I believe that the Sword Age in actual fact IS a dark age. Balor may have died and Alric survived but the dark still run wild across the land.
When Balor came he:
Aided the Ghols take over of Dwarf Lands, Thus they have Dwarven Technology.
Brought The Kithless to the dark,
Freed the Trow,
Brought the Fetch apun the World,
And raized most of the Western World.
And created Many shade/brought them power
However his job was not finished so..
Soulblighter returned and:
Resurrected the Mykridia who are free on the land once more,
And raized what land had been repaired in the previous 60 years.
In the First and only in game clear-cut easy to understand description of the cycle in Myth was the Myth II epilouge.
"There are laws that govern the workings of the universe that have remained immutable for countless aeons. According to these laws, the forces of light and dark hold dominion over the world successively, the land belonging in turn to men, or to monsters."
The meaning of this may be in actual fact that in Light ages the Dark Races cower in their little holes and hide away awating the coming of the Leveller. But in Dark ages they run accross the Lands tearing it up and destroying it. The only other example of a Dark age that we have is the Wind Age. In this the Leveller was killed in the begining also however it appears that the light still fought as Mazzarin didn't die until mid-Age. Showing that a Dark age doesn't mean that the Light doesn't have any terrotories just that the Dark Races are free to pilage and destroy
"Soulblighter was not The Leveler. He may have been if he had survived into the next millennium - but, in his attempt to force the cycle, he perished and almost certainly will suffer at the hands of those who set it in motion. It is even conceivable that
because of his actions the cycle has been broken, but we cannot be sure - at least not for another nine hundred and forty years."
Soulblighter was putting the cycle back to the way it should be but went a step too far in trying to destroy the world. So he was killed and will be punished. In the Wind Age Despite the Leveller's Death it appears that the Watcher took control to rule the Dark age. Perhaps this is what Soulblighter tried to do, but failed.
