Reforging the Monomyth

Throughout history, peoples and cultures have told stories of their gods, heroes and villains in order to better understand the world around them. These myths seize upon the hopes and fears of society; heroes embody a culture's highest ideals while villains manifest as ancient dreads personified. Aria focuses on the Journey of the Hero, the sacred quest of Monomyth, which represents in mythic language the seeking of cultures after their own identity. Aria, Canticle of the Monomyth is a roleplaying game system which attempts to embody this connection between hero and culture.

Aria is designed to function on several levels, during the course of a single game, players an assume the roles of individual personas, persona lineages, or even whole societies. All such interaction is directed toward the development not only of personas, but also of entire cultures and worlds. As an integral part of the game, Aria players weave together mythic, historical, and personal time into one great tapestry of life - a living history beginning with the first game session. Creating this vision of the Monomyth, where heroes and villains clash in a world as well-developed and as rich in character as its mightiest inhabitants, Aria players engage in the pageant of Mythmaking, the evocation of numinous symbols summoned from the collective imaginations of the entire gaming group.