Sorry, for some reason I wasn't able to post a respose to Forrest. So I'm doing it here.
This theory is *incredibly* interesting--but first I have to correct one point I misled you guys on. Moagim's dying as he secured the Dark victory was an "uneasy precedent"--it wasn't the way the original cycle went. He was supposed to survive and preside over the Dark Age himself, until Connacht arose to destroy him. Sorry about that.
Now, what does that mean for the generalized ("genericized," Forrest? ;) theory? Simply that the good guy turned bad lives through one Dark Age, then dies at its end. It's not that a new bad guy arises to die then. So the way it runs is, each guy is born good in the east, secures a Light Age, turns bad in the east, secures a Dark Age, stays bad and moves to the west, but dies and permits a Light Age, and is born good in the west, but dies and permits a Dark Age:
Good Alric born in East, Bad Connacht moves to West
Battle: Alric kills Connacht, Light Age
Alric turns bad in East, Good Connacht born in West
Battle: Alric kills Connacht, Dark Age
Bad Alric moves to West, Good Connacht born in East
Battle: Connacht kills Alric, Light Age
Good Alric born in West, Connacht turns bad in East
Battle: Connacht kills Alric, Dark Age
The basic features are
a) each champion is born on the opposite side of the world from where the existing champion is living,
b) as Forrest says, the guy from the East always wins,
c) the champions are always born good, and
d) each champion has one life where he dies almost immediately, followed by one life where he succeeds as a hero, then is corrupted and succeeds as a villain, then fails and dies as a villain.
Now we get to the really interesting part, which has been brought up in various forms by other Inmates previously. Remember the whole "Mythworld as flipping coin" deal? Stripping off the metaphor, the basic idea is that half the Mythworld is dominated by good and half by evil, and that over a thousand year period the two halves slide around the world until all the part which was originally ruled by good was ruled by evil, and vice versa.
Well, that ties in extremely well to this theory. Suppose the good and evil hemispheres shift from East to West around the world, revolving once every thousand years? The champion in the East always wins because he arises just when the hemisphere he represents is starting to take over the continent. As he moves westward, the quality he represents moves with him and weakens the power of his foe. I'll try to make clear how it works in one rotation of the cycle.
Pt. 1:
For a thousand years, the Myth continent has lain on the evil side, and has been ruled by Evil Connacht A. Now the Eastern edge of the continent starts to enter the good side. Alric A is born here, on the Eastern edge (because champions are always born on the opposite side of the continent from their opponent, why I don't know), and as a result is born as a good guy. Good Alric A starts to fight Evil Connacht A's forces, moving westward. The domain of good slides westward with him, and so Evil Connacht A's forces are weakened, and Good Alric A's forces are strengthened, more and more. Eventually the domain of good covers the entire continent and Good Alric A is able to kill Evil Connacht A. He establishes a Light Age and rules for a time, eventually returning to his Eastern homeland.
Pt.2: A thousand years later, evil starts to creep over the Eastern edge of the Myth continent again. Good Alric A is corrupted by this influence and becomes Evil Alric A. Meanwhile, Connacht B is born on the Western edge of the continent, and is a good guy because he was born under the domain of good. Evil Alric A follows the same path as he did when he was good, moving westward and increasingly strengthened by the westward growth of the domain of evil. Eventually evil covers all of the continent, and Evil Alric A is able to kill Good Connacht B. Evil Alric A establishes and rules a Dark Age, staying on the Western edge of the continent because he fears that going East would turn him good again, just as it previously turned him from good to evil.
Pt.3: A thousand years later, the Eastern edge of the continent starts to enter the good side again. Connacht A is born here, on the Eastern edge, and as a result is born as a good guy. Good Connacht A starts to fight Evil Alric A's forces, moving westward. The domain of good slides westward with him, and so Evil Alric A's forces are weakened, and Good Connacht A's forces are strengthened, more and more. Eventually the domain of good covers the entire continent and Good Connacht A is able to kill Evil Alric A. He establishes a Light Age and rules for a time, eventually returning to his Eastern homeland.
Pt.4: A thousand years later, evil starts to creep over the Eastern edge of the Myth continent again. Good Connacht A is corrupted by this influence and becomes Evil Connacht A. Meanwhile, Alric B is born on the Western edge of the continent, and is a good guy because he was born under the domain of good. Evil Connacht A follows the same path as he did when he was good, moving westward and increasingly strengthened by the westward growth of the domain of evil. Eventually evil covers all of the continent, and Evil Connacht A is able to kill Good Alric B. Evil Connacht A establishes and rules a Dark Age, staying on the Western edge of the continent because he fears that going East would turn him good again, just as it previously turned him from good to evil.
And there you have it. I'm going to write a fairly long piece about this for the Delusions page, incorporating the comets and the errors in the cycles and all that good stuff. Man, what a good week.
--SiliconDream
