. Series creator Ron Moore has implied in [[Word of God|interviews]] that ''both'' visions will prove to be true.

** It's possible that the same power was interpreted as a singular god by the Cylons, and multiple deities by the people of the Colonies. In the end, an agent of this higher power reminds another that it doesn't like being called "God", implying that neither perception is entirely true.

** Other examples come along the story of the Cylon D'Anna and her search for hidden truths. First she is given a message from God via a Colonial oracle who also invokes Zeus and Hera. Later the Cylon Hybrid, essentially the Cylon version of an oracle, tells her and Dr. Gaius Baltar to look for the Eye of Jupiter, which is written about in the ancient texts of the Colonials. D'Anna exclaims aloud, "My God. Can there be a connection between their Gods and ours?".

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' has the [[Ancient Astronauts]] version of this, with plenty of snarky comments and [[Lampshade Hanging]] to go with in regards to the fact. For example, in one episode, before setting off, the characters all made a vow that dragons weren't real. And yet, by the end of the cliffhanger episode...

** Vampires. Werewolves. Mummies. Demons. (Kitten-eating, poker-playing demons!) Dragons. God(s). Telekinetics. But ''there's no such thing as leprechauns!''

** It's even revealed in one episode that there really is a Santa Claus... in the form a demon who comes down chimneys and [[Bad Santa|disembowels children]].

** [[Running Gag|"So, you're a soul stealing demon? What's that like?"]]

* One of the [[Tales of the Gold Monkey]] ("Legends Are Forever") had Jack Cutter run into an old flying 'buddy' who had the annoying habit of getting him involved in ill-fated searches for legendary treasure in the constant belief that "All legends are based on fact." He assures Jack that this time he's just on a mercy mission, which has nothing to do with a lost African tribe on an island in the South Pacific...

** In the episode, "The Pandorica Opens", the Doctor went from "The Pandorica? That's just a legend!" to "So, this is the Pandorica" at unintentionally comical speed.

*** The rest of the episode at the very least hints that the Pandorica {{spoiler|was built by 'The Alliance' based on Amy Pond's memories of her favourite book, Pandora's Box, making this only really APPEAR to be an example of this Trope. In fact, considering the whole point of the scenario 'The Alliance' created, this was probably the intended effect, to try and make the Doctor too interested in what the Pandorica could really be to notice what else is going on around him (And it worked)}}.

** So far, [[Alien Tropes|aliens]] have yet to appear. However, the episode "Clap Your Hands If You Believe" suggests that most (of not all) aliens sightings, abductions, and crop circles [[Mistaken for Aliens|turned out to have been]] {{spoiler|[[The Fair Folk|fairies]]}}.

* ''[[Wizards of Waverly Place]]'' seems to be something of a kitchen sink fantasy series. Always [[Played for Laughs]].

* HBO's ''[[True Blood]]'' has its version of this, basically as in All Folklores Are True. {{spoiler|Upon hearing that werewolves, in addition to vampires, exist, Jason gets excited and wonders if Bigfoot and Santa Claus are also real.}}

** Dragons too. This, at least, is believable (as much as time-portal anomalies are believable). It's not inconceivable to think of a bunch of Medieval peasants being attacked by a dinosaur and assume it's a dragon.

* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' assumes everything to be true, and now they have to track down what made it to be true.

* ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'' implies that all of Grimm's fairy tales and many other myths and legends have their origin in real events from an alternate world that can be reached through a portal in Central Park.

* ''Some'' myths are true in ''[[Sanctuary]]'', although usually explained by the presense of [[Differently-Powered Individual|Abnormals]]. Vampires were ancient abnormals who ruled Earth. A group of humans and Abnormals rebelled and fled to Hollow Earth, building a vast underground city of Praxis with highly-advanced technology. The vamps themselves were later wiped out by the rebelling humans. The Hindu goddess Kali is actually an immensely-powerful Abnormal whose physical form is that of a giant spider. There is also a similar powerful Abnormal in the shape of a whale living in the mantle, also capable of causing earthquakes.

* In [[The River]] all the folklore Lincoln was told as a child turns out to be true.

* One [[White Wolf]] game, ''[[Scion]]'', posits that every single pantheon of Gods actually exists and that the players are all children of those gods. ''Scion: God'' hints that it's a case of life imitating art, as the Gods were once pieces of the Titans who shaped themselves according to human myth and were bound to humanity by a force called Fate. All Myths Are True... because the Gods ''made'' them be true. Practically every other creature of myth is around as well, either as Titanspawn or a Lesser Divinity, and mythical places are Terra Incognitae. On the other hand, there's no official word on the existence or nonexistence of the monotheistic God. The Titan of Light, Aten, would ''like'' people to worship him as such, but...

* White Wolf's [[World of Darkness]] is a (partial) example of this. There are Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, Ghosts, Frankenstein monsters, Golems, Hell Hounds, Gargoyles, Ghouls, Faries, Changelings, Spirits, Demons, Gheists and many other supernatural creatures that are deliberately left unexplained. In fact, there is a common joke how if you picked 10 people at random, 2 of them would actually be non-human. Of course, this is not actually true, since the number of all these supernatural creatures is extremely low compared to humans, so the Masquerade stands.

* In Glorantha, principal setting of ''[[Rune Quest]]'', all the (non-Earthly) myths about a wide variety of gods and spirits are all literally true. ''Especially'' the ones that utterly contradict one another.

* In [[Shadowrun]], most myths in the Fifth World (i.e. the perfectly normal nonmagical present (3113 BC to 2011 AD, approximately)) are events that occurred in the Fourth World (the about 5200 years before 3113 BC, the end of which was marked by the sinking of Atlantis). The reemergence of magic and elves/dwarves/orcs/trolls/shapeshifters/dragons/etc in 2011 at the beginning of the Sixth World proved most of the myths true.

 

 

== Video Games ==

** Except they're not really aliens.

* In pretty much all the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games, if you talk to any random NPC who tells you about some legend, the legend is bound to be true. Magical weapons? Yup. Super-powered monsters? Yup. Maze-like hidden cities? Yup.

* [[Nethack]]'s pantheon is conspicuously patchworked together from a very large number of real-life religions with a couple non-deities and fictional deities thrown in (and then there's "The Lady"...). The gameworld itself is likewise pieced together from both mythical and expressly fictional worlds and entities with a couple original pieces thrown in. On top of that, myth-savvy players are frequently rewarded.

** Although the only Nethack deity of any importance is, of course, [[Random Number God|Eris]].

* The ''[[Thief]]'' games feature vague prophecies which imply that antihero protagonist Garrett is [[Messianic Archetype|a saviour]] who will protect the world from several menaces. Though he scoffs at this and finds the prophecies ridiculous, he does end up saving the day as foretold. The trope is especially strong in the third game, in which the main villain is thought by the general public to be just a "bogeyman" and is introduced by quotes from [[Nursery Rhyme|nursery rhymes]].

** Turns out those Seven Mysteries were actually based on {{spoiler|Roxas' memory of a mission where he investigated on them alongside Axel. Only till Pence informs them that they are all made up, however. Well, except for the seventh, the only one that differs from the Seven Mysteries of the fake Twilight Town: The one sitting in the tree was actually there, is was a chameleon type heartless.}}

* The [[Nasuverse]]. In fact, legendary heroes tend to be even ''more'' incredible and terrifying than their legends. Who knew Excalibur could fire giant beams of light?

** The mythological Pok?x entries actually seem to be acknowledged in ''Platinum'', where Cyrus assumes that capturing or defeating Giratina will cause both universes to collapse in on each other, since Giratina and nothing else supports one of them. That gets subverted when the player [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|catches]] [[Olympus Mons|Giratina]]...which ends up [[Save Both Worlds|Saving Both Worlds]].

* ''[[Tomb Raider]]''. So far we've had [[Atlantis]], present-day dinosaurs, giant muscular wingless birds, dragons, aliens, Egyptian gods, harpies, living skeletons, demons, shapeshifters, Arthurian and Norse mythology, undead Thralls, and a hellish Underworld. This is because, at the prime of its time, the series was built on the [[Rule of Cool]].

* Both ''[[Persona 2]]'' games. After all, that was a big plot point!

* A set of daily quests in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has you investigate myths about maidens granting powerful swords if done a favor. Naturally, all three of them turn out to be true.

* Funny Aversion in ''[[Lufia]]: Curse of Sinistrals'' remake. At one point you're sent to find the legendary sword, which is told to be forged by the gods and able to cut mountains in half. Just one line after that you're informed that all of that is just legend, and the sword itself is probably not even magical, but that you should get it just to boost the morale of the people. It turns our that the myth wasn't true, but the sword is still good enough to be used by the time you get to it.

* The ''[[King's Quest]]'' [[All There in the Manual|Players Guide]] uses this to explain the [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] world of the games. Seems that magical creatures, deities without worshippers, magic users, and [[The Fair Folk]] withdrew from the universe into a parallel universe in order to survive the onslaught of modernity. The veil between the world is also described as thin enough for things to pass between them on rare occasions.

** It's also implied that the Tusken Raiders are {{spoiler|the original humans}}.

* The upcoming game ''[[The Secret World]]'' basically centers itself around the concept that EVERY real world myth, urban legend, and conspiracy theory is, in fact, true and claims to have entire missions devoted to each of them. This includes, but is not limited to: 11 days are missing, the bees are returning, there's a city on the moon, the earth is hollow, the wagtail has arrived, stonehenge is a beacon, etc. in addition to the existence of every major mythological creature. In fact, the tagline in one of the trailers is "everything is true."

* In the world of the ''[[Dark Parables]]'' PC games, all ''[[Fairy Tale|fairy tales]]'' are true.

* In ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' Adventurer Mode, if someone talks to you about [[Our Dragons Are Different|some dragon who razed his hometown long time ago]] or a forest where [[Our Zombies Are Different|the dead are said to rise and stalk the living]], you can be absolutely sure he's saying the truth. The only exception to this trope are centaurs, chimeras, and griffons, who sometimes appear on engravings. They don't exist in the real world... yet.

** What's more, the stories will be told with impeccable detail. A thousand years on, everybody in the world still remembers which particular tooth was knocked out of the mouth of a random peasant by a marauding Bronze Colossus.

* ''[[Septerra Core]]''. All Myths Are True...and you can summon them.

 

 

* In ''[[Bibliography]]'', it's basically explained this way.

* ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' has zombies, vampires, ghosts, sentient gas, sentient space owls, time travel, inter-dimensional travel, witches, wendigos, the devil, devil bears, giant bees, Atlantis...

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** Played for laughs in an episode about Stonehenge. Apparently, it has some sort of great magical powers, but nobody really knows what it does. Jackie Chan, upon being told this, sarcastically remarks "Yeah, and some people think it's used to contact aliens." The bad guys figure it must be some kind of weapon, and Jackie Chan goes into action to stop them from activating it. Amazingly, the bad guys actually succeed at pulling off their [[Evil Plan]] to activate Stonehenge, revealing to everyone present that Stonehenge does... ''absolutely nothing''. Everyone goes home, and then, in the last scene of the episode, a UFO lands at the now-deserted Stonehenge.

* ''[[Kim Possible]]''. Mystical Monkey Power, big time.

** The last one can be kinda weird considering Jesus is a semi-regular character on ''[[South Park]]'', (which has a little of [[All Myths Are True]] in its ''normal'' world) but then again, his Imaginationland incarnation acts a little differently from the norm and doesn't recognise the boys. See [[Fridge Brilliance]].

* In some episodes of ''[[Growing Up Creepie]]'', there appears to be paranormal things like haunted bagpipes, living dolls, alien crop circles, etc. Though Creepie soon finds out to be the cause of bugs. But by the end of an episode, the paranormal turns out to be [[Real After All]] (the bagpipe really IS haunted by the ghost of its original owner, the doll really IS alive and ''possibly'' evil, aliens are real, etc.).

* ''[[Futurama]]'': the in-universe legends of mutants under the city and El Chupinebra turn out to be completely true - as does the more common myth of <s> alligators</s> crocodiles in the sewers.

 

 

** Many modern scholars actually think this may have been vaguely true to some extent. For evidence they point out that the line between gods and mortals was heavily blurred - there were cults devoted to mortals and there were mortals who later became gods (see Hercules, Asclepius, Psyche, Ganymede, etc).

** Related to this was [[wikipedia:Interpretatio graeca|Interpretatio Graeca]] - the idea that a god from another culture was actually just an aspect of a Greek god. Curiously, this theory may also have some truth to it. It seems that very distantly related societies did have very similar gods. For instance, the Romans had "Jupiter" / "Dispater", and ancient India had "Dyaus Pitar".

** There's slightly better evidence for certain ranking Nazis (notably Himmler) believing ''Some'' Myths Are True.

* Some fundamentalist Christians believe that every single deity (other than God himself and angels) ever visualized in all of history is actually a demon/fallen angel.

*** This is also why St. Patrick is [[Patron Saint]] of Ireland: He challenged the native priests to what they saw as "magic contests"...but which he, the faithful bishop of the Catholic Church, saw as ''exorcisms''.

* Troy was considered a myth until Heinrich Schliemann found it in the middle-late 19th century.

* Most modern Pagans and Heathens believe that each tribe has their own Gods, and that all pagan/heathen paths are simultaneously valid.

** This is not just limited to Pagan gods. Mainstream deities are included in this pantheistic belief structure as well. Explanations range from the extreme polytheistic view that all gods exist independently, to the idea that all gods are truly an expression of a single, unfathomable, life force/deity that is given shape to a believer by their own religious needs (meaning, they see "God" how they ''need'' to see it, but it's all the same thing).

 

== Anime and Manga ==

 

 

**** It's also clear that while Paul is a Kwisatch Haderach, he's not the one the Bene Gesserit intended. When discussing the idea, Mohiam only talks about him being able to access male genetic memory. They completely failed to realize the prescience. The only group aware of it before Paul was the Guild and they weren't talking.

* In Brandon Sanderson's ''[[Mistborn|The Well of Ascension]]'', the [[Twist Ending]] is that {{spoiler|the prophecies have been deliberately altered by a powerful being in order to manipulate humanity/the heroes into freeing it}}.

** Also from ''Magic'', the name Lord of the Wastes originally referred to a Benalish mythological figure, but was later used as a name for Yawgmoth. However, the description of the Lord of the Wastes didn't match Yawgie at all, other than that they were both [[Evil Overlord|evil overlords]].

* In [[Philip Pullman]]'s ''[[His Dark Materials]]'', many divining methods are actually just "talking to Dust", the sentient matter forming most of the universe. Averted, however, in that most religions may actually be lies created by the Authority to control everything.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* The Final [[Quatermass]] serial has stone circles (which do nothing; the stones only mark the places where people congregated in the past) around the world becoming activated; people congregate there (an activated race memory), expecting to be: contacted by aliens, 'raptured' into heaven, 'go to the planet', etc. Instead, they are 'harvested' by an interstellar energy beam that reduces them to dust, with a tiny fraction lost to the beam. It is further suggested that all religions, and by extension, all of human politics, wars and history, have been the result of this race memory: to congregate and be harvested.

 

 

== Video Games ==

** Arguably, an underlying theme throughout the Elder Scrolls series is that different, contradictory mythologies are all simultaneously true. There were some seven different endings for ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]: Daggerfall'' depending upon the final decision of the player; the succeeding games describe all the possible endings having occurred, despite the contradictions involved.

** Played with humorously in ''[[Oblivion]]'' where Sheogorath asks you (or you ask yourself if you've become Sheogorath) to fulfill a prophecy a small village has about the end of the world that includes attacks by rats and ''FLAMING DOGS DROPPING FROM THE SKY''. The prophecy is used as little more than a prank.

** Which really isn't very surprising when you consider it was rotting for the past thousand years.

** In the same district of Rogueport that Frankly's house is located in, you can find a quirky storyteller who is glad to spin all sorts of old stories. But that tale about the horrible evil monster and the four heroes who fought it before being themselves sealed away couldn't be true, right? {{spoiler|Of course it is. The monster is a demon sleeping underneath Rogueport ''right now'' and Mario actually encounters each of the heroes in the form of talking cursed treasure chests. They're pretty nice.}}

* In the ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' series all myths are true, though very often in ridiculous, bizarre and over the top ways.

 

 

== Web Comics ==

* Myths and superstitions in ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'' tend to be problematic after a few too many generations. Some of them end up being accurate, but for each one that actually is, you've got a few dozen that are corrupted from translation issues or pure age, and hundreds that are plain false or started up from illogical premises. It's also a rule for the setting that no one can see the future, so prophecy tends to ''always'' be wrong.

* Subverted in [http://abe-kroenen.livejournal.com/59909.html#cutid1 this] ''[[Abe Kroenen]]'' comic. Of course, everyone present takes the fact that Atlantis exists in the first place as unsurprising.

* [http://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/ridiculous-creatures-1/ This] short story from ''[[Skin Deep]]''. "How am I supposed to know what is actually fiction around here anymore?"

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* The trope is ''[[Inverted]]'' in most ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' series - [[Scooby-Doo Hoax|the monster is]] ''[[Scooby-Doo Hoax|always]]'' [[People in Rubber Suits|simply a person in a costume]].

** This troper thinks that the characters should have caught on by now and stopped believing that every single ghost they encounter is real. Not very ''[[Genre Savvy]]'' of them.

*** ''Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed'' (though this is in a way full of lampshading because {{spoiler|the real monsters are made from the costumes of the fakes.}})

*** ''[[What's New Scooby Doo]]'' includes some [[Technology Marches On|rather advanced technology]] which makes for better disguises and a smart house {{spoiler|that causes trouble but just wants attention}} but also includes a coral monster in one episode. The weird part? {{spoiler|It's real. It evolved and was awaken by underwater drilling}}