History Main / ShroudedInMyth

* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'' has the enigmatic Blast, the highest ranked hero in the Hero Association. He never shows up for meetings, has only appeared once, in a flashback, and next to nothing about him has been divulged to the reader as of yet. The [[AllThereInTheManual One Punch Man Encyclopedia]] has Fubuki speculating about what Blast's powers could be, which just comes off as [[SuperpowerLottery as a wild hodgepodge of random abilities]], and concluding that he could probably take on every other S-Class hero singlehandedly.

* Though not explicitly stated in [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4245303/1/KOTOR-The-Prodigy-of-Revan-Book-One KOTOR: The Prodigy of Revan]], it's heavily implied the Jack's father and sisters are regarded like this, as well as his ancestry. Jack himself has garnered a great deal of repute himself, though for maintaining a command position in the military when [[spoiler: all of his elder brothers had been killed early in their careers]] than his actions as an officer.

* In VideoGame/BioShock2, the Splicers aren't sure of the exact fate of Jack as part of the MultipleEndings nature of the first game. Because of such they argue exactly which ending is canon with a sect even praising him as a MessianicArchetype.

** And an OVA features a spell Shrouded in Myth that can summon a meteor. And then promptly demonstrates why the spell is only a legend ([[spoiler:aiming from space is hard enough that the spell is inaccurate to the point of uselessness]]).

* The wildly conflicting rumors about Vash from ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' become an issue in the very first episode. Even at the end of the series, the fact that a [[ObfuscatingStupidity dorky]], ActualPacifist 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 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfO7N_IORSo&feature=youtu.be&t=1 seen here]]. Many of the rumors about Vash in the first episode could just as easily describe the 12-foot tall criminal Descartes.

* An in-universe example on ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': In "Jaynestown", Jayne is regarded as a folk hero shrouded in myth by the working-class mudders of Canton, and even given a statue and a song in his honor. (The song is apparently sung nightly at the bar.) Of course, [[spoiler: they think he dropped a bunch of money in their town square because he was a [[JustLikeRobinHood Robin Hood type]] in reality, he was just trying to escape and had to push the money out of the ship. He even pushed his partner out first.]]

* There are a few special RandomEncounters in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' 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 [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal "million monk march."]]

-->"I don't believe that story about Josey Wales."
-->"You don't?"
-->"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."
-->"I think he's still alive." [[spoiler: He's right.]]

* Keima from ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'' ''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.

* '''Any and every religious story ever told''', ''could'' be subject to this trope, since there is no concrete evidence that definitively proves any religion to be absolutely true or absolutely false. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that is all we are going to say on the matter]].

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

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', [[spoiler: the epilogue reveals that the actions of "The Shepard" are remembered far into the future, though the exact details of the story have been lost to the passage of time.]]

* Even 70 years later, when Yuri Andropov achieved supreme power in the Soviet Union, Western media was flooded with myths and half-truths about him, some of which permeated back in the Eastern Bloc. The reason behind it was [[StateSec the former KGB boss]] had always been secretive on everything concerning him and his personal life, unlike his BoisterousBruiser predecessor Brezhnev, and popular imagination had to fill the gaps.

* RobinHood may also have a kernel of truth - but some of the "Merry Men" appear to have been taken from other groups of brigands in different centuries.

** The legend also winds up oddly inverted, according to the logs of ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''. 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:

** 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 ApocalypticLog sequence in which the Space Pirates describe the impending horror of a raid by "The Hunter." To clarify, the ''Prime'' series shows numerous other bounty hunters, and implies that there are many more; that it is Samus alone that they call [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Hunter]] shows how ''terrified'' they are of her.

* Manga/RurouniKenshin: DuringTheWar to unite Japan under the Emperor, a certain extremely proficient assassin named Hitokiri Battousai fought for the Emperor's side, and developed a fearsome reputation. His identity was kept secret, so it's easy for hoodlums to claim his identity in the post-war Meiji Period. Nobody ever suspects the mild-mannered, pint-sized eccentric TechnicalPacifist with a blunt sword...Unusual in the sense that Kenshin is [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower actually as good as the rumours say]].

* In addition to being a VillainWithGoodPublicity, [[Franchise/GhostInTheShell The Laughing Man]] also benefits from this, to the point where an entire episode of ''Stand Alone Complex'' is dedicated to discussing whether or not he even exists, or is some sort of spontaneous cultural phenomenon, or spontaneous artificial intelligence phenomenon.

*** Doctor Strange has a staggering (and as per a throwaway remark in the sequel, carefully cultivated) reputation as an omniscient, invincible, immortal super wizard. He's none of these things, but he is extremely close to all of them. He isn't omniscient, but he is very, very close, being a mixture of time traveller and {{Seer}} whose powers were boosted by [[spoiler: the Time Stone]] and this, along with his mastery of the BatmanGambit, allows him to run the plot almost entirely offscreen until the finale of the first book (these manipulative tendencies, and a habit of only showing up when the excrement is about to hit the fan, do not make him popular). He's not invincible, either, but it takes a fragment of the Elder God Chthon possessing a necromancer who was already on Loki's level to beat him in a straight fight - others who have tried and failed include a demonically supercharged [[PhysicalGod 'godlike']] Grindelwald (the duel lasted for days. By the end of it, Berlin was mostly rubble, Grindelwald was exhausted and [[BroughtDownToBadass largely stripped of his enhancements]], and Strange, by all accounts, strolled off whistling), the aforementioned necromancer, and the Disir. The latter are 13 nightmarish Valkyries who devoured entire Asgardian armies and who Bor, a Skyfather at the height of his powers, could only banish. Strange, displeased by the way they went after/were sent after Harry, caught up with them and demonstrated his displeasure by restoring their consciences and trapping them in a crystal ball for as long as he wishes them to remain there. And while he's not immortal, he's [[spoiler: 500,000]] years old and counting, hasn't aged since the 6th century, and occasional remarks that he's getting a bit old and tired aside, shows little or no sign of slowing down.

* '''All of it'''. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement And that is all we are going to say on the matter]].

** Conversely, according to snopes, Kilroy was an inspector who got tired of his supervisors not believing that he had inspected some out of the way place on a ship or vehicle, so he started putting "Kilroy was Here" in places that could be seen easily, but to write it there would require actually worming your way into place. That way he'd only have do to the inspection once. Other [=GIs=], stumped by Kilroy's ability to be there first (get a new tank, kilroy was here was written on it) began scrawling it themselves, and the various resistance movements picked it up from them.

[[quoteright:349:[[Webcomic/{{PHD}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phd111210s.png]]]]

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E20TheWarOfTheSimpsons The War of the Simpsons]]", Homer promises to capture "General Sherman", a giant catfish in [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Catfish Lake]], after hearing all sort of fantastic claims about it in a fishing store. He finds the fish and captures it, but throws it back in the water at the urging of Marge. The episode's BookEnds reveal that the fat and bald Homer was later [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade mythologized]] by the people of the fishing store as the man who almost captured General Sherman, in much the same way as they did to General Sherman itself:

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E24LemonOfTroy Lemon of Troy]]", Bart [[ImagineSpot imagines]] this will happen to him if he writes his name in wet cement:

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E19SimpleSimpson Simple Simpson]]", after an entire episode of playing superhero to give jerkasses a PieInTheFace, Homer is forced by circumstances ([[ItMakesSenseInContext being blackmailed by Burns to pie the Dalai Lama]] and Homer not really wanting to go through with it) to unmask himself as Pie-Man... and not one single Springfieldian believes him, quoting apparent descriptions of Pie-Man and what he can do that most surely ''do not'' fit Homer. Lisa provides the explanation that Homer's actions as Pie-Man has turned the latter into a "symbol", [[YouCannotKillAnIdea and nothing can kill the symbol, not even Homer unmasking himself]].

* This happens to John in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' as time goes on and he racks up more and more CrazyAwesome adventures.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E20TheWarOfTheSimpsons The War of the Simpsons]]", Homer promises to capture "General Sherman", a giant catfish in [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Catfish Lake]], after hearing all sort of fantastic claims about it in a fishing store. He finds the fish and captures it, but throws it back in the water at the urging of Marge. In spite of this, the episode's BookEnds reveal that the fat and bald Homer has been [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade mythologized]] by the people of the fishing store as the man who almost captured General Sherman, in much the same way as they did to General Sherman itself:

* Literature/{{Beowulf}} of ''Beowulf'' has this aura about him, and although he does this deliberately the truth can be just as fantastic.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', on the episode ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E19SimpleSimpson Simple Simpson]]'', after an entire episode of playing superhero to give jerkasses a PieInTheFace, Homer is forced by circumstances ([[ItMakesSenseInContext being blackmailed by Burns to pie the Dalai Lama]] and Homer not really wanting to go through with it) to unmask himself as Pie-Man... and not one single Springfieldian believes him, quoting apparent descriptions of Pie-Man and what he can do that most surely ''do not'' fit Homer. Lisa provides the explanation that Homer's actions as Pie-Man has turned the latter into a "symbol", [[YouCannotKillAnIdea and nothing can kill the symbol, not even Homer unmasking himself]].

Contrast KingInTheMountain, MaliciousSlander. Anything from TheTimeOfMyths is invariably Shrouded in Myth. Compare LegendFadesToMyth.

* KingArthur. 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.

** There's one issue in ''ComicBook/TheBooksOfMagic'' where Timothy is held by the Cult of Blue Flames, and John comes and rescues him, though he did this by just literally "showing up". The sight of John scared the hell out of the cult. John later explains that since he has a reputation of getting anyone near him killed, no one wants to be near him at all.

** Played with in the ''Leviathan DLC'', in regards to the Leviathan. Part of the reason that there's so little known about them is because [[spoiler: they've been using [[MoreThanMindControl mind]] [[PeoplePuppets control]] to [[{{UnPerson}} erase any evidence]] of [[OrwellianEditor their existence]], so the Reapers don't discover that some of [[NeglectfulPrecursors their creators]] survived being Harvested and have been in hiding for millions of years]].