: Though I generally found the Myth II storyline logical
: and compelling, I find the death of the Deceiver at
: the hands of Shiver incompatible with Myth lore. Are
: we to believe that the warlock that demonlished the
: Watcher, the "second or third most powerful
: magician in living memory," in direct combat
: would fall to the first Fallen Lord defeated in Myth
: 1?
Don't forget that she didn't fall to Rabican's superior magics, but was lured into premature attack by her vanity, giving Rabican the upper hand. That got her killed, so, as said in the journal entry before the level Shiver, she's not likely to fall for it again. Instead, Myrdred had to shock her with his control of Phelot, letting him catch her off guard. If he hadn't done that, she could have probably beaten him in a straight-on Dream Duel.
: Perhaps her magic attacks were powerful, but are we
: to believe that such a powerful entity as the Deceiver
: (who also kicked the crap out of Soulblighter when
: they squared off) could not handle the one spell she
: casts in her death throes?
I doubt that she cast any spell in her death throes, because she was held immobile by the Deceiver's whithering spell; she just exploded as she died, and released all of her power, killing Myrdred in the process. If a Shade or someone carrying some of their NiftyGreenCubes dies in a powerfull explosion, their dispersal dreams are set off. Likewise, when Shiver dies, her power-orbs (they look like orbs, but I've never got a close enough look) come crashing down from the sky and smashes whoever's standing at ground zero.
: While I was playing through
: the solo missions, I repeated the stage over and over,
: convinced that I did something wrong to get the
: Deceiver killed. Then, a thought hit me: perhaps it
: was all a deception (Deceiver, duh).
Someone else has already suggested that perhaps he possessed Phelot, and lives on in him. Also, on "Twice Born", the narrator says that Soulblighter can't flee because The Deceiver is in possession of a part of his being. But if he's dead, how can that be? Does Phelot have the crow now? Or was it just destroyed along with Myrdred when Shiver died?
: This made sense
: in my mind for three reasons: 1) The Deceiver hated
: Soulblighter and would do anything to kill him; 2) the
: Deceiver was a former Fallen Lord, and was responsible
: for countless deaths of innocent civilians some 60
: years ago; and 3) the Deceiver had already
: demonstrated that he could bend the wills of others to
: himself. Therefore, what better technique was there
: for the D. to employ than to weaken Soulblighter and
: his army to the brink of defeat, allow Alric and the
: Light armies to finish him off, and then destroy the
: meager resistence that was left and establish himself
: as the new king of the undead? It made sense to me, at
: least.
: For that reason I eagerly awaited the final missions so
: that I could watch my prediction play itself out.
: Needless to say, I was somewhat disappointed. Frankly,
: I think that the Deceiver was a great character, one
: who existed in the grey area between darkness and
: light.
Yeah, I love characters like that. If you watch Star Trek DS9, you'll love Garrack. He's just like that, you never know if he's being good or evil, or if he'll turn around and betray you or swoop in to rescue you. When playing Myth II, I had similar suspicions about Myrdred, especially on the level "Relic". I expected him to turn on us as soon as he got the Tain shard. When he brought us to Soulblighter's camp on "A Murder of Crows", I thought that he and Soulblighter were just staging some act to get us killed, at least until the end of the level. Not until "Shiver" did I start to trust him at all, but when he died, then I started to get suspicious again.
: The way his death was handled (if he was truly
: killed) was unfortunate and didn't give his powers or
: stature justice. It also raises several questions,
: such as: what was the power distribution of the Fallen
: Lords? Are we to guage from Soulblighter's and
: Shiver's battles w/ D. that Shiver was indeed the
: better sorcerer of the two (b/w Soul. and her), but
: that Soul. was a better tactician? Did Shiver just get
: lucky (would the fact that she killed D. make her more
: powerful than the Watcher?)?
The Watcher was one of the most powerfull sorcerors that ever lived, until Myrdred came around. But Myrdred was still only the second most powerfull sorceror. Shiver, while perhaps not the most powerfull in life, is now in her pure spirit form, so that could significantly increase her power. Soulblighter is just an immortal, evil coward, who runs away whenever he's about to lose. He obviously doesn't have a whole lot of magical power, because all we ever see him do it turn to crows (though he did summon that big old hand to clench Myrdred on "A Murder of Crows"). Alric has dispersal dreams, Balmung, the Ibis Crown, and all sorts of power. Rabican threw lightning. The Watcher (Bahl'al) ressurected the dead on a regular basis. Shiver whithered trees, threw streams of magic, and sent ripples across the ground. Myrdred bent his enemies to his will, whithered those he couldn't bend, summoned lightning to strike Soulblighter, captured one of his crows, and ran straight through the fabric of space-time to warn Alric of the Lethoso Dam crisis. Soulblighter hid his heart away in some temple and turned into crows. (And used Bahl'al's Dream of Unlife to ressurect the dead, and Tramist's mirror to ressurect Shiver). I'd say Soulblighter is the least powerfull, just the most twistedly evil and cowardly crafty.
: Also, and perhaps more
: importantly, what was/is the role of Phelot? After his
: attack on Shiver's army, he left the battlefield
: neither foe nor ally. He was the agent of the
: Deceiver, and still lives--could the Deceiver make a
: comeback (possibly in Myth 3)? Too many unanswered
: questions. Enlighten me, if you will.
I suspect that Myrdred and/or Phelot would certainly have some significant role in any possible Myth 3. And I think there certainly should be a Myth 3, because there are so many questions we can't answer for sure, about The Head and The Summoner, and whether the cycles are really broken.
