: We shouldn't jump to conclusions too quickly. Nothing
: states that the Eras are the thousand-year-long cyclic
: periods, eventhough it does make a lot of sense. For
: all we know, the Great War and the death of
: Soulblighter could still be in the Fourth Era.
But in the Myth II epilogue each Era is described as hosting a single event of destroying a Leveller's body. Doesn't this indicate that the Eras are a thousand years long (although it doesn't tell us when each Era starts)?
: Lemme shove in some other dates here, then.
: 5950
: Balor sacks Muirthemne.
: 5982
: The war against Balor starts, most likely the war against
: the cities lead by Madrigal.
: Did it take Balor 450 years to destroy Muirthemne and
: fail to find the Ibis Crown there?
It wasn't just Muirthemne he had to destroy. At the end of this Light Age, almost the entire world would be Light-dominated. If Balor started his conquest at the eastern edge of the world, it could easily be a few centuries before he even got in sight of the Cath Bruig empire.
: I also don't see why the Four Ages should've been before
: the fall of Mazzarin. Mazzarin's death during the Wind
: Age is spoken of in past tense. It might very well be
: that the some of the older incarnations of the Leveler
: and those slayers were much more powwerful than Alric
: ever was. And being powerful doesn't really seem to
: matter that much anyhew. The Watcher seemed to have
: gotten smacked just because he wasn't bright enough to
: go look for his lost arm.
But Mazzarin wouldn't have died at the hands of the Watcher if he was a great hero/Leveller. He would have conquered all evil, then turned bad himself and been killed by a good guy (unless, back then, the Watcher was a good guy and the good guys used undead.)
I agree with you that the Four Ages could have included the one after Mazzarin, the Wolf Age, without showing Mazzarin to be better than Alric (who didn't really come into his own until the Sword Age.) Also, once he becomes a Great Hero, Alric might not be classed as an avatara anymore, so Mazzarin might be stronger than any of the avatara of Alric's period without being stronger than the post-Balor Alric.
--SiliconDream
