: He obviously never expected an Eblis stone, but I don't
: think that undermines his ability as a commander. If
: you look at the situation, Balor had a stronger force
: with him, and he outclassed Alric in magic. To a
: cursory eye, victory for him was imminent. Not even
: the Legion knew about Alric's trump card. They thought
: it was suicide too.
From this perspective, what brought Balor down was overestimating how successful he and Damas had been at disposing of Myth's powerful artifacts. He probably expected all the Eblis Stones to be gone forever. We don't know whether Damas' allowing an Eblis Stone to survive was accidental or symptomatic of early ambition...
--SiliconDream
