: And also, why does the writer of the field guide
: strangely refer to him as a 'friend'?
: And why are there what appear to be uncorrupted fir'bolg
: archers standing right next to Balor in the picture
: without being harmed in the slightest?
He called him "friend" to add a tad of humor. Also, please remember that the screen shot you're looking at was taken while the article writer was looking at the Shadow of the Mountain map's mesh tag in Loathing, Bungie's map editing program.
Using Loathing, you can see the otherwise invisible observers (in this case warriors), and add, subtract, and move units as you please. Since the game isn't running, they won't attack one another, explaining why regular Archers are not interacting violently with Balor. Also, in Loathing, you can tag Balor (or any unit for that matter), in any quantity the engine can handle, to be on your side. So you can have an army of Alrics fighting an army of Balors. Or whatever your heart desires. (if you want to learn this stuff, I recommend doing it on Myth II, since the TFL editing programs are buggy, leaked versions.)
