Shrouded in Myth: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

You've heard [[Famed in Story|the stories]]. There's someone out there, someone mysterious and untouchable. Rumors and hearsay seem to surround their every word and deed. And not just the normal sort either, but the utterly ridiculous kind. Like that he's thirty feet tall and [[Braveheart|shoots lightning bolts out of his arse]]. Sure, there's a kernel of truth in there somewhere, but who even knows where or what it might be with all the stories surrounding the truth. This all may set up [[Expecting Someone Taller|a moment of disappointment]] when [[The Reveal|the truth gets revealed]].

When this happens in the fandom rather than in-universe, it's a [[Memetic Badass]].

 

{{examples}}

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* The Irregulars are completely foreign entities that surpass the strength of almost anybody in the ''[[Tower of God]]''. Where the came from apart from outside the tower and what they want is a mystery to anybody.

* The wildly conflicting rumors about Vash from ''[[Trigun]]'' become an issue in the very first episode. Even at the end of the series, the fact that a [[Obfuscating Stupidity|dorky]], [[Technical Pacifist]] is the world's most notorious outlaw is still stunning everyone who learns the truth. He finds it useful on occasion to play into the stories surrounding him. Many of the rumors about Vash in the first episode could just as easily describe the 12-foot tall criminal Descartes.

** This culminates in a showdown between Descartes, the bounty hunter Loose Ruth, and (sort of) Vash, with Ruth and Descartes believing each other to be the real deal pretty much solely because they both wear red and have blond hair.

* Keima from ''[[The World God Only Knows]]'' ''is'' a weird guy deserving of the title [[Otaku|ota]][[Megane]], but his reputation as seen [http://www.mangareader.net/120-6010-5/the-world-god-only-knows/chapter-51.html here], while partially true, is a little off.

* Guts' existence is completely obscure in ''[[Berserk]]'', especially when he takes up his Black Swordsman persona after the Eclipse. Before the Eclipse, it was well known that there was a mighty man among the [[Famed in Story|Band of the Hawk]] who slayed 100 soldiers by himself, thus earning the title "[[Earn Your Title|the Hundred Man Slayer.]]" His actual name was more well known then, but after the demise of the first band, he became nothing more than myth, but his legendary feats continued to disperse and became so overblown that now a lot of people believe that he killed a whooping ''1000 soldiers'' by himself.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* The true identity of ''[[Tomorrow Stories|Greyshirt]]'' is a mystery, but to the underworld of Indigo City, he might as well be the Boogeyman. His reputation for being impossible to kill (eyewitness reports of surviving multiple gunshots, knife wounds, shrapnel explosions...) led superstitious crooks to worry that he was a ghost come to bring them to justice from beyond the grave. This is supported by the widely held belief that Greyshirt is the long-thought deceased Franklin Lafayette. The wide variety of physical aptitudes he holds, from tremendous brawling ability to dancing that draws comparison to [[Gene Kelly]], and the fact that many experts come to different conclusions when analyzing his romantic history, only heighten his mystique.

* The Immortal Weapons of ''[[Immortal Iron Fist]]'' actually ''are'' mythic figures, which is all fine and dandy until you have to write an official SHIELD file on any of them but can't tell which stories are true.

 

* In ''[[Aeon Natum Engel]]'' this is a reason behind the biggest [[It Got Worse]] in the Operation <s>It got worse</s> CATO: The whole reason behind the invasion of Iceland was to capture Moloch, the dormant Herald. The intelligence presumed that it will only be slightly larger than the {EVA}s, but when it finally surfaced, it was at least as big as the city.

* ''[[The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds]]'': Over the course of the 1500 years that have passed since she helped to found Equestria, this has happened to Megan.

 

== [[Film]] ==

** In the ''[[How It Should Have Ended]]'' version [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcoVxbutl8g&list=SL this is exactly what happens]. Also he's a robot.

** Notably, the real Wallace was very large and tall; though his exact height is undetermined, it was probably not much less than seven feet. Part of the purpose of the scene in the film was to invoke this trope in order to lend credence to his being played by 5' 10" Mel Gibson.

* [[Word of God]] is that Delios is [[Unreliable Narrator|deliberately pulling this]] on the assembled Spartans during his narration in ''[[300]]''.

* There are many different versions of the story of Keyser Söze in ''[[The Usual Suspects]]''. ''Many'', and not without reason; It's a mystery exactly who, if any, of the characters is or is connected to him until the very end, after all. Unlike most characters on here, Söze lives up to the myths.

** Or does he? After all, most of what we know of him comes from {{spoiler|[[Unreliable Narrator|the man himself]]}}. Hardly the most trustworthy source.

* Dalton has a reputation along these lines in ''[[Road House]]''. Except that the more ridiculous and out there stories are actually ''true''. Like the time he ripped a man's throat out with his bare hands.

* Maximus in ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]''. When a little boy asks him if he can really crush a man's skull with one hand he answers "A man? No. But a boy's..."

** Played with at the very end of ''[[The Outlaw Josey Wales]]'':

{{quote|"I don't believe that story about Josey Wales."

"No sir, I don't. I don't believe no five pistoleros could do in Josey Wales."

" Maybe it was six. Could have even been ten."

* ''[[The Right Stuff]]'' begins shrouded in ''mist'' with a voice-over as follows:

{{quote|'''Narrator''': There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die ... He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it the sound barrier.}}

* The Black Pearl and its crew in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]''.

{{quote|'''Prisoner:''' I've heard stories. She's been preying on ships and settlements for near ten years. Never leaves any survivors.

** Captain Jack Sparrow, especially in ''On Stranger Tides.'' Rumors about him are so out of hand that he has to learn from several of his shipmates the things that he's supposedly been doing.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In Lois Lowry's ''[[Gathering Blue]]'', the Christian cross is known as "The Worship Object." The citizens of the community bow to it simply because all they know about it is that it was admired in the past, but the knowledge about it has been lost because of [[After the End|The Ruin.]] This crosses over with [[Future Imperfect]].

** This trope also applies to Rand himself, who eventually seems to be treated as some kind of demigod or demon by people from the other end of the continent who have only heard mad rumours about the [[Amazon Brigade|giant man-eating warrior women]] who serve as his bodyguards. Although actually that particular rumour was voiced by someone who lived in the ''same city'' in which Rand was holding court at the time - Jordan is probably making a point about how myths get created (which ties in which the way the world thinks about the Dragon and the Age of Legends), sometimes ending the main part of the book before the epilogue with a comment about how the cataclysmic event would mutate in the telling, on one such occasion even stating that, most unusually, it was something fairly close to the truth that was most widely believed. This really kicks Rand in the arse down the line as even childhood friends of his believe monstrous tales about him (which are usually unfairly slanted against him even when they contain a grain of truth).

** This trope also applies to the Forsaken. They know a lot of [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|forgotten uses of]] [[Lost Technology|the One Power]] that modern Aes Sedai don't have access to, and they are definitely every bit as evil people as their reputations have it, but that's about it. Three thousand years of myths and legends turned them from more-powerful-than-average channelers to [[Physical God]]s in the imaginations of characters in the series. Consider that modern channelers kept in practice with battle magic over all those years, and still managed to preserve a few [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]]s of their own, and some of the Forsaken quickly had to turn tail and run whenever a protagonist showed up.

** Becoming Shrouded in Myth is the first step to becoming a Hero of the Horn.

* In Steven Erikson's ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'', Anomander Rake is widely seen as one of the most über-[[Badass]] characters in that entire [[The Verse|universe]], despite the fact that we haven't seen him do all that much in the books.

**** Strictly, it was Carrot who arrested the dragon and Vimes didn't actually kill a werewolf with his bare hands, but the rest is all true. Also, the Assassin's Guild refuses contracts both because he's so unkillable, and because his death would leave Ankh-Morpork in a shambles, but still, they dassn't try to kill him.

*** It's mentioned in passing at least once that city police forces that pattern themselves like the Ankh-Morpork City Watch are often called "Sammies" (even in areas where most people haven't heard of him), in part thanks to the Ankh-Morpork trained watchmen who leave the city to take up officer positions elsewhere.

**** Presumably a reference to the fact that British police officers are nicknamed "Bobbies" in reference to Robert Peel, the man who wrote the <s> book</s> precepts on How To Be A Good Copper.

** Also on the Discworld is Lu Tze. His deeds as an agent of the History Monks are so legendary among the few who know of the secret society that no apprentice who hears the tales suspects that Lu Tze is actually one of the temple's janitors. Even when learning the truth, it can be tempting to discount the stories or underestimate him... until you find out why Rule One on Discworld is [[Old Master|"Never act incautiously when confronted by a small, old, wrinkly, bald smiling man!"]]

** Although the legend isn't all '''that''' exaggerated: drugged and ambushed by five assassins, who got in the first blow with a club to his head, sixty-year-old Druss kills three of them, then captures and starts to interrogate the fourth. The fifth assassin, who'd held back, picks that moment to attack, and the captive dies as a human shield. Assassin Five wisely runs away.

* True of two characters in the ''[[Dragaera]]'' universe - when she is introduced (via [[Anachronic Order]]) in ''Taltos'', Vlad talks about how Sethra Lavode has gained a reputation as almost a fairy tale villain, known as an evil vampire enchantress who likes to [[Baleful Polymorph|change into animals]] heroes that challenge her. She turns out to be surprisingly nice given this. The series also has Mario Greymist who is supposed to be the greatest assassin ever {{spoiler|and when Vlad meets him in ''Dzur'', he is a portly middle-aged man in appearance}}. Still quite ready and willing to kick ass, though.

** Santiago's reputation was done no harm by Black Orpheus giving him no less than forty verses in an epic poem where three marks you as one of the biggest badasses in the universe, with lines like:

{{quote|''His father was a comet''

''God wept when first He saw him''

''But Satan merely grinned.'' }}

* In the ''[[Myth Adventures]]'' series, Skeeve, the protagonist, gets a reputation as a master wizard. However, he is a novice who barely knows the basics of Magik.

** Most of his early instruction, both by his original teacher and in the first few books, is composed half in showmanship designed to attain the reputation and rewards of a master, and half in the attitude and conscience which it's stated by the second book is as integral to that rank as the technical skill. This is probably critical to the reputation in that it gives actual professionals reasons to respect him instead of trying to expose him as a fraud.

** This is especially useful for Taylor as he's bluffing ''at least'' half of the time. When he isn't, though...

* [[Lois McMaster Bujold|Lois McMaster Bujold's]] Admiral Count Aral [[Vorkosigan Saga|Vorkosigan]] does not hesitate use his hated (and false) sobriquet as "The Butcher of Komarr" to intimidate people if necessary, justifying this with "Why not? I paid for it." on at least one occasion. Later in life he admits to his son that he has found his murderous reputation "a "mixed damnation". Ironically, he actually has committed murderous crimes—just not the ones he's accused of.

* One of the minor incidents in [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''First And Only'', involving a shootout with Corbec, Rawne and Feygor against twenty mob enforcers, becomes embellished into an incident where the enforcers unloaded supposed thousands of shots, but were killed with exactly 20 shots from the "off-world gangsters". Of course, exactly how false this is, given the Ghosts' competence - and those three in particular - is not known, as the exacts of the event are not told to us readers.

** In ''Armor Of Contempt'', Landerson explains that the Gereon Resistance deliberately attributed all sorts of feats—including those performed by others—to Mkvenner to build up his myth in the eyes of the Chaos occupying forces. Consider that in ''Traitor General'' it was revealed that he had been taught by the mysterious, deemed legendary Nalsheen on Tanith, only fitting.

** Chronicler had attempted to get him to tell his story by telling him about the stories revolving about him. Only when he told some that were [[Malicious Slander]] was Kvothe moved.

** The villains in the novel—the Chandrian—are also this trope.

* Inverted in ''[[Gotrek and Felix]]'' as Felix's brother has published the journals Felix kept of their adventures. They are on the large true, but everybody believes them to be fairy tales.

* In Kim Stanley Robinson's [[Red Mars Trilogy]], many of the First Hundred become mythical figures over their better-than-two-hundred years of life; for example, John Boone's communion with the little red men of Mars, Saxifrage Russel having been injected with the brains of multiple superintelligent lab rats, or the rumored Coyote who stowed away on the colony ship that carried the First Hundred to Mars. In the third book, Nergal [[He's Just Hiding|refuses to believe]] that Hiroko Ai died or was captured in the raid [[Never Found the Body|during which she disappears]], and another character responds that having reported sightings on opposite ends of the planet is a sure sign she's dead. However, she ''did'' disappear for a time in the first book, and {{spoiler|the character who makes this admonishment is Coyote, about whom the same things have been claimed.}}

** What makes the Space Wolves so awesome is the fact, even though they try to avoid this sort of thing, their ''actual'' deeds of heroism are just as impressive as the religious mythological hyperbole that has been built up around other Space Marine chapters.

* The hero of ''[[Dark Tower]]'', [[The Gunslinger|Roland]], was advised by his teacher to "Wait. Let the word and the legend go before you." He ends up being the stories, though. In fact, he's a bit ''more'' than the legends because he has a tendency to [[Leave No Survivors]], and there's not enough trade in his post-apocalyptic world for people to notice how towns die wherever he goes.

* In the short story ''Green Stones'', the eponymous greatest assassin of all time (who had a habit of leaving behind green stones with the corpses) turns out to be a stout old lady running a tavern in the middle of nowhere. She actually did earn her reputation in her earlier days, though. The newbie assassin looking for a teacher refuses to believe she's the Green Stone.

* In [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''Virgin Planet'', [[Lady Land|a planet of women]], isolated by accident, has legends of these marvelous beings, men. A real, flesh-and-blood man appears, and they conclude he's not marvelous enough and must be an alien. Their realizations of their own unreasonableness take most of the novel.

* In Jim Butcher's ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' books, Harry reflects on how [[Famed in Story|the stories]] are inaccurate because while he did everything they said, it was frequently by a hair's breadth. He doesn't seem to realise that other people would think even "only just" doing any ''one'' of the things he does on [[The Dresden Files/Awesome|his Crowning Moments Of Awesome list]] is a nigh-on godly task.

* In [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s ''[[Breakfast of Champions]]'', while traveling through New York City, Trout gets mugged along with another man. He can't identify the assailants to police afterwards, saying that an intelligent gas from Pluto might have attacked him for all he knows. The headline the next day in the ''New York Post'' is "PLUTO BANDITS KIDNAP PAIR". The story spreads and becomes more and more embellished, and it isn't long before everybody in the city is scared to death of a fearsome pack of thugs known as the "Pluto Gang". Even international news is warning people who might travel to NYC that they need to be careful and watch out for the Pluto Gang when they get there. And a group of punks then start up a Pluto Gang...

* The Emperor in [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s ''[[Book of Swords|Books of Swords]]''. He is a clown, or he is the most powerful man in the world. He is immortal, or he is dead. He is the king of beggars, or he is the father of kings. We never get the full story. We meet the Emperor, but we never learn his history. He may have been the [[Big Bad]] Emperor from Saberhagen's ''Empire of the East'' series, but who knows. Come to think of it, ''that'' Emperor is equally Shrouded in Myth.

** It's pretty clear that the Emperor is, in fact, {{spoiler|G-d}}. Also, [[Big Bad|Ominor]] was not particularly shrouded in myth.

* Pavel Kazakov, [[Big Bad]] of the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Warrior Class'', is alternately rumoured to be high in [[The Mafiya]], a powerful drug lord, a spy from a hostile power, and so on. Even those highly-placed in the Russian government do not know for sure.

* Camaris, of ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'', fully earned his reputation as the greatest knight in Osten Ard, as is demonstrated when, even twenty years later and after suffering a [[Heroic BSOD]], he utterly dominates the field of battle.

* In [[Kenneth Grahame]]'s ''[[The Wind in the Willows]]'', after the climax, Badger is used to threaten naughty weasel and stoat children—which is unjust since he's [[Friend to All Children|fond of children]].

* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Only You Can Save Mankind]]'', Johnny's [[A Friend in Need|helping]] Bigmac after he saw his friends crash gets mutated, by the next morning, into his having pulled him from the wreck.

{{quote|''Over all myths of Thugra Khotan hung horror and death like a pall. From where the thief stood he could see the ruins of the great hall wherein chained captives had knelt by the hundreds during festivals to have [[Human Sacrifice|their heads hacked off by the priest-king in honor of Set, the Serpent-god of Stygia]]. Somewhere near by had been the pit, dark and awful, wherein screaming victims were fed to [[Eldritch Abomination|a nameless amorphic monstrosity]] which came up out of a deeper, more hellish cavern. Legend made Thugra Khotan more than human; his worship yet lingered in a mongrel degraded cult, whose votaries stamped his likeness on coins to pay [[Due to the Dead|the way of their dead]] over the great river of darkness of which the Styx was but the material shadow. ''}}

** Tsotha-lanti in "[[The Scarlet Citadel]]"

* [[Harry Potter]] gets some of this, due to his status as "The Boy Who Lived". As he points out in one of the books, though, he's just a student, with a student's knowledge of magic. And anyway, no one was there when he supposedly "defeated" Voldemort, so all those stories about him ''have'' to be nothing but made-up stuff and nonsense.

* In the ''[[Mistborn]]'' trilogy, Kelsier was introduced this way - ever since he escaped from the [[The Alcatraz|Pits of Hathsin]], which nobody had ever done before, all sorts of - rather incredible - rumors began spreading about him. Of course, he encouraged them at every opportunity, and helped start some of them, to give the downtrodden [[Fantastic Racism|skaa]] someone to believe in. {{spoiler|After Vin killed the [[Deity of Human Origin|Lord Ruler]], she got this treatment more than a little as well.}}

** [[Evil Overlord|The Lord Ruler]] himself as well, in this case backed up officially by [[Corrupt Church|his priesthood]]. A large part of the plot of the first book concerns the heroes trying to find out where his myth ends and the man begins.

* This works to the entire world's disadvantage in the ''[[Green-Sky Trilogy]]'', after two girls rediscover a long-forgotten telekinetic technique. In a matter of days, they're [[Holy Child]]ren and the story has been elevated into grandiose myth. The kids get so self-conscious they start mind-blocking and lose ''all'' their ESP abilities.

* Hettar in ''[[The Belgariad]]'' has a somewhat...exaggerated description among the Murgos, who he has dedicated most of his life to killing. As in, enormous height and a habit of biting off heads, exaggerated. At one point Urgit [[Expecting Someone Taller|comments that he doesn't quite match the stories]], and Hettar remarks "[[Deadpan Snarker|I'm in disguise]]."

* ''[[Septimus Heap]]'': There are many people who are Shrouded in Myth, including the Last Alchemist Marcellus Pye, the first ExtraOrdinary Wizard Hotep-Ra, the first Queen Eleanor the Wise, and so on.

* ''[[Three Hearts and Three Lions]]'': [[King in the Mountain|"And some say he waits in timeless Avalon until France the fair is in danger, and some say he sleeps beneath Kronborg Castle and wakens in the hour of Denmark's need,]] but none remember that he is and has always been a man, with the humble needs and loves of a man; to all, he is merely the Defender."

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* This is a [[Running Gag]] for The Stig in ''[[Top Gear]]''.

{{quote|"Some say that his voice can only be heard by cats, and that he is banned from the city of Chichester. All we know is... he's called The Stig."}}

* At least one episode of ''[[Burn Notice]]'' has Michael pulling a [[The Usual Suspects|Keyser Soze]] story to scare the [[Monster of the Week|criminal of the week]] into doing exactly what he wants them to do.

** Michael doesn't always need to pull a story to do this. He is this for real at least as far as the Russians are concerned, and probably in many other parts of the intelligence/special forces world.

{{quote|''You joke. Everyone in Russian special forces knows the name Weston. He is like the boogeyman. Not real.''}}

** One episode dealt with them stumbling across a hidden colony established by a time-displaced version of the main crew. One group lives in the Klingon way, as hunters and warriors, revering their biological and/or spiritual ancestor Worf, "The Son of Mohg", about whom many legends are told. When a boy who hopes to grow up to join them asks Worf if it's true he can kill a man just by looking at him, after a brief pause Worf responds "Only when I am angry…"

* Just check out the following quote to see how people ''in'' the ''[[NCIS]]'' universe see Gibbs.

{{quote|"What have you heard? That bad guys would rather confess than be interrogated by him? That his steely gaze can cool a room by five degrees? That he can only be killed by a silver bullet, like a werewolf? They're all true, except for the silver bullet part. Might give him indigestion or heartburn, but I don't think it'd kill him. Any other questions?"}}

* ''[[Highlander the Series]]'': Methos, the oldest Immortal still alive.

* Part of the appeal of the character Ronnie Gardocki, on ''[[The Shield]]'', was his mystery shrouded past.

{{quote|'''The Doctor:''' "You're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up." (The aliens in question do so, and promptly ''run for their lives''.)}}

** Famously seen in the Eleventh Doctor's introductory episode when the aliens who want to destroy Earth have an [[Oh Crap]] moment as they realize who he is.

* This happens to John in ''[[Farscape]]'' as time goes on and he racks up more and more [[Crazy Awesome]] adventures.

** First in "Suns and Lovers" while pretending not to know who "John Crichton" is. The act is ruined pretty quickly by John's need to set the record straight:

'''Raxil''': Yeah - I've heard stories. But obviously they aren't worth a bucket of dren! }}

** You know, for escaping prisoners who don't want to be caught, they do call an awful lot of attention to themselves.

* Catalina from ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' had quit stripping because she got a guy so excited that he died. Turned out he was a rich but cruel to his workers so they see Catalina as their savior.

* Jude Hays' conflicting death stories on ''[[Life]]''. {{spoiler|He didn't}}.

{{quote|''"I heard it's the same film backwards and forwards."''

''"I heard the deleted scenes are the real scenes and the scenes are the deleted scenes"''. }}

* Monroe tells Nick in the pilot episode of ''[[Grimm (TV)|Grimm]]'' that Grimms are this to Wesen: "You're the monster under the bed! [...] You're not real! You're a scary story we tell our kids! Be good or a Grimm will come and cut your head off..."

 

== [[Music]] ==

* This has been applicable to [[Bob Dylan]] for a certain degree throughout his career, right up to the present day. While a good amount of details about his private life have always been known, Dylan has always done his best to mystify fans and press. At the start of his career he often gave wildly varying accounts of his origins, and he's known for verbally sparing with interviewers in the mid-60's, answering their questions in confusing and enigmatic ways. After his motorcycle crash in 1966 he spent years running away from the limelight, and has never fully stopped doing so. These days, though still on his so-called Neverending Tour, he rarely gives any interviews, and his uncharacteristic release of a completely traditional Christmas album in 2009 shows he hasn't lost his knack for doing what people least expect him to.

* [[The Protomen]] are this, with the band insisting on wearing codenames and facepaint; the member K.I.L.R.O.Y. is even a robot. Nothing is known of them for certain except that they are truly awesome.

* [[Robert Johnson]] ''was'' this for most fans through the sixties and into the nineties. Stories abounded—and were likely believed—about his mysterious techniques and the Faustian ways he acquired them, as well as the ephemeral details of the bluesman's life. Subsequent research has demystified him somewhat. Details of his birth and death are now widely agreed upon, as well as facts about his career and development as a musician.

* The [[Frank Zappa]] song "Billy The Mountain" has Studebaker Hoch, of which little is known. Aside from some interesting rumors that he was born next to the beef pies at a supermarket.

 

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** The Space Marine Primarchs and the Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind receive this so much that most of the information about them is from stories, generally about how super duper awesome they were, told millenia after they were still active. Due to the [[Unreliable Narrator|general]] [[Continuity Snarl|nature]] of ''40K'' continuity, it's difficult to determine what is true.

* The Comte de Saint-Germain and, to a lesser extent, any Godwalker in ''[[Unknown Armies]]''.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Master Chief, the main protagonist of the ''[[Halo]]'' trilogy, became something of a "demon" in the eyes of the highly religious aliens of the Covenant after he destroyed Installation 04 (Halo).

* In ''[[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World]]'', [[Tales of Symphonia|Lloyd]] [[Idiot Hero|Irving]] of all people seems like a character Shrouded in Myth to new protagonist Emil, especially since he's described as [[The Messiah]] by all his former allies, but has seemingly turned into a [[Rogue Protagonist]] at the start of the game, and had murdered Emil's parents before his very eyes. {{spoiler|The truth? [[A Wizard Did It|A Decus did it]].}}

* In ''[[Baldur's Gate]] 2'', Renal the "Bloodscalp", head of the Shadow Thieves in Athkatla {{spoiler|(but not really; he's a front man)}} is disappointed when he first meet you, having expected something more impressive. One of the possible dialogue options is to tell him that you expected more from such a high-ranking [[The Syndicate|Shadow Thief]].

* In ''[[Golden Sun]]'', Isaac is selected to compete in the [[Inevitable Tournament]] of Colosso. When speaking with one of the other competitors, it's mentioned that rumor had it that Isaac was an intimidatingly large and muscular man, rather than the young teen he actually is.

** Of course, if you've played the series you know [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|exactly]] [[Summon Magic|the reason]] [[Psychic Powers|why]] he's managed to get this far.

** Snake specifically tells Meryl not to hold on to her idealized version of him as told to her as a child by Colonel Campbell who shared stories of FOXHOUND and Snake's exploits. He emphasizes that often times the man doesn't live up to the legend and all the expectations that come with it, and that Snake is no hero but rather a professional, career killer.

* The ''[[Dinosaur King]]'' DS game features three creatures-the Forest Dweller, the Lake Dragon, and the Great Bird, which are revered as supernatural beings, and blamed for some events in the levels in which they appear. {{spoiler|As it turns out, they are actually prehistoric reptiles-Leallynasaura, Futabasaurus, and Pteranodon.}}

* There are a few special [[Random Encounters]] in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' that simply rock your party if you are caught unaware. One of them involves fighting 11 monks. First timers are so amazed they go to forums and start talking about how they were stomped by a [[Alliteration|"million monk march."]]

* In ''[[Dragon Age 2]]'', Varric intentionally spreads stories about Hawke to create a mythic shroud. By the end of the game, people are cowering in awe from the man/woman who slew a dragon with a rusty spoon.

** Or subverted when some antagonists in the game actually don't believe the stories they've heard about Hawke, only to realise that those are the ones that are actually ''[[Oh Crap|true]]''.

** The legend also winds up oddly inverted, according to the logs of ''Metroid Prime 2''. Some of the Federation Marines apparently consider the various exploits of Samus Aran, and even her very existence, to be only slightly more credible than fairy tales:

{{quote|'''PFC Crany:''' Last night at chow, Angseth starts talking about some bounty hunter and how she blew up a planet full of Space Pirates. I told her I didn't believe in fairy tales like that, and she took it personal. I just find it hard to believe that one person took out an entire Space Pirate base, that's all. But if she wants to believe in this Samus, or Bigfoot, or Santa Claus, she can.}}

** The inversion is that Samus ''[[Badass|really did]]'' do those things.

** The Space Pirates, not to be outdone, have grown Samus into their cultural mythology as a one-woman demonic grim reaper. Every game in the ''Prime'' series features an [[Apocalyptic Log]] sequence in which the Space Pirates describe the impending horror of a raid by "The Hunter."

* Agent 47 in the ''[[Hitman]]'' games, sort of. He's considered nothing but a legend by most, because of ridiculous rumors that describe him as a giant bald perfect clone with a [[Bar Code Tattoo]]. I mean, who could believe that nonsense? Except it's all, uh, ''true''.

* Subverted in ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' (first one for the US), with regards to Karel, as his conversations with Dart reveals. True, Karel has killed a LOT of ridiculously strong people, that even Karel gives credence to, but the idea that he collects the swords of the fallen and enjoys killing people by the thousands? Eh, not so much.

* Some of the player characters receive this treatment in the ''[[Ace Combat]]'' games, such as Wardog Squadron from ''Unsung War'' who are seen as an incarnation of a legendary demon, as well as Galm One "Demon Lord of the Round Table" Cipher from ''Belkan War'', whose existence the narrator initially doubts. It receives some [[Lampshade Hanging]] in ''Skies of Deception'', where two Leasath chairforcers disparage current player character Gryphus One while he's in a [[I Am Not Left-Handed|Left Handed]] situation for seemingly not living up to the rumours.

* La Volpe from ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]''. Among others, it is said that he can see through things and be in multiple places at once.

** Eventually in ''II'' and then in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]]'' Ezio Auditore himself is this as well among some circles in Rome.

** By Embers, Ezio is known as far as China. And don't forget Altaïr, who Mario says his life is a mystery.

* In ''[[Fallout]]'', every game becomes this to its sequel. In ''Fallout 2'', the events of the first game are legend, and in ''Fallout 3'', subtle hints are dropped regarding the events of the second game. This even carries over to the canceled ''[[Fallout: Van Buren]]'', which remained canon, and many references are made to it by ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', which takes place in the same area.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Get Medieval]]'', Asher gains a reputation as a invincible, miracle-working warrior, much to his consternation. And even moreso when Sir Gerard reminds him that people (namely, Gerard's superiors) will expect him to repeat his [[Ass Pull]] victories on a regular, reliable basis.

* ''[[Bob the Angry Flower]]'' brings us [http://www.angryflower.com/108.html The Man on the Hill.] But it turns out he's pretty lame.

* In ''[[Drowtales]]'', Quain'tana is shrouded in myth to her daughter {{spoiler|(actually granddaughter)}} Ariel, who daydreams of the day she'll meet her famous mother. Unfortunately, when her wish is finally granted, Quain isn't exactly the warmest parent.

* Subverted in the ''[[Ciem Webcomic Series]]''. No matter how many battles Ciem fights, including many of them alone, she is never regarded by the criminal underworld (with exception of the Hebbleskin Gang) as anything more than Emeraldon's ''sidekick''. To the media, she manages to go over six years without registering as anything other than "a curiosity." On the mayor of Dirbine's birthday, she is ''merely allowed'' to show up and say hello to the crowd. No key-to-the-city-type thing. The crowd neither loves nor hates her particularly; but most of the time, [[No Hero to His Valet|they simply ''ignore'' her]]. When reporters actually do try to get together a list of public perceptions; it's like the townsfolk [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|merely blocked it out of their own minds]].

* This is a major theme of ''[[Girl Genius]]'', with basically all of the main characters known only through wild mixtures of exaggeration and utter fabrication.

** Othar has a reputation. To the point of being a [[Villain with Good Publicity]] ''and'' a [[Hero with Bad Publicity]] at the same time. After all, even other mad people consider him a complete nutcase, so he's just too crazy for most sane folk to track what he actually did some or other time.

* [[Word of God|Erin Ptah]] of ''[[And Shine Heaven Now]]'' reveals that by the time ''[[The Colbert Report|The Eagle of Hermes]]'' happens, [[Hellsing|Seras Victoria]] has this status in the public's eye, only being seen a couple of times since the Millennium invasion.

* In ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest for The Wicked]]'', [http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/02-16.html November assures Perrault] that the rumors about Red are greatly exaggerated.

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' right in the Chapter 2 had fun with Antimony doing her [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=20 assignment on mythology] by meeting and interviewing "the dreaded Minotaur of Crete" who gave his... ''significantly less epic'' version of what happened between him, his sister and Theseus.

** Annie herself after one summer in the Forest (plus one {{spoiler|brief, but spectacular run-in with some of Ysengrin's [[The Starscream|less-than-subordinate]]-s}}) [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1357 became a semi-mythological figure] out there.

* ''[[The Unspeakable Vault of Doom]]'' presents: "[http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/409/ The nature of the Beast]" (the medieval legend vs. the awful truth).

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Horst, one of the chefs in ''[[Ratatouille]]'', tells varying stories about why he served time in prison, alternating between having defrauded a corporation, robbed a bank armed with nothing but a ballpoint pen, put a hole in the ozone layer, and having killed a man with ''his thumb''. The net effect of these rumors is that when he catches the deposed Skinner snooping around the restaurant, all he has to do to send him running and screaming is show him ''that thumb.''

** He didn't rob the bank. He ran it, and it wasn't just a bank. It was the largest (or second largest) bank in all of Paris.

* One episode of ''[[The Boondocks]]'' features this about a historical figure, Catcher Freeman. One of the slaves in the background describes Freeman like this: "14 feet tall... And he can fly! Underwater!". Characters in the present continue this by telling several wildly conflicting stories about him until Huey searches him up on the internet and finds what is presumably the true (at the least more believable) version.

* In ''[[Futurama]]'', the robots of Chapek 9 are distracted from their real problems by a constant fear of human invasion spread by their Robot Elders. (Among other things, humans are said to [[Our Vampires Are Different|"suck your transmission fluid and turn you into a human, too."]]) When the Planet Express crew confronts the elders and gets in a tight spot, Fry manages to use their campaign of misinformation against them by threatening to breathe fire on them, and the no-longer-sure whether that's true or not elders are cowed long enough for the heroes to escape.

 

== Truth In Television ==

* Ask around, see how long various people say that it took [[Rasputinian Death|Rasputin, the Mad Monk, to die.]]

* Any saint, Satan, Jesus, or even God Himself is a very popular subject of this sort of treatment. Think about it!

* Similarly, there is some pretty good evidence that there was a king in the Levantine named David, but it's not clear whether he really was the big important guy the ''Tanakh'' (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) makes him out to be, or if he was just a minor leader in the Jerusalem-area who had good publicists and/or had his achievements exaggerated by future generations.

* [[King Arthur]]. Most people who've researched it agree that there is a kernel of truth about a real person in there somewhere, but no one knows exactly what it is after more than 1400 years (the first written accounts of Arthur date to about AD 600) of adding onto the legend.

* [[wikipedia:Kilroy Was Here|Kilroy]], a legendary Allied agent. No matter what front, no matter what foe, no matter the resistance, he has been there and left his calling card, a strange little graffito announcing "[[Kilroy Was Here]]." Rumor has it that Hitler became quite concerned about the enigmatic warrior's ability to infiltrate Nazi installations, and German officers ordered their men to secure any opponents named Kilroy for a thorough interrogation.

** Other rumor has it that he was just an Army grunt sick of the Air Force bragging that they got there first, no matter where "there" was. So he started leaving "Kilroy was here" scrawled everywhere he could think of so that when the Air Force got there, oops! Kilroy got there first.

* See the massive examples section on the [[Memetic Badass]] page. Humans like doing this.

* ESPN the Magazine's original "Player X" was an anonymous NFL star whose identity is supposedly only known by four people (himself included). The guesses regarding his identity started once his first column was published and haven't ceased, but in all likelihood it will never be revealed. Adding to the mystery are MLB Player X, NBA Player X, and NASCAR Driver X. Gah, ''who'' are they? The world will probably never know. But I totally bet they sit on thrones made of the skulls of their enemies and drink the nectar of the gods.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Fame and Reputation Tropes]]

[[Category:Infauxmation Desk]]