: Very interesting theory Sili, you should get it posted in
: the theories section. I love it, although I've got a
: few questions about it.
Nah, it ain't worth it--interesting evidenceless theories are a dime a dozen on this forum. :-) Yhe only thing I'll ever ask to have posted is my Grand Theory of The Leveller As Psycho-Immune System, and I'll never finish compiling that.
: *If the Trow were somehow responsible for the creation or
: at least use of the Dream of Unlife, what happened to
: their spellcasters. As far as we know, the Trow have
: never been a magically adept race, and Myth III has
: nothing to disprove this. What would they use a Dream
: for?
According to GURPS, the Trow do possess the necessary talents to practice magic, and may have sunk Yer-Ks with a "fragment of Callieach magic." Cultural elitism may discourage them from becoming mages in general; most magic in Myth is linked to one or more divine or demonic entities, and as devoted worshippers of Nyx the Trow would balk at trafficking with rival gods. (Plus, of course, they don't need magic to improve their quality of life when they're so tough and strong anyway.) But just because they don't want to now doesn't mean they can't, or that they don't dabble when they see something particularly interesting. Heck, maybe the whole reason they quit practicing magic is that the last time they tried it, all those little human and Dwarven and Ghτl vermin sprang up and now they're running the world. :-)
And if the Trow had no magical defenses, it's hard to see how they could have taken on the Callieach, a race of archmages. Even the Trow would have had trouble with an army of Alrics or Shivers or Soulblighters...of course, maybe there were ten billion Trow before the war and a million afterwards.
: *Oh wait, you said it wasn't necessarily the Trow. Unless
: the Trow had enslaved the Callieach at some point, I
: think they can be ruled out, why would they have been
: in a Trow city...unless, they created the Young Races
: to destroy Trow? I mean, it is far fetched, but if
: they created the races before their 'devoidism' maybe
: the Trow had no answers and so buried the Dream so it
: couldn't be used again.
Yeah, my thought was that the Callieach might have experimented with the Dream--either as a weapon or out of scientific interest--and after they were exterminated the Trow came recovered the Dream and stuck it in one of their cities. Maybe to safeguard it, maybe just for its curiosity value.
Incidentally, if the Dream did create the Younger Races it did so indirectly--the Younger Races are said to have appeared "gradually," e.g. with the Oghres preceding humans. This suggests some sort of evolutionary process; perhaps the Dream of Unlife directly created amoebas or other primitive creatures, which then gradually evolved until the Trow found them worthy of interest.
: Could the Dream have been used by a human? We know that
: humanity was born af the sinking of Si'Anwon, but
: maybe The Watcher isn't a human. Maybe he is as old,
: if not older, than the Trow, and simply stored it/lost
: it there during one of his earlier campaigns? If he
: did, it'd explain how he knew to look for it. Unless
: of course, the Trow told him during the alliance with
: Balor. I'm just spewing forth stuff here, most of it
: not backed up, but it's food for thought. Maybe. The
: very fact that The Watcher has been around for at
: least 1000 years would indicate that he isn't mortal,
: so maybe this is a result of him finding the Dream of
: Unlife. Someone mentioned that it made men ageless, so
: maybe The Watcher's immortalty comes from his
: discovery. He may have not been able to exploit it in
: war, or maybe decided it was a gift for him only.
: Dunno. :)
If he'd found it previously, he wouldn't have had to look for it again--contemplation of a Dream's Rune Stone encodes that particular spell in your mind, says GURPS. Even if you don't buy that, spells still tend to be some form of knowledge, not a physical object. Unless he'd been brain-damaged or resurrected minus some of his mind, like Shiver, I don't think he would have had to relearn a Dream.
And I still don't get why everyone's so impressed with The Watcher's long life. All the Fallen Lords are apparently immortal; the Avatara seem to be too; the Heron Guards definitely are; it's even hinted at with the Warlocks. Far as I can see, the Watcher's just a Wind Age Fallen Lord who should have gotten whacked by Connacht, but got lucky and was buried under a mountain instead. If Myrdred hadn't made the mistake of standing too close to Shiver, and if Soulblighter had kept his noseless a$$ out in the Untamed Lands where he belonged, they'd be able to rack up a few thousand years too. :-)
: I agree, Marathon 2 had a better storyline that Marathon,
: but I can't agree on Myth II. Bad story. :(
Most of the horrible contradictions we're always complaining about stem from TFL, though. By Myth II they'd at least worked the backstory out more. :-)
--SiliconDream
